Lusaka once again

Alice, my VSO boss arrives from Lusaka to see what we are doing, re-assures me not to worry, just to make contacts in Kasama and the 5 District Councils where we are working and I will find plenty of useful things to work upon.  The temporary lack of petrol in the Province has prevented us from getting out of town but that is now solved so things may be looking up.  First though I have to go personally to Immigration in Lusaka to sign for and collect my work permit which, I’m assured will keep Immigration in Kasama happy despite it being just for the originally planned three months, now completed. A further permit to the end of September is being organised to receive in a month or two.

Still, Alice is driving back the 500 miles and can give me a lift, as well as buying my first (acrylic) painting from Kabwe.  The road is generally good and the potholes easy to see in the daylight – not like a fortnight ago when two coaches collided leaving 25 passengers dead, or dead  before they could be got to Kabwe hospital.  Staying at a reasonable hotel I was then able to get my work permit – as elaborate looking as the one I had in China and then a shopping spree for our house – spare petrol can, a few keys cutting, as much Indian food as I could carry and a cable to link our laptops with a projector. A bus then to Kabwe for a weekend with friends who I had made there before an uneventful bus ride back North in time for an evening soiree at Brother Dominic’s house – he is a keen cyclist, player of the pipes, and raconteur having lived in Kasama since 1963.

falls ner Kasama

Municipal Offices

Monkey at the falls