Good old chill day plus a robbery

Thursday, 8/21 written by Priscilla

Stephanie woke up early that morning to go on a lion walk, meanwhile Alan and I decided to sleep in. But, if you know me, sleeping in for me is until 9am or so. So I woke up at 8:30am, while Alan kept on sleeping.

It was nice to wake up and have no need to rush to do anything or get anywhere. I just relaxed, and laid on the bed by the pool writing my blog and thinking about life in general...waiting for Steph to get back. Around 10:30-11, Steph came back thoroughly excited about her lion walk. She said the trip was totally worth it especially with her love for cats.

Tidbits about Steph's lion walk:
Lion walk with Mukuni Big 5 Safari - spent a morning walking with two lions (Moshi and Saka). As it was early morning, both were very playful and chased each other quite a bit. Was also able to pet them and walk quite close to them. Both were beautiful lions. Def walked away with an even greater appreciation for the lions even though I was already obsessed before.

As Steph and I chatted by the pool, the Israeli couple stopped by to chat with us. They told us all about their experiences in China and how much we are going to love it. We can't wait. We said our farewells as they were leaving to begin their journey to Madagascar.

Alan eventually woke up, and Steph and I were rushing him because we were so hungry. We went to the wonder bake, a local bakery, for some meat croissants and pizza for lunch. It was basic and cheap, just what we needed for our first meal of the day.

As the Blackberries were not functioning, we went to the internet cafe for an hour or two. On the way there, Steph and I were negotiating with some guys on the street who exchange money - there were tons of them - for a new $100 billion Zimbabwe bill. Because of inflation and poor economy, the money is worthless. The guy wanted us to pay 5 times as much as the currency is worth for the bill. We were only willing to pay $1 USD for one. So we just went to the internet cafe.

Alan and Steph were done before me so they went to do some other things while I stayed on the internet. When I was done, I went outside to look for Alan, which is when the robbery story begins.

The same guy that haggled us for the bills came up to me and took my offer for $1 USD for a bill...and I wanted 4 (one each for Steph and Alan, and two for me), so I offered him 20,000 kwatcha (~$5). I only had 50,000 kwatcha, so I asked if he had change. He said yes, so I handed him the 50,000 kwatcha (~$15) bill for change. Instead of giving me change, he started running...like what you would see in a movie. Running away for $10, that's crazy and insane...and very sad! I was in total disbelief and there was no way I was going to chase after him in the middle of Livingstone.

I started to walk the direction the robber ran and bumped into alan. I told him the story and he was shocked too but glad I was just robbed $10 versus my passport and all my cash. He asked if I can recognize the guy, and shamefully I said no. I was too concentrated on the bills to even take care to what he looked liked...and not to be offensive...but it's like all asian people look alike...africans do sort of too.

Oh wells! I took the $10 lost as a payment for a good story and a chance to say I got robbed. I got over it and went to shop-rite with Alan and Steph to buy groceries for the rest of our lunch and dinners at Livingstone. For $13 each, we bought two days worth of food. Amazing! The line up was veggie fried rice for lunch, chicken penne a la vodka for dinner, pbj for breakfast and lunches, and veggie stir fry for the following night's dinner. Pretty yummy if you ask me.

Our fried rice turned out pretty yummy. We bought two eggs from our hostel kitchen and asked for oil on the side since they charged us the price of cooked eggs... 60 cents each.

After a satisfying meal, we proceeded to be lazy reading our books, writting our journals and blog. Steph and I also decided to do yoga while everyone was staring at us...including Alan laughing at us.

We then had our delicious meal and played a fun game of asshole with our Kellogg friends who we love now and two Ozzies...and a British boy. We combined rules from all schools. Kellogg introduced the stacking rule - double beats singles, triple beats double. Steph added trivia, for which Kellogg Joel was the master, to win someone's last 2 card. I add the LeHigh wild 4 social card. We played until the beer ran out, then felt it was necessary to go to a local bar for some more drinks. We piled into a taxi for a 5min ride to Step-Rite bar.

We were the only non-locals at the bar, but it didn't matter. We still did our fair share of drinking and dancing...which usually includes me trying to teach Alan how to dance...but Kellogg Mike taught me how to salsa. It was tons of fun, and way too wasted.

At 2:30am, we decided to call it quits and get some sleep before our bungee excursion the next morning. We got a local to walk us home, to keep us safe. With all that boozing, we all slept well that night.