Phone booth photo Copyright Todd Lappin
Although Livingstone, Zambia may be the adventure capital of Africa, it is damn hard to find a phone.

Since arriving in Africa on Dec 23, I had only managed to talk on the phone with my mom for a total of 8 minutes. I told her I arrived safely, that I was off Kilimanjaro safely, and the third call that I would call back when I got better phone accesss.

It had been almost 3 weeks since I called, and it was Chinese New Year. Every Chinese New Year growing up, I remember my mother hovering around the phone starting at 5am, waiting for calls from Hong Kong and China. Often, it would be the one time a year we would speak to family and friends there.

I was betting she had never been wished a happy new year from Zambia.

Unfortunately, Jonathan’s cell phone had no coverage throughout Zambia. Neither the hostels or the internet centers had phones capable of international calls. To make matters worse it was a Sunday, and many shops were closed.

There are, however, the Zambian version of public phones. Unlike the booth I’m used to, these were rickety wooden shacks with tin roofs, each with a person standing guard over one phone. Making calls from Zambia is expensive -$10/minute.

I got in all of 45 seconds of time, enough hear her surprise to hear from me, and to wish her a happy new year, and then the phone cut off. Evidently I had used up all their pre-paid credit, and they couldn’t give me anymore…

We celebrated by going to the very posh Royal Livingstone 5 star hotel, and had drinks at sunset on the banks of the mighty Zambezi River, just before the water crashed down at Victoria falls. We could see the smoky water vapor from the crashing falls.

I was sorely homesick, but as we watched the sun set, we realized we hit a unique milestone…on our 15 weeks on the road, we celebrated not one, not two but three new years (Jewish, Western, Chinese). I’ll drink to that. Does this mean we’ve been traveling for 3 years?