Welcome to Zambia- the “real Africa” by some accounts. My question is, Qu’est-ce ça veut dire, “the real Africa”?

I thought my hostel days were left back in my teenage days- but as it turns out, you can quite never discount being through with anything in life.

Complete with bizarre-sounding name, the digs at Jollyboys Camp are nice and pleasant. The wi-fi is better than what I can get in my apartment back in Dakar- but the trade-off is that I don’t have to sleep under a mosquito net in Senegal.

Our place is located next to a polling station that was run in last year’s election. Back in September a four time opposition candidate (who reportedly used to sweep floors at London’s Victoria Station) ousted a 20 year incumbent president.

Interesting politics aside, when you’re a visitor to places like Livingstone/Arusha/Falmouth- you’re really only with one primary objective: tourism. So bearing that in mind, I knew that I wouldn’t be doing much beyond visiting Victoria Falls while in Zambia. In this respect I experienced an elevated sense of guilt- but in other ways I was just as realistic as the hosipitality industry that operates to serve people like me – Livingstone’s a tourism town and they’re just as happy to take my kwacha (local currency) as I am to spend it.

  I woke up on our first morning with a familiar twitch of energy in my legs. Guess who’s going outside for a run? After consulting the front desk on running options I quickly stuffed 10,000 kwacha in my pocket and headed out the front gate for a look around town.

It’s a gorgeous morning, and even a little bit cool outside.

Livingstone is located in southern Zambia. For those of you whose geography is as bad as mine once was, I can tell you that Zambia is located in south-central Africa and bordered by Tanzania, Botswana, Zimbawe, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It gained its indepence in 1964 from the United Kingdom and was formerly known as Northern Rhodesia.

Livingstone is also train town. The old train that used to cross the bridge joining Zimbabwe and Zambia once again runs and ferries tourists across. From our room in the camp we can hear the train passing- it’s very Stand By Me in my opinion.

If you hadn’t guessed, Livingstone is named after Dr. David Livingstone, a Scottish medical missionary. In consulting Wikipedia, he was “a Protestant missionary martyr, a scientific investigator and explorer, imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of commercial empire.” Gee…someone is impressed with this guy. As far as I’m concerned, he was the first European dude to see Mosi-oa-Tunya, AKA the Smoke That Thunders AKA Victoria Falls.

Without accidentally catapulting myself into an unbalanced diatribe on male advances in the workplace, I’d like to say that I really love this sign. There’s a bald honesty that permeates the anglophone signage out here. Much like the elections mural seen earlier, the goal is not so much understatement as it is to be understood.

Livingstone is a very neat, clean and organized town. While I’m not one to gripe about the various running surfaces that I negotiate in Africa, I will say that the camber of these city streets made me wish I were running on dirt roads. Still, this is quite pleasant.

I was just digging the wall color- and of course the stop sign placed on the other side of the street. Must remember to look the other way when crossing the street…

And I think I still have democracy fever following Senegal’s triumphant electoral process that feels like it just took place yesterday.

Quality day old chicks, eh? I’m glad that they took a full 24 hours to determine the quality of these little guys.

Maybe I’m not giving you all enough credit- but I really wanted to take photos of this place in order to show how town-like it really was. Livingstone is quite pleasant, and as I did my run I heard a number of people cheering me on in a faintly British accent: “Good maw-ning ma-duhm!” A group of cops rolled by and saw me running and said, “That’s bet-tah!” Clearly it is good to exercise- and I was certainly the only white person I saw all morning long. This never seems to bother me while I’m out and about- during my runs I always feel a certain kind of belonging with the people I encounter. Africans really are athletes of transportation- so using one’s own two legs to move about is an act that really draws us all together.

I took a turn and looked out to my left. My Dakar-tuned brain looked at the horizon and immediately thought, “They’re burning stuff.” A quick recalculation of what was located in that general direction made me stop and realize that I was looking at smoke of an entirely different sort- the kind that thunders.

Behold Victoria Falls- I can’t believe that I am finally here! But first, I’ve gotta finish up this little run…

Of course no town in this continent is complete without its display of African tchotchkes.

I ran by the Livingstone Museum, one of many things that really would have interested me had I booked more than a weekend stay in this colonial town. Outside of the museum they have a Chipmunk aircraft that was used to train the Zambian Air Force in 1951.

Dr. Livinstone, I presume? (Sorry, I simply could not resist saying that- for this is indeed the same man.)

You know I love photographing trash- and in the background you can see that the mural says, “With our faith we can defeat the greatest financial giants of modern times and become multi-billionaires.”

The sun is getting higher, and I’m wrapping up my trot around town. I head back towards our camp, which we later learn

I can’t tell you how much better I always feel psychologically after going for a run. It’s become an almost compulsory part of my day- and if I don’t accomplish some kind of physical activity during the day then my entire game is off. Indeed, Senegalese friends back in Dakar will see me in the morning and can always tell when I haven’t worked out: “T’as pas fait du sport ce maitn- ça se voit.” I translate that as “You look like crap this morning.” So that said, I was grateful for this little run. I got to do a bit of discovery as well als get in a few quality miles in the fresh Zambian air. I’m looking forward to getting to the Falls, but for now the trip is starting off well.