un sabbatique fantastique en Afrique

Lusaka Sfx  - the soundtrack to our new home... Unfamiliar sounds in a new country keep me awake. My excited brain is busy mapping the terrain and conducting risk assessments. What kind of creatures are out there? Is that guns or fireworks? What language is that, and when is the music going to finish? Our cottage is at the back of a lush colonial style garden with lawns, palms and flowering trees. Beyond the louvre windows are a multitude of insects, birds, spiders and an as yet unidentified creature that makes an almost mechanical, regular beeping sound like an unsilenced alarm - very disturbing for an anaesthetist. In fact, jet lag has opened an auditory window into the night-time soundscape of our new home. Then, just before 6am as the light begins to break, the birds start their morning song. From all corners of the garden comes chirping and warbling – a pleasant, but early wake up call. Before long the traffic noise takes over as the dominant sound track. We are ...

Alright, so it feels like we can't start kick off this blog without the obligatory intro piece about where we are, how we got here, what we're doing and so on. However, right now that feels a little like a chore, and I'm sure it will all come out in some form or another throughout the course of this blog. So here is the abridged version. We're in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. We're here for 6 months for what we'll call 'le sabbatique de Ali', before we move onto Lyon, France, for my turn. 'We', consists of myself, Ali and our compact traveler of multiple faces, Frankie. Frankie and I are currently hanging loose before the next kinder term starts while Ali acquaints herself with yet another hospital system, albeit one slightly more rugged that those in outer Melbourne. After completing 3 weeks in Lusaka and a basic orientation to the city, we're today off to South Luangwa National Park for what promises to be a fantastique safari experie...