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!