Lazy Sunday and manic Monday...

This week definitely constitutes the end of the beginning. The guys at work now know me well enough that I'm included in the fairly aggressive criticism in team meetings (I'm trying to see this as a positive thing!) and they send me home when they realise that I'm too hungry and grumpy to be useful. The hungry problem will hopefully be rectified soon as we're going to cook lunch together in the office, solving the problem of everyone going home when they get hungry and me being the only one who goes back for the afternoon!

This weekend I got chance to show off my new hometown to a visiting volunteer based a few hours north of here. It was fun to realise that I'm now pretty at home here, as well as yet another opportunity to feel like I'm on holiday. We went to see the Falls, and walked right down to The Boiling Pot (river-level) which I hadn't done before. It's a pretty tiring climb but made very interesting by the number of baboons who share the path! They're apparently known for snatching things from tourists, but I guess they were feeling lazy this weekend as they were completely disinterested in us and mostly hung out picking fleas off each other and letting us take photos. We also went to see a Zambian friend of mine performing in a dance show for tourists, at the very posh Zambezi Sun hotel. The show's put on by a small NGO that helps local young people into full-time employment in the arts. They were all very talented, and we got chatting to the directors afterwards who kindly gave us a lift home and introduced us to the cast.

After a typically lovely lazy sunday, hanging out in the pool at my Australian friends' new home, today has been a typically frustrating Monday. Lots of work to do but no-one quite sure how to get started so we all got sent home early after a slightly confusing argument. Thought I'd take the opportunity to go and blog, but the whole town centre seems to be without power so no internet. (Or supermarket so can't buy chocolate!) And I don't really fancy doing aerobics cos I was bitten to death my mosquitoes at the weekend (stupidly went to an open-air restaurant without my deet) and the only way I'm managing to not scratch my legs is by wearing long thick trousers!

Roll on Thursday, I'm adding a couple of days to Easter weekend and heading off on a camping trip with a few other volunteers. After the relative ease of living in touristy Livingstone I'm looking forward to a few days in the bush being a very different kind of tourist!

Working hard and playing hard

Following on from last week's theme, this has definitely felt like a more normal week! Getting into a routine at work and starting to understand what I'm supposed to be doing. We've been visiting local businesses for sponsorship this week, and during a fairly serious work conversation with a collegaue in a taxi I saw a baboon and got very excited. Hopefully I haven't lost all professional respect by being basically a tourist!

Also slowly establishing a social life. My Australian friends are back in Livingstone this week and we've been out for dinner a couple of times with various visitors. Also went to listen to a talk about elephant orphans, which was accompanied by some cute pictures!

Weekends are definitely feeling like holidays, as I've made friends with a lovely British lady who runs a guest house and has kindly told me to treat her pool as a second home. It's an idyllic spot for spending sunday afternoons! I also went to the museum last weekend. It's good, if a slightly confused tone, celebrating colonialism and also celebrating freedom from colonial oppressors.

And the most exciting news since last blog, a friend of Shelley's (my housemate) took us out on his boat to watch the sunset over the Zambezi last weekend and I saw my first hippo!

So all much excitement here in Livingstone. Against my better judgement I am slightly missing TV though, and my radio was stolen so I haven't heard any news for a month. Please someone let me know if world war is declared, or if anything dramatic happens on Eastenders. Meanwhile I will continue to read lots of books...

A normal weekend...

Finally feeling settled enough that this is a proper weekend! It's really nice to wake up on a Saturday morning for the first time in about 6 weeks and feel at home.

Not much else to report really. Yesterday was Youth Day, (the second public holiday in a week!) so my organisation was out marching with all the other young people's groups in Livingstone. It was interesting hanging out with my colleagues, and listening to all the NGOs fight for the attention of young people as they try to promote male circumcision, condoms, abstinence and VCT.

VSO came down to Livingstone on Thursday and took me out for lunch, which was nice as I was the only person in the office. As we don't have the internet, everyone spends a lot of time in town in internet cafes, or in meetings at the bank. It's still hard to know exactly what I'm going to be doing, but I have taught myself to use Access this week, so hopefully that'll come in handy if we ever get round to setting up that fundraising database...

Finally thought I'd share some pictures of my room, kept beautifully clean by the lovely Selina who comes in to do our laundry and clean the huge house. Tamsin, hope you're pleased to see that Dora made it onto the wall! I'm going to give the height chart to Kathy, my boss's 4-year old daughter. Hopefully she'll be able to make better use of it than me!

Neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring

Being a volunteer in a small town is fun, as I don't fit into any particular group so have been meeting lots of different people. Apart from a few other VSO volunteers in town and across Zambia (who will no doubt all be down to visit the Falls at sometime soon) I don't immediately fit in with any one group.

This week I've met the ex-pat community, who are a lovely and very interesting. Everyone's been keen to help me to settle in, and one couple have even offered to donate some curtains to my ongoing efforts to make our huge house more homely and secure. I've also been invited to join an aerobics class which I think I'm going to try next week.

Most of the ex-pats I've met work in the tourism industry, and it's been a dramatic week for them. Apparently the torrential rains of last week are unusual here, and were more dramatic than I'd realised. A lot of people have lost their homes, and some serious damage has been done to some of the hotels and other buildings. Also this week the Zambian government have announced a massive increase in tax on the tourist industry, which has big implications both for my new friends' businesses and also on corporate sponsorship opportunities for my NGO.

Work is very different from the ex-pat lifestyle, and I'm really enjoying getting to know my new colleagues. My boss took me and another Livingstone newcomer down to Victoria Falls last weekend, and it's absolutely amazing by daylight. They're huge, and you get absolutely soaked walking to look at them! Totally amazing, and apparently they change a lot during the year so it will never get boring.

Everyone at CTYA is about my age, and I think it will be a fun social group once I'm settled in. This has been my first proper week at work, and I'm slowly working out what I'll be doing with the rest of my year. There's a lot to do, but it all seems fun. Yesterday we wrote a project-plan for VCT (voluntary counselling and testing for HIV) campaigns month in June. Today I'm starting to get my head round the idea of setting up a fundraising database from scratch...not entirely sure that my boss has understood my databasing skills, but I'll have a go. At least the sun is back, so it feels a bit like a holiday again!

Highs and lows

Well, nearing the end of my first week in Livingstone and it's never boring! The house that I'm sharing with one other volunteer is enormous and beautiful. It has a mango tree in the garden, and plenty of space to hang laundry inside so we won't have to iron everything to keep the flies away!

Unfortunately the first night we arrived, it was about midnight and as we had no furniture we decided to stay with some volunteers who already live here. During the night someone broke into our house and went through all our luggage in minute detail. So upsetting to lose so many things after all the careful attention to packing! It was also very strange - the thieves opened up individual tampons, but kindly left Cala's neatly wrapped presents intact.

Apart from that, there have been lots of highs - most spectacularly, we went to see the luna mist over Victoria Falls, which is a rainbow that forms at full moon. Hard to describe and even harder to photograph but absolutely awesome.

I haven't started work properly yet, but did have a great introduction meeting with the staff and volunteers. Everyone's lovely and very enthusiastic, and they've achieved so much already I'm starting to wonder what my role is! I'm hoping to develop a volunteers policy though, Jane if you're reading this I could use a copy of the NAS one...

Think that's it for now, it's hard being away from home and learning that Grandad is so ill. It's also been raining torrentially for 24 hours which is not exactly what I signed up for. But keeping my spirits up, and tonight I'm going to take my first Livingstone taxi and meet some volunteer friends who are down for a conference. Pizza and a glass of wine will be very welcome!