Our first Zambia holiday - International Women`s Day

Today we are enjoying our first Zambian holiday to celebrate International Women's Day. Out of all places it is amazing to realize that they actually celebrate this day here in Zambia whereas in North America we sort of skip over it. Yesterday, in the office, we were joking a bit about this holiday and Gert was challenged into making breakfast this morning by all the women in the office. So this morning it was his turn to prepare breakfast. It wasn`t anything fancy or special other than he made some left-over rice from yesterday with milk, butter and sugar. Last night we tried to find cinnamon but without luck. Lucinda had some toast with Nutella (the jar isn`t empty yet).

After breakfast Gert installed some solar lights and put the solar panels on the roof of the house. The lights will come in handy when there is of the frequent power outages just around dinner time. The electricity company (Zesco) explained this week that they had issues at two generation stations but that by this past Wednesday it should all be fine. On Wednesday night we had power but last night the power went off around 6:30pm just as we were about to head out to the Courtyard hotel to meet Cheryl Martin Duivesteyn. She and three other people from VisionLedd were in Malawi and Zambia for about two weeks and spent the last few days in Lusaka before they fly back to Toronto today. We had a nice time together and talked a lot about her experiences and first impressions and the things that we have noticed here during our first two months. We realized last night that it was exactly two months ago that we left Canada and that the time has been flying. It`s hard to believe that is has already been two months that we are here in Zambia.

Later this afternoon we will go to Nyangwena to visit the Esther School and Harry, Henrietta and Kirk Reinders and Ray Scheepstra who arrived this past Monday in Zambia. Machteld and Lucinda visited them on Wednesday and they had brought us some of the t-shirts that Gord Furzer had made for us (thanks Gord, they look great!) and some `hagelslag`. Tonight Harry and Ray will do a simpler version of their specialty `red neck dinner` but this time Zambian style. We are anxious to see and taste what this will be like. I don`t know whether they offered this because of International Women`s Day but it is certainly a very nice gesture of them. And it is always great to spend time with good friends. We are very blessed with the people that are visiting us and Zambia. They not only bring us stuff but it also allows us to have a great time of fellowship and hear about some of the things that are happening back home.

Having seen some of the pictures that people sent us of the snow in Canada it makes us feel very blessed to be here in a nice, warm and sunny climate right now. It is still the tail-end of the summer here but according to Zambians it is already getting colder. We haven`t noticed that as much since according to our standards it is still pretty warm. Today the forecast calls for about 26C (feels like 36C) with cloudy periods and it is pretty much the same for the next 7 days. This is the kind of weather that you can get used to pretty easily. You don`t have to worry about what to wear since it is amost always the same kind of weather. The only thing to bring is an umbrella for either the rain or the sun. The only thing that changes is the humidity and the humidex as a result.

Hopefully in Canada you are slowly leaving winter behind you. It seems that you have had enough snow for the season but likely there will still be a bit more. We`ll think of you will we`re sweating in the sun. Two more weeks and it will be officially Spring and a new season!

Enjoy International Women`s Day, and guys, be nice extra to your special woman today!