Arrived

Its been a long 24 hours, I left Horley at just gone five on Wednesday, now its 7.30am Thursday. at Johannesburg Airport. Thank God I'm sat on a very comfy sofa in a coffee shop, I've just had a latte and fruit salad so I'm feeling happy. Both the flights were fine Abu Dhabi had a lovely airport and free access to the internet. Haven't found that sort of facility at Jo'burg airport, there is wi fi but you have to pay for it so I've not bothered, so I'm writing my blog ready to transfer when I can next go on line.

I had one slight hiccup in that I didn't check that my case was booked through to Lusaka, a very nice lady from Etihad (who I flew with) sorted it out so hopefully it will be there when I arrive.

I'd hoped to see something of Africa when we were coming down in the plane, unfortunately it was still dark when we landed, so I've not seen further than out of the windows at the airport. Its a cloudy wet day, I knew it would be cold but hoped to see some of the famous African sun – hopefully Lusaka will have some.

Its really weird – here I am in Africa but like all international airports once you walk away from the gift shops you would have a job to know where in the world you are. So here I am in the Southern World yet still to see what its really like. My flight to Lusaka arrives at about 12.30pm, it will be good to met up with Geoff again. He's been here since the spring getting everything ready for the campaign, so now it will be all the last minute bits and pieces that we have to sort out before the first team arrives in July.

No free access to the internet at Johannesburg airport, so this is waiting till I get on line with the dongle.

So here I am in Zambia. After the pouring rain in Johannesburg it was cloudy as we flew north, then just before we landed the cloud cleared and I could see Zambia for the first time. Lusaka was much bigger than I expected – I guess its very spread out. At the airport I was met by Geoff and Chilka (who works as our driver when we need to go anywhere). So a 30 minute drive took us to Chamba Valley and into the ECZ Compound. Its autumn here coming into their winter, leafs are falling off the trees and its very dry and dusty underfoot.

I'm sharing a two room bungalow with Emily who arrives with James on the 20th, we have a little kitchen and sitting room which is lovely. All very basic but all that we need. I slept like a log last night, got up to find Geoff coming over for me – he had breakfast ready in his bungalow – I forgot to change the time on my mobile which I'm using as my alarm clock. So it was a quick breakfast before walking over to Kiine School which has 150 pupils from 3-12 yrs, they teach primary up to grade 7.

I will tell you more about the school and the compound when I get a chance.

Geoff has supper waiting and I want to copy this into my blog when we finish eating.

Thank you so much for reading this and supporting me.

Love Carol