Sunday, January 14, 2007

Africa #1

Well I have landed in Zambia and so far I’m loving it. Below is an itemized listing of notable happenings.

Transatlantic Flight: I landed in Toronto at 12:30 and wasn’t able to drop my luggage off until 3:30, all 95 lbs of it, then the plane was delayed for an hour so I didn’t leave until 10:30. 10 hours in an airport is too long. I met this Dr. of Sociology (sp?) who did her thesis on the effects of Christianity (Catholicism being the biggest percentage) on the cast system in southern India. Really interesting stuff. Then on the North Atlantic flight I sat beside a Arab lady who thought I was 16 (!?!) and mothered me the whole time, including tucking an extra blanket around me when she thought I was sleeping. In London Judi picked me up and I was able to catch 4 hours of sleep in a REAL bed, as at this point I was beyond tired. London to Africa: apparently Africans have a different view of what personal space is. I think my body is permanently tilted to the right from leaning away from the man sitting beside me!

The bush flight: I was looking forward to seeing all of this terrain from the air, and the first 15 minutes were beautiful but then I fell asleep and didn’t wake up till we landed. One interesting difference in the landscape: In North America the roads are laid out in a definite grid system, here the roads are trails leading directly to a specific place. From the air this looks like a spider web.

Roads: had my first ‘ride in the back of a truck’. OUCH- talk about developing muscles by hanging on for dear life.

Meeting (Church): The singing is awesome! I will take a video of a sampling at some point because it has to be heard to be believed. Everything was in Lunda though so I didn’t understand much. I was trying to follow along with the singing using the Lunda hymnal and WOW some of the words are atrociously long!!!

Bugs, Snakes and Other Things: Ants are everywhere. No wonder they eat them! There’s this one type of ant that if you step in there marching line they scurrying up you and when they reach your waist they all chomp down on your skin, and they won’t let go. So watch for lines of ants. There are various types of snakes that just can do different wonderfully amazing feats one being (this one scares me) striking a man’s face. So going from completely horizontal on the ground to having 5 feet of it’s length completely vertical. There is this spider called a ‘flatty’ because, yes you guessed it, it’s flat. And big. And ugly. But apparently it’s completely harmless. I’m starting to not mind all the bugs etc. as long as I know they won’t hurt me. As to the mosquitos? Home is way, way worse. The only thing being that the ones here could be malaria carriers. Oh well, I know a lot of you are praying for me so if you’re looking for specifics the above paragraph holds many!!

Work: Kid’s don’t start arriving until Tuesday so everyone is still taking it easy. Tomorrow I think I’m helping Leah with classroom prep, but we’ll find out what tomorrow brings when tomorrow comes!!

Weather and Flora: It’s usually 20 degrees celcius and there are always clouds somewhere in the sky, the air is really heavy with moisture, but ahhh the sun is hot and nice when it decides to shine! There are some mango trees and a banana grove NEAR MY HOUSE! sweet eh?!?! The bananas are weird though- kinda midget bananas.

FYI: the time here is 8 hours ahead of prarie time.

Signing off for now- Angelina

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow. it's so werid that you're in AFRICA. like actually there RIGHT NOW. make any new friends?? do many of the african ppl speak english? tell me one african word (whatever dialect). so i guess you didn't get to go to Windsor castle like you had hoped? i guess sleep is KIND of nice, but still... i have an interview monday morning!!! (get excited for me, then i'll tell you that it's telemarketing and they didn't even see my resume -- i just phoned them up and they told me to come in monday. haha so either i have an AMAZING phone presence, or they do that with everyone...) i could blab on but maybe i'll email you tomorrow so i don't have all my personal details on the www:) since it is YOUR blog:):) LOVE YOU TONS!

Anonymous said...

Wow! I didn't expect to find a posting on your blog this quick! Very nice intro to your new life in Africa. I can hardly believe you're there. It must be so mind-blowing to experience such a drastic change of life. I hope you're taking it all in. I guess if I want to get over my fear of flesh-eating bugs, creepy spiders and leaping snakes I should go to Africa.... Just yesterday Mandy was trying to convince me to go tree-planting with her in northern BC this Spring... she said it would be good prep for me if I ever do go to Africa. Ummm... we'll just see about that. :)
Anyway, you're always in prayers. Keep us up to date.
much love and winnipeg vibes to you.
-Gab
PS: aaaw, you get to miss the -39C we're going to get tonight. Too bad for you. :) We'll probably miss you more than you're going to miss the Winnipeg weather. :)

Anonymous said...

We love you! We miss you! We talked about you at lunch today!

Anonymous said...

Sounds ace!! apart from the snakes, spiders and waist chomping ants! Glad you arrived safely and are having a good time!
I have lots of questions, but I'll ask you them another day!:)

Love
Suzie

Anonymous said...

you never told us where your house is - maybe everyone else already knows, but who do you live with?

Anonymous said...

sounds amazing!

Anonymous said...

Hi Angelina,
Well I tried leaving a comment earlier but I seem to be getting no where. I hope this works. Have you tried the bananas? I didn't like them as much as the ones we get in Canada, but they are fine. Have you seen any of the stink ants. If you kill them, they reek!!! Becareful. Really glad you are enjoying your stay. All the best. G

Anonymous said...

Flatty spiders and face-striking snakes are haunting my dreams. I shudder as I type. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

I'm so PROUD of you! I'm excited for when the kids come.

Also, you should probably know its so cold here that your eyes water and your face aches.

Anonymous said...

it's already wednesday and you still haven't posted anything new. you're either really busy with children or you've been slapped by one of those snakes...

Angelina Lynn said...

Hi- having problems posting, expect a new posting as soon as blogger gets it's act together. love ya chickies!!!

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you go back and read comments that are back a long time ago, but i gotta catch up with everyone else here. I've been thinking about you lots especially the day after you left. (how can you not when dad is giving updates every hour about where exacally you would be at that moment:-)But i gotta go read some more of this. it's like a novel...you just can't put it down once you start! love you
carla

Anonymous said...

HEY Angelina,
It's janine. you never told me that you were leaving so soon. well.. i mean that i never got to say "GOOD-BYE" and stuff and i just found out about your blog. heard so much about it.lol. well i'll get to reading the rest of it lol. and it sounds like a long trip but fun. i hope you have a great fun.LOVE YOU LOTS...
Janine Hordesky