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So far, I have written about some specific incidents and adventures since I have been in my sabbatical trip. So now I want to spend some time just describing life in Zambia.
First off, everyone is very friendly. Sometimes it can even be overwhelming how friendly folks are. Every day when we walk around (more on that later) we are greeted by and/or greet everyone we pass. It often goes something like this:
“Hello”
“Hi. How are you?”
“Fine, and you?”
“Good.”
“Have a good day.”
“You too.”
Note, in the above, fine is actually good, as is OK. So it will be strange being back home where those are usually reserved for when things aren’t so good.
Now, if there are children involved, high-fives are generally added to the routine. And this starts just down the street form us where the kids live there never seem to tire of them, even if we pass by 3 or 4 times in a day. As they spot us, they start jumping up and down, saying “high-five, high-five”, of course we oblige having them run out to the road and gather around us as we spread our high-fives around as evenly as possible.
The picture below is of the family after we also gave them some toys one day as we passed. That is followed by a shot a week or so later of one of the girls doing a great job with the jump rope that was part of what we distributed.
You will probably notice in the picture that that road is pretty sandy. This is the case just about everywhere. Even the main roads have sandy shoulders, so every day my feet are a few shades darker between the time I get home and when I can wash them.
Given that I was in this neck of the woods last year, and it was sandy everywhere, I am not sure why I was surprised to find the same thing in Zambia (a.k.a. Sandbia – name thanks to Jeff, another volunteer who was here).
Every day when I get home, I have to dump the sand out of my shoes into the trash. And most of my socks have met with the dustbin since there are holes in the toes. Of course, the white ones are also now a shade of brown, even after washing. The first picture below is before washing and the second is after, my guess is that you really won’t notice the difference.
So back to that walking thing. People here walk just about everywhere. Yes, there are taxis for longer trips, but by that I mean really longer. For example, the school where I am working is about 5 minutes away by taxi (I know because we took one on we when had a lot of things to bring as donations, including 3 globes). Yet normally we walk and that takes us 50-60 minutes each way. The way there is quite nice as it hasn’t gotten hot yet, and it is mostly down hill. The way home, on the other hand, slopes gently upwards most of the way, and as we are walking between 12:30 and 1:30 it is quite warm.
And the walking is quite nice, especially combined with the friendliness. You just don’t see that back home since folks just drive everywhere and don’t have the chance to greet others on a daily basis.
In addition to walking to and from the school everyday, I tend to walk to and from town at least a couple of times a week. And that is also about a 45 minute walk, each way. As you can see from the link below, the town itself is not that big, so once there, I often find that I am walking all the way through town to the ShopRite to buy some groceries. Food is included here, but sometimes you find that you are longing for something from home, for instance the kumquats that I found the other day.
http://www.maplandia.com/zambia/southern/livingstone/livingstone/
And there is the ever present water tower to find as a landmark close to home if you should ever feel the slight bit lost.
But the best part of walking through town for groceries is stopping for gelato along the way. After burning off so many calories walking, it seems rightfully fair to indulge. And on top of that, the small serving is just a perfect small treat with two flavors. And very good flavors they are, and super fresh – a most amazing find so far from Italy.
There is much more to tell, but I will save that for later when I share more details about life in the volunteer house as well as what it has been like to teach English here. So I will leave you with a parting shot of one of the sand roads near the volunteer house.
Wendy
Since I kept past weekend as a low key one, mostly hanging around the volunteer house, it made sense to check out a local church on Sunday morning. Having gotten a recommendation from one of the folks running the program here, one of the other volunteers and I headed off to what was supposed to be a 3 hour service (8:30 – 11:30). At the exit of our property, we met up with a local who we had connected with the week before in a walk into town and headed to Calvary Pentecostal Church (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Calvary-Church/245315085564239).
Due to a bit of slow walking we got there closer to 8:40. And due to a schedule change, that was about 40 minutes after the service had been scheduled to begin. We don’t know when it actually began since things here tend to start a bit later than advertised.
Given this, the singing was already moving full steam ahead, with a choir backing a leader and just about everyone in the congregation on their feet singing along if they knew the words. So we found some spots and joined in, clapping, raising our hands, and even singing when we were able to figure out the words after a few choruses.
All of this of course was accompanied by a small band.
Around 9:15, it was time for the preacher to take over and give his first message but as he stared, he wasn’t getting quite the response he wanted, so he turned things back over to the choir for one more song before delivering his message.
After reading the scripture (Luke 9:57-62) which was translated as he read into Nyanja, he spoke about the importance of prayer, tying the message into another change they were making in their service to have a prayer meeting during the 7-8 hour every Sunday before the 8-9 worship portion of the service.
After speaking for quite some time, if I recall right it was about 45 minutes, he transitioned into leading us into a call and response prayer. This was followed by another round of music and then a second message.
During the second message, I don’t recall the scripture on which it was based, he relayed a great story about an older man named Charlie, who as a birthday present was given the gift of his first airplane flight. And how after the flight, when replying to a question of whether or not he had been afraid, Charlie simply stated that he had never out all of his weight on the seat. The preacher used this as an illustration of how people often don’t put all of their trust in God.
As the time reached past 11 during this second message, and it was getting quite warm in the building, he asked if folks were hot, and promised to stop speaking after one more point. After probably another 15 minutes or so, he finally turned things over to announcements.
While most of the announcements were not that applicable to visitors, one that was quite sweet was the recognition of the birthday of the woman who tracks everyone else’s birthdays by calling her forward and presenting her with a cake.
Of course this was followed by more singing before we headed home pretty close to noon, if I recall correctly.
All in all, it was a great experience. However, I do appreciate the shorter services we have at home. That said, a few days after this, we were talking to one of the staff members where we are staying, and he said that his Sunday service is 8 hours long. They have the same singing and preaching, and then they pray for every member of the congregation. Compared to that, 3 seems quite short.
With the holiday behind us, it was time for orientation and finding out about our volunteer placements. Of course this meant one more day of being able to sleep in since our session wasn’t scheduled to start until 10:30.
During the session we learned a bit of history about the area, which was good since I hadn’t had a lot of time to read up on things like that before coming. In short, Zambia
While one may think that tourism is the main industry with Zambia boasting Victoria Falls as well as a number of game reserves, it is dwarfed by copper mining which rose to the 4th highest producer in the world at one time. Unfortunately for Zambia, copper prices have dropped and thus the economy is in decline.
In addition, low water levels (50% of normal) have caused the entire nation to enforce load sharing with everyone taking a daily 5 hour power outage. The times rotate every day which is nice so you are not always having to adjust the same activities when the power is off. Some of the main businesses have generators, due to the original expense and the fuel cost of 11 kwacha per liter (about 1.5 USD). The hope is that in 6 months there will be enough rain to enable full power to be restored.
I am based in Livingstone, very close to Victoria Falls. Sadly, there are many street kids here due to many being orphaned when their parents die of HIV infections. And added to by more kids flocking to the city based on hearsay of begin able to get money from the tourists. Recently many schools have been opening to try to help these kids, but many still do not attend.
We also learned that around here white people are referred to as Mzungu (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mzungu) which is not at all derogatory. Instead it is used as a friendly greeting by very friendly people whenever we are met on the streets.
At the end if the session we got the information sour tour specific placements. I am at a private school called Nekacheya (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nekacheya-School/240718149402486).
Wendy
Given that we had a day off, I ventured out with some new friends to explore the Zambian side of Victoria Falls (I had been to the Zimbabwean side last year).
The first step was to hire a taxi. Which involves a bit if negotiation as to the rate, but we were armed with information about what it should be, so we were happy with the rate we paid. We also had to negotiate a bit at the entrance sane had heard that we were eligible for a reduced rate since we were here as volunteers, so instead of paying 140 ZMW each, we only paid 70 ZMW each and were given a ticket indicating that we had paid the child rate.
Now it was time to explore, and explore we did. First we walked along the back side of the gorge getting some nice initial views and spotting the rainbow.
We then headed along the edge of the gorge, towards Zimbabwe, getting many other spectacular views and a few shows from the baboons.
On the return from this foray we spotted a very beautiful little bird.
We then we grabbed some beverages before hiking to the bottom of the gorge. On the way down we spotted more wildlife.
By the time we reached the bottom, the flora had changed from dessert cacti to tropical palms.
And at the bottom we got a new perspective of the gorge itself.
The hike back up was grueling, so we stopped for more beverages and snacks before heading out along another trail that provides views from father away.
Finally, we walked to the bridge itself, along the way, as many times earlier in the day we were asked if we were planning on going bungee jumping. The answer from all three of us was an absolutely not, never, no way. Of course we were also shown many goods to purchase (and those of you who have traveled with me before may be shocked to find out that I didn’t buy any souvenirs this day).
Today we will finally have orientation and tomorrow we will start out assignments.
Wendy
I finally arrived in Zambia yesterday and met up with the volunteer organization and headed to the volunteer hours with a number of other new arrivals.
After finding our rooms and lounging a bit we ate lunch and then walked into town to shake off the effects of air travel and get out bearings. One of the first orders of business nice getting to town was to find ATMs that took our cards and get some cash. With that done we found the spur ale and picked up a few things some of us wanted, for me it was a small pack of hangers.
We got back to the house just before sunset and it was time to eat again. The food has been simple but tasty. After a few more hours of getting to know folks over conversation and a game of Uno it was time to get some sleep.
Getting ready for bed was a bit of a challenge since the light in our bathroom is burned out, but eventually I crawled into my bunk and read until sleep came.
Today we are actually just relaxing and May head over to see Victoria Falls from the Zambia side since it is a holiday so we have to wait to tomorrow to start our volunteer programs. So right now there is still a lot of anxiousness amongst us newcomers to find out exactly what we will be doing.
But it was nice to have time to unpack and organize things at a leisurely pace.
Wendy
First, I finally made it to JoBurg, and have a good night’s sleep behind me. But there was a moment when it wasn’t clear that fate would play that way.
After about 7 hours in the São Paulo airport, I headed to the gate for my flight to JoBurg. And I sat there, striking up a few conversations with others waiting as it got closer and closer to, and then beyond the scheduled departure time. Finally one of the agents came over to those of us waiting in the premier section and said that he wasn’t getting a lot of info from the pilots and suggested that we head back to the lounge to wait as it could be 5 minutes or 30. I decided to stay for a while, but after the 30 had passed, opted for the lounge.
And then I tried to get information, and information I got – it just wasn’t consistent nor complete. I was told anything from they were finding a new plane, to it will likely (make that may – lost a bit in translation) cancel, but I wasn’t allowed to change to the other flight that night since it hadn’t cancelled yet. And the worst piece of misinformation was that if it canceled, since I didn’t have a Brazilian visa, I would have to fly back to the States rather than waiting for another flight (yes scenes from Terminal flashed into my mind). Later information changed this to that they can get provisional visas for folks when this kind of thing happens.
Thankfully, the flight left, 5 hours late, but it left and I didn’t have to test the visa question nor did I have to go back.
And even better, the driver I had arranged for a pick up at the airport in JoBurg was able to wait and got me to my hotel just after my check in time (so at least I didn’t have to worry about what to do if I couldn’t get into my room early as would have been the case of the flight had been on time).
After freshening up, I headed a few blocks away to the ThoughtWorks office to say hi. It turns out that it was home office day so tons of folks we’re around and that turned into a party, complete with dancing, while the night was still young.
Eventually hunger won over and I convinced a few folks to head out to grab some food, so we headed to a local establishment (Great Dane) which is known for their hotdogs. It’s interesting how worlds seems to come together. The name of the establishment reminded me of my college days in Madison and the hotdogs were an interesting twist with me living in Chicago. Not that I can say that I have ever had a Mac & Cheese hotdog before (another nod to Wisconsin?), but I can tell you it was quite good and really not the spot after my long journey.
Sadly, around 9 I hit the wall and was able to catch a ride back to my hotel with a coworker where I slept quite well and am now ready to see a few sights around town before heading onward to Zambia tomorrow.
Wendy
At times it seems as if it’s a count up, as my todo list seems to be growing instead of shrinking (despite the fact that I am checking things off of the list). So I am recalling those related rates problems from my calculus days many years ago, hoping that the equations will change over the next week so that the list does start to shrink. And then again, when my plane departs, only minutes under 2 weeks from now, whatever is done will be done and I’ll just have to make due. Somehow I don’t think that will be a problem.
Of course there are the things that can’t be ignored, such as one last post-sabbatical trip out to see mom (and the preparation for temps over 100 that comes with that), 5 final days of work, and getting all the documents that I need for various Visas, etc. organized and in one safe spot in my carry on bag.
I do also hope to have all of my travel plans solid, and I am very close on that – just waiting on a final booking of a spot in the south of France for my first week there, and the train tickets to and from there. And I want to learn at least a little bit of Nyanja before getting to Zambia (maybe I can do that for at least part of my flight time to and from mom’s this weekend.
So I am glad that while I finish up my pre-sabbatical work next Friday, I am not flying until the Wednesday after that, and I will be able to hopefully change those rate relationships during that time. And I will be able to pack while not feeling rushed. And that will be after a relaxing yoga weekend at Stonehouse Farm.
Wish me luck!
Wendy
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