On the way to Ndola

Got out and took a road-trip today to Ndola, a town in the copperbelt
region of Zambia. It was my first time on the road out of Kasempa, the
town where Mukinge is located, and it's always good to see the
countryside from the window of a car instead of flying over it. I am
going on the trip to buy supplies for the hospital. We don't have any
sort of supply mechanism to ensure regular deliveries of our medical
supplies or maintenance needs, so someone from the hospital (usually our
pharmacist, Tamar) goes on these buying trips to purchase what we need
about once a month. We were due to gather supplies from about 5
different pharmacists along the way; they have names like "Chemopharm",
"Pharmaking", "Briking", "Biochem", and "Netpharm", and are all run by
expat Indian shopkeepers. The first place we stopped wasn't expecting us
until the next day and hadn't prepared anything; the second one we
couldn't find, when we called for directions he would not give them but
rather wanted to come meet us where we were, and after an hour wait he
arrived and told us that he wasn't ready and we needed to return later.
I was a little irritated that we had now been travelling 6 hours and had
nothing to show for our efforts so far. The places in Ndola, however,
have been more prepared.
We can only fill the back of one Land Rover, so that limits what we can
buy. I am responsible for about 8 million kwacha of the hospital's
money in addition to various checks for at least that much. Needless to
say, carrying around a stack of cash around 4 inches thick makes me a
little nervous, especially since our hospital executive director had his
car stolen and money robbed waiting at the gate of the guesthouse where
we are staying just last fall. I feel a bit like George on Seinfeld
when I try to stuff all that cash in my wallet and sit down -- not too
comfortable.
But it's good to have a few more of the comforts of life; we ate at an
Indian restaurant called Country Fried Chicken tonight when I had good
Chicken Tandoori; I haven't eaten out at a restaurant since I made it to
Mukinge. Tomorrow I will try to use the high speed internet and perhaps
clear away the updates for my antivirus program and windows which
continually remind me that I haven't updated now for three months. We
have a TV in our room at the guesthouse, and I watched the news for the
first time for awhile. Zambian TV news is luridly shocking; they will
regularly show pictures of half-charred corpses and
death/destruction/mayhem. The lead story tonight was about a woman who
was murdered and had her 'private parts' cut away. I can't say I miss
not seeing that on a daily basis. On the more positive side, I enjoyed
my first shower in Zambia today; think I must have used my entire
allotment of hot water for the week at once. Can't wait to do it again
tomorrow.