Travel to Placement

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Sunday we started a fairly laid-back orientation process. We were given a wonderful massive equipment box with everything from pots and pans to a 20 piece dinner set (including a kettle and an iron !) so we wouldn't need to buy much.

In the afternoon we took a taxi to an African craft fair at the local supermarket (lovely craft knicknacks, no prices, would like to go just before leave). Supermarket stuff we're accustomed to is very expensive, especially when considering our wages (£8/day which is a good local income). Fruit and veg are meant to be cheap though when we get to a local market. I am however a kwacha millionaire- there are about 7,400 to the pound.

On Monday we met our employers- I generally got the impression their documentation and information is a mess and they're eager for me to sort it, Am determined not to get trapped wading through the detail of their paperwork, at least not without them sat there with me!

We travelled up on Tuesday, though didn't set off till 12.30 rather than the planned 9am. Part of this was hoohaaing around collecting Clare's bag, which never turned up on Friday and should have arrived on the Tuesday flight; in the end we left without her. We then promptly stopped at the supermarket around the corner to stock up with supplies. '5 mins' with me doing a mad dash to buy some bananas and bread for the journey, and food to eat when I got there turned into a leisurely 45 mins for everyone else. We then prayed loudly for a safe journey and blessings on the driver and the food in which I heartily joined in.

The journey took 8 hours on some pretty bumpy roads. Buying bananas before I left was pretty pointless. It's banana harvest time and we stopped twice where vendors came rushing up to to the minibus to sell them. Tried two types- including green ones, in which I amused everyone by saying that in England we would leave them a week before eating them (they were very sweet and ripe). On each stretch of the road there was a different industry of people selling produce, including one section of woven materials (hats, wicker baskets etc) and one of carpentry (doors, chairs, beds).

Stopped once for a toilet break - not a major problem as had been warned and reduced liquid intake. We stopped by this poor family's mud hut, trooped into their 'back garden' and pissed in it and then they gave us water for our hands, all without any money changing hands.

The surprise at the end of the journey was that I've been billeted in a convent with 5 nuns...

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Photos

VSO Box
Everything I could possibly need!

Bridge over the River Luangwa
One way in, one way out...

Comments

[Martin]

Nuns
Do they have any whiskey? My aunty is a nun and she loves a whiskey!