First reflections

First weekend in Zambia and already a party. Emily turned 30, and it was reason to celebrate. Less than 24 hours after she arrived in the country, we managed to throw together a potluck between the two intern houses. Two o’clock in the afternoon found the four of us zipping along Addis Ababa Drive in a taxi, together with our little charcoal grill, pasta salad and three trays of oatmeal raisin bars.
Food prices are somewhat shocking here. We couldn’t find any canned goods for less than $1. Toilet paper and paper towels can be more than a $1/roll. Even grains are more. At least vegetables and fruits are somewhat more comparable. Perhaps it’s because we happen to live near the most expensive supermarket in town, Superspar. I always thought Shoprite was the expensive African supermarket, but apparently it’s the budget place around here. Perhaps it’s also because my budget this year will be teeny, and while I am living rent free, food and transport is going to add up fast. So I think cooking will get creative this year. We’ve already replaced $30 bottles of olive oil with olive oil cooking spray (garlic flavored!) Our pasta salad came out surprisingly well, considering it was dressed with the cheapest salad dressing they had, a $3 bottle of somewhat neon yellow colored Greek dressing.
Our first party in Zambia was a smashing success. The other intern house, while not quite a McMansion, has a beautiful grassy yard. With our satellite radio blasting via the TV and through the open windows, all the dining room furniture moved outside, and a table covered in tasty food, it was a great afternoon to get to know each other. My first Zambian beer, Mosi, was nothing to write home about, but was refreshing nonetheless.
Night falls fast on Lusaka. As soon as the sun dips below the horizon, the city is blanketed in a thick blanket of darkness. And while there are streetlights in places, there are by no means enough. As a result, it’s not safe to be out after dark, and in fact I’ve heard there’s technically a curfew. Since it’s winter season right now and we are somewhat equatorial, it means that by 6:30 pm, we are driven within the walls of our protected compounds. But on Sunday night it was okay being stuck within. As the sky darkened, we melted candles in old wine bottles, and continued our lively conversations of all the places we have been, and all we’ve yet to do. It took a reminder that tomorrow was our first day of work to finally get us to stop talking, call a cab, and make our way home.

It’s funny, but after only three days here, I’m already feeling like I live here. On a trip to The Arcades (that’s the strip mall) on Sunday morning for groceries, we encountered a massive throng of young Americans, probably college students, converging on the money exchange. I stared at them thinking, “Who are all these people, why are they here, why are they taking up all this space and being such loud Americans, I live here!”

Today was our first day of work. Like any new job, it was a day of orientation, one of those painful but necessary days of talk after talk from every department in the company. We had extensive lectures from facilities, IT, finance, acquisitions and security. I now know more than I could ever want to know about reimbursement for expenses both below and above 300,000 kwacha. It wasn’t all boring talks though. The morning was full of presentations from all the different research and service groups here- antiretroviral treatment scale up (ART), prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT), HIV/TB integration, pediatric HIV, cervical cancer and community outreach. Each talk made me more excited about the work that’s going on here, how incredible it is, and how much I can’t wait to be a part of it. The highlight of the day was probably the presentation by the community members, who sang for us, wrapped us in traditional fabrics and made us dance. That was followed by a traditional Zambian lunch. The nshima (maize paste used to pick up food) and various vegetable stews were okay. I was a big fan of the sweet potatoes with a peanuty sauce. I skipped the fried caterpillars, despite their encouragement that I try it.

My roommates and I are slowly developing our routine. We started the morning off with some cardio, another Billy Blank’s Bootcamp session. I managed not to laugh at myself quite as much today as I did yesterday. After getting home from orientation today, we made dinner together. Now we’re all sitting at our large, square dining room table, quiet music playing in the background, all lost in our own worlds of writing the days reflections. I think as we all settle into our projects, we won’t spend quite as much time together. Probably by the end of this orientation week we’ll be tired of each other anyway. But we promised to try and have one family dinner per week.