Ok so here is the low down on how I move about Zambia on a regular basis. I hitch. Hitch-hiking is a lot of fun, and I know it can be dangerous at times. For starters I get a whole lot of crazy stories out of it, but also it is how I really get to meet most people from all over Zambia. Some people have even become close friends, and some of them and I have parted ways while cursing at eachother...
It is one of the most interesting and unique situations I can possibly think of that I experience on a regular basis here in Zambia. Sometimes when I am in the back of a canter truck packed in with 20 other people, sitting on luggage, people sitting on top of each other, chickens going crazy, and everyone staring at the white guy that begged for a free ride, I look at myself and just can't comprehend the hilarity and awesomeness of the situation. Hitching really makes me feel Zambian, and it is a great way to really become Zambian...
So here are the basics, there are many different signals to give while hitching. Here if you put your thumb out in the air everyone is going to look at you and "thumbs-up" you right back and then proceed to pass you. The thumb in the air is not the hailing sign recognized here, and I have come to learn the "please pick me" sign changes from country to country in Africa and there are many different ones. SO, to get picked here you put your hand down and wag it up and down repeatedly as if your hand or arm (you can use either, just your hand or your whole arm and hand) were a wing on a bird. You can flap fast, you can flap slowly, you can even get really enthusiastic and use your whole body (trust me after spending 6 hours on the side of the road and not seeing one car, you sometimes ARE that desperate). My personal style of choice is at a far away distance I use me whole arm to pump 5 or 6 times the signal, then switch to just the hand moving at the wrist for the remainder of the potential hitch's approach.
If there is no room they will put their hand palm up and wag it back and forth telling you: "sorry I see you, but there is no room, or I am not allowed to carry you." Then if the car is not actually travelling long distances (where you want to go) they give the signal for "I'm staying local," which is a single forefinger pointed down and moved in a round circle as if you were drawing a circle in the air. If you want just a ride to the edge of town you can give your sign for "chanti chanti" (Lunda for small [distance]), which is your two hands facing each other and spaced just 6-8 inches apart as if you were trying to retell the story of that "fish" you caught long ago to your friend, but the signal is given on the side as if you were estimating somethings height. Often times people want to give you a seat inside the cab as a sign of respect, but if you see there is "no room" but an empty truck bed, you can now use your thumbs-up. You make a thumbs-up with your fist and throw it backward over your shoulder, just like if you were holding a salt shaker in your hand and trying to throw some of it behind you... Then finally there is the flashing of lights, and this is consistent with absolutely nothing. In Zambia it is culturally inappropriate to not greet someone (EVERYONE) when you see them. Even a nod, a tap of your hand over your heart, something to say hello. So some people flash their lights to say hello, or to say they are full, or to say get out of the way, or to say I'm a taxi for hire do you want me to stop?
Now, a car has decided to stop and hear you out. It is courtesy to run! So I run up to the car, which almost always stops 10-20 meters past wherever you are standing, and greet the driver. My tactic is no matter where I am in the country to open up with a Lunda greeting such as "Mwazatanga Mwani," "Mudi naghi mwani," or "mwendangahu naghi?" Almost 100% of the time (except in Solwezi to Mwinilunga stretch) the drivers will be impressed that you are greeting in local language, but will have no clue what I said, so I then switch to Bemba and quickly greet "Muli Shani?" They say "Bueno" and the negotiation begins.
Negotiating gets easier and more fluid in time, and I know the first 20 hitches I have caught were very rusty and rough. But, with a little fenesse and sweet talking, I always aim for a free ride. It is very common that people pay for rides here, and sometimes if the hitch is going a long distance or per chance directly to my destination I will entertain the idea of paying, but as low of sum as possible (and NEVER more then the bus fare!). Because I am stubborn and patient though, I will often let cars go on if they insist on payment, and I wait til someone is willing to give the free ride. Often times the negotiation starts with hey where are you going, and then if they can take me towards my destination I ask if they don't mind dropping me as far as they are going (I am typically travelling a lot farther than the ride itself). Then I ask them if they can take me for free, that I am just a volunteer and that I have very little money. They usually counter by asking how much I have and strategically I always put anywhere between 15-35pin in my pocket (that is 15,000-35,000 kwatcha or $3-7). It is a part of my act, because, even though it is true that I am poor and make very little money, I usually do travel with somewhere between 100-150pin ($20-30). When they see my small stack of low numbered bills they often sympethize and are willing to take me for free. Actually, sometimes they even buy or get stuff for me, but more on that later.
After negotiating for the hitch's price you are off. If the ride is free I make sure to talk the person's ear off. I want to be friendly with everyone, but I am especially friendly with those to help me out. Also a part of this factor is that most 90% of the time, if the hitch is free you are with someone incredibally interesting, rather wealth, of an important job, unbelievably friendly, or bat-shit crazy and/or a combination there of. Drinking and driving is a very common thing here. I am often asked to partake in these "on the go parties", and sometimes do. But, you need to be careful in picking your hitch. There have also been hitches that have stopped and I have had to refuse to go with because the driver is blackout drunk, tires are bald, or the situation just feels wrong.
Overall though, I would say that I have incredibly good hitching luck. I have gone to the road at 16:00 before and still made if to my destination before dark, I have been paid to hitch before by my gracious escort, I have even been driven directly to my front door at site even though the driver was going 80km out of his way... So you probably are now wondering when the heck I am going to share a few of the interesting hitching stories of mine... Well I don't know where to begin, but to say that I have now hitched literally 100s of times and every one of them was unique and interesting, and I remember most all of them when put to the task of thinking about it. Also before the stories, I need to explain one more thing, distances and difficulty.
So hitching from my site West or East is very very tricky and difficult. There are buses that go East every morning, and West every afternoon, but they are disgustingly hard to use because they are always over crowded and very uncomfortable. Where I live it is not uncommon to sit on the road for 5-6 hours just waiting for a hitch. A motor car might come by every hour, and one in 3 or 4 will stop. I can't count the number of hours, pages read, and life spent just sitting waiting on the side of the road between Kisasa and Mwinilunga. It is a stretch of the road very seldom travelled. but with the new mines going in everywhere traffic has become more frequent since I have been here (but I use the word frequent in a very liberal manner). So I can spend a full day from 8 in the morning until 6-7pm just trying to move 100 miles from Solwezi to my site. During that same amount of time I can easily make if from Solwezi all the way to Lusaka which is about 450 miles. It is just the fact that there is much more traffic in certain areas and routes in the country. AND no one place is the same, in Southern province there is a boat load of traffic but rarely do people pick you, where I am there is no traffic, but most people will at least stop to say hello (even if their car is full and can't pick you), Northern province has lots of Tanzanian drivers who insist on getting paid, and Luapula province is just a black hole of hitching, BUT one of the easiest routes to travel for free just so happens to be between Lusaka and my provincial capitol Solwezi so that part is always easy.
Real quck, common routes I take are as follows. Often you get to pass several of the villages or cities in one hitch, but sometimes you are just puddle jumping between them. The ones in the bush (mwinilunga to solwezi) it is more common to get direct hitches and not drop in every village. Also note, that in each and every large city or small boma there are "hitching posts" on either end of town depending on what direction you are headed to. If you are lucky your hitch will drop you at them, but sometimes I am stuck taking a taxi or walking an hour or two to get to them. But basically this is how it goes.
- If I am headed to my site from Solwezi: Solwezi --> Mutanda --> Muheba (refugee camp) --> Manyama (often dropped here) --> Lumwana East (also often dropped) --> Kisasa or Chisasa* (where I spend the most time anywhere in the country waiting road side for a hitch) --> Chitungu --> KANZALA
- If you continue from my site to Mwinilunga: Kanzala --> Lumwana West* --> Silunga --> Minyana --> Samuteba --> Catiola --> Mwinilunga
- Lastly if I want to go to Lusaka: Solwezi --> Chingola --> Kitwe --> Ndola --> Kapiri --> Kabwe --> LUSAKA
OK, OK, OK!!!!!!
Now, the stories (some of them):
1. My first and greatest success story is probably my trip from my site in Kanzala to Mpulungu in Northern province. It was a round trip distance of 3200km (or for you all back home about 2000 miles), and from my site all the way there and back all the way to site I only ended up paying 35pin ($7) to travel 2000 miles!!! I was road side in Chitungu at 7am with Joe my closest PCV (volunteer) neighbor. We didn't catch a ride until about 10:30. We got dropped outside of Lumwana mine, where an off-duty taxi took us 4km up the road to the refugee camp at Muheba. At the police check point we asked the officers to stop a vehicle for us and get us a ride to Solwezi. Turns out he stopped a young man named Sedrick, who little did I know would soon become a very close friend of mine (probably my best friend here outside of other volunteers). We got into Solwezi a little before 1pm, and I was still on my way to Luwansha (half way between Kitwe and Ndola where there is a volunteer I was going to stay with for the night). So I got some food, and headed out again, this time walking to the hitching post (the Royal Solwezi sign) for all south bound travellers. I got a hitch with some Quantum (a mine) workers that were repairing the road about 30km out of town. They dropped me in the middle of no where. I then caught another hitch to Chingola where I stopped for the bank and to hit up Shoprite (our grocery chain) and then had to walk an hour out of town to a south bound hitching spot. At this time it was fully dark out and all of the traffic going past me could barely see me, and after 30 minutes I was a little worried I was stuck, but a friendly man picked me named Bruce. He was very nice and very vocal. We got to talking about China and international politics, and eventually turned to his wife and the current divorce he was going through. Turns out that I ended up being a psuedo councilor between his wife and he, and actually had to spend a considerable amount of time on the phone trying to convince her to show up to court so that she won't subject their daughter to further trauma. Well about 22:00 (10pm) I made it to Nick's, and after a delicous meal of pasta and mushrooms I passed out.
Day 2 was a very long one. I was meeting up with another volunteer, Carlsie, headed to the same vacation spot (there were 6 of us from the same intake all planning to meet in Mpulungu) in Kapiri. So at 6am, I walked to the road and got some police to stop a car for me to take me all the way to Kapiri. Around 9 we left Kapiri on one of my first white hitches ever...
*SOOO many small things to add in. White people almost NEVER pick me up. It is very rare, even with empty cars most white people will just completely blow you off... Zambians are some of the nicest people in the world and usually will bend over backwards to help you, but not so much with my white "brothers..."
He dropped us, and we got yet another ride from some white farmers (so I need to change what I said a little. In Zimbabwe the situation is rough and the president an total idiot. As a result all white farmers were exiled and many of them settled in the Central Province of Zambia. So in Central between Kapiri and Serenge there are many white farmers and all of them very friendly and pleasant people). They only took us a little ways, and a Peace Corps cruiser posting some new volunteers for their second site visit also took us just 30 or so km up the road. So we were making many many small short jumps on the way north. Finally a Zambian business man picked us and dropped us in Serenge. Our goal was Kasama, so we continued to hitch after a short recess to wait out a passing rain storm. A truck finally stopped and took us for free all the way to Mpika. They were headed to Mpulungu, but stopping in Mpika for the night. It was a sad situation though, because they were hauling cement, and we drove through one of the craziest rain storms I have ever seen in my life, and when we stopped, they opened the back and it was a swimming pool. They drained out 1000s of gallons of water, which basically means that they were now hauling one giant brick... In Mpika, we waited for 3 hours (now it was dark out) and finally some young man coming home from Dar-es-salam where he just bought a new car stopped and agreed to take us all the way to Kasama for 30pin each. So for the first time during the trip I had to shell out a little money, but it was late at night and I was getting pretty damn desperate. We finally landed in Kasama at 1:30am!!!! I had spent nearly 20 hours straight on the road!
Day 3, we met a really neat father son duo from Uganda. They were selling herbal medicines all over the country to support the international mellenium goals of health and food security. They were super nice and took us all the way to Mbala. The father, though I now forget his name, was probably one of the most sincere and generous persons I have ever had the honor of meeting in my life. He was not living in an amazing situation, and drove an old beat up truck on the road all the time, but he was so happy and enthusiastic about his situation and the situation of his home land, Africa. A man no doubt in God's good grace. FINALLY, our last hitch was a qucik and beautiful one down into Mpulungu.
On the way back It was a much easier go. One hitch out of Mpulungu, one to Kasama, one to Mpika, one to Serenge, one to Kapiri, one to Kitwe, another to Solwezi, and one to site. So a total of 23 different hitches got me 3200km for the cost of $7... Definitely a long trip, but totally worth it.
2. I think I will quickly talk about a bad hitch that was not fun. On my way home from Solwezi one day I caught a hitch with my friend Kinsie. We were headed out to my site, and she would continue on to Mwini the next day. We flagged down a canter that offered to take us for a very cheap rate.
*Just a quick note, a Canter truck is a very common mode of transportation here. they are basically a box truck, but with an open bed. They come big and small, and they almost always want money. I get very few free rides from canters, but they are common, and usually cheaper than the bus.
It was still rainy season, and as luck would have it, it was rainy out during our hitch. Turns out though that they are hauling a ton of fish up to the congo or Angola to sell and the only place to hide from the rain was under that damp, dirty, and stinky tarp with all the fish. It was absolutely miserable, and sometimes I would suffer getting pelted with rain just so I could breath some fresh air time and again.
3. Another Terrifying hitch I was with several volunteers on our way from Lusaka to Solwezi, and this preacher man picked us. He was trying to make it all the way to Ndola in time for a service he was expected to be at. There were multiple things that made this ride terrifying and uncomfortable. I like to talk, so I naturally volunteered to take the front seat and keep the man entertained. I don't know if he suffered hearing loss, or if he just didn't think we understood him, but his voice was so loud and sharp I thought it was going to shatter the windows. He literally would yell every word he said, so loud that my ears actually pained with the decibals coming into them at 2ft away (I might have ruptured my right ear drum, cause all the cars here have steering wheels on the right side of the car, and passenger seat (shotgun) is on the left). We all immediately thought he was a nut case, but then if got worse. He was not a very good driver. He was racing to make it to his service in time, but would also over take other cars at times that I questioned if I was going to meet the lord that very day. He would also fly over speed bumps so fast, that if I wasn't buckled in I was probably going to put my head through the roof. To make it even more interesting, and at no fault of his own, on our way out of Kabwe there was a drunk man riding his bike. His load on the back of his bike (it is amazing what a zambian can strap onto a bike. Honestly an ability that leaves me awe struck every time) suddenly slipped off to the side sending him turning into the road. I swear to God we missed hitting that man by an inch. I know volunteers who have been in cars as they have hit pedestrians, but I have never come that close in my life to being a material witness in the death of someone. We were all very thankful to him for the free ride, but even more thankful to God to be out of that car when he dropped us, graciously, at the north bound hitching post in Ndola...
4. Ok so one of the fastest and lucrative hitches I have ever had was in Kabwe. A missionary working in Kabwe from Montana (or Minnesota, Michigan, one of the northern states starting with an M) picked us and help two girls and myself get to the edge of town. The conversation was stimulating, because it is pretty rare to meet other Americans outside of PC. He understood who we were and what we were doing, and 5 minutes later when we reached the hitching post he helped us unload and insisted on giving us money. We kindly refused, but he wasn't having any of it, and the 3 of us (after everything was split up) ended up with 43pin each. I was pretty grateful because I actually was travelling that day with almost no money and it bought me a lunch when I reached Kapiri... So a hitch that lasted all of 5 minutes from the center of town to the edge paid me!
5. I should probably tell you about the fastest ride I ever had. Mom, kindly skip to the next story. Well, I was doing a go come to the provincial capitol during my community entry to do some business with the co-op and a grant that they are getting from the ADF (African Developement Foundation) at the Embassy. I started walking from my site towards Solwezi at 5am, thinking as long as I am headed in that direction, all is good. Well a sunrise, a rosary prayed, and 3.5 hours later only one cruiser passed me and didn't stop. I walked 15km all the way to Chitungu, and my first "ride" was a slow and easy ride on the back of a bike petaled by a Zambian headed 25km to Kisasa. We actually walked almost the entire time, but sometimes were able to get on, and though we were not going more than 5km/hr, it was something. Both buses headed to Solwezi passed me, and it was turning into what I expected to be a very long day...BUT, out of no where a car (VW Golf) flashed by and I was just able to give off the hitching sign. They kept driving but then slammed on the breaks and reversed. The driver was a man named Baldwin. He had two friends with him, and they offered to carry me all the way for free, no problem. I could barely get my seatbelt on and we were flying! They averaged about 180km/hr the whole way. There were stretches of straight road that we topped out at 220km/hr! I held on tight, and really enjoyed the company. My first instinct told me they were gem runners because every police checkpoints waved us through 100m before we even reached them. They gave me a CD of some Lunda rappers, and bought me some fritters. Turns out I made it into town before both of the buses and ended up having plenty of time to get my business finished!!! I have yet to be in a single car that was that fast, but then again I am not sure if I would want to go that fast again...
*Funny, the thing is the same day on my way back to site was one of my favorite Zambia moments I have had hitching. I was walking again (I walked a little more than 25km that day) after being dropped somewhere near Muheba, and a nasty storm came in. I just walked into the village I was passing, and they took my bags, we sat down under their chota and we talked for 2 hours. They fed me Kasava nshima with a kasava leaves relish. It wasn't much, but it was the hungry season, and I am sure it was all they had to offer. I was very thankful and had a blast, getting the chance to sit down and meet a completely strange family. They are very representative of all Zambians though. No matter where you are you can pull over or stop into any village and they are going invite you in with the most genuine hospitality in the world. It is rather comfortable knowing that you are never really stranded no matter where you are in this country.
6. I guess lastly I can talk about the Korean Catholic priest who I became friends with. Ryan and I were hitching to my site, and he picked us in Lumwana. It was a great hitch, he was a fast driver, very friendly, and just sat their chain smoking cigarettes. We got so well aquainted that at the Chisasa turn off where I normally wait for hours and hours and hours every time on my way home, he stopped and decided not to drop us here. He drove us 40km to my site, and returned 40km back to the turn off where he lived 70km down the road. That was a very fortunate and lucky ride.
Typically hitching is safe. But it is also very common for me to have to sit in the back of a truck or canter. Recently I was on my way to Mwinilunga, and the driver insisted they had room. I was literally sitting half over pavement passing by at 80km/hr and half on the truck, holding on to dear life with one hand and to my heavy bag with the other. I see accidents all the time, but I just don't think they are as common as in America. Well, all things considered Zambia has a population around 15 million people. So maybe 6-7million cars on the road in a country the size of Texas. So accidents are not very common, and usually are caused by people driving too fast, in cars that are not well maintained, or just someone inexperienced or drunk.
I have meet so many very interesting people in my hitches too. Just a week ago I met a truck driver who has been working very hard to support his 3 children and his wife who is getting a degree in college. He is just the blue collar working folk and everything he does is to give his children a better life. I have met bankers and business men who are very educated and it is easy to talk to them about world politics, American politics, and other complex things that the typical villager couldn't even begin to understand. I have also met an agent who worked for the national Chipolopolo football team of Zambia, Missionaries, Office of the President (basically their CIA), all sorts of people. Recently I even got a free hitch from Lusaka to Kitwe with a man attending a wedding of none other than BRUCE himself!!! After talking a while I found out that the man that I gave some divorce counseling to, happened to be marrying the sister to the man giving me a hitch months later! Small world...
The typical converstion has to do with how much I don't like Obama, because almost every Zambian will bring up the topic of Obama. For the most part all of them are heavily PRO Obama when we first talk, but by the end of the conversation they dispise him and agree that there are more qualified black people in America that could have the job instead. Zambia is a very Christian nation, and it is not hard to convince them how bad Obama is for the Christian agenda... I don't much care what gay people do with their lives, and I am actually an advocate for them to have equal rights just like any other married couple in America. But, homosexuallity is illegal here and most every Zambian is adimately against it, so that is one easy selling point. The most important though, and the one that I drive the hardest is how Obama is pro abortion, and promotes legislation and an agenda that promotes the murder of innocent children. This is where ALL Zambians agree and usually is the point where they begin to deny Obama being such a great man. I always start saying that it is a great thing that America has elected a black person to the office of the presidency, and it truely is. As a beacon of equality and freedom around the world I think it is awesome that we have finally come to a point where the presidency is not only a job for rich, politically connected, white males. BUT, that doesn't mean I support Obama and his extreme left wing agenda. The fact that most Zambians are not well enough educated to truely understand the American political system is no reason they should blindly follow such a fool just because he is black. So, I make it a point to educate.
Also I almost always try and bring HIV/AIDS awareness and education into all of my hitches. It can be talking about how the disease works, high/low risk behaviors, condom use, etc. I ask people about their children, how old they are, how many, how many years apart. If their kids are of an age where they are sexually active (in this country it is very common, especially in rural areas, to be as young as 11 or 12), I talk to them about ways to approach their kids to talk about condoms and healthy sexual behaviors that will keep them at a low risk level. I ask them if he/she and his/her spouse have been tested for HIV/AIDS and/or if they test often, because knowing your status is important and critical for slowing the spread of the disease. Knowledge is power, and when they know their status they can be counselled and guided into living positively.
!!!!I know you are now saying, well Bryan you are such a two-faced liar, how can you be against abortion (because I am Catholic) and be ok with promoting condom use (against the teachings of my church)!!! Well, it is as simple as conscience. Yes, I shouldn't promote condom use as a Catholic, but I also can't allow thousands and millions of Africans to die simply because I wanted to ignore an effective and healthy way to prevent the spread of one of the most deadly epidemics plaguing Africa right now. Is it worse to promote condom use, or to allow someone to die? I know it is not that matter-of-fact. But education even in the form of just a few individuals on a hitch is an affective way to spread the news, and to get people thinking about the topic that is highly sensitive and shrouded in all sorts of local stigmas here in this country. I do think God will forgive me.
OK, well I am sure I am forgetting plenty of the nitty-gritty details about hitching and hitching etiquette. But I will save whatever is left for when I see you again in person and you can bombard me with as many questions as you please. If you have a question that you think everyone is asking, comment on the blog and I will respond.
Miss you all, next is a blog about juju and the dark magic that happens on this continent!
