Another three day weekend!!

Friday, October 24 – Today is Zambian Independence Day and thus, I do not have to work…again. This weekend will be lots of fun and quite busy as some of my co-workers from back in the States will be here on a visit. Carlos (the Contracts Team Lead) and Dyad (Contracting Officer based with Valerie in Pretoria) arrive tonight. While I was supposed to go camping at Kafue National Park this weekend, for various reasons it didn’t work out. And while I’m bummed that I don’t get to spend the weekend with Nick and Michelle, I do have some happening social plans set up.

Today I spent the morning blogging by the pool and finishing up a few small grant application reviews. While Zambia is a pretty peaceful place, I decided to err on the side of caution and hang at my hotel today, just in case things get rowdy. Here’s a picture of my view. Yes, seriously this is what I look at every morning while eating breakfast. It’s a beautiful pool area and I’m so happy to have an extension to my summer. I hear it’s gotten cold back home. I have no shame in rubbing it in that I still am working on my tan.

I spent the afternoon doing laundry (with woolite in the sink) and other odds and ends. Carlos and Dyad arrived late afternoon and a group of us when over to Carmen’s house for dinner. Carmen is the Director of the CDC Zambia office and was gracious enough to invite a few newbies over for some homemade Mexican food. Yum-o! Among the attendees were – Justin, Caroline – a Public Health fellow in the CDC Office, Carlos, Dyad, and Adam – a new employee at the USAID office. There were a few others, but these are the names you will see again and the people that I’ve been hanging out with most over here. It’s nice that we band together so quickly being so far away from our other friends and family.

Carmen and her husband Jason have a beautiful home and it was so nice to have a relaxed evening with my new co-workers. In the category of random, I was asked twice in front of the group about what I want to do with my life. I guess it comes with the territory when you’re in a fellowship program doing an overseas rotation. It’s nice to have people that are concerned and available to be sounding boards. I’ve had a lot of time to think, process and plan about future career plans while I’m here. I’m finally getting to the answers phase, but these are things you’ll have to ask me to discus in person. Moving on…

After dinner, Carlos, Dyad and I hung out at the hotel bar to catch up on things. There were a lot of foreign journalists and election observers in town for gearing up for that Zambian presidential election. I don’t mind living in a hotel when you have friends to hang out with and things to do at night.