As our time in Lusaka to plan and readjust is coming to an end, we start putting the ball in motion for leaving.

In a nutshell, it’s a bus to Kapiri Mposhi and the Tazar train to Dar Es Salaam. Unfortunately Mbeya volunteering was a non starter.

Anyway, we’ve had a lovely time in Lusaka and thought it will be as easy to get out. Noooo!!!! Think again. The train tickets can be confirmed at Tazara House in Lusaka. We call and trek there and after a long march up and down the street we find Tazara house, but actually you still need to get to Kapiri to get actual confirmation and make payment. So, no train ticket but we are hopeful and everyone we dealt with was very helpful. The bus ticket to Kapiri you’d think would be a breeze because you can buy it at the local post net office in every mall. So off we went, after a long trip to citycentre to not confirm our train tickets, to get our bus seats booked. Bam!!! No connection to the system, they ask us to go to the post net at the other mall down the road. We ask please call first to see if they can help, and surprise they are also offline. 

Fin is annoyed, I’m tired and we are both hungry so I decide to call the number on the bus poster. First one doesn’t work, second one a nice lady tells me she can’t help because she has no power and if she takes my reservation now I’d have to pay at the post net🙈. Ever reliable post net!

But she says I can go online and make the booking which she will then confirm for me via an sms. Eezy peezy, no problem! Yeah, right!! All the t’s crossed and the payment detail submitted and I receive a confirmation on the website saying I still need to make payment before 17:00 or my ticket is cancelled😁. Deep breath, call the lady back tell her the whole story and she promises to confirm for me. 

We trudge back to the hostel tired of spending all day trying to secure passage out and still not having confirmation of anything. Now we’ll stick to our plan and hope that things will fall into place.