Kopa Street

Around Kitwe, almost all of the blue and white mini buses used for public transportation have interesting, amusing, or at least strange slogans on them. Here are some that I've managed to copy down:

-God Cares
-Jesus loves you
-Nancy
-God is good
-The chosen one
-Jesus is the answer
-The blood of Jesus
-Jok buses
-God is freedom
-Cold Chain
-Better Days
-The gift of God is eternal life
-Enters
-Puma
-Book Masters 2000
-Reality
-Blessings
-Forgive them Father
-Enjoy
-Nike Runtu
-Chimbamba
-Chipolopolo Yheea
-True Story
-Izukanji Spares
-Franest
-Sunning
-One Love
-Beauty
-Uncle Rex
-Adidas
-Cry for Help
-Kitwe ONE
-Book Masters
-Book Masters 2006
-Sunning Hill
-Life is Tricky
and my personal favourite:
-Uncle O and the Wailers

I've heard that some of the bus drivers name their bus after their child/spouse, and also that the slogans on the front and the back of the mini bus are "good luck charms" in case the mini bus crashes.

Here's a link to a youtube video of minibuses in Zambia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb4RbDjQiJI

I was going to write a summary of Christmas Vacation in the form of a specialized edition of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Unfortunately, all I came up with was “3 roadside pee stops… 2 lions mating….” We left on the 28th of December, and came back on January 11. We drove to South Luangwa Game Park with the Bersaglio’s and one part of the road that was 100km took us 2.5 hours because it was in such bad condition. Main events included: safaris in the morning and night – seeing zebra, wild dogs, three prides of lions (including the mating ones mentioned before), and a leopard… oh, and 13 genets in one night.... going on with my list, mom killing a bat, hippos grunting right outside our chalet, running inside out of fear of large baboons potentially trying to steal my m&ms, and last but not least hundreds of bug bites.

After crossing the Malawi border and staying a night in Lilongwe (oh and seeing John Wesley High School – that was for you, Graeme), we headed to Lake Malawi for the PAOC Missionary retreat. It had the feel of a family reunion mixed with church foyer (and something else Kristin and I decided, that I don’t remember). Main events included: jumping from a two-story boat into Lake Malawi and not being eaten by hippos or crocs, getting a sunburn all over me then putting ten layers of Aloe Vera on every day, Malawi Shandies, flowers that smelled like watermelon, volleyball, fruit salad and cream puffs, a monkey almost attacking me… twice, hearing some random man singing in the shower, and hundreds more bug bites.

We drove thirteen hours back to Lusaka to stay the night, then headed to our next destination, Livingstone. Main events included: staying in the Zambezi Sun, the falls, giraffe and zebra right on the property, breakfast buffet, sparring the hotel management (walking across the lawn with a hole bunch of Spar grocery bags, and getting in trouble), beautiful sunshiny days, hundreds of elephants at Chobe, Uncle Milton falling asleep on every safari and boat cruise, Kristin and I being asked if we were twins by two separate hotel staff, and more bug bites.

In other news, mom and I saw a mouse in Shoprite today while we were waiting in the 12-person line. 12 person line x 18 checkouts = 216 people in one confined area.