Settling In

I have been here for 3 days now, and as you can imagine it has all been a blur of meeting people and trying to adjust to foreign names, lingo, directions and time zones. I’ll throw out some concrete facts, for worried parents, and some interesting stories, for bored friends perusing the internet with no better blogs to read :) Also Piaf fellows all had better prepare themselves because I intend to travel in Africa… and homelessness is not in the game plan!

I first owe it to myself and to the unfortunate soul who sat next to me in the airplane to give an anecdote about the arduous journey to Zambia. I just never want to forget this weird experience! Some odd melatonin-induced dozing hours into the ride, I am awakened by the woman next to me, who is singing Rihanna at the top of her voice with her headphones on. There is some slow airplane-seat dancing going on too, and as entertaining as it is, I’m exhausted and ask her to please sing quietly? Hours or minutes or seconds pass, and I wake up to a mysterious smell. Yes, the drunk singing woman vomited all over me while I was sleeping. The saving grace – I was covered in an airplane blanket, which I impulsively threw up into the air upon realizing what had happened (thankfully it landed in the aisle). Confused and trapped, I looked around, praying for a stewardess to help me and the passed out lady. In time someone came, and I was reseated “because this is not healthy for you to sit in the vomit of an ill person.” Thank you stewardess angel!

After that, the journey could only improve! I felt better in the airport after helping a guy from Argentina get through customs, decipher his ticket, and find his gate. I guess Spanish hasn’t proved completely useless thus far! If I had one analogy to explain how things are here at African Impact in Livingstone, I’d say that African Impact is like college in Africa, and Livingstone is like a college town. My room is located on the main grounds, which consist of housing for the volunteers and backpackers (who share the space), a kitchen and outdoor tables, a small open air office space, a pool and lawn chairs in the center of it all, two bars bookending the pool area, and trees and grass amidst it all. It’s very lovely! The food I’ve eaten so far is good, the water is safe, and the major people I’ll be working with – current fellow Erin, Australian Brie, Hannah from the UK, and Stephen from Scotland, are all around my age and very friendly. Everyone is very close and go out often, especially with the current volunteers who are mostly college-age in the summer months. I will admit to being a bit intimidated by the tight-knit community and the parties that went on while I was trying to get over my jet-lag, but they are definitely a fun group! Erin has showed me around town, which is small with a major shopping center that has anything you could ever need, and has introduced me to most of her and the group’s major acquaintances around town. The expat community is large, and I can already sense significant cultural boundaries and how difficult it might be to meet and befriend Zambians.

I’ve done some cool things already, like attend a “Polocrosse” party (a combination of polo and lacrosse – sounds dangerous!), have brunch at a restaurant out in the bush, and learn how to drive a manual on bumpy roads with Elephants grazing on the sides! I also got to visit Nakatinde, one of the schools that African Impact works with. I’m at once overwhelmed, appreciative of the towns smallness, envious of fellows in big cities, excited to begin working and contributing, lonely, inspired by the many people I’ve met from around the world, and confused as to how and when this will become familiar to me. My first day of work starts tomorrow, and I’m hoping those positive feelings will increase and the negative ones start to fade away. Either way, I can see how this town will become at once comforting and overly familiar, and I will want to explore other places. For now, I'm just trying to absorb and learn everything I possibly can. I look forward to achieving the kind of comfort that will allow me to mould this experience into what I want it to be for me, an opportunity to be exposed to development issues in an international setting and contribute to progressive solutions. While I may be more suited to a larger city and working on more political issues like Refugee and Women’s rights, this is a way for me to be actively involved on a small scale and gain the experience that can lead me to bigger arenas of human rights work.

Friends and family, and anyone who would want to skype, my work week is from 7:15 to 5 p.m. Email me at kate.e.albers@gmail.com to schedule a time, or email or whatever!