Day 8 - Crocodile Park

all the teachers

After the excitement of yesterday and with our school trip being a later start today, we were later for breakfast than normal, so there was toast and a bowl of cold cooked plantain left to eat. Wivan had also forgotten to make us a packed lunch, so there was a bit of last minute rush when the taxi arrived to take us to the Crocodile park 20 minutes or so away.  Thankfully our driver, Obey, was more than patient and waited while we loaded the car with the new football and pump, the building blocks and gifts for the school staff before Wivan came running with our food. We needn't have worried, as the school bus was running on African time and the kids didn't arrive until almost 10am.
The Crocodile park itself was not like a tourist attraction that you might find in the UK - no refreshments on sale, no tea, coffee or even somewhere to buy water - so our plan to buy ice creams for the kids was also out, but the kids were excited, as was Cosi when we gave him the FIFA ball.
We also needn't have worried about our packed lunch as Cosi had kindly made us delicious meat pies which were a bit like Cornish pasties but made with chapatis instead.
After the formal tour of the park, learning about all the different snakes and getting to hold a baby crocodile, the kids dashed over to the play park and took turns flying off the roundabout and seeing how many kids at a time they could get on the tyre swings.
By 1 O'clock, a few of the smaller children had fallen asleep on the lawn and so we called Obey to come get us and said our goodbyes, handing out our gifts to the staff.
Obey kindly let us stop off in town on the way home for a few bottles of beer and we spent the afternoon outside our room writing notes, chatting and blogging - an emotional afternoon of reflection.
Being Friday night, a lot of the other volunteers were going out for the evening and started with pre-drinks in the main lounge. We weren't really in the mood for socialising. Our last night at the project and although we hadn't yet been into town at night, we didn't feel like we were missing much. We had been out with our local friends a couple of times, and a night with other "Muzungos" at the Backpackers hostel eating burgers and talking about home didn't seem to compare somehow. We also still hadn't heard back from the Pharmanova courier about our delivery of Kit Yamoyo's which should have arrived by now. Lusaka is a 4-5 hour drive, but Rabeccah confirmed they would make a call in the morning to see what had happened to them and let us know before we left.
It was Lucy's last night too. A 24 year old from Aylesbury, who has dreams of becoming a sky dive instructor in Colorado. She has been travelling for 4 months now and is keen to get home to see her dog, Monty. Strange what people miss most. I am already missing proper loo roll, earl grey tea and a normal bath towel (currently using one of those micro-fibre travelling towels - the first and last time such an item makes it onto my packing list).