New home

So Lorraine, my housemate, and I are the luckiest VSO volunteers. We live in an amazing house in a small walled compound. We have two large bedrooms, a nice bathroom and kitchen, huge main room and not only a garden but a veranda as well. Thankfully we have beds in our rooms as our other furniture has been delayed! It is so much nicer sleeping in a double bed with a mosi net which is pinned up in four corners as you do not wake up with net all over your face and feet! No creepy crawly's seen at all.

Yesterday my employer was supposed to pick me up at 8.30am to take me to my new home. At 9.30am they arrived. We then went to the store to buy bedding and other essentials. It then took 4 hours rather than ten minutes to get to my flat. My driver, who is called Smart, and my colleague spoke in Nianja AND Bemba (another local language) the whole way. They did a number of errands for themselves on route which took the four hours and then finally dropped me off. It was all rather surreal and a wonderful example of African life.

Lorraine and I unpacked and settled in last night with a beer or two and a salad for dinner (as we cannot set up our table top oven without a table!) Our neighbors knocked on the door a few times to peer at the white people and say hello. We feel very safe due to the number of metal grates you have to go through to get in or out and the friendly neighbors. This is a good thing as our guard looks malnourished and over 100 and probably could not scare anyone away.

This morning we were woken by the neighbor killing one of his chickens. Not the most relaxing way to start a Saturday but amusing non the less. We have walked into the center of Lusaka and have had a real experience. You cannot walk more than two meters without a Zambian saying hello and wanting to hold your hand. We had a slightly uncomfortable moment where I had a marriage proposal followed by a grope. Lorraine was like a superhero, shouting at him to get off me and hitting him with her bag. I think he was more shocked and frightened than I was. Subsequently we were quite amused. It has taken us three hours to open a bank account and fail in our mission of buying a bath plug.

Our furniture is arriving this afternoon and then I shall post some photos of our new house.