I awoke about 5:00 am the morning of Dec. 5th. Kelly was already in Solwezi waiting to head
to her girls camp on Sunday. I was
starting the first leg of my journey to Lusaka for an alcohol awareness
workshop. My plan was to see Kelly in
Solwezi Saturday night and travel to Lusaka the next day. I ate a quick breakfast and started riding my
bike through the forest. It was a
beautiful morning, somewhat foggy and the forest was full of activity and
sounds. About half an hour later I
arrived in the BOMA and locked my bike up at the church and went to the bus
station which is really just a large mud pit where the buses pull over. I quickly found my friend from the village
who I was travelling with and to our disappointment all three buses were completely
full. It was the end of a school quarter
and many children were headed home. Even
the extra third bus that was brought in for the large flow of people was
full. Our next option was to get on a
canter truck. A canter truck is a small
truck, about 20 feet long; with a flatbed that has very short removable rails.
(Originally, I was going to write a detailed description of
this day. I started writing the blog
post quite some time ago but got distracted with other things. Now, that I am writing it again I do not
think a detailed description is a good idea.
If I did it would come out with too many negative images that conjured
quite a lot of anger in me. As my
experience in Zambia is truly a very enjoyable one I do not want my blog to
misrepresent that. So, here is a condensed
version.)
My friend and I paid for transport on the canter truck. I squeezed into the cab and my friend got on
the back which was full of people and standing room only. It was already a hot and humid day and I
started to doze off in the sauna like cab.
I awoke to the sound of the truck leaving the tarmac. Within a fraction of a second I realized we
were going to flip, luckily I had my seat belt on and my bag of dirty laundry
in my lap. I immediately pulled in my
extremities, wrapped myself around my clothes bag and proceeded to ride out the
event. The truck rolled one time and
since the engine is just under the seats of the cab and a jug of petrol was
sitting in the cab also, became a spinning whirligig of toxic, flammable and dirty
fluids and containers. Once the truck
stopped my mind went to the people who were standing in the back. Basically, my thoughts were “holy shit, what
happened to those people and what does it look like out there!”
I climbed out to the truck having steeled myself for some
potentially pretty gruesome scenes.
Personally, I was covered in petrol, sans glasses as they were somewhere
out the window, and a few minor cuts with some pain from my side. I found, through a miracle of center of
gravity and angular momentum, the vast majority of injuries was limited to head
wounds. I tried my cell phone which
conveniently looked fine but the microphone was actually broken. It took me several calls to realize I could
hear them just fine but no one could hear anything I said. I then quickly shot out a few text messages
i.e. calls for help and started to further assess the situation. Many people were walking around dazed as they
were confused and bleeding profusely. I
found my friend. A piece of his scalp
about the size of a baseball had been filleted from the side of his head. I helped him get settled and began to look at
the condition of the others. (It is at
this point that I am going to cut the story short. The “rescue operation” and various events
which followed is what caused the anger in me and I have chosen not to color my
blog with those thoughts and emotions.
Of the twenty plus people standing in the back of the truck only one
died but I am not privy to the condition of the vast majority of the passengers
once they reached the medical facilities.)
There are three important facts that needed to be kept in
mind during the accident:
1.
1. I had
minor cuts
2.
2. Other people were bleeding profusely
3.
3. About 10-15% of Zambia is HIV positive
As a result, I had to rush down to Lusaka to start a
post-exposure prophylaxis. It is
essentially a month long heavy dose of anti-retroviral medication which
prevents the virus from replicating, giving your body an opportunity to cleanse
itself naturally. The medication has a
huge list of side effects but fortunately I was only hit with minor ones. During my thirty days I primarily experienced
a general tiredness and morning nausea but never actually vomited. The worst part (not really) was not being
able to drink. The thirty days covered Christmas and New Year’s which we spent
on Lake Malawi. Malawi was a wonderful
experience and even though I could not partake fully in the festivities I still
enjoyed myself. Since my treatment I
have been tested three times, all negative, and have now been given the green
light as HIV negative. Quite an eye opening experience but since then I have returned to enjoying Zambia and having a great time in the dark continent.
