New place to live!

So I found a new place to live, and I’m really happy with it. Toko knew a friend who has a boarding house for women at UnZa. At first the friend, Phyllis, said there was no room. But then, after we went and visited she said that maybe I could move into her room, because she’ll be away for the three months. She shows me her room, and it’s huge, gorgeously decorated, and contains a TV. I immediately resolve to pay whatever she wants for the room, and we end up settling on a little over 500,000K a month. So for the whole summer I end up paying less than I would have paid to live with R & A for one month! The place is two bus stops away from work and two bus stops away from the shopping area. However, although this sounds really convenient, it does mean I’ll have to take busses, instead of having Richard drive me to work. And busses here are, well, where do I start…

The busses are in the form of “mini busses”, which look like VW busses and are really overgrown taxis. They’re all privately owned, and competing, meaning they won’t just cut you off, but also each other as they swerve into the bus stops and try to pick up the waiting passengers first. The fares are not posted and randomly decided (though cheap) and the drivers are typically drunk and rarely qualified. It’s…an adventure. Richard has a saying “If you’re comfortable on a mini bus, then you’re not moving.” That’s because they’ll wait at any given stop until the bus is completely full. How full is completely full? Usually about 6 more people than you think could ever possibly have fit on the bus. I try to avoid sitting in the back, because I feel a surge of panic as the seats in front of me are piled high and the aisles are closed off with jump seats. I’ve spent too long in America being indoctrinated that the aisles must be kept clear for “safety reasons” to be comfortable with this arrangement. Nonetheless, the busses are cheap and convenient—the stop is right in front of my new place.

PS. I’m getting really bitten up by mosquitoes lately—not a fan. Even though it’s almost impossible to get malaria in Lusaka (the parasitic load is very low—these are the things you find out when you work at the National Malaria Control Center), it’s very, very easy to get bitten by a—or a thousand—mosquitoes. I’m totally bitten up on my feet, the one area that’s not usually covered. I actually seem to get bitten most inside, where the mosquitoes are no less prevalent than outside. I’ve decided my personal malaria control plan is to introduce screens to Zambia.