Zambia by Numbers

# of cars purchased:  1

  We bought a used Toyoto Carina off a friend of a friend. It’s been nice to not have to rely on taxis to get us out to the orphanage. We’re looking forward to exploring the country with our new ride.

# of new roommates: 1

  We have a roommate spider. He’s huge and lives behind a tile in our shower. He only comes out at night and doesn’t appear to move from the one spot. We’re not sure what he eats. Our friends assure us that he’s not poisonous. As we have very few bugs and mosquitoes in our house, we’ve decided to let him stay. We’ve named him Bruce after a very large, scary looking, but friendly dog that lives in our neighbourhood in Vancouver. We’re hoping our spider is friendly. 

# of Zambian beers consumed: 4

  Markus, being the beer connoisseur that he is, was excited to try the Zambian beer. We’ve sampled some the past couple of days. A perfect, light beer for a hot day. Seems to be a lot of hot days here. :)

# of court dates:  0

  Unfortunately, we don’t have a court date yet to become the foster parents of Isaac and begin our three month fostering period. Until we have our court date, we will continue to visit him at the orphanage.

# of power outages: 2

  Fortunately, there was only one when we were at home. It happened while we were cooking dinner but only lasted a few minutes.

# of pairs of underwear Markus ironed prior to coming to Zambia: 0

# of pairs of underwear Markus has ironed since arriving in Zambia: 12

  We were told that we should be ironing all our clothes after they’ve been hung outside to dry. The putzi fly apparently will lay eggs on wet clothes and the larvae will bury under your skin when you wear the clothes. Ironing will kill the larvae. We’re not sure how much of a risk this actually is in Zambia, however, we’re certainly not up for larvae under our skin especially in our nether regions.

# of friendly Zambian people we’ve met:  Lost count awhile ago.

  The people of Zambia are incredibly friendly and helpful. It’s been quite amazing to feel so embraced by strangers or relatively new friends. It’s made coming to a new country and setting up our home so much easier with the help we’ve received so far. Need a new car? We’ll find one for you. Need a taxi? I’ll run down the street and get one for you. We are so grateful to all the people who have helped us on our way.

# of visits with Isaac: 5

  We’ve been to visit Isaac five times now. Each time our love for him grows bigger. He’s an amazing little man with such wonderful smiles. We can’t get enough of his cuddles. He will fit in well with his snuggle addicted mother. Today we spent some time with Isaac outside in the yard of the House of Moses. We got these two photos of him. He appears to be teething and can’t get enough of his Sophie, the giraffe. You’ll notice the smiles on his parents’ faces – we can’t seem to do anything but smile when we’re around Isaac.