The title can magically describe not only my general mood and state of mind, but the meager amount of Nyanja (the main dialect spoken in Lusaka, Zambia) I have managed to learn, the weather, and the attitude of Zambians whom we work with and have come to know and befriend. It is not fair to generalize from our 3-week experience in Lusaka and make statements about the relatively big and diverse country of Zambia. But being in the capital city of Lusaka, and interacting with people from all walks of life, I have come to learn that Zambians are laid back, friendly, hospitable, and proud people.
Born and raised in Iran, I found it easy to settle into life here as many scenes and cultural norms reminded me of Tehran. Nevertheless, the levels of poverty seen in Lusaka is incomparable to anywhere else I have been. Average earning is $2 USD/ day and adult HIV prevalence rate is 16%. There are an estimated 500'000 AIDS orphans in Zambia, and the government is corrupt and people unhappy. What stands out amidst all this chaos, however, is the optimism and resilience with which people go through their daily lives. The effect is such that I find myself relatively at home here, with no real stress or worry as so many things that used to occupy my mind and time in Toronto seem completely irrelevant and superficial to how life, in its pureset form, is lived here.
Working at ZARAN (Zambia AIDSLaw Research and Advocacy Network) has put me and Jamie in touch with great individuals, from our office cook who without a doubt makes the best Nshima (Staple food of Zambia, eaten with everyday, without which a meal is not really a meal) to our paralegal officer, who is the main source of support and guidance to us. ZARAN has no legal officer at the moment, and thus me and Jamie have been spending quite a big chunk of our time buried in the Laws of Zambia (a collection of roughly 20 volumes) as we try to learn about relevant legislation and policies that are not only applicable to the few active files at the AIDSLaw Clinic, but also to our own individual research projects. Having the freedom to pursue any topic that falls under ZARAN's mandate of protecting human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS, I decided to focus on women's reproductive rights and specifically the topic of abortion- and possible implications for its legalization for HIV+ mothers. After heterosexual transmission, mother to child transmission accounts for 40% of incidents of HIV/AIDS. I am anticipating a lot of roadblocks and 'unfavourable' gaze as Zambia is whole-heartedly Christian and dominated by missionaries from all over the world.
Aside from work at the clinic, living with Jamie and our new roommate Arman, an undergrad student from UofT has been surprisingly drama-free, relaxing and fun! Jamie will be blessed for eternity by my mother, for feeding me, as I am not the most skilled in the kitchen. We have yet not started tapping into our 'exercise routine', which was rigorously scheduled from Toronto, in order to be 'fit' for our Kilimanjaro climb at the end of summer. But we now walk home after work, thanks to Steph not being here in Lusaka anymore! Aside from her phobia of walking (sorry Steph!), our project director Stephanie Kam (section A), was nothing short of a miracle worker to me. Having been in Zambia 2 years ago, she made our transition into Lusaka effortless. She selflessly put us in touch with and introduced us to her friends (most of them graduates of UNZA-University of Zambia), lawyers, contacts in various government offices and families who have treated us with so much kindness and generosity.

As this is my first post, please pardon the length and the disjointed thoughts here and there. Internet access, as we expected, is very limited here and aside from the 8-9 hours that we work from Monday to Friday, we are blissfully disconnected from the world wide web. Of course there are internet cafes we can go to, which we will this Sunday to pick our courses, but how can we possibly waste more time when time itself cannot be couched down here?