You survived the flights, you made it out of the airport – hooray! On your way to where ever you are staying, ask if you can stop and get some water – you'll want it that first night at least for brushing your teeth and taking your anti-malarial medication.

Hopefully you ended up on a flight that arrives in the evening in Lusaka, so it will be late enough on Zambian time that you can just go to bed. Anything after about 8 pm sounds good to me. If you think you'll have trouble making it all the way through the night, you may want to take a sleeping pill, melatonin, Benadryl or something that will help you get more then 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Of course I'm not prescribing – check with your doctor before you take anything. :) I typically sleep until about 4 am, which is around 8 pm at home, then I just can't sleep anymore. It takes me 2 or 3 days to adjust coming to Africa and 5 or 6 to adjust going back home – I'm not sure why that is, but it is.

After you've slept, the first things you'll want to do are go change money, buy more water and any other groceries/snacks that sound good to you. You will also want to buy a cell phone and “talk time” for the phone. Keep water with you, drink often, and use it to brush your teeth.

I have good luck going to “Shoprite” at Manda Hill. (All taxi drivers will know where Manda Hill is – expect to pay 30,000 to 40,000 Kwacha for a round-trip.) You will find a place to change money (Bureau d'Echange), an ATM if you need one, some restaurants, a grocery store (that's Shoprite) and an all-purpose store called Game (kind of like Wal-Mart without groceries). There are other shops as well. It's a popular place with muzungus, or the white folks. They have good ice cream there, yummy, yummy curry, a pizza place, Subway (as in the same restaurant you are used to in the States), a couple of pastry shops that smell divine – that kind of thing.

As far money goes - if you changed $1,000, you would end up with over 4 million Kwacha. Right now the exchange rate is around 4300 Kwacha to the dollar. I just divide by 4, though – it's easier than worrying about the little extra that's over. So, 1000 kw is a quarter. 4000 is a buck, 10,000 is 2 1/5 dollars, 100,000 is $25, etc. (That's why I thought it was funny that the birth certificates were 202,000 Kw - $50 and 50 cents. Who cares about the 50 cents?!)

Cell phones here don't usually go on a monthly plan, but rather work like calling cards. You will buy cards for 20,000 kwacha or so, scratch off the silver strip on the back, then follow the directions to enter that amount onto your phone.

One more detail – Game only has name brand diapers (Pampers and Huggies), while Shoprite has some larger ones of their own brand – nothing smaller than size 2, though. They seem to work just fine. The Pampers in “Game” do come in the newborn size, on up. Enjoy your time in Lusaka!