Crossing Borders

On July 29 I headed to Livingstone which is in the Southern Province of Zambia. Livingstone is the tourist capital of the country, sharing a border and the Victoria Falls (locally known as Mosi oa Tunya which means “the smoke that thunders”) with Zimbabwe.

In Livingstone I was to attend a two week work camp organised by the Youth Association of Zambia and UNESCO. So for the next two weeks that followed I was a world heritage volunteer working at the Victoria Falls and its surrounding area. There were twenty participants in the camp who came from different parts of the world. Five of us were from South Africa and there were participants from Spain, Switzerland, Russia, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea and obviously Zambia. We camped in Palm Grove Basic School which is opposite the Victoria Falls.

The living conditions of the work camp were not ideal but an experience that I will never forget. We all slept on the floor of a small classroom and had to start a fire every time we wanted to prepare food. Toilets were pit latrines and we bathed with cold water in a wash room. There was one tap in the school and it was far from the toilets so carrying water from the tap to the wash room was an exercise routine. The manual labour at the Victoria Falls was not easy, especially for a city girl with manicured nails. The camp was tough but also stupendous! Firstly, I helped maintain and preserve the Victoria Falls which is one of the seven wonders of the world. We also painted the school we were residing in. At night we had country presentations from the different countries present which included a national meal from the country presenting. For the first time I ate a lot of exotic food, soe tasting better thawn others. The weirdest meal was from Russia which comprised of steamed dough stuffed with mince, which was not well done, and put in soup. An interesting dish was from Switzerland. The Swiss eat muesli for dinner! The dish is called Birchermuesli and is a mixture of muesli, oats, yoghurt and fruits. We also went on Safari which was followed by dinner at Zambezi cafe and a night out in Livingstone town. I had the full tourist experience visiting a reptile park, national park, boiling pot, the gorge and Victoria Falls. I ate crocodile meat for the first time at one of the restuarants and even spend a few hours in Zimbabwe. Waking up to the sound of the Victoria Falls in the mornings reminded me of God’s ravishing power for he had created it all.