Lusaka Trip

Here are some photos of our trip to, around and home from Lusaka.  The purpose of the trip was to get the remaining furniture/furnishings we need.  Most of the list was taken care of, either by finding the item, or deciding we didn't need it.  There are still a few pieces to secure, but we did make progress.

The big news is that we now have FREEDOM, in the form of our own vehicle.  We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel in Lusaka.  Here are some photos of the dining area, where we enjoyed breakfast, and a buffet dinner the first night.  We had some grilled crocodile, quite tasty!

The waterfall wall in the background is quite noisy, but cuts down being able to hear other table conversations!  There were Christmas decorations all over the hotel.  The upper left corner of the wall there is a tree with plenty of tinsel.  Note the satchel hanging from Tom's chair.  This was to haul around out cash.  In the room, with over 100 million Kwacha:

These were 20,000 and 50,000 notes.  I had to have a guard escort me from the bank to our car when I withdrew it from the bank in Chingola!  My huge purse was so full I couldn't zip it shut.

Here are some views of Lusaka from our hotel window.   The view of the parking lot contains the Nissan Patrol we ended up buying.

The burnt orange SUV is the vehicle we purchased.  The woman selling it had retired as Deputy of Finance for Zambia, and was moving to Washington, D.C. on Sunday.  Timing was perfect for both of us!

The neighborhood surrounding the Intercontinental Hotel is filled with the embassies.  If you use Google Maps, and write in embassies, Lusaka, Zambia you will see what I mean.  I can't quite make out the flag, but it looked like it was a red background with a blue cross on a white backdrop.

This was the side entrance to the hotel.  While we were there WHO was hosting a conference, so there were quite a wide range of dignitaries visiting.

Manda Hill Mall is where we began the search for furniture.  Fortunately, after being a bit dismayed at a lack of selection and quality in the 3 furniture stores we found Kubu Crafts.   One of the non-furniture items we found was a Nativity set!  It was too cute to pass up.

Mary and I are riding in the back seat of the sedan from Chingola.  KCM provided our driver, Thomas, and Prisca, who assisted us with buying the furniture and arranging for it to be delivered.

This is the entryway to the new national stadium being erected below.  We are not certain why the Olympic rings are on display.  

The new stadium is huge!  It appears to be larger than Reliant in Houston, where the Texans play.  The roof will open and close as needed.  

Look for more posts.  This one is getting long, and I think it is time to do more unpacking of the items we purchased!