Best donuts ever

I have found the best donuts in the world. I am not exaggerating. They come from the Emmasdale Market, a tiny shop just about a block away from ZEHRP. In the very back of the right side of the store is a glass counter behind which fresh, warm donuts wait to be eaten. There are different varieties - twisted, chocolate, glazed - but the best ones are the "cream" filled that contain a delicious mixture of melted butter and sugar. It is a very, very good thing I didn't discover these until my last week in Lusaka. Otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have gained at least 10 kilos from eating at least one every day!

Travel to Zanzibar

I really do believe that travel is more about the journey than the destination, but this was one time when I absolutely could not wait for the journey to be over so I could just be at my destination. I arrived at the Lusaka airport for my direct flight to Dar es Salaam, only to find out that I was actually flying to Dar es Salaam via Ndola, which, while it is the second largest city in Zambia, isn't exactly somewhere I expected to stop. I might have understood Nairobi or Johannesburg, cities with airports that are hubs for travel around Africa, but certainly not Ndola. Yet I boarded the plane, and this is what I wrote as I waited for take-off:

The planes just keep getting smaller and smaller. There are literally eighteen seats on this plane - nine rows with one seat on either side of an aisle where you can't even stand because the ceiling is so low. There is no space for overhead storage, and, from my seat in the back row, I have just watched the crew load luggage behind me into a space the pre-recorded safety briefing referred to as the "coat closet". There's not even a separate area for the pilots. I can see both of them, and, between their heads, I can see straight out the windshield of the plane. As the plane begins to move I realize that take-off is more similar to that of the microlight flight I took over Victoria Falls than the last commercial airline I flew.
The ride was rough, to say the least, so much so, in fact, that I promised myself if the same plane appeared for my return flight to Lusaka, I would exit the airport in Ndola and take a six-hour bus trip back to the capital city. But I made it to Ndola, where we walked off the plane and into a small warehouse (otherwise known as "baggage claim") before walking into the parking lot of the airport, only to re-enter another small, brick building (otherwise known as "check in"). After checking in, I was handed my boarding pass for the flight - not a printed, perforated, individualized boarding passes that I'm used to, but a completely blank, wrinkled, laminated card that had clearly been used many, many times.
I took my card and headed into the waiting area to board my flight, which was supposed to leave in about half an hour. Yet, looking out the windows onto the runway, the only plane I saw was the small one from which I had just disembarked. So I sat. And I waited. And I waited. And I waited. Two hours later, another plane landed, the passengers disembarked and, finally, we were allowed to board. I couldn't even bring myself to check my watch. It was less than an hour until my flight from Dar es Salaam to Stone Town departed and I was still a two-hour flight away from Tanzania. I took my seat, opened my book, turned on my iPod, closed my eyes and was almost immediately greeted by a talkative, self-assured, 40-year old Zambian man who sat down next to me. For the next two hours, I listened to him explain to me how the clouds protected the earth from the sun and HIV is spread by prostitutes. Needless to say, landing in Dar es Salaam was a relief.

Except that I had missed my flight to Stone Town. I exited the plane as quickly as possible and got in line at passport control. Just when I thought my line had less than a dozen people in it, a group of about fifty Indians who had just landed were ushered to the front of my line. So I waited, again, counting how much time passed since my flight was scheduled to depart.

I finally made it through passport control and was trying to decide what to do when I overheard a couple talking to a representative from Zambian Airways. It was clear they were in the same situation I was, so I introduced myself and joined them. The woman from Zambian Airways wasn't sure she could do anything to help us, but asked for our passports and said she would check. And so we waited. After fifteen or twenty minutes, the woman returned and quickly ushered us out of the baggage claim area of the airport and toward the check-in counter of a different airline than any of the three of us had used to book our original tickets. ZanAir had a flight leaving in five minutes and they had room for us. In a whirlwind, we were issued tickets (I was shocked when payment wasn't an issue), rushed through security, ran across the tarmac to the airplane and boarded just in time for the door to close behind us.

In about twenty minutes we were in Stone Town. I'm not sure I've ever been so thankful for the destination.

Around Lusaka

I figured it's about time that I post a few pictures from around Lusaka. These first ones were taken downtown in the city.
And these are from just around the area of town where I have been living.

Balancing act

Tonight I went out dancing for my last Saturday night in Lusaka and I could not believe my eyes when I saw these women - in the middle of a crowded dance floor, dancing away, with their drinks balanced atop their heads. I am still in awe.

HIV infection in married couples

There was another reference to the RZHRG article recently published in 'The Lancet' in a letter to the editor from the Washington Post.

Facing Facts on HIV in Africa
by: Geeta Rao Gupta (President, International Centre for Research on Women)

In the June 30 op-ed "Let My People Go, AIDS Profiteers," the Rev. Sam Ruteikara correctly emphasized the need for the President's Emergency Plan for HIV-AIDS Relief to focus on prevention and behavioral changes to halt new HIV infections. But his reference to a "suspicious statistic attacking marriage" confuses HIV incidence and prevalence, tainting his conclusions.

The unsavory statistic - 42 percent - refers to the portion of all new HIV infections in Uganda that have occurred among married couples, and it is based on Uganda's 2004-05 HIV/AIDS Sero-Behavioral Survey. Similar statistics are found in other African countries. The Lancet medical journal recently reported that most new HIV infections in Zambia (55 percent) and Rwanda (93 percent) take place within marriage or cohabitation.

The incidence rates are higher for married couples than sex workers, not because of political plotting, as implied, but because Uganda and other countries have more married couples than sex workers in their general population.

Far worse, however, is Mr. Ruteikara's implication that marriage provides women a safe haven from HIV. Power inequalities within marriage as well as different social roles and expectations place married women in Africa and elsewhere at risk of HIV infection. Data from the Uganda survey make this case: 2.6 percent of married women reported having two or more partners in the past 12 months, compared with 29.8 percent of married men.

As researchers, we do not attack the institution of marriage. We shed light on realities such as HIV within marriages and inequalities between women and men so we can better understand how HIV spreads and save more lives.

My new room

To say that the ZEHRP flats are crowded would be an understatement. With students in town for the summer, physicians visiting to set up research projects, new ex-pat staff and the existing ex-pat staff, the flats are bursting at the seams. The flats are meant to house twelve people, but right now there are sixteen of us, and three more will arrive in the coming week. In my flat alone, there are about to be five of us - in a place meant for three!

To make room for our fifth roommate, I've converted the dining room into a bedroom and have moved in. (Three of the four dining rooms in the flats have now been converted.) The flat only has three bedrooms, and one is already being shared by two people, so since I only have a week left in Lusaka, so I figured it made most sense for me to move into the dining room so that the new staff member could get settled into the room that will be hers for the coming year.

The room isn't bad at all. It may not be the most personal space in the flat, but it's quite spacious and even has its own sink. Plus, it gave me a good excuse to get all my things together and will keep me from waiting until the last minute to pack up everything for the move back to Kigali!

Furniture store

I love these furniture stores that aren't infrequent along the side of the road - yards filled with dozens of matching sets of sofas and chairs.

Police encounter

Apparently it's illegal to take photos of police stations, even when they're made out of giant metal containers. I snuck this photo while my friend was being scolded by an officer who mistakenly thought she took a picture of his office.

Chimpanzee feeding

After spending the morning at the chimpanzee orphanage, we moved to the free-range enclosures to observe the morning feeding. The two 500-acre enclosures house chimpanzees that have been rehabilitated at the orphanage but cannot be released into the wild for fear of poaching or killing for bushmeat. They live independently in the enormous enclosures, but come to a small building to be fed each day. Twice a day they receive balls nshima (a cornmeal that's the staple food in much of southern Africa), sugar cane, cabbage, oranges, lemons, bananas, sweet potatoes and any other fruits or vegetables the orphanage can purchase from local farmers.

Right at eleven-thirty, the chimps gather outside the building, waiting to be let in for their food. They are then separated into different rooms of the building, to ensure that all of them (not only the strongest members of the family) receive full meals.

Though the pictures look quite sad, please remember that the chimps only stay in these cages for a couple hours while they eat. Then they a released back into the enormous enclosures to live freely in the open.

Chimpanzees

The next morning after arriving at Chimfunshi, we went out into the orphanage with several of the orphaned chimpanzees. We were able to spend about two hours out in the bush with six chimps - Karla, Cindy, Alice, Sims, DeeDee and Dominique - who ranged in age from one to ten.
The chimps weren't shy at all. As soon as we entered the enclosure, they came up to us and held up their hands, like a child, wanting to be picked up. Once you reached down to them, they would crawl up into your arms, or onto your back, or onto your shoulders, or onto your head, basically, wherever they wanted to go. One even decided to go into the pocket of my pants. Thankfully I wasn't carrying anything with me.Chimpanzees are the closest primate relative of humans, and it was amazing how human these creatures really were.
They each had their own personality and wanted to be carried or held in a different way.We laughed so hard and had such a good time with the chimpanzees. It was such a fun morning.

Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage

The Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage is a non-profit refuge in north-central Zambia that cares for a variety of sick, wounded and unwanted animals. The orphanage was founded in 1983 and is now home to over 120 chimpanzees, numerous vervet monkeys, several African grey parrots, a few peacocks and a twenty-year old hippopotamus. The facility includes a 1,100-acre chimpanzee orphanage and two 500-acre free-range enclosures for rehabilitated chimpanzees
The entire place is very much in the middle of nowhere. It's one of the most isolated places I've ever been, even though you might not guess so from the pictures. We drove thee and a half hours through the bush and finally arrived at the orphanage. We stayed at orphanage's education centre, which consists of approximately eight to ten basic cabins and a small camper used for a kitchen.