Creative Writing

The trip was long and the plane was crowded, but now I am finally in Zambia. Zambia is was very poor but now i is better. It is amazing. There are forests/ jungles and open plains. I had to walk to my hotel that I was staying at. It wasn’t far and I got to enjoy the wildlife. On my walk I saw an elephant walking in the street. It was so cool. It had huge, white tusks. There was another elephant walking along side the elephant. It was a baby, it was so cute.

There was many plants and farming. People were working hard just to get food. Agriculture has been not going well. Thanks to Norway, Zambia has a chance to survive. They gave Zambia tons of money which seems to be helping. People are surviving and are happy which is so happy to see. It gives me hope for Zambia.

It is very hot here and very humid. My hotel isn’t a five star hotel but it is still pretty nice. It has a lot of windows and a fan to get cold air. It has a bed and a bathroom and that’s about it. I over look one of the game reserves. I believe it is the famous walking safari. There were a lot of people walking through the game reserve. It has a lot of animals and even some endangered species, like the rhino.

That night I walked through the safari. I saw a giraffe. I love how tall it is. It hovers over all the animals. It knows everything and it sees everything but it is not strong enough to be a predator.

Tomorrow I am visiting Victoria Falls and I can’t wait. It is going to be fun and I get to get soaked from the falling water. People are allowed to walk near it. Most people don’t because of how much water there is. They say it is like Niagara Falls.

The night was cold and the air was a bit dry. I woke up ready to visit the falls. On the way there I passed some dancers. They were dancing the makishi. It was exciting to watch and they had colorful and bright clothing on. They had feathers on most of their clothing. It looked very ethnic and cultural to me.

I finally arrived at Victoria Falls. The sun was shining and it created prisms of rainbows. It was like skittles were everywhere. Few people were walking next to the falls. The people who did came back with dripping wet clothes. The falls were surrounding me, it felt like I was listening to surround sound television. They were so massive. When it was my turn to go up to the falls I chickened out mostly because of the dangers. A sign read “We are not responsible for loss of blood, headaches, injuries of the spine, and for your death. Continue at your own risk!” This made me very nervous so I chickened out.

I had a great time. Zambia was a wonderful place to visit. I hate to leave after such a short time but this was only a quick trip. I am sure there was so much I wasn’t able to see in Zambia. In the morning, on the way to the airport, I saw a cheetah running in a plain. It was moving so fast I could I could hardly keep my eyes on it.

When I arrived at the airport and I boarded my plane I looked back and waved good bye to Zambia. As the plane flew into the sky I looked below and saw the beautiful country I was leaving to return home to America.

News Blog

Agriculture has been slowing down in Zambia and all over Africa. In 2007 Norway tried to fix that problem. Norway had given funds for the conservation farming project.The permanent secretary was chosen to lead this project. The Norway government gave Zambia 5 million U.S. dollars to try to help scale up conservation agriculture among small scale farmers.

Now that they have this money, things will change. Since about 1.3 million people in Zambia live on farms, they will be changed the most, for the better. The low crop and soil productivity will stop and Zambia will become better. Before this problem was a challenge bu the solution exists in today's technology, and now they have the money to buy and help their people.Because of Norway, Zambia has a chance to flourish and become a productive country and feed more poeple in Zambia.

Food and Sports

In Zambia their customs are very different, they have certain ways to eat. One of the most common sample dish is the nshima, which is made from fish, maize, or sorghum. It is eaten with the right and ONLY the right hand. To enjoy this treat completely you have to roll it into a ball and dip it into a meat sauce or vegetables. People who live on the river mostly eat freshwater fish, like bream, lake salmon and Nile perch.

Sports are very popular in Zambia. There are high class golf courses and excellent water sports. This is mostly because of the Zambezi river that provides such a great water source. Soccer is the top sport in Zambia.It is the national sport in zambia. Zambia's soccer team even won the 1988 Olympic soccer game against Italy.

Music and Dance

All the different ethnics groups have a common dance which is the makishi. This dance is mostly for men which is danced at weddings, or initiation ceremonies. Music is just as important, with out it you can't dance. The instruments are mainly the drums. Drums are mostly used for dance/ceremonies. It is sad, in a way, that people don't listen to music like we do. One tye of ceremony is the kuambaka ceremony of the lozi. They celebrate the moving of their king from the dry place to the wet place hut.

Culture

Zambia has a blend of more than 70 ethnic groups. Most of the tribes moved into this area in migratory waves a few centuries ago. English was chosen to be the national language of Zambia. Dance is amazing, with acrobatic spectacle and pulse changing drumming. Many traditional instruments are still played but the use of western instruments are increasing with common hand pianos, the silimba, and xylophone. Dance expresses the people's ideas, life style and thought over the centuries. It protrays a time of trouble and peace, retreat and advance and winning and losing in battles. Zambia's diverse cultures bring with them a wide variety of skills, with crafts that can be found in basketry and objects used in their daily life. Most of the population is Christain, though others combine that with traditional animist beliefs.

Climate and Landforms

The different landforms gives Zambia a wide range of climate. The general height of the land makes it more pleasant than that experienced in most tropical countries. There are three seasons, cool and dry from May to August, hot and dry from September to November and warm and wet from December to April.

Zambia gets it name from the Zambezi River which rises in the north-west corner of the country. Zambia also has 17 magnificent waterfalls separate from the spectacular Victoria Falls. Zambia has the largest water resources in the all of Southern Africa. Zambia has 5 massive lakes and plentiful rivers that are filled with fish.Victoria Falls is a spectacular sight with 546 million cubic meter of running water per minute. Columns of spray can be seen from miles away.

Parks and Game

The parks/game in Zambia has a wide variety of wildlife of birds, animals and vegetation. The famous walking safari originated from this park, and it is still one of the best ways to explore the wildlife. The Changing seasons add to the Park's beauty ranging from dry, bare bush veld in the winter to a lush green wonderland of excitement in the summer time. There are about 60 different types of animals and over 400 different types of birds in this park. This park also has animals close to extinction, so these animals are protected from poachers. One of these animals is the rhino which was nearly poached to extinction. In Zambia you would see antelope, crazy baboons, elephants, buffalo, hippopotamuses, zebras and Thornicrofts Giraffe.

My favorite animal is the giraffe, it is amazing how tall it is. It towers above all others and it is the best. It is the calmest, gentlest and dangerous animals. I also love baboons. They are care free and crazy wild. kind of like me so maybe thats why i like them.