11th October
Today was a good day. We had a 5 hour drive around Lusaka kindly organised by George, our very friendly VSO programme manager who seems to have a very infectious Mutley the Dog laugh. It was a tiring drive through some pot holes, but surprisingly the the main roads were very smooth and a better testimont to some of the roads at home. The tour gave us an amazing insight into the layout of Lusaka which was a lot more spread out as a city than I was led to believe. We visited the Kwambata Cultural Village, home to some amazingly skilled market traders who were selling some amazing Zambian handicrafts and It was there, where I got the opportunity to try on my first chitenge. (a traditional material used by local women to use as skirts). Lots of VSOs use Chitenge as throws and curtains apparently, so we’ll see what uses I will make out of them. I did feel guilty though, as we were being pressured to buy their goods and I didn’t have any money on me at the time and so the look of disappointment on their faces was enough to make the ground swallow me up – a feeling which I guess will happen a lot when I’m browsing the markets when I’m in Chipata.
That afternoon I had my first Braii (or ‘Barbie’, which the Aussie VSO, Christian kept referring to it as) at Minerva court - in an area home to a lot of VSOs based in Lusaka. It provided us with a great opportunity to meet a lot of the current VSOs who are working throughout Zambia and hear tales (all good and bad) of their experiences in the last 6months/ year. Lets hope I make it through the next week, let alone the next 6 months…
That same evening we attended our second wedding held on the grounds of our residence and it was a great way to spend our Sunday evening watching the Zambian sunset and listening to lots of Zambian music. I can’t believe I’ve only been here 2 days!
Never have I known someone who attends so many weddings! You've only been there a week and you've been to two already. :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat blog!