Our vehicle broke down, and I went back to Lusaka while it is getting fixed. But it's taking longer than anticipated so I decided to come back up to Kabwe to continue to some work anyway.
It was good spending some time in Lusaka, I ran into a girl I went to college with who is living here, as well as a girl that I went to high school with. All working for various aid organizations. I love hearing other people's stories in aid and the difficulties they encounter. I met a man who was working for UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) in Chad taking care of the Darfur refugees that crossed the boarder last year. He told me the story about how they were kidnapped and held hostage in their living quarters for a week by the rebels, and were rescued by the French Army. His stories are heartbraking,he saw a lot as he was doing the registering of new refugees. The camps can spring up over a weekend, he was saying that 30,000 refugees might show up in 2-3 days. I can't even imagine what that must be like.
We hear about all the atrocities whenever the media decided that a humanitarian catastrophe might just be more important that Britney Spears, and it never really hit home for me on how bad it really is until I came here. And I had put a lot of thought into it! It's something quite different to talk to people who experience those atrocities first hand.
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