Last Sunday afternoon we headed off to Lusaka with Ron and Erma Herr and Emma Muchimba (who is coming to the US with us next month). The purpose was to get the required Yellow-fever shots. Along the way we encountered the usual people, bicycles, assorted animals and broken down vehicles on the road, and were reminded of the precarious nature of driving in this environment.
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| Pedestrians - including this drunk one who just made it off the road |
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| Cyclists from any direction at any time |
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| Cattle, goats, pigs and chickens - some of them suicidal! |
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| Disabled vehicle partially on the road |
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| Disabled vehicle fully on the road |
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| The driver of this disabled vehicle was careful to place grass on the road - the standard warning |
At night the dangers are exponentially higher since each one of these hazards are present 24/7.
Arriving at the MCC guest house in Lusaka, we enjoyed a wonderful barbecue'd chicken dinner prepared by the hosts, Eric and Kathy Fast.
Monday morning Erma Herr stayed at the guest house while Ron dropped the rest of us off at Ministry of Health on his way to a meeting. Our timing was great and they opened the office soon after we arrived. But then came the bad news: they had no “medicine” (vaccine) in spite of the fact that we had someone personally check just on Friday and were assured that there was plenty. But, they cheerfully informed us, if it was urgent that we get the shots today (which it was), we could go to Lusaka Chemist (pharmacy), buy it ourselves (imagine!!) and bring it back to the office to be administered.
Emma called a taxi driver whom she knew from a previous visit to Lusaka only to discover that he had since died. So the guard at the Ministry of Health flagged down another taxi and Gene went for the vaccine while Darlene and Emma stayed at the Ministry of Health. Emma was savvy enough to write down the licence and registration number of the taxi in case any problems would develop. On the way there it occurred to Gene that he’d better purchase some for Ron and Erma since they planned to get their shots later the same day or the next and vaccine still might not be available at the Ministry of Health. So at the chemist Gene was able to purchase five units packed in ice and headed back to the Ministry of Health by way of the bus station where he purchased the tickets for the 11:30 AM bus to Choma.
The shots went well and we were comfortably finished well before our scheduled pick-up time by the same taxi driver. So we called him to let him know he could come earlier. About the time we hung up, a huge election campaign rally with scores of vehicles and lots of noise drove down the Great East Road and I wondered if this might cause complications for our driver since traffic was starting to back up right where we were waiting. Nevertheless, he pulled up on time and we arrived at the station a few minutes before the bus left.
Uneventful return trip on the bus, a long walk from Choma to Nahumba, dinner and bed!
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| Baobab Tree |
