Day 10

Well, I'm back at our house in Lusaka now...the past 48 hours have been  hectic. On Saturday morning we woke up around 4am to head over to the Lusaka bus station for our 6 hour bus ride to Kitwe in northern Zambia. The bus ride was uneventful until we began to get closer and closer to Ndola, the city where the Zambia vs. Ghana soccer match was being held in their brand new stadium. At first I questioned how Zambia was able to afford to build such an enormous new soccer/track stadium...then Anna let me know that it was actually the Chinese government who donated the money and supplies for the stadium to be built. The Chinese have began to invest in Zambia, specifically in the mining industry. I assume they built the stadium for Zambia to get on the good graces with the citizens and government of Zambia (and what better way than through their hearts...aka soccer). Anyway, as we approached Ndola on our coach bus, we began to see people along the sides of the road and in cars tooting their horns, yelling, cheering, blasting music, blowing on their vuvuzela's (the large plastic horns infamous from the 2010 World Cup as the droning noise in the background of all the matches). People were so spirited for the game!! Everyone we saw was wearing their bright green and orange soccer jerseys or wearing long-almost dress-like Zambian flag outfits in support of the upcoming game. It was really interesting to see how much the country is united for the day to support their national soccer team. I attempted to take a picture of some of the people from the side of the road..but this was the best I could do, as the bus was still moving...

I'm definitely going to bring home a few Zambian soccer jerseys, they look so cool! I love the green and orange combination!! So when we finally did get to Ndola, the crowd was even larger along all the roads with people cheering insanely in preparation. The stadium was right off of the main road so we drove right by it, it is ENORMOUS! Well, the rest of the bus ride to Kitwe was completely uneventful, aside from me seeing the true poor parts of the African continent. It was really sad to see how things are in poverty-stricken areas..when we drove by all the areas all I wanted to do was help out those people in some way..but I honestly don't know how. I'm hoping that my way of helping will be through medicine, and in the future I plan to travel at least once a year for a few weeks to poverty-stricken areas and help out with any healthcare they might need.

Upon arrival to Kitwe, we went straight to our hotel (which was amazing I might add) and took some much-needed naps. We woke up for the game and watched as Zambia played to victory against Ghana!! After the game, Ken, the professor from Copperbelt University, came to our hotel and picked us up (he was actually at the game so we had to wait for him to drive back from Ndola) and we went to Mona Lisa Restaurant, a  nice pizza place right down the street from our hotel. We stayed for a couple of hours talking to Ken about Zambia, medicine, lead poisoning, sanitation, malaria and tons of other stuff...all while eating some amazing pizza and watching the Germany vs. Portugal soccer match (GO DEUTSCHLAND!). When the game ended we headed back to the hotel to catch up on sleep before waking up again at 4am to catch the bus back to Lusaka today.

In other news, I did laundry today! It literally took me 3 hours...I hand-washed all of my clothes as we have no washer or dryer. I really took for granted all the work that a washing machine does, because doing my laundry definitely felt like a workout to me!

Tomorrow, Chris and I will be going to the medical school at 8am for a meeting about what we will be doing the next week..and as of now I have no idea what that will be!

Until next time,
Jenn