The Road to Mongu

On Wednesday, the day finally arrived..we left for Mongu! Yes it was a long time coming, but really it all worked out. We were graciously escorted by Mubita Maimbolwa. He is the husband of Margaret Maimbolwa, a Zambian whom with we have been working with very closely over the past 6 months. She is currently the Assistant Dean of the School of Medicine at UTH. She is another amazing women, and has been added to my growing list of heros. She makes the list because she has accomplished so much (including becoming a midwife, plus gaining a Master’s and a PhD, on top of writing research papers, and advocating for the rural people of Zambia)..and somehow in there she managed to have 5 kids!! See why she made it to my hero list?

Ok now that I have properly introduced Margaret, I will next introduce her husband Mubita Maimbolwa-our personal escort to Mongu! He also has quite the resume too. He was the former Permanent Secretary of the Western Province (which is where Mongu just so happens to be located) This is more or less equivalent to being Premier of British Columbia! He also worked for a few different ministries within the government, and still has strong political ties. He was also born and raised in Western province so that makes him the perfect person to introduce us to the Western province. (Since this is where we will be spending the next six months)

Another bonus piece to Mubita driving us was we got to ride in his government vehicle..which just so happens to be a brand new Land Cruiser. It just gets better and better..I know! The drive to Mongu takes about 6 hours, the road is very very straight so makes for easy driving. The one hazard is wild animals, because we actually drive through Kafue National Park (Which is one of the largest parks in Africa). We heard rumours of elephants along this road….and it is true! We spotted lots of animals including elephants, impala, antelope, seble, cranes, stork, warthogs. Not bad hey?

So now here we are in Mongu, I will stop now because Lianne will blog about our first couple days here. Just know that life is good here in Mongu. Indeed we are living with nuns. But wait here is the best part…they are Irish, and they drink beer and whiskey. (they also do yoga!) This should be an interesting few months.

Jessica