1.23.2013

11 January - Bike races and Farm land


11 January
38 Miles
Monze – Mazabuka


Steph:

The landscape is changing again. It is becoming flatter again and farm land is taking over everything. It was cool. We had a bit of a race with some locals who were transporting big bags of coal on the back of their bikes. We rode together for about 15km and I was trying to shake them the whole entire way. We lost 3 of them but the last one just wouldn't let up. His bike was not as good as ours and he would just not fall back. I think it was as important to him to not let the 2 lakooa beat him as it was for me to outkick him. At the end, we all waved at each other and smiled though. See? All in good fun.

We found a hotel that was nicer and went to find something to eat. At the meat pie place, I saw another lakooa, or mizungu (whatever it is now) and said hello. It ended up being the nicest family. Her name is Gigi, she is an american who has been living in Africa since 1991. Her husband is Yuyu who is from Cape Verde. A very cool couple who recently moved to Lusaka from Ghana with their two beautiful boys (Leandro and Alex). Gigi works for the embassy there and after talking to them for four whole minutes, they generously invited us to stay with them at their house. They gave us their number and we agreed to meet up at the capital a few days after. People are so nice. I love it!! We're so lucky.


Erik:

We got up at 6am not rested at ALL.It was also a very hot day. Not a cloud in sight. As we approached Mazabuka, it started getting quite dense with villages, farms and people. It's sugar fields about as far as the eye can see. Lots of bicycle traffic as well. At one point we were riding 5 in a line, 3 locals transporting char-coal were keeping pace with us. It was quite a storm of people and kids all yelling mizungu/lakooa at us.
Just 5km outside of town we acquired a friend (also on his bike) that talked to us (I understnad less than 1/2 of what he said) for like 20 minutes. What I got out of the conversation is that he and everyone else were shocked to see "the white man walking on bikes". By walking, he meant riding. So basically they never see white people riding bicycles. It took 20 minutes to get that across. Haha!

The hotel we found is a little more expensive than we normally pay, but after last night I think we deserve it. Meeting Yuyu and Gigi's family was great. They invited us to stay with them before we even knew each other's names. Awesome.  

Some nice people working on their fields, with some crazy skies in the background.

Nice huts

Again, people working and taking pride in their land

Laundry time! Woo! I will never take a washing machine for granted again.
EVER.

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