New Years Eve at Victoria Falls

It’s getting more and more western. Supermarkets, bigger streets, fast food restaurants and much more concrete. You cannot really experience this in Rwanda, Tanzania or Malawi in this extent. But here in Zambia you already feel the influence of South Africa. Most of the supermarkets and many goods are imported and the prices are a lot higher as well. They are actually comparable to the level I am used to from central Europe.

Lusaka is the capital of Zambia and the first city I don’t like at all. Concrete everywhere, ugly architecture, dirty streets and the first time I’ve experienced violence on my journey. A guy got beaten up by a dozen people at the other side of the street. And you hear fireworks from the town centre all night, at least the few days I stayed there in the last week of December.

In Lusaka I also met Vittorio. An Italian guy who is working for the European Union in Ethiopia right now and was on holiday in Zambia. When I told him about my plans of spending new years eve at a music festival near the Victoria Falls he happily joined in and bought tickets right away. He was also the one who realised that I’ve booked a hostel on the Zambian instead of the Zimbabwean side of the Falls.

At this point there was no chance of getting any accommodation in Victoria Falls (the town on the Zimbabwean side is actually called Victoria Falls, the one on the Zambian side Livingstone). We then searched for a tent in the supermarkets and found a cheap one in a store called Pick’n’Pay along with two sleeping bags. After the festival I actually took the tent with me and now spend a night or two in it from time to time.

During this time I also met a lot of Peace Corp Volunteers. These are people from the US which do volunteer work in different places all over the world for at least two years. They start with three months of training where they learn local culture, languages and skills they need for their work. The rest of the time they mostly stay in remote villages and teach English, support in medical care or do agricultural projects with the community among other jobs.

I really think this is a good way of volunteering where the local community can benefit a lot as well as the volunteers themselves. I honestly cannot imagine to volunteer for such a long period myself right now. But when targeting for a high impact I think it is the way to go (at least for US citizens). While doing their volunteer work they stay in host families and this way get completely integrated into the local life. This allows them to get an unfiltered impression of the situation and opens up opportunities for cultural exchange.

Between the years many of them were on vacation and they used the chance to meet up with other volunteers. I’ve already bumped into a large group at Nkatha Bay in Malawi and met even more when arriving in Livingstone at the Victoria Falls. Vittorio and me ended up spending a lot of time with them while being there.

Speaking about the falls: they are just incredible. It’s a really spectacular place and especially the vast amount of water that plunges down the cliff is just breathtaking. And as you can imagine you get quite soaked from it. On my second occasion there I was a bit unlucky and it started to rain quite heavily. Basically everythwere was water and I got completely wet. It was still a purely positive experience and exploring nature is definitely the number one reason for me to travel.

You can approach the Victoria Falls from the Zambian as well as the Zimbabwean side. Both of them have parks with paths and bridges that grant you a good view. If you you ask me which one is preferable, I would say the Zimbabwean one. I did both. In the end of 2016 Zambia, at the beginning of 2017 Zimbabwe and in between there was the Vic Falls Carnival which is a three day music festival.

The first night there was a bush party with a DJ and I went there with Vittorio and some of the Peace Corps fellows. Even though the venue was quite nicely located at a branch of the Zambezi river we did not stay there very long. We headed for a party in the city-center, my first party since I started this trip, and I enjoyed it a lot.

The only bummer was that many wallets were stolen there — including mine. Fortunately I left my credit card and smartphone in the tent so there where only some bucks gone. Still annoying. When I went back to the place the next morning they had a huge pile of empty wallets which were left behind by the thieves.

The time between the parties we mostly spent at the Rest Camp. This is a nice camping ground in town with a pool and a really good restaurant. The perfect place to cure a hangover and get ready for the next party. At the restaurant they even served exotic things like giraffe (really good) or crocodile (didn’t like that one so much) at a reasonable price.

Party number two started off with a ride on a traditional steam train. We already had a lot of fun in there before the actual party even started. It took place somewhere in the middle of nowhere and topped the first one by a big margin. I hopped onto the last train back as everyone else had already entered.

The reason is simple: to get the people to stop partying they played rock songs instead of the electronic dance music that prevailed the rest of the evening. This had the effect that Vittorio and I jumped around in front of the stage having the time of our life while a whole train of people was waiting for us. After finally being on the train we discovered that one of the cars was turned into a DJ area and the party went on…

The last day of 2016 was celebrated at the Vic Falls Primary School. This time there was a number of bands playing instead of a DJ. When we arrived two guys were performing who actually combined both. They mixed electronic music and then played on top with their trumpet and their trombone. A really nice combination. Check them out, they are called The Kiffness.

When the new year was approaching Goodluck played which I enjoyed as well. At some point they asked how late it is. It seemed that no one knew exactly but while the front woman was still trying to figure out the time some part of crowd started counting down. 10, 9, 8, … soon everyone else including the band joined in and 3, 2, 1, zero — we were in 2017. As I heard afterwards we actually already have been in 2017 some minutes earlier but who really cares?!

To give the new year a fresh start I decided to do one of the plenty of activities that are offered at the Victoria Falls on the second of January (the first day of 2017 I used to get rid of the hangover). With quite an amount of people I entered rafting boats and we went down the Zambezi river. It’s very well suited for this activity and is placed in a beautiful valley.

I hope you had good start into 2017 as well and I wish you all the best for this year. I can only recommend to dream up some crazy ideas — like traveling Africa for six months — and just start doing them. It really is worth it and allows you to get completely new experiences you may have missed otherwise.

One trick how I get myself into really doing it in the end: I talk to other people about my ideas and plans. This way I built up some pressure that allows me to motivate myself. This is also the way I got into writing this blog after a friend insisted that it is a good idea — and I totally agree with that. One other technique: do a thing that doesn’t cost much time but is kinda hard to reverse. Like booking a flight. Everything else will (or has to) follow. I used both tricks to get here and I’m more than happy with that.

Enjoy life!