Greetings from Lusaka!

21 hours flight time, 9217 miles, and 4 airplane meals later, I'm finally here.

The 18-hour flight from New York to Joburg was surprisingly pleasant. I managed to do some reading and watched movies on the personal touch-screens complete with tv shows, music, and games. Although I would not recommend Love in the Time of Cholera (maybe I should have read the book first) or P.S. I Love You, they helped me fall asleep. I'm confident I exhausted all possible sleeping positions in the window seat.

We stopped in Dakar, the westernmost point of Africa, roughly halfway through the flight. The stop lasted an hour to refuel, clean the cabin, and welcome a new crew and more passengers. Many of us spent the time standing since we had to remain onboard.

We landed in Joburg 40 minutes early. I already felt queasy either from exhaustion or mass consumption of plane food. I had a good conversation with the president of the Rock of Africa mission during the short layover. (Hello Glen, Jimmy, and Bethany if you are reading!)

Upon our arrival in Lusaka, we got off the plane by walking down a flight of stairs outside and walking into the airport. I got my visa and was happy to see my luggage arrived fully intact. Sarah, a ZEHRP intern, picked me up and drove me to the flats. Since Zambia was a former English colony they drive on the left-hand side. It was nighttime so I couldn't see much, but the roads are pretty smooth. Gas is very expensive, and costs roughly $9 USD/gal after all the conversions!

I slept for 13 hours and woke up tangled in my mosquito net. I hope I don't get malaria since I saw a mosquito in my room last night. My classmates stopped by and gave me a general tour of the flats. There are four total with three living in each one. We have two guard dogs, Lil Kim and Foxy Brown. They are both busy sniffing around my room right now, and I'm nervous because they were fighting this morning. It was so vicious they bit one of the interns and drew blood.

Brooke was kind enough to make me breakfast. I was excited to see a bottle of tequila sitting on the kitchen counter. I had jungle oats oatmeal and scrambled eggs with "gouda". Jacquee bought a block of cheddar cheese, and it is exactly the same as the gouda. Everyone is at work right now, so they will take me out to town later to get groceries and to exchange money.