Never a dull moment

Hi Everyone,

I guess I owe tout le monde an update!
Its been both busy and not so busy all at once.
Last weekend was pretty eventful. Okay, Friday wasn’t really, I kicked back with a few episodes of House (I have a growing fondness for that bitter man). Saturday, I was both brave and stupid and decided that it would be a really good idea to go explore downtown for the first time by myself. After figuring out which minibus to take and being crammed in next to an elderly man who spent most of the ride coughing into my ear, I found myself on Independence Ave (one of the major streets). The second I got out of the bus, I knew that I’d made a mistake.
I got a lot of stares and hoots (not uncommon) but the vibe was really different. Two guys came up to me and asked if I needed a taxi. I shook my head and kept walking (with a look of determination) and to my surprise, one of the guys grabbed my arm quite forcefully and said “Madame, why you no want taxi? Its rude to ignore me.” For those of you who know how bad I am at being authoritative, I actually surprised myself by wrenching my arm back and saying quite sternly “Don’t touch me…Ever!” and kept walking.
You’d think that by now I would have gotten the hint and caught the next minibus home, but no, I continued to be stupid and brave. I had heard about a Saturday Market called Kabwala nearby and decided to check it out. Another bad move. The market, on a scale from 1 to 10, had a sketch factor of 10. I went on anyways. It was pretty neat- you can buy anything imaginable there from clothes to car parts. Anyways, I decided it best to look like I knew where I was going and after marching around for a while, I decided that it was time to get out pronto. I took a small pathway between two buildings and ended up in front of the National Museum, and decided that it was probably a lot safer in there. I only had to pay K2,000 (2 bucks) to get in. It wasn’t exactly the ROM, but I saw some neat artwork and learned a lot about the fight for independence from the British.
After the Museum, I decided to head home and had to find a minibus station (I am forcing myself to use them because they’re cheap and a good way to see what’s going on and learn more about the people here). I asked for directions, jokingly saying each time “You have probably noticed that I’m not from around here”…which tends to make people laugh a lot. Anyways, I found the intercity bus terminal, which was pretty intense. The second I walked into the parking lot (which is pretty much what the bus station is) I was surrounded by drivers who were yelling out their routes and fares (people will surround you but never usually touch you- there’s a similar sense of personal space here). I was really overwhelmed, so I ducked into a nearby bar to ask for some advice. Bad move. The bar was full of mostly men, who started whispering as soon as I walked in. I walked up to the bar to ask the bartender how to get to Kabulonga, and he was so shocked I could barely hear his answer. I figured they just didn’t get a lot of muzungus for clientele, until I was told later that the only women who ever go into bars on a Saturday afternoon are sex workers. Ignorance is bliss! So to make a long story short, I got home in one piece and was incredibly relieved to find myself back in Kabulonga.
Later that evening, after taking a recovery nap, I headed out to one of the major restaurants in town with Shannon to celebrate her last night in Lusaka…this was pretty sad for me because she’s been kind of like an older sister to me these past few weeks and has also been an incredible resource. Anyways, I decided to splurge and had my first Zambian steak, which was stuffed with brie cheese and avocado…I was in heaven. Shannon convinced me to grab a beer with her at the bar to check out the scene and we ended up chatting to some locals who volunteered to take us to a local ‘hotspot’ (club). We decided to be adventurous and go with them. The ‘spot’ was a lot of fun, although being only one of the muzungus there, Shannon and I had to really keep an eye out for each other.
I’ll be honest; I woke up the next morning feeling a bit queasy! I cooked myself a stroke-worthy brunch of eggs, bacon and toast and orange juice to make myself feel better. I then took another bus to Arcades- a shopping centre- and had a nice chat with a business man on my way there, and skyped home via webcam. All-in-all, a weekend well spent.
Both of my roommates are back now! Michael and Joe we’ll call them for now. Michael just got back from the USA and works at the US Embassy and Joe runs a steel business downtown (we have big plans to rescue Hamilton from the recession). Michael has a girlfriend- Janice- who’s kind of like an honorary roommate and she works at the teaching hospital- very cool. On Tuesday, Joe got back and he made me stew and we bonded over House and Weird-Al Yancovich. He knows a lot of the songs off by heart which is AWESOME! I was truly impressed.
I’ve been trying to read the newspapers here and I’ve become a dedicated follower of the Times of Zambia- which has been pretty interesting to read, especially since its one of the only papers that isn’t run by the government. It’s an interesting time in Zambia right now, especially if you’re working in the health sector because there was just a massive scandal reported, where 200 million dollars US were embezzled by some officials…most of which was donor money. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out. Oh Zambia.
Yesterday, when I came in from work, I saw my first Zambian spider, which freaked me out completely. It was big, hairy, and scuttled up my wall. It was late at night and I almost woke up my roommates by jumping onto my bed and backing up as far away from it as possible. It eventually moved, but I had a tough time sleeping, even though I had a mosquito net!
That’s pretty much it for now! Hope everyone is well 

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