It feels like a lot has happened since my last blog so lots more to report this time...
Feeling very settled and at home here now and very much enjoying the food (especially when it is cooked for me) and the weather (hot and getting hotter!)
We went for a day out to Nsobe game park which was lovely and relaxing, except for the part where we visited the snake house and held crocodiles, venomous snakes and a very large python. We also saw a snake which lives locally in Zambia and if bitten by it will be dead in 20minutes...a frightening thought when walking through any tall grass! We went for a drive to see if we could spot any animals and after 20minutes of only buck we thought it was unlikely. however when we came around the next corner we saw a family of 4 giraffes which was a nice surprise.
Last Monday was Cherie's birthday so I decided to make a cake and spent Sunday evening making 2 for a Victoria sandwich, it wasn't until I took it out the oven and tasted it that I realised I had used salt rather then sugar! On Monday I attempted cake 2 and underestimated how much the cake would rise...it came over the top of the tin and set fire to the oven, luckily we managed to salvage it and eat some resemblance of a Victoria sponge.
We had another girl, Liz, join us last week and the three of us went to stay out in the bush with a lady called Mrs Chomba. We were really excited about seeing the way of life out there and experiencing 'the real Zambia.' It was definitely fun to walk around and see how excited the children were to see us and listening to them trying to speak English. It was also an adventure using the toilet in the dark (a large hole in the ground with an equally large hole in the roof) and sleeping in a mud hut where we saw large rats running along the walls and them scuttling around as we tried to sleep. Sleep didn't come easy though when wild dogs decided to have a party outside our door and a cockerel tried to wake everyone up when it was still dark...and then continued to try every hour until we got up! It was fun to experience real Zambian food too, which took 3hours to prepare and included Nshima (a bit like congealed rice) and some small fish with the heads still on. Eating by candlelight as there was no electricity made it easier though and using our hands was messy to say the least. Because of their culture we ate on our own in their house while the rest of the family ate outside and the 2 younger children did most of the work while we weren't allowed to lift a finger. All in all an interesting experience and the best part was how honoured Mrs Chomba was that we had come to stay.
There have been lots of things to get used to such as people only using 24hr clock and trying to work out what time to be some where when it's '15'. Also being called Muzungu (foreigner) almost as much as Charlie...people shout it at you as you walk past, despite it being more than obvious we are the only white people around! Getting used to the roads with crazy drivers and even crazier trucks and police road blocks everywhere. Today I walked through a family's garden and they were slitting the throat of a chicken (nkoko in Bhemba) while the children squeezed the juices out of all the organs, mmm delicious.
Today we went on home visits to the children who will be starting in the new school which was such a world away from the home visit I did 2 years ago working in London...sitting on logs or old tyres listening to everything being translated, having family members trying to guess when the children's birthdays are and finding out if they need medication for HIV. Still the children seemed excited about starting school although pretty shy. Also I popped into another country today as one child lived just over the train tracks which technically means we have (illegally) crossed the border into the Congo.
The last 2 or 3 weeks have been a nice mix of sorting things for the school, exploring the real Zambia around Kaniki and relaxing in the evenings with a movie or a book (I've read 3 already since being here!) I'm looking forward to going into the playschool next week to see how everything's run and then  to start teaching the following week, although I'm not very excited about the fact it starts at 7.30!
That's all for now.