I never thought I would be so excited to see paved roads or have clean water, that is, until I went on my second Spring Break trip of the year (lucky me!) throughout the African wilderness of Botswana, and Zambia (with a small afternoon in Zimbabwe, but I feel like I'm cheating when I claim to have "visited"). This will be the first post of many detailing my adventures over the week, as there were so many!
If I may be so bold, I believe this toilet exemplifies the many continued ironies I observed throughout my trip, and I would like to use it as a segway to discuss some interesting observations I made over my break. First, what's with this toilet? It is literally just in the middle of the wilderness, which in itself is quite contradictory. The fusion of modernity and the wild gone all wrong, really. While going potty, I could only feel confused. I wanted to be in a safe, warm, enclosed bathroom but alas, mosquitoes were landing on my bum and frogs were jumping around my feet. It was as if the proprietors of the campsite couldn't make up their mind as to the aesthetic of their lodge: "Shall we go for a rustic, hole in ground approach? Or maybe some sturdy, standard bathrooms? Naw, let's just stick a toilet in the open. Given our guests a little bit of both." Anyway...
A List of Things That Don't Exist in Africa:
1. Speed limits. Which becomes a problem when the only paved road is the main "highway". Our overland truck really should have come with a disclaimer: "Free roller coaster rides when on unpaved roads!"
2. Trashcans and/or means of trash disposal. Litter is EVERYWHERE--on the side of the road, in the streets. It flies about in the atmosphere. Stray dogs are constantly eating it. It's piled in deep holes. It's just so, sad.
3. Sunscreen. For being a place where the sun blazes down at you, all hours of the day, and is utterly inescapable, one would assume that measures to combat sunburn and other aliments would form a large market. Alas, this is not true. Sunscreen does not exist in Africa. Anywhere. Ironic.
4. Standardized currency. In Zimbabwe especially, they have no government supported monetary system. They run off of the South African rand and the American dollar (And never have I seen people so excited at the sight of an American dollar. Dollars are equated with a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, the holy grail, a miracle.)
5. Properly priced Pringles (say that 5 times fast). For some reason, Pringles are the most expensive snack here. One little canister will put you back a whopping $12. I learned this the hard way on a quick rest stop.
Lastly, a question to ponder:
Why do clay huts located in poverty ridden, minuscule villages (without running water, means of education, or transportation) have HUGE TV SATELLITE DISHES attached to their thatched roofs?!
I'm still grappling with this. Literally, wherever our travels would take us, no matter how remote or distant from civilization, every hut in every village had huge satellite TV dishes. How these were attached to roofs made out of dried grass still boggles my mind.
Needles to say, my Spring Break travels finally landed me in the midst of the "real" Africa. The adventures that ensued were nothing short of priceless. Stay tuned!
