Lion on the bed

I am sitting on my big bed with a Lion print blanket (it does get cool here at night) – not a lion print as in leopard print – but an enormous picture of the head of a lion printed onto the blanket. Yeah, a bit scary. But then again, it’s Africa, right? Even in ex-pat style. will post this tomorrow morning from the office.

The electricity has just come back on. It was out during the dinner hour – about 6pm to 8:30pm – “rashioning” it’s called.  Fairly smart if you ask me.  Apparently there is a schedule, although the electric company doesn’t keep it, so every few nights or days – or both – the power goes off in different neighborhoods for a few prime hours just to save.  It was fairly incredible – within seconds, literally, of the electricity suddenly shutting off – the surrounding houses looked like they started turning on lights. Folks around here have the flash-light-mixed-with-candles lighting down to a science.

I am feeling less resistant to the expatriate style. I even wore heels to work today – ha! I never once wore them to my clinical site this year- but today we had a meeting with the ministry of health so, what better a time? 

It was refreshing in some way to visit the ministry.  A rather drab building – about 7 stories in the middle of nowhere in Lusaka – jutting upwards like a big box built with legos in the middle of a living room floor.  It had decent landscaping dozens of white 4x4s in the parking lot, and a fountain with dolphins (hmmmm? It’s land locked country. Not exactly their mascot). The building was rather dark inside – and the offices had little to no decoration – a small fridge jammed up against a standing fan- jammed next to a built in shelf made of peeling and old formica with big binders labeled “Action Plan” and “WHO recommendations” and “Child Mortality.”  Some of the ceiling tiles were falling out, I noticed, as I waited for the meeting.  One of the few decorations in the Hall was a World Breastfeeding Week poster (shout out to WABA – my old job). But the minister we met with was really sharp – really smart – gave great feedback and supportive advice for the study. 

That was the Zambia I was expecting. And in some really selfish way – I was glad to see it.  Some how the peeling formica and pictures hung-too-high on the walls made me feel at home.

Thursday and Friday I’m scheduled to visit some midwifery school clinical rotations – that should be another big step towards opening my eyes to what this country is – and how it functions.  I don’t think I’ll wear heels for that day.