A Real-Life African Safari

August 2, 2017

Lusaka is an extremely industrialized city, a place where people from all over Zambia come to find work. There are many construction companies, office buildings, small markets, and local business such as dry cleaners and butchers. In this way, Lusaka is known for its productive capacity and lucrative opportunities. Thus, art and architecture are not particularly prominent. It is not a place people want to visit to take pictures of, but that’s why I like it. I didn’t do a Dialogue of Civilizations to take pictures of beautiful landmarks in a popular tourist city that severely misrepresents what a country is actually like. The point of a Dialogue is to become immersed in a new place, and that means understanding the lives of an average person in the country, not living in the most lavish part of a city and treating the trip like a photo op. I am so glad our program forced us to live and travel much like citizens of Lusaka do, on public transportation and bumpy roads, washing our clothes by hand and sitting by a fire to warm up. Everything hasn’t been totally comfortable or convenient, but everything was real, and added so much to my learning experience.
On the second weekend of our trip we took a 5-hour drive to Kafue National Park, a 22,000 square km national park on the Kafue River, home to many species of beautiful animals, some found only in Zambia. We stayed at a safari lodge which was much more upscale than our hostel. We were served three-course group meals three times a day, lived in chalets with large fluffy beds with bed nets designed for elegance which were cleaned twice a day. At any given time, there could be baboons, hippos, hyenas, or antelope wandering through the camp, mostly under the cover of night. In the mornings, we awoke to the sounds of lions calling to each other as they wrapped up their nightly hunt. After a delicious dinner Friday night, we all went to bed early so we could be ready for our 6:00am wake up call. Half of the group was going on a nature walk while the other half, my group, was going on a game drive. On the drive we saw massive termite mounds, hundreds of antelope, some warthogs, baboons, and a herd of male buffalo. We watched the sun rise a bold pink and orange over the Kafue river. The temperatures were nearly freezing before the sun came up, and we cloaked ourselves in fleece-lined parkas and blankets, but I still couldn’t feel my toes. The most incredible moment of the ride was when, upon turning a sharp corner, we came face to face with a full-sized male elephant. His ears immediately went out, and he stomped and trumpeted, warning us to back up out of his space. Once we did, we turned the car off and sat quietly, observing him. When he walked off out of our sight, we drove off, before seeing him again with a smaller elephant. Ecstatic with what we had seen, the whole group decided to wake up at 6:00am the next day and go for another game drive. This time, we saw two fully grown female lions who led us to their cubs, 5 in total. They let our cars get very close as they slept, tired from a long night of hunting. It was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. Seeing these animals in their natural habitat is nothing like seeing them in a zoo. It is incredible to see them where they are supposed to be, out living in the wild, and I felt so lucky to have the opportunity to observe their home in all its natural beauty.

Written By

Maegan Cross

My name is Maegan, and I couldn't possibly be more excited to be embarking on this once-in-a-lifetime journey to Zambia with my peers and some truly incredible faculty members. I am a second year Politics, Philosophy, and Economics major with a minor in Human Services. My program on this DOC is Driving Social Change. Although I someday hope to work domestically in the fields of economic policy, income inequality, and human rights law, I know that this is going to be an invaluable experience for me because I will get hands-on experience in third-party intervention strategies. I, like so many other Northeastern students, want to work for the federal government so I can incite positive social change that will benefit the least-advantaged, oppressed, underrepresented members of our society. However, a huge factor in my ability to accomplish my goals is that I, as I am not myself a member of many of the populations I will be working to serve, am limited in my understanding of the needs of these people. This is why learning foreign intervention strategies is so important to me. My work developing programs for youths in a Zambian nonprofit will teach me best practice for understanding the needs of a community and implementing programs that will fulfill what the people need, not just what I, or any other person coming from a place of privilege, think they need. The skills I learn in Zambia will fuel my ability to advance the social and economic well-being of minority communities in my own country, and allow me to be the most positive ally I can possibly be.