Molabage St. Robert! You would hear the natives saying this greeting  in Zambia. Basically, it means, What’s up St. Robert?

Sebastian Sanders here, and rather than being with you in seventh grade classes at St. Robert School, I have been living in Zambia for 2 months now. The reason my family and I moved to Zambia is because my dad’s job sent him here to help with medical needs. It has been very different living here. For instance, I live in a one story house with a pool that my family shares with our neighbors. Surrounding our house is a 10 foot wall with an electric wire at the top, and broken shards of glass stuck in the cement. It feels like you are living in a “prison”.

School is going fine. I have been going to a British International School called Lusaka International Community School (LICS) for seven weeks now. I’m in Year 8 according to the British system. The school is much different than St. Robert. It is bigger, but it only has one story buildings. Years 7-12 are in separate buildings from the other kids below Year 7. The school also has a swimming pool and four soccer fields. The school days are shorter and there are two recesses in a day. LICS shares some similarities with St.Robert. For example, all the students have to wear uniforms at LICS, but you can wear jeans with your uniform shirt instead of pants and you have to wear a LICS hat when you are outside. Even with all the differences, I liked school better in Wisconsin though.

The sports in Zambia are much different. There is no baseball, no softball, no football (American), no volleyball, and very little basketball. The only sports they have are soccer, rugby, and cricket.

The types of food in Zambia are also different, I haven’t seen one McDonald’s. People grill lots of meats and eat them with spicy rices. Something I miss from Wisconsin is the ice cream. The ice cream here  isn’t as good. I also miss hamburgers.

One thing that I could never have done in Wisconsin was go on a safari camping trip. I went on such a trip two weeks ago. That trip was one of the worst and the best trips of my life. The worst part was a five hour car ride down the bumpiest road ever, with two of my brothers complaining the whole way. When we got there it was amazing! There was a river glistening in the evening sunlight and I could see the hippos’ heads appearing out of the water. Two other families joined us and we had a big feast of grilled meats that evening. Afterwards, we pitched our tent, and my friends, David and I slept in the tent, while the adults slept in the cabins. The next day everybody went on a boat ride and I saw four crocodiles and eleven hippos. We also went on a fishing trip hoping to catch tiger fish, but we caught nothing. We did see an elephant and some more hippos. We were only at the camp for two days.

There are a lot of things that are different from Wisconsin. There are also many things you can do in Zambia that you can’t do in the States. Next week I won’t have school, so my family and I are going on an overnight safari trip in the savanna.

Until next time,   -Seb