Travel to Livingstone, Zambia

Today was a mix of work and fun. We went to a market this morning where they sold many things made locally. It was quite interesting to see all the different types of baskets, bowls, jewelry, and cloth for sale. This particular market was held in an open field near town, and only occurs one weekend per month. The quality of the products sold was great!

We then started the 6-hour drive to Livingstone. It’s about 500 km from Lusaka, on the Zambia / Zimbabwe / Botswana border. Along the way, we stopped in a small village near one of our area offices to meet with some of the office representatives, and a family from the local village. One of the members of this family had been disabled for many years, and had to either drag himself along the ground, or have someone carry him. We brought him a wheelchair that had been received in a recent shipment of product from the US. We pulled the chair out of the truck, put it together, and then helped him get situated. One of the area managers who could speak the local dialect talked him through how to use it, and even in the soft sand, he was able to quickly move around. It’s hard to know what to do when you watch a person receive so much happiness from something so simple.

After our stop, we continued on to Livingstone. We arrived too late in the day to see the falls, but will do so tomorrow. Livingstone is a tourist destination. The hotel in which we are staying is more like a serious of bungalows, with open-air patios, pools, and fountains. As the hotel is still partially under constructions, it is currently one of the least expensive places in town. When it is completed, my guess is this will become a very expensive resort type area. As I sit here and type this, it’s hard to believe that I am currently sitting in one of the poorest countries in the world, and that we spent part of the afternoon changing a family’s life, just by delivering a simple wheelchair. It’s hard to get your mind around. As I type this, I can hear the constant waterfall at the pool right outside my door.

Tomorrow is a fun day. We’ll go see Victoria Falls, and then do something else in the afternoon. And I promise to figure out how to do the picture thing soon!