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!

Tarantula!

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.

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.

Needles next to the Haystack.

I checked out a some summer reading material, including Revolting Librarians Redux. While I don’t know if I’ll agree to all that I read in this volume of essays, anything with some passion is worth checking into. I’ll attempt a review later on.

I was reminded of Revolting Librarians Redux when I attended an unofficial ALA conference event at Quimby’s Bookstore: “The Secret Lives of Librarians Event Feature Jenna Freedman, Travis Fristoe, Jenn Phillips-Bacher, Keith Helt and Celia Perez.” The place was packed, and everyone was having a great time. Each of the librarian/authors read from their zines. Writing wise, I was particularly impressed with Jenn Phillips-Bacher and Travis Fristoe. Jenn’s humorous biographical essay on Dewey (I hope to get ahold of the one existing issue of Riot Librarrrian if there’s a copy around somewhere). Travis’ writing seemed perfect as spoken word performance, with hilarious comments on library work and library patrons.

Jenna Freedman, who also read from her work, is a member of Radical Reference, a “service provided by librarians from over the United States to support the work of activists and independent journalists.” Check it out.

(this post is also at www.indylibrarian.net)

*if you’ve read any of my other posts for the last month, you’ll know I’m all about “settling in.”

Many, many of these miles were traveled in my beloved, and soon to be salvaged, 1996 Nissan XE extended cab pickup. Tragically, my pickup was the victim of an all too natural occurrence when driving across the West: a deer hopped into the road, seemingly out of nowhere, and we hit the animal head on at 75 mph. The deer and the front end of my truck absorbed the impact, leaving my friend Aaron and I unscathed. I would have hated to have been in anything less substantial than the Nissan, which held up quite well in my opinion (West Loop Auto Body and Farmers Insurance have reached a different conclusion).

To wax philosophical for a moment, this type of event is always a good reminder of our powerlessness in the face of larger forces–specifically nature. We spend so much of our time in (seemingly) controlled environments that I, for one, sometimes forget that I cannot dictate the contours of my day, my activities, and my physical well-being. We make many efforts to separate ourselves from the natural world around us, seeing deer, hail, etc. as hassels that interrupt us, not as substantial forces who couldn’t care less about our day. Nature and worldly chaos have quite loud voices when they choose to speak.

This accident was also a reminder of just how nice people are. Every Montanan, North Dakotan, and Chicagoan who assisted Aaron and I was kind and helpful.

In any case, I would like to take a moment of silence for a truly reliable vehicle, a beautiful exemplar of sensible Japanese engineering…

Logan Square seems like an all around good place thus far–No Friction cafe has been providing me with quality coffee and free wireless, and yesterday I had an awesome breakfast sandwich at Cafe con Leche for only $3.00. Apparently I put a lot of emphasis on my food sources.

I’m leaving for Portland on Wednesday; it should take me three days (very optimistic) or four days (more likely) to get there. According to MapQuest the northern route (Minn., North Dakota, Montana, etc.) and the central route (Iowa, Neb., Wy., etc.) only differ by twenty miles, but Dennis tells me the central route is faster.

• East side cafe
• Maria’s Taco Xpress
• Kerby Lane (original)
• Kim Phung
• Tam Deli
• Mi Madre’s

Before I go, I still need an expresso milkshake from Spiderhouse, and a drink at Lala’s.

My tummy’s gettin’ full!