Short cut

After a test run in my kitchen on my newly adjusted mountain bike seat I was ready for action! After a friendly greeting to Obambo (like Baba in Shona, English equivalent of Mr.) Osmund I set off down the road! I was so focused on not get myself knocked over by the cars to my right and all the potholes and ditch on my left I barely noticed anyone's reaction to me! I decided to take a "short cut" I had heard about through the Barclay fields so I could stay off the main road, Nthabo Mbeki, that takes me to the CIDRZ offices. So I turned on Club rd and it was kinda paved and there were a bunch of people walking down it so I thought that was a good sign! It wasn't long before I was weaving in and out of potholes the size of entire vehicles and bumping up and down gravel sections of a winding road when whatever resemblance of a road there had been disappeared entirely!! Now it was just the lovely red dirt and some tyre marks to follow, at least I could tell cars came through here so I knew there must be an opening to the main road somewhere!! All the sudden all the pedestrians are turning on this single file walking trail surrounded by grass taller than me on the bike and I'm headed for some big factory looking building that appears deserted! Hmmm...at this point I'm wondering what I've got myself into, but determined to find the way I kept going! And my determination was rewarded with the sight of a woman selling vegetables sitting on the side of a small paved road that led directly to Arcades mall, which is next to where I work!! Yay!! Longest shortcut I've ever taken (except when I got Andrew and myself lost in Oak Mtn state park for an hour or so...the signs are confusing!!)! Well it was a lucky thing I had a Mtn bike or I never would have made it through there, when I told my coworker I had taken the shortcut she'd told me about, on my bike her expression said it all!!:) Apparently it's shorter on foot! Oh well, I enjoyed my mini adventure maneuvering up down the hills created by giant potholes!! Probably will do it again sometime, it's an improvement from the petrol I have to breath in every morning!

My next mini-adventure was riding the minibuses for the first time after work! I was going to Sarah Abrom's flat for fajita night and we met up at Manda Hills shopping center to ride the minibus together (they're like the commuter omnibuses in Zim). These men sit at the bus stops all day and recruit passengers for the driver for a share of the profit, one guy in a sparkly skull and crossbones beanie approached us and recruited us for the first minibus, as we got closer a group of five other men crowded us and told us to come to their prospective minibuses instead. In such situations as these I find it best to put your head down, don't make eye contact and walk! On the bus we were crowded in like cream in a chocolate eclair (which are great for tea time by the way!). There was one guy hanging out the door until the next stop! Each time you stop you get crawled over by people behind you getting out, then you wait to be refilled and continue on again. Well at our stop we were almost at the back of the bus and got to awkwardly crawl over everyone too! Fun times! It's cool to see the Zambians interact though, they have such a sense of community! Even in the bus around strangers they help make change for one another, notify the front guy if someone needs to get off, make room for each other on already crowded chairs. People just don't get uptight here even though they're hot, squashed and it's the end of a long day!

Fajita night was a success, internet was so slow we couldn't look up a salsa recipe so we just winged it! Turned out pretty good and Sarah made some great fajitas! I got to meet Sarah's roommate and some of her friends, other young people working here temporarily. It's fun to be a part of this community of young adventurers experiencing a new world, conversation is always fascinating! We may be from France, Canada, Tx and Al but we all have this common ground that automatically unites us in community...we are alien to this land! Nothing has taught me more about letting go of this world than being a foreigner in a different country! It reminds me that my home is with my Father and my stay here in this world is temporary!