Farewell to Zambia

So once again I have failed to regularly update my blog. And once again it is time to say farewell to a place that I’ve grown very fond of, and time to say goodbye to all the wonderful people I have met this summer. Seriously, I would say the best part of this experience this summer has been the people I have met. My work colleagues have been so supportive and helpful in helping me navigate the ins and outs of the State Department, editing my writing, helping me with housing logistics, driving me all over Luxsaka, feeding me, giving me job advice, etc. I’ve also met some wonderful people through the hash running group I’ve joined, as well as through my canoe trip I did early in July. I’m sad to leave and can only hope I cross paths with some of these people in the future.

Team Sinazongwe post-meal

So much has happened since I last wrote so for brevity’s sake I’ll keep it short. Zambia had general elections on August 11 and I was lucky enough to be part of an Embassy observation team sent out to Sinazongwe district, which is on the edge of Lake Kariba, the world’s largest manmade lake! The pre-election atmosphere in Lusaka was fairly tense, with the opposition and ruling party constantly butting heads, and we knew it was going to be a tight race. Election observation was a busy couple of days, with very little sleep, but I’m so glad I got to witness the elections from the grassroots level. My team and I visited 19 polling stations throughout the day and spoke with officials about how the process was going. It was pretty inspiring to see people waiting in line in the hot sun for hours to vote, many of whom had probably walked for a couple or miles or so just to get there. Puts American voters to shame… We pulled a very long day on election day itself, observing from  5am- 3am! And since everyone is out voting, there is nowhere to get food. So I subsisted on lots of goldfish crackers, apples, and Coke along with my teammates. I handed one of the drivers a stick of gum around  noon and he said “this is my lunch….” So as you can see team morale got a little down in-between snack times but Team Sinazongwe persevered (along with the help of a bag of Jolly Ranchers). It was great to see another part of the country (we were close to the Zimbabwe border) and honestly witness some history in the making. The election results have been hotly contested since the final vote tally (the incumbent got re-elected), so I’m quite sad to be leaving at such an interesting time and will follow along closely when I get back to the states.

Post-election was a busy time at the Embassy, doing lots of write-ups for Washington and attending follow-up meetings. I was able to write up a couple of cables about the election as well as an environmentally focused one that was a bit more up my alley.  The wildlife/environmental work dropped off significantly in light of elections (to be expected) so it was actually a good challenge to do some write ups on issues that I’m not familiar with, and I found the political scene here to be very interesting.

Marvin and I at our hostel in Livingstone

Last weekend I was able to see one of my Peace Corps friends, Marvin, down in Livingstone, Zambia to go visit Victoria Falls. Marvin and I hadn’t seen each other since we COSed in Nepal, so it was a great reunion and we spent most of our time reminiscing over our nepali adventures, some of which in retrospect, we are unsure how we survived for  over 2 years. Marvin had been working for USAID all summer in Pretoria, SA so I was pumped when he said he would fly up for the weekend! Marvin and I had a pretty quick visit because he was flying back to the states and I had to head back to Lusaka that Sunday, but we spent Saturday day hiking around the falls and taking pictures. The falls are quite dry this time of year so pictures actually turned out nicely, but during the wet season the spray is so intense you can barely see anything from all the water. Sunday morning we got up early to go swim in Devils pool! Quite possibly one of the coolest (and scariest) things I’ve done…You are literally sitting right on the edge of the waterfall. It was fairly pricey but I’m so glad I was able to experience that sort of adrenaline rush. The Falls straddle the border between Zim and Zambia so Marvin and I only viewed them from the Zambia side, but they’re supposedly equally as impressive as from the other side as well. Definitely a sight to see if you’re ever in either of those 2 countries. Then I took the poor-grad student route and took an 8 hour bus back to Lusaka instead of flying which, while about 20x better than Nepali buses, still amounted to a very uncomfortable and very hot day. However, since my incident in Nepal where a lady threw up on my face, any bus ride where no one vomits is a great success, especially if it’s not on me!

I’ve mentioned before, but I’ve been going to the hash run every Saturday here which is a running group. After eight or so runs you get baptized with your “hash name.” Everyone has a hash name they go by and honestly, I didn’t even know the real names of some people I ran with over the past couple of months! Well two weeks ago was time for my naming and after getting a beer poured over my head I was dubbed “President Trump.” Being the only American at most of these events has its downsides I guess…everyone else finds it quite entertaining! J I finished up my last hash this past weekend with a nice post-run meal at some friends house (thanks again Steven and Liz!), a couple friendly rounds of beer pong and a celebratory vodka/tonic with the one and only lime that came out of their tree they had been carefully cultivating over the past couple years, so it was a special night.

Time to head back to the mitten tomorrow on a red-eye to Dubai (which should be fun considering I’ve managed to catch a nasty head cold the last couple of days), and then I’ll have to switch over to academic-mode from here on out. It’s going to be a bit overwhelming coming back to Ann Arbor this Friday as this weekend is packed full with the first home football game, a department bar-crawl, and moving all my furniture into my second story house (if anyone knows how to fit a bed into a Ford Focus hit me up) plus jetlag. I do feel refreshed and excited for my classes this semester though, and that is largely due in part to the work I’ve been doing this summer. So, if you’re reading this from Zambia, THANK YOU, and if you’re in Ann Arbor, see you soon!

On the shore of Lake Kariba

Hash group a couple of weeks back

Picking Momo up from the airport!

Entrance to the falls

It was like Nepal all over again with the monkeys.....

Early morning on Livingstone Island overlooking the falls

Devils Pool

Exploring the gardens of Sugarbush Farms outside Lusaka

Last hash!

Wearing the "hash shit" shirt since it was my last hash. Also filthy from running through burnt fields.

My boss' adorable 8 week old Visla puppy Hemingway