Africa

Well here are some pictures. The top left is my room (sorry it's sideways). The top right is a group of kids at the school. And to the left is the monster truck.

I am surprised at how emotionless I have been since leaving. During the week leading up to my departure I had been a bit nervous and mood swings were getting the best of me. Warren even put a rule of no crying at the airport. But when the time came to say goodbye and go through security I was remarkably calm. The travel was long but went relatively smoothly.

I landed in Zambia around 2 pm today. After obtaining a dual entry business visa (cost $80) I was happy to find that my bags had made it from London. Later, I found out that that was not the norm. Earlier, I had met a few other volunteers at the airport. After meeting up with the program representatives we packed into an old blue truck and headed off to the volunteer house.

On the way the disparity between the rich and the poor was evident. The roadside sported small thatch roofed huts next to large gated houses. The vehicles on the road ranged from trucks over-stuffed with school-aged boys to brand new red pick-up trucks. The house itself is modest but quite nice. I share a room with 2 other girls. The bathroom consists of a sink, a toilet and a bathtub. Apparently only 1 or 2 rooms have showerheads.

The food is good. They served macaroni and cheese for lunch and spaghetti for supper. Tomorrow they will take us around to see the various volunteer sites. In the afternoon we split into our three groups, medical, teaching and sports, and continue our orientation. On Wednesday we start in the clinics.

I felt like a little kid when I climbed into bed yesterday. I’m on the bottom bunk and my bed is surrounded by a giant mosquito net. If I sleep with my head all the way up by the wall I can just straighten my legs. I miss the extra long twin beds of Notre Dame. I made myself stay up until 10, so I slept well and woke up around 8.

This morning we did a general induction. After climbing into the big blue truck, dubbed the monster truck, we drove around to various sites we will be working at. The first was a large school of about 406 children. They were very happy to see us and held our hands as we were shown the new building that was just completed.

Our next stop was a small farm. They had just completed a well there and explained to us the type of work we might be doing there. We then drove by a few more schools and clinics and went back to the volunteer house. The afternoon was a lot less exciting, and for the medical volunteers consisted of a 3 and a half hour talk about what we will be doing.

I also bought a phone today. But I have no idea how much incoming calls will cost. It’s more for calling taxis here and texting the coordinators and whatnot. I’ll let you know if I figure out the call costs.

My address here is: C/O African Impact, PO Box 60896 Livingstone, Zambia. Just keep in mind the mail will take at least a week to get here.