Well day 2 is finished here in Zambia – although for the amount
of things we’ve experienced since we’ve been here it feels like a whole lot
longer. So Thursday night we arrived in the Lusaka airport at about 9:45 pm.
Unfortunately, about half of our suitcases did not. After waiting in line to
speak with the right people at the airport about our lost luggage, we finally
arrived at the guest house for the night at about 11:30 pm. [Zambia time Is 6
hours ahead of home – I haven’t quite gotten used to the fact that when I wake
up in the morning many of you are going to bed]. Our team arrived at Sharon’s
guesthouse and found a whole array of sandwich and soft drinks waiting for our
arrival. Let’s just say that after 30 hours of travel time and full bellies, we
all slept well that night. Saturday morning my friend Katie and I explored the
compound [As we drive throughout Lusaka, which is the capital city – I noticed
that many buildings have a surrounding wall. Therefore the only access is to
enter in through a locked gate]. Here of some pictures of the compound we’re
staying in this week while in Lusaka:
My room I am living in this week with 5 other girls.
Homework time! Enjoying the cool [the weather has been about 70
degrees since we arrived. The natives say this is unusual. Who would’ve thought
I would need a sweatshirt in Africa?]
Sharon’s Guest House [the name of the compound]
is exceptionally nice – totally exceeded our expectations. We are enjoying the
Wifi [although sketchy most times] and this pool was even offered for us to
use.
Found this picture of the Zambian president while exploring.
The main room – where we have meals, meetings
and do our homework in the evenings.
The front of the compound.
Katie’s excited to be in Zambia!!
Yesterday we ate lunch at this Indian restaurant in Lusaka. We
learned that many Indians have moved to the capital city in the last century,
forming an integrated subcultures that is uniquely African-Indian.
After lunch we stopped at one of the malls in Lusaka. I noticed the prices were pretty
equivalent to those in the U.S. Our team learned that only the wealthy of
Zambia can afford to shop at this mall. Interestingly, just down the road men
were crushing stones in small pieces – the lowest paying job in the city. These
people live on less than 1 U.S. dollar a day.
An African setting sun. Here in Zambia, the sun sets at about
6:30 pm. I was so surprised the first night when it was dark before we even had
dinner!
You can’t really see in this picture, but the flag in the bottom
left hand corner is the Zambian national flag. In October Zambia celebrates
their 50th Independence Day. Our team is pretty excited that we will
be here to experience the celebration.
Today we attended our first African church service! Of course
there was lots of dancing and clapping during the service that lasted about 3
hours J After
church, the pastors invited our group into a classroom and offered our team
refreshments. Also during this time the pastors introduced themselves, allowed
us to ask questions and prayed for our team. I think everyone on the team
agrees that worshipping with our brothers and sisters at Pilgrim Wesleyan was
such a blessing!
Loading up the bus after church! Inside sits our personal bus
driver for the semester. His name is Lovemore [What an awesome name!], and he’s
been nothing but kind and helpful to us.
So as you can see, we’ve been pretty busy since our arrival to
Lusaka. Not much time for homework, or at least we like to think so. Our first
class starts tomorrow evening – the semester is about to get rolling.
