Arrived!

20 May 2012 7:46pm (Zambia). 12:45 PM (Huntsville)

I am now sitting comfortably in the dining area of Bongwe Safaris inn (www.bongwesafaris.com)  run by the very nice Emma, in the city of Lusaka.  Bongwe has an outdoor pool & restaurant (“The Bongwe Barn” ).  It is very nice with about 7 rooms, kitchen, dining area, & lounge area. The inn provides us corn flakes, whole wheat crackers, homemade bread & a large selection of jams, honey, & marmite (yeast extract – I don’t care for it) every morning for breakfast.  Hot tea is also available.

I arrived at the Lusaka airport & while getting through customs took a while, I had no trouble.  I had already gotten my business visa, but my co-vet student intern purchase hers right at customs very easily (almost scarily too easy).   Even though it was more work & in the end more expensive, I liked knowing that I already had my visa & was assured the correct visa type. 

We are currently staying here at Bongewe for a few days while we work with a small group of baby eles recently located at the Lilayi Lodge, which is closer to Lusaka than the Kafue camp. 

Soon after Rachael (the EOP project manager dropped us off at Bongewe from the airport), Emma (the Bongewe manager) took us to the market. The market is open every Sunday & dozens of locals set up their tables to sell their wares. It consists of wooden animal sculptures, paintings, beaded figures, instruments, some clothing, etc.  The sellers are very pushy & followed us all around saying “My sister, my sister, please look at this.” Make sure to barter prices with them.  This is where Jackie bought all of her souvenirs – (much more the impulse spender & more quickly persuaded than myself).  I just bought one thing for Andrew (brother).

While I’m writing this, I met a girl (Heather) who works at UAB & is here doing research/work with the hospital.  Go figure, two Alabama girls at the same Zambian inn.  I also met one of the safari guides who said that while the best time to see lots of animals is August/September, he has had good sightings right now! Yay for us.