Bag Found!!!!

Well, I am adjusting to life a little better in Zambia. To be very honest, I was very lonely the past days. As lonely as I have ever been. Part of the problem was that Lawrence and the Jubliee Centre were trying to be considerate by giving me time to rest before I started to work. I don’t like to rest though. For those of you who know me I like to balance 30 different things at the same time, but things have improved. I now have some tasks to complete and am excited about what the future holds. Tomorrow, I am going to price items for my house that I will soon be moving into, God willing.

I went to the store yesterday and purchased my food for the week. I am lucky in that I can pretty much purchase whatever food I want. It may not be totally like the American equivalent, but it is close. I did see yogurt yesterday that I wanted to purchase. I was scared to purchase it though because the milk I had bought the day before was spoiled. Therefore, I thought to myself that I should check the expiration date. The date said 06/10/09. I said to myself that that is ridiculous. How can you keep things that expire on the shelf for two months after the date of expiration? Then I checked another yogurt, and it said 07/10/09. Well, that was one month better I guess, but I still did not buy it. I went for a day looking down on the store managers because of that, but then today I came to a realization. Zambians write their dates different from ours. Their format is day/month/year where ours is month/day/year. It makes a big difference when you know this simple fact. I think that I may go back and purchase that yogurt after all.

Today was a different experience as David Temfwe took me around to find a tennis club. The tennis club serves two purposes: to provide relief from my boredom/ to meet people and to be able to declare myself the best tennis player in Ndola, Zambia. Believe it or not, I actually have some challenges to meeting that second goal. Anyway, we visited all three of the tennis and bowling clubs in Ndola. Lawn bowling that is. The first two nobody was playing and nobody was there. I do not want to spend my money on nothing though. The third place will probably be my place. All the courts were filled with people and kids playing, and the people were playing decent tennis. Some were even playing with Babolat racquets. I was impressed. Then, I talked to the club pro, and he said that some of the people he trains play internationally, and that he would be open to playing if I came by. I think that I am going to join as soon as my father brings my racquets. I may join sooner if I can convince someone at the club to let me borrow a racquet.

Well, the missing bag countdown is over. It stopped at 4 days. Everything was in my bag when I picked it up today which was a huge relief. The locks were broken off and gone, but nothing was missing from the bag. Who breaks the locks on your bag but takes nothing? Don’t say the security personnel because those were TSA approved locks.

I now have a cell phone if you want to call and chat. My number is 0969400593. The country code for Zambia is +26 I believe. Check that before you try to call. Remember that I am six hours ahead of you. Or you can always talk to me on skype if I am around. My skype name is davidbramlett. As soon as I have time to figure it out I am forward my skype calls to my cell phone so that should be more convenient for you. Peace!