Yesterday turned into another of those bizarrely spontaneous days that Zambia has treated us to so well...
We had spent the morning and most of the afternoon writing our general report and the report for the camps when suddenly, mid-afternoon, Bernadette's friend Chali (who we've become quite good friends with over the past few weeks) turned up and announces he'd like to take us up to a bar to watch the football match. Seeing as we were somewhat bored of statistics, we agreed and so we ended up watching the Zambia v Botswana game in a near-empty bar, which gradually filled up. As the game progressed and ended (a draw, much to everyone's disappointment as Botswana is 'not a footballing nation') we'd been chatting to some acquaintances we'd made during our time in Mazabuka, and as twilight fell (around 5pm) we even managed to find ourselves part of a barbecue (that is, eating the products - not on it ourselves). We happened to also bump into Pennias, the SAPEP co-ordinator, who was having a reunion with old school friends: we were eventually persuaded (not that it took much) to join them at one of the clubs in town.
When we arrived it was probably at the fullest we'd ever seen that particular club - not full by any English club standards, but with a definite mass of people. At some point Bernadette turned up too - she evidently knew too well where to find us - and joined in some dancing. Eva and I managed to persuade some of our friends to join us back at out lodge for dinner (at about 10pm) during the course of which we found a gecko in our room - Eva is terrified of them. After chasing it around for about ten minutes, I think it became sufficiently confused that I managed to catch it with my bare hands (not quite Bear Grylls but getting there) and throw it out.
We then went for one more dance before returning and falling into bed - today will be rather more boringly spent report writing. And tomorrow we've got to hand them in, and that will be the end of this placement with SAPEP - an alarming prospect...
Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend - tell that English heatwave it'd better wait until we get back!
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