Every Which Way but Lusaka

(The title has nothing to do with the entry; it’s just something amusing Mike said before I left…)

Now that I have been in Lusaka for two weeks, I think I can finally write about it. It’s not an easy process summing up a neighborhood, let alone a city or country, and I’m sure my perspective will change quite a bit over the next year. This entry will be a hodge-podge of different stories and observations to maybe give a little perspective of what my life is like in Zambia.

Arriving in Zambia and “Breakin’ the Law, Breakin’ the Law”
I arrived in Zambia on Thursday, 12 October at about 6:30 a.m. Lusaka Airport is very small, has no “real” gates, per se, just one door that leads out onto the tarmac, and one luggage carousel. It took about an hour to get through customs, and I think I might have gotten the wrong stamp in my passport, but oh well. Thankfully, both of my bags had arrived, and, even more thankfully, I had a ride, because there were no luggage carts to be found.

I was met at the airport by someone who shall remain nameless for the sake of this story. We made our way out of the airport and straight into a police checkpoint. Alas, my driver had “forgotten” to put his or her seatbelt on, and netted a 65,000 kwacha ticket (US$16.25). I was deliriously tired, so I’m not sure what was going on, but apparently, we were supposed to pay in cash on the spot before we would be allowed to go. He or she didn’t have much money, and I certainly didn’t, having just arrived in country. But, somehow, we were allowed to leave having paid out only Kw16,000. Probably because the police officer took pity on us, right? Or that’s at least what I’m going to think, since it was most definitely not a bribe.

Home, Sweet Home
From the airport, we went to the flat that will be my home for the next year (or at least I hope so). Our two-bedroom flat, which I share with two coworkers, Karla and Mason, is located in a neighborhood known as Rhodes Park, only about a ten-minute walk from our office.

We live on a road that is rumored to be known as “Prostitute Road” because the bar across the street is known to have higher-scale prostitutes. (Don’t worry; we have a security guard and a very large gate, and all sorts of security measures – and we never walk around after dark… and seriously, is this any different than most of the neighborhoods in Chicago?!) And the bar across the street is actually pretty nice, despite the reputation, and it provides us with entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights by playing dance music – American and Zambian – loudly enough to sound like it’s being piped from a stereo in our kitchen. Fun times…

And we live a stone’s throw away from a really large Anglican cathedral… it’s an eclectic neighborhood.

The flat is much nicer than I expected (even if we don’t always have water on Saturdays) with a full kitchen and a living room downstairs and the two bedrooms and bathroom upstairs. We also have a very tiny balcony, though with the bars covering it, it does feel a little like we’re watching the world from jail. Somebody send me a tin cup to bang on the bars!

It’s just like ‘Friends’ (if Phoebe lived with Rachel and Monica), but without the scripted dialogue
As I mentioned above, I have two flatmates – Karla and Mason. Since I didn’t know what to say about them, I asked Mason what she would like me to write about her. So she told me to write:

Mason is very pretty and very nice and a very excellent cook… even though she had to ask me how to cook chicken the other day. (Okay that last part wasn’t from Mason…)

Then Mason said that I should write:

Karla is very pretty and very nice and an excellent cook. (Not "very excellent," you’ll notice, because apparently, the fact that Karla is the only one of us who actually cooks wonderful meals pretty much every day does not rate “very excellent” in Mason’s book.)

But seriously, my flatmates are great, and we’ve made it two weeks without killing each other, which counts as a success in my book. Of course, I’ve already taken to hiding from Mason the fact that there has been a gecko in our room for four days, but whatever it takes to survive, right?

Climate, Flora, and Fauna
It’s summer here, I guess, or at least the hottest time of the year. The temperature has gone up to 92∞F/34∞C a few days, but for the most part, it’s about 85∞F/28∞C during the day and cooler at night. Now, that might not seem that hot, but the biggest issue is the lack of aircon; some days there is just no relief from the heat. And since it’s the dry season, it’s really dusty; dust gets on and in everything. But they say the rains are coming…

One benefit of the warm weather is the beautiful flora that is blooming in the city, specifically the flame trees (red one) and the jacaranda trees (purple).

And then there are the ubiquitous geckos and the odd iguana sunning itself on the roof outside our bedroom window. No lions or giraffes yet, though.

There’s much more to say about this city and this country, and I promise to share more later. Now I need to get home.