The scope of the journey itself was overwhelming. Following an initial six days in Lusaka, I flew to Mongu in Western Province for a period of four days. From Mongu I traveled to Livingstone for a three day stay. From Livingstone, I returned to Lusaka by bus for an overnight stop before going on to Kabwe by rail (with two to three hour waits for delayed trains both in Lusaka and Kabwa) and then on to Ndola and the copperbelt. My stay in the copperbelt was broken up by a three day trip to Kasama in Northern Province by air. On my return to the copperbelt via Ndola I paid brief visits to Luanshya and Kitwe. After a three day stay in the copperbelt I returned to Lusaka for two days before returning to Arusha.

Before drawing any conclusions from my Zambia study tour it might be worthwhile giving an area by area description of what impressions I had and a summary of some of the conversations I had with Danish volunteers interviewed. Much of what follows then in a summary of the notes taken at the time. From time to time direct quotes will be noted in the body of this report. These are direct quotes from the notes, and paraphrases of what volunteers have said; they cannot, of course be verbatim quotations of what volunteers have said, in all cases. With regard to these interviews two things should be noted. Firstly, I shall only attempt to summarize the views of those volunteers I was able to interview in circumstances so that a written record of what they said could be kept. I met countless other volunteers, both Danish and of other nationalities and of course other expatriates and Zambians from which I gained valuable impressions. Some of their views will no doubt slip out in the more general section of this report dealing with some of the conclusions drawn from the trip.

Secondly, it should be mentioned that the interviews took place in a variety of settings. Some were on the job, some in volunteers’ homes and more than one in a pub over a glass of beer. These factors will of course affect the reliability of some of the interviews and the quality of some of the suggestions given. Nevertheless, I feel that the views expressed do represent cross sections of opinions of Zambia volunteers on Zambia and the Zambian orientation program.

Lusaka
My first stop in Zambia was of course Lusaka, the capital. I arrived on the 13th of June and remained there until the 20th. In Lusaka my time was divided between meeting volunteers at their projects and making contacts at the various ministries. The first impression one gets of Lusaka is the airport and the drive in from the Airport on the great East Road. For people coming from a two to three month stay in Tengeru the contrast is very striking. The drive into Lusaka on the great East Road and Church Road to the Hotel Victoria (where volunteers have been staying for the past several courses) exposes the volunteers to the new, modern half of Lusaka (the kind of area photographed in information service films.) This contrast between Lusaka and Arusha/Tengeru is a major factor in what the Lusaka regional office calls the “Double adjustment” factor.

Lusaka is in many ways a “very big small town” with a para-urban population of approximately 248,000 people it is one of the larger urban units in Black Africa. Yet, contrasting with this are many unusual “gaps” for a city as large as Lusaka. All of the major city roads and the main trunk roads in and out of the city are very good tarred thoroughfares. Contrasted with this is the appalling lack of public transportation. Except for a few bases which run between the compounds (or townships) and the centre of the city there are effectively no bases in Lusaka. There are very few taxies and many of those one does find are unlicensed and uninsured. There seems to be only one stream of metered cabs in the whole of Lusaka.