Landed!

Greetings from Zambia! I am finally here. It was an amazing feeling to walk off the plane this morning (at 6am, just after sunrise) and know that I was walking on the soil of such an incredible continent: Africa. OK, so it was concrete, not soil, but still. There were 9 other VSO volunteers from Canada, UK and Australia on the same flight and we were all met by Maurice (pronounced Morris), head of HIV/AIDS at VSO Zambia. He and Davies, another VSO employee, took care of our passports and visas while we got to know eachother and picked up our luggage. Then our bus driver, Robson, took us all into the Ndeke Hotel where we are staying for the first week. It was a relatively short trip, but it was a drive I won't soon forget. Looking out the window at pale grasslands spattered with trees and shrubs and passing women dressed in colourful "chitenges"... there is no mistaking it, I am not in Kansas anymore.

Tomorrow we will be touring the city and resting some more before training starts on Monday. I may also have to visit the clinic tomorrow, because my body is revolting against serious sleep deprevation, but hopefully if I can manage to avoid the temptation to explore and get some more rest I will recover.

Thank you to everyone for your lovely emails. And thank you to those of you in Norwich who made my 2 days there so special.

Oh, and if anyone wants to try phoning me, I have a number now: 097173384 I'm not sure what the country code is yet, or if you dial the zero, but if you can figure it out, feel free to give your phone bill a healthy boost:)