The first thing any local will mention if you bring up Lusaka is the traffic. Despite what they say, we managed to get across Lusaka during rush hour, from Cosmopolitan Mall to Big Chicken Roundabout, in a mere 30 minutes. Not half bad.
Our first day in Lusaka took a toll on Bubbles who suffered from a snapped fan-belt. We managed to find a rally car mechanic at the campsite, Ngunjiri John, who was on his way down from Kenya to a rally in SA. With his help I was able to decrypt the tensioner mechanism and finish the replacement job. Ngunjiri John turned out to be the most awesome of guys, and the youngest looking 50 year old we’ve ever seen. He joined us for a celebratory dinner and accepted his payment in food, although ate next to nothing. Is eating less than Shea and I the secret to looking young? I don’t mention Asahi because it’s not a fair comparison. He has the appetite and metabolism of a Hungarian Mountain Pony.
In addition to new friends, we also made our first enemy of the trip. As a “permanent resident” of the campsite, the individual in question took offense to Shea’s vocal complaints about his ice-cold shower. I tried at one point to determine the guy’s occupation. Apparently he works for the Zambian Department of Trade and Agriculture and is simultaneously the primary attaché for a wealthy Zambian tribal chief. This coming from a guy living in a camping tent. Hmmm…
Our stay in Lusaka was primarily geared at getting the reserve tank issue fixed. This quest lead us to a workshop in the industrial area of Lusaka named Tork Tek where we met Cursing Cobus who was “the best auto electrician in Lusaka” and “a better auto electrician than we could ever hope to be” according to his wife Sandy (a.k.a. Hypochondria). This nickname makes sense if you consider some of the conversation that happened while Cobus’s team did their initial inspection of the problem.
Ross and Shea: “We’re thinking of popping into the city market while the car is being worked on. What is the easiest way to get there?”
Hypochondria: “Don’t go into the market, the people there have AK-47s. They will kidnap you and steal your organs.”
Ross and Shea: “Can you recommend a good place for lunch.”
Hypochondria: “Hungry Lion. Don’t eat anything from the locals.”
Note: Shea and I do not always speak in unison like a K-pop boy band, I just can’t remember who actually asked which question.
Aside from his selective vocabulary and eternally pessimistic nature, Cursing Cobus and his team turned out to be incredibly good auto electricians, maybe even the best in Lusaka. They organized an “Africa fix” for our fuel tank issue taking the replacement cost from R 10,000 to R 100 and lead time from one month to two hours.
Despite the risk of organ loss we did visit the local market and it was great. The place is alive with people selling everything from repurposed laptops to school uniforms. There are transporters running around with modified wheelbarrows at high speed through spaces you can hardly walk. You can buy everything from freshly cooked dough balls (a kind of fried bread-roll) to raw eel meat. Overall, some very interesting businesses and business models.
Joburg to Scotland 