ARRIVAL IN AFRICA
I arrived in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia early in the morning on 9/11/08. I was greeted with the warm hospitality of my Presentation Sisters from Ireland and India, who minister here in various parts of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Many of the sisters have traveled to Lusaka this weekend for a meeting, so I've had the opportunity to meet many of the sisters I will be visiting over the next several months.
Lusaka is a city of over 1,000,000 people and is very different from any city I've visited! The African culture becomes visible as soon as you travel down a street. There is much traffic and many people traveling long distances by foot or bike (often loaded with more than I can imagine getting in a car). Women are carrying their babies on their backs and sometimes baskets balanced on their heads! Busy streets are filled with young men selling what goods they can to the passengers in the autos driving by. There was even a man carrying a puppy in each hand offering them for sale as we passed by today!
Most of the roads (at least in the part of the city where I'm located) are dirt and full of pot holes. A rooster crows in one of the yards near us. Every building is surrounded by about eight foot cement walls and then topped with sharp broken pieces of glass and barbed or electric wire. There are heavy steel gates always closed and locked. Obviously, the crime is very bad in the city and there is need to take much precaution. We stopped at a small shopping mall on Saturday morning and there were a number of military personel walking around carrying large machine guns and a guard in each store.
I had the new adventure of traveling in one of the city mini-buses, which is about the size of a van. Two men work the buses, one to drive, the other to round up customers. He hangs out the window and yells at pedestrians to see if they want on the bus. They fill the bus up as full as they can possibly get it...even if it means backing up to pick someone up! It reminded me of the game "sardines" where you try to get as many people into one space as you can.
Lusaka is a city of over 1,000,000 people and is very different from any city I've visited! The African culture becomes visible as soon as you travel down a street. There is much traffic and many people traveling long distances by foot or bike (often loaded with more than I can imagine getting in a car). Women are carrying their babies on their backs and sometimes baskets balanced on their heads! Busy streets are filled with young men selling what goods they can to the passengers in the autos driving by. There was even a man carrying a puppy in each hand offering them for sale as we passed by today!
Most of the roads (at least in the part of the city where I'm located) are dirt and full of pot holes. A rooster crows in one of the yards near us. Every building is surrounded by about eight foot cement walls and then topped with sharp broken pieces of glass and barbed or electric wire. There are heavy steel gates always closed and locked. Obviously, the crime is very bad in the city and there is need to take much precaution. We stopped at a small shopping mall on Saturday morning and there were a number of military personel walking around carrying large machine guns and a guard in each store.
I had the new adventure of traveling in one of the city mini-buses, which is about the size of a van. Two men work the buses, one to drive, the other to round up customers. He hangs out the window and yells at pedestrians to see if they want on the bus. They fill the bus up as full as they can possibly get it...even if it means backing up to pick someone up! It reminded me of the game "sardines" where you try to get as many people into one space as you can.
On Monday morning I'll be traveling to the village of Kaoma with a couple of sisters who are continuing on to Mongue. It'll be a five or six hour drive west of Lusaka and I will be staying there for the next several weeks.
posted by Sister Deb Nelson at
3:41 PM
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