Our time in Lusaka

Hey what happened to all your prayers – we had a bumpy flight into Lusaka hahaha no it wasn’t too bad.

Here we are in Lusaka! I have found it to be a bit more intimidating than Joburg. Here they have broken bottles on the top of fences as well as the electric fences! People walk by and just bump into you or push you out of the way! Of course they can also tell that we are not from here so try to charge a lot more money than what a local would have to pay – unless you are in a mall or somewhere like that. It is not all bad as we have met some really nice people as well.

Well all I can say is that you must have all been praying for us to get the work permits. We now have them and when we went there this morning it didn't look hopeful but we had a call just after lunch and were able to get the new documents in just under 30 minutes!! We are at the moment filling out our forms for new passports that will then have to be sent to the NZ Embassy in London for issuing. We have decided to apply for new ones (the ones we have now are Temporary Travel Documents) as to get visas for the US will cost way too much. We don’t have to have visas if we have proper passports.

Levy is now with us and Agnes and Hoggie are on their way from Samfya to pick us up. We will be leaving for Samfya in the morning. Levy said that is nice to finally meet Katie and I – it is nice for us to be able to finally meet him too.

Lusaka is dirty with lots of rubbish around even though Donald says that it is much better than before. There are a lot of women begging. A lot are blind and just sit there with their hands out. Either their families just don’t care for them or they don’t have any. The weather here is actually quite nice –warmish during the day and coolish at night. There are people outside shops trying to get you to buy their things and not to go into the shop itself.

For those who have been here – Manda Hill is yuck at the moment as it is has lots of construction happening and so it is very dusty and gross. It will be finished in November and will be very flash! However Arcades Mall is wonderful.

The motel we are staying at is called Marble Inn. It is comfortable enough but the best thing is that it is clean, has a shower and flush toilet!

Our first night here Katie and I had a burger for dinner at Manda Mall. The beef tastes quite different to ours – quite gamey. Last night we had a really yummy meal at Arcades Mall. Apparently Donald and Roger watched Hook at the movies here in the past.

Katie is finding the driving here quite amusing. People here just duck and dive everywhere. I have squealed a few times which was to the delight of the driver! Seat belts in the back of the taxis generally don’t work either! Crossing the street is another adventure everytime!

The other day we were walking past a construction site, that were blasting the ground. We didn’t know that when they whistled it meant that the blast was going to happen. Well when the blast happened I screamed and Katie dropped her ice cream much to the delight of the men. Donald said that we made their day!

For those of you who have been praying for our health- Donald has been fine. Katie and I have now recovered from the reaction to the anti-malaria drug. My diabetes is well under control and sugar levels have even come down a couple of points!! Thanks for all your prayers.

That is it for now. Our updates for the next three months will be from Samfya!
Gwen