Departure and Arrival

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Departed a wet and miserable Milton Keynes coachway on Friday morning, very relieved that a) my tickets and passport had turned up in the nick of time, and b) that my BA flight hadn't yet been moved to Terminal 5. Met up with my co-STVs (short-term volunteers) in Zambia, Julie and Clare, at Heathrow. Clare came in on a connecting flight from Manchester via Terminal 5. Claire will be in Chipata with me, but working for a different consortium of organisations, and Julie will be travelling even further east to Lundazi.

Smooth flight. Didn't sleep though was sat next to a chap who set himself the target of falling asleep before take-off and duly did so.

Initial impressions as we landed:
very green (it's the end of the rainy season)
could see no black, 'tarmaced' roads until we hit the airport ring road
small field sizes, all sorts of odd shapes with the exception of ...
some fields which are massive and perfectly circular, like enormous crop circles.
Oh, am 2 hours ahead (until yesterday at least).
Unfortunately, we discovered on landing that no baggage that had passed through Terminal 5 from connecting flights such as Clare's had actually made it on to the plane. She's therefore without her kit until Tuesday and not surprisingly is not very happy. Other people affected included a group of doctors who were bringing medical equipment in for scheduled operations elsewhere in the country for which they had chartered a plane to transport themselves and their equipment...

We were picked up beautifully by VSO in their truck and taken to the Commonwealth Youth Programme Africa Centre at the university where we're staying until Tuesday. Spent the rest of the day snoozing a bit and wandering around the grounds. Lunch was chicken, rice and cabbage (the latter bit very nice- kinda like my sister Jenny does it).

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Photos

Arrival at Lusaka
Arrival at Lusaka

Julie and Clare
Julie and Clare

Comments

[Sue Forder]

Glad to hear you got there
Rosemary Great first picture - you look very relaxed next to VSO logo. I look forward to hearing a lot more once you settle in. regards Sue