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....