Zambia..."the real Africa"

I HAVE ARRIVED IN LUSAKA, ZAMBIA!!
And so have both of my bags :) PTL

It was a long 4 day journey to arrive here, and it feels great to be here. Last time I wrote I said I would be on the 10:50am flight out of J-berg, but because of some confusion I actually didn't end up leaving until about 6:55pm. So it was a thrilling day at the airport just sleeping, and going to a cafe, and then sleeping again. We arrived at about 9pm and were greeted by 3 staff members who hugged us because they were so glad we finally made it! And then going outside there were current PCVs waiting with signs and noisemakes...it was a very warm welcome to my new home. One of the signs said "FISH and CHIP" and we were all very confused, until we figured that it stood for our projects, the aqua culture (FISH) and Community Health Improvement Project (CHIP). Oh Zambian sense of humor! We are staying at this college type institute for a couple of nights before we head out to our site visits.

What is a site visit you ask? Good question! On early monday morning (around 6am) we will load a small bag, pile 8 of us into a land crusier and drive about 8 hours into the Northern province to meet a current volunteer at her post. There we will see what our future will look like! We'll be cooking the meals, seeing her work, and sleeping outside her hut. Since I didnt bring a tent, I will be sharing with a lovely volunteer named Nancy. Now this won't necessarily be where I am placed for sure but it will give us an overview of what we can expect. We will be there until Thursday evening and then we have a debriefing Friday and then training resumes on Saturday morning here in Lusaka.

I also found out today that I will be learning the language of Bemba, which is the most common of the languages spoken here in Zambia. I don't know what region I will be in yet because it is spoken in so many, but I honestly could care less of where I am because I'm here finally!

I love this place and I am looking forward to the 8 hour drive up north to see more of Zambia!