WE MOVED!!!

After 17 days (which apparently equals 3 to 5 “Zambian days”), we FINALLY moved! We are still missing several items that the landlord agreed to provide, but we figured, if we don’t move now, we may never move. On one hand it is very frustrating that everything takes such a long time, but on the other hand, the trust factor is amazing. We haven’t paid a single dime of rent yet (not to mention that there are no application fees, credit checks,…).

We live in a nice little 1 bedroom “guest house” in a pretty good area of town named Kabulonga. Just down the street are several high commissions, residences of local and international politicians and diplomats, and what appear to be heavily wealthy people. This is certainly not what I imagined when I was getting ready to move to Africa.

For an extra $50 per month, we get two helpers. It is very hard not to get used to this level of comfort, where dishes are clean and put away, the bed is made up fresh, and the rest of the home is cleaned on a daily basis (well, weekdays anyways. We have to figure out how to survive on weekends). Yesterday, it even came to the point where I became frustrated when Azadeh and I came back from dinner and there was no guard to open the gate to the property. Can you say SPOILED?!

The landlords are very nice. The husband is a banker for Barclays, and the wife is a business woman. She runs several businesses from home (from what I know: a bakery, a catering business, and a custom furniture manufacturing business). Some extended family also lives on the property. Between family, friends, helpers and employees there are a LOT of people around during the day.

Below are a few pictures of our place (as of the day we moved in). I am particularly amazed by the HUGE tree in our front yard.

That’s it for this post. What would you like to read about next? Work? Shopping? The “real” Lusaka? Buying a car? A local show? Azadeh’s hair cut? Visiting a local market? Anything else? Please leave a comment here, or on Facebook.

By the way, Azadeh also has a blog: http://AzadehsTravels.blogspot.com.

Can you tell what's wrong with the picture below?

Compare the size of the door handle to the size of the sink.

Humungous tree!