Sunday, September 1, 2013

Voyage of the Mini S.S. Minnow

Lake Tanganyika - the second deepest lake in the world and the most biologically diverse. This is where I’m spending my post IST (In-service Training) vacation. Mpulungu, only port town in Zambia, is much like other Zambian towns. Small shops line the main road selling a variety of goods and necessities like biscuits (cookies) or shampoo. There’s a market near the water that is packed with people, the shore lined with boats, and smelling of fish and salt.
                Excited to get out on the lake and in the water, the group of PCVs that made the trek up north from Lusaka rented some boats with the intention of rowing out to a nearby island. I climbed into the boat that looked more reliable, meaning the bottom wasn’t filled with water. I should have known when they only wanted 3 muzungu’s in the boat and 5 in the other that I’d probably chosen the wrong one. As the Zambian crew, one man in the bow and one in the stern, pushed off from shore with their apprehensive flock of PCVs, I was certain we were going to capsize at any moment dumping me and all of my precious electronics into Lake Tang. As water began pouring into the boat from the seams in the boards, patchily plugged with bits and pieces of chitenge, I began to think we may also sink. I’ve been jumping off boats and docks in the Midwest all of my life and can hold my own in the water so aside from possibly  ruining my camera/ipod/phone by accidentally ending up in the lake, I wasn’t too concerned…until we spotted a crocodile. Yep, a crocodile. I’d heard rumors of crocs in the lake but thought they would be a rare sight and not encountered on this little adventure.  Now the stream of thoughts in my head have quickly been consumed by, “capsize, sink, Lake Placid, capsizing sinking crocodiles crocodilescrocodilescrocodilescrocodilescrococrocscroc…”
                All ends well though as the boat neither capsized nor sunk, the crocodile did not pursue and attempt to eat us, and we arrived at the island. We spent a blissful hour dangling our feet in the greenish-blue water and gazing out over one of the most beautiful and least visited areas of Zambia. 

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