4 January

4 January

Zimba – Kalomo

31 Miles

Erik: 

Slept in a bit again. The weather is cooler with all this rain, so we can afford it. We got ready fairly fast this time and were on the saddle by 7:30am. A gentle mist covered everything, it was very cool. The hills were less up and a bit more down today. Good news. We bought mangoes from a lady by the side of the street for breakfast. We really only bought one for 500K (about $0.10) but then the lady smiled, called us back and gave us 4 more. Sweet.

We got to Kalomo at 1100. It is a pretty big place. Kind of. We a guest house room a bit away from the city center since we don't want the Friday night parties to keep us up all night. (steph: how old are we? -eyeroll-)

The center of town was very cool and alive. It reminds me a bit of Mexico. We had two really crappy burgers. So very bad. Live and learn. Not everywhere can be as good as Food Palace.

I think I caught Steph's cold.

Darn it all.

Steph:

Oh man, I love this place. We didn't go very far today but it was far enough for my throat. I'm still coughing and I'm sick of it. This town is pretty cool. You can definitely tell that Zambia is more populated than Botswana based purely on the fact that dots on the map are more than just three straw huts and a green water tank (jojo?). There are guest houses and stores and a gas station and people! It's great. Oh and they play music on the street, it rocks.

Just a few thoughts on some other things:

• THE ROAD!! Oh my goodness! Best road we have been on, by FAR! Ultra smooth, ultra clean with a ultra, giant, clean shoulder. We can almost ride next to each other without having to worry about cars. Lovely.

• THE PEOPLE!! It's crazy how a border can make such a difference. It's not the people. The people are just as friendly and awesome. Really. It's more a difference in language I think. Setswana (from what we've been told) is very much a "command" language. Words like "thank you" and "please" are not words that you usually add to anything. So when people say, "give me that", the "please" is just implied. We heard that if you literally translate "please", it is seen as almost begging and kind of frowned upon. When they translate it to English, it comes across as harsh and slightly rude. It's not that they are rude, obviously, it's just that one has to get used to it. But here in Zambia, people say "thank you" for EVERYTHING! I get thanked for saying "hello". It's very friendly and very pleasant. I like it.
  
  

  

  foggy morning

  
  

  

  Hills, hills, hills.

  
  

  

  Woo! Like my hat? Yeah, you do.