the day to day

i am sitting at an internet cafe in the árcades, one of two major shopping centers in lusaka (they're both each about the size of two strip malls, so quite small)

i was post-call yesterday, and so after finishing rounds at about 10 am, i rushed over to my friend dr. sombo fwoloshi's house (recently graduated from medical school, currently an intern). she lives about a 30 minute walk from the hostel i stay out, and has these lovely couches that are so easy to sink into. we only stayed for a bit as my other friend dr sarah louise bailey (senior registrar doing some tb research for a few months here) went on a shopping marathon with some of sombo's relatives.

we went to a market near downtown lusaka that had loads of stall selling clothes, vegetables, fish, bags, shoes... oh so many shoes, but the remarkable thing was that all the garments were COMPLETELY USED! i have no idea where zambia has managed to acquire so many used products, but it was rather amazing, this veritable sea of second-hand. we walked around the stalls for 5 hours, and for all my efforts i picked up a used shoulderbag for 7 dollars and sarah-lou (as she likes to be called) got nothing. well, it was good exerercise and a novel experience. the two women we were with were monsters and were relentless in their quest for material consummation - quite, quite intense

afterwards, i went home and ordered a couple pizzas from the loca pizza shop called 'debonairs' - the two came out to 114,000 kwacha, which is about 23 dollars - not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but it did fulfill a craving and some major hunger pangs. in the evening, i convinced the two of them to watch the notebook for me, a sappy romantic movie i've been meaning to see for quite a long time. it was decent, and i was definitely tearing up towards the end.

i crashed at sombo's place, and in the morning took a bath and strolled to the catholic church with sombo and her mom. there were several hundred people at the service, and the priest even mentioned me in his sermon (i can see lots of asians - asians mean people from india colloquially, lots of europeans, many africans, and i can even see a chinese or korean fellow over there - and then he pointed at me) - he was a good speaker, and talked about the one language that is the holy spirit and love that unites humanity.

after church, we strolled back home where sarah-lou cut my hair - yay for sarah-lou! oh, i also learned that all the braids and long hair that black women sport is pretty much fake - the way their hair grows is naturally very curly, so getting it long is almost impossible. and here i was thinking they all had such cool hair! after this haircut, we strolled over to the arcades and had a late lunch at a place called mint, a little cafe that sells lots of healthy, organic things. and then here i am now.

i just noticed they are playing celine dion in the background.

so just another saturday in lusaka