Surreality

DISCLAIMER: this journal is also meant to serve as a record of this trip for me, so my apologies if I write way too much and you don’t want to muck your way through; I’m not sure I would if I were you. But here goes:

I don’t currently have internet access at my new place, So I've written a couple of these entries on my laptop over the weekend. I changed the time/date stamp so the blog will show them as posted when I wrote them.

I should also say that I feel 100% better today, and since I don’t have to wake up for anything tomorrow, I foresee another good night’s sleep and hopefully I’ll keep feeling better. I’m in much better spirits too.

Onto the good stuff: today is the day when this trip really became surreal. Earlier this afternoon, I moved into a guest house in the Kabulonga neighborhood of Lusaka. It’s a small, one-story house (one-bedroom, bath, large-ish kitchen, and large living room) behind a larger house on the grounds of what I can only describe as a compound. The U.S. embassy rents/owns (not sure) a number of similar places for Americans to use when they come to Zambia for both short and long-term assignments. I haven’t been to any of my colleagues’ houses yet, but I imagine they’re similar (though maybe nicer, who knows?).

The grounds are probably about 2 acres total, and are completely surrounded by a 10-foot high, foot-thick wall of some sort of solid cement. Most of the houses and businesses here are completely surrounded by similar walls or tall, solid-steel fencing, so that’s not really the strange part. The grounds are very nice, mostly grass and a bunch of trees with a large garden out back. There’s also a toolshed, and a third, even smaller house that probably used to be servants’ quarters but I think now is vacant. I can’t say when this place was built, but I’d guess the 70’s or 80’s, as it’s far from new or newly renovated. My house is clean and more than sufficient. It’s freshly painted on the outside, and I imagine when all the work is done on the other house and the grounds, it will be very relaxing and beautiful. On the inside, it’s pretty well-maintained given the age, and they set me up with a “welcome kit” with towels, bed linens, and an extensive set of pots, pans, plates, cups, utensils, tools, and a bunch of other stuff. I definitely have everything I need.

But now the weird stuff: all around the top of the wall bordering the property is (I’m not kidding) a foot of coiled razor wire. Not sissy barbed wire, but the prison-style razor stuff. And as if that’s not crazy enough, I have a guard on duty 24/7 in the guardhouse by the front gate. Yep, my own personal security guard here all the time. The guy on duty now is named Gift, and is very friendly. I forgot to see if he was armed (whoops), but I’ll definitely check for that on my way out tomorrow. I have a remote control in my bedroom, as well as a button on the wall in the living room both marked “Emergency,” and Gift says that when I push them it notifies the guardhouse and the Embassy (I think, Gift wasn’t entirely clear). He is wearing a full-on military style uniform, complete with beret and jack-boots, so I’ve got that going for me. He also said there’s nobody else living on the grounds at the moment, but I did just see another dude running around. I assume he might be Gift’s replacement or some other worker of some kind. If he’s cool w/ Gift, he’s cool w/ me.

Gift says the next shift begins at 1800 hours, so I’ll probably try to chat up the guard tomorrow morning and ask the same questions. I’ve been told that Zambians (from their desire to be friendly and helpful) will often give you the answer they think you want to hear if they don’t know the actual answer to your question, so sometimes a little digging is required.

My house also has bars on all the windows, and over both the front and back door. They’re thick as hell, and the bars on the front door have 2 of the hugest padlocks I’ve ever seen to secure them. The door also has 3 deadbolt locks. I don’t think I could possibly feel any safer in here (that’s for you, Mom ;-) It’s also nice because I can open the doors when the weather warms up a bit but still be completely locked in.

The larger house is currently uninhabited, and is being renovated for a new person/family who will move in the month after next, so for now I’m the only tenant on the property. I may actually move to a different place in September, but I’m here until then. Just me and Gift. I will say it’s probably going to be pretty lonely here, and I definitely wish there was a bigwig and his/her family living in the larger house to connect with, but aside from that it’s great. I’ll be working some really long hours starting in mid-August, so it won’t be that big a deal as long as I try to get out on the weekends as much as possible.

The house is definitely better than the hotel from a logistical standpoint; I can shop and cook (the grocery stores here are pretty good, though pricey), I have much more space and have now finally unpacked completely, and there’s more to do in the surrounding area. I am walking distance from a grocery store, a few small restaurants and fast-food joints, a “Blockbuster’s” video store (not remotely a part of the U.S. chain), and a few other places. There are even 2 pizza places down the road, though I’m a little scared to actually try them.

The downside is that I have no internet access (I’m writing this at home and posting later) and as of now, no car, so after dark I’m pretty much limited to DVDs on my laptop. I can get a weak wireless signal from somewhere nearby, but it’s a secure network and I can’t get on. I’m supposedly having satellite TV installed tomorrow, but apparently there are trees in the way of the dish and until they cut them down early next week, I probably won’t have any TV. I don’t really care about TV, and would gladly trade it in for internet in a hot minute, especially now that I have Skype. The stations are all British-sourced, which is hilarious because even American shows on Discovery channel are re-dubbed with British narrators. I don’t recognize many of them and the only other thing I ever watched in the hotel was CNN International and Discovery (which I do love).

I’m going to ask my boss about the possibility of getting a car assigned to me. She mentioned it as a possibility before I came, and while she hasn’t mentioned it even now that I’ve moved, I hope that if I push her she might make it happen. I don’t want to have to rely on the CDC and embassy drivers all the time like I have to now, and if I never get internet here I’ll want to stay late at work and/or the CDC offices to call home and use the web for personal stuff. If I do get one, I’ll have to learn to drive on the left (damn British colonialism), but I’ll be much more psyched to have the freedom to come and go as I please.

When I arrived today, there was a crew of workers here working on both the grounds/landscaping and the larger house. They were some happy dudes, playing music and laughing it up while they worked for a couple hours while I was unpacking. Their foreman or supervisor Kenneth was also super nice, and seems to be my go-to guy. He gave me my keys, brought me a key to the laundry room on the back of the larger house. They’ll be back tomorrow, as will the satellite dish guys and an embassy driver with my TV (coming from another residence after the person moves out).

Tomorrow I plan on exploring the neighborhood, shopping some more to stock the place up, and checking out the Dutch Reform Church fair/market, which is a huge monthly fair where sellers set up shop and sell their art, crafts, food, etc. It’s apparently a big deal, and everyone I’ve met at work this week said they’ll be going. It’s right up the street from my new place, so it’ll be a quick walk in the morning. Right now, I’m off to try to close all the windows here (it’s getting pretty cold now that it’s dark) and finish unpacking. More tomorrow…