Finally in Zambia!

I'm finally in Zambia!   I left for staging in Philadelphia on the 10th.  Staging was part introduction to Peace Corps,  part travel logistics and part meet everyone and discuss our expectations and concerns.  It was quick,  but I really liked it because it was nice to be in a room full of people who all are feeling the same excitement,  anticipation,  and nervousness.  There are 63 people in the group, 33 health and 30 education.  We got on buses at 2:30am to drive to New York, waited in a pile on the floor at JFK for a couple hours until we could check in, then went through security and waited some more.  The flight to South Africa was 15 hours long and we were all exhausted so it wasn't a ton of fun.  Then we just had a quick two hour flight to Lusaka.

Peace Corps picked us up from the airport and took us to the Barn Motel,  which is pretty much where we've been since then.  We've been doing a lot of paperwork,  got a rabies vaccine, picked our malaria prevention, and heard a presentation about safety and security and a couple about how to stay healthy.  We also had a session with Ba Beene, the health program manager.   She's really great and very funny, and it made us all really excited for what's to come.  The Barn Motel is really nice;  the electricity works most of the time and there are toilets that usually work.  There is hot water for showers most of the time too, and occasionally a lack of cold water so that anyone who tries to take a shower gets scalded.  That's kind of the opposite of what we expected to happen since we were told to expect cold showers.

Yesterday we went to Lusaka to go grocery shopping for first site visit and get sim cards and phones.  I am going to Eastern province for site visit with Ginny, Meghan, Jodi and Katherine.  We're staying with a volunteer named Sue for four days to see what it's like to live in the village and be a health volunteer and such.  I'm super excited to finally get out of the sort of closed-in environment of the Barn Motel and experience something more similar to where we'll all eventually be placed for two years. We on our way to site visit now, and it's a six hour drive so we'll get to see lots of scenery on the way.