Arrived

September 16, 2006

1 AM Lusaka, Zambia Simons' House I've arrived. I've eaten more than I can to talk about. I've slept less than I would like to. I was exhausted today but not allowed to sleep and instead given blended vegetable concoctions (beets, spinach, etc) by my Aunt Gacheke. We are 7 hours ahead. The purpose of my sleep depravation is the quickest recovery from jet lag.

My trip went well. I made some friends. My flight from Washington D.C. to Johannesburg with a fuelling in Dakar was long. I had an aisle seat which I was relieved to find. A very nice woman was sitting next to me. A man walked up just as I was about to sit down and they began talking as if they were best friends. I asked them if they would like to sit together as I didn't have any preference. The man accepted gratefully. So I moved one up and was quickly introduced to his friend, a Methodist minister from South Carolina. Unfortunately for me, the man was quite a bit overweight and therefore took up his entire seat and a good portion of mine. I sat back and tried not to kick myself. I felt horrible asking him to get up and down as much as I would have liked the short walk from my seat to the lavatories. Therefore, I got up when he got up. 7 hours later we landed in Dakar and quite a few people got off. They opened the doors at the back of the plane where I was sitting and restocked the food, etc. We were not aloud to get off the plane so the fresh air was a welcome refresher. I gained back my self-control and began having a nice conversation with a middle-aged nuclear physicist from South Africa. We had a good talk and during our hour on the ground I expressed my growing concern that I would not be able to contain my composure with my tightly packed 2 feet of space on that plane for 7 more hours! He had snagged a couple seats as people got off and he advised me to do the same. I did! I got two seats at the very back of the plane and cosied up for a 3 hour nap...the most sleep I had in over 48 hours. The rest of the trip was great. I watched about 5 movies, ate questionable food, explored the stellar Johannesburg airport, reported a lost bag, and finally was welcomed to Lusaka by Uncle Scott I arrived to a kitchen smelling of wonderful things. In addition to my Uncle Scott, dad's brother, my Aunt Gacheke, Kenyan goddess of all that is good, and Sentai, 12-year old cousin...I met Dorcus, Aunt Gacheke's sister-in-law, Wanjiru, my second cousin, Carol, the cook, and Noah, Sentai's American friend. Uncle Scott, Aunt Gacheke, and I went for a good walk. We took the skiddish dog Trixie with. I am making progress with her although it is very slow. We had dinner and I crashed into bed after unpacking a few things from part 1 of my 2 part luggage. Today Aunt Gacheke jumped on my bed at 9 AM on a SATURDAY! That cruelty isn't even shown me at home! She made it up to me by a nice neck massage. I joined her on her 6 km walk. Most of the roads are dirt. Although put out of your mind dark earth and instead imagine orange. That is the color of the dirt/dust. It is hot. I'm not sure of the temperature. I will look it up eventually. We are approaching the heat of the summer when the rain comes. It will rain for a short time everyday. The rain will not come until November so until then things will get drier and drier. There is a fantastic breeze which makes everything pleasant. The house I'm in is two stories...very unusual around here. There are lots of neighbours. Unfortunately I was discouraged from taking my purse to the restaurant/bar/disco that we went to tonight. I wish I could have taken some pictures. We drank and danced for hours. Apparently I dance like a Kenyan. Heather...what'd I tell you. There was a showing of a Zambian movie which was locally filmed and produced. It drew a lot of people. As we walked in to the outdoor bar I was slightly taken aback. We were surrounded by white people. We had entered an ex-patriot gathering (look it up). We missed the video but we weren't very disappointed. After some drinks we decided to start dancing. Uncle Scott opted out. Sentai stayed at home and therefore was not dragged onto the dance floor. Aunt Gacheke and Dorcus started dancing and I dragged Wanjiru from her couch (she is Kenyan and the same age as me). We walked unto an empty dance floor. When we left about 3 hours later there were tons of people dancing. I felt a tad out of place but quickly let the feeling pass. It was all in my head. We danced to some Shakira, Sean Paul, and I have no idea what else. A tad of techno. Well my eyes are starting to burn and Aunt Gacheke guaranteed I would be woken early again tomorrow. I hope I have begun to answer at least some of the questions that are being thrust my way by the barrel load. Presidential Elections are coming up. The current President is expected to win although an upset is quite possible. People are poor. People are rich. People live and die. The biggest difference, people are content. They move to a different rhythm. I'm loving it so far.

Much Love, Catherine