Day 24 Driving Through Rural Zambia

Thursday January 6^th.

Up really early and we left by 6:30. Spent most of the day in the truck. We stopped every couple of hours for pit stops. The scenery was beautiful. This area of Zambia is very lush and hilly. All along the road we saw native huts in family groups. This is how I pictured rural Africa to look. There were lots of little farms growing mostly maize. They were ploughed by hand or by oxen team.

We stopped in the middle of the road to buy a bag of charcoal for our fires from a woman and her child. We stopped again in a small village, called Nyami, that has sprang up around a cattle disease control stop. There is a village there and they have opened lots of little shops to sell things to the overland trucks and truckers who have to stop.

We arrived at the town Chipata and the Mama Rula's campground on about 3:00 and quickly set up our tents and had lunch. Then some of us went in the truck with Vernon into town to get groceries and withdraw money from an ATM. I took out $500 000 kawcha, which is only about $100.

Back to camp for a beer in the bar with Ed and Richard and then a quick swim in the pool. Dinner was about eight. After dinner and clean up we all went to the bar to meet the money changer. He was an Arab with his wife in a jeloba. Apparently changing money this way is reliable and faster than the bureau exchanges. So we changed our Zambian kawcha into Malawi kawcha. So I gave him my 500 000 Zambian kawcha and he gave me the equivalent in Malawi kawcha, which amounted to a buddle too thick to put in my wallet. We get about 160 for an American dollar, but the largest note they have is 500, which is about $3. Then we had a short talking session and then to bed.