Zambia

My internet connection probably won't support uploading photos, but I do have a few to share later. I arrived in Lusaka two nights ago. Traveling for work is not the same as my other journeys on this blog have been. My room's a lot nicer than usual, and my days entirely different, as you can imagine.

Lusaka is a quiet city. I have the impression that it would be easy to feel like you knew everyone in town fairly quickly. When not in meetings, we've visited a few of the hot spots, a nice restaurant and a shopping center. I haven't traveled in non-developed countries very much, and the differences are stark. Even something small, like changing money at the bank took nearly an hour, my receipt was hand-written (by myself) and I'm not certain the institution would have withstood a financial audit very well.

The work has been incredibly interesting. I'm learning a lot about programming foreign assistance, public health, and HIV/AIDS in developing countries. Overall prevalance rates have gone down slightly in Zambia to 14. 3 %, however rates in Lusaka went up, and condom usage remains low. We visited some one of the poorest districts in Lusaka yesterday, a compound where male and female hair dressers had been trained to demonstrate and sell female condoms. They reported growing sales and repeat customers, which is promising, especially for an area where even a small amount of money spent on prevention represents a large percentage of household funds.

Tomorrow I'm flying to a more rural part of Zambia to visit the programs that support orphans and vulnerable children in the copperbelt region. Getting out of the office setting and into the field has been a breath of fresh air in an admittedly already fast-paced and exciting work environment. It probably raises as many questions about aid and development as it provides answers to how aid is used.