March 11
Hi all!
I've had a few days in Canada to relax and reorient since my time in Zambia. It's both strange and perfectly normal to be back home. Today, I took some time to sort through my photos (a massive 2100 images!) and I pared them to just 136. Please take a look and click any photo for a bigger version!
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| Leaving on the Greyhound |
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| Skytrain |
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| Arriving at YVR |
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| Meeting up with the intrepid quad |
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| Hanging out in Heathrow |
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| Sam excitedly pointing out our destination |
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| Finding the rest of the nursing crew |
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| Touchdown on Zambian tarmac |
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| Our plane |
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| Nervously walking toward the airport and immigration |
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| Success! We're in! |
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| Everyone was happy to finally be in Zambia |
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| All of the trees seemed so exotic |
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| Our first of many, many cab rides |
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| The giant flat bed truck that took us to our temporary home, Cheshire House |
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| Susie and Rachel, a little worried about sleeping with bugs |
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| The girls' dorm |
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| The walk into Cheshire |
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| Some of the kids |
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| Amanda showing off one of our staples - Long Life Milk |
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| Cheshire Home |
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| Our first experience with mangos |
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| Travelling around downtown Lusaka |
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| Mmm, the beginning of a beautiful relationship with Fanta |
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| What would a trip to Zambia be without a little Bollywood in 3D? (Don 2!) |
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| Typical scene as we crush into a cab |
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| Lusaka Bus Station - always a nightmare |
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A little anxiety!
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| Zambeef... Feeding the Nation |
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| I wasn't a huge fan of Lusaka |
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| Arriving at the Mongu bus station |
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| We can always fit one more |
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| Our happy family in the medium house |
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| "Downtown" Mongu |
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| Our big group after learning some cultural competency with regard to the Lozi |
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| Riding around town |
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| Biking out to enjoy the sunset over the floodplains |
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| Never disappoints |
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| Bleaching our food - Mmmmm |
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| Some of our Zambikes which we later gave away to some local friends |
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| The local kids were always super friendly and often wanted their photos taken |
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| Oasis (oh-WASS-iss) - love to hate it |
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| I don't know if I ever mentioned just how many bugs there were |
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| Typical scene as we lounge outside reading the Hunger Games |
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| First day of clinical |
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| Hanging out in the Operating Theatre |
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| We were beyond surprised to see these wheelchairs! |
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| At the Mongu bus station getting ready to leave for our safari trip! |
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| The beautiful Mukambi Lodge. Oh the fun we had here! |
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| The beautiful pool |
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| There were warthogs everywhere |
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| Zebras off in the distance |
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| Rest stop halfway through our first game drive |
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| Elephants! Incredible |
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| Fay, one of our fearless leaders! |
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| We ate like royalty each meal |
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| And watched fantastic sunsets |
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| Back in Mongu, wildlife right on our window ledges |
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| Denee and I about to embark on a boat cruise fundraiser for the Zambian Nurses Union |
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| Click for larger |
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| Lovely scenery |
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| Barker by the bark! |
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| Typical clouds rolling in - everyone close the windows and take in the laundry! |
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| Nat being pensive |
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| Driving to a school to give a talk on nursing |
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| The kids were great |
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| And were excited to meet us! |
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| Back at Oasis, Julet was enjoying her souvlaki |
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| Girls at the Liloyelo orphanage |
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| Getting ready to go to Oasis to see Macky 2! |
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| Esther and I had heard him plenty on the radio so we were excited |
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| Susie and Sam were pumped too! |
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| Macky 2 (aka, Flava Boy) makes his grand appearance |
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| Semifinals: Zambia vs Ghana (Zambia won of course!) |
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| Outreach: our bathroom |
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| Community gardens |
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| Kuku (grandmother) and Ima (mother) teaching us to prepare cassava |
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| Toni giving it a great shot |
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| Village kids |
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| A man teaching us to make mats |
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| Our much-loved clinic |
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| A good reason to bring a loofah |
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| Community health workers at taught by our students |
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| Surprise! Happy retirement Fay! |
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| Alex and me: frenemies for life |
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| Sitting in the bed of a truck as we go to an orphanage |
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| Susie had a great time! |
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| The kids became big Canucks fans |
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| Visiting a crocodile 'farm' |
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| Travelling back through Lusaka to Livingstone: garbage and markets |
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| Julet and Coreen killing time |
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| Baboons: they're terrifying |
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| Esther and her bungee game face |
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| Michelle and her swan dive |
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| Fallon's bungee freak out! |
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| Giraffe outside of the Royal Livingstone Hotel |
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| And a few zebras too |
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| It's a beautiful hotel |
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| Going dangerously close to the edge of the falls |
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| You can see, just right there, where the world ends |
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| Rachel and I braved it |
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| Hold hands so you don't die! |
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| Jolly Boys Funky (Chunky?) Monkey smoothies, mmm |
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| Family photo on the Sunset (booze) Cruise |
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| Hungry for hippos |
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| High tea at the Royal |
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| We ate well that day! |
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| Boat cruise in Botswana |
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| Crazy water buffalo! |
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| I loved the Kudu - super neat animals |
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| More eles |
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| And, of course, giraffes |
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| Nat and Britt falling off a cliff |
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| Just before we rappelled to our near-deaths |
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| Super Susie zipping across the gorge |
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| Esther and I pretending to be happy before we dropped off the cliff |
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| No longer happy |
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| Susie and her lion |
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| Kitty! |
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| Me and mine |
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| Riding elephants that afternoon |
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| Over the river and through the woods... |
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| And a chance to feed them too! |
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| Nyami Nyami drinks (more like nummy nummy!) |
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| A few desserts to sample |
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| They looked okay, I guess |
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| Mmmm |
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| Finally seeing Victoria Falls |
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| With fantastic friends! |
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| Gorgeous people by one of the seven wonders |
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| All wearing dresses as we walked across a drenching bridge |
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| Nat is always a great sport |
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| Back to Lusaka |
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| And onto our plane |
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| And finally back home to Vancouver! |
