Homesick in Zambia

Happy Mush again, with Zambian Kids

When we arrived in Lusaka, for some reason I suddenly felt overwhelmed by a combination of homesickness missing family and friends and Kelowna-life, and a frustration at Africa. Being on the road as long as we have, the smallest thing just tipped off all sorts of stuff. Don't get me wrong: traveling southern Africa has been absolutely amazing and we have definitely enjoyed our fantastic adventures so far, especially meeting so many people who have been so good to us in so many ways; I don't think they even realise. However, Africa has definitely held many challenges and down-moments, some that we have encountered before on previous travels and some new ones. 

Of course, it's not one thing in particular, but a series of lots of little things together: for example, it gets a bit old camping in a tent, or cooking very basic, uninteresting food because of limited resources, or not being able to eat out like we generally do - all to keep costs down here in Africa. Haggling for fairer prices gets tiring: the 'Mzungo' or white-people prices can be through the roof for buses, taxis, groceries etc. Finding cheap, suitable travel options are challenging too. Public transport hasn't been always easy sometimes especially Zimbabwe. And although the people are very nice wherever we go, we have communication frustrations: they don't always give you a straight answer and we don't know whether it's because they don't understand our English, or they just don't want to tell us because we're foreigners, or they don't want to admit they don't know! Sometimes, they will just tell us what they THINK we want to hear which is really very annoying because it's not generally correct information!

Add to this that we're always on the move, and when not visiting people we know, we rarely stay longer than 2-3 days somewhere. Our longest stay in one place was Livingstone and that was because we were rafting for the week (a long time) for the kayak festival with a few days either side.

Anyway, regardless of the reasons it is now a question of what to do about it all!  We found ourselves having a long, looong chat about what happens next. Coming home and seeing family could be an option. But are we ready to come back? And come back …and WORK? Not really. To have a break, then, and go and see family and friends? That would be an expensive interlude especially as my family is in the UK, Martin's family in TO and Arizona, friends all over, and Kelowna another continent away. So, to continue onwards we need to make some changes in our travel format. Perhaps having a rest and finding a nice place to stop will help, possibly in Malawi, our next country. Perhaps spending more time in each place instead of moving on so quickly? Even though we're spending much more than our travels in Asia, maybe we just need to accept that spending a little more is worth it just to avoid the frustration of watching the money. These are some possible solutions to some of our issues, so we'll see if things change!

Sorry for rambling, but even just airing it all out helps. So, wish us luck with our new approach to our African travels. *Mush