Here’s Some Pictures

Monday Monday

Woohoo! A box of books just arrived courtesy of my parents.  Now I really have to finish The Brothers Karamazov so I can start reading my new books.

Trivia Night last week was fun – it was held in Millenium Village, a fancy complex (complete with a “luxury lingerie loft” – ah alliteration) pretty close to our flat. Apparently it is where the African diplomats and other VIPs stay when they are in town. However, the money to build said Village came from a fund set up by former President Chiluba to build low-income housing. Corruption at its finest! Dinner was Indian, which sadly I still am unable to eat.

Our team came in 13th of 18 teams, so I am confident that if we keep playing by the time we leave Lusaka we will be at least in the top half.  I feel like I was of moderate use to our team, knowing the the 1968 hijacking of the El Al flight, picking the eagle as the symbol of Imperial Rome, and correctly recognizing the body of Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction (thanks skinny tie!).

But there was one question that I didn’t pick right.  We were given the chemical name of a chemical warfare agent, so I started listing all the ones I knew … sarin, ricin, VX gas, mustard gas … certainly not an exhaustive list. But the people at my table all gave me the same, “you are freaking us out, why do you know this” look. One girl asked me if I was a Chemistry major in college (Ha!), but my explanation that I was a Foreign Affairs major seemed to satisfy them that I had a legitimate reason for knowing.  Seriously though, is this not common knowledge? Because I really thought it was.  I went with Agent Orange, but the right answer was mustard gas, because all the answers had something to do with the board game Clue – i.e. Colonel Mustard.

Friday we had a quarterly retreat, where I got to say hello (through a fence) to some very large lions and petted a very friendly elephant.  Like ya do, I guess.  Just another day in Zambia!

I found out today I didn’t get into GW, but I am trying to reassure myself that even if I don’t get it anywhere else, at least George Mason is cheap 🙂 Either way, 4 months until I’m back in the states.  Currently considering how I can fly directly from Lusaka to the beach with the Erons for 2 weeks.  Something tells me however that my parents might want to see me before I start school 🙂 Also I will have no money so that could be another deciding factor.

This week

Had a busy weekend and a busyish week. Saturday in the morning we walked to Kamwala, the garment district, to buy chitenge fabric so Sara can make curtains and pillows for the flat (yes she is very crafty!). We were planning to take a minibus, but the roads were blocked for the International Youth Day march, so instead we walked. Neither of us had been there, so we just wandered around the market and eventually found some chitenge she liked. We totally got ripped off on the price, but oh well, that was pretty much a given for not going with someone who knew what they were doing! Saturday night, the Howards from the Baptist Mission (the folks who had me over for Christmas) had Sara and I over for dinner and dominoes (we played a game of Mexican Train that lasted for several hours – I went out first the most times, but still had the highest number of points at the end … sigh!).

Sunday we marched for International Women’s Day (Zambia’s theme was something like “the equal sharing of responsibilities between women especially in regards to caregiving and HIV/AIDS” – it really rolls off your tongue doesn’t it?). The march is basically a 90 minute stroll through the neighborhood accompanied by a marching band and a group of fascinated children. At the end the President Banda was there to welcome us and wave to us, which was cool – he has a very jolly smile. Sara and I ended up very sunburned and tired, but we had a fun time. Although maybe I shouldn’t speak for Sara – I’ll just say that I am easily amused and thus had a fun time.

Monday was a national holiday in honor of International Women’s Day, and our Director Pamela invited Sara and I to her farm for lunch. She has a beautiful and house and a lovely family. After lunch she treated us all to a movie – Pink Panther 2 was sold out (darn!) so instead we saw Twilight, which was better than I thought it would be and was pretty funny (if unintentionally so).

Tonight we’re going to Quiz Night again … I’m hoping in addition to be being an amazing baker and interior decorator, Sara is also a trivia buff.  Tomorrow is another national holiday for Youth Day, and Friday we have our quarterly retreat.

Finished the 5 books in the Bronte Collected Works book (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, The Professor, Shirley, Vilette … I would say the last 3 are less well-known for a reason) and still working my way through Brothers Karamazov. Crossing my fingers that the box of books my parents sent get here quickly and safely.

I survived February!

Yay we’re back in Lusaka now.  Hoped to spend a lazy weekend, but between grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, and trying to fill out my FAFSA forms, I don’t feel very relaxed.  The Kabwe training went really well, everyone passed the final exam and IJM got rave reviews on the evaluations.  Sara trained on contracts and did really well, and used lots of cake examples (“Say I offer to sell Anne a cake for 100,000 kwacha, and she offers to pay 50,000 kwacha, that is not a valid contract”) … suffice it to say I really wanted cake by the time she was done!

On the way out of town Friday we stopped at the Kabwe’s famous fig tree, which is a huge fig tree on the 50,000 Kwacha bill.  Not sure why it is famous, although we assume due to its size it must be quite old.  We also stopped on the way out of town at a cute little cafe where we stocked up on homemade cheese, bread, honey, and frozen pizza for the weekend.  The cafe is run by a family we met at church who had us over for a delicious dinner at their farm.  We had a great time and I really didn’t want to go back to the lodge after that.

The only hiccup was that the taxi driver who took us there didn’t actually know where he was going, and so when we got to the meeting place (after of course returning to town so the taxi could refuel) he tried to charge us 6 times what we had agreed upon.  After a heated argument we bargained him down, but we still paid more than we should have.  The next day we saw the taxi driver again and he asked us to use his taxi again! Ha, I wouldn’t have gotten in his taxi if it was the last one in Zambia.

Anyway, can’t believe my time in Zambia is halfway over! Only 5 months left til I’m back in the U.S.