We arrived in Johannesburg fairly early in the morning with a relatively short layover to catch our flight to Livingstone, Zambia. From our past experiences, we expected this to be a potential problem, but the renovations to the airport they had made for last year’s World Cup greatly improved the process and efficiency of the transfer. Our luggage had been checked all the way through to Livingstone – unlike previous trips – and we didn’t really have to go through customs at all since we were transferring to another non-domestic flight – also unlike previous trips. We did have to track down Tehanne’s luggage since her luggage tags were not attached to her passport as had been the case with everyone else, but airport personnel were very helpful directing us to the right offices.
We boarded our plane to Livingstone (a 2 and a half hour flight) and passed directly in front of Victoria Falls on our descent into the Livingstone airport. We passed through the stations to get our entry visas fairly quickly, found all our luggage, and passed through customs with no problems or challenges at all. In the lobby, our hosts, Drs. Dan and Joan and another hospital staff person were waiting for us and greeted us warmly.
We loaded all the luggage into or on top of the two vehicles and pack all 13 of us into the vehicles for the roughly 40 mile trip to Zimba. We stopped in downtown Livingstone to exchange dollars for the Zambian currency, Kwacha, so we’d have at least a little spending money. The exchange rate is a bit mind boggling and difficult to make sense of in the midst of a transaction. One U.S. dollar was trading for 4,690 Kwacha, so you didn’t have to exchange too many dollars to be a Zambian millionaire.
The road from Livingstone to Zimba has recently been re-paved, largely by the Chinese, who are busy buying lots of cooper and other ores from the mines in north central Zambia. The road from Livingstone through Zimba and on to the capital Lusaka is the primary north-south highway and the highway had taken a severe beating over the past number of year’s when the ore and cargo that had been moved by rail to South Africa for shipping was diverted to trucks so the railroad could be repaired. Now, however, the roadway was in great shape and we traveled the roughly forty miles in less than an hour.
By the time we arrived, it was mid-afternoon. We spent most of the rest of the day unloading luggage, unpacking the medical supplies, sorting the supplies, getting settled in our rooms, taking a walking tour of the hospital, eating, and – once again – trying to figure out the local electrical system (i.e., different outlet types in every room, setting up transformers from 220 to 110 volts, etc.).
Since we were last here in 2008 there has been a lot of construction at the hospital. There was a screened enclosure added in front of the kitchen. This was designed as a break area for the staff. There is a brick wall enclosure surrounding the maintenance shed with concertina wire across the top. This is to protect the supplies and the hospital’s vehicles from theft. They have a new guard house at the front of the hospital property, although it appears seldom to be manned. The eye clinic has converted two of the shipping containers into public library’s. They have lots of books for children and adults. The smaller of the two containers is their reference library.
Since last October, they have been building a new outpatient department building which is huge. They are building it in the space between the old outpatient department, the chapel and pharmacy and the eye clinic. It fills up almost the entire space. All the walls are up, the roof is on, and they are putting on the concrete veneer to smooth and add strength to the walls. Dr. Joan is pushing them to be finished by the time she and Dr. Dan leave on July 14. It will be a great addition with lots of space for the outpatient care, an emergency room, and a dental clinic. It is U-shaped and will have a roof over the courtyard. The building comes within about ten yards of the eye clinic.
This past week, they started construction of a new chapel. It is being built between the eye clinic and the eye clinic’s guest house.
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