Marley, Liv, Mabel and I sat in our taxi with our new driver called Island on the way to our separate placements. We are working in pairs at different rural health centers, Marley and Liv work at Mtelezi and Mabel and I at Chipembe. We'll be helping out wherever we can and going in to schools to work on sexual reproductive health (SRH) sessions with the kids. So far I've dispensed medicine, carried out Malaria and HIV tests on patients and registered new patients in the out patients. I'm not going to lie it's a slow pace of life here, in and out of the clinic, but I'll just have to get used to it. Nyimba is a beautiful place though, that's for sure. The sunsets are incredible and the southern cross constellation is beautiful. I'll update you next week when hopefully I'll be more into the swing of Zambian life. 

After a week of intense training in Lusaka Hotel, the time had finally come to say an emotional farewell to the Choma gang and travel to my home for the next ten weeks, a small town called Nyimba. The six and a half hour drive in a tiny bus with no seat-belts or air conditioning was sticky to say the least. Better late than never my new dad arrived to pick up me and my living counterpart Inonge, to take us home, only to find our new shower was a bucket. It's actually quite nice and I'm thinking of investing in a wet room when I return home. My family are: mum - a national service worker, dad - owns a clothes shop in town, Dorothy - 21, Candie - 15, Brasto - 12 and Isaac (Junior) - 4. They are all lovely and it's one of the best host homes (HH), even if I am a bit bias.

Over the next week we have our in community training (InCO) where we will learn more about HIV, AIDS, Malaria, STIs and the things we will be teaching about in community, before starting work in my rural health center. Wish me luck!

After 19 hours of solid travelling via cars, trains, buses and planes the other UK members of the team and I arrived in Lusaka (the capital of Zambia). We were greeted at the hotel by smiling faces and open arms from our soon-to-be counterparts.

Over the current week we've attended training sessions each day from 8:30-17:00 (all Zambians use the 24 hours clock so we are all still adjusting to calling 5 o'clock "17"). Our sessions consist of group discussions, role plays and presentations about anything and everything from culture shock to learning traditional Zambian games.

Apart from training, I've personally done a LOT of dancing, it seems I've developed the bug for Zambian dance moves. Everyone here can dance amazingly, we're all jealous whenever someone takes to the dance floor. The food is the same for lunch and dinner (luckily breakfast is bread, eggs and fruit but that won't last long). Every meal is Nshima (pronounced "shima") which is a thick maize flour and water mixture, thicker than mash potato, and you eat it with your hands. Some people aren't thrilled with it, but I can't get enough (at the moment anyway).

Walking round Lusaka, there are wooden market stalls everywhere and people staring and talking to us because we're white. We get called "Muzunga" or "Muzungu" which means white person, but it's a good thing! I've already had around five marriage proposals but am yet to purchase a "Chitenge", a traditional piece of fabric used as a skirt, or dress, or headscarf of belt. So multifunctional! I'll get one before we leave Lusaka but for now I'll leave you with a picture of the train tracks we walked along that run along side the markets. TTFN :)