Bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, I hurried to finish my
coffee before my ride beeped at the gate.
The coffee was nice and strong but surprisingly smooth. I hadn’t slept well the night before thanks
to jet lag and worry about my little dog making her way to Zambia on her
own. Needless to say, I wanted to be
ready the moment the expeditor from the embassy arrived to take me to the
airport to pick up Prithvi. I suspected
that he would be a little later than the 6:15am time we had arranged but I didn’t
want to be late in case he really did show up so early.
At 6:30 I climbed into his large pick-up truck and quickly
fell into conversation with my smiley Zambian colleague. The city was certainly awake at that time,
with many people hurrying along dirt tracks next to the roads as they made
their way to work. Even those working in
the service industry as gardeners or housekeepers dressed far more nicely than
most Americans would. Ladies wore long
skirts, high heels, and smart jackets whereas the men wore nice pants and
pressed button-down shirts. One
exception was a young man proudly wearing a t-shirt that read “Git-R-Done”; no
doubt a charity donation from the US.
Up the road the sun began to rise at a faster pace than I
have ever seen. The sky transformed from
a foggy lavender to the vibrant orange sun depicted in the opening scene of The Lion King. Lusaka is not a huge city and it seemed as if
we were in the countryside within five minutes.
My companion told me that the country has vast amounts of arable land
left empty, which was evident as we drove along the open road to the airport. He was a great conversationalist so we jumped
from topic to topic. Thankfully, his
easy manner took my mind off of my nerves about the dog.
Prithvi’s journey to Zambia was a complicated one. US-based airlines restrict the shipment of
animals as cargo during the summer heat, so we were not able to check her as
excess baggage like we had done when we brought her out of India. Instead, we had to hire a pet shipper to
arrange her travel from Washington. They
handled the reservations with the airline and much of the paperwork on our side
of the Atlantic. The shipping office at
the embassy handled the rest, which meant all we had to do was take her to the
vet before we left. Because we arrived
in Lusaka on a Saturday night, Prithvi had to follow us a few days later. The Lusaka airport is much too small to have
staff to accept animals on the weekend. That
is why I was out and about so early on a Monday morning. Prithvi had started her journey on Saturday
afternoon when the pet shipper picked her up from the apartment she was staying
in with my parents just of of U Street in DC.
From there they took her to Dulles airport for her British Airways
flight to Heathrow. Once in London, she
visited the “pet resort” where she had the chance to take a walk, eat, and
drink some water before continuing on to Africa.
When we arrived at the airport we drove directly to BA’s
cargo office at the end of the runway.
Although her flight had landed about 30 minutes earlier, Prithvi’s crate
was only just unloaded as we pulled up.
I ran to the truck that was carrying her crate and called her name in an
embarrassingly high voice. She looked a
little bit shell-shocked but mostly cold from the chilly winter morning. As soon as the truck stopped, I let her out
of the crate and gave her a big hug. The
Zambian men around me chuckled at such a display of affection for a dog but I
didn’t care. Her little wiggles and
kisses immediately put me at ease. My
companion handled all of the paperwork with the customs agent as I walked her
around the cargo area.
Within minutes we were finished and back in the car, taking
Prithvi to her new home and her very first yard. My new friend from the embassy looked at me,
scratching her behind the ears, and said “you know, Zambians have a difficult
time understanding Americans and their dogs”.
I grinned and replied “I know”. I
finally felt like we could start our tour.
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