Well, I made it!

So after what seemed liked waiting forever, the day of my journey to Zambia has come and gone. Things went pretty well, and I discovered that a couple of well-timed drowsy allergy pills could make a world of difference! I ended up sleeping a good 7 hours of the 11 hour flight from London to Lusaka. Steve and I arrived around 6AM and had a little bit of trouble deciding if we wanted to step off that last stair coming off the airplane, or turn around and strap ourselves in for the flight back to Heathrow!

Luckily we were met at the airport by one of the staff member of the organization Steve came to help (Restless Development) and he was able to give me a ride as far as Kabwe. The first thing I noticed was the state of the roads in Zambia – they put the potholes in Winnipeg to shame! Secondly was the sheer number of people that you see outdoors walking. There are loads and loads of people that walk to and from work and school, from inside the city all the way out to along the highways.

Once in Kabwe we got a good introduction to some interesting business practices here. We walked into a bank to change some of our USD into Zambian Kwache, and to our surprise, the banks don’t change money on the weekend. But lucky for us, the bank manager had a friend sitting with him that could change our money from his personal stash of cash – just had to wait a few minutes for this guy to go out, collect the money, and come back to the bank. You will all be happy to know that I am almost a millionaire – I was able to trade $200 US for 920,000 Kwache. We are positive we got ripped off, and that the guy was coming back to the bank on Monday with our USD to make a quick profit!! Oh well, we got what we came for.

Next (after a teary-eyed goodbye with Stevie of course - hahaha) I got a first hand experience of the wonderful ‘Euro-Africa Bus’ line which I had to ride for 3 hours to get to my final destination, Kitwe. The bus was actually not too uncomfortable, just packed full and I had to jam all my luggage at my feet leaving no room to put them down. We made a few stops on the way which were highlighted by hoards of street sellers coming on and walking up and down the aisle with drinks, an assortment of food/candy, and a fine selection of knock-off sunglasses, leather items, DVD’s (I’m sure not illegally copied!) and of course, christian CD’s!

Upon arrival in Kitwe I was met by Charlene & Andrew (the family that I would be staying with for the next 6 weeks) and was very happy to discover that they are great which calmed my nerves a lot! We had a quick bite at a pizza shop and then headed to my new home in Ndeke village on the suburbs of Kitwe. I was quite concerned when we turned off onto a series of unkempt dirt roads and drove by a ton of the types of houses that you see on the World-Vision commercials. Fortunately, the house I am staying in is really nice and has everything I could ever need (including a live-in nanny for their kids that surprised me by coming in and cleaning up after me while I was out!).

I was quickly introduced to the Zambian staple food called Nshima which is basically a paste that is made from corn-meal and water cooked together. It is cooked until it looks kind of like a sticky-bun, and then you eat it with your hands and combine it with whatever meat you are eating (chicken, fish, etc.) as well as a delicious mixture of cooked vegetables in sauce. Although extremely simple, I have to say that it is amazing – think I may start making it when I get home!

Stay tuned for my next update!