Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Well. The last month has absolutely flown by with barely a moment to spare it seems. Most of it was spent studying (or stressing) over my final exams at LSHTM, thankfully they went okay with results coming out in a few weeks. I definitely appreciated all the prayers and thouhts that went out internationally during that period.

There has been plenty of blessings and answers to prayer lately, I was able to get a grant from my uni which has covered my flight fees to and from Zambia takin awy some financial pressure. Also after my last exam I was given a call from Clatterbridge hospital and asked to work there again, so I squeezed in 4 days of work over the week before flying here to Lusaka on Friday evening. So I was provided there as well.

Before I left England I was in London during the Jubilee weekend. It was pretty manic so didn't really get involved too much in the city with it, but it was a cool atmosphere everyone all excited. We went to a bbq with some friends of ours who have moved from London and ate 'Lizzy cakes' - cupcakes decorated with british flags.

Friday evening I flew to Zambia from London. My trip down there was a bit interesting. I hadn't had time to pack so packed the morning I left (as I was in Liverpool at the time), then there were train delays and bus delays and I wondered if I would actually make it on time. Thankfully I did, got to uni and picked up the bag that I was taking for them full of lab supplies and took a taxi to the airport. I was blessed with no further problems there and was all checked in quite easily, and met Marie-Laure who is a Belgian girl studying the same degree as me. Incredibly we had managed to buy the same flights to Lusaka independently, so that was nice to travel with someone.

The flight wasn't too bad, very busy though. I can't sleep sitting up so I only had about 30 minutes sleep that night which wasn't too good - made me all dopey when I got to Lusaka. When we arrived in Lusaka it took us almost an hour to get through immigration, so we were almost the last people sorted out even though we weren't last off the plane. There was one line for 'tourists' and 4 lines for other categories, except there wasn't actually any immigration officer in the tourist line! welcome to Africa!! hehe ah well. So we picked up our bags and finally got outside to meet Mum and Dad, who I haven't seen since November.

Dad's welcome to me was 'You're so pale'. Thanks Dad! I realise what England has done to me!! It's nice and warm here in Zambia, much warmer in winter than it is in summer in England so that problem won't take long to rectify!