Lusaka!

 We have arrived! J  We got into Lusaka early on the 27^th and were greeted by the lovely Rod and Sue. It was so great to see their faces again. It has been 6 years since we last saw them. Wonderful to see some Zambia family after some looong flights!  Our Regina-Toronto flight was cancelled the morning that we were supposed to fly out due to mechanical problems and after a couple hours of confusion we were rebooked through Denver-London-Lusaka. The last flight remained the same, so we still arrived here at the time we were supposed to. – we were  particularly thankful for this since we had people waiting for  us on this side.

The past few days have been spent visiting with Rod and Sue, shopping, coffeeing, unpacking and setting up cell phones. It is amazing how cell phones have revolutionized this place! We have been to 3 of the big new malls – and I was flabbergasted! When I lived here, there was one good-sized mall – Manda Hill. It had one bakery/café, several restaurants, a chain grocery store and a South African chain store like Wal-Mart (which, interestingly, has since been bought out by Wal-Mart – so it is MUCH bigger now). In 2006, there was a second mall, similar in size and with a movie theatre, which we thought was amazing and went to see Cars in - just because we could!  Now both of the original malls have expanded and are quite huge, shiny and new – and we went to a 3^rd mall also. I must have looked pretty silly walking around with my jaw on the ground. There is better shopping here than in Regina malls! I still can’t believe it. What country did we land in?! I barely recognize Lusaka these days.  But I suppose that adds to the fun of staying here for 2 months – we have much to discover! Everywhere we drive there seems to be some sort of new construction. There seems to be a lot of investment in commercial endeavours but not in social capital such as schools and clinics – but GDP is growing so we have nothing to be concerned about! (Insert sarcasm - in case you missed it.)

Our guesthouse is a lovely little place at a church. The couple that runs it are just so very sweet! It is tiny and only has a hotel size fridge and a hot plate with 2 burners, but it is all we need.  It is secure, comfortable – and most importantly, has a fan! Also, the minister and his wife have a little dog, named Slippers. He takes good care of us, greeting us in the morning, coming in to help with breakfast, and then sitting outside our door while we are home. So cute! While shooing him out this morning, I waved my hand, but he took this as a symbol to show off his sweet spinning moves and proceeded to turn round and round!! So cute.

Every last Saturday of the month the church has a huge farmer’s market – just metres from our doorstep! This morning we went to wander around it with Rod and Sue and found some good veggie deals and chitenge purse for me. Sweet! I was amazed by the new variety of crafts available here. Such as quilts, metal work, several new sewing ideas, paper beads, and a great food area. We even shared a pineapple juice - served out of a pineapple! Now that’s seriously fresh! I love the variety of freshness available: avocadoes, tomatoes, peppers, pineapples, bananas, papaya and even green mangoes, if you’re into that kind of a thing, (we are not).

Rod and Sue pulled away after the market. It was sad to see them go. It makes me a little nervous. It has been a long time since I’ve had to learn Zambia – I am so used to having friends around guide me as I learn. So I guess this is it! We are together and we’ll learn our way through this together. We are off to explore our neighbourhood today. We are going to walk to the office I will be working out of, try to find the cell phone place, and explore some of the shops nearby. We’ve had the convenience of a car these past few days – now we’ll be exploring on foot. All part of the adventure!

Will post pics of the guest house next time!

The next chapter

After Daryl and Janice left Nova Scotia we got right to work packing up our apartment! That's right, you heard correctly. Just 12 months later, we are moving again! This time though, we put our stuff into a storage unit in N.S. and we will move it to Saskatchewan in January after we have found a place.

Where will we be in the meantime, you ask?! Well, Zambia of course!

In just 8 sleeps we will board a plane and start a new adventure. For the next three months I will do research for my thesis project and Matthew will volunteer with a health organization - the specifics of this are still to be determined. Our dear friends, the Mbumwaes have graciously lined up a little flat for us to stay in while we are based out of Lusaka. We hope to spend December staying with them and visiting many good friends around Kalomo. We are so excited! Well, at this point actually, we just feel busy: Matthew is working like crazy, I do errands every day to get ready to go, just finished a quilt that will be a present for a Zambian friend, and we are visiting with friends and family in Regina at every opportunity - especially 3 cute little nieces! So, when we stop to think about it we are VERY EXCITED to go but there are still a few more details to figure out before we can pack our bags.

Here are a few pics from packing up our Halifax life. I wish I'd taken a picture of our storage unit and our amazing friends that helped us load it - but that day was so busy I didn't even think of it! We were SO VERY thankful for our dear friends Melissa and Scott who helped us move, Melissa orchestrated the janga-like stacking of possessions into the storage unit like a pro, calmed me down when I had moments of panic, and generously let us stay with her for our last couple of days. I miss her so much and I've only been gone from Halifax for 3 weeks! :( Anyway, here we are packing up.....

This is how I sort clothes - trying to decide which to store, which to send to SK for winter, and which ones to take to Zambia - it was quite the process!

Sad to leave Nova Scotia....

Stitching on the binding on our balcony.

One last rest on the leather before wrapping it for storage!

Last weekend we got to camp with my parents and Alisha and Myles at Echo Lake in the Qu'Appelle Valley. So great to see them and I just LOVE those hills and autumn colours!

Gorgeous!

Autumn is more beautiful when you know you get to skip 3 months of winter! ;)

Climbing the big hill in LeBret, SK

The prairie mountain-man pose. Dad made it all the way to the top of this crazy hill. And then he refused to take the stairs down - he had to go the steeper way with the 'young' people. What a trooper! (I still took the stairs down though!:)

Another highlight from our time in SK was seeing Kevin and Crystal get married on the long weekend. The day was a beautiful tribute to their love for one another and for God. The vows they exchanged made nearly everyone in the church tear-up! They were just perfect. So happy for these two!

 Another bonus of the day was seeing many special friends, like the fabulous Jilly and Andrea!

Love scrunchy faces with these two!

Living with little girls is lots of fun too - there are always lots of giggles and little chatter to decipher. I love watching them grow and seeing their individual personalities emerge. So blessed to have such sweet nieces!

We always read TONS of books!

A trip to the Milky Way is a Regina classic.

Birthday ice cream for Auntie - cheers!

Making fancy sand castles in the backyard!

A cherry pie made from scratch for Shannon - in honour of having Elena 4 months ago. Better late than never! :)

This cake was destined for Souper Harvest Sunday but on Saturday evening E and K were left unattended with a cooling cake for about 5 minutes......and when Auntie came around the corner she found 2 little girls with fist-fulls of chocolate cake and crumbs on their cheeks! SO FUNNY! We laughed and laughed. Pretty sure this story will be told for years to come. Auntie is still laughing!