hi parents,
thought you might get a kick out of the email i sent out chronicling my last week here...miss you guys a ton!!!
my summer is starting to wind down, which i can hardly believe! i came back friday morning from a week long trip to mwange, which was exhausting but good. i've spent the past two days frantically trying to get my life squared away in lusaka (still no bag or money from south african airlines, no mozambique visa, etc) before leaving for mozambique tomorrow!!! i thought, though, i should give you all an update about my adventures of my last week in zambia...
getting up to the camp and back was probably the most intense public transportation experience i've ever had. going, we left at like 4am, and didn't get into town until it was getting dark. of course the power was out in the town and we didn't know where we were staying...but we managed to find a man to help who wasn't actually trying to kill/rape us. the next morning we took a 3 hr taxi ride in a car that looked like it was about to break down at any second. it progressively filled up with more and more dust until we all looked like sand-people and when we opened the trunk it was pretty much a whole different ecosystem in there.
coming back, we took a ride with the UN into the town closest to the camp, where we spent the night. this man followed us home all the way literally to the door of our room and wouldn't leave...just stayed out there quietly knocking and mumbling even when i pushed him! not so effective. the next morning we packed ourselves into this minibus-alison and i were sharing a fold down middle seat with children on laps on either side. every time the zambian kids saw our mzungu (white) faces they started crying, and the conductor spent the entire trip pretending to look behind the bus but really just staring at us. and, there was a chicken under my seat-alive! literally 5 minutes into our 6 hr ride from hell, bags started flying off the top of the minibus! that took another half hour to re-secure. anyway, once we got to town we realized there was another overnight bus leaving for lusaka, so we decided to get it over with. i actually slept a lot but apparently while i was dozing we stopped for like 2 hrs to help another car that had crashed, and took on several of their passengers who were bleeding profusely...among other exciting events. anyway, long story short, after leaving mwange at like 4pm wed, we finally arrived this morning at like 5h30 am. and i am now a stronger person.
other than the transportation situation, the week was an emotional roller coaster. we managed to spend 3 full days in the camp, doing a little work but mostly just catching up with old friends. it was so amazing to see people who meant so much to me last year, and to realize that those relationships were still alive. a lot of emotions from last summer came rushing back, and it was so hard to leave them for a second time. i'm trying to help alison think of a meaningful tattoo she could get to commemorate our experiences-we're thinking some swahili word or phrase.
these last few days have been a different kind of whirlwind. friday night we went out with some of our coworkers here, and ended up meeting a ton of guys who do 'security' at the american embassy. it was soo weird (and oddly nice) to be surrounded by americans, and it was so crazy imagining them as secret service types. other than that, we went to a crafts fair today and tried to stock up on everything i wished i'd bought last summer. among other things, i got a chitenge (brightly colored cloth in crazy patterns) quilt and a painting...soon my room at stanford will be like a mini-zambia.
and then tomorrow at 4h30 am we leave for the airport! i am SO excited to see our travels, and i'm sure all of you are glad to know that christine and i have survived our long separation...but i'm also petrified of losing my last remaining possessions-willl we have to fly through joburg like 4 more times.
any-way, my time here feels like it's flown by and i'm really sad to leave all the students we've been working with. we sat in on their class tonight and i almost started crying like 5 times. at the same time, though, i am so excited to have a little vacation and then get back to family and friends...
miss all of you guys a ton!
love,
Rhi
--
Rhianon Liu
Program Associate, FEF-U
FORGE
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