Zambia [View Full Entry]

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Lots of stuff to update today, in part because I've been very busy, and in part because it's been several days now since my last posting. So last weekend I took my first real outing of my trip here. Amanda, Rebecca, and I went to Livingstone, which is the town on the Zambia side of Victoria Falls. Our bus ride there was excruciatingly long, over 8 hours, but we eventually arrived safely. Saturday was our day for a walk in the park. Granted, the park had an enormous waterfall in the middle of it, but it was a walk in the [View Full Entry]

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I'm writing from Ndola, despite the lack of a region listed. I've been here since Saturday afternoon and am currently staying at the Franciscan Centre. Evidently, this place is a hot spot because I continually see people in and out of here all day long. I think it helps that it hosts Mission Press, something I'm hoping to learn more about here in about an hour or so. I would have gone this morning, but I had the headache from Hades. I think it was a mixture of the fumes from last night (story to come) and the insanely bright sunshine. [View Full Entry]

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After a few days of relaxation in Liliongwe, we set off for a 7 hour journey to Zambia. After about 2 hours we reached the borders where we spent roughly an hour filling in forms and getting our passports stamped. Soon after that we stopped for lunch, the safari company provided us with huge cheese sandwiches...we couldn't even fit them in our mouths! After we left from lunch, we soon hit dirk track roads and in the landrovers it was an extremely bumpy journey. The poor road conditions ensured that none of us got any sleep and were all knackered by [View Full Entry]

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Another, far happier, event last Saturday was an invitation to another wedding; the kitchen party but also the wedding reception, and this time I managed to get photos! My first kitchen party was a very Christian affair; this was more traditional. We ate first, and were entertained by some dancing before the bridal party came in, and when she did, it turned out that my new chitengi suit matched the wedding colour theme. I apologised profusely, but I think it was taken as a compliment rather than a faux pas as it would have been at home. As before, the bride's [View Full Entry]

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I have about 15 minutes before leaving for the next site which evidently does not have the best internet, nor trusty electricity. Over the past few days I have been battling something, I have no idea, I've just been a little sick and haven't been sleeping well. Today looks like a good day after a good night's sleep (thank God for Simply Sleep). But through all of that I have been able to visit a local school - other than where the site was - that is made for orphans and "vulnerable' children. The school was amazing with its own small [View Full Entry]

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Chipata is in mourning this week. On Saturday a bus travelling from Chipata to Lusaka travelling at what is thought to be high speed burst a tyre near Nyimba and overturned. Carrying over 20 more passengers than there should have been (over 80 rather than the 60 specified), 28 people were killed and 55 injured (radio this morning). A family of six died, a colleague's brother and his family were hurt and the nephew of one of 'my' Sisters died. The bus driver was reported as having fled the scene and the police are looking for him. Families have been having [View Full Entry]

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The last couple of weeks have been incredibly busy for me work-wise; so I apologise for my lack of updates! That said, no one at home seems to be responding to my emails any more, so I'm not even sure if anyone is still reading this! (You know who you are, please get in touch & let me know all the news from home!) I have now more or less taken over the daily running of the volunteer accomodation & management of the mess kitchen staff. It's certainly kept me on my toes with the number of people coming & going [View Full Entry]

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This is the first time I've been able to get to an internet cafe since Monday, and it closes in half an hour, so I'll try to be quick. Monday I picked up a laundry list of tasks to take care of for various people in the next couple weeks. My to-do list became very long very fast. Unfortunately, I met with the Ubuntu guys BEFORE getting this list, in spite of half the items having to do with them, so I had to schedule a meeting for the next day, too. Yesterday I was out at Ngwerere all day, and [View Full Entry]

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I'm still alive despite not having posted in a little less than a week. Where we have been staying does not have good internet which yielded no posts. Tonight we moved into our home for the week at Kalundu where Sr. Scholastica is taking excellent care of us. (This idea of losing weight in Africa is not going to happen while I am here.) Let me see if I can go through the week and relay what has gone on so far. Thursday afternoon: After writing on here I went to Hidden Voice to paint with Seth and Banks (Vanderbilt). I [View Full Entry]

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