T.I.A.

Today was another interesting day in Zambia. We are busy trying to figure out the adoption process here, which means meeting with government officials, lawyers, etc. There doesn't seem to be just one way of doing things, so we are feeling a bit like detectives, sorting through processes and trying to figure out the right questions to ask (although we often get a different answer from everyone it seems).

As we were leaving from a meeting this morning, the person driving our van backed in to a taxi. Having never been in a car accident in Zambia, we weren't sure what the normal procedure was after hitting someones car. Our driver and one of the people we work with got out of the car to check to see if there was any damage on the taxi or on our van. As it turns out, the bumper on the taxi was dislodged, so there was a bit of damage unfortunately. As we were assessing the damage, a crowd began to form around the damaged car. Chad and I stayed in the car, not wanting them to notice the two foreigners..in case they thought we would have more money to offer them. The crowd of people looked like they were discussing something, but we couldn't hear them so we just kept watching. One of the guy's that we work with came back to our car and said that they wanted money for the damage. Chad and I immidiately thought that they would be asking for way more than the damage would actually cost, and that they were probably trying to rip us off...but we were wrong. They decidedthey wanted 10,000 Kwacha, which is equivalent to about $3 US! We quickly agreed to pay them and left the scene before the actual owner of the car came back and realized that we had broken his bumper and only given him $3 to pay for it!

On another note, the days are certainly getting hotter here. We never check the weather because every day is hot...although if you looked around, you might not think that was the case. People are still wearing heavy sweaters, hats, long pants...Oh...funny story. Chad spilled something on his pants and just noticed when we were talking with two of our coworkers. He decided to point it out to them, saying he spilled something on his pants. They sort of made a funny face, and then started laughing, and we had no idea why. They then told us that in Zambia, they call pants 'trousers', not pants. Pants are what we in Canada would call 'underwear'. They were so embarrassed that Chad was talking about his underwear in public... and apparently proper people don't talk about their pants in public!

Ok, I think that is all for today. Our internet has been pretty slow lately so it is difficult to post pictures, but hopefully this weekend we'll get some more on here.