It started out just like any other day during our travels in Africa, but by the end we were definitely feeling the sting of travelling outside the western world.
It was dark when we rose from our hotel rooms in Kampala, leaving Uganda behind to head for Zambia, but ah, first was our stop in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The flight was short and offered nice views of the African landscape and when we landed we were all looking forward to a seven hour stop with the promise of a tour of Soweto.
Getting off the plane the weather was warm but light compared to the muggy climate of Uganda. I made my way through immigration, showed my passport but then was asked for my yellow fever vaccination card.
Luckily for me I had it with all my travel documents so in a flash I was through and welcomed into Joburg.
But this tiny little yellow card was ready to cause some trouble for the rest of us.Three reporters had packed their vaccination cards away in their luggage, which were en route to our final destination in Lusaka.
No card = no entry. So two from our group had to spend the day in the airport, while one luckily enough made it through.
That left three of us to hop in a car with our chatty guide Vincent. South Africa is completely different from what I had seen of this continent so far. There were freeways with fast sporty cars, large shopping centres, basically very developed.
We drove past the city centre, where Vincent pointed out a 50 story hotel building that now sits completely empty due to high crime rates.T
he best part of the day was touring the Hector Pieterson Museum, which houses photographic and audio-visual displays of the struggle of the youth against apartheid.
Another highlight was seeing the new stadium that will soon host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Around four hours later the mood was definitely different.
We arrived in Lusaka, Zambia and picked up our luggage.
We noticed a few of our bags had zippers left open...hmmm odd, but everything seemed OK.Right at the airport exit we decided to take out some cash from ATM.
I opened my luggage to grab my purse, because I accidentally packed it away for the flight, I opened my wallet and stared for a few moments, did I move my cards into another compartment?
No. My wallet was completely empty, debit card, credit cards, drivers licence, even my Safeway Card and Shoppers Optimum cards were no where to be seen.
Well there goes taking out money, I seem to have been completely wiped out, I say.
Everyone immediately starts rummaging through their bags to see if they were also victims, and for two others sadly they were hit hard.
Here's the list: laptop, two cameras, running shoes, sandals, electric toothbrush, Ipod, power converter, and flash drives.
Luckily none of us had any stories, notes, photos that were lost but it definitely came as a shock, especially since this happened IN airport security AFTER we had checked our bags. We know that it took place while "locked away" in Joburg's airport before our connecting flight to Zambia.
Upon further inspection at our hotel room later that night, the dirty bums also swiped a bag of cookies, and some of my energy bars.
I guess ransacking bags builds up an appetite, lesson learned.
For me, I'm happy. They only took the contents of my wallet and a small little digital camera and safely tucked away under some of my clothes was my 70-200 zoom lens worth over a grand and my brand new hiking boots that weren't cheap.
Even with the complete violation of being robbed everyone stayed in good spirits.
We laughed it off saying that somewhere in Joburg someone is runnings in some ladies running shoes, listening to an Ipod, while surfing a laptop and eating some cookies.
Ah, they will get their own.
Molly McNulty is travelling to Uganda and Zambia on behalf of the Jack Webster Fellowship Seeing the World Through New Eyes which is funded by CIDA.
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