This is the first of a series of blog postings from Clare Bottle, who will be telling us about her travels in Zambia - supported by transport charity Transaid - to see what the transport industry is like out there:
What are your plans this weekend? Meeting up with friends or family? Watching TV? Maybe a spot of shopping or a trip to watch the match? I’ll tell you about my weekend plans. On Friday I’m taking a 10-hour overnight flight from Heathrow to Zambia. Saturday morning will see me landing in the capital, Lusaka, to start a two-week adventure. This will be my first time in the Southern Hemisphere and I plan to check out the rumour that bathwater swirls down the plug in the opposite direction. Alongside such trivial curiosities I’ll also be investigating the transport and logistics industry in Zambia and broadening my cultural horizons.
As a woman living in the UK, apparently my life expectancy is 81 years. The corresponding figure for women and men in Zambia is just 40. Put another way, I can expect to live twice as long as most of the people I’ll be meeting, which puts my trip into a sobering context. One of the main causes of this disparity is the prevalence of HIV/AIDS (it affects 16% of the Zambian population). Unlike in the UK, the best treatments are not widely available, so up to 100,000 sufferers die each year. Another Top Ten killer is road crashes. The cost is a staggering 3% of Zambia’s limited resources (GDP).
A couple of weeks ago, Chris at Transaid explained to me that African drivers commonly learn their skills through apprenticeships. A teenager will sit in the bus or truck and take over when the main driver is too tired to continue. After a period of weeks or months driving like this, a licence might be obtained: there seem to be several different ways of procuring one and let’s just say they don’t all fill me with confidence so I’ll be taking care about whose vehicle I travel in!
I’ve had the jabs (typhoid and hepatitis); I’ve got the malaria tablets (Malarone: they cost a packet but you only have to take them for a short time and the list of potential side-effects is reassuringly short); I’ve packed cotton shirts and suncream (as recommended by previous volunteers), along with some literature on the UK Government’s Freight Best Practice programme (to make me look like a professional). What could possibly go wrong, eh?
Assuming that I can get organised enough to secure online access, you’ll be able to follow my trip from the comfort of your own home, office or wherever. Please read my blog. The thought of assorted friends, relatives, acquaintances and complete strangers laughing at my attempts to learn how things work in Zambia might be the only thing keeping me going…
If you’d like to know more and would consider sponsoring me, please visit my charity giving page: http://www.justgiving.com/clarebottle.
Clare Bottle is a freelance logistics specialist, with experience and market knowledge in storage, packaging and transport; she is also a Board Director and Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK.
Visit Clare's business website.