Welcome to Lusaka

So we got to Lusaka two nights ago - the air was cool but smoky-sweet, like corn roasting or garbage burning (take your pick I guess). Just based on initial impressions it seems totally different from Asia in that things are really spread out and we're not in the center of the city, but there are little neighbourhoods and we've already seen a number of compounds (a mix between communities and shanty-towns) which are made up of webs unpaved red dusty roads that emerge from the edge of smoothly paved roads. It sometimes amazes me how they appear seemingly out of nowhere. As for the weather (everyone has asked me so I feel like I should mention it), it's not hot yet at all! I'm wearing jeans and long sleeved sweatshirts during the day, but apparently come October i'll be shvitzing all over the place. The digs here are pretty cool. Right now it's 7 of us to a 4 bedroom house (3 are moving out at the end of the month) but it's fun, kind of like the real world without the drama, and we're literally on the same plot of land as the office so we can roll out of bed and to work.

Just a quick story that would only happen in a place far away from North America: the first full day we were here, the former intern who's now a fellow took us around to grab lunch/see the nearby area/pick up a new kitten (so now we have a puppy AND a kitten - I'm in heaven and it's like Animal Planet watching them interact) and on the way he was like, "Do you mind if we swing by a nearby clinic? Two of the coaches just got circumcised." Now let me tell you, coaches are usually between like 17 and 23 years old. They are picked because they are role models in their communities and trained to deliver the GRS curriculum in (usually) a 10-week program. These two guys decided to get circumcised because it significantly reduces your chances of acquiring HIV (the porous cells are forced to become impermeable (or more so, at least) to the virus. They walked into the car slightly wincing in pain but didn't seem embarrassed at the least which, although it seems like a tiny thing to notice, I found it really inspiring and dedicated that these young men would chose to go through (what I imagine to be) a painful process to reduce the chances of acquiring HIV.

I'm sure I'll have many more stories but that's just a little sampler for now.