Stories from Zambia

  We threw a party today for all of the American international school of Lusaka 9th graders. It was a we had a great time, everyone swam in our pool. We are getting good use out of our backyard. It seems that parties here work differently, we invited everyone to come from 3-6 but people came at two and left at seven. 

We went to this amazing market near our house that only happens once a month. There were lots of amazing vendors. There was also a man there who showed us how to extract juice from sugarcane. I included some pictures of that also.  

Last night we were out doing our various sports when the car backed up into a tree branch and shattered the back window. Thankfully we were able to find a place to fix it, but we defiantly had a windy ride home. I also included a picture of some beautiful birds on the next-door roof right before the sunset.  

 Our family has joined the local water polo team. We are learning with skilled adults, so the games are a bit of a trial by fire, but it has been fun so far and no bones have been broken.

  We went today to check out the Lubuto Library branch that is just outside of Lusaka. We are planning to volunteer there, designing a curriculum to teach about about climate change and how it is affecting Zambia and also what people can do about it. People at the library were very nice and showed us around the two traditional Zambian buildings that made up this branch of the library. This is a picture of us with this branches head librarian. I also included a picture of some zebras that we saw on the way there.

I found some more beautiful pictures from the lower Zambezi. The sunset was amazing that night, so we got some great shots around the camp and the river.  Also a great picture of drew with awesome sunglasses!

  We went for a walk in an area near Lusaka with horse riding trails and lots of beautiful flora and fauna. We came upon this incredible sink hole next to the trail. The photos don't quite do it justice but it is amazing to look at none the less. It is amazing that places like this are so close to the city!

  We found two interesting signs this morning. The first one let us know that we were paying way too much for our zits. It seems that some of the point was lost in translation. While the second one told us were to go for protection or revenge. (I hope we won't need revenge that badly)!!

  Our school in Lusaka is part of a program called the duke of Edinburgh award. To complete it you must do one hour of community service, one hour of learning a new skill and one hour of a sport for six months. But after the work is over you are given the chance to go on a  multi day trip into the Zambian bush with only other students. It seems like the perfect thing to do to learn about this amazing country while we are here.

I had a great birthday party this year with lots of new people from the American international school of Lusaka that I met in the first week of school. The school is very diverse with lots of students from all over the world who come to Zambia to with institutions like the united nations, different embassy's, and in our case the US Fulbright program.    We had a delicious chocolate peanut butter cake and we had a great time and swimming in our backyard pool.  My younger brother Drew got me this amazing chess set with pieces shaped like different African animals

We went this weekend to an AME church (African Methodist Episcopal). The service was very loud, but had a great message and an amazing choir. Everyone was very kind and welcoming. This is an image of our family with the pastor and another AME pastor from Zimbabwe. 

  This is out daily journey to the American international school in Lusaka Zambia. You can check out or local area and see all of the students walking to their schools in the morning. You even get to see some of Zambia's best reckless drivers at work

For my dads work visas we were told that we needed to go to a public hospital to get a government issued physical. The went in nice cloths ready to learn a thing or two about the Zambian medicine.   when they got there they waited in a long line before paying a lot of money to get a physical. This was probably due to really dressed up for the occasion.  Then they were sent to get an x-ray (we have no idea why he needed an x ray for his physical).  They were sent to a room labeled nuclear medicine and waited for a couple of hours waiting for an x-ray. After the wait he got his X-ray and got out of there!  The next day he came back and he got his results: the results made it clear that his stomach was the correct size and that he did not have vaginitis And that is how you get a physical  (in the end it turned out that you could just hire someone to go on your behalf)