First Days in Ndola

I have arrived!

Just over a week ago I said good bye to Thulasy and Josephine (what was left of my EWB support crew) and caught a bus from Livingstone at 6:30 am, arrived in Lusaka at 1:00pm and then proceeded to drive the 4hrs up to Ndola with the Sorghum team’s project manager Evans. We made it to town after dark and just in time for dinner and sleep. The next day I was able to contemplate my future home. Ndola is a very developed city, the second biggest in the Copperbelt Province, with wide boulevards, trees and green spaces. CARE’s office is located in the Development House near the center of town.

CARE's office is in the Development House

My first few days in Ndola were spent with Evans and the rest of the Copperbelt’s Sorghum team (which consists of myself, Sunday and Romanohs). We are working in parallel with the Southern Province’s Sorghum Team (Thulasy, Whyson and Silvester). We met with several cooperatives to explain the Sorghum Project (also know as SMEP – Sorghum Marketing Enterprise Project) and leave volunteer registration forms with them to fill out.

Sunday, Romanohs and Evans did most of the talking, but here is me talking about SMEP's partners with the help of a co-operative member/translator.

Since arriving I have been staying in a dorm room at Nortec – a technical college. It has been fun, with my own room, an awesome shower (communal) and a constant stream of visitors to help me with Bemba and chat about life. The proper school term is starting on Monday and the school needed my room, so yesterday I moved in with Mary Malauni and her two children. Mary is a schoolteacher, whose husband passed away several years ago and who lives just around the corner from my colleague Romanohs in a suburb called Mushili Kansengu. I have my own room in the 3 bedroom bungalow and there is an indoor toilet and shower (!). From what I have gathered so far, water is available most mornings but not in the evenings. So the family fills a large barallel with water for use after the taps don’t work. It is really very comfortable and with my mosquito net set up I feel like I am sleeping in a royal chamber. Mary is super nice and I haven’t met her children yet as they are away on holiday but I have met her neice, who lives with them as well. I am really pleased with my new living arrangements and will post some pictures soon.

Some of the students at the college.

Hope all is well!

Nina