My First Week in Zambia

I've been here for a little more than a week now and so far everything is going well. I think I have adjusted pretty well and have no complaints about life. So much is different here so I will try to give you some ideas of what it is like here. I am living at the Lazarus Project, in a dorm with a few of the boys. I have my own room (which I am very glad about) but I still see the boys a lot. My room isn't very big but it is big enough (Kate – it's probably the size of our rooms at Mom and Dad's house or maybe a little bit smaller). It has a private washroom attached to it so it's quite nice.

The food here has been…let me say…interesting. It's actually not too bad but it is nice to have something different once in a while. The main dish is called nshima and is made from ground up maize (corn). They usually have one or two relishes with it, either beans, kapenta, tomatoes and onions or chicken. I don't mind the chicken and the beans and the tomatoes and onions are alright too but I can't stand the kapenta. To give you an idea, kapenta is a type of fish that is pretty small (about an inch or an inch and a half long). I kind of though right away that I might not like it but I tried some and found that I was right. Oh well, it's not the end of the world. I have been eating some eggs and bread as well. Paul (whom I will tell you about below) has been good about getting other food for me. I will buy some more from town soon so I have my own food if I want it. Another dish we sometimes have here is called simba. It uses whole maize kernels and it is kind of like a porridge. It's alright but I think I prefer nshima.

At the project there is a gentleman by the name of Paul who helps look after the kids. He is the one who is in charge of getting them up in the morning and looking after them at night. It's pretty crazy that they have one person for all of the kids (70+ kids) while in Canada we would have one person for 8 or 10 kids. The standards here are different than in Canada but it seems to be working. I think it helps that it is easier to motivate the kids to behave because the threat of going back on the street is always there.

On Sunday we had church here at the project. Brother Paul (as the kids call him) led some singing and then gave a little message about the reality of hell. It was a pretty good service and I think the kids enjoyed it. I've included a picture of the boys when Paul was praying. It's pretty inspiring.

Last Friday was quite a special day. A group from UNICEF visited the farm and (Claudia, Karl and Kathi you will appreciate this) the German First Lady was one of the representatives. Mrs. Koehler came to visit the farm so she can return to Germany and get support for UNICEF Germany. So I got to meet the First Lady of Germany. It was pretty exciting. I think she must have thought it was kind of weird though before I was introduced. I was the only white person at the project that wasn't from UNICEF. I had a brief chance to talk to her (but I didn't speak any German).

Another interesting note is that William (the one in the pictures with the cooks) speaks French, so I have been speaking French with him. It is quite nice to speak again, except now I have to remember four languages (English, French, German and Nyanja/Bemba – I guess technically that's five but Nyanja and Bemba are rather similar).

One of the biggest differences I have noticed here (all you environmentalists and health professionals close your eyes, you won't want to read this) is that they throw garbage just about anywhere. It is not a nice sight but that is part of the way they live. Hopefully that will change in the future. I stopped to take a picture of a pile of garbage that is along one of the walking paths. It doesn't smell too nice and I would not want to live too close to it. Paul is the one at the top of the picture standing on the pile.

Well, I think that's about it for now. There is so much more to say but it will have to wait for another day. Things are going well here and I am enjoying my time. I think that when I come home I will have lots of stories to tell and pictures to show. For those of you in Canada…Good Day, eh! For those of you in Australia…Good Day, Mate! For those of you in the US…Y'all take care now! And for those of you in Africa…Goodbye (sorry if you were expecting something unique…they speak English in Zambia quite a bit)!!
Goodluck and Godspeed

P.S. Sorry the images would not upload so I'll have to try again another day.