Kalulu

Photo from Kavitha, a new friend I made in Livingstone—a group of us took a boat to Livingstone Island (right on the edge of the falls) last week. We had high tea and went swimming in the Zambezi River. (Kavitha's own travel blog can be found here: https://labtofab.wordpress.com).

Coming back to Lusaka the second time around felt much better than my initial arrival. I was coming back to a few familiar faces as well as some new additions at Kalulu Backpackers, including, as luck would have it, a few other sociological researchers and medical students who will be here with me more long-term. We’ve formed a kind of Norweigian/British/American/Swiss contingency of young women in Lusaka who are trying to figure this city out together. It’s nice to have some company.

Riding through Lusaka on the back of a pickup truck.

I got back on Thursday and the last few days have been mainly spent getting resettled. I’ve stepped out on a limb and decided to lay some ground work for hiring a few Zambian research assistants to help me out in the next few weeks. I’ve taken a day trip with some new friends to the nearby Munda Wanga wildlife sanctuary a few miles out of Lusaka (perhaps the most entertaining aspect of this trip was learning that in addition to playing host to Zambian wildlife, now is also home for Gaddafi’s camels). I’ve become friends with Shawn, the energetic four year-old son of the owners of the hostel, participated in huge communal dinners, and visited a few of the city markets.

This is just a brief post for the in-between because tomorrow I’m leaving Lusaka again for another adventure. As I mentioned briefly before, a very kind blog reader, Katie Lachman, who is living with her family in Zambia got in touch with me and generously offered to give me a place to stay and people to talk to in their neck of the woods. I’ll be heading to Petauke tomorrow and will be there until returning to Lusaka on Thursday. I am very excited to meet their family and hear about their own adventures in Zambia. Katie’s blog can be found here: http://katie-kette.blogspot.com).

It’s a lot of coming and going, but this place is starting to feel like home. I am reminded once again how easy it is to create a home for yourself when there are people around you who are looking for the same thing. My home in Lusaka for the next month borrows its name, “Kalulu”, from the African Brer Rabbit. Kalulu is supposedly the hero of many Zambian folktales and stories told around the fire. On Friday night a few of us set up our own campfire and, as the resident American, I ended up teaching fellow travelers from Norway, England, Zambia, The Netherlands, Russia, Brazil, & Ireland how to make a proper s'more.

Those of us who are here for a while are all going through the process of adapting and figuring out ways to make Kalulu into our own little home for the next few weeks.

We're finding that campfires are an excellent way to start.