Cute Kids!

After having no kids to play with for so long I decided that this week I would spend as much time in the daycare as possible. So on Monday morning as soon as we arrived I headed over to see what the kids were up to. I arrived just as they were starting their English lesson. They were learning the letter K. There are about 30 children in one room ranging in age from about 5-13 (I’m never sure if the kids are telling me their real age, or if they really even know it). The older kids were working on writing the letter K and the word king, while the younger children practiced tracing the letter in their workbooks. The room was quite chaotic and I’m not sure all the kids know the letter K now, but eventually everyone turned in their books and it was time to go outside and play! I enjoy outside time a lot, my favorite game is playing football (soccer) while giving a piggy back ride. I’ve missed being able to workout, so I figure this makes up for it a little bit. After outside time was up it was back inside for another lesson, maths! Again the little guys worked on one thing, writing or tracing the number 8, while the big guys worked on subtraction. In all the madness they somehow are able to accomplish something. It’s quite impressive. After maths finished it was time for the kids to have lunch, so I headed across to the hospice to rejoin Nancy and Tricia and have some nshima (pronounced shima, I think I’ve been spelling it wrong for a while now) and then trek back to Chachacha.

We decided to make a trip to Arcades after quick showers. It’s always an adventure bargaining and then riding the mini buses. Very unlike taking the COTA or other mass transportation in the states. After a short trip up Great East road packed into the bus like sardines we headed over to do a little shopping and check out the movie options. We decided to just grab some groceries and head back home for the night.

Tuesday the morning went pretty much the same way, except instead of starting with English the kids had science in the morning. Their teacher gift was telling them about malaria. He was advising them on the three ways one can avoid contracting malaria. The first one he taught them in English: “sleep under a mosquito net” the next two I was unable to make out because I’m pretty sure he was telling them in Nanja (one of the local languages). They were all instructed to draw mosquito nets in their little books and color them green. Not a lot of room for creativity, but what are you going to do? The kids then had a quick snack of tea and bread and headed outside for some fun running around.

When the kids went back in Tim arrived and it was time for rounds. Tricia and Nancy presented the few patients that needed to see him and then he headed out. We enjoyed another lunch of nshima and then a hoppin going away party put on by Dominique and Antoine. There was some fantastic cake and even more fantastic Zambian dancing. A good time was had and then we headed back to Chachacha so we could make it over to the pizza place for Terrific Tuesday, buy one get one free night! We had a nice dinner and then spent the evening relaxing at home.

chitenje shopping!

We had a busy morning of Chitenje shopping (the colorful printed fabric that African women wear as skirts and hair wraps and use to attach their babies to their backs for easy carrying). We tried to walk around with it on our heads like they are able to do here, but we weren't very successful, although we were able to hold it long enough to pose for this picture.

Freaky Friday

Today was an atypical day at the hospice. We got there just as Doc Betty was finishing rounds. This turned out to be a good thing because we had a couple errands to run today. Our first adventure was a trip by foot to the Kamwala Clinic. We needed to go there for a patient to switch his ARVs. After we successfully switched the meds we were met by the Timbo express (the hospice car, normally driven by Timbo, but not today) as it was making a delivery to the morgue and then we rode back over to the hospice. We picked up Constance and Beatrice there and headed out to Soweto market. This was quite an experience. The market was very crowded and large and people were selling all kinds of things from fresh (well essentially fresh) fruits and veggies to clothes and chatanje. The ground was covered with old rotting food and this gave the market its own special smell. There was lots of intense bargaining done by Constance and Beatrice resulting in some angry vendors and other people who were trying to get us to pay them to help carry our goods and sell us bags. The trip was nonetheless a success and we left with the Timbo express stocked with cabbage, tomatoes, onions, tea, and some big bags of one of our favorite candies, choclairs. We returned to the hospice for a quick lunch of Shima and then headed back to Chachacha for what should be a nice and relaxing evening.

T.I.A.

“T.I.A. – This Is Africa” our new slogan for the trip. When something doesn’t go right we just remind ourselves of the slogan we learned from a man sporting an I love New York hat in the airport the last time we were there, which was this past Tuesday when we went to get one of Tricia’s bags, one more is still lost in airport craziness somewhere. Its been a relaxing past few days as we’ve gotten back into our routine. We spent Tuesday catching up on sleep, emails and some food shopping since it was a holiday here. On Wednesday (Happy 4th of July America) we were back in action at the hospice. We rounded with Doc Betty as usual and after finishing I headed outside to play with the kids. I had a fantastic time giving piggy back rides and running away from some of the boys as they tossed a dead large chameleon at me and other screaming children. I’ve never been chased with a dead chameleon wielding child before and wouldn’t be disappointed if it doesn’t happen again, but it made for a memorable morning.

Since it was the 4th of July we couldn’t go without a little celebration, so we convinced our Swiss friends that we should have a barbeque and we promised not to sing the national anthem or celebrate America too much. We did some shopping before hand and prepared an excellent dinner of hamburgers and fries, and if you know me well you can probably guess that I didn’t have a hamburger, but my own personal BBQ favorite…a chip and ketchup sandwich! It was almost like I was at home, ok not really, especially when we tried to make s’mores and found the marshmallows were strangely flavored, we had made a mistake by choosing to buy the cheapest chocolate, and biscuits are no substitute for graham crackers, but it was still a pretty good time.

Thursday we were back at the hospice and did the morning rounds so we could choose which patients to present to Dr. Tim. He comes for just a half hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays and we were responsible for finding the patients that most need to be seen before he arrives. We chose the patients and then spent some time helping out in the kitchen. I attempted to grind some peanuts for a couple minutes, but was not very successful so the cook shoed me away and took over again. We had a brief lesson in Shima making and stayed warm by the fire until Tim arrived. We presented the patients to him and everything went very smoothly. We are beginning to get the hang of things at the hospice. After he finished we headed out with him and back to Chachacha. Nancy and I decided it was a perfect day to catch a movie, so we headed to Arcades, one of the two shopping malls. We went by bus and arrived at the perfect time to catch the next showing of Ocean’s Thirteen for 9,000 Kwacha, sounds steep right, nope that’s about $2 for a new movie, quite a deal! We had heard reports from the boys that the movie wasn’t very good, but we both enjoyed it and were glad we went. We headed home by taxi, perhaps going with the first offer wasn’t our best option, and after a minor breakdown and quick repair along the way, we were safely back at Chachacha to get all bundled up in our beds, to catch some sleep for one more day at the hospice before an exciting weekend of chatanje shopping (the fabric that people use to make clothes and women use to carry their children on their backs) and maybe some fun with Dr. Tim and Tiny Tim if we’re lucky!

Wild Weekend Lusaka Holiday!

Ladies and gentleman have I got a lot to tell you! It’s been a super busy weekend here in Zambia. Our adventure began early Thursday morning. Tricia, Nancy and I checked out of Chachacha for the weekend and headed over to the boys (I will now begin to refer to Antoine and Dominique, the Swiss nurses also volunteering at the hospice as the boys, in case you were confused) apartment to be picked up by Moses, Dr. Tim’s driver. We loaded up our stuff and headed to times farm to pick up the rest of the gang and pack up the roof of the car. Once everything seemed securely fastened to the roof (it needed to hold all our stuff for a 7 hour drive over pothole filled sometimes dirt roads), we all piled into the car, Dr. Tim and Dominique in the front, Tricia, Nancy, and Antoine in the back seat and Tiny Tim, Moses Jr., Oman, Eric and me in the way back of Tim’s Toyota Land Rover. I was very excited to be in back with the kids so that I would have a little entertainment on the ride (are you surprised?). The trip to Lake Kariba was a long one but totally worth it. The first 5 hours were not bad, we were a little cramped in the car, but managed to not be too uncomfortable. The last hour and a half consisted of a trip down and dusty, bumpy (and I mean really bumpy, think major potholes every few yards) dirt road up to the Guesthouse where we were staying. At about 4 we all poured out of the car excited to look around and enjoy the couple hours of sunlight we had left before dinner. We all changed and headed to the pool for a bit, but it was quite chilly and we wanted to catch the sunset so before six we headed back to change and prepare for dinner. Really the boys prepared for dinner and Tricia, Nancy and I headed back over to the pool area to watch the gorgeous sunset.

We enjoyed a fabulous dinner of grilled chicken, pasta salad and ketchup prepared by Dr. Tim and then chatted for a bit before our first big adventure…Crocodile HuntingJ According to Dr. Tim lots of crocodiles would be along the shore of the lake and if we walked down with flash lights we could see their eyes shining back at us. We continued to get closer and closer to the water in hopes of seeing them and finally we were right down near the edge and…Tim and Tony (Antoine) swore they saw something reflecting back at us, I think it was a combination of the Malaria prophylaxis and wine talking because I certainly didn’t see anything. We headed back to the house to chat a bit more and then off to bed.

The next day (Friday) we relaxed basically all day. There was some time spent by the pool and some time spent in a hammock. It was our job (the girls) to prepare lunch for everyone. We cooked something Nancy’s mom makes and it turned out pretty good, everyone seemed to enjoy it. Dinner was prepared by the boys and followed by a game of euchre and hearts. I can’t say I’m a big fan of hearts, but it was my night, on the last hand after I took the queen (sadness) I decided I had to attempt to shoot the moon, and what do you know, I did. Suckers. We tried to get to bed a little early because we had an early adventure planned.

Saturday was a super busy day. We woke up a bit before 6 to get ready for a walking safari on one of the islands in the lake. As an added bonus we got to see the sunrise over the lake as we were riding a boat over to the island where we would be walking. We arrived on the island and were guided around by Chris. He was able to show us Impala (basically deer in Africa), Zebras, Wildebeests, and a whole lot of poop. I’ve come to learn that a safari is more of chance to see a lot of animal poop than to see a lot of animals. If you’re lucky you can see a few animals, but they sure do like to hide from us. We headed back from our adventure and packed up for the trip to Choma and then Livingston!

We piled into the car again and were on our way. We made it to Choma after about an hour and a half and scoped out the museum and gift shop there. Then Tricia, Nancy, Tony and I said goodbye to everyone else and went to catch a bus to Livingston. Let me tell you, riding buses in Africa is quite an experience. It deserves its own paragraph. I’m including a pic I took from my seat. It’s the view of the front of the bus. The buses are smaller than city buses but bigger than those large vans. We sat four across in the front right behind the driver. We were packed in and above us the TV was playing a DVD of African Christian music videos, the DVD player for this TV was located conveniently above the drivers head so he could change the movies while driving and talking on his cell phone, very safe operation. The bus started to roll eventually and along the way we made several pick ups and drop offs. On board with us at one time or another was one live turkey, one live chicken, and we were watching a Thai warrior film at one point later to be replaced by WWRAW wrestling or whatever its called. It reminded me of my days in the living room putting on matches with Sam and Zach. After 3 cramped hours we finally made it to Livingston!

Our first night was spent at Jollyboys hostel, super nice and super cheap. We ventured out to have some dinner at a place called the Rite Grill. It was very nice and tasty. I enjoyed a toasted cheese sandwich (basically a grilled cheese, and luckily for me a very popular item her in Africa!) We wandered back to our hostel exhausted to find Claire had come to visit. We chatted for a bit in the big pit up pillows while I enjoyed a Fanta with Claire and Tricia and Nancy had a Mosi, one of the two available beers here in Zambia, ok not entirely true, there is a local drink called Chibuki made from maize and whatever else falls into the vat as it ferments, we’ve heard much about the legendary drink and its toxic taste and smell. I don’t think anyone will have a taste before returning home, but we shall see.

We headed off to bed so we could get up early. We woke up and took care of some business before heading off to Victoria Falls. Incredible. We were there early so there weren’t many tourists. They are absolutely incredible. We walked all around and got completely drenched by the spray. It’s absolutely amazing and totally indescribable. After a couple circles we headed out and mistakenly turned down the first taxi ride offer we received after exiting the gate. We went over to see what kinds of crafts were being sold. Mistake number one, especially if you’re a sucker like me. I was not planning on getting to close and looking, but the clever businessmen who work the area know how to draw you in. I was sporting my livestrong and one bracelets and one man approached me to ask me about

them. I thought at first he was just being friendly and was interested, but I now know he was just trying to get me over to his area, and it worked! He convinced me that he was going to lower the price of whatever I purchased if I traded him one of my bracelets for his sister in a village far away who really really wanted one, he probably doesn’t even have a sister. And I have found I am the worst bargainer ever. For everything in Zambia from a taxi ride to a wooden animal you have to bargain the price. Keep in mind this isn’t in dollars but kwacha and I’m a pretty big sucker. I ended up leaving with a wooden elephant, a wooden hippo and a necklace with the yama yama symbol which represents the falls. I think I was a bit overcharged for my merchandise but at least I got a good story and memory out of the deal.

After those purchases I was anxious to get out of the place and stop wasting my cash. We went back to ZigZag our accommodation for the second night. The place was super cute and had a nice little restaurant where we were able to grab some lunch before heading out for a walking safari. We were picked up by our guide at Jollyboys and he first tried to trick us and say that the walk was cancelled, this was the first of many lies he would tell us on our walk through the park. Again it was a tour of poop and first we saw some impala poop, which initially we were told was elephant poop, good try guide, we’ve seen elephant and impala poop before. We walked for three hours and caught a glimpse of both pumba (a warthog) and zhazoo (a forget the real name of the bird, but the same one as from the Lion King). We also saw some more impala as well as some buffalo. Sadly no giraffe or elephants yet. We returned to Zigzag and got changed to head back to Victoria Falls. We just so happened to be in Livingston for a full mom and because it is so bright it creates a rainbow at the falls. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was as cool as you would imagine it to be, a rainbow created by the moon. We attempted to take a photo, but were unsuccessful, though we did a nice little video commentation of it. We headed back to ZigZag for a bite to eat, dinner and a sundae for me, yum!!! We headed to bed in our fancy rooms to get some rest before one more busy day.

We started our day early again so we could enjoy our complementary breakfast from ZigZag before our canoeing safari. Now don’t get me wrong, the safari was very cool, but not at all what I was expecting. I pictured myself occasionally padeling my little canoe down a calm river and catching a glimpse of some really cool animals, not the case. Initially Tricia and I hopped into one canoe, Nancy with the guide and then one canoe of two guys from Canada. We headed out in these inflatable canoes with kayak paddles and were hard at work from the start. I quickly realized my leisurely trip down the Zambezi River would not be leisurely at all, but a lot of work! After we had crossed to the other edge the guide decided to have us rearrange the canoes so Tricia and I would each be with one of the guys. I ended up with Mike, who was very nice, but I can’t say I was a fan of his steering. We were often facing the wrong direction and I distinctly remember doing at least two 360s as well as finding out we had passed through hippo territory at one point. But in the end we made it safely to the lunch spot and saw two hippos along the way. After a quick lunch we hopped the truck to head back to town and catch our bus back to Lusaka. This time we were on a much calmer bus, a very nice coach bus again with a TV showing some kind of crazy Nigerian movie. We finally arrived back in Lusaka around 8 for a few drinks with the boys and off to bed!

Lovin in Lusaka

What am I lovin in Lusaka??? My bag! It finally arrived today, although I must admit my excitement was dampened when I found that the bottom of my bag was wet and moldy including the pants whose arrival I was so eagerly anticipating. With some hot African sun drying on the bushes I'm pretty much in business clothing style. Unfortunately British Airlines failed Tricia yet again! Even with the minor set back we are still planning to head out to Senezongwa (I know that can't be spelled right) on Thursday with Dr. Tim, Tiny Tim, Dominique and Antoine (two guy nurses who have been here volunteering at Jon Hospice for 2 mos.) and a couple other people. We will be staying near a lake, the name of which I forget until Saturday and then we'll be heading out to Livingston for some African style tourism. Nancy, Tricia and I are planning some exciting things while we are there. We are thinking about a little canoe safari or perhaps and dinner cruise and a tour of the falls and some other adventure hopefully. We'll return on Monday exhausted and ready to get back to learning at the hospice. There has been some recent other fun things happening that I'm not sure I've mentioned yet. We stayed pretty busy over the weekend. We had dinner with our new friends, the above mentioned Antoine and Dominique on Friday night. They BBQ'd some chicken at there apartment and then we capped off the night with Fanta's and Mozi's at the Chachacha bar. Saturday was a lazy day poolside (after a run to the airport) for us (wrapped in sweatshirts and pants) and then we went on our first adventure to the movie theatre with the guys in the evening. We saw Fantastic Four 2, yes that's right there are recent movies even in Africa! The theatre was very nice, stadium seating and popcorn just like home, but...CHEAPER! I think Sunday went a lot like Saturday and then in the evening we had dinner at Dr. Tim's house or farm. He has a house on a lot of land and many pets including a goat, pigs, dogs, some kind of birds and 3 very large turtles. I hope to return with my camera before we leave so I can get some pics. We had a fantastic pizza dinner and returned home with full bellies and ready for bed.

Monday was an interesting day at the hospice. A new patient came in with a pleural effusion, he was really straining to breathe and Doc Betty attempted 7 times to drain it for him. Unfortunately it had been too long and without proper equipment she wasn't able to remove the fluid. The afternoon was slow and after another lunch of beef, potatoes and shima we headed back to our Zambian home. We enjoyed a quiet afternoon and really yummy cheese sandwiches at Chachacha.

And that brings me back to today, which I already told you about, so I guess that's it for now! Hopefully I'll have an adapter soon and be able to add some pics from my trip the next time I post.

tata for now!

Zambia style

We're here! Actually we've been here since Tuesday, but unfortunately our bags have not arrived yet! Today was supposed to be the day, but yet again British Airways failed us, well actually Nancy was lucky and her bags did arrive, so it looks like we might not all freeze again. We are staying at Chachacha backpackers in a little 3 person cabin sort of thing. It's nice to have our own space. We have been to the hospice and daycare a few times now. We spent the whole day there on Friday. We spent some time going over each patient and then played outside with the children for a while. We also had our first experience of real Zambian food - Shima. It's made of ground up maize and tastes to me like white rice in the form of mashed potatoes. It was interesting and will be our lunch each day at the hospice. We have done some exploring around Lusaka as well and are beginning to get acquainted. Things are great and hopefully I'll be in touch again soon. The internet at home is such a luxury!

'Ello London!

We made it to London!!! We'll be sitting around here until about 8pm our time, no idea what time for you...and then we'll finally be on our way to LUSAKA!!!

we're in the airport!!

Nancy, Tricia and I are all anxiously awaiting our first flight in CMH! We're very excited!

Tricia's mom was nice enough to do a little photo shoot with us...and wait...who's the suprise guest! I can't believe it. Claire came to the airport. Maybe she is going to come to Africa with us after all!

(Ok, this picture isn't my favorite, but I promised to document and post the entire trip so here is it, Nancy, Tricia and Claire look cute at least).

Wait just a minute...is that Claire with Nancy in the terminal!!! She is coming with us! Yay, so exciting!

Tomorrow's the big day!

Well after a very busy week, I'm finally packed up and ready to go...I think. My duffle bag is totally stuffed full of clothes and a few other things for the kids. We head out at 6pm tomorrow evening. It will be a long day or two of traveling, with the time changes I really can't tell how long it is all going to take. All I know is we arrive in Lusaka on June 19th at 6:15am Zambia time. Hopefully after that I'll have some exciting pictures and things to talk about. Now I'm going to try to get some sleep because I have a busy day of last minute shopping and traveling ahead of me!

I'm going to Africa...WOO WOO!

I'm heading to Zambia this Sunday at 6:00pm with my pals Nancy and Tricia. Hopefully I will post some pictures and stories up on here. We'll just have to see....