The Intercity Bus terminal in Lusaka, Zambia is one of the craziest places I’ve ever experienced in my life.

I had no idea how many small things I take for granted. Small, silly things like:

1. Clocks/ and or the concept of “time”.

2. Buses with destination signs, instead of having to swarm them each time a new one pulls up.

3. Defined areas where buses parked, where private cars parked, where passengers waited and where taxis dropped off. Cars, buses, minis parked at random places. One fully loaded bus took 20 minutes to get enough buses and people out of the way to get out the gate.

4. Stacks of personal cargo placed whereever they were dropped off. From fluorescent lamp bulbs and loads of rice sacs to home electornics and straw baskets of fresh fish. The bus parking lot looked like an obstacle course.

5. A fly-free enviornment. Flies everywhere, landing on arms, legs, eyelids, and toes.

We were anxious to avoid minibuses like the one after our train ride at all costs. We had been advised to take CR carriers, one of the “nicer” buses. While it looked like one of the nice travel buses from South America, the seats inside more resembled an airplane, with 2 seats on one side, and 3 on the other. This resulted in incredibly narrow seats - I couldn’t even sit in one without my shoulders spilling over the next seat. The pitch was even tighter than airline seats.

We involuntarily listened to a sermon given by a guy who jumped on the bus as it was pulling out of the terminal, while his assistant tried to sell Bibles. Arriving at Livingstone, super aggressive throngs of cab drivers thrust their keys through the bus windows to try to get our attention.

To top it off, someone had set a wicker basket of fresh fish on top of one of our duffel bags, wet withstinking, fishy water.

Ah…the memories this will make.