Zambia

After a 12-hour flight on South African Airways from Paris via Zurich, we arrived in Johannesburg for a short layover before hopping a two-hour flight north to Lusaka, Zambia's capital. We arrived to sunny, warm (but no heat and humidity, ye denizens of D.C.!)weather and a mad rush to arrange transportation to the COMESA secretariat, our new office.

First order of business: Checking out our new house, a three-bedroom place (lots of room for visitors, hint, hint!) that had already been selected by COMESA. Here is a partial view of the living room and dining room, several days after arrival..and after Paul had figured out how to rig up his laptop DVD player to some real speakers....Okay, the place needs some serious decorating.

Have we told you about the moat that runs behind our place? No crocodiles spotted,although there tends to be plenty of burning garbage.

The view out front onto Provident Street.

Paving hasn't quite yet come to our Provident Street....

...but at the street's end there is a fancy shoe repair shop that's faithfully staffed during the weekdays.

Paul rigging up the speakers in the living room. See what we mean by that decorating comment?

Our household staff asked that we buy "a few things" to help them do the cleaning and our laundry. Thank God for these guys! We happily obliged.

Before long, we had our first visitor. This fellow dropped by late one Sunday afternoon. Thought he'd never leave. Paul kept dropping hints, but Tim wanted more photos of this handsome guy. Check out those legs!

Shortly after greeting our first visitor, we had our second, although this one seems here to stay. We'd been forewarned by our friend Bill in South Africa about the spiders. We steer clear of this big guy and his friend who lives in our kitchen. They steer clear of us, too. We're just one big happy family.

Some of the accoutrement of living and working in Zambia. From bottom to top, Southern African Development Community (SADC) drivers' licenses; American embassy passes; Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) diplomatic passports (yeahhhh!); and Zambian kwacha (1 U.S. dollar=approx. 4500 Zambian kwacha -- We're still not completely comfortable selecting numbers like "400,000" when using ATMs here).

The early morning commute into work. All in all, it's about 15 minutes and our driver handles the traffic (what traffic, you ask) very well.

A view of Cairo Road, the "main drag" in downtown Lusaka. The name of this road is a tip of the hat to Cecil Rhodes' Cape-to-Cairo dream during the days of the British Empire. Trust us, this road doesn't get anywhere near Cairo. It's all of about a mile long.

Typical chaotic traffic along Cairo Road in downtown Lusaka. Cars and pedestrians intermingle willy-nilly, with surprisingly few mishaps.

A major downtown intersection that we use daily. This one -- and nearly every other one in the city -- features the ubiquitous African hawker. Nearly every human visible in this image is hawking something -- anything from cell phones to bananas; from wristwatches to sunglasses; from oranges to live rabbits; from newspapers to alarm clocks; and from cheesy paintings to abdominal exercise equipment. We've seen all of this being sold at intersections in Lusaka....and don't get Tim started about what he's seen in Nigeria!

More of Lusaka's morning traffic, at the roundabout in front of our offices. Yep, the traffic flows on the other side here, which is taking some getting used to.

A major portion of Lusaka's skyline, taken from our office bloc.

More of Lusaka. Note the sky -- it's been mostly like this since we arrived and is expected to remain this way until the rainy season begins in November.

A good view of the south roundabout on Cairo Road and the COMESA headquarters (where we work) across the way.

The view from our office window, into the COMESA courtyard. That is an unfinished sculpture of an elephant, in case you wondered. We sure as heck did.

Tim thinks this guy is an awfully nice addition to the COMESA staff. Taken on the walkway that leads (behind Paul) to our office (no, it's not behind those bars in the background....at least not yet).

The view from Tim's desk. (Tim's likin' this. It gives new meaning to "working closely together",eh?)

A bigger view of our office (yeah, we got a window!!)

Introducing: THE MULLETMOBILE! A.k.a., a Nissan Hardbody 4x4, a.k.a., our project vehicle, parked here in the front courtyard of our residence building. And the feature that Paul loves most? Driving on the right and using his left hand to shift gears. Too bad he's not a lefty, like his better half.

Just call him butch, right? Some know better.

Nice tail, eh? You can see that when you visit we'll have room to carry around you AND your luggage!

There she is, in all her glory....

....and don't you just love the details??! While we were given no say in choosing the style and color, we're sure glad to have our own means to get around town whenever and wherever we want.