Just when I thought my car adventures were over…I left for Zambia and I was feeling pretty good about it, my tires were checked, the headlights were working and it was running fabulously. Things were going great until we got to the Chirundu border. First off the border crossing is a maze of gates and buildings that don’t do anything. So you park the car, go through the Zimbabwe side where you talk to the customs about why you’re going, where you are going, blah, blah, blah. Then you go to Interpol Zimbabwe where I filled out a form about my car and they stamped the form. Then I went to the Zambian side where customs were asking me all about Canada and why a nice girl like me is in Zimbabwe. I paid for my visa and then walked on to Zambian Interpol to check in my car. The Zambian officer went out to check my car’s engine and chassis numbers to make sure they matched what Zimbabwe Police in Harare had written on my international clearance. He was checking the chassis number as saw that the police had only written the last 6 digits of the number instead of the whole number, which is about 20 numbers and letters long. The Zambian police told me he wasn’t allowed to pass my car. I couldn’t believe it, I was going to have to drive back to Harare and ask the police to do their job. I went back to the Interpol Zimbabwe and talked to the officer there, he was embarrassed because he was suppose to go and check the car as well but had just stamped the form thinking that Harare Police had done their job. So we was worried what to do, he took me from office to office talking to all sorts of people and finally we agreed he would write an amendment to the form and correct the mistake and when I got back to Harare would fill out a form and have the police change all my car paperwork. Interpol Zambia was reluctant but felt sorry for the foreign white girl and stamped the form and let me through. I thought that was it, that was my incident in Zambia BUT I was wrong. The roads in Zambia make the potholes in Zimbabwe look like brand new roads. So I was trying to be cautious because my car isn’t a F150. I was driving along minding my own business when a car comes barreling down the road trying to pass a car heading in my lane, he wasn’t going to make it so I slowed down a massive pothole taking up the entire lane, sinking down a few inches was right in front of me and I just couldn’t avoid it, I slowly hit the hole and flattened a tire. Well no big deal, I would just change the tire, BUT my 17mm spanner was stripped to a point where it wouldn’t grab the nut. So I flagged down a car and they were gracious enough to help me out. So I headed back on the road, the car was driving fine BUT it was making a little squeaking noise. When I got out to pay a toll I checked the tires and quickly looked under the car and saw nothing. When I arrived in Lusaka and arrived at my friends house, I asked if she knew a mechanic that could just take a look under the car to make sure it was ok. I took the car in and found out that the whole right side was out of line, that there were parts that needed to be replaced. They were unsure if they had the parts and so they told me they would check around. I thought to myself, ENOUGH! I’m done and also thought to myself the first thing I’m doing when I get back to Canada is to take a mechanic’s course! I want to be able to fix a car myself.

Today, I had an AMAZING day. I met with a man from Washington state who works for Pestazzoli Project. They are an NGO that helps high school students in rural areas get an education. The project is a village where students learn and live both life skills and academic skills. They create their own roof tiles on site, which is why I was visiting the project. When I got out there and was taken around the village I was shown around I saw a Bio Gas and Waste Water Treatment System. This system uses organic materials and human waste to create a fuel or gas and the water from the rain and wastewater used in the village to irrigate and put back into the village and the fuel is used for cooking. This system has helped the village become more self sufficient and environmentally friendly. So tomorrow, I meet with Solar Aid and go to the company that sells the tile press to find out how we can acquire one and send it to Zimbabwe.

Today I met with Solar Aid and it was a good news bad news situation. Bad news is that the project is going to be too big and have too much electrical for solar panels to be effective. Solar panels have a life span of 15-20 years, the batteries and inverters have a life of 4-6 years so replacing them 4 times within the life span of the panels. They suggested putting away $100 USD a month to pay for the replacements. YIKES! So we talked about other suggestions. Using LED lighting having 2 circuits one that powers the building and one that stores power to a back up so when ZESA goes out the second circuit will power some of the building (computers and some lights). It wasn’t my ideal but still environmentally friendly and there will still be power when ZESA goes. The back up can be run off the Bio Gas that I was looking at the day before, which made me happy. So things are coming together. I am now trying to plan, research and draw all this before I forget it and the I’ll go back to Zambia meet with people to look over the work and bounce ideas off of. Everyone was so helpful and wants to keep in contact, Solar Aid would love to do a project like this but trying to find a way to make solar panels an effective way to power the building or how effective will this idea we’ve put together work.

After Solar Aid I spent 2 hours in a REAL bookstore and looked through construction books, novels and just puttered. I started to get the stink eye from the security guard, but he looked happy when I walked out with a book in hand.

Driving back to Harare was thankfully an uneventful trip, my car survived, I avoided the potholes like the plague AND I had no problem with the border. Funnily enough the officer for Interpol Zimbabwe was the same guy I had going and this was the opposite office. He remembered me and signed my paperwork and wished me well and to come back to the border as soon as I could.

I spent a few days in Harare to relax and do some running around, trying to get find someone who can fix my car, unfortunately I’ll have to wait for the parts but I found someone YEAH! So that was my Zambia adventure, I am now back in Nyanga and full of energy to get these ideas into practice.