I had an awesome weekend. :)


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This is what I'm working on
in my nonexistent spare time these days. Really exciting stuff!

Rusty corrugated metal is not scrap; it's what you use to make roofs and walls.
Lane markings (dotted or solid) are merely recommendations. On a two-lane road, it's normal to squeeze between the two opposing lanes of traffic to pass the car in front of you. So is honking at the bicycles to get out of your way so you can complete this manoeuvre ( Read more... )

Swahili is straightforward to pronounce: it uses the five standard European vowel sounds, and the consonants work just like English, including "j", "ch", and "sh". The "r" is rolled. Otherwise, pronounce every letter individually, exactly as it's spelled. In short, you can pronounce Swahili as though it were Japanese written in the Roman ( Read more... )

We rode through Lake Manyara National Park, where we saw lots of baboons and some adorable giraffes, along with a few vervet monkeys and a few elephants. I really enjoyed watching the baboons play. We stopped at a pond full of yawning hippos, and watched them get in and out of the water and chase each other around ( Read more... )

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We spent our third day in Zambia touring health facilities in the Mumbwa district. On the way there, we passed little settlements along the highway.


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The craziest thing happened when I went to use an ATM at the strip mall on Tuesday evening.

The starting screen looked like this:


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On our first day we visited the National Malaria Control Center. We're trying to understand some of the problems they face in stocking and distributing malaria medicine.


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Although I heard that Zambia is a poorer country than Kenya, there was a surprisingly upscale strip mall attached to the hotel where we were staying in Lusaka. This is what the entrance to the movie theater looked like:


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