Happy Birthday, Britt!

I can't believe your 17. That amazes me. I remember when you were just a baby. Happy Birthday. Love, Uncle Ron.

Winter

I hope everyone is enjoying Summer back in the States. We're in the middle of Winter down here. The overnight low was 42 degrees, and that's cold for here. We've even taken to using the heat in the office during the day. Enjoy the 4th of July weekend and be sure to think about me in the middle of Winter while you are on the Lake or the Golf Course this weekend.

Victoria Falls

Mosi-Oa-Tunya. In a previous post, I mentioned that Mosi was the name of the beer brewed in Zambia. While this is true, it is, more appropriately, the local name (in Tonga) for Victoria Falls meaning "Smoke that Thunders" because of the loud sound and tremendous amount of mist created by the falls. A truly amazing sight. This picture does not do the falls justice as they are much larger and more dramatic in person.

Here is a vervet monkey that decided to keep an eye on my Land Rover while we visited the falls.

We also took a Sunset Cruise on the Zambezi River, also referred to as the "Booze Cruise" for obvious reasons.

Sunset on the Zambezi River.

Victoria Falls is located in Livingstone, about 475 km (roughly 300 miles) southwest of Lusaka. The trip takes 5+ hours to drive with 5 small towns in between. The majority of the drive is a 2 lane road that is often, and unexpectedly, blocked.

Other reasons the road may be blocked are because Cows frequently cross.

Like these.

JAMA...

We were notified today that the article we submitted to the Journal of the American Medical Association was accepted for publication. I do not yet know the date of the publication, but will post it when I find out. The article is entitled "Rapid Scale-Up of Antiretroviral Therapy at Primary Care Sites in Lusaka, Zambia: Feasibility and Early Outcomes." I initially came to Zambia back in November of 2005 to work on the analysis for this article, and it's nice to know that it will be published in such a high profile journal.

Cost of Living...

First, a couple of conversions. At today's exchange rate, the US Dollar was worth 3,580 Kwacha. One galloon is equal to 3.78 Liters, so 1 gallon of Diesel fuel is $5.02, and one gallon of unleaded is $5.45. My Land Rover has an 80 Liter tank, so filling it costs 380,720 ($106.35).

I just bought everything to change my oil. Here's an itemization...
10 Liters of Castrol diesel oil = 183,999 ($51.40)
1 Oil filter = 24,000 ($6.70)
1 Diesel filter = 36,000 ($10.06)
1 Air filter = 64,000 ($17.88)
All of the above include a 17.5% tax.
Grand total = $88.74

Driving to Livingstone to see one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World... Priceless.

Mosi

...and here is another housemate, Mosi, who belongs to my roomate, Jenny. For those of you who don't know, Mosi is the name of the beer brewed locally in Zambia. It took a while for her to get used to me, but now that she has, we play fetch and sit on the couch together. She really is a sweet dog once she quits barking at you.

Happy Birthday, Bailey!

Hope you have a great birthday!

My New Ride...

I just purchased this 1995 Land Rover Defender 110 from a guy I work with at CIDRZ.

This is the house I moved into a couple of weeks ago. It has a nice size yard with a great barbecue. We're in the middle of winter, so I haven't had a pool party just yet, but I'm looking forward to it in the near future.

Last, but not least, here is one of my new housemates, Roscoe. Roscoe belongs to my roomate, Nancy. He is really chill most of the time. How can you not love that face?

Happy Birthday, Lindsey!

Happy Birthday, Lindsey! I hope all is well back at home.