August Newsletter
August newsletter is here: click here
August 21, 2009
March 9, 2009
Public Service Announcement
OK, this is really more of an electronics lesson, but also a PSA.
Do not plug a 110V surge protector into a 220V outlet.
It explodes.
Everything else attached to that outlet shuts down and the fuse requires replacing.
March 5, 2009
Running Errands
Running errands in town is terribly time-consuming and often very frustrating. I'll use last Thursday and Friday as an example.
Our director Bryan made reservations to fly back to Arizona for a brief visit. Airline reservations cannot be made on the internet in much of Africa. My understanding is that it is due to the high number of fraudulent uses of credit cards. So after finally getting ahold of someone in the British Airways office and securing a reservation, I had to go out to pay for it at a local bank. Only 2 branches in Lusaka accept those payments (of course, they're on the other side of town). On Thursday morning, Bryan's wife wanted to pay with a credit card, but they only accept cash. On Thursday afternoon, I went to one of those branches with US Dollars. I stood in line for 15-20 minutes, filled out the deposit form (with 5 carbon copies), handed over my $100 bills and found out that they did not have the $26 in change that I would require. They told me I could go to the other branch which was very nearby.
I stood in line again for another 20 minutes. Filled out another deposit slip (5 carbon copies again), and handed over my $100 bills. They did have the change. But one of my bills had a small tear in it so they wouldn't accept it. I tried to reason with the teller. No. I asked to speak to the manager and went round and round with her. The response was still no. She explained that they would have to sell it for a lower value on the foreign exchange market. I tried to reason, I argued, but all to no avail. After more than an hour of trying to pay for the ticket, I went home empty handed.
The next morning, I picked up Bryan and we went back to the bank with a new $100 bill. After another 20 minutes, we had finally paid for the ticket. The teller said he would fax the deposit slip to the airlines which would confirm the reservation. I got a call the following Tuesday from the airline requesting that I fax them a copy of the receipt. Things simply move at a different pace here and expectations of customers are much different than those in the US. I'll get used to it.
Feel free to pray for me.
January 9, 2009
On the Road Again
Tonight I'm leaving for Macha, south of Lusaka.
I'll be living with a Zambian family for a week. My understanding is that they have a house made of mud bricks and a proper tin roof. I am brining along a mosquito net and candles. The family is the brother and sister-in-law of Esther, the Zambian helper at the guest house. If they are even half as nice as she is, I'll be just fine.
The hope is that I will gain a little understanding of what life is like for the Zambians and learn some of their culture.
Obviously, I won't be taking my computer and won't be on for the entire week. Right now, the plan is that I will ride out with Gertjan who lives and works there and fly back on a tentatively scheduled flight next Thursday. If the flight gets cancelled, I will stay there longer or find another way back into town. :-)
See you later!! I'm sure I'll have stories to tell.
January 8, 2009
Alien Registration Cards
Every Zambian person must carry a National Registration Card. It's a small ID with a picture and some vital information. You show that instead of a driver's license in many offices. As a foreinger, I now carry an Alien Registration Card, which I got today. It was kind of like hanging out at the DMV for a while.
I had forgotten to take the copies of my passport and work permit with me. So that meant we would have to go next door to make the copies. (It is actually not uncommon for businesses to request that you bring the copies along.) According to the instructions I'd received, I was to bring two copies of each document with me. I assumed this meant the face pages.
The copier next door was broken. Oh dear. Now what? Lesson one: Always make the copies at our office at the Farm. The gatekeeper at the NRC building wouldn't even let us in without the copies. So we walked back toward the car. I noticed another official building and decided to take a chance. So talked to the first person who looked like she worked there and asked if they had a copier we could use to get this done.
She was very pleasant and took us upstairs to her office where she had a small copier sitting right on her desk. Then she disappeared with my passport and work permit. She was gone nearly 20 mintues. I had no idea what she could possibly be doing, but Ernst told me not to worry. She wouldn't do anything malicious with my docs.
When she finally came back, she had had each of the 4 copies certified - far more than we needed or had asked for! Then she told us they were 11,000K each! That's over $2 a copy. We paid her and thanked her profusely and went on back to the NRC.
Today, Ernst and Susi were helping me get things done in town. Susi waited outside with a good book while Ernst and I went in to start the process. We were ushered into an office where a woman sat behind a desk looking over the tops of her glasses. It was her job to determine whether each applicant had brought the appropriate paperwork and copies.
I had not.
January 6, 2009
The Tuesday Market
Today several of us went to the Tuesday Market. Apparently, they've all wanted to go (and some have lived here for as much as 2 ½ years), but simply haven't. So we made it an orientation event!
Roads are pretty poorly marked here in Lusaka and the names on the signs don't always correspond with the names on the map. In addition to never having been there, Mary-Ann was having to navigate through the pouring rain and crazy traffic. Diane was giving directions which had been given to her by a friend. Unfortunately, her friend missed a step or two. Yay! An adventure!!
We finally found it anyway and pulled into a very muddy parking lot. We were greeted by a gaggle of young boys (12-18 years old) who all wanted to carry our bags for us. Of course, they expected to be paid for that as well. ;-) Thankfully, we already knew to expect them and to simply accept one of them to carry bags since they would follow us around anyway. A 13-year-old named Gift (not an uncommon name in Africa) came with me.
The market turned out to be covered. The wall around it was about 6 feet high and the ceilings were about 25-30 feet high. That was nice since it had been raining until about the time we arrived. It was a huge place and was PACKED with people selling their produce. There were about 8 -10 rows of vendors. Many of them had similar wares: mangos, avocados, green beans, corn, carrots, onions, potatoes, fresh herbs (including cilantro - called coriander here) and a variety of other things. I saw lots of okra too. :-( There were also a number of folks selling dried goods such as a variety of beans and spices (fennel, cumin, lentils, etc).
I walked up and down the aisles finding things I will eventually buy. Since I'm still living in the guest house at the moment, I didn't want to fill up their fridge with my stuff, so I didn't buy a whole lot today. However, I definitely plan on going back. I'll have to find a way to work it into my Tuesday schedule.
January 5, 2009
God is Good!
There are a million and one things that I need to accomplish to get settled here. And many of those things I'll eventually have to help others with when they arrive. I've often been told that things in Africa simply take time to get done and if you've got 10 things on your list for the day and accomplish one or two, you've done well.
Mary-Ann and I made a list and schedule to complete all the things that I need to do/know fairly quickly. Her husband Guillermo got volunteered to drive me around Lusaka on Monday to help me get all of these things done. We had seven things on our list that we really wanted to accomplish as well as a list of eight things on a list of things to do as time permitted. Additionally, we were dropping off Guillermo's smaller truck at the mechanic's before we got under way.
As we were driving into town, I prayed with Guillermo that we would be able to accomplish everything on our list for the day as God would allow. So off we went expecting miracles!
We stopped at the ATM to load up on some more cash (total cash society here), then checked out the private clinic that most of the FMZ members use for general medical care. I was looking for a specific store that sells my vitamins and supplements. We found it, but didn't stop. I'll go back another time.
Then we made our way to the Ministry of Immigration where we were looking for my completed/ approved work permit. We had stopped by three weeks earlier, but it wasn't completed. Today we found the record of it in the book, but we didn't have the receipt with us. Can't do anything there without the date-stamped receipt. But Guillermo had an idea. We went to see the man who had started the processing of my application. It seems that he had been promoted. We explained to him that we'd forgotten the receipt, but had the receipt number with us. So he wrote down the receipt number, date submitted, and the date and approval number for the completed permit on a piece of scrap paper. Then he handed it to Guillermo and wished us a nice day. Miracle #1!!
We took our newly minted "receipt" to the desk where you pick up the permits. There were two guys there: one who takes your receipt and pulls the permit and one who watches you sign it and then seals it. G had been building a relationship with the second man which is key in this culture. So after a little confusion about the receipt and me playing up the "stupid-American-girl=please-have-pity-on-me" bit, the first man found my permit and gave it to the second man.
October 25, 2008
All Done
Whoo Hoo!!! I'm all done with the required reading for WorldVenture!
For the past two years, most of my reading has been educational/informative. I haven't gotten to read many books just because I wanted to. I'm so looking forward to the stack of leisure books I've got waiting for me.
October 8, 2008
One more down
Wheee!! I finished reading The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest for the Dark Continent and have completed the integration report for it. Basically, what did I learn and how will I use it in Zambia.
Yay, only two more books and reports to go. And they're both easy. Should have them done in the next 2-3 weeks! Yay!!!
July 20, 2006
Inservice Days
We had an "inservice" at work today - at Gadabout Salon Spa. As a "thank you" for working hard, and because he thought we had all been under a lot of stress in the past few months, our Tucson attorney, Phil, took all of us to the spa.
We started out with lunch at a nearby restaurant to celebrate Phil's birthday. Jonathan joined us for that as well. It's always fun for all six of us to get together for a relaxed, fun, non-work event. Two of the women work out of their homes on the other side of town, so we don't get to see them very often.
After lunch, Phil and we four women headed over to the spa. (Jonathan went back to the office.) Fun! I wasn't entirely sure what was in store for us...but certainly enjoyed it as I found out!!!
April 18, 2006
Think, Think, Think
Ever have those days where just focusing on the task at hand seems an outrageous chore?
Me too. Today, as a matter of fact. :-(
April 2, 2006
It's a Good Thing
My boss, Jonathan, has a fabulous plan for marketing/schmoozing. He buys four season tickets to events that he and his wife enjoy attending together. Whenever they attend, Jonathan invites along one of his clients and their date. That way he never has to spend time away from his wife while entertaining his clients.
Over the past two and a half years some of the clients have had to cancel last minute. That has made me the beneficiary of some of those tickets. Hockey games, opera, musicals, theater, baseball. It's been great!
On Thursday, Jonathan gave me four tickets to see the Diamond Backs play the Yankees at Chase Field in Phoenix. So my friends Jessica and Martha and I drove on up there for the game on Saturday afternoon. The drive up was extremely slow because of multiple accidents along the way. But that's ok, because we chatted and Jessica read to us much of the way up. She reads very well out loud so it was quite enjoyable.
Because we had one more ticket, we took along the 11-year-old daughter of one of my Phoenix co-workers. Brianna turned out to be delightful young lady. (I think she was quite brave for going out with three women she had never met before.) At first she thought we were just strange - not so far off the mark, actually. By the end of the afternoon though, she thought she'd be able to tell her mom that we were OK and that she'd had a good afternoon with us.
It was a beautiful day! About 85 degrees and sunny. The beauty of Chase Field is the retractable roof. In the spring the roof is open. In the summer, when it get to be a thousand degrees, the roof is closed and the A/C kicks in. So we were able to sit and soak up the sun. Jessica even got sunburned - the weenie. :-D
March 9, 2006
Thievery update
So all week long we've been dealing with the robbery from last Saturday. Everday we're noticing little things that are gone. But overall, we're getting back into the swing of things.
Most of the people I've talked to about their stolen checks have been very understanding and helpful. Of course, there's always the one guy who thinks it's our fault that the office got broken into. Ah, what can you do.
March 6, 2006
All Gone
Another sunny Saturday and I was planning on getting a lot of work done at the office. No phone calls, no e-mails. Just me and my computer cranking out nastygrams.
When I got there, around 11:30 AM, I found the garbage can lid scattered across the floor in pieces. Hmm, odd. Our cleaning lady would never do that. I walked into my office and sensed something was wrong. It took me a moment to realize what was going on.
February 13, 2006
Dear Sirs: I'm looking for a job
Recently we got a letter of inquiry at our office. I believe it speaks for itself when I quote:
"I have just finished my bachelorette degree in Political Science from * Univeristy (name withheld) and am now looking forward to entering law school in the fall."
Hmmm
February 8, 2006
Working
I love my job. I have been very blessed to work with Christian co-workers and a delightful boss.
However, today is one of those days. The kind of day where working from home seems like a brilliant idea. No phones ringing off the hook (yes, I know, the logic in that is not entirely sound), no extra noise, no cranky people. Just me and the computer...getting things done.
Of course, by tomorrow night, I'll be on the beach in Mexico and it won't matter. :-D On Monday, work will be fine again.
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