thoughts thunk

We’ve been in Zambia for almost three months now. In a lot of ways, we’re just living a regular Monday-Friday 9-5 lives. Lusaka has the feel of a suburb, just with really bad traffic (granted, this refers to the areas we live, work, and shop in–there are certainly less comfortable areas of the city).

But life in Zambia has also given us some great and surprising experiences. We’ve met a lot of freakishly large bugs and spiders. I learned that when unexpectedly visited by a tarantula, I can jump up and run very fast!

We’ve swam at the edge of a 350 foot high waterfall, with friends from Chicago (!), Bernardo from Portugal and Sven the “European”.
Here’s my accidental re-enactment of Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World:

We came really, really close to an elephant on the Lower Zambezi: .

Craig rode his bike over 100km up and down a gravel/dirt road on the way to the Lower Zambezi. Thankfully he and Tim Budge were out there to help the “support” vehicles out of multiple jams, this being the worst:

Really great experiences have also come to us from Craig’s work with World Bicycle Relief: the bike distribution at Bimbe Basic School, and meeting community care givers and their clients, for example. I’ve also been working with the Afya Mzuri Knowledge Centre for Health (still getting used to spelling “center” as “centre”), mainly on their website. I’ve been relearning my html and css, plus some new stuff. Also, I’m learning patience. Perhaps the Germans have some word for “patience-required-when-suffering-a-slow-to-non-existent-internet-connection”? Please tell us if there is.

We’ve made some good friends here, people that will hopefully be friends for a very long time (We’re looking at you Kristin, Jen, and Dave!). We also miss everyone back home–it’s hard not to always think “Mary Ellen would love this!” or “Amanda would find this hilarious!” or “We hope Shawn likes this mustachio photo!”, etc. etc.

We also miss Mexican food (and I would love some Vietnamese as well). So expect frequent requests for burritos when we get back. Thankfully, there’s really good Indian food here in Lusaka, so we’re tiding ourselves over masala papadums, jeera rice, chicken and mutton.

Finally, our most recent adventure was a trip to Zanzibar. Despite a complete power blackout for the whole island, and many mishaps, we had a really wonderful time. We got engaged! On a beach at sunset no less. I had just been talking about Bergman’s Seventh Seal when Craig got down on one knee. Seriously!

Photos from our trip are up on Flickr, check it!

As an added bonus to our Merry Christmas greeting above here’s a short “behind the scenes” special feature. This is what happens when I’m on vacation in paradise:

The whole point is: we’re alive and doing well (so, no worrying for you parents out there). And we miss you. And we wish you were here.

Observations on weeks 1-2 of living in Lusaka, in no particular order.

Driving:
I’m getting used to being on the left side of the road. It was quite weird and scary at first, but I can almost sense my brain rewiring to think of left-sided driving as “normal”.

Quite frequently in the last two weeks, there have been long, long lines around gas stations. Apparently the primary (only?) supplier of gasoline for the area is refinery in Angola, and it’s shut down for cleaning. I can’t figure out if there really *is* a shortage since the next day everything seems normal. I hear it’s something about when the trucks come into town. But, our truck is diesel, so we’re totally fine. Finally, what’s most fun about getting fuel is that the gas station attendants rock your car side to side to get more fuel in the tank.

Landscape:
African sunrises and sunsets really are outstanding. I think it’s all the red dust in the air.

Everything is very dry right now, and I’m becoming as excited about the rains coming as everyone else seems to be. It’s not outrageously hotter than in the summer back home (mid/high 90s), but the sun is more intense.

Lusaka is on a plateau, at about 4200 ft. We have pine trees all around the property, something I didn’t expect.

Animals/Insects:
Many people have already commented on the size of our house spider George (ette). We let her be, since she never left the far wall of the living room. However, since last night she’s MIA. I probably don’t want to know where she is.

While some big bugs are scary, some are super cool. This is a giant bright green grasshopper with vibrantly colored wings. I picked him up for fear he would get munched in the crowd of people at the bike distribution at Bimbe. I set him down on a bush behind the school, only to realize a moment later that there were chickens and goats around. Hopefully not a death sentence for such a cool creature.

People:
Craig has really great coworkers, and I feel like I’m making some new friends. Zambians are very gracious and friendly. I have elicited some laughs while riding my bike into town because I’m probably quite a strange sight. Also, there are a lot more “muzungus” (white people) in Lusaka than I thought there would be.

I enjoyed spending two days out in Chongwe District with the WBR crew, showing around the Kelly Benefits donors. We visited with village caretakers, who volunteer their time to attending to the health of their communities. The following day went to Bimbe Basic School for a bike distribution. Girls were selected as the primary recipients of the bikes. Culturally, girls are more likely to stay home from school due to the long distances they must walk and their other family responsibilities.

The students welcomed us with songs and performances, all of which were excellent. This is one example.


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Google has dramatically improved their map of Lusaka!