I spent my evening and night on friday writing the blog and uploading. I was mentally prepared to leave. This few days spent here in Livingstone I felt lonely at times. Stressed and angry about this computer story. I spent many hours on trying to get it to Livingstone. But I did get it in the end. And now the responsible has promissed to replace the one we did get with a new one. Very good! I believe it when I see it. I am delayed two days because of this inconvienience and now I take of well after lunch. I only slept four hours because I really needed to talk to people after all hard work. So I went out and I had fun for a couple of hours in the club.
In the morning I discovered my money is missing. I find my passport without dollars. So I go through the whole tent but they are gone. I always keep my dollars in my passport. I also miss a bunch of local money. I kept my tent in a lit up spot and the outer tent open so everyone passing could see in to the tent. The one who did it was satisfied with the money I guess. And maybe they didnt see my computer. I am acctually pretty sure about who the thief was but I will keep it to myself. So the last hours before leaving I go to the police.
It is also an experience.
Poor police. The house is looking like an old fire station and when entering it looks like the inside of an abandoned house. Spiderweb in the windows, dusty and dirty. Old furniture dressed in wax cloth. The officers look lazy and uninterested. They half lay on the chairs. The TV is on and Rihanna dances half naked in the corner. There seems to be no officer who is high up enough to write a report until after the holiday. Now it is friday. So tuesday, come back on tuesday. I say I am leaving now today or else we forget about it. They ask if I have money and say I can wait until the officer comes. Me and the new officer go to a room. I tell my story and she takes a new white sheet and write some of it down nicely on it.
Then tells me I have to go and get it typed. So I go in to the main street and go to the copy place. They have computer and printer. And soon it is typed. They print and give me two copies.
I go back to the station and get it signed. They seem to have a problem in this town. As I only spend around 10 minutes at the counter I see two thieves brought in and one guy from the same hostel has his watch stolen. I also heard a girl at the hostel telling how she caught two of the staff stealing her camera and money from her room when she was sleeping.
I take two calls out of fifteen unanswered on my way out of town. Round Table has seen my coruption post and is acting fast. This is nothing the club stands for and they deal with it fast.
So intense theese last days. I am also a bit scared. I have upset many people with that post about coruption and of course they know where I am. I leave town exhausted and allmost without strength. But I soon see something great. Ten giraf necks are sticking up over the trees. Then two wild kind of Buffaloes fighting. Wow! I take my time to watch the girafs.
It is perfect temperature and a litle cloudy for two days. I cycle well and it feels great with the new wheel. I camp in the wild the first night. Scarry and exciting. Every crack of a branch braking I listen to. It is a bit frightening. I think for a minute that I hear a low close by growl.
But another sound a bit later makes me know I am just hungry. It was my belly growling. I did not have so much for dinner. I had bought bread and bananas and some peanuts but bit by bit I gave it away. I met two people on the road the last hours who looked so poor. One was 40 km away from Livingstone which was his destintaion. Walking barefoot. He had been walking two days and no cars want to pick him up. I am happy and lucky and sad for others.
In the behinning of next day I pass this guy
who lives in the countryside and is making wooden sculptures.
He wants to sell them in Livingstone but has no transport. So to help his business grow I meet him in the next town and the fund buys him a bicycle.
Their is great nature here. Except for cows and goats I see many hawks close by. I can see them stretching there claws when flying. I see a dead one on the road and another flat owl, feathers scatered around.
Birds become more colorful the more flooded it is around here. I see some incredible black one shifting to green and some brown white ones with a couple of inches long beek. Many crane birds, white ones. One looking thesame but with a skirt of thin feathers. One black and white eagle flying low with a white head. Water lillies in massive amounts.
The houses are getting more old fashioned, simple and beautiful clay huts with very toppy thatched straw roofs. This is the image of Africa I had before coming and the tourist inside me urge to sleep here one night. So instead of pushing 140 km today I stop well before the town and meet some nice guys.
They are brothers, or as I later find out cousins. But it is common here calling all cousins brothers like the closest family.
I get a bucket of water and take a bath and wash my salt stained sweatty shirt. I smell so bad!! When I am a new man again we go to the shop and by food. We make a great dinner, something close to korvstroganof. When it is time to go to sleep the one brother living here wants to sleep with me. So I find out it means luck to sleep close to a white man. So of course I let him do that, but not get lucky if you know what I mean. :)
We talk a bit before sleeping. He tells me about the schools. They are 70-80 kids in one classroom and one teacher. They have to pay school fee and pay for a school uniform. So the fee is about 50 dollars per year the first years and then over a hundred the higher you get. To pay for the exam to become a teacher you have to pay 2000 USD!!! That will take four years to collect with a teacher salary! But since they could not afford it, he doesnt go to school anymore. He wants to start a barber shop to make money. So I tell him he can cut my hair in the morning. So after the night and packing up he borrows scissors from a neighbor. I think it turned out pretty good.
I also offer him to meat me in town. And I will then buy him a trimming machine so he can start his business. But I am sorry to say he did not want to borrow money for a bus ticket to town. I mean it is no big deal. The bus cost 2 USD and the machine 160 USD but I tell him if he wants his business he needs to get to town on his own or he just takes a few bucks as a payment for the haircut and my stay. I feel sorry for him as he wants the litle and fast money.
