TAnzaniaZambiaRailway and 56h of happiness

I can't believe I haven't written anything from Lusaka!!! I will make up for it soon. Now just quickly: I've survived (and absolutely loved) 56h on the TAZARA train from Kapiri Mposhi all the way to Dar es Salaam. I've met some wonderful people there and played around 100 parties of shithead/estupido. Now I'm safe in Dar and looking forward to my dad's arrival tomorrow night!!!!!

abseiling it was

livingstone has been a break to the type of the traveling that i usually practice and i've tried some of the adventure backpacking style;)

+abseiling (sliding down the cliff on a rope: head up, head down... interesting, but moderately scary)
+flying fox (you're attached to the line that goes across the valley with your back, face down. you run, jump and slide like peter pan almost across the whole valley... really nice feeling :))
+gorge swinging (insane. you step of a cliff, fall freely for 50 m and only then you get in contact with the rope that you're attached to and you start swinging in the gorge. very scary. very fun!!!)

this is not me, but it's the same place:)


there is plenty of other things that you can do. but so little time. i'm going back for rafting, once sime decides to keep his promise ;)

i also went to the movies, said goodbye to all of the great people in livingstone and now i'm in lusaka for a couple of days.

vic falls

after a Very Long Ride I'm in Liviongstone, near the Victoria Falls.

just before i start about the falls, i'll share another 3 things i love about chipata which i can see i missed out in the last post:
- the affordable (less than 50usd) solar panels at the marketplace
- the damaged chitenge (textile) sellout. wonderful stuff, very cheap, not very damaged
- the names of places ('take it easy liquor store', 'let people talk' - textile store, 'wonderful corner' -restaurant, 'god is able' - a used-to-be restaurant, 'west side' barber and many many more...)

and now the falls. livingstone itself is a funny little town full of young backpackers wanting to visit the falls and enjoy some of many 'activities' offered here (from helicopter flights over the falls to bungee jumping from the bridge). i've met some really nice guys here (germany, UK, australia and belgium) and two Glennies ;) the world is petit!

we've been to the falls today and it was AMAZING. they are simply so beautiful that there's no way to desribe it. we've also walked up to a little rock pool, just above the falls (the water coming out of the pool makes a part of the waterfalls :)). it was wonderful. can i go again????? :)

and for tomorrow, i'd really like to try something exciting (abseiling, white water rafting, bungee...???) we will see :) i can't decide...

chipata&bikes

special warm thoughts for daria and jason on this occasion!!! :)

i wanted to post some more photos, but it takes so long, that i just give up... enjoy these...

road from malawian border to chipata, zambia. bikes everywhere

luangwe bike plant in chipata. unfortunatelly, now the bikes are out of stock and the plant is closed. but they say they should have some bikes again in june 2010. they are only an assembling plant, the parts are produced in india. still, if we do the bike courriers project again next year in lusaka, we can have bikes from chipata!! :)

chipata is great. lively, but not too busy. lots of bikes and bike taxis. lots of good people. beautiful market and crowds of people going out of the mosque after friday prayer, passing on their way groups of old ladies in church outfits that are going to some church meeting. tomorrow to lusaka.

just a couple more words about malawi, cause it seems to me like i haven't written anything at all. it's been only a week, but feels much longer (naturally). so, malawi highlights:

- permaculture garden in nyika plateau. wonderful wonderful wonderful!! i then met it's owner on the bus and we've chatted quite a lot. he and his wife run some amazing projects to promote permaculture in malawi. they even have curriculums for schools on establishing school garderns and learninig from it.

- meeting two alexes (one malawian - a helpful immigration officer, one polish - a friend's friend :))

- walking up to livingstonia, one of the first missions here + some waterfalls with tiwongo and josiah, two local boys. great guys, great time together (sharing frisbee and chocolate :))

- scuba diving in nyasa lake with johnny and seeing all the beautiful fish, like from 'darwin's lake' (though i think the book is about tanganyika)

- watching all the beautiful sceneries of malawi

- hanging out in liliongwe with some friendly canadians, sharing malawian food, polish/canadian music and card tricks :)

- exploring lilongwe which is quite a strange city, i must say...

- getting a zambian visa, even though i have no more pages left in my passport. fortunatelly, it's only a stamp, not the whole page like in some other countries...

well, that's for now! hugs for the reader :)

quickly

never enough time....
malawi is amazing. beautiful in every aspect. people are more relaxed and friendly than in any other country that i've visited... i can understand why europans like settling in here so much. i've met a couple of them already. most interesting ones: a belge (born in lumumbashi though) who has a beautiful permaculture garden on the slopes of nyika plateau, with a view on waterfalls... amazing story. will tell you later. then johnny, a young brit who moved to nkatha bay to mange a dive center. showed me some beautiful fish down in the nyasa lake.
now i'm in lilongwe, the capital. i'll see if i get to zambia, cause i have no more free pages in my passport left... i only realised on the malawian border. all depends on the size of the zambian visa :)

malawi already

after three intense days of travel, i'm already in malawi. not without any obstacles, but safe and sound.

my trip so far: warsaw-zurich-nairobi-dar es salaam-mbeya-tukuyu-songwe(border)-karonga-chitimba...

first night at sweet couchsurfers' place (amazing house in dar and a small birthday hang out), then the whole day on the road, second night hosted for free by the owner of a small guesthouse where there was no space for me, then the whole day on the road, first cleverly avoiding a scam (always check if the bus is there, before you pay the ticket), then spending hours waiting, taking a bike-cab and talking the immigrations officers to let me through even though i have only one more empty page in my passport left (it was a serious problem for them, but one hour of begging and a couple of tears worked).

now i'm in the most beautiful place on earth with the most amazing stars over my head and two new young cool friends. tomorrow up to the mountains to visit livingstonia and permaculture camps!!!

lot's of new thoughts about tanzania (lots of time to talk and think on the way...). my BA makes sense ;) coming up soon!

(or rather warsaw..)

off I go!

Just a couple more hours and I will be on the plane to Dar es Salaam (plus a night in Zurich)!!! Hurra!!!

The plan is:
- to REST!
- not to plan
- cross southern tanzania, malawi and zambia and come back by TAZARA to pick up my dad from the airport on Sept. 1st. and hang out wherever he wants to. whatever works will be fine :)


- visit ola (zanzibar), ola (moshi) and gerald (musoma), if possible. and meet up a bunch of other people living or travelling in tz and zambia.
- couchsurf as much as possible (for the first night in DSM the couch is already booked:)))
- get excited about all of the fairtrade socks that I pass on my way (for staszewa with love)
- yyy... that's pretty much all...

it's a shame to leave warsaw behind. summer nights in warsaw are just so wonderful (and summer days too, of course). but my room and bike are left in good hands and a month is not a long time at all, so it's fine... september days and nights in warsaw are not bad either ;) especially, when the new noah and the whale album will be out!

weather report from tanzania coming soon!

can't wait

coming august 31st.

The First Days of Spring Official Trailer from charlie fink on Vimeo.

see. how can I focus on my writing???

beautiful

10 more days

After a good GLEN meeting in Berlin, I'm back in Warsaw and trying to get all the writing done before heading to Dar es Salaam in less than 10 days!!!

And while trying to write, I keep discovering some wonderful things to do instead of writing. This one is one of the more educational ;)

http://academicearth.org >>> Psychology of happiness

Well, I always knew that happiness was in my genes :)

Vive cultural determinants of economic growth in Tanzania!!!