africa update

africa. whoa. its still happening. the world cup recap is probably to big of a thing to ever really happen.

quickly though, i went to the following games-
argentina - north korea
usa - slovakia
usa - algeria
usa - ghana (doh!)
argentina - mexico
new zealand - slovina

not too bad eh?

after max and the scotts left i stayed in pretoria with some great amazing people who said i could stay as long as i wanted. it took a few days to get the bus figured out, and in the end i left earlier than i thought.

on buses.
buses are different here. they are more about people moving things than people moving themselves. with the economic crisis still a very big part of life here in Zim, the majority of goods are driven in from SA. most of them on buses or van-like taxis. this causes huge cluster f's at the borders as well as unsafe driving conditions. a lot of people die on the road in Zim, and a lot of them on buses. they are however very cheap. i got from pretoria, which is just north of jo'berg, to bulawayo for 280 rand, which is about $37. i got from bulawayo to victoria falls for 100 rand, which is about $14. well, it would be if people and businesses in Zim did actual conversions. if i had payed in USD, the 100 rand trip would have only cost $10. so that bus company ran at 10 to 1 ratio. the backpackers that i'm at is doing 100 rand is $12, or more accurately 6 beers. you can look at xe.com for the current exchange rates. but that kind of thing doesn't really matter in Zim. and since they use mostly dollars, paying in rands is a pain in the ass because you can't get USD back in change. and of course they dont have US coins. all of this is very weird and different to me. i'm not used to having two currencies in my wallet. USA money looks crazy to me. and the state of the money! crazy. i've never seen bills that are so worn and dirty. oh, and i'm going to be able to buy some 100 trillion dollar bills here too. everyone wants me to do two things when they see me on the street. first i am to give them my shirt. and second i am to buy their old Zim money. $5 for a "set". the old money has no value at all. to say that it isn't worth the paper it is printed on is a gross understatement. by about a million percent. if you had a penny and cut it into a million pieces, i would rather have one of those pieces than a 100 trillion dollar bill. well unless there were some guilible tourists around, then i'd make five bucks!

the ride from pretoria to bulawayo was very intense. during the first half hour i wanted to either- die, to kill all humans, to get off of the bus, or to cry. instead i sat there in the very back row between two big guys and wondered what the hell i was doing. like all painful things in life it now seems like it wasn't a big deal and that having that experience was worth it. being hot and uncomfortable from 3:30pm to 7:30am is a hell of a price to pay for this experience i want/wanted, but i guess that is about par for the next month or so. we spent 3 hours at the SA/Zim border. it wasn't too bad because it was an excuse to get out of the bus. the weather was nice and it didn't seem like 1am. most of the time was spent on the Zim side waiting for customs to check out luggage. they guy didn't even look at my bag. i could have had a small child in there. like i said before, so many people were bringing stuff across the border that it choked the whole system. they brought everything. it was like a dr. suess book. everywhere you looked was some crazy item being precariously transported across the border on a overladen truck. name an item and i saw it strapped to a truck.

i got to bulawayo and my CS friend picked me up. she was a nice lady, a little racist, but very nice. she's always lived in Zim, but she's traveled to india and a bunch of other places. but that was back then. now she can't leave b/c the government is screwing her, and everyone else, over. she can't afford a passport, but that is the least of her worries. in bulawayo they have power. sometimes. they have food on the shelves. sometimes. they have serviceable roads. sometimes. they have currency. sometimes. she got a check for 180 quadrillion dollars. yeah. one hundred and eighty QUADRILLION DOLLARS! that is jacked up. shortly after she deposited it the government lopped off a few zeros here and there and then it was 1,800 dollars. after that it became five US dollars. and that was months of pay. she told me so many stories about having no food, no power and no idea when it was coming back. she told me about tracer rounds and how pretty they are when they whizz down her street. she does chain smoke, and she has a car, so i suspect she is one of the better off people in Zim. but it is still a crazy place to live. i don't think i could do it.
walking around in the street was very nice. no one gave me any guff and hardly anyone tried to sell me crap. that was so weird. after being a walking wallet in jo'berg it was nice to walk around street vendors and not get offered the same old crap for the same old insane prices.

the ride from bulawayo to victoria falls was just as crazy. not to mention that it was a few days after a horrible bus crash in Zim. one of the many horrible bus crashes in Zim. my CS friend took me to the bus station and i bought my ticket. i was promised a seat in the front, but as it turns out i was lucky to get a seat anywhere. when we took the transfer to the actual bus (what? why? i dunno) i knew immediately that it was screwed up. there were too many people on the bus already and there was too much stuff. people were packing about 50 bags, boxes, bikes, and anything else they were transporting into the passenger section of the bus. this bus was crap too. just a schoolbus really. we had to wait for two hours as for the company to bring a trailer. why they didn't anticipate needing a trailer i will never know. they do this everyday right? so eventually we set off with a huge trailer tacked onto the back. about 30k's later the bus made a weird hissing noise and everyone knew that we were in for more waiting. at least the bus driver bulled over and didn't try to make it any further with no brakes. we jumped out and milled about the side of the highway for an hour or so while we waited for a mechanic. after being there for two minutes the mechanic apparently fixed the bus and we were off. i was in a great mood, but some people freaked out and hitched rides back to bulawayo. it was a really nice day and i was on the road, so i just chilled out and talked to some cool guys. i took pictures too. i can't wait to show my grandkids the picture of grandpa's broken bus in africa. greatness.
this ride was ok b/c i had an aisle seat. we didn't stop much until we got closer to vic falls, and then we stopped all the time to pick up anyone who wanted a ride down the road. the highlight of the trip came when we almost hit a pride of lions. yes. we almost hit a pride of lions. they were chillin' on the road and we almost hit a pride of lions. i only saw a couple, but the guy next to me saw six or seven. yes. i know. this came at about the time i was considering the fact that i had no idea where the hostel was and if i should walk or take a taxi. i ended up walking b/c it was only 3-4 minutes away from the bus drop-off, but that was the scariest walk of all time. it was so dark and so foreign- and so lion infested that i almost went back for a taxi. but no! i'm too brave/dumb for that. and besides, the lions don't come into vic falls. only the elephants do. true story.
when i got the backpackers it was going off. they have a bar. $1 for a beer anyone? i got my room and sat down just in time to watch uruguay and the netherlands play. great game. amazing game. i've been thinking that either of those teams will win the whole thing. now its clear that the dutch are too strong for anyone. i drank too much beer and sat by the fire talking shit with some guests and some dudes who work here. this place is great. $10 a night for a dorm bed, but since i'm so badass i'm camping in the yard for $5. my tent is so massive!
the best part of the night, besides the great game was trying the local brew. technically it is beer, but not really. a jug is a dollar and feeds at least 3 people. it is thick and foamy, sour and earthy. very good stuff, but i couldn't drink too much of it. i'll try again tonight. more to follow on the beer front soon.

a few highlights since the usa went out of the cup-

seeing lions on the road
talking to people on the buses
getting my passport stamped in swaziland, south africa and zimbabwe in less one month
losing my nalgene! nooo!
great wine in pretoria
cooking bobotie
cold showers
feeling the weather get warmer as i go north

that's all for now, but i'm here in this backpackers for a while and i'll try to write more. when the internet is working that is.