There's absolutely no such thing as a typical day here, and I never know what's going to happen tomorrow, but Friday morning this week seemed to encompass a lot of what is typical about my life in Zambia. I woke up to a torrential downpour, the likes of which we rarely see in the UK, but which is pretty bearable as there's no wind so an umbrella's a pretty effective. I left the house early to pay my water bill on the way to work.
I stopped to get cash out of my Zambian bank. You get charged to use the atm, but it's a bit cheaper at your own bank so I went there. The atm was broken so I tried the Barclays one and it swallowed my card. Barclays told me it was illegal for them to do anything other then cut it up, I said that I really needed it and please could I have it and they said okay come back at 1 o'clock. All this required several conversations with Barclays and my bank, and I texted my boss to tell him I was running late. He texted back to say he wouldn't be going to work til the rain stopped (I knew none of my other colleagues would be in the office either, rain here has the same effect as snow back home). My boss asked me to go to an internet cafe while I was in town as we had an urgent e-mail from a funder. Unusually for a rainy day, the internet was working and I managed to download the e-mail and walk to the office. The rain stopped, so we walked back to the internet (a 20-minute walk, 30 minutes at Zambian pace) to reply to the e-mail. By this time all my colleagues were attending to personal errands, so I went home to open the best parcel ever (thank you!) and then to the bank. I managed to retrieve my card, although no-one knows why it was swallowed in the first place so I don't know if it will work again.
It's good that I have more free time here, as seemingly simple things always seem to take an entire morning!
In other news, I've been away this weekend to visit volunteers in Mazabuka, a small town about 5 hours drive north of Livingstone. It's a nice town, and it was good to see a less tourist-y part of the country and catch up with volunteer friends. I'm away from home for 10 days now, and should have more chance to blog this week so I'll update on my travels soon.
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hellooo, i love to read ur posts, you sound waayy more at home and things seem to b ticknig on normally, although worrying about ur card :/ so good luck with that.
ReplyDeleteits cool you got to see different side of africa.
it makes me laugh how much you work colleuges skive off work, especially your boss...:/ i am certain you will be able to change the world by youself tho
in other news:
i got 100/105 for my dt coursework, so im not up there with you and your 100%, but its still an a* so am happpy :D and in my oral (was fineally time) she reckoned i got a c, so its ok, but its not looking like ill get a b overall. ooh, i will get on with getting a picture of the bedroom wall, lol, its still growing...:s at a slower pace tho, need to do mooore woorrkk
lots of love em
(its beth btw, if you couldnt tell, but am signed in as mum)
xxxxxx
Ha ha - your 'day in the life' so reminded me of my time volunteering! Good to catch up with how things are going - hope all well
ReplyDeleteKarenxx