Leeds to Lusaka: A Speech and Language Therapist's Zambian Experience

Dedicated to my brother, Alan. RIP My journey to Zambia started at noon from Heathrow Airport on 8 th August 2018.   I was slightly apprehensive about the trip as I was flying with Ethiopian Airlines, whom I know very little about and was due to change planes in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at 9 pm or so at night with only a 30 mins turn around which sounded next to impossible!   However, the seven-hour journey to Ethiopia was smooth, comfortable and very relaxing.    Most people appeared to be either from North Africa or Zambia/Zimbabwe and very quickly after taking off we all settled down to watch one of the many films on offer on a small screen in front of us. I watched three films, although it did feel slightly surreal watching ‘The Man from UNCLE’ whilst 59,000 feet above Sudan! Sadly, I hardly saw anything of Africa as I arrived late at night.   Changing planes in Addis Ababa proved extremely easy as there

Hello from Leeds, England! Leeds City Market 3 pm Tuesday 7 th August 2018 Hello there and thank you for following me!  I’m Jenny, the Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) writing this blog. Well, I’ve finally started on my epic journey to Lusaka, Zambia from Leeds.    Life is always unpredictable, is it not?   For the first leg of the journey from Leeds to London by good old British Rail  (oops) trains [the easy bit!], my train was cancelled.   I’m now writing this first entry of my blog on a crowded train to York – I will get to London!! The planning for this trip has taken a while indeed.   I’ve felt a bit like a project manager at times and will not bore you with the details!   Suffice to say that moving house, leaving two jobs, going to a wedding in Scotland and preparing for the trip of a lifetime has kept me busy for a few months.   Now I am finally on my way, I can stop and reflect.   Saying goodbye to many, many friends, family and acquaintances