Peace Corps-Zambia

Kitchen talk

2012-01-31T01:59:00.000-08:00

After two years of cooking over charcoal on a brazier the size of a frying pan, it is glorious to have a kitchen. The refrigerator is apartment size, but enables us to buy and eat meat. We opted to continue to drink room temperature water so that we could shop for fresh foods once per week only. The stove/oven resembles a microwave oven in size and having the door open the oven. The 2 burner stove is directly on top of the oven. The unit sits on a small table which I brought down from my hut in the village. I was so disappointed when I discovered that only one of the burners worked. I was really looking forward to expanding my cooking beyond one-pot meals so I bought a two burner hot plate and am happy. The oven bakes pretty hot so is ideal for homemade bread. To my great relief, my cake pans fit inside. It probably uses less electricity than a big oven. Then the whole unit shorted out and we had to buy a replacement last Saturday. Maybe it was worn out from all the baking I have been doing, including bread. So now I am baking and cooking on a brand new unit.

At work I have been revising the Peace Corps cookbook called "Where There Is No Take-Away". It has been great to add tips and correct recipes. Last night I baked the corrected brownies recipe and it received approval from my official taste-tester and roommate.
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The apartment has a meter to measure the units of electricity that we have to pre-pay and then load. Next week we will walk over to the nuclear plant owner and plunk money down for another 45 units.
We lost electricity last Friday night, so went to bed early and read by candlelight. We just went into the village mode. However, through my window I noticed that the apartments across the courtyard all had lights. Next morning I checked with a neighbor who was watching TV. Her husband came down and immediately located the problem as a tripped fuse switch on our meter. Like any new resident, we have to learn these things.

More on Life in the big city

2012-01-11T05:58:00.000-08:00

Yes, you are seeing correctly: Lusaka has it's very own nuclear reactor located in the center of town. Thankfully, the power company no longer uses it but relies on hydroelectric sources instead. The edge of the building you see in the right side of the photo is a brand new shopping mall. Nice backdrop! I have used the tower to fix my location while navigating the new city since it is not far from where I live and visible from afar!

Every weekend, my roommate, Laura and I have explored the town by foot (of course). We just get on Cairo Rd and ask people where something is located. Not only are the pedestrians happy to stop and tell us, they often want to walk and show us. I love Zambians.

One of our first outings was to the local market of Kumwala. It was a maze of shacks with mud streets. The Saturday we went, it had just rained and every path was flooded. There is very little drainage in the city and it rains hard here so Lusaka streets flood regularly. Anyway, back at the market, the word "plague" came to mind and we couldn't wait to get out of there as we clung to the high ground. I have since gone back when it was dry and explored. We bought linoleum flooring, Christmas decorations, sewing supplies, dry fish for catfood, and "Cheeky Chili" which were so much more available there than in the supermarkets.

I have had three occasions where a stranger has touched my skin in passing like they were just checking out what I was made of. That surprised me because I had never experienced that in the rural areas where I might have expected to be the oddity. Very recently, I lost my wallet on Cairo road. Peace Corps security officer took me to the police station to make a report and then to the bank to get a new bank card. The next day I got a call from Peace Corps that a stranger had driven over there to return the card and ID papers. Somehow the wallet and cash went missing (surprise! but the important stuff was returned across town.

I spent two afternoons tracking down the store that supplies satellite TV. I had planned to subscribe over the holidays if it was affordable. It isn't. I was told that our TV was ready for the service but it wasn't. The converter box needs to be upgraded and the channels we wanted to watch were of course only in the most expensive package. So now we are watching movies that Laura has on her computer's hard drive. I still get a thrill over having electricity 24-7.

We have continued to have a good experience living in our 3 story apartment building which faces an identical building, separated by front lawns and sidewalk. The children make happy noises on the front yard all day long. The ice cream man peddles his bicycle freezer daily up the sidewalk ringing a cow bell. There were 3 weeks of fireworks which was annoying but it stopped at a reasonable hour at night. We learned more about the history of the buildings, too. They were built by the African National Foundation (ANF) for anti-apartheid South Africans to work from. This explains why my 84 year old landlady is a South African Chieftainess (Zulu) and why our front door reads African Heritage House. Because of the dangers of becoming targets of violence, names of ownership or occupancy were never written down so most people stayed rent-free and ownership disputes had to go to court on a case-by-case basis. The original occupants knew one another and had lawn parties on Friday nights. The flats have since been rented to strangers such as Peace Corps. (smiley) We are having some difficulties with bill payment. I moved in on Dec 2nd but Peace Corps couldn't pay until the 26rd so I scraped together half of the quarter's rent because I wanted to move in right away. I paid the remainder on Dec. 26th. The landlady was not happy to say the least. On the 30th we got a 2 day shut-off notice for our water. I had given the landlady the money already so I sent the bill to her and talked by phone. On the 30th she left a rose bouquet and cake inside our apartment with a card. Two days later, our water was shut off so I paid it and sent her a text because she was planning a holiday visit to South Africa. Luckily they reconnected the water the same day so nothing was lost but an extra K100,000 and time off of work. Other than those issues which hopefully we can sort out by the next payment due, we love the furniture, kitchen, bath, etc and wouldn't think of moving. Cleopatra, our African Queen Cat came to live with us toward the end of December. By that time, we had all the mosquito screens on the windows so she could be an indoor cat for a week of acclimatization. She was calm and happy from the start. Luckily her real owner had her fixed so I don't have to do the kitten routine. The cockroach population has also receded partly due to her, I think, and the other part to cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. We know they can always run back and forth between apartments so will probably never be totally rid of them.

Now that I live in Lusaka I am expecting--and getting--a lot of Peace Corps Volunteer visitors. So is Laura. Hers are from Eastern Province and mine from Northern so we are becoming acquainted with a lot of new folks. Some are passing through for vacation. Others actually want to visit. On Jan 2 I had 4 camped out in the living room (tent, couch and floor) and one on the spare bed in my room. They were happy to have a free bed for the night. They are expected to help with food and drink but that is all. I kind of like cooking still. I made cakes, cookies, biscotti and bread in the little oven. The volunteers are so appreciative of anything. They are low maintenance visitors.

Beware of Wild Animals In Lusaka

2012-01-04T00:48:00.000-08:00

On January 1, Barb and I went to Munda Wanga, the animal sanctuary in Lusaka. These are rescued animals who are eventually turned back into the wild. Can you see the Cheetah under the sign?

It was an inexpensive way for two volunteers to get up close and personal with the animals who live in Zambia. Since I didn't get to see Zebras or Lions on the safari in Chobe National Park, I was very happy to get the snaps of these beautiful animals, albeit behind wire fences.

The Zebra who was MIA at Chobe Safari

Of course the Warthog, aka PUMBA, delighted us.

The camels were a surprise but they were rescued. Someone tried to introduce them as work animals but the Zambians did not take to them. As you may already know, they are very useful in Sahara region of Africa. Just shows you how large and varied the continent is.

Where ARE we? What is this greenery?

Then we came upon this poor tortoise on his back with his soft side under the hot African sun and watched to see if he could right himself. After observing another turtoise (sibling?) give him wide berth while passing him, I thought WWZD (What would a Zambian Do?) So I went looking for and found a long bamboo pole to reach him over the barrier and flip him upright.

Rescued tortoise. Can you see the mud on his shell?

He stayed withdrawn for only seconds before taking off to Mama Tortoise who was sunning herself on a nearby rock. You can actually see clumps of mud on his back from his struggles. I tried to upload a video of his attempts but it is too large a file for our system.

Sun bather

Then we proceeded to the cafeteria and botanical gardens which are also housed in Munda Wanga.

The first thing we checked on upon arrival at Munda Wanga was the availability of eating crocodile for lunch only to be told that they sold out the day before. When we came back to order later, we learned that there was ONE crocodile steak. Hopefully, it wasn't one of the rescued crocs we had just visited.

Sibling Rough housing

More on National Food and Nutrition Commission

2011-12-28T00:38:00.000-08:00

Along with 100 other pedestrians, I walk 5 blocks in the industrial area to get to work on Lusaka's busiest street-Lumumba Rd (which only sounds like a dance but is really a slow crawl). Luckily I don't have to cross it cuz that is done on the run.
Here is Beatrice, my main boss. Even she uses her personal laptop at work. She found the apartment and hired me and told me that I will work in all departments.

This is the doorway to my office which I share with Gladys. Last Friday, we were told to take the whole week off while the managers (like Beatrice) had a retreat but I didn't make any plans so am coming to work anyway. You can tell by this posting how hard-working I am. Here I have free internet.

Our buildings include the warehouse where my office is to the left in the picture below. Trucks can drive in through the garage door. Luckily for our lungs, that has only happened once since I started working here.

Next picture is the front wall mural outside our office. The major focus this year will be the nutrition of the fetus and child until age 2--aptly called First 1000 Days Campaign. This will include maternal nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding. I am really glad we are addressing these critical first 1000 days. Zambia has 48% stunting rate which is irreversible and impacts the child's learning capacity for life.

I have been assigned the task of writing the nutrition guidelines starting with General Nutrition.

Extension is not about my hair

2011-12-20T02:29:00.000-08:00

This is an attempt to explain the concept of extending service after the basic 2 years of Peace Corps. And then I will answer your questions as to What I am now doing?

Extension is an additional one year (13 months including one month of mandatory home leave--like that adjective is needed) of service in Peace Corps. The volunteer needs to apply to the country where he/she is serving and be approved based on track record and country budget.
Once approved, the PCV finds her own job possiblitities: she can extend in her own village or another location in the country. That involves interviewing with the organization. Then Peace Corps sees if they can write an agreement with that org: who pays for what. Generally the org pays for housing and Peace Corps continues to give the monthly stipend, insurance and plane ticket.
In my case, I knew I had an additional year to kill before I qualified for Medicare but I kept my mouth shut until a year into my service. I applied to PC and was accepted with 3 references. I wanted to work in my own field of nutrition rather than general health. It wasn't hard to find something because every organization has a nutrition component and I had done some work for AfriCare and partnered with World Vision, etc. But my Coordinator advised me to go to the National Food and Nutrition Commission. I stopped in the office to make an appointment for an interview, talked with the Deputy and Director and they expressed interest in me from the get-go.
I was very excited because this is an "autonomous" policy-making division of the National Health Department. They work with EVERYBODY in the country--other branches of the government like Agriculture and most Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO). It also was my comfort zone to stay in government.
Here is their website link on the blog if you are interested to see more details. www.nfnc.org.zm
I helped them write my job description since they hadn't had a Peace Corps Volunteer before. That was fun. Anyway, when I showed up, they said they needed me to write the nutrition guidelines for Maternal Nutrition, Child Nutrition, PD Hearth (done!!), HIV positive people, and Micronutrients. Well, after my home leave of 6 weeks and some time off to settle the housing issues, I really only have 9 months of work to accomplish this. The first week on the job I attended two workshops which they were sponsoring--one for the radio communications personnel and the other for the Iodine Deficiency Taskforce strategic plan. After a week of meetings I was ready to get to work so I picked Iodine as my litmus paper. The 8-5 day was hard to get back into. It took two weeks to do the on-line research and historical review of Zambia's salt fortification program. Now I submitted the paper to my two bosses and the point person on the Iodine committee. We'll see how it goes. The internet connection has been the only drawback: it keeps cutting out during search or download or attaching. My co-workers are very welcoming--no surprise there. They are so hard-working. On Monday I found that several had worked all Saturday to finish a report. Meanwhile, we sponsored and open-house for our new apartment. Hopefully I won't be pulled in on the weekends or to go to too many more workshops unless I am presenting (HA!HA!) I don't do windows, either. Hhmm. I sound like a retiree! I am going to shoot for a paper a month and then spend the rest of the time getting feedback and revising.

It is mushroom season!

2011-12-19T01:19:00.000-08:00

While many readers are located in the northern hemisphere and celebrating the winter holiday season with snow and cold, I just want to remind you that is rainy season--the Zambian summer--here in southern Africa. Everything is green and growing. For me, mushrooms typify the spontaneity of the earth during rainy season. They just pop up in the middle of nowhere or the middle of everywhere--like my yard. They are brown or white, big or little. These from the side of the road were polka dotted.

We see them the size of an umbrella or so small that it takes hours to cut and clean. They can delight the palate or kill you. The season doesn't last very long so I try to buy and cook as many as I can while they are poking their heads up. My favorite is grilled with olive oil and fresh tomatoes on toast.

Celebrate mushrooms as the promise of rain!

Movin' on Up!

2011-12-16T03:15:00.000-08:00

After 6 glorious weeks of home leave with family and friends in the US and Granada I returned to Lusaka airport on an overnight flight from London.
My accommodations for the first 8 days were in a "Lodge". With nothing much to do, I designed this lamp in honor of "the Christmas Story" movie:

The apartment had just been found but Peace Corps needed me to sign the lease and pass the security check. In the meantime, I purchased the lamp for reading at night. The rain boots were a purchase in the US to prepare for the rainy season which is just starting. We call them "gum boots" here. I was surprised that they are very popular in the States right now, too.

On Monday, I started commuting to my new job with National Food and Nutrition Commission on the other side of town. I walked to the Peace Corps office every day asking for a ride. Naturally, that kept everyone focused on moving me over there--so it had the desired effect.

On Thursday I got in to see the place. Outside, the two apartment complexes reminded me of city high rise, but visitors subsequently said they are just like off campus apartments. Anyway, it is on the ground floor with bars on the windows and back porch. Being a south-sider, I will admit to being quite nervous about noise and security. The front door has lettering on it: "African Heritage House Lat 14". When I inquired as to the meaning, I was told that this apartment was used by South African anti-apartheid workers. It is now owned by a Zulu South African Chieftainess who is the president of Zambian women in Agriculture. She is 84 years old and can outwork me.

Inside the door, the foyer opens to the dining/living room and out to the narrow patio which is where we haang our laundry to dry. The patio and windows and doors all have bars on them as we are in the industrial area in a 3 storey walk-up on the ground floor. (Yikes) My south-side Chicago hackles were up when I saw it first, but .... so far it is very quiet at night.

The bathroom

Pretty bwana digs for Peace Corps!

Reverse Culture Shock

2011-11-29T12:09:00.000-08:00

When an American signs up to serve in an international organization--be it church, government, or private--she ususally receives training about the culture to which she is being sent. This includes more than language. Food, greetings, body posture, eye contact, gestures are all important signals. Sometimes we don´t agree with the custom, but know that we will offend our hosts if we ignore their customs. She is prepared and knows that things will be different.
After years of study and adaptation, it is time to come home. This poses a frightening prospect because now she is aware that her world view has changed. We have bought into some of the new customs and find them very useful to live by. We have lost some of our old priorities and know that our ´´old´´ family and friends don´t know what changes they will find in us. We worry if our relationships will suffer, if we will have to pretend or compromise our new values in order to fit in. The reality is that we will never be the same. No one seems to be around to teach, train, or prepare us for re entry into our old culture.

I personally experienced this reverse culture shock after spending 5 years in Papua New Guinea with my husband and 2 children. The transitions hit each of differently. My husband, an Argentine citizen who lived in India for 19 years, had experienced entering 3 different cultures, our young son and daughter only knew that of our life in PNG. I was the changed American adult coming home with a family to raise. It hit me very hard that America was so materialistic and pressurized. It seemed that our little nuclear family was buffetted by many opposing values and ideas. I longed for the simple, honest life we had lived in the bush. Why does knowing the name of every actor, movie and brand name have such great importance? I could care less. Where were the like-minded Americans?
Now I have left my family and friends behind to live for over 2 years in Zambia. Although we are very diverse, I find the Peace Corps Volunteers to have so much in common. We brag about travelling in the back of an open-air truck and how far they can bike, how we can adapt to washing in a bucket and using candles at night for light. And we all express the same anxieties about going back to America. Yes, we will love the comforts but will never take them for granted. Can we keep up the fast-pace of a lifestyle whose value we can now question.
Re entry with new eyes. It can be laughable, too. I forgot what American money looked like when I landed in Hawaii after 3 years in PNG and held out my palm to allow the cashier to take the coins she needed to pay for our drinks. I drove about 45 mph and had to get used to being behind the wheel again after years of not driving after serving in Zambia. Portion sizes and body sizes seem too large. Stores too big, choices too many, life too soft. There is the thrill of old favorite tastes and sounds--maybe no longer the favorite. The lawns are so manicured and houses so well kept and rich. People don't greet strangers and don't look at one another. Phones are more important than people. Life is fast. Americans are good people, generous, and it is nice to not be stared Well, not too much.

Choir video

2011-10-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of the St Paul Choir of St. Francis Church in Mpepo (my village).

Thanks

2011-10-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

Today I logged into the statistics and read that my blog has topped 7000 views. I wish to thank each of you visitors. You live in all parts of the world. Obviously there are many people who are not self-absorbed and who are interested in Peace Corps and/or Zambia. The 3rd goal of Peace Corps is to bring our host countries back home. This is why I write about what I have experienced and learned on this incredible journey.

If you are a regular visitor, you now have the option to subscribe to e-mail notifications of the blog post. This can save you time and trouble of checking for new postings.

If you are new, I would like to explain that this is not a journal. The posts are topical. You can expand the side bar and click on titles of interest to you.

I have one more year of active blogging. During this time I will be in the capital of Lusaka, so I will have more access to blogging but my view will be urban, not rural.

Since 48% of the population lives in towns and cities, Zambia is touted as the most urbanized country of Africa. This surprised me because I stayed so rural for 2 years and hope to represent that world view in my new work. However, there will be new discoveries.....

Theme parties

2011-10-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

When did the concept of theme parties start? Who invented this Halloween all year round custom? Normally we are a hard working group of volunteers in our respective villages. However, we need to come in to the Provincial resource center for supplies, computer work, and get-togethers like birthdays, American holidays, etc.

We can cook in a kitchen and eat together as "family".

The first time I was at the Provincial House when the Volunteers wanted to celebrate an occasion, they picked and announced a theme-- "ABC" Anything But Clothes Party. I imagined that everyone was going to show up naked and attended in my regular clothes (having excused myself based on unfamiliarity with the custom). But I wasn't about to miss it for the world. Thankfully, everyone came dressed in gunny sacks, plastic bags, etc. Very creative. Some a little scanty, but -Hey-if you got it, flaunt it.
Eventually I caught on. Below are some pictures from our last one to celebrate our Close of Service (COS)--Super Heroes was the theme. Some of the heroes I don't recognize because they are after my own kids were little. Only the old folks will recognize Wonder Woman--the sequel (without the bare midriff or speedo)

RAP/CHIP10-12

Northern Province Super Heroes

Toasting Chip09-11

As the night heats up

The dancing begins

Success story

2011-10-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

Zambia is a land locked country but has 40% of all water in southern Africa. Rainy season lasts 6 months of the year and the plentiful rivers, waterfalls, and streams run all year round.

The common farming practices include forming beds which are elevated with trenches in between so that rain can run off easily. Most farmers only plant during rainy season so there is a time called hungry season when nothing is growing even though the weather is conducive to year-round planting

Above are Eunice and Bupe, preparing the garden for dry season planting. Below in the neighboring garden is Mr Kapandula doing the same with the help of his eldest son. Large families ensure help in the fields where manpower is all these small scale farmers use. Their only tools are axes and a hoe.

Because these two industrious farmers plant during dry season, their gardens are located along a stream. Every two days they must bucket up water from the stream and deliver it to the garden beds which have a small ridge to hold the water inside. Eunice told me that it takes 8 buckets per bed. She starts out at 5 am daily so she can be at work by 9 am.

Being very good, hard-working small-scale farmers, they manage to grow maize, tomatoes, greens, onions, cassava, millet, beans, cabbages, okra, soyabeans. They fertilize and use pesticides.

In the picture above, the Headwoman of Mukaka Village and her sister are working in the Chief's garden--the duty of all faithful citizens in the chiefdom. Below you see Mrs Kapandula harvesting the greens and washing them in the trench to take to market for sale.

Below is Eunice's daughter harvesting and taking the produce to the market. All these people pictured are HIV positive. They inspired me to write a grant to obtain irrigation pumps to carry the water from the stream to the garden beds. We submitted the grant to PEPFAR (the US President's program to help HIV victims.

On August 23rd--just 2 days before leaving the village--the pumps arrived from Lusaka and we presented them to 4 groups of people living with HIV/AIDs. That is Eunice and Bupe to my left and 80 members of the 4 groups were present.

We demonstrated how to assemble the portable pumps and how to operate. They are portable and are powered by peddles, making them very appropriate technology for rural areas. Below you see the blue hose carrying the water from the pump to the beds while being peddled. Behind is the source of the water--a stream. Note that the peddling farmer is a woman--not unusual.

The 30 foot hose delivers to the furthest bed in the garden while members watch on.

Each year, Peace Corps submits a story of a successful grant. Our pump project was selected and submitted to Washington DC this year.

Meet Eunice

2011-09-07T03:10:00.000-07:00

Eunice is mybest friend in Mpepo and main counterpart. I came to know her through the clinic where she volunteers as anadherence counselor, helping the HIV positive people of our area to obtain andtake their medicine correctly. She also co-coordinates 3 STAR Circles, which isa group who seeks to learn positive living skills, for example: villagebanking, community gardening, nutrition. Unlike many people inflicted with HIV, Eunice is very open about her status, thus being a model for positiveliving. Eunice is very active in the Seventh DayAdventist Church, and served as their treasurer for 5 years.

As we worked in the same office together atthe clinic, we had the opportunity to talk weekly and I found that, not only couldshe understand my accent, but she is a very open and direct person in herspeech. For example, she didn’t hesitateto tell me about the detrimental beliefs in witchcraft which keep people fromseeking medical treatment. She wasmarried to a man from Zimbabwe and lived there for a time so her world view isbroader than most villagers. She isvery trustworthy with money. Besidesbudgeting her own money exceptionally well (the staff even ask her for loans!),she is a good guardian of the STAR Circles and Church’s monies.

When Ineeded to choose someone to bring to a PEPFAR (HIV) training, Eunice was myfirst choice. Together, we founded anumbrella organization to plan and coordinate HIV prevention efforts in Mpepo,we wrote two grants—one for World AIDS Day 2010 and the other for Hand Pumps for the Star Circles’ community gardens.

The vegetablegarden is Eunice’s favoriteget-away: she goes before work andwaters or hoes or weeds or plants all year round. In addition to thetraditional vegetables of kale, tomatoes, onions and okra, Eunice planted the lettuce seeds which weresent to me and harvested seeds to continue to supply the Peace Corps Volunteers with salad. She is the best farmer I know.. During the dry season, she must scoopup 8 buckets of water from the nearby stream for each bed planted. It was my visits to her garden which gave methe idea to introduce irrigation pumps for people with HIV.

Beforeleaving the village, I asked Eunice to write her life to share with you on myblog. This is what she wrote:

I am EuniceChikoye, a widow with five children: oneboy and four girls- Zambian by nationality living in Mpepo village, MpepoChiefdom, Mpika District in the Northern Province. I am 54 years old and living positively,which means with HIV virus. My husbanddied 21 March, 2004 after a long illness and suffered from TB. He was tested for the virus: unfortunately,he died before knowing his status, although he suspected it.

The situation did put me in suspicion and thisthought forced me to get tested before my husband died. After his burial, Iwent back to the hospital and received the results. I was told that I was HIV positive and askedto be put on ARV drugs. Unfortunately, Icouldn’t manage since I needed to pay K40,000 ($10) every month for thedrugs. I had no one to support mefinancially so I waited until he drugs became available for free in 2005.

My oldestdaughter had by then completed school and teacher’s college and began tosupport me financially for my transport to and from the hospital forrefilling. The entire family has beenencouraging and reminding me to take my medicine at the right time. The children also help with the work at oursmall farm and garden. My youngest 2girls are still in school. I worry thatI cannot produce enough income fo save something at the bank. They are very bright so I worry about beingable to pay their school fees for higher education. Being a small scale farmer I wish otherpeople to come in so that my children will be able to finish school and thiswill be for their freedom in live and the prosperity of the nation.

I am agarden farmer and hope to go into poultry farming. This needs manpower and a good financialstanding. That is why I am appealing toanybody to assist me in this journey in order to cross the bridge to the otherend. May God open windows for me and myfamily.

Meet Doris

2011-09-03T01:04:00.000-07:00

I call her "Mpundu" which means "twin" in Bemba because we share some strong similarities: she is born one month after me, is retired, a widow, works as a volunteer, was a teacher, and is very involved in the Catholic Church.

Doris is one of the first people I met since we share an office at the clinic. She speaks fluent English and Bemba, being a retired school teacher. She has recently built her own home where she is raising two grandchildren. She also has a farm about 10 km from our village. There, her widowed daughter-in-law lives and works.
Early in my service, Doris let me accompany her on a home visit to one of her HIV clients who hadn't come in to the clinic for her medication. Doris is an adherence counselor. The bike ride was along the bush path and Doris' tire had a flat which we tried to repair but it wouldn't hold the air so we walked some of the way. When we arrived at the home of her client, she found the reason for her not coming in--she couldn't walk due to deep open wound which wouldn't heal. The hospital in Mpika wanted to amputate her leg but she doesn't want that. In addition, she was experiencing diarrhea. So I gave her some dietary tips (protein and low fat suggestions). We also arranged for her mother to come and pick up her ART's the next day.
After leaving that home, we two old ladies limped back with the flat tire to Doris' farm. While her grandson tried to fix her tire, we sat inside and ate caterpillars--my first. I only ate one while she scooped up a bag full to take back with her.
I asked Doris to use her down time at the clinic to translate the antenatal classes. This will hopefully help the facilitators in their presentations given to the pregnant women. Most materials in Zambia are printed in English which has very limited use in the village. Doris' language and teaching skills are invaluable. So being the hard-working person she is, she took the flip charts home to work the translations there. Now I have submitted her work to Peace Corps so that all the health volunteers can benefit in their Bemba villages.
She is the sacristan at church so she attends the board meetings, prepares the altar, washes, sews and repairs the vestments and altar cloths. She is also involved in the women's organizations which meet after church on Sunday.
I worry about Doris' health. She has lost so much weight and has so many people dependent on her. I am always reminding her to rest, to say "no" to requests to cook and sew for the church functions, etc. We enjoy each other's company, though. Recently she she accompanied me as we escorted Eunice, our mutual friend, to her home. We created quite a stir with our big, floppy hats.

Before leaving my service in Mpepo, I asked her to share her life in writing for this blog. Here is what she wrote:

My name is Doris Chitambo Chanda. I am a Zambian woman agen 62. Being the third and eldest in the family ofeleven children, I did not go farther than secondary education. I was married to a teacher who was working onthe Copperbelt Prince. When I had fourchildren with him, he was sent to work in the rural area, where I found lifedifferent and difficult as a full house wife. When my fourth born was two years old I decided to go for a teachertraining college. Leaving the smallestto be looked after by my parents and the other three by their father. Knowingly somehow I was risking the lives ofmy children, by depriving them of parental love, I went to college andcompleted the two year course.

When I joined my husband and children for work. I had three more children. The year the first three children were intheir secondary classes and one was plmpleting, my husband was found to have TBand was given early retirement as a teacher and he stayed a long time in hospital. After his discharge we came to his home inthe village of Mpepo. There I taught atthe Basic School and looked after the family. After three years there my youngest child died. Three months later my husband also died. While a widow and still in sorrow, I thoughtof getting a medical check up because I was feeling ill. It was then that I found out I was HIVpositive. It was 2003 when I became veryill and was taken to a big hospital—VTH. There the test showed that I had TB just like my husband. Fortunately I was treated and put on ARV’s(for HIV). It was not easy for mebecause these medicines were only sold at a few hospitals in 2003. So besides buying my medicine which wascostly, I had three children to educate and three others pursuing colleges. I was in a fix and my health wasbad. God willing, I struggled to work inthis state until I retired from teaching in 2005.

I am currently a peacant farmer. My positive HIV status makes me a role modelin the community, expecially with other people living positvitly. I am a trained counselor and facilitator forSafe Motherhood.

Now that I am a small scale farmer and only raise enough fora consumption for a family of 5. I am raising two granddaughters who areorphans.

I do not make much money to sendto my two sons in college. I am askingfor any aid from any organization which can enable me to have and reaise moneyto educate these children even when I will be no more

Faithfully yours,

Dpris C. Chanda

PO Box 410685

Kasama, Northern Province-Zambia

Good-bye, Mpepo

2011-08-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

Here I sit in the thriving metropolis of Kasama with my cup of Kasama-grown coffee and my netbook powered by electricity. My comfort is marred by nostalgia for my beloved village of Mpepo where I worked since Sept 29th, 2009. Let me just review the last few days prior to leaving it.

I returned early on Sunday morning from Mpika in order to attend church services in the village and say good-bye and thanks to my church community--St Francis Catholic Church

The chairperson of the church council agreed to let me "address the Christians", but when the time came and I went to the front, I found that I couldn't control my emotions and the only words I could get out were "Good-bye" and "Thank you." It was a total meltdown with some of the congregation joining in with tears of their own. As it happened, the part-time priest was there and we had Mass. He addressed me in English, thanking me for my weeekly attendance and help with the choir (don't worry--I didn't sing). Then he had me come back up and everyone who wished came up to shake my hand or hug me as they saw fit. (Hugging is NOT a Bemba tradition so that was very moving--more tears.)

On Monday, I packed up my office and my belongings. Eunice and I also went to the market in preparation for the next day when we would serve a meal to our visitors and cookies with "monkoyo" to the members of the STAR Circles.

Tuesday morning, Sally Rose arrived from Peace Corps Lusaka with the 4 irrigation pumps to be presented in the garden (see separate posting).
On Wednesday, I started the day by cooking pancakes for my 3 friends who arrived shortly after 6 am to prepare a feast for the farewell party. I discovered that my camera lens would not open and so I don't have any pictures to show you here. Too bad that I can only jodescribe this wonderful party.
After breakfast, Belinda killed 5 chickens by cutting their throats. She offered for me to participate, but I settled for watching ONE sacrifice. I did join in plucking the feathers, then cutting the vegetables. By noon, the food was cooked and we were handed the 10 point agenda by Mr Mobita, my neighbor and the clinic's Environmental Health Technician. There were speeches, games, singing, dancing, a DJ, an MC, gift presentations and I was subjected to a 10 question focused interview. The guests included my neighbors, counterparts, the Chief's wife (who called me her best friend), representatives from church, and the entire St. Paul's choir. Luckily, I had been briefed and prepared the answers to the questions: What was my happiest and saddest days? How do I find Zambia? Which Zambian did I find the most friendly, the most religious, the most hard working? Am I happy? and leading off was the description of my life including education and professional experience. I told them that they will wish I was 25 so my answers could be shorter. Luckily, I was in control of my emotions this time as I concentrated on the interview.
The choir sung and played the homemade guitars which Antonio (my son-in-law) paid for. Finally we all ate. I served cakes which I made in Lusaka and we started dancing. Darkness fell so we left for the night.
Thursday, my closest friends came and helped finish cleaning up and bringing all my stuff into the yard to load onto the Peace Corps cruiser which arrived after 10 am. I had a chance to give them all "rememberences" such as my coal iron, my radio and my mirror. I left the village for the last time as a resident with many loving friends and neighbors. I will always cherish the time I spent in Mpepo.

Better Huts and gardens

2011-08-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

My hut is made of local materials such as mud bricks which have been baked in a homemade kiln. Then they are cemented together into three rooms.

Wooden poles serve as rafters and thatch is laid over for the roof. Because of the rain, Peace Corps requires a layer of plastic over the thatch and another layer of thatch. Cement floor is in my hut but traditionally the floors of Zambian huts are packed dirt.

It didn't take long to realize that the termites were going to literally eat me out of house and home so my first major project was to smear cement over the inside of the walls and then cover that with a layer of lime (or whitewash). I am happy to say that that fixed the problem on the walls.

However, they still climb up the interior of the bricks and eat the wooden rafters. I had the poles treated with black medicine but they are so tiny they eat the untreated area facing the thatch. Periodically, I bang on the poles with my broom handle so they fall off into my face, hair, floor, clothes. This is a "spring cleaning" project which I don't enjoy.

Chitenge material covers the inner door openings. These were my first sewing project with my new treadle sewing machine purchased in Lusaka.
My couch was made by a local carpenter with hand tools while I sewed the cushion covers. The living room also contains my sewing machine, two chairs, and my bike.

In the bedroom, the bed is sealed with an ITN (insecticide treated net) to keep out malaria mosquitoes. At the foot there is a suspended dowel rod for my closet. Over the top of the bed net and closet is more plastic sheeting to keep out the rain of termites and water.

A wooden book shelf hold supplies, shoes, and books while a plastic stack unit holds the folded clothes. On the floor is a strip of linoleum which helps to keep dust and cold out but makes dirt visible so I can easily clean them.

The storage room hold all my supplies for cleaning, cooking and eating plus my water tower topped with a filter. Drinking water is treated with chlorine and run through the filter. An additional tank holds cooking water. Two 20 liter gerry cans are used to pump water from the well and store the cleaning water. It is in one of these containers that I distill the banana mango wine.

Outside are separate structures made of bush materials: a kitchen where I cook and receive visitors (Zambians do not enter one's house). The kitchen is called an insaka. I built a small brick oven so my charcoal brazier is off the ground while I sit on a low stool and cook.

Next tocharcoal is also used to filkl the iron w\for my clothes. it is a big bag of charcoal which I buy from the locals. They are good at making charcoal from the forest and transporting it on their bicycles. I bought some stools for my visitors from a local wood carver.

the outhouse, I have a very nice outhouse. It is big and light and airy. I even store the garden tools there.

and a bathing shelter which is just walls and a floor. You can read about my bucket baths taken under the stars in other posting. Attached to the bathing shelter are the grass walls of my kitchen garden.

This consists of 6 small rows of plants which I double dug, and use my grey water to maintain during the dry season. Here I have successfully grown bananas, pawpaw, okra, tomato, pumpkin, watermelon, basil, green beans, green peppers, and pineapples. The chickens are constantly poking their way through the thatch and digging nests in the soft wet earth. GRRR. The door is a lean-to which closes the opening to the garden. Both door and walls are always needing repair. Bush materials are cheap but don't last very long.

The back and sides of the hut are open fields. Very pastoral. I planted mango, guava, avocado and apple trees in the yard as my fight against deforestation. I love this place.

Harvest

2011-08-13T05:39:00.000-07:00

August is the month that villagers bring in their dried and shucked maize (amataba) in sacks, There it is weighed and transferred into government sacks.

They are then paid by our Agricultural worker, Newton. Corn is heavily subsidized by the government and the single biggest source of income. Most villagers don't have bank accounts and budgeting is often difficult to spread over 12 months. If they sell their whole crop to pay debts, they will later have to buy the maize to feed their family. Maize is the staple food of Africa and used as a flour, a cereal grain, and a vegetable. Since it lacks the amino acid Tyrosine, it needs to be combined with other foods like cassava to be effective as a protein source.

Each year I have lived here, the piles of corn have grown, showing that the farmers see the earning potential of this crop. It is rumored that last year's crop has not yet been sold by the government but the hunger and drought in Somalia and Kenya should be a boon to this year's corn crop.

The most amazing part of farming in Zambia is that the farmers do everything by hand, using a hoe (ulukasu) and a knife. It is no wonder they are so strong--or is it a blessing?

If they had access to better tools, they could expand their farms and increase their yields. One example would be the introduction of cattle for plowing. Another example is installing irrigation systems which don't use fuel. During my service, I wrote a letter of application to the Heifer Foundation for a pair of cattle and the knowledge to take care of them. I also wrote a grant for 4 hand pumps to irrigate the fields during the dry season. They were presented to the STAR Circles( HIV effected persons) during my last week in Mpepo.

New e-mail feature

2011-07-27T02:40:00.000-07:00

You can now get the new blog posts by e-mail rather than checking my blog. I added that feature to the main blog page. You need to sign up with your e-mail address for this to work.

Close of Service Schedule

2011-07-26T01:16:00.000-07:00

It is official: Our country director has called the close of service (COS) on September 2nd for my intake. This is 3 weeks early to clear out the COS folks from Lusaka during elections.
I, on the other hand, am committed to training the newbees from Sept 12-Oct 9th in Chongwe (outside of Lusaka) so my schedule will not change. (Famous last words)
Peace Corps will "pull" me (a well chosen phrase) from my village on August 25th. We will say our goodbyes to Northern Province on Aug 26th and head down to Lusaka on Aug 27th. This will be the hard part and conclusion of the two years in Mpepo serving as a health volunteer.
Hopefully, my airline ticket has already been purchased to bring me to my family, friends, and classmates in Chicago and Granada areas flying out to America on Oct 9th.
After that, I am expecting to return to Lusaka as an PC extension volunteer for one year (to Sept 2, 20112?) The detail of this extension are not clear, but it will be with the National Food and Nutrition Commission. They are affiliated with the Ministry of Health and have produced the "Food composition tables" and "Improved Complementary Foods brochure for Breastfed babies."
I am very interested in helping with their training and publishing programs country-wide and even interfacing with their partners. Working for them at the national level is exciting and familiar to me. I will of course be posting the activities after I return in November.

Lake Tanganyika

2011-07-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

Lake Tanganyika is an African Great Lake. It is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, after Lake Baikal inSiberia;^[3] it is also the world's longest freshwater lake. The lake is divided among four countries – Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Zambia, with the DRC (45%) and Tanzania (41%) possessing the majority of the lake. The water flows into the Congo River system and ultimately into the Atlantic Ocean.--taken from Wikipedia.

After our Nutrition Workshop concluded, three of us-Barb, Cheng and myself--hitched up to Mpulungu so we could see this famous lake before I left Northern Province.

We checked into a cute little chalet run by a Zambian woman, Charity, who gives PCVs a budget price of K35000 per night per person ($6) . We then found a fisherman who would rent his boat out to us for the day. Since we were there during the full moon, he would not be able to fish anyway.

He charged us K500,000 ($90) for the whole boat for the whole day. And he brought along all the male members of the family, it seems, to be his crew.

We crossed over to where there were two sand beaches where we enjoyed the views and waded in the water and ate our packed lunch.

While the family looked on.

We had a great time, arriving at sunset.

The boat even dropped us off at a bar on the beach. Now there was a grand finale!!

Nutrition Workshop--part 2

2011-07-24T05:36:00.000-07:00

The 22 participants of the March Workshop returned to their respective villages and prepared for Child Health Week. During that week they weighed all the under 5 children and measured the upper arms of the underweight kids using MUAC tapes. The information on weight and MUAC provided them with analysis of how many children were wasted or stunted. Next they visited the homes of the normal weight children to learn the feeding and caring practices which promote good health.

That brings us to our second 2 day workshop. We reconvened in Kasama and reported our experiences in training health volunteers in using the MUAC tapes and in interviewing families. One of the attendees had translated the material into Bemba in writing. The use of the MUAC tapes were to be standard procedure so the training was good for the health clinic staff. Sharing the reaction to a new program is always varied, but most communities were very excited to address the issue of child malnutrition.

We then began to plan the educational sessions which will be held for 12 consecutive days with 6-10 underweight children and their caretakers.

Before arriving in Kasama, we stopped at the farmstands along the way to purchase locally available foods like these pumpkins.
We divided into groups and developed recipes using only readily available foods to teach at our Hearth (called Ishiko) sessions.

The groups also developed Health Talks based on behaviors which promote good nutrition: Family spacing, budgeting, seasonal calendar for gardening, and child feeding practices. Lastly we brainstormed all the child-centered activities we knew in Bemba and English like “Ring around the rosy” and “This little piggy”.

The workshop concluded with the awarding of certificates. The participants went back to train mothers who will host the sessions and I will analyze and publish the recipes, health talks, Bemba translations and list of child-centered activities . The manual will contain the work of our workshop.

TOT

2011-07-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

No, the title does not indicate my second childhood, although I feel that I am going through it while experiencing the Peace Corps euphoria. TOT is short for training of trainers-a common phenomena here in Zambia. All last week 20 trainers representing Health and Language were working through the July 4th holiday and a Zambian holiday called "Heroes Day. We were preparing for the new group of 36 Health Volunteers expected to fly in toward the end of July and undertake 11 weeks of training. Three of us volunteers will divide that time away from our villages so that the trainees and even the Zambian trainers can benefit from the experienced American's perspective. It felt good to reunite with our trainers in the same buildings I was prepared for village life. Pictured is a presentation in the open air gazebo. The blinds are lowered to protect us from the winter cold and blowing dust. Our sessions centered around facilitation skills. Of interest was a DVD about the Millennium Generation (or genY). The info explained alot of the behaviors I observed while working with young people. Wish I had seen it when I was the internship director but it was good to know while surrounded by all the 20-year-olds in Peace Corps. It felt good to be back as a trainer and not worry about passing my Bemba simulation exams. My "bamayo" with whom I lived those 9 weeks so seemingly long ago came to visit. Now that I own a netbook, I could show her all the photos I had taken while living with her. While in Lusaka I printed 39 photos of my village to give out before leaving them in 2 mos. I can almost hear the timer ticking down the days....

Child Health Week

2011-06-24T21:21:00.000-07:00

Twice a year--usually in June and November--the Ministry of Health sponsors Child Health Week. During this time the children under 5 years of age are weighed, immunized, and given a Vit A supplement and a deworming pill. All but the last two are also carried out at the monthly under five clinics. However, I think because of the free Vit A and deworming pills, we see children who are rarely seen. It is common to serve 80 children in a day at each village. The Mpepo RHC has 11 outposts so we need 3 teams of workers per day to complete the work in a week.

Although I normally avoid direct service because it takes me away from development work and training, I always participate in Child Health Week if Peace Corps does not schedule a meeting during this time. It is a time to see the level of child malnutrition (47%--mostly stunting from lack of protein). It is a time for me to observe and train the child health volunteers on techniques, like zero the weighing scale with the bag hanging on it. It is a time to correct the age calculation and weight plots in the child health card. It is a time for the mothers to see that I am tangibly working! They laugh at my pronunciation but they get a bit of advice on feeding their children peanuts, beans and eggs. I am in my comfort zone with the screaming mob of toddlers and their frazzled mothers. It reminds me of WIC and the need to address child nutrition worldwide. I am so frustrated that I can't communicate better in Bemba but the staff who translate for me are also learning what to tell the mothers about feeding their children or taking them to the clinic for sick care.

While the clinic staff have motorcycles to ride, I leave early to bike (jinga) back and forth to the health posts. This past week, I had Peace Corps visitors on Monday and Tuesday so I worked at the home base clinic those days which is much more boring. I didn't rack up the biked miles which I usually do during CHW.

Wedding in Zambia

2011-06-05T06:01:00.000-07:00

The wedding preparations included obtaining goats and chickens , making the Monkoyo (a drink fermented for 2 days from roots)

My Bamayo and mother of the bride, Vainess. Since she is a widow, she had to arrange all the bride price, training of the bride, and wedding food herself. There were a number of negotiating parties who came to her house to ask for her daughter and to arrange the conditions.

Some of the bridal party carrying their gifts on their heads. This was a traditional wedding so there was no church service. A truck arrived the night before around 11 pm carrying the young people of the groom's village.They sang and danced and eventually kidnapped the bride who left under a chitenge (cloth) behind her grandmother, who was the accomplice. Together, they were driven back to the groom's village and kept in a separate house. The grandmother was a chaparone to ensure the separation. The bride cooked and cleaned for her in-laws after they paid her.

Here is a guest dancing up to the gift table to leave his present and explain how to use it. The wedding party are seated in front and dressed in western clothes.

Now the bride and groom cut the cake. There are no pictures of the bride's face. She is trained to look down the entire time as a good wife should always be submissive.

Road Kill

2011-06-04T05:55:00.000-07:00

It has happened to me twice in the past month. We are driving along Kasama road at 100 km per hour and the driver gets a hand signal from a pedestrian like a tumble motion. The first time, it was Ba Lamek, our Peace Corps driver. He quickly pulled over and shot out of the driver's side to run back. However, he came back slowly and empty-handed. He proceeded to explain that he ran over a mole crossing the street. They come out of their holes at this cold time of the year. They are quite delicious to eat, he explained. A pedestrian beat him to the dinner entre (called "relish"). The second time I was a passenger in a minibus just behind the driver and on the same bench as his conductor. When we pulled over and the conductor jumped out, I didn't even look around since this is routine to pick up the 20 something passengers which cram into the van. However, the conductor climbed back in his seat with a dead tan mole dangling from his hand. I instinctively jumped away like I could escape through the side window and made a small yelp sound. That was hilarious to everyone in the bus but the driver quickly instructed the front passenger to open the glove compartment and they tossed their roadkill inside.

Backstory to Hitchhiker's Guide

2011-05-22T23:15:00.000-07:00

Immediately after I had my dental appointment in Lusaka, I taxied over to Lusaka's bus terminal--always a crazy hub of activity. There I found that the busses were sold out for the next two days. Reason: Having been out of my village for 3 weeks already, I told the taxi driver to pick me up at 5 am the following morning and to deposit me on the hitchhiker's spot outside the city on the Great North Road (a 2 lane asphalt road which takes me 620 km to Mpika.
All the other volunteers seem to prefer hitching to the 12 hour bus trip and encourage me to wait for a good vehicle. During the predawn glow, I was afraid I wouldn't be seen or worse--run over, so I was pleasantly surprised that an SUV pulled over after only about 10 minutes wait. He can take me to Kapiri where I can get another hitch or even take the the train. All is well until he stops for fuel only to find out that the town of Kabwe doesn't have any. So he arranges for me to transfer to a local minibus and uses my money to pay for it. I have grave reservations but finally agree as it is a "timed" bus and Kapiri is only 50 km away. It is the local bus which stops every 10 meters of course, but we manage in a reasonable amount of time.
Now I find myself on the side of the road once again, hand waving the passing vehichles. For a second time, a nice SUV pulls over and picks me up a matter of minutes. They can take me as far as Mpika which would have been great......BUT they had to stop in Mukoshi for the brother to register his daughter in High School. When we stop for that, there is a problem and they have to come back later. So now the driver refunds part of my money and I am on the side of the road again. This time I wait 4 hours before I get a family in a nice car going all the way past Mpepo (my village). Yay! After 12 hours I am home! Cost of hitches combined: K130,000. Cost of bus ticket K130,000 Intestinal anguish--priceless!

Hitchhiker's Guide to Zambia

2011-05-22T22:53:00.003-07:00

Don't

Where there ain't no 7-11

2011-05-09T07:48:00.000-07:00

I arrived at the corner gas station near Peace Corps Office in Lusaka at 7:00 am looking for a quick breakfast. They are closed! I then made a pass around all four corner shops, a bakery and a grocery store only to find all of them closed as well. After going full circle, I found the original gas station now open. Low and behold there is an expresso machine on the counter--but no accessessories like those little mugs around it. So I ask the counter girl if it is working and she replys "Yes". I order my coffee black so I can savor a good cuppa Java. She is doing her thing with a cup under the steamer jet as I get out my money and when I look back up she has a can of instant Ricoffe which she is spooning into the cup. I ask if she just made me Ricoffe and she replies "Yes". So I guess the machine is used as a VERY expensive way of boiling water.

Fast Internet = better blogging

2011-04-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

While on holiday in South Africa, I have found the high speed radio service here has made it possible to upload pictures more easily on the blog. Trying to take advantage of that perk, I have gone back into some old postings of mine and added some more pictures. If you are a follower, you may want to take a peak at the last 15 posts again to get a better visual of life in Peace Corps Zambia.

Where in the World?!

2011-04-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Does this look like Africa? With the Dutch name of Franschoek, this wine country is dominated by Hugenot (French) settlers in South Africa.

It is winter here so we need a fire and even jackets in addition to wine to keep us warm.

If that wasn't enough, we even got to taste Belgium chocolates!

All our adventures were made possible by renting a Tata.

After 48 hours and 4 tours ending with a champagne tasting, we headed for the airport to return the car and move on to the next wobbly leg of our journey.

Meeting the US Ambassador

2011-04-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

On April 19 the 8 Mpika Peace Corps volunteers met with Mark Storella, the US Ambassador to Zambia. We are standing in the doorway of Bayama's restaurant where we had a very relaxing conversation and buffet lunch.

Capetown, South Africa

2011-04-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

Above is a picture from our 29 km bike ride to the Cape of Good Hope. This section of the highway is a favorite hangout of the baboons.(Grooming each other behind Suzie)

Suzie flew down to meet me in Capetown on Good Friday. Her flight arrived two hours after mine and we were picked up by Quayside Hotel van and driven to Simon's Town-the South African Naval port in the South Penninsula. We stayed there for 5 nights and enjoyed the luxury of a very developed area. Imagine me seeing myself in a mirror, getting a hair cut, giving ourselves pedicures, eating fresh seafood, and having a minibar in the room! Here is a picture from our hotel window.

On Saturday we went to the Easter Vigil service at a tiny Catholic Church--the predominate religion of this area being Dutch Reformed Church.

Being in the harbor was a great experience, although it is winter and Capetown is in the temperate zone, so it was too windy and cold (for me) to swim or sunbathe. Coming from Chicago Spring, Suzie thought the temps were very moderate.

Penquins and otters also sunbathe just off the coast on the rocks of this harbor. The stand-alone rock formation is called "Noahs Ark"

Here is close up of the penguins. They are called "Jackass Penquins" because of the noise they make, but are quite small in size

As I write this we are leaving the Southern Penninsula and headed for wine country. Stay tuned.....

Nobody's home

2011-04-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

I have just joined the ranks of volunteers who have biked 60 km for nothing. (Sigh)
The Neighborhood Health Committee in Manshya East wanted to go through the Health Education training program. They are located 30 km from the clinic, so I biked out to meet with them and we drafted a schedule. On the first day of training, the facilitator couldn't go because the battery of his motorbike was flat (he didn't start checking on it until the day before) so I biked out to teach myself. The village does not have cell phone (or network) coverage. When I asked for an escort at the turnoff from the road to the bush path, I found that they only accompany people one time and I had used up that hospitality on my first trip two weeks prior. So I proceeded the last 7 km of bush on my own, stopping the few pedestrians on the path to verify that I was still on the right path. I eventually made it out to the Child Health Worker's home by accident only to find out that the group decided they could not meet until the following Wednesday. They just didn't bother to communicate that to me. However, my host was very hospitable and gave me a chair, a glass of water, an ear of fresh corn, a tour of his garden. When I was rested, I began my journey home hoping that the next trip would not be a waste. Well, this sort of experience keeps us in shape anyway. Another good aspect is that rainy season is over and the path was dry.In fact I enjoyed the greenery and butterflies along the way.

Close of Service (COS)

2011-04-01T23:21:00.000-07:00

So last night we had the COS party for the intake which preceeded my own. These volunteers have been in the Education and Agriculture Programs for the past two years. There are 6 from Northern Province who are leaving Zambia in a few days. The theme of the party was cowboys, indians, ninjas and pirates. This variety makes it easier for us to hit the thrift shops and put an outfit together. Coming from Arizona, I actually had the beginnings of a Native American costume. 28 of us came up to Kasama to give them a send off. We cooked (I brought cabbages and basil from my garden) and ate and then danced. It was great fun. It is so easy to plan get-togethers here with our Provincial house.
Now my intakes become the "seniors". I have finally grown into my description. I have felt a sadness because these are the people who helped us shop and showed us the ropes when we arrived in Kasama. I am grateful to them. I am also sad because it means that our time here is also limited. There are many projects to complete. The stress is on....

Nutrition Workshop-Part 1

2011-03-27T03:08:00.000-07:00

We just finished the first half of a training which to rehabilitate malnourished children and prevent stunting, underweight and anemia in a setting with limited resources. The attendees were 11 Peasce Corps Volunteers and their counterparts from the village. The format was Training of Trainers and the method is to discover positive behaviors in the community which foster well-nourished children and teach these skills to the families of malnourished children.

Above you see some of the participant practicing to dramatize the Legend of Stone Soup--how a community can feed visitors by pooling local resources. We had 11 villages represented across four provinces.

For a day and a half the 22 participants and 5 Peace Corps staff participated in learning and practicing the skills needed to understand malnutrition, measure it in their communities, explain it to the stakeholders, search out the behaviors and train volunteers. In July we will come together with the data collected and design the teaching sessions.

Then we went on a field trip to an active program to see a session in progress. There we saw the weighing of the children, the demonstration of cooking and feeding the children a balanced meal. The group was trained by World Vision in 2007 and has effectively lowered the underweight rates from 80% to 26%. In my village of Mpepo, we have a 47% underweight rate and unknown anemia rate because hemoglobins are not tested.

Preparing for the workshop took the majority of my time over the past 3 months but the repsonse and reception made the planning well worth it.

Malaria Mosquitoes

2011-03-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

Since my last anticipatory blog posting, I came down with Malaria. Now that makes me the expert on the subject. It started with a general "I don't feel right" feeling on the morning I came back to my village. By the time I stepped out of the cruiser which picked me up, I knew I was feverish. The 15 min walk back to my hut was the longest ever and I went straight to bed without cooking or unpacking. That evening a fellow-volunteer arrived for a planned visit and she found me too sick to get out of bed. Being very understanding, she cooked supper and went back to her village the next day. That was a god send to have someone there. I called our medical phone number in Lusaka, who determined that I had missed taking my prophylactic medication on time and had a full blown case. I started taking the antimalarial Coartem from our first aid kit. Turns out that the meds had expired last Oct but still brought down the fever in 24 hours. The diarrhea continued for about 4 days and kept me close to home. By Thursday I was back at work but had a new understanding for the patients who walk in to the clinic to be treated for Malaria. I could barely get out of bed let alone sit in a waiting line on the clinic porch. The treatment really works, though and I now have my phone alarm set so I don't forget to take my preventive medication. The virus causes the red blood cells to break down leaving you quite anemic It also inflames the intenstinal lining which causes diarrhea and intestinal blood loss (not to mention the hemorrhoids). The long term treatment is to build up ones red blood cells by eating high quality iron sources of food, like red meat. Since I am in Kasama for a week I will be able to tank up. I did manage to buy impala and eat it for two days Without refrigeration, it was a bit risky and I shared it with my neighbors and the cats. The test of my renewed stamina came the following week when I biked 40 km round trip for a planning meeting in my furthest village outpost. I was exhausted but triumphant when I got home. The neatest thing was that my counterparts came to check on me the next day to see if I made it. I am well cared for here and feel like I earned the red badge of courage. PS The malaria totally made me miss the InternationalWoman's Day celebration which I talked about in my last post. I never left the bed that day.

International Women's Day

2011-03-05T23:17:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, March 8 will be International Women's Day. I am looking forward to a celebration in Mpepo similar to last year: In the morning, I will meet with the female teachers and we will discuss gender equality in Zambia. In the afternoon, we will join the other 300 women of Mpepo who gather in a church--this year the United Church of Zambia--where we will sing and dance and pray and give talks. I have already been assigned to talk on HIV. My plan is to emphasize the need to make decisions about our own health. I am debating whether to include a female condom demonstration in church. The men will hopefully cook for us again like last year--a VERY unusual treat. Maybe this year they will take the time to wash the greens before cooking them, but their hearts are in the right place!

Celebration Time--Come On!!

2011-02-27T03:36:00.000-08:00

Tues, March 1, marks 50 years since the announcement of Peace Corps founding by John Kennedy on the steps of the U of Michigan. Of the many events planned, the international staff can choose to be a volunteer for a day. To this end I issued an invitation to any Lusaka staff to stay with me in Mpepo for the day and Sally Rose accepted the challenge. She will draw water from the well, cook on a brazier, and talk to girls at school about Club Glow. I just hope she owns a pair of comfortable shoes!

It is thrilling to celebrate this occasion in the bush! Here I am in the birth place of homosapiens, jazz and soul! Pinch me, somebody! On March 1, 1961 I was in Washington DC for our 8th grade class trip.

Are we there yet?

2011-02-24T22:02:00.001-08:00

Here I am in my village writing this text in word. When completed, I will copy it. Next I will copy it to my blog after connecting to the internet via a little modem or (stick) in the same way I connect by phone. I preload the airtime the same as a “to go” phone. If you are reading this, it means I am successful. You won’t have to wait 2 or more weeks for a reply to your comments If you are reading this, it worked

Got solar?

2011-02-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

Zambia has electricity in towns. There are power outages at inconvenient times but it is still what draws me to come in from the bush. Here I can cook on a stove, work on a computer, and take a hot shower--all powered by electricity.
Meanwhile, back at the Mpepo Rural Health Center there are 4 large solar panels mounted on the tin roof. One is for the lights on the porches of the hospital. One is for the radio communication with the Ministry of Health and other emergency situations, and two are powering the refrigerator which holds our vaccines and medicine. Less than 1/4 km away power lines run through our village originating at the waterfalls and ending at the Chambeshi transformer. This set-up was installed and donated to Zambia by a private company. The lines are currently not connected to any institution or house as we await the government and electric companyto decide who and how to pay for connection and delivery--infrastructure-- is the buzzword.

I brought a Solio solar charger with me from the states to charge my phone. It works very well even in the rainy season. The villagers pay a fee to charge theirs at the clinic or tuck shops which also have solar panels. I was recently gifted with a solar light bulb from Barbara--another volunteer--sent to her by an NGO in the States. I hitched it to a long pole which I tuck into the thatch so the bulb hangs out in the sun during the day and over my work area at night inside my hut. I call it my bulb on a stick.

Now that I own a computer I have been very happy but a little frustrated about having to come to Kasama to work on it. None of the existing panels in Mpepo generate enough power to charge the netbook-sized laptop. When I bought it online from Walmart, I researched the solar set-up needed in Zambia and found it cost prohibitive. The panel alone cost more than the computer. If I stayed longer than 2 years, it would be worthwhile, but... The panel needs to be connected to a car battery which holds the charge and is connected to an inverter which regulates the power and is connected to whatever you want to charge. (I may have left out a hip bone connection) You can imagine my excitement when I arrived in Kasama and learned that a fellow volunteer just found and bought the set-up for a fraction of my store estimates. Yesterday Barbara and I walked out of town to the local market and bought the same set-up as he. I got installation instructions from the other volunteer. If it works, I will be writing my next blog post from Mpepo.

PS: the new banner picture on my blog is a photo of a rainbow over my outhouse and the windmill at the rural health center.

More kids from Zambia 2011

2011-02-19T00:42:00.000-08:00

Kids

2011-02-18T18:03:00.000-08:00

We have lots of them and they are adorable. Zambians have a saying that you don't have a family until you have five children. Large families in this society poses obvious problems of providing food and education. In 2006 World Vision found 50% malnutrition rate in Northern Province. They implemented a program through Africare's Rapids program called Positive Deviance/Hearth. Started in 1980 in Haiti, PD Hearth is a community-based behavior change approach to rehabilitating malnourished children in countries with limited resources. The premise is: if some families raise healthy children, we can duplicate their behaviors through educating families of malnourished children. It is like the legend of Stone Soup where the community helps one another.

Caterpillars--Revised

2011-01-31T11:14:00.000-08:00

Check out the Dec post formerly entitled "Food..mmm" is now rightfully labeled "Caterpillars-Yum! More info has been added about this unusual calcium source.

Being a woman is dangerous

2011-01-29T20:26:00.000-08:00

I want to start this post with two disclaimers: 1. This is just one female volunteer's views. I don't represent Peace Corps or the US Government 2. This is not a finger-pointing exercise. I am very aware of the recent 20/20 special and other investigative reporting about PC and want to weigh in on the issue.

Being a woman has its dangers. There is always an inner voice questioning motives, actions, words, in any new encounter with the opposite sex. Defensive skills are inherent in being a woman. We have a sixth sense for hidden meanings. Now add to that the Peace Corps situation of living alone in a different culture and where local government has a felt need to work in gender equality. Whoa! This poses many potential dangers. It didn't take a 20/20 special for me to think about these. In fact, I chose not to join Peace Corps when I was in college because of them and during my PC phone interview I asked about the safety of women living alone.

My own decision to join PC was sealed by the belief that my advanced age would protect me. I have discovered that to be true. Age is respected. While discussing the respectful nature of Zambians during a ride I got through hitch hiking (the safest mode of transport), the driver openly admitted that his own attitude toward me changed when he realized my age. I can see the difference when I am in the company of the young female volunteers walking in town. They are approached and treated differently than I. At times I pose as their mother to counter the unwanted attention. Some have reported weekly marriage proposals. I can only imagine how tiring it would be to continue working in a positive way while fending off inuendo and verbal propositions. I truly admire their strength and bravery.

During training we were given a "rap" sheet of crimes against volunteers complete with breakdown and trends. I am happy to report that theft, not rape, was the number one crime in Zambia. I also know that our Safety and Security officer is ranked "very supportive" by all volunteers and he acts very quickly and decisively on reports. I just wanted you who personally know me to not worry.

I also want to express my admiration for young women Peace Corps volunteers.

On the road again

2011-01-28T22:06:00.000-08:00

My counterpart and I biked to a nearby farm (15 km) where the Star (Society tackling AIDs through Rghts) Circle was working in their community gardens. It was one of those amazing days which are just full of discovery and positive vibes. The weather was conducive to biking--between rains and cool. The scenery was lush green (not at all like the picture above which was taken during dry season). The best scenery were the butterflies. They were so varied in size and color and flitting in front of us like they were thumbing their noses, saying "NaNaNaNaNah Nah! We are the ones that got away!" They knew I was cheering for them as catepillars in November when their cousins got caught and eaten. I always rooted for the ones who would make it to the other side to entertain us with their beauty. One even let me observe her at close range drinking deeply of the nectar of the flower stamen from which she hung all relaxed--probably in a sugar coma.
We arrived during the Star Circle meeting when the treasurer and president were giving out loans to buy seed and fertilizer to members who paid back their first loans. As this was occuring one-on-one, the other members were hoeing the fields. The treasurer asked if it was true that I would help them get a hand pump to irrigate their fields during dry season. I said "Yes" and raced up here to Kasama (not by bike) to write a grant for them. Since the members are all touched by HIV--either living positive or surviving family of AIDs victims, they can get help through PEPFAR--the US Presidents' AIDs fund.
The chairwoman invited us to her home for a drink made of corn (I know, I know). I was shocked to see a cool grape arbor and many potted plants in the yard--very European-- and then learned that her husband had been to Italy and Switzerland when he worked for an international company. He even brought back a grape vine which grew well and bore fruit. These people have vision and will be very valuable in teaching their members better farming methods. I am excited about supporting their work. It is a priviledge to live this close to the Zambians and witness their progress.

50th Anniversary

2011-01-28T06:49:00.000-08:00

2011 marks the 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps! 1961 was a very good year for me and the USA. I graduated from 8th grade and joined a missionary order to come to Africa. Later I heard about the Peace Corps. It fit right into the "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" which the Kennedy promoted. As a young idealistic person, it was an exciting concept. Since college graduation was a prerequisite to joining, I didn't give it much thought for a number of years. When college graduation came around for me I had only one thought-to get married so I would have a travel companion. So that is what happened and we travelled through a different organization. Now I am so proud and happy to be in Peace Corps during the 50th Anniversary. Visit the website for activities. I don't need any more activities to put me in the celebratory mood. Sargeant Shriver's recent death is underlining this as a memorable year. The end of an era. Be a part of it!

Sanitary Pads

2011-01-09T17:34:00.000-08:00

Bear with me, folks. If you sit in front of American TV, you listen to copious oblique commercials about the comfort, absobitancy and shape of feminine products. I want to write about places like Zambia where there are no paper products or Motrin and girls stay home from school 3 days per month unless they are timed for 2-day weekend periods. Not. That amounts to missing 6 weeks of school in 3 years of adolescence.
Our recent Camp Glow's craft time included time for the girls to sew sanitary pads from towels and chitenges. One participant rated that as her favorite activity on her evaluation at the end of the week.
The sister of another Peace Corps Volunteer learned of an American NGO called Days for Girls who is aware of the connection between sanitary supplies and staying in school and who graciously donated a kit for each girl. The kit consists of a machine sewn holder (not the garter belt of olden days) cloth pads, soap and washcloth, a ziplock bag, and a new pair of panties all encased in a cloth carrying sack with drawstring. I am quite excited about having a little hygiene session with the 2 girl leaders from my village. We will discuss a way that all the girls can sew pads in the after school club for girls which we plan to establish.

WORK!!

2011-01-07T23:08:00.000-08:00

Time for writing my quarterly report for Peace Corps so I am writing my blog as a typical avoidance technique. December was the most hectic month of service. World AIDS Day activities kicked it into high gear. Immediately following was the week long girls' empowerment camp in Lwitikila. At least we had a working team which made the project very smooth and successful. The end of the month was the culmination of the year long health training for the Neighborhood Health Committe. e. They are so impressed with their certificates that people are coming out of the woodwork asking for one. We may have to repeat the series this year. Who knew that a piece of cardstock would be such a motivator!
Immediately after Christmas I started planning for a Childhood Malnutrition Intervention Workshop to be held in March. Look for a separate blog called PD/Hearth. Because I am the trainer and the topic is nutrition for under five year olds, I am really psyched...I don't think the last year of my service will fizzle but like many, I am just hitting my stride!

The Little Five

2011-01-07T22:55:00.000-08:00

Living in Africa translates into descriptions of lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos. I am writing to report on the 5 most frequently-spotted animals in Mpepo--cats, termites, chickens, snakes, and goats.

Kalulu is pregnant again. I couldn't get a sedative from the Mpika vet so I could transport her for her operation. This is tiring enough news except her kitten, Isa, is also pregnant for the first time and hanging out at my house even though she belongs to my neighbor. Between the two of them, they consume a load of fish per week. I am not looking forward to both delivering their kittens in my hut so I instructed my neighbor to feed them at her house while I am away. Hopefully, Isa will get the homing device straight.

The above picture shows Kalulu's extended family: in addition to her 3 babies, her daughter, Isa, brought her 5 babies over and the mom's are having nurse-in on the welcome mat. Sometimes they take a break and let one mom nurse all the kittens.

I need the cats around as this is snake season again. I hired a man to slash my grass because I couldn't keep up with my push lawn mower which feels like a toy when it comes to the elephant grass. Anyway, now that I have a lawn again I can see no less than two snake holes in the yard. Since I don't want a rerun of last year's black cobra in the insaka incident, I am not cooking eggs for the rest of the rainy season.

So far my efforts to keep the termites at bay is working well. The medicine in the rafters and cement on the walls are doing the job. They happily munch my outhouse and shower and insaka walls, but that is better than my hut. When the other volunteers camped on my lawn ONE NIGHT, the termites tried to eat their tents! So busy!!

Likewise the gardent walls are keeping out the chickens. The lettuce and sunflowers are my indicators. I have planted watermelon, squash, tomatoes and basil and hope the daily rains start in earnest so I don't have to keep watering them. They are sprouting as I type.

Last but not least,, the goats are now tied up since they can eat grass and don't need to roam for their food. Even though the rains were heavy in December, it has been dry the past 2 weeks and some of the maize and other crops are not sprouting well. That is why I stick to my kitchen garden close to home.

Speaking of which--flash bulletin--I bought a small netbook computer online and just got it brought to me by a PCV. This means I won't have to stand in the queue for the one PC at the house. Now I can type and Skype to my hearts content when I am here at the Provincial house. Yipee See you online!!

Termite damage prior to cementing walls.

Transport ordeal--again

2011-01-03T08:15:00.000-08:00

Today is Monday, Jan. 3, 2011. My PC friend needs help with postal woes in Mpika and I head out to help her. I end up walking (just because I am too antsy to sit on the side of the road) for 8 km before I get a ride. By that time, I have 2 open blisters on my toes from the too-big sandals I bought in Mpika for $10 to replace the $135 "waterproof" sandals which didn't last one year. These are the same style but and the right size but are men's shoes so my foot slides around--hence the blisters. Oh, well. I just keep thinking of what a bargain they are and add the cost of some bandaids to the bill. Anyway, I was nicely entertained by greeting the oncoming walkers. One elderly man sporting a fedora and suit stopped and talked in perfect English with American accent. ALL the old men speak perfect English with American accents and I love them all for it! He says he would like to give me a "Watchtower" magazine because he knows I am a bible reader and instructs me to read the articles and look up the passages. I say "OK" since I am now an avid reader and start with an article called "Singleness". It was very uplifting and resonated with my place in life. Just what I needed as I had thrown a grand pity party for myself just last night. I start by feeling lonely, listing all my faults, then regret all my failings, then see no hope for the future, etc, etc. So the article talks about the gift of singleness as having freedom and mobility. Now that is true, I think. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't single. I can serve more freely where I feel the call. Now it seems that I have the best of both worlds--a good marriage for 35 years and then the gift of singleness. My step gets lighter as I read on. Then my step starts paining and I sit down on the side of a road.

Finally a minibus comes wobbling (literally, due to being piled high with assorted luggage and top heavy) into view but I wasn't about to let it pass after waiting 3 hours. It pulls over and stops. I ask the wrong question yet again, "Do you have room for me?" How silly, miss Jello, always room for one more. Like a miracle, a slender seat opens in the sea of bodies near the window. I get in. We wobble onto the tarmac but pull off at the next row of shops where no less than 4 people start dragging over the oversized suitcases which airlines reject. This is too much. I know they will wedge everyone in and not one person will complain. I tap the person in front of me and ask if he would let me out. "Why?" he asks, "It will be alright? Will you come back?" I tell him that I need to go back but I really can't control my roll-over movie in my head. He obliges with a smile and I am out in front of the shops sitting again as they wobble off. A very nice young man comes over and starts talking. I ask him if he works at the tuck shop and he says "Yes." I need to buy a lemonade, and he offers me a seat inside as the sun is getting hot. His wife recognizes me from the clinic (because I still haven't made it out of my catchment area yet.) He asks if I like mushrooms and I say, "Yes, but I have to buy them because I am afraid of picking the poisonous ones and dying. Are you selling?" "No" is his simple reply but one minute later he brings a tin plate of cooked mushrooms to eat. I always am amazed at the hospitality and kindness of Zambians. I had just offered him a cookie which I had packed for lunch and he returns with a feast. Soon after a "Bwana" car pulls over and when I ask if they have room, the driver says "See for yourself". I peek in a full car but see that the storage area in the rear has one child. "I can sit with the child in back," I offer. Before I can climb in, the second row squishes together and calls me up to sit there. Now we are 3 skinny Zambians and a white woman all comfy. The rest of the trip literally FLEW by with us passing and me waving at the minibus just outside of Mpika.
Although this experience was the longest hitch for 100 km, it was also one of the more memorable.

Good Bye to 2010

2010-12-28T22:43:00.000-08:00

After much waffling, I decided to spend Christmas with Americans at the Provincial House. My friends are Seventh Day Adventists and don't celebrate Christmas. There are so many religious faiths in my village and 11 churches. My counterparts asked me to bring them back a gift as Americans are well known for gift-giving at Christmastime. It would have been my last village Christmas, but I will keep the memory of our dinner-dance party from last year. We were 16 volunteers at the house, the majority from the "newbees" class. The house was decorated and I contributed my ebony carved Nativity set which I bought in Dar Es Salaam but never used yet. It looked great over the bookcase. I packed it away before leaving for the village and before the 3 kings' arrival, but I don't know when I'll be back.
I went to a con-celebrated "midnight" mass at the Cathedral which started at 6:00 pm. It was quite impressive with the children's choir and some baptisms. It was odd to hear the Bemba songs accompanied by keyboard instead of drums. Since I was dressed and it was sundown, I took a taxi to and from instead of riding a bike as I usually do on Sundays here.
We had good food, a hike on the 25th which reminded me a bit of Arizona's hikes, and phone calls and messages from family. I also took time to read a good book, "The Devil in the White City" about Chicago's Columbia Exposition and watch 2 bad movies. I will stick to reading while here, I think.
With New Year's creeping up, it is a time of reflection. This is the 100th blog post since I began service. I continue to enjoy my service. Next year will include a home visit and then, hopefully, another extension year in Peace Corps.

Photos

2010-12-25T22:49:00.000-08:00

Following this post (which is really preceeding it) are Photos taken by Carmen during her visit with me this past June. She captured much of the daily life in Mpepo and Mpika. Although they speak volumes, I wanted to add my explanations and thoughts anyway. As always, they only represent MY thoughts and opinions. My poor access to the computer and technological challenges have prevented me from linking Carmen's beautiful album to the blog so each photo is stand alone as a post. Read on.....

Getting water from the well, Mpepo

2010-12-25T19:53:00.000-08:00

"Tapa ameenshi" or drawing water. This is a daily chore. At the end of the chain is a gerry can (same as pictured. After lifting it out, the water is transferred to my 2 gerry cans and transported to my hut via wheel barrow or bike rack. This well also services my neighbors and the hospital. The Zambians transport the water on their heads. PS Normally I would not be wearing pants in the village but this photo was taken by Carmen on the occasion of their visit and we were preparing for our bike ride or just returning from transport. Both those activities warrant pants.

Working girls

2010-12-25T19:52:00.000-08:00

Firewood is needed daily for cooking. Zambia, like many developing countries is being deforested. I contribute to this process by buying locally-made charcoal. In my defense, I try to use as little as possible when building a fire but the locals have expressed that the process will hasten the advent of electricity to the area. Hmmm. The electric lines have been laid from the hydro-electric plant in Serenje but the government is working out the payment plan for connecting the institutions and huts to the lines. Much to my chagrin, I have found solar power cost-prohibitve in the short run. I would feel differently if I was staying long-term, however. A solar panel for my laptop costs more than the laptop.

Family Transport, Mpepo

2010-12-25T19:50:00.000-08:00

"Jinga" or bicycles are the main mode of transport in the bush. It is good to see fathers carrying their children, usually when bringing them sick to the clinic. Men are also starting to accompany their wives to antenatal (prenatal) clinic to learn about HIV prevention, a birth plan (how and when to transport a laboring woman to the clinic), danger signs during pregnancy, and family planning.

Mother-daughter outing, Mpepo

2010-12-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

Here Carmen and I are on the main road, riding to Chambeshi River 14 km away. Because this is such a busy highway, I have to wear my helmet or Peace Corps would repossess my bike and send me home. Already, volunteers have lost the priviledge of being issued motorbikes due to the high level of accidents. Zambia had one volunteer die of head injuries in a car-bike accident.
Carmen is riding a borrowed Zambike. This was given to volunteers who work on digging and repairing wells and other water sources called boreholes (a hand pump). It was difficult biking on this as the brakes were gone and the seat broken in half. Bike maintenance is a problem in the village. Peace Corps gives us classes on riding and repair of bikes. I may start a cottage industry when I return to the US as a bike mechanic.

Zam biking, Mpepo

2010-12-25T19:48:00.000-08:00

Carmen on the borrowed Zambike in June. It is dry season as you can see the dried weeds in the background. Not one drop of rain falls from May until October (and this year it wasn't until November). Despite that, Zambia has plenty of ground water and running rivers. On the day this photo was taken, we we were on our way to the Chambeshi river--3rd largest in Zambia--and home to crocodiles and hippos.

Heading to the clinic Mpepo

2010-12-25T19:47:00.000-08:00

This is the road through Mpepo which leads to the clinic.

Veggies Mpika market

2010-12-25T19:44:00.000-08:00

Zambia is rich in agriculture. Mpika has a much better market than Mpepo so I can stock up when I am in town. It means lugging heavy foodstuffs to the roadside for hitching but it is worth it. I go to either Mpika or Kasama for shopping about every two weeks. Both are 100 km from Mpepo.

Tabacco seller Mpika market

2010-12-25T19:42:00.000-08:00

I am happy to report that smoking is very limited in Mpika District. I rarely see people in my village smoking. They say that only the old men can afford the practice. However, this photo shows that someone is buying.....

Caterpillars--Yum!

2010-12-25T19:41:00.001-08:00

"Ifishimu" or catepillars. These delicacies are a good source of income for Mpika district, attracting visitors from all over. They are gathered in November when they have crawled into trees to eat the leaves and build coccoons. The green and black hairless ones are brought home live in buckets and baskets. There they are degutted by hand and dried in the sun. I am told they are washed first but have not witnessed that part of the process. Yes, I eat them. They are a source of calcium. Below is an article copied from the Food and Nutrition website:
Caterpillars are a good source of proteins

Posted Jan 11, 2010
Edible caterpillars are plentiful in Zambia and they are very nutritious, but many people refuse to eat them because they are creepy.
However, like many other foods, caterpillars can be made appealing to sight and taste with a few simple steps. Our staffer, MONICA MAYUNI, reports.
A SUCCESSFUL catering business has to have food that is appealing to sight and savoury in taste.
For Mrs Sylvia Banda and her husband, Hector Banda, who own and manage the 20-year-old Sylva Catering Service, it is also important that the food is nutritious for health.
“We do not just want to promote indigenous foods but we are also very concerned about the nutritional value of the food that we prepare for our clientele,” Mrs Banda said.
One of such indigenous foods is the caterpillar, known in English as the Mopane worm.
This particular species of caterpillars is found in all of the provinces in Zambia. It is also found and eaten in Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia.
These caterpillars thrive on leaves of trees, particularly the mopane tree, hence the name Mopani Worm.
In Zambia, there are two main types of caterpillars known by their local names as mumpa (black with spikes) and chipumi (brownish and smoother). There are several other small species.
Caterpillars are rich in calcium, protein, energy and mineral salts. These nutrients are particularly essential for growing children.
Its scientific name is Gonimbrasia belina and it is an early stage of a species of moths unique to southern Africa.
The caterpillars are handpicked from the bush. Each caterpillar is pinched at the tail end to rupture the innards. The picker then squeezes it like a tube of toothpaste to expel the slimy, green contents of the gut.
The traditional method of preserving the caterpillars is to dry them in the sun or smoke them after which they are ready for eating.
Mrs Banda has come up with mouth-watering recipes for caterpillars. Some of the recipes are meant to disguise the sight of the ‘worms’ but retaining their nutritional value.
Caterpillars are generally prepared for eating by frying them in oil and adding tomatoes, onions and spices to them, but they can also be prepared as a soup or cake.
Mrs Banda advises that when cooking caterpillars, it is important to stick to one type of caterpillar. Combining types, she says, could compromise the flavour and taste.
She said that the recipes include ingredients and utensils that are affordable by an average Zambian.
Mrs Banda has been conferred with many awards, including Woman of Year by the American Biological Institute in 2002 and received the Top Six African Women Award at a ceremony in Nairobi organised by Enterprise Africa.
Mrs Banda manages the business with her husband Mr Hector Banda, who is a veteran educator, motivational speaker and consultant.
For more information and suggestions on food and nutrition, write to: monicamayuni1@yahoo.com OR monicamayuni@daily.co.zm

Bamayo in Mpika

2010-12-25T19:41:00.000-08:00

African women wear outfits made from chitenge--two meters of printed cotton. They also wrap chitenge over any outfit they are wearing and another around their heads. This is a typically dressed women. I love their style and mix-and-match patterns. It gives a colorful effect.

Zambia

2010-12-25T19:40:00.000-08:00

Here is my "Mapongoshi" or son-in-law, Antonio, standing outside my favorite Mpika store--John's. Here is where I bought my linoleum for my floor and my $10 short wave radio. I also bought sewing supplies here.

The place to shop in Mpika, Carol´s

2010-12-25T19:39:00.001-08:00

Carol's Botique in Mpika--yes, that pile of used clothes. Peace Corps Volunteers couldn't survive 2 years of wear and tear without visiting DAPP's used clothing outlet. They actually hang the clothes and import them from the USA. Thrift shops is a big business here and generates alot of money.

Mini Mart in Mpika

2010-12-25T19:39:00.000-08:00

This is an especially neat storefront. Buka is a fish. Although Zambia is land-locked, it has so many rivers and streams to fish in. Kapenta is little dried and salted fish. Because of the lack of refrigeration, it is safer and more available to purchase and eat. However, my trips to town include restaurant meals with lots of meat and dairy products. Village life means reluctant vegetarianism at best.

Touchdown in Lusaka, Zambia

2010-12-25T19:37:00.001-08:00

Victoria Falls, Zambia

2010-12-25T19:37:00.000-08:00

Dying in Mpepo

2010-12-23T08:37:00.000-08:00

When I arrived back at the village after a week at Camp Glow in Lwitikila, I found that there had been four funerals and the clinic was mobbed with sick people. Funerals here are huge with events with many villagers canceling their work and meetings to go to the home of the deceased, keep vigil into the night and then to accompany the body to the cemetery. One baby died of malaria and a small child had seizures at the funeral and later died. One pregnant woman failed to deliver her baby in Mpika Hospital and her body was brought back to Mpepo for the funeral. Another young man who was HIV positive was suffering and died from Tuberculosis. The rainy season has begun which means that there is little sun and lots of mosquitoes and malaria. The children and HIV positive people are especially vulnerable. My friend who is HIV positive and who attended all 4 funerals got very sick. I visited her twice and brought her mangoes and bread to eat. She seemed to respond to the medicine from the clinic and is feeling better, but her grandchild who she is raising is now sick.

Malaria is the biggest killer in Zambia. Sleeping under a treated mosquito net is the number one preventive measure, but during Camp Glow we found the girls resistant to the practice. They said the medicine burns their skin which shows that they are not used to the practice at home. We had to promise them a reward if they ALL slept under theirs. On Saturday they were given a chitenge with malaria prevention messages printed on it and were given the net to take home.

I try to cook while it is light out so I can be under the net when the malaria mosquitoes start biting (6 pm-5 am). We all take Mefloquin weekly as a supressant as well. It means we can't donate blood for a few years in the US but it is worth the avoidance of this dreaded disease.

Camp Glow--Take Two

2010-12-18T09:22:00.000-08:00

I have just arrived at Kasama on a semi truck to return the 23 sheets and blankets borrowed for our second annual week-long Camp Glow (Girls Leading our World) in Mpika. It was my first real camp experience and I think I had as much fun as the girls--thanks to Chris and Rae, two camp Peace Corps Volunteer planners who organized the activities and crafts. These included sports, swimming in the Lwitikila falls, sleeping in a dorm, dancing to Zampop, finger painting with colored pudding, and card-making. I even got 1/2 of a jitterbug lesson with a camper before someone switched the music. (Oh well, I will have to wait til I get to the nursing home for some appreciation.) We had 2 concurrent tracks: one for the village girls, grades 6-8, which included skills-building sessions on Assertiveness, goal-setting, communication, sugar daddies, boyfriends, peer pressure, HIV, condoms, and preganancies. The adult track was geared to teach the teachers facilitation skills and provide them with lesson plans for their future Glow Clubs. The team of 4-Peace Corps Volunteer, Teacher, and two girl leaders will now return to their respective villages and start a club to explore topics of empowerment and build confidence in rural girls. We were 28 villagers plus 3 facilitators.
The venue was at the top Girls' boarding school in Mpika District.run by a Polish-founded order of nuns. The sisters lovingly provided us with accommodation, food, and even transport from the town to the lovely pastoral setting near the Lwitikila Falls. It was a safe and beautiful setting which we hope to make a habit. The selling point is that the school can recruit girls from the rural areas.

The camp was funded through the friends and family of the 7 organizing Peace Corps Volunteers located throughout Mpika District. In all 49 donors gave $4,000 for 30 people--very cheap by US standards. This bought supplies, food, communications, transport. There were donations of art supplies, snack foods, teaching and office supplies. Over 100 people built this experience for these Zambian Girls.

I hope that the slide show will one day be available on Picasa so you can "meet" these strong women.

World AIDs Day in Mpepo

2010-12-03T18:16:00.000-08:00

December 1 is set aside for World AIDs Day. Beginning in June, the Mpepo HIV Umbrella Group (HUG) began planning an event in our village. Peace Corps underwrote the event. The whole grant writing without a computer thing or post office is just too tedious to describe here in detail. Suffice it to say that I am writing this post in Kasama at the Provincial House because I now have to send the report and receipts. I will spare you the gruesome details of event-planning. I didn't like sharing my office with live chickens and feeling sorry for the goats who would become my lunch, but that just shows you that I am not a farmer.

So the day started with picking up the invited participants with a local truck. Three schools would compete with Mpepo Basic in netball and football (soccer) in the afternoon while people went discreetly to be tested for HIV. Each of 10 area churches invited 10 participants who would also be served a lunch.

The morning agenda began with speeches by 6 local officials including the Chief's Wife and yours truly. The most effective one was the testimonial from a member of the support group who is living positively. Then the youth group performed a drama about HIV. They also performed songs throughout. The students read a poem about HIV written by a teacher. They also participated in a quiz.

Due to 2 local funerals, the adult attendance was way down. This enabled us to feed the children lunch instead of the planned invited guests--a good turn of events.

At the end of the day, we had 200 students attend the event with 41 voluntarily getting tested. All were negative. The success of the day was the absence of fear. The children are learning about the actions to take to prevent this disease. The future looks brighter as we all have the tools to control.

The Day After The Night Before

2010-11-25T18:44:00.000-08:00

This is a sequel to the last post which left off the day before Thanksgiving with 33 NoPro (Northern Province) Volunteers in the Provincial house without water or electricity. The power came on after sunset to whoops and cheers from candlelit groups of game-players. The cooks leaped into action with the turkeys and had 3 in the oven while pulling an all-nighter of prep and revelry. Those nestled in their bunk-beds didn't get much sleep either, but didn't complain, knowing that the cooks had "to strike while the oven is hot." By 7:00 am we on the desert committee sprung into action. Everyone was playing beat the clock against another power outage and fired up the braziers to help with the cooking and anticipation. At 10:00 am the water came back on to more cheers but it took all day for the tanks to fill--ruling out the possibility of 33 showers. Instead we used the available water for washing dishes and flushing toilets.

At 2:00 pm our Zambian guests had arrived and the tables were set with the bounty of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cabbage, apple slices, pumpkin bread, and brownies. Before being seated we offered up spontaneous litany of thanks which was quite centering and moving. Many of the volunteers were away from their parents and families for the first time. So it was important to celebrate this American holiday with familiar food and our new Peace Corps family. The circumstances also conjured up for me an element of relief which the pilgrims must have felt and gratitude toward their native hosts in America who taught them survival skills.

Thanksgiving Preparations

2010-11-23T18:56:00.000-08:00

So far, it could be a script for a suspense movie. Thirty three Peace Corps volunteers converge on the Provincial house for meetings and Thanksgiving Dinner. There are enough bunk beds in the dorms but not enough sheets, pillows, or blankets. That was determined at the meeting when asked by our leader called PCVL. No one had complained or said one word about sleeping on a bare mattress until he asked. The water had been out for about three days when we arrived so we went into our village mode of using the outhouses, taking bucket baths, and bucket dish washing. That is no big deal since we do that daily. But then yesterday we had no electricity all day--no computer access, no TV and no turkey baking--which is what we were looking forward to when we arrived. Although power outages are almost a daily occurance, they don't usually last the entire day, making us wonder about thanksgiving dinner. After a full day of back-to-back meetings, we whipped together some pasta salad, cooking the noodles over the brazier. It felt like the story "Stone Soup" as people donated vegetables and noodles, helped with chopping and fire building so we could all sit down to eat at 7 pm.
At his writing it is 4:00 am and the electricity is back on--natch (I am writing this blog, aren't I?) and we are putting 3 of the 5 turkeys in the oven now so my desert crew can start on the pies and brownies later today. We are back on track and looking forward to Thanksgiving day preparations like many of the readers. I would like to hear from those of you in the Netherlands and other countries.

The Good Earth

2010-11-19T19:50:00.000-08:00

Zambia is primarily a country of small farms and gardens. My village life revolves around the land. Even the store owners trust the income from their farms more than from their sales. When the chief settles a court case, the fines levied are often in terms of hours working in the chief's gardens. The women are also expected to work in his gardens as respect. At the time of this writing, they have just finished preparing the soil by hand-using only hoes-and are waiting until the rains to come to plant. The soil is rich and the water plentiful. Even in the dry season, the streams are running.
My friend, Eunice, is an awesome gardener. She gets up before 5 and walks almost an hour to work in her garden daily. All through the hot, dry season she hauled water up from the stream and watered each bed with 8 buckets each. She grows greens, onions, tomatoes. She wants to diversify her crops and gratefully plants any seeds which I get from America. Each day, Eunice harvests and sells what she doesn't need. She said that she feels better in her garden than in her home: it helps her forget any troubles she has. Last week I bought all the lettuce she could harvest to bring to the Peace Corps Provincial house for an American treat. We had awesome salads.
If PEPFAR approves the grant which I have submitted, she and the other HIV positive farmers will receive a hand pump to lift the water from the stream and deliver it to the beds through hoses.
Thanksgiving Day is my favorite day of the year: it centers around family, friends, and food. Add to that the elements of gratitude and harvest. Life doesn't get any better. As Meister Eckhart said, "If all we say to God is Thank You, that is sufficient."

Caterpillar Season

2010-11-18T03:52:00.000-08:00

Living in Northern Province for an entire year has given me the cycle of seasons and activities. The time which is just now ending is very busy for the villagers. They head out into the bush, taking children out of school, so they can pick up the fat, bright green, hairless caterpillars before they crawl into the trees and build cocoons. Walking along the roadside are families with buckets or baskets of them balanced on their heads still alive and trying to crawl out. Once home they squeeze out the insides, wash them, and then dry them in the son by laying them up on the roof where the dogs or chickens won't eat them. Selling this delicacy is their major source of income for the year. People drive up from other parts of Zambia to buy the ifishimu as they are called. They can then be reconstituted in a sauce of peanut or tomato base. Sometimes they are just popped in the mouth as a snack. Very delicious.
During this time, meetings are canceled, school and church attendance is down, and it is a good time to get out of the village for visiting. That is why I hopped on my bike and rode the 50 kilometers south to visit my Peace Corps neighbor. Since she is new in the village we worked on projects in her hut and visited her clinic. Then I biked back and felt pretty good about the use of my time. The journey was level and straight on asphalt road with very little traffic. The birds were chirping in the roadside trees. I was feeling pretty fit for an old lady. Life in Zambia is good.

The Money Is IN--Thanks

2010-11-17T17:27:00.000-08:00

I have pestered you to donate for Camp Glow. As of now, we have reached our goal of $3, 600 to gather 36 people, including 21 villagers, to build girls' empowerment skills. A personal thank you will be coming when we receive the list of donors, but for now, I want to inform you that the Peace Corps web page has been removed and the planning has been kicked up a notch.
Meanwhile, back in Mpepo, I partnered with the head teacher and invited the 6th and 8th grade girls to apply. They needed to write an essay about themselves, their families, why we should pick them, if they were a leader or follower, and their future goals. One girl flashed the most charming smile that I felt like just picking her on the spot. I actually marked her paper with a smiley as a bonus point in selection. Since only 2 out 50 can go, I asked the teachers to select. What a decision when they will actually get to go to camp!
This week the PCV planning committee are meeting to report on progress made for the site, the curriculum, and the activities. This is clearly the best organized and worthwhile projects of my service so far.
In one month I will write about the camp itself, so stay tuned....

I don't want to talk about it

2010-10-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

It has literally taken me one year to write this post about diarrhea. I know it is an inevitable fact of life. In fact it kills more children worldwide than any other disease and is a symptom of numerous infections, including malaria. I did a research paper on this subject in grad school and even tried to develop a homemade Oral Rehydration Solution in the States but it did not pass the taste test with my then 2-yr-old. Sorry, Suzie!
During the first 6 mos of living here in Zambia, I appointed myself the president of the no-diarrhea club. I was quite smug that I had not fallen into its clutches. My bamayo at home stay was a very clean person and I kept my GI tract stocked with healthy bacteria from homemade yogurt (probiotics) In January, my entire intake of 36 went back to Lusaka for a mandatory in-service training (IST). So essentially I went from a clean village environment where I did all my own cooking to a dorm room structure where there were shared bathrooms with indoor plumbing that didn't work, no stocked soap or toilet paper. You guessed it: I fell from my exalted position of president--or even member--of the no-diarrhea club. Blow to the ego.
By far the worst experience of my life was suffering from explosive diarrhea on the night bus! Before going down to Lusaka for an eye check up, I hitched into Mpika and bought some roasted ground nuts from my usual street bamayos near the station. Suffice it to say that it was horrible and I developed very sore glutimus maximus holding it for hours between the 2 bus stops during the 11 hour trip. I survived but get sweaty palms every time I have to take the night bus.

Crunch Time for Camp Glow Donations

2010-10-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=611-062

The above link will take you directly to the Camp Glow donation site. As of now, we still have $1,600 to raise. Some of you said you were thinking about donating and I urge you to do it today so we can start preparing for the December event. I thank you for your generosity, knowing all the demands put on your hard-earned dollars. All I can promise is to be a good steward of your donation.

HOW ARE YOU?

2010-10-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

"I AM FINE AND HOW ARE YOU?" Almost every three year old knows those first 3 words in English and like to shout them out to me as I walk by. The trouble is that they don't know their meaning and just keep repeating the phrase over and over. I usually give one answer per child. I also have groups run out to shake my hand.
Recently Terry, my brother, has asked the same question, prompting me to answer it here.
My intake just returned from Mid-term Conference where we received a physical and dental check-up. Physically, I tested negative for Clamydia, had normal BP, lost 11 lbs (YAY!!) and had the highest Hemoglobin reading of my life ( which is due to the ban on donating blood while in Peace Corps. We were told that we are our own blood bank--donating only to each other on an as-needed basis.)  No health problems! Our group of 36 had 100% clearance at the dentist, which, frankly, is quite suspicious. I think she was bought off.
Emotionally, I think the honeymoon period has finally worn off after one year of service. I am beginning to find that people are the same everywhere and I have formed some good friendships. I struggle with learning Bemba. Life is routine and peaceful. I am frequently thinking about my visit to family and friends in one year's time.
Spiritually, I miss weekly Mass but continue to enjoy the good African music of our weekly Church service.  The Catholic Church here is a leader in education and women's empowerment but a barrier in HIV prevention and family planning.
Work-wise, I am very busy but not hectic. My commute is a walk down the path to the clinic.  The projects are rewarding but have snags like anywhere. I enjoy gardening and will be planting fruit trees on my compound soon.
Nutritionally, I am starved for variety.  Fruits are not available for sale in my village.  I enjoy cooking for myself and experiment more when I can. The local vegetables are very healthy but scarce.
Educationally, this is a very enriching experience. Asking questions and reading is very satisfying for me. I can feel my brain expanding!

Witches

2010-10-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

What is Halloween without a spooky story? As is turns out, I live in the Transylvania of Zambia. Last week an entourage of 4 men came to my compound, including the chief's secretary, a reporter from ZNBC who is doing a documentary on witchcraft for National Geographic, and a witchdoctor who is accompanying the reporter. (No, he didn't think I was a witch --at least I don't think so.) I think they just came to see the resident muzungu because I am such an oddity.
When they arrived in Mpepo, the chief was very happy because most of the cases which he presides over are about witchcraft and he is tired of the high volume. He was hoping the expose' might help somehow.
One man and 50 villagers who were accusing him of killing 13 people were brought before Chief Mpepo in the presence of the filming reporter. He denied the accusations by throwing his hands in the air and dramatically calling upon God to witness his innocence. He is an active member of my church (but no one mentions names of people when relating negative stories.) The chief finally ended the session and sent the man home to discern the accusations. When the accusers left, the accused quietly went back to the chief and asked for help because he admitted doing wrong against his will and needs help. (Sounds like possession of the devil or a warewolf-like phenomena--or just a guilty person who doesn't want to be lynched by a crowd. )
Also last week, a 3rd grade girl accompanied her mother to the river to wash clothes. She was "forgotten" at the river bank and killed by a "crocodile." Witnesses found the crocodile on top of the body on the riverbank which, they say, is proof that it wasn't a real crocodile or he would have dragged her into the river, not out of it. The girl is the granddaughter of our Crocodile Dundee (see separate postings) attacked by his brother who turns himself into a crocodile.
Witches commonly turn themselves into wild animals. They also use the blood of the dead to fly to other lands-like fuel for their jets and prize the hair of white people or albinos as powerful charms. (I get my hair cut in Lusaka.)
According to the reporter, Mpepo has an overwhelming amount of practicing witches. The mourners check daily on the bodies of their loved ones at the cemetary .
Some of the accused are leaders in the church or school. No names are ever used. The Department of Education came out from the District Office to follow up on one case which involved one of its employees and three female teachers transferred out of our school in the middle of the semester because they all had dreams of that person having sex with them. The witchdoctor found powerful juju in the teachers' lounge which enabled the witch to control their bodies.
Hope you decide to come visit soon.

Reading

2010-10-06T22:22:00.000-07:00

I wasn't always a fan of reading. As a matter of fact, I hated the pressure of writing book reports every month. In grade school I was such a slow reader and my comprehension wasn't that great. I was a worse out loud reader in high school. So I went into adulthood feeling like the big "L" was stamped on my forehead.
Then we moved to Papua New Guinea where there was no TV or Movies or Restaurants. There I redeemed myself by trying to remember all the required reading list books from High School which I didn't get around to reading, like "Pride and Prejudice" and "Uncle Brown's Cabin". It was silly but important to me at the time. I had something to prove. In the process I really got hooked on reading but tried to avoid serious college topics--like Theology.
Fast forward to the present and Zambia. Again, I am free of TV, Movies and Restaurants when in my village. The Provincial houses have literally over a thousand books which we can exchange and borrow. I limit my reading time to after lunch and at night. My venue is now much broader with non-fiction, travel, Africa, the classics and "new" releases. Currently cranking out a book a week on average--nowhere near the avid readers' level, but as an older person, I no longer have anything to prove--even to myself. It is pure enjoyment and learning.

Mom and Antonio Mpika market

2010-10-04T02:55:00.000-07:00

The nights they burned the mountain

2010-09-22T00:35:00.000-07:00

I read that book by Tom Dooly when I was 12 years old and it inspired me to do health work in developing countries. His books were about Laos where he returned as a doctor after leaving the Navy.
I learned about the slash and burn method of agriculture from that book but now am living in the midst of the burning season. In fact I heard what sounded like rain as I went to bed the other night. It took me awhile to process that this is dry season and the rains won't come for another 2 months. So I went outside and found the fields near my house ablaze and crackling. Every night there are several glowing fires in the distance as the brush is burnt in prep of planting during the rainy season. It is a quick way to fertilize the topsoil with ash. Within days, green sprouts are appearing. The downside of this farming method is that burning also destroys trees, bushes, animals and microbes. It is a poor long-term method and the government is trying to replace the custom with more sustainable agriculture. Burning also just clears the tall, elephant grass and improves the vista.especially along the roadside. Because the weather is changing to hot season thereby making bacteria grow faster, burning may even help to kill off these diarrhea-causing guys. Because this is an annual event, the Zambians are masters at creating a defensible zone around their structures. They probably invented the concept so that nothing of value is lost. Their yards are usually scalped of even grass and wet down into a hard earth. This creates erosion and is dusty when the wind blows, but assures that snakes and fire stay a safe distance away from their structures.
Speaking of fires, I had a good one going inside my kitchen shelter, called insaka. My gunny sack half full of charcoal was too close to the brazier. I left with the 4 trainees after our breakfast to give a presentation on nutrition to the 9th graders at school. We were gone about 1 1/2 hours and when we returned, one of the trainees noticed that the bag was smoldering. Everyone got water and doused it. The pole holding up the roof was expecially smoldering. My stool was partially burnt, the charcoal was mostly gone but the bag of pine cones which I had collected for fire starter was gone with no trace and I didn't see a trace of it left.

Camp Glow has raised $1000

2010-09-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

We still need $2500. Could you help with a little?

Death

2010-09-21T06:43:00.000-07:00

Last week two children died at the clinic--one on mom's back as they bicycled in to get help: the other one a few hours after admission. The second one was only six months old, had pneumonia. She was the first patient of a student nurse who observed that the little one had tattoos on her chest signifying that the parents took her for traditional healing before bringing her in for antibiotics. I was working in my office when I heard the mom starting to wail. The father hadn't come in so the mother took the little body back to the village with a relative. It was heart-wrenching. Both of these deaths were preventable with earlier treatment. It is heart-wrenching that parents either don't know the warning signs or don't realize the speed that these little ones can be snatched up without treatment.
There is death in the village every week. Meetings are canceled and everyone helps grieve and bury the person in 24 hours. One pregnant visitor who was a business woman died in the clinic and no family could be located. All the villagers treated her as family and gave her a nice burial in our cemetery. Almost every family is caring for at least one orphan relative.
Death is a weekly visitor here.

Ode to Chitenge

2010-09-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

This humble two yards of cotton material with local patterns printed on it is called sarong in the South Pacific, laplap in pidgeon English, and Chitenge here in southern Africa.
Really, it is indispensible and has many uses. Let me count the ways:

Wrapped around the waist it is a skirt or apron worn over a western dress or skirt..
Draped once around the body and tied around the neck, it becomes a bath robe.
Slung over a baby on mom's back, it is knotted in the front as a baby carrier. One quick under the arm swing and baby is now nursing happily at the breast.
Wrapped around the head in various angles and knots, it gives the African woman that distinctive dressed up look. No one will greet the chief or attend church without one (although wigs also count as head coverings).
A dust rag, a table cloth, a seat padding, a pot holder, a sunscreen, a curtain, a door, a fan.
The most unusual use is a privacy screen or "port-a-potty" on the side of road during long bus trips. I still admire this creative use.
A billboard broadcasting health messages, religous or political affiliations--even Obama's mug shot (very popular!)

I can't comfortably wear one for long because the hem falls below my calves and restricts my stride. I see it as a symbol of woman's bondage--but that is definitely an American woman's judgement. In Zambia, a woman is NEVER without one--even if rolled up in her purse ready for the next use.

Hosting Second Site Visit

2010-09-05T05:27:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I was approached by the Lusaka staff to host the trainees and their language teacher in my village for a week. I didn't really volunteer because I felt that the younger PCVs like to party through most events and I didn't think hanging out with Grannie would be fun. However, when I realized that there are so few available health sites in Kasama District (on which I border), I agreed. The plan was 2 volunteers and their Bemba language teacher. I was sent a calendar of arrival and departure days and a list of assignments which they needed to complete while here. These I remembered quite well from one year ago. So I set about acquiring 2 sleeping rooms at the clinic with beds and mattresses. I also started lining up meeting schedule and presentation opportunity, walks through the dry weather gardens, meeting the chief, a trip to the BOMA to meet the health officer and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and interviews of the staff and volunteers. Soon I learned that I would be hosting double the expected number due to a cancelled site. So I obtained more beds and mattresses, including one in my living room. I snagged a sheet for each from the provincial house and notified them that they should bring their own bedding.
On Sunday the four volunteers and two Bemba teachers arrived after their grueling 10 hour journey from Lusaka along with their bikes and gear. Two are going to be the first generation of PCVs in their village. The other two are replacement or "second generation" volunteers. They embraced the opportunity to practice some of the technical skills they had been learning for the past 6 weeks. They still had questions about daily life like "how do you start a fire." We answered that one big time by practically burning down my kitchen shelter (called Insaka). After breakfast, we left for the school where they made a presentation they had prepared in Bemba to the 9th graders. When we returned, one of the trainees saw that the brazier fire had jumped to the nearby bag of charcoal burning 1/2 of a gunny sack full plus a large plastic bag full of pinecones. We doused the very hot charcoals and insaka building pole with lots of water until no more smoke escaped. All the other scheduled events went very smoothly and they verbalized their gratitude at having a written schedule. The Zambian teachers said they were happy to have accommodations made but they brought their own food and ate separately from us. We enjoyed making American foods like spaghetti, refried beans with tortillas, potato salad, pancakes, cake and cookies. The trainees were very eager to pitch in. We staggered the baths so we could heat water and they hauled water from the well at least twice a day with such a big group. I was relieved that they were ready to go to bed when I excused myself in the evening. Of course, they arrived sleep-deprived from a party they had the night before they came, so they used the peaceful village atmosphere to catch up on full nights' sleep and familiar food. Yesterday the Peace Corps driver arrived in the morning and brought one trainee to her new site. She will be my neighbor to the south. Because they don't have supplies yet, we packed boiled potatoes and eggs and peanut butter and bread. However, the first trainee was greeted at the roadside and danced down the path to her new hut where there were speeches and more singing and dancing. Finally, they cut the ribbon across the doorway and danced in backward signifying that this is no longer their hut but hers to live in. (a custom borrowed from the wedding ceremony). We left her in very good hands as the villagers were obviously excited to receive their first Peace Corps Volunteer. Then we drove the 40 km back to my hut to pick up the remaining trainees who were going north. I went along again and we repeated the dropping off of each one. We only stopped for a hot chicken pie in Kasama and the driver and myself arrived at the provincial house after dark. I truly felt like a mother sending her children off on their first day of school. They were nervous but I was proud and happy for them.

Camp Glow Needs Help

2010-08-25T00:59:00.000-07:00

Our grant application has been approved by Peace Corps. From December 11-17, we will hold a girls' empowerment camp for the Mpika District. Participants will include two 7-8th grade girls and one adult from each of the villages of the Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs). Topics will include assertiveness, confidence, goal setting, sex, pregnancy and HIV. There are 7 PCVs who are participating. When the week is over, they will return to the villages and start a girls' empowerment club at their schools.

Sarita did a great job in writing the proposal and budget. The all girls high school called Lwitikila will be the site for the camp. CamFed will provide the facilitators in Bemba. The PCVs will coordinate and prepare and do the camp activities. Anita has already donated art supplies for their creativity.

All seven of us are raising the money for this camp. The budget is $3,858 for 35 people for one week. Donations can be made to Peace Corps by following this link
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.donatenow
or by going directly to www.peacecorps.gov, then searching "fritzler" under the donations (Sarita's last name).

I don't enjoy fund-raising because I know how many requests we all get daily. However, if this is a project that resonates, we promise that your tax deductible funds will be used wisely. Thank you from the village girls for any donation which you can give.

Girls' Empowerment

2010-08-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

All last week, Sarita and I helped at a camp for 100 twelfth grade girls in Chinsali. Camfed solicited help with girls' empowerment, so Sarita and I couldn't wait to help them and solicit facilitators for our own planned camp in December. Their organization's slogan is "When you educate a girl...anything can happen". The girls are chosen by the PTA as the most needy--usually orphans or from very poor families. They would probably get only 3 years of education without Camfed.
When we arrived we found that it was a science and math camp for girls whose school expenses have been sponsored by Camfed. The camp was primarily to help the girls to pass their final exam--a real uphill battle since the overall pass rate is only 4-10%. The facilitators were the math and science teachers from 3 boarding schools. Their teaching style is very directive and promotes rote learning, not reasoning. It is no wonder the retention rate is so low. Our empowerment sessions were one hour per day and got cut the last day in favor of cramming sessions. We managed to build confidence and assertiveness skills in the little time allotted. The girls were thrilled to participate.
We already know this and had been stressed in finding a facilitator who could present participatory style and speak Bemba well. We helped to evaluate the learning and made allies with Camfed and Repssi staff. By the end of the week we had approved one facilitator for our camp and help from an Mpika-based graduate to model success to the girls.
It was a very productive time for us as well as for the girls. You can check out the websites of the two sponsoring agencies: repssi and camfed. Our grant has been approved by Peace Corps and I will post the link to make a donation for our budget when it is activated.

Broken Africa

2010-08-20T06:06:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: If you are a regular follower, you already know that I love Zambia and am living out my childhood dream. Therefore, when I write about things that go wrong here you will know that it is not because I am jaded, burnt out, or in culture shock. It is just that one of the really good volunteers is going home after his 2 years and someone asked him why he wasn't extending for a year, and he supposedly said, "I am tired of this broken Africa." He is not jaded either. So it is time for me to write about the other side of daily life.
As Americans, we are used to toilets that flush, have handles that work, and toilet paper. Sinks with hot water and soap and even a clean towel. Showers that have water coming out of them. Because the plumbing is so unreliable and unsanitary, it is actually better on the nerves and the health to be in the village where you know you will use an outhouse and provide your own hot and cold water, soap, etc.
Doors don't close right, windows don't have screens, roofs leak. Bikes don't have brakes. Floors aren't washed. Chickens and goats roam anywhere they like and take the same transport with you.
I have replaced two zippers and the newly purchased and sewn in ones didn't last one week without opening up on their own. (It isn't because my clothes are tight either.) I already wrote about the rotten thread I bought at the tuck shop. Africa has long been a dumping ground for defective products according to the book "Slavery and Capitalism". There is an organization under investigation for soliciting used clothing in America and then selling them to the Zambians. The donors probably gave in good faith. Used clothing is a big business and a good money-maker.
Last week we stayed at a motel (called guest house) while giving the girls' camp in Chinsali. There was a beautiful brand new never-used TV in each room. When examining it, I notice that someone had placed rabbit ear antenna when the stations are all received by satellite dish outside the building. There was no cable connection in the room. On the wall was a list of all the amenities in the room. I felt like drawing a line through all the things that weren't there or working. The Zambians who complained reported that the front desk clerk came and tried to get it working. (Wonder how many times he has done that!) I was happier reading my book at night than watching the Nigerian Soaps (from Nollywood).
All these adjustments happen early in our service. Once we get used to it, we are more surprised and pleased when we get hot water, electricity or a working internet. Some things make me angry for the sake of the Zambians who don't know what they are missing, but we all get used to is and this becomes normal until we go home.

Untitled Album

2010-08-07T11:20:00.000-07:00

The Rural Health Clinic
This clinic serves a population of over 17,000 people. It operates 11 outposts. Most of the workers are volunteers. The only staff are a chief officer, environmental health worker, and a male nurse. There are about four casual laborers who are minimally trained who do the cleaning and treating of sick people. About 30 babies per month are delivered in the maternity ward. Monday and Wednesday are prenatal clinics. Friday is under five clinics. All of the outposts also have clinics.
There is an office for the community workers such as the Peace Corps Volunteer and the Lay Counselors. There are several meeting areas for the Nutrition Club, Neighborhood Health Committees, Youth Clubs, and many groups who support HIV people

You can access the pictures by clicking on the one above.

Zambia Vacation 2010

2010-08-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

Antonio and Carmen arrived in Lusaka airport on June 11th from Spain after 28 hours of travelling. I had gone down on the night bus to meet them. We headed down to Livingstone by bus. While staying at a backpackers' hostel, we made day trips to Victoria Falls and Botswana safari. You can see some photos by clicking on the picture here.

Project Potter

2010-08-03T05:09:00.000-07:00

When looking for projects which would help develop Mpepo, we had a meeting of interested craftsmen. A wood carver, two seamstresses, a knitter and an old potter showed up. Each one filled out a questionnaire on which I asked, "What do you need." The elderly potter said that she needed help digging out the clay from the river bank during dry season. So I went to the local school in search of interested youth to apprentice as potters. Four girls volunteered and have gone for lessons. I also went out and ordered a clay "refrigerator". This consists of two nested clay containers with a space filled with wet sand and a wooden cover. It is now in operation at my house chilling leftovers, water, and yogurt. She has already received orders for three more: A tuck shop owner who wants to sell cold drinks, the community development officer who thinks the idea is the cat's meow, and my neighbor who is used to living with electricity in town. This is a simple idea which seems to be catching on, gives the potter a new market, trains the young in a tradition which may otherwise fade out, and improves the quality of life by cutting down bacterial growth of prepared foods.

Happy Farmer's Day

2010-08-03T04:59:00.000-07:00

Zambia has some unique national holidays: Fair Trade Day, Youth Day, Women's Day, and Farmer's Day. They sound great except that rural Zambians don't know about them or celebrate them.

Farmer's Day really resonated with me. By coincidence I had promised to photograph my two friends, Eunice and Bupe, in their gardens. They are HIV positive and models for "Living Positive." They work together and plant enough vegetables to feed themselves and sell. During this dry season which spands from May til October, they haul water up from a sunken stream by buckets. They water deeply--about 8 buckets per bed--in the event that they get sick or are sent away for a workshop. .

The land is granted through Chief Mpepo. As the couple achieved a successful harvest last year, a neighbor blocked their expansion with dead tree branches, so they are clearing land in a different direction. A partnering farmer dug an aquaduct down a slope about a quarter mile away but sandy soil caved in the walls and someone diverted the water with a intercepting aquaduct. All the work is done by hand with a hoe.Now I hope to research a pedal pump for them to buy to lift the water out of the stream and irrigate their fields by riding a bike.

We also talked about bringing new produce into Mpepo--apple trees, a better mango, green peppers, carrots, pineapples and basil--all in hopes of expanding the market in the village. Currently tomatoes and onions are the main produce sold here but the climate and soil are conducive to anything imaginable.

Another Book Report

2010-08-03T04:47:00.000-07:00

Just finished "Living Poor" by Moritz Tompsen, an American farmer turned Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador during the early days. I was laughing out loud so hard that the cat had to leave the room to get some rest. Then I got to the part about how he could calculate how far he could go on a banana and it dawned on me that I had read this book back in the early '70s when it first came out. How I enjoyed it as a volunteer myself. The countries are different, but many experiences are similar. What the author describes very accurately is how it feels to be the richest, most powerful person in the village. It doesn't matter what you say about money, we are rich and well fed. It doesn't matter where you buy your supplies or how much or what kind, the locals know how rich we are by comparison. What we do with our money and our power is a daily decision and responsibility. I recommend this book for a good laugh and an accurate description of Peace Corps life.

Bikin' Zambia

2010-07-24T03:14:00.000-07:00

When arriving at the training institute in Lusaka, Zambia, each of us volunteers was presented with a beautiful 10-speed bike and several classes on bike maintenance. Each day we biked to classes from our home stay village. I was nervous about biking long distances as I didn't feel that I had a lot of experience and stamina. Add to that the nature of this complex bike (and it is a boy's bike and we are to wear dresses?) Anyway, a year later I am so proud to say that I successfully biked 35 km each way to Chishimba Falls with Carmen and Antonio. There we spent the night in tents that we had brought and biked uphill against the wind for the 35 km return trip. It was an awesome experience and was a marker of my increased fitness in just one year's time. Other, younger volunteers have biked 5 times this in a single day, but for me, it is a positive step. Then last week, I biked to three different health posts for outreach during Child Health Week totalling over 80 km. All along the roads, I get thumbs up and greetings from the Zambians who also ride bikes as sole transportation (if they are lucky). The other health volunteers rode on motorbikes but we PCV's are banned due to the accidents of past volunteers (thanks, guys!) I feel that the solidarity shown toward our adopted country is priceless and agree with the idea in principle. Having said that, I plan to get a car just as soon as I return to the USA!

One year since touchdown in Zambia

2010-07-24T02:50:00.000-07:00

In honor of my intakes' arrival, the successful completion of the community entry period of the newest Peace Corps Volunteers, and the completion of one year by the Diocesan Volunteers, we Mpikies got together in Cims booth to share a Zampizza. (It is amazing how much it has improved in one year!) We also compiled a list of the Top 10 Things I Learned since arrival. And here they are:

10. Three wheelbarrows of sand, six wheelbarrows of crushed stone, and one bag of cement=hand mixed cement.

9. hitchhiking is a pain most times, but sometimes it opens doors of friendship.

8. There are no tigers in Africa.

7. Despite what your mayo says, you CAN'T pick up burning coals.

6. Greetings are a must.

5. Soya is the new chicken.

4. Caterpillars aren's just a bug, but are, in fact, good eats.

3. How to sleep three adults in one bed.

2. An empty canter looks like an amazing hitch but, guaranteed, by the end of the journey you will be squished and buried under bags and people.

1. Always pack toilet paper.

NoPro--the REAL Zambia

2010-07-02T07:12:00.000-07:00

After a week of acting like a tourist, I boarded the bus in Lusaka with Antonio and Carmen for the 8 hour ride to Mpika in the Northern Province. For me it was a home-coming. My visitors were eager to learn the Bemba greetings and see "normal" Zambian life. In the district capital they had an opportunity to meet the fun Mpika Peace Corps Gang while enjoying our Somalian restaurant and the famous Peace Corps booth at CIMS restaurant where we meet, greet, and charge our phones. We walked around the town which reminded them of Tombstone Arizona with their facades and tin roofs. At one point we walked down the middle of the dusty street alone just waiting for a tumbleweed to roll by.
Next, my visitors had their first experience of hitching. We each carried a front and backpack which Carmen says makes us look like snails with our houses on our backs not to mention a Zambag with food for their stay. After about an hour, an open bed truck picked us up and insisted that I sit in the cab. There I found that the driver was born and bred in Mpepo and his companion lives there now. So we had a great trip and they delivered us at the clinic which made a short walk to my hut.
Our week was packed with walking tours to meet the chief, local artists, and my counterparts. We went to church on Sunday where they were introduced and brought to the front for everyone to greet with a Zambian handshake. On their last day in the village, I bought a goat and the St. Paul's Choir came over and cooked them a typical meal of goat, obwali, rape with peanut sauce, rice and home-brewed beer. We had baked cakes the day before. After dinner they sang for us. After that everyone danced to taped music from a boom box. The morning they taught a class on Spain to the 8th and 9th graders. We also went to the chief where they presented him and his wife with gifts from Spain. When we left the palace we could see the chief wearing his new red baseball cap with "Espana" embroidered on the front as he presided over a witchcraft case.
Yesterday we hitched up to Kasama and got a lift from "Doctors without Borders".
So finally today we can spend some time in the internet cafe catching you up on the past three weeks. I am so proud to introduce my family to Peace Corps in Lusaka, Mpika and now Kasama. It is funny to see the role reversal of old volunteer with young, cool visitors.

Vacationing in Zambia

2010-07-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

On June 11th, opening day of World Cup in South Africa, my daughter, Carmen, and her husband, Antonio landed in Lusaka via Ethiopian Airlines. I was there to meet them of course along with Ba Boyd, a trusted taxi driver who waited in the airport with me for their late arrival. The first few days we toured Lusaka including the Sunday market, which features arts and crafts of Africa. This gave us all time to rest up from our long journeys. Their itinerary was Granada-Madrid-London-Addis Ababa-Harare-Lusaka. Mine was already described in the post entitled "Night Bus".
Afterward we took the bus down to Livingstone and checked into the Fawlty Towers Guest house. Ond day we visited Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It is easy to see why that is so. Unlike most falls, the water from the Zambezi river rushes off a cliff into a deep, deep gorge with nowhere to go but up in a tunnel of spray which can be seen for miles and sideways into two rivers. The African name of the falls describes this phenomenon well: Mosi-o-Tunya or "Smoke that thunders". Touring the falls requires raincoats or a bathing suit. Since we visited in June, the water level was its highest. This is also winter time so we decided to pass on the white water rafting which began at the chilly hour of 7 am. While in the park, we decended down to the banks of the Zambezi river at a spot aptly called the boiling pot where the water swirls and shifts directions as it splits into two rivers away from the falls much like it was being stirred with an invisible spoon. As we walked down, the baboons and spider monkeys were playing on the sidelines in their rope swings or crisscrossing the same path we were following while sneaking sideward glances at us. One baboon was sitting on a rock not 2 feet from where we passed. His hand covered his face but he peeked out the side as we walked by. The guide books also recommended that we do not stare directly at them as this is interpreted as a challenge. It was hard not to: they are so human-like and it was a thrill to walk among them. Move over, Jane Goodall!!
The next day we went on safari in Chobe National Park, Botswana. The trip there was not far but involved a minibus, safari truck, and boat crossing. From the water, we could simultaneously view the four countries of Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia and Namibia. It reminded me of Four Corners, Arizona times 10! Crossing the Botswana border was easy: we only had to wipe the Zambian dust from our shoes to protect the wildlife. The morning safari was on a small boat. There we saw crocodiles, hippopati, cranes, birds of amazing colors, warthogs, elephants, eagles, vultures. Some of the crocs were at very close range. Then we returned to a lodge for an elegant lunch. In the afternoon, we borded a safari vehicle and viewed about 300 elephants (out of 60,000 in that park!) and giraffes. Our driver was also our guide and answered all our questions e.g. Elephants are pregnant for 22 mos per baby and have one baby every four years. The park is overrun by elephants as evidenced by many dead trees. The game wardens will have to kill whole families because the young would never forget the trauma if they only thinned to adult population. Giraffes have to spread their legs out in the funniest pose to touch the ground with the noses. The hippos are the most dangerous of all the animals. At one point our boat got beached in the sand so we could view a hippo on the other side of a fallen tree. The guide asked us to all move to the back of the boat so we could get out of the mud--and the hungry hippo!
We did not see the Zebras: they were too far out. We did not see any cats. Those who camp inside the park have a better chance of seeing them. The animals we did see were up close and personal and very numerous.

Book reports

2010-06-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the recommendation from my brother, Terry, I finally read "The Ugly American", the much-celebrated book which was written in the fifties about Americans living abroad and, as I recently learned, prompted President John F. Kennedy to found Peace Corps. Because of the title, I expected to feel "beat up" or ashamed of Americans living abroad but, in reality, the book is a balanced account of the good, the bad, and the ugly. It definitely holds lessons in attitude adjustment for anyone.

I found a kindred spirit (to quote Ann of Green Gables) in Karen Blixen, author of "Out of Africa". I love the movie and can watch it over and over but I was surprised to find that the book is a mirror image of the movie. You will not read one word of Karen's husband, and the love affair between Meryl Streep and Robert Redford can only be read between the lines. There are a lot of references to "Denys and I...." or Denys this and Denys that. Don't get me wrong: the book is a love story--between Karen and Kenya just like in the movie you can feel the love Karen had of Africa. She describes the people, the landscape, the night sky and even the significance of reading books as only a lover of Africa can. (I still am on the lookout for Robert Redford while here.)

Flash bulletin: The recent edition of National Geographic writes about Malaria and includes a description of its impact in Zambia. Haven't read it yet myself but the quotes sound very accurate.

The night bus

2010-06-10T05:44:00.000-07:00

Just arrived in Lusaka to meet my daughter, Carmen, and Antonio, her husband. Transport is always an adventure so it bears telling here. We started late (naturally) and I woke up at 2:30 am in a dark bus which had pulled over after loosing electrical power (I guess). While the driver and several male passengers were getting phone instructions and opening all the fuse boxes and engine hood (which is inside the bus and which the driver was standing on at one point), most of the passengers piled out on the roadside. It was there that I learned yet another use for the chitenge (aka laplap)--two yards of highly printed material. Yes, the Zambian women barely stepped off the road, spread-eagled their chitenges and peed while the American lady in pants looked on enviously (mine was packed in my stowed bag rather than being my second skin). Because I was too afraid to get rear-ended by a snake in the tall grass, I just looked on and added "port-a-potty" to my mental list of uses for the chitenge. After awhile, a second bus pulled alongside and some of us were assigned to move over to it. Once full BOTH busses caravanned to the fueling station. OK, now the darkened bus was back on the road with passengers in it. I guess I and the other chosen ones were in the "safe" bus. This one was definitely an upgrade but headed for the Copperbelt. Not long after, the second bus blew one of its massive tires and limped to the side of the road. Again, it was potty break time while some of the biggest passengers--my seat mate took the lead--changed the tire. All other passengers filed back inside to get out of the cold WHILE the tire was being changed. No one swore, complained, sued, or showed any signs of sleep-deprivation. Only in Zambia!?! The workers climbed back on board a bit sweaty and we continued on our way. Once at the feuling station (where there was a pay toilet) the electrical problem was repaired and we were on our way. Insted of the 5 am arrival, we rolled into Lusaka at 7:30--which is a decent hour and placed me here 17 hours sooner than my plan A--which was to hitch to Mpika, hitch to a co-volunteer's hut to spend the night, then early on the side of the road to hitch to Lusaka. Why, I hear you ask, was the night bus Plan B? Because Peace Corps just advised us that they are unsafe. Fancy that! Anyway, I AM alive and safe and able write this interesting and funny, I hope, real-life blog post.