Apologies again for the slow updates at the tail-end of our journey in Africa. After returning home, I’ve been living in a haze, trying to readjust back into daily life. I often wake up at night frantically believing I’m still travelling somewhere. It’s the oddest feeling! I still don’t have my final thoughts wrapped concisely together about the entire experience, but I do want to share a bit about our time in Cape Town.
Cape Town is very truly one of my favorite places I’ve ever been. Its incredible history, scenery, and biodiversity make it infinitely interesting. While it boasts some of Africa’s nicest neighborhoods and wealthiest communities, it also was home to the worst poverty we saw throughout our travels. The townships are packed tightly with over 50% of Cape Town’s 4.5 million residents. Here you’ll find homes atop of homes, each with wires connecting to the nearest electricity pole. It’s just so remarkable that less than 3 miles away, one can walk through posh beachfront communities featuring lavish homes housing some of the world’s most well-known dignitaries.
One traveler we visited with commented that he felt Cape Town was a combination of Miami and Denver. This comparison is apt as Cape Town boats coastline on both the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, but is also nestled into a mountain range, most notably represented by the famous Table Mountain. This stunning topography helps make Cape Town such an incredible city.
While in Cape Town, Leah and I soaked in much of the city’s culture. The highlights including a drive to Hermanus for whale watching, visiting wine estates near Stellenbosch, riding the cable car up Table Mountain, and visiting the V&A Waterfront (which is like a superior version of Chicago’s Navy Pier). My highlight, though, was a trip to Robben Island, the infamous prison that housed Nelson Mandela for 18 of his 27 years of incarceration. Beyond the breathtaking views of Cape Town from the sea, the trip was a great walk through hundreds of years of history and tragedy. On Robben Island, nearly all tour guides are former political prisoners or supporters of “the struggle” (which is how most South Africans refer to the fight against apartheid). We were blessed to see the island with a tour guide who was a leader in the PAC, a political party opposed to apartheid. He knowledgably spoke about the island, including connecting the history of Robben Island to the contributions of all the countries represented in our tour group. Later, we toured the actual prison with a former prisoner who was part of the MK, the armed militia branch of the ANC (Mandela’s party). To hear a formerly oppressed black prisoner talk about his commitment to reconciliation is beyond remarkable. I really hope everyone gets a chance to visit Robben Island and experience it for themselves.
The other top highlight of Cape Town was meeting Norman and Christle, two friends of Vicki Schmidt. Norman and Christle graciously welcomed us into their home and proudly showed us Cape Point and Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. As volunteers in the National Parks, Christle and Norman provided insightful commentary about each location. However, the stories and hospitality they shared were far superior to any tourist attraction. Norman and Christle are “coloured”, an accepted South African term indicating mixed racial heritage. During apartheid, they faced many challenges because of this such as being spontaneously relocated when the all-white government decided it wanted only whites to live in their family’s neighborhood. However, in the years following apartheid, most coloured citizens have been left behind by the almost entirely black government. For years, they were too black, but now they are too white. This reality creates such an interesting perspective, and Norman and Christle were happy to share their views with us. Despite enduring many hardships, Norman and Christle have achieved so much in life. Beyond successful careers as a dockworker and teacher, they have raised two highly-accomplished children. Norman and Christle are proud to always welcome international travelers into their lives boasting friends from the US, Germany, Holland, Scotland, and many other countries. They are also wonderful “parents” to their adorable dog Smudgie. Norman and Christle are fascinating and lovely people with generous hearts. I can’t say I’m surprised, though. I wouldn’t expect anything less from friends of Vicki!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
We're back!
Just a quick note to say that we successfully made it home on Thursday night after over 40 hours in airports and on airplanes. More impressively, all of our luggage made it home too! We are quite tired and still adjusting to the 7-hour time difference. Throughout the weekend and next week, we'll work to try to put our summarizing thoughts on paper to wrap up our African experiences. Be sure to check the blog periodically over the next 10 days or so for these thoughts and links to pictures.
Thanks so much for all your support. It will be great to see everyone!
Zac and Leah
Thanks so much for all your support. It will be great to see everyone!
Zac and Leah
Sunday, August 17, 2008
The Growing Rainbow Nation
Perhaps more so than any other African country, South Africa is a fascinating place. It’s history intersects with nearly every other nation in the world yet has it’s own unique and often terrible story to tell.
Here’s the quick South Africa history lesson: The San (Bushmen) people were the original inhabitants here, and possible Earth’s earliest humans. Fastforwarding to the Age of Exploration, Portugal first laid claim to the Cape with such infamous explorers as Dias and de Gama being among the first Westerners to see South Africa. Eventually, the Dutch colonized South Africa when Jan Van Riebeek settled here around 1650 in the Cape Town area. After intermittent skirmishes with the British (usually referred to as the Anglo-Boer Wars), the Dutch dominated South Africa and formed what’s known as the Afrikaaner culture. With the discovery of gold and diamonds here, the Afrikaaners displaced and enslaved many black South Africans. Eventually, in the mid-1940s, the Nationalist Party rose to power promising a system of apartheid that would codify racial segregation between whites, blacks, Indians, and coloureds (an acceptable local term for those of mixed racial heritage). Most in the West are vaguely familiar with the horrors of apartheid that extended for nearly 50 years until the great Madiba (the way South Africans fondly refer to Nelson Mandela) rose to power after his lonely 27 years in prison. Now, South Africa is working hard to escape the shadow of apartheid and move forward with new leaders now that Mandela is 90.
So far, the new leadership has had mixed success at best. Current president Thabo Mbeki is plagued by charges of corruption and indisputably poor leadership. Clearly, it’s been hard to follow in the footsteps of Mandela, but Mbeki has been a near-disaster for South Africa. Worse yet, his heir apparent is the current African National Congress (ANC - the political party Mandela led) president Jacob Zuma who has at various times been prosecuted for rape, fraud, and corruption. With this forthcoming election to happen sometime next year, politics is at the forefront of many South African’s minds. Everyone I’ve talked with so far, including blacks, whites, and Indians, are not excited about a possible President Zuma.
In it’s years of power since the retirement of Mandela, the ANC has struggled to achieve the promises it made. Poverty and unemployment are almost as endemic as HIV/AIDS. With 43% unemployment, it’s not hard to understand the recent xenophobic attacks against Zimbabweans and Somalians in the country as these foreigners come here to take jobs at lower pay. President Mbeki, though, has welcomed them with open arms because these African countries did the same for the ANC when it was forced into underground exile during the height of apartheid.
However, South Africa has harkened back to it’s post-apartheid rallying call of reconciliation to calm the xenophobic outbreak. Reconciliation is a marvelous testament to the human spirit. Inspired by Dr. King and Ghandi, Mandela realized that a generation of South Africans, his generation of South Africans, would have to stand still and not seek revenge against their former persecutors. Championed by other leaders like Bishop Desmond Tutu, reconciliation brought whites and blacks together in the post-apartheid era to cast light into the shadows of apartheid, but offer a spirit of forgiveness and a commitment to move forward past the terrible history of apartheid. This concept seems almost inconceivable, but it is truly a powerful force in South Africa.
Today, I saw the power of reconciliation firsthand on our visit to Robben Island, the prison where Mandela and other political prisoners were held for three decades. Once we got to the island, we were escorted on a bus ride by a former leader of the PAC (the Pan-African Congress, a rival party to the ANC with similar anti-apartheid goals). This Indian man not only recalled his encounters with anti-apartheid leaders like Madiba and Robert Sobukwe, but also intertwined the stories of his passengers countries into the struggle to end apartheid , showing each of us how our nations played a key part in ending the curse in South Africa. Later, we toured the political prison with a former member of the MK, the armed militia unit of the ANC that tried to end apartheid through sabotage. This prisoner was stuck in Robben Island for 7 years under extremely harsh conditions, including torture. However, he vows he would treat his former torturers as friends if he’s meet them today. I don’t know how to properly emphasize how remarkable this is.
Today, I saw that the Rainbow Nation of South Africa will succeed more and more as it continues to grow. Most realize it will never have leaders the caliber of Mandela, but not every president is Lincoln or Roosevelt either. However, South Africa deserves better leadership, and I hope that it’s current crop of leaders will realize that an either step aside or step up to be those better leaders.
In 2010, the soccer World Cup comes to South Africa. The country will use this as a chance to shine on the world stage, much like Beijing is doing in the Olympics right now. I truly hope and prayer that the world will see the South Africa I’ve seen. It’s a country with vast resources, the foremost among these being it’s amazing land and it’s more amazing people. However, without more done to tackle extreme poverty, helping the working poor, and continuing the fight against HIV/AIDS, the glitz and glamour of the World Cup will only hide the truth behind the Rainbow Nation.
Just a programming note before I bid farewell...Leah and I head home on Wednesday. We are looking forward to our over 40 hours in airports and on airplanes. Nothing like spending a work week in transit. Hopefully before then we'll both find time to right again. If not, I promise we'll both post some sort of post-trip synthesis after we get home.
Cheers,
Zac
Friday, August 15, 2008
Durban highlights
Sorry for the long delay in posting. Our internet access lately has been limited. We've left Durban and just finished our first day in Cape Town. It's a great city so far. We saw our first rain in 6 weeks today though! Zac's planning to blog about South Africa politics and Zulu culture soon, but for now here's the higlights of our week in and around Durban.
Our seven day tour started with us being picked up at backpackers hostel, which served as our home base during this trip. When we were picked up it was only Zac and I plus one other traveler, Steeve (yes, with a double E), and our driver, Petros. Here’s the highlights of the tour:
Day 1: Drove to St. Lucia and did a half day game drive in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi (pronounced “shloo-SHLOO-we im-FOLE-oz) National Park.
- On our game drive we saw several rhinos thus completing our ‘Big Five’
- Before supper Zac was not feeling well so he went back to our room. During supper I was able to get to know the other man traveling with us. Steeve is a very interesting man who originates from Montreal. He has been traveling throughout South America, Asia, Antarctica, and Africa for the past nine months.
Day 2: Morning estuary cruise, Zulu craft village, big cats rehabilitation center
- On our estuary cruise we were able to get up close to both hippos and giant crocs.
- The Zulu craft village was pretty expensive but it was fun to look around.
- The big cats center was very unique. It was located outside of St. Lucia and was composed of individual pens that housed cheetahs, african wide cats, caracals, and servals. Most of these animals were still very completely wide and while we were there they did the evening feeding. After our guide feed the cheetah we got to go into its pen and watch it eat its food. This was much more intimidating then it sounds.
Day 3: Complicated
- I have titled day 3 complicated because we were suppose to go on an all day game drive from 5:30 am to 5:00 pm. Zac had not been feeling well, and we had not enjoyed this game park as much as the one in Botswana so we decided to skip this event and stay in St. Lucia for the day. This ended up being the best thing we could have done because at breakfast I ended up not feeling well. After resting for awhile we went hiking through some nature trails that led to where a river met the ocean. Before beginning this walk we befriended a small dog that ended up following us for a couple of hours. We named the dog Lucy and I had started to plan how I was going to bring the dog home with me. Luckily we found the owner. We also visited local shops and had a nice relaxing day.
Day 4: Zululand (for this second lag of the trip it was only Zac and I with a tour driver)
- After leaving St. Lucia we traveled to a remote Zulu village. This was one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire trip. We spent the day walking through the village with a guide. Our guide was born and raised in the village and educated us on every aspect of life there (religion/beliefs, sacrifices, celebrations, healers, etc.) . One of the things that we were fortunate to be apart of was a pre-marriage ceremony. In the Zulu culture, when two people decide to get married there are 4 payments to be made. 1. The man must give the girls family 11 cows. 2. The woman must shower the man’s family with gifts (and I mean hundreds of gifts). 3. The brides’ family makes a list of the things they want and the groom must fulfill their wishes. 4. More cows plus some goats to be used for the wedding, again paid by the groom’s family. We were able to celebrate the third payment with a bride’s family. As gifts everyone received a variety of fruit and we were each persuaded to dance the traditional Zulu dance (infront of everyone).
- I would have to say the best part of this experience was that we spent the night at a local family’s house. That night we joined them for supper, sitting on mats and homemade benches, around a fire. We talked about the differences and similarities of our cultures and this was enjoyed by everyone. We slept in the traditional Zulu rondavel which I must say was absolutely freezing. However this was all part of the experience.
Day 5: Drakensberg Mountains
- Zac and I were picked up from our Zulu home and spent the first half our day driving into the Drakensberg mountains. We did stop along the way to hike down to the base of a waterfall.
- When we arrived at our backpackers (which was a ranch in the mountains) we were able to get settled and then we departed for a horseback ride through the hills around our accommodations.
- Our horseback ride was amazing. The scenery was breathtaking and our guide taught us how to trot. We stopped at a waterfall halfway through our ride for a tea break and then continued the second half our ride as the sun went down. By the time we got back to the ranch the sun was down and the stars were out.
Day 6: Drakensberg Hike
- Today Zac and I completed and all day hike up into the Drakensberg mountains. We were lead by a guide to Bushman paintings (much like caveman paintings) found on the rocks in the mountains. These paintings were 10,000 years old.
- After our hike we were exhausted and decided to spent our evening relaxing at the backpackers.
Day 7: Sani pass and Lesotho
- This morning we joined two lovely people from Pretoria and a guide for a drive up the Sani pass. This pass is basically a rough mountain road that leads into Lesotho. It is the third steepest pass in the world. The pass can only be safely traveled in a 4x4 vehicle. Along the way we passed frozen waterfalls and spent sometime in a Lesotho village.
- The village was quite different from other places we have been. It was composed of about 10 rondavels. The landscape is so barren that when building these rondavels they need to buy trees from South Africa.
- After having lunch at the highest pub in Africa we ventured back down the Sani pass and headed back to Durban.
After these exhausting days, it's been great to relax in Cape Town. More to come about our African adventures...
Leah
Our seven day tour started with us being picked up at backpackers hostel, which served as our home base during this trip. When we were picked up it was only Zac and I plus one other traveler, Steeve (yes, with a double E), and our driver, Petros. Here’s the highlights of the tour:
Day 1: Drove to St. Lucia and did a half day game drive in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi (pronounced “shloo-SHLOO-we im-FOLE-oz) National Park.
- On our game drive we saw several rhinos thus completing our ‘Big Five’
- Before supper Zac was not feeling well so he went back to our room. During supper I was able to get to know the other man traveling with us. Steeve is a very interesting man who originates from Montreal. He has been traveling throughout South America, Asia, Antarctica, and Africa for the past nine months.
Day 2: Morning estuary cruise, Zulu craft village, big cats rehabilitation center
- On our estuary cruise we were able to get up close to both hippos and giant crocs.
- The Zulu craft village was pretty expensive but it was fun to look around.
- The big cats center was very unique. It was located outside of St. Lucia and was composed of individual pens that housed cheetahs, african wide cats, caracals, and servals. Most of these animals were still very completely wide and while we were there they did the evening feeding. After our guide feed the cheetah we got to go into its pen and watch it eat its food. This was much more intimidating then it sounds.
Day 3: Complicated
- I have titled day 3 complicated because we were suppose to go on an all day game drive from 5:30 am to 5:00 pm. Zac had not been feeling well, and we had not enjoyed this game park as much as the one in Botswana so we decided to skip this event and stay in St. Lucia for the day. This ended up being the best thing we could have done because at breakfast I ended up not feeling well. After resting for awhile we went hiking through some nature trails that led to where a river met the ocean. Before beginning this walk we befriended a small dog that ended up following us for a couple of hours. We named the dog Lucy and I had started to plan how I was going to bring the dog home with me. Luckily we found the owner. We also visited local shops and had a nice relaxing day.
Day 4: Zululand (for this second lag of the trip it was only Zac and I with a tour driver)
- After leaving St. Lucia we traveled to a remote Zulu village. This was one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire trip. We spent the day walking through the village with a guide. Our guide was born and raised in the village and educated us on every aspect of life there (religion/beliefs, sacrifices, celebrations, healers, etc.) . One of the things that we were fortunate to be apart of was a pre-marriage ceremony. In the Zulu culture, when two people decide to get married there are 4 payments to be made. 1. The man must give the girls family 11 cows. 2. The woman must shower the man’s family with gifts (and I mean hundreds of gifts). 3. The brides’ family makes a list of the things they want and the groom must fulfill their wishes. 4. More cows plus some goats to be used for the wedding, again paid by the groom’s family. We were able to celebrate the third payment with a bride’s family. As gifts everyone received a variety of fruit and we were each persuaded to dance the traditional Zulu dance (infront of everyone).
- I would have to say the best part of this experience was that we spent the night at a local family’s house. That night we joined them for supper, sitting on mats and homemade benches, around a fire. We talked about the differences and similarities of our cultures and this was enjoyed by everyone. We slept in the traditional Zulu rondavel which I must say was absolutely freezing. However this was all part of the experience.
Day 5: Drakensberg Mountains
- Zac and I were picked up from our Zulu home and spent the first half our day driving into the Drakensberg mountains. We did stop along the way to hike down to the base of a waterfall.
- When we arrived at our backpackers (which was a ranch in the mountains) we were able to get settled and then we departed for a horseback ride through the hills around our accommodations.
- Our horseback ride was amazing. The scenery was breathtaking and our guide taught us how to trot. We stopped at a waterfall halfway through our ride for a tea break and then continued the second half our ride as the sun went down. By the time we got back to the ranch the sun was down and the stars were out.
Day 6: Drakensberg Hike
- Today Zac and I completed and all day hike up into the Drakensberg mountains. We were lead by a guide to Bushman paintings (much like caveman paintings) found on the rocks in the mountains. These paintings were 10,000 years old.
- After our hike we were exhausted and decided to spent our evening relaxing at the backpackers.
Day 7: Sani pass and Lesotho
- This morning we joined two lovely people from Pretoria and a guide for a drive up the Sani pass. This pass is basically a rough mountain road that leads into Lesotho. It is the third steepest pass in the world. The pass can only be safely traveled in a 4x4 vehicle. Along the way we passed frozen waterfalls and spent sometime in a Lesotho village.
- The village was quite different from other places we have been. It was composed of about 10 rondavels. The landscape is so barren that when building these rondavels they need to buy trees from South Africa.
- After having lunch at the highest pub in Africa we ventured back down the Sani pass and headed back to Durban.
After these exhausting days, it's been great to relax in Cape Town. More to come about our African adventures...
Leah
Saturday, August 9, 2008
A touch of homesickness
Besides me actual illness (I've slept about 20 hours combined the last 2 nights), I'm feeling a bit homesick now. Honestly, I’m about at that point in my travels where coming home seems great! It’s a really nice feeling to crave going home, but good to still have a bit of time left to enjoy Africa and learn from my experiences here. In honor of my slight bout of homesickness, here’s a list of what I miss most from home. Of course, family, friends, and pets are obviously also part of the list:
Ranch dressing
Fountain soda with free refills
Ice
Consistently safe-to-drink tap water
Free internet
Using outlets without converters
Driving on the right side of the road
Cable news
Using my cell phone without having to figure out sim cards and international phone numbers
Skinless, boneless grilled chicken breasts
Enjoying staying awake past 10:00 pm and sleeping in past 7:00 am
Ketchup – not this knock-off "tomato sauce" that has an awkward cinnamon taste
The letter Z being pronounced ‘zee’ and not ‘zed’
Faith Lutheran
Listening to the radio
Being able to wash and dry my clothes in a washer and dryer
Box springs
Baseball
Not having to negotiate prices on goods
Driving my own car (an automatic transmission since I'm so sick of manual)
Variations in weather
Did I mention news and the internet? I don’t know how I’d survive if my mom didn’t send me the daily news files from home.
I’m sure I’ll make a list of all the African things I’ll miss when it’s closer to the end of my time here, but these creature comforts from home have me craving Aug. 20!
Cheers,
Zac
Ranch dressing
Fountain soda with free refills
Ice
Consistently safe-to-drink tap water
Free internet
Using outlets without converters
Driving on the right side of the road
Cable news
Using my cell phone without having to figure out sim cards and international phone numbers
Skinless, boneless grilled chicken breasts
Enjoying staying awake past 10:00 pm and sleeping in past 7:00 am
Ketchup – not this knock-off "tomato sauce" that has an awkward cinnamon taste
The letter Z being pronounced ‘zee’ and not ‘zed’
Faith Lutheran
Listening to the radio
Being able to wash and dry my clothes in a washer and dryer
Box springs
Baseball
Not having to negotiate prices on goods
Driving my own car (an automatic transmission since I'm so sick of manual)
Variations in weather
Did I mention news and the internet? I don’t know how I’d survive if my mom didn’t send me the daily news files from home.
I’m sure I’ll make a list of all the African things I’ll miss when it’s closer to the end of my time here, but these creature comforts from home have me craving Aug. 20!
Cheers,
Zac
Sports and the sport of curio shopping
Just a note - We are currently traveling around kwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Tomorrow, we're spending a night in a rural Zulu village, so almost certainly won't have internet for the day. Then we head to the Drakensberg Mountains before another day in Durban and off to Cape Town. I'm posting 2 entries tonight, but no promises about future entries until Aug 13.
-zac
Before I left for Livingstone, I was really skeptical of the sports and coaching project African Impact offered in Zambia. I just couldn’t understand why time and money was spent on such a frivolous thing when the country was so poor. However, after my time in Zambia, I really believe this aspect of African Impact’s work there is among the organization’s best contributions to Livingstone.
When Leah and I arrived, several coaching volunteers were working hard to start up the program in Livingstone. Though often frustrated that a sports program didn’t really exist upon their arrival (as they had been told by African Impact), these great volunteers worked hard to start up football (soccer) and netball (like basketball without dribbling) teams in the community schools. The power of sport in these impoverished areas is amazing as kids looked so forward to football matches with rival schools. These organized sports experience would not have happened without the hard work of AI volunteers.
In our final week there, the organization began partnering with a group called SCORE, whose mission was to train football and netball coaches within Livingstone to start their own clubs. This partnership was one of those "feed a man a fish/teach a man to fish" scenarios because AI volunteers could have spent time coaching their own youth teams, but instead devoted afternoons to training coaches who will live in Zambia and contribute positively to their own community. I really hope this partnership grows and continues.
I have no great segue into curio markets, so let’s just talk about those lovely markets huh?
Coming to Africa, my only experience in a "market" was along the Riviera Maya in Mexico. Quite honestly, I’d prefer to shop in places where everything has a barcode and price tag. Leah, though, really enjoys the bartering over goods and is a star at it. While other volunteers were hesitant to visit the curio market in Livingstone, Leah anxiously awaited her turn to shop.
Just walking near the market, one is bombarded with phrases like "How are you my friend?" and "Come browse my shop. Looking is free. You choose what you like." For many weak-willed shoppers, these invitations will result in them buying the first curio they see. For Leah and I though, we muscled past this heckling and only visited shops with attractive merchandise.
When you finally choose an item or two you’d like, the seller will generally quote you a ridiculously high price to start off the negotiating. It’s important to let the seller open the bidding, though, because you can never come down from your first offer. Next, it’s the buyer’s turn to open with a similarly ridiculous low bid. The negotiation continues for a bit as sellers come down and buyers go up in price. If successfully negotiated, the buyer should end up paying a bit less than half of the sellers’ original asking price. Sometimes you have to get tough in negotiations and put an object down, walk away, or insist the seller add other curios for his high price. Only once in our entire shopping time did we encounter a seller who wouldn’t do fair business with us in which both the seller and buyer end up with a happy deal.
Usually in the course of the negotiations, the seller will try to tell some sort of sad story about his family and the poverty they endure. Without a doubt, some of these stories are true. However, one must also remember the seller is a shop owner in the tourist town of Livingstone. Most of them have quite nice clothes and business is almost always booming. I’d suggest most of the curio shop owners are nearing middle class, at least by Zambia standards. These sad stories, though, usually affect many buyers encouraging the shopkeepers to elaborate upon the truth in order to rip off an unsuspecting customer.
Leah is an expert at the aforementioned negotiating and not falling for the sob stories in the shops. She helped me perfect our good cop/bad cop routine, and she seemed to always get the best deal possible. Perhaps my favorite story took place at the overly visited (and thus overly priced) curio at Victoria Falls. Both Leah and I were tired and sick of being heckled in the shops. I did spot one item I looked, though, and made the mistake of popping my head into a shop. Apparently desperate for a sale, the shopkeeper told me to name my price. I said $5, and, after some feeble attempts on his part to raise the price, he agreed to this low figure prompting laughter from his counterparts at neighboring shops. Probably for the first time in Zambia, we did not get ripped off!
Negotiating over prices is a fun part of African culture. Some of our friends even bargained over shot prices at the bar! I’m looking forward to coming back home to the land of price tags, too. Just don’t be surprised when I start negotiating over the cost of my next purchase at Wal-Mart!
Peace,
Zac
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Jo'burg and Durbs
Our time in South Africa has gotten off to a pretty darn good start.
The first 2 days, we spent some time in Johannesburg. Most people and travel books will tell you to get out of Jo’burg (or Jozi or Egoli as locals call it) as fast as possible. I’m sad to say, these opinions might be pretty accurate based on our short stay. One travel book I read noted that Jo’burg could really be plopped into any American state and look just like a sprawling suburban metropolis in the US. That supposition is absolutely correct. Jo’burg is kilometer upon kilometer of suburbs and winding freeways. There is not really a public transit system, so overpriced taxis are the only route to get around. We actually paid $40 one-way for one cab ride!
With nothing else to do, we visited a local mall and watched the new Batman film to pass the time on Monday. We were still trying to recover from the hectic schedule of Livingstone, so it was nice to have a day to relax, plus high-speed internet access to enjoy for a change! We hung around until Tuesday in order to see the Apartheid Museum, which isn’t open on Mondays for some reason. To be sure, the museum was remarkable (as far as museums go), but it might not have been worth planning 2 days around. However, I would have greatly regretted missing it. It’s "highlights" (not sure if anything apartheid-related is a highlight) included several startling photographs, a room filled with 131 nooses to represent those killed by the state during apartheid, and a wonderful temporary exhibit celebrating the legal unions of same-sex families in South Africa.
Late in the evening on Tuesday we flew to Durban. We used a "no-frills" airline called Kulula, which was quite a treat. Not only was the airline cheap ($75 tickets!!!!), but it had a fun atmosphere. The flight attendant mocked the safety demonstrations with wonderful sarcasm. "In the event of a water landing, we sure hope you can swim or are a quick learner," she quipped, her voice never wavering from the monotone flight attendant voice we’re all used to hearing.
The same book that compared Jo’burg to American Suburbia stated that Durban is South Africa’s most African metropolitan area. The city is a unique mix of African, Afrikaan, British, and Indian heritage. Both Ghandi and Mandela have routes here. As such, the city is an eclectic mix of Indian and African culture with mosques and Zulu craft markets sharing the same neighborhood. The white population here strikes me as quasi-Australians with similar accents and demeanors to the Aussies I’ve met in my day.
Once daybreak hit, we quickly realized we enjoyed Durbs far more than Jozi. Prices are affordable and people are friendly. We chose to spend our day frolicking along the Indian Ocean, whose warm currents make it swimmable year-round. After enjoying a curry lunch, I had a blast crashing into the waves in the ocean while Leah read on the sand. It was a great way to relax before beginning our tour into Zulu-land tomorrow.
More updates will be coming soon, although I’m not sure when we’ll again have internet access.
Cheers for now!
Zac
The first 2 days, we spent some time in Johannesburg. Most people and travel books will tell you to get out of Jo’burg (or Jozi or Egoli as locals call it) as fast as possible. I’m sad to say, these opinions might be pretty accurate based on our short stay. One travel book I read noted that Jo’burg could really be plopped into any American state and look just like a sprawling suburban metropolis in the US. That supposition is absolutely correct. Jo’burg is kilometer upon kilometer of suburbs and winding freeways. There is not really a public transit system, so overpriced taxis are the only route to get around. We actually paid $40 one-way for one cab ride!
With nothing else to do, we visited a local mall and watched the new Batman film to pass the time on Monday. We were still trying to recover from the hectic schedule of Livingstone, so it was nice to have a day to relax, plus high-speed internet access to enjoy for a change! We hung around until Tuesday in order to see the Apartheid Museum, which isn’t open on Mondays for some reason. To be sure, the museum was remarkable (as far as museums go), but it might not have been worth planning 2 days around. However, I would have greatly regretted missing it. It’s "highlights" (not sure if anything apartheid-related is a highlight) included several startling photographs, a room filled with 131 nooses to represent those killed by the state during apartheid, and a wonderful temporary exhibit celebrating the legal unions of same-sex families in South Africa.
Late in the evening on Tuesday we flew to Durban. We used a "no-frills" airline called Kulula, which was quite a treat. Not only was the airline cheap ($75 tickets!!!!), but it had a fun atmosphere. The flight attendant mocked the safety demonstrations with wonderful sarcasm. "In the event of a water landing, we sure hope you can swim or are a quick learner," she quipped, her voice never wavering from the monotone flight attendant voice we’re all used to hearing.
The same book that compared Jo’burg to American Suburbia stated that Durban is South Africa’s most African metropolitan area. The city is a unique mix of African, Afrikaan, British, and Indian heritage. Both Ghandi and Mandela have routes here. As such, the city is an eclectic mix of Indian and African culture with mosques and Zulu craft markets sharing the same neighborhood. The white population here strikes me as quasi-Australians with similar accents and demeanors to the Aussies I’ve met in my day.
Once daybreak hit, we quickly realized we enjoyed Durbs far more than Jozi. Prices are affordable and people are friendly. We chose to spend our day frolicking along the Indian Ocean, whose warm currents make it swimmable year-round. After enjoying a curry lunch, I had a blast crashing into the waves in the ocean while Leah read on the sand. It was a great way to relax before beginning our tour into Zulu-land tomorrow.
More updates will be coming soon, although I’m not sure when we’ll again have internet access.
Cheers for now!
Zac
Zambia ramblings
These are some random Livingstone thoughts that probably don’t warrant an entire blog entry...
- The weather is like clockwork this time of year. The nights and mornings are cool and the days are hot with cloudless skies. There is absolutely no humidity or even a remote chance of rain. During the entire month there, we only had overcast skies ONCE!
- Nshima (silent "n" – shEEma) is the unofficial national dish of Zambia. It is basically ground maize cooked into the consistency of Play-Doh and something that looks like a pile of mash potatoes. Generally it’s eaten with just the fingers and rolled into bite-sized balls. I tried it only once, but found it pretty tasty. The most interesting part about nshima is watching the women labor to make it. The ground down the maize in an over-sized pestle and mortar, a task that takes phenomenal strength. Then they boil the meal until it reaches nshima-like consistency. For many (most?) Zambians, nshima is had thrice daily.
- Livingstone this time of year is incredibly dry and dusty. For the first time, I really began to understand the meaning of the popular phrase "walking in Jesus’ dust." At different times, both Leah and I remarked about how much more we understand the Biblical references to foot washing now after a month in Zambia. No matter if we were wearing tennis shoes, sandals, or flip-flops, our foot would end up caked in dust by the end of the day. Mine are so abused at the toes and heel that Leah now says they look and feel like the elephant we rode. I’m sure she means that in a loving way.
- Our last Livingstone memory was attending the Anglican church with some fellow volunteers. The service was a wonderful mix of traditional hymns and prayers combined with rousing African music. It was like having the grown-up version of the African Children’s Choir singing for us. The pastor was also incredible and preached a great sermon about Jacob and Esau. He talked about the need for apologizing when we are wrong and accepting apologies from those that wrong us. It was an excellent sermon! This church experience again highlighted that Zambia might be materially poor, but it’s spiritually rich.
- Another interesting thing to note about living in Livingstone is that you don’t see color while you are there. I know that sounds silly, but it’s true. In America when you are walking down a street, especially in North Dakota, you tend to notice people who are different than you. However when you are walking down a street in Livingstone you are the only one different, but you are never made to feel that way. For lifelong North Dakotans, Livingstone is the most diverse place we’ve ever been. But really, there is no racial diversity as everyone except muzungu tourists is black. When I walk into a classroom or Leah walks into a clinic we are the only diversity there. I’m quite interested to see if when I’m back in the US, I continue to not notice "color" as much as I did before time in Africa.
- As a tourist town, Livingstone makes efforts to offer modern and Western comforts like fast food, pizza, etc. However, I discovered that every attempt is just slightly off from what I’m used to at home. The pizza toppings were a bit different, the Subway restaurant didn’t exactly have the same meats, and the sweet desserts always seemed to have their own special taste. This isn’t particularly interesting, I’m sure, but to Leah and I, it became a running joke that our favorite things from home had their own Zambian versions that just didn’t measure up.
- This isn’t particularly related to Livingstone, but fun anyway. While travelling, I’m reading 1776, the David McCullough historical narrative about that crucial year in American history. Leah, on the other hand is reading Cry, The Beloved Country, the landmark Alan Paton novel that brought the horrors of apartheid to the literary world. Which one of these reading choices seems more out of context?
An update from South Africa is on its way soon…we promise!
For now, goodbye from Durban!
Zac (with assistance from Leah)
- The weather is like clockwork this time of year. The nights and mornings are cool and the days are hot with cloudless skies. There is absolutely no humidity or even a remote chance of rain. During the entire month there, we only had overcast skies ONCE!
- Nshima (silent "n" – shEEma) is the unofficial national dish of Zambia. It is basically ground maize cooked into the consistency of Play-Doh and something that looks like a pile of mash potatoes. Generally it’s eaten with just the fingers and rolled into bite-sized balls. I tried it only once, but found it pretty tasty. The most interesting part about nshima is watching the women labor to make it. The ground down the maize in an over-sized pestle and mortar, a task that takes phenomenal strength. Then they boil the meal until it reaches nshima-like consistency. For many (most?) Zambians, nshima is had thrice daily.
- Livingstone this time of year is incredibly dry and dusty. For the first time, I really began to understand the meaning of the popular phrase "walking in Jesus’ dust." At different times, both Leah and I remarked about how much more we understand the Biblical references to foot washing now after a month in Zambia. No matter if we were wearing tennis shoes, sandals, or flip-flops, our foot would end up caked in dust by the end of the day. Mine are so abused at the toes and heel that Leah now says they look and feel like the elephant we rode. I’m sure she means that in a loving way.
- Our last Livingstone memory was attending the Anglican church with some fellow volunteers. The service was a wonderful mix of traditional hymns and prayers combined with rousing African music. It was like having the grown-up version of the African Children’s Choir singing for us. The pastor was also incredible and preached a great sermon about Jacob and Esau. He talked about the need for apologizing when we are wrong and accepting apologies from those that wrong us. It was an excellent sermon! This church experience again highlighted that Zambia might be materially poor, but it’s spiritually rich.
- Another interesting thing to note about living in Livingstone is that you don’t see color while you are there. I know that sounds silly, but it’s true. In America when you are walking down a street, especially in North Dakota, you tend to notice people who are different than you. However when you are walking down a street in Livingstone you are the only one different, but you are never made to feel that way. For lifelong North Dakotans, Livingstone is the most diverse place we’ve ever been. But really, there is no racial diversity as everyone except muzungu tourists is black. When I walk into a classroom or Leah walks into a clinic we are the only diversity there. I’m quite interested to see if when I’m back in the US, I continue to not notice "color" as much as I did before time in Africa.
- As a tourist town, Livingstone makes efforts to offer modern and Western comforts like fast food, pizza, etc. However, I discovered that every attempt is just slightly off from what I’m used to at home. The pizza toppings were a bit different, the Subway restaurant didn’t exactly have the same meats, and the sweet desserts always seemed to have their own special taste. This isn’t particularly interesting, I’m sure, but to Leah and I, it became a running joke that our favorite things from home had their own Zambian versions that just didn’t measure up.
- This isn’t particularly related to Livingstone, but fun anyway. While travelling, I’m reading 1776, the David McCullough historical narrative about that crucial year in American history. Leah, on the other hand is reading Cry, The Beloved Country, the landmark Alan Paton novel that brought the horrors of apartheid to the literary world. Which one of these reading choices seems more out of context?
An update from South Africa is on its way soon…we promise!
For now, goodbye from Durban!
Zac (with assistance from Leah)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Our farewell to Zambia
Time has flown by! It seems like yesterday when we landed at the Livingstone airport. Yet somehow today was our last day in Zambia. Our weeks were hectic and busy and our weekends were even more hectic and busy. For our last day we took things slow and really focused on being in Zambia.
We ‘slept in’ till 7:00 and had our usual cold cereal for breakfast. We then packed up all the clothes that Zac decided he no longer wanted and headed to a curio market that we pass everyday. Zac had walked through this market so many times that he had actually made friends with a few of the sellers. This mornings shopping was particularly successful because we got 2 large paintings and several other gifts for 20 USD. At every shop we traded clothes for goods and were very successful. Two weeks ago Zac and I had stopped to watch a man painting a large landscape picture. We really liked it, but we were leaving for Zimbabwe and the painting was not yet finished. For the next two weeks we would pass the shop and admire the painting. Today Zac traded a pair of his shoes for that painting. The guy who accepted our offer put on Zac’s shoes (which were way too small for him) and ran down the curios to show everyone. It was great.
After we brought our new belongs to our house we decided to take a taxi out to Victoria Falls. We had already been to the falls but they were so amazing that we wanted to visit them again. On this trip to the falls we decided to hike down to the Boiling Pot. This is the area where wall of the water flows after it hits the bottom of the falls. It is a very interesting place because when the water exits the falls it creates three huge rapids and then crashes into a wall with massive force and flows both left and right from there. This motion creates a forceful mixing motion. However the Boiling Pot was not half as interesting as the hike to get there was. Starting out we knew the trail was over 600 meters long, and that was fine. The trail started with steps that were quite hazardous but that was also fine. What was not fine was when we got to the bottom of the steps and after a few yards of a nice little trial we came to boulders we had to climb. After the boulders we had to wade through a stream; then we were back to climbing boulders. There was no trail, and we would have turned around if there hadn’t been people in front of us. This was the hardest hike I have ever been on. It was crazy, and I personally think there needed to be warnings at the beginning of the trail. We have several pictures from our hike because I felt we needed to document the trail we concurred.
After we recovered from our hike back up that torturous trail we braved the curios at Victoria Falls. Sadly we didn’t have much luck here because things were absurdly priced. We did stop and look at one painting where the artist told us to name our price. We said $5, and he said ok. We then returned to Zambezi Sun, an ultra nice resort located next to the falls. After having a quick lunch and being entertained by the compulsively stealing monkeys, we headed out on a nature trail in hopes of seeing zebras. Even after safaris in Botswana (whose national animal is the zebra) we had yet to see a zebra. After a quick five minutes of walking we came to a clearing with two giraffes and six zebras. You can’t help but love Zambia!
After we took about a hundred pictures of the wildlife we continued on our path to The Royal Livingstone Hotel. This hotel is just up river from the falls and is known for their high tea and ungodly prices. I do believe it is something like $400 a night to stay at the hotel but only 17 dollars for high tea. I chose the high tea. Put quite simply I got to chose a tea and unlimited dessert. I know $17 is a lot but to be fair, I watched the sun go down over Victoria Falls and got to chose from 20 desserts.
When I was done pampering myself, Zac and I retuned to town where we met our friends at a local restaurant and said our goodbyes. This part of my day was much sadder then I had expected. The people we have come to know from this experience are literally from around the world. We are the only two from the US. I guess this means we will just have to broaden our future travel plans. We have now retuned to our quiet house on Mushili Way and are finished packing. Tomorrow after attending a local church we will be departing for Johannesburg and the second lag of our journey. I can only hope it is half as good as this one.
Leah
PS - Zac and I will still blog about our stories from Livingstone that are as of yet untold. Hopefully, we'll find internet connections strong enough to post pictures soon, too. We'll also blog about our experience in South Africa while trying not to give just a play-by-play of the day's events. Also, we just got our first phone call in a month when Zac's mom Loris was able to call our international cell phone! That's a nice taste of home just when the homesickness is beginning to set in. Yay for technology!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Discipline Problems
One of the hardest aspects about working in the schools around Livingstone was operating in a system that frequently uses corporal punishment on students. In fact, corporal punishment (“beating” as it’s known here) is really the only system used for discipline in the schools. As such, it’s the only type of discipline to which the students respond.
Beating typically involves a teacher having a student or group of students fetch a branch from outside. She then proceeds to whack the kids on their backsides. Typically, the whack isn’t malicious, but more of a stern reminder about proper behavior. Other teachers prefer to beat the children by whacking the back of the eraser on their fingertips. In all the instances I’ve observed, the punishment is not overtly abusive. Other volunteers, though, have had to witness outright child abuse.
On principle, I am adamantly opposed to corporal punishment. I believe in that violence begets violence. If physical punishment is the only way to resolve problems in school, how will these students solve adult problems in the future? However, I also do not believe I can question the cultural values displayed in Zambian schools. I can respect this honest cultural difference. Under no circumstances, though, can I participate in the beating of a child.
The frustrating part for me and the other volunteers is that corporal punishment is the only effective way to discipline the classroom. More peaceful techniques such as yelling, removing students from the room, “time-outs”, or any other non-violent method simply do not work. More often than not, the regular classroom teacher will intervene when discipline problems get out of control by having a student fetch a branch. Many teaching volunteers, including myself, quickly become disenchanted by this process and found little fulfillment in the Zambian classrooms. This is regrettable because the children are absolutely wonderful, but victims of a broken discipline system. Hopefully, a solution can be found to avoid this problem in the future.
Zac
Beating typically involves a teacher having a student or group of students fetch a branch from outside. She then proceeds to whack the kids on their backsides. Typically, the whack isn’t malicious, but more of a stern reminder about proper behavior. Other teachers prefer to beat the children by whacking the back of the eraser on their fingertips. In all the instances I’ve observed, the punishment is not overtly abusive. Other volunteers, though, have had to witness outright child abuse.
On principle, I am adamantly opposed to corporal punishment. I believe in that violence begets violence. If physical punishment is the only way to resolve problems in school, how will these students solve adult problems in the future? However, I also do not believe I can question the cultural values displayed in Zambian schools. I can respect this honest cultural difference. Under no circumstances, though, can I participate in the beating of a child.
The frustrating part for me and the other volunteers is that corporal punishment is the only effective way to discipline the classroom. More peaceful techniques such as yelling, removing students from the room, “time-outs”, or any other non-violent method simply do not work. More often than not, the regular classroom teacher will intervene when discipline problems get out of control by having a student fetch a branch. Many teaching volunteers, including myself, quickly become disenchanted by this process and found little fulfillment in the Zambian classrooms. This is regrettable because the children are absolutely wonderful, but victims of a broken discipline system. Hopefully, a solution can be found to avoid this problem in the future.
Zac
Language lessons
When I told people I was travelling to Zambia, many worried I would struggle with the language barrier. I always confidently replied that I’d be fine since English is the national language. On this account, I was both right and wrong. English is, in fact, the official language of Zambia. Like most African countries, Zambia retained the lingua franca of its colonial master (Britain in this case). However, I have had to struggle with the language barrier.
In Zambia’s 9 provinces, one will find a total of 73 tribes. The unity that’s been achieved among these tribes is a huge source of national pride. Frequently, we’re reminded that neighboring Zimbabwe only has two tribes but loads of problems. With so many tribes, there are inevitably many languages and dialects. In the schools, students all learn English and Chitonga (pronounced “tonga” with a long o and the “chi” silent). Many of the tribal languages across the country are dialects of Chitonga, including the language spoken by most in Livingstone, Chinyanja (again, the “chi” is silent so it’s pronounced nee-YUN-ja – I think it sounds sort of like “ninja”).
Chinyanja is spoken across much of Zambia and pronunciations vary from place to place. While most Chinyanja speakers can communicate across these cultural lines, an outsider like me would struggle to catch on.
The language isn’t overly complicated to learn as words are generally pronounced just the way they look. One quirk of the language is that there are two forms of most words. One is used to address peers or people younger than you; the other is used to address elders, respected figures, or groups. The simple difference is that the word for elders adds an “M” to the beginning of the word.
We had one chinyanja language lesson that helped me pick up a few words. Here are the most common phrases I use:
Mwauka bwanji - Good morning (also implies How are you?)
Bwino - the response “mwauka bwanji” meaning “fine”)
Muli bwanji (How are you) - if addressing a younger person, I’d remove the “m” to say Uli bwanji
Zikomo – Thank you
Mwachoma bwanji - Good afternoon
Here’s an example of a short chinyanja statement: Mwauka bwanji. Nili bwino. Ndine Zac. Nilina zaka 23. Nichokela ku America. Tuzaonana bwino. Translated, I said: Good morning. I’m fine. My name is Zac. I’m 23 years old. I’m from America. See you later.
Around Livingstone, the dialect of chinyanja usually drops the word endings so “bwanji” becomes “bwanj” and “zikomo” becomes “zikom”.
The local residents enjoy it immensely if muzungus attempt to speak the language and are very patient with us. They also like to practice English with us, so the cultural exchange works both ways.
Tuzaonana mailo (See you tomorrow)
Zac
In Zambia’s 9 provinces, one will find a total of 73 tribes. The unity that’s been achieved among these tribes is a huge source of national pride. Frequently, we’re reminded that neighboring Zimbabwe only has two tribes but loads of problems. With so many tribes, there are inevitably many languages and dialects. In the schools, students all learn English and Chitonga (pronounced “tonga” with a long o and the “chi” silent). Many of the tribal languages across the country are dialects of Chitonga, including the language spoken by most in Livingstone, Chinyanja (again, the “chi” is silent so it’s pronounced nee-YUN-ja – I think it sounds sort of like “ninja”).
Chinyanja is spoken across much of Zambia and pronunciations vary from place to place. While most Chinyanja speakers can communicate across these cultural lines, an outsider like me would struggle to catch on.
The language isn’t overly complicated to learn as words are generally pronounced just the way they look. One quirk of the language is that there are two forms of most words. One is used to address peers or people younger than you; the other is used to address elders, respected figures, or groups. The simple difference is that the word for elders adds an “M” to the beginning of the word.
We had one chinyanja language lesson that helped me pick up a few words. Here are the most common phrases I use:
Mwauka bwanji - Good morning (also implies How are you?)
Bwino - the response “mwauka bwanji” meaning “fine”)
Muli bwanji (How are you) - if addressing a younger person, I’d remove the “m” to say Uli bwanji
Zikomo – Thank you
Mwachoma bwanji - Good afternoon
Here’s an example of a short chinyanja statement: Mwauka bwanji. Nili bwino. Ndine Zac. Nilina zaka 23. Nichokela ku America. Tuzaonana bwino. Translated, I said: Good morning. I’m fine. My name is Zac. I’m 23 years old. I’m from America. See you later.
Around Livingstone, the dialect of chinyanja usually drops the word endings so “bwanji” becomes “bwanj” and “zikomo” becomes “zikom”.
The local residents enjoy it immensely if muzungus attempt to speak the language and are very patient with us. They also like to practice English with us, so the cultural exchange works both ways.
Tuzaonana mailo (See you tomorrow)
Zac
Monday, July 28, 2008
Leah's Update - Afternoon Projects
Well it is the beginning of our last week in Zambia and I must say time has flown by. I have never experienced days that go so fast. The clinics are always busy in the mornings and I usually get at least one interesting case a day (like a young girl who obviously has broken her arm because the bone is pushing out the skin) so my mornings go extremely fast. To my surprise I have found that my afternoon projects are by far the most fulfilling. I love working in the clinics but they are seldom a happy place. During the afternoon however I teach an adult literacy classes, work with home based care, and I plan and present anti-drugs and alcohol presentations for school kids. I have talked about working in the clinics before so today I would like to talk about these afternoon projects.
Adult literacy is a project that I originally did not want to do. I do not enjoy teaching or having to plan lessons. However over time this has become very rewarding experience. I work with two different classes. One class has the ability to read novels so we are working on skills such as resumes and letter writing. My other class is at the completely other end of the spectrum. They are a very low level class. Because I have had no teaching experience it is much harder to work with the lowest level but it is absolutely the most rewarding. Today with the help of a translator we taught a group of six women the alphabet and the sounds for letters A-L. One of the hardest things I have had to is explain that each letter has a name in addition to a sound. I was then asked what sound the letter X makes. The women that I work with in these classes study every night, they usually have to bring their young children to class with them, and the highlight of their day is when you grade their work. If you put a sticker on their paper they light up. I would like to note that today I work at a new location for our program and it is the poorest area I have been in. During this class I helped an elderly woman named Agnes Ngome write her name for the first time. Our great victory for the day is that when we asked the class to write their names at the top of their papers all six women could do it.
Home based care is unlike anything I have ever experienced. I want to start by saying that there was quite the struggle here over volunteers working in the only hospital in Livingstone. In the past volunteers that have had previous medical experience were allowed to job shadow in the hospital. However they could only shadow and were not allowed to do any hands on work. This year the hospital is demanding that volunteers pay 200 USD to shadow their physicians. I was pretty bummed because I wanted to work in the hospital but I was not willing to pay the money. Plus I was getting hands on experience in the clinics. What really lifted my spirits was the afternoon that I was told I had to pay to shadow in the hospital I did my first home based care. During this home based care a team of local women took me and another volunteer around a poor neighborhood and taken into people’s houses. We sat with several native people who are so poor they are literally dying in their homes. These ‘clients’ can not afford the 1.50 USD to visit the clinic. Every client has AIDS, TB, or both. When we meet the clients the local women translate for us as we do a quick history review. We then do a medical examination followed by our recommendations for improving their quality of life. The only tools we have available are aspirin, an anti-inflammatory, pain-killers, multivitamins, rehydration salts, antiseptic, bandages, fungal cream, and antacids. These tools don’t add up to much when in Zac’s words, “We are fighting AIDS with aspirin.” We can however make very practical suggests especially on dealing with the side effects of their medications. Common side effects of HIV and TB treatments include swollen feet, loss of appetite, and diarrhea. I know that a lot of volunteers do not like home based care because we are very limited in what we can do for the clients. Other volunteers try and give money to the clients, thinking that they are going to save them. The sad truth is that the majority of the clients we see are already dying and no amount of money is going to save them. I personally believe that the point of home based care is just to show these individuals that someone cares about them and is willing to help. Some of the people wait all week for the day that the volunteers come in to their homes and talk about the weather. One very apparent cultural difference here is that people (especially in the medical system) never complain. This means when you ask a patient how they are doing the answer is always good, great, just fine and then they ask how you are doing.
One other project I wanted to share with everyone is a new program simply called Anti-drugs workshop. One of the local schools requested that volunteers set up an anti-alcohol workshop for there students. Apparently the school has a problem with nine year old students coming to school drunk. I and three other volunteers put together a presentation that seemed pretty good to us. When we actually when to the school it became the worst project I have done here. When we started our presentation the kid’s teacher left for the day and the kids quickly became extremely hard to control. Because corporal punishment is regularly used in the schools the students will listen to nothing else. I should also mention that half of the kids didn’t really speak English. To end our program we split the class in half and asked each group to come up with a skit about the harmful effects of alcohol. By this time I was ready to give up on these kids and walk back to town. I took my group outside and tried to explain to them what we wanted them to do. Half of my group went to play soccer or left for the day. I was very frustrated and just before I was going to give up a young boy named Anderson decided that he would take charge. He stood in front of his classmates and explained what he wanted them to do in their local language. He got the remaining students excited and gave each one of them a role. He developed a skit where he as a student went to school drunk and failed his seventh grade exam (the single most important exam in a Zambian’s life). When a student playing a teacher would ask him a question like ‘what is 1 plus 1’ he would reply with a ridiculous answer like ‘Zimbabwe.’ And while the drunk person failed their exam everyone else passed and went on to great things. I was so proud of these children. I can’t even describe how great it was to watch them create this play. Then came one of the most difficult thing that I have experienced while here in Zambia. As we returned to the classroom so the different groups could present their plays to each other a World Food truck pulled up. The men driving the truck came in and demanded that all of the male children help unload the endless 100 pound bags of corn. The students spent the next 45 minutes that we were there caring bags that were bigger then some of the students. They never did get to perform their play and I personally felt so defeated that I wanted to cry. I wanted to share this project with everyone because I think it is so symbolic of what we see everyday. There are so many people here that strive to do good, live a good life, and achieve something and then the reality of their lives and their surroundings tear their efforts to shreds. Whether it is abuse, poverty, rape, marring young, disease, unplanned pregnancy, the demand to provide, or any of the things Africa is notorious for it ruins lives before these kids even have a chance. I would like to note that we have now completed another anti-drugs workshop on marijuana and this one went a lot better. However because the school is very close to a holiday we didn’t have many of the students who were there at the first presentation.
With love from Zambia,
Leah
Adult literacy is a project that I originally did not want to do. I do not enjoy teaching or having to plan lessons. However over time this has become very rewarding experience. I work with two different classes. One class has the ability to read novels so we are working on skills such as resumes and letter writing. My other class is at the completely other end of the spectrum. They are a very low level class. Because I have had no teaching experience it is much harder to work with the lowest level but it is absolutely the most rewarding. Today with the help of a translator we taught a group of six women the alphabet and the sounds for letters A-L. One of the hardest things I have had to is explain that each letter has a name in addition to a sound. I was then asked what sound the letter X makes. The women that I work with in these classes study every night, they usually have to bring their young children to class with them, and the highlight of their day is when you grade their work. If you put a sticker on their paper they light up. I would like to note that today I work at a new location for our program and it is the poorest area I have been in. During this class I helped an elderly woman named Agnes Ngome write her name for the first time. Our great victory for the day is that when we asked the class to write their names at the top of their papers all six women could do it.
Home based care is unlike anything I have ever experienced. I want to start by saying that there was quite the struggle here over volunteers working in the only hospital in Livingstone. In the past volunteers that have had previous medical experience were allowed to job shadow in the hospital. However they could only shadow and were not allowed to do any hands on work. This year the hospital is demanding that volunteers pay 200 USD to shadow their physicians. I was pretty bummed because I wanted to work in the hospital but I was not willing to pay the money. Plus I was getting hands on experience in the clinics. What really lifted my spirits was the afternoon that I was told I had to pay to shadow in the hospital I did my first home based care. During this home based care a team of local women took me and another volunteer around a poor neighborhood and taken into people’s houses. We sat with several native people who are so poor they are literally dying in their homes. These ‘clients’ can not afford the 1.50 USD to visit the clinic. Every client has AIDS, TB, or both. When we meet the clients the local women translate for us as we do a quick history review. We then do a medical examination followed by our recommendations for improving their quality of life. The only tools we have available are aspirin, an anti-inflammatory, pain-killers, multivitamins, rehydration salts, antiseptic, bandages, fungal cream, and antacids. These tools don’t add up to much when in Zac’s words, “We are fighting AIDS with aspirin.” We can however make very practical suggests especially on dealing with the side effects of their medications. Common side effects of HIV and TB treatments include swollen feet, loss of appetite, and diarrhea. I know that a lot of volunteers do not like home based care because we are very limited in what we can do for the clients. Other volunteers try and give money to the clients, thinking that they are going to save them. The sad truth is that the majority of the clients we see are already dying and no amount of money is going to save them. I personally believe that the point of home based care is just to show these individuals that someone cares about them and is willing to help. Some of the people wait all week for the day that the volunteers come in to their homes and talk about the weather. One very apparent cultural difference here is that people (especially in the medical system) never complain. This means when you ask a patient how they are doing the answer is always good, great, just fine and then they ask how you are doing.
One other project I wanted to share with everyone is a new program simply called Anti-drugs workshop. One of the local schools requested that volunteers set up an anti-alcohol workshop for there students. Apparently the school has a problem with nine year old students coming to school drunk. I and three other volunteers put together a presentation that seemed pretty good to us. When we actually when to the school it became the worst project I have done here. When we started our presentation the kid’s teacher left for the day and the kids quickly became extremely hard to control. Because corporal punishment is regularly used in the schools the students will listen to nothing else. I should also mention that half of the kids didn’t really speak English. To end our program we split the class in half and asked each group to come up with a skit about the harmful effects of alcohol. By this time I was ready to give up on these kids and walk back to town. I took my group outside and tried to explain to them what we wanted them to do. Half of my group went to play soccer or left for the day. I was very frustrated and just before I was going to give up a young boy named Anderson decided that he would take charge. He stood in front of his classmates and explained what he wanted them to do in their local language. He got the remaining students excited and gave each one of them a role. He developed a skit where he as a student went to school drunk and failed his seventh grade exam (the single most important exam in a Zambian’s life). When a student playing a teacher would ask him a question like ‘what is 1 plus 1’ he would reply with a ridiculous answer like ‘Zimbabwe.’ And while the drunk person failed their exam everyone else passed and went on to great things. I was so proud of these children. I can’t even describe how great it was to watch them create this play. Then came one of the most difficult thing that I have experienced while here in Zambia. As we returned to the classroom so the different groups could present their plays to each other a World Food truck pulled up. The men driving the truck came in and demanded that all of the male children help unload the endless 100 pound bags of corn. The students spent the next 45 minutes that we were there caring bags that were bigger then some of the students. They never did get to perform their play and I personally felt so defeated that I wanted to cry. I wanted to share this project with everyone because I think it is so symbolic of what we see everyday. There are so many people here that strive to do good, live a good life, and achieve something and then the reality of their lives and their surroundings tear their efforts to shreds. Whether it is abuse, poverty, rape, marring young, disease, unplanned pregnancy, the demand to provide, or any of the things Africa is notorious for it ruins lives before these kids even have a chance. I would like to note that we have now completed another anti-drugs workshop on marijuana and this one went a lot better. However because the school is very close to a holiday we didn’t have many of the students who were there at the first presentation.
With love from Zambia,
Leah
Botswana Weekend
The weekend brought another amazing mini-vacation, this time to Chobe National Park in Botswana. We enjoyed a relaxing weekend full of big game and big memories.
The border crossing into Botswana is just about an hours drive from Livingstone. Botswana and Zambia, though, do not share a land border, but instead the Zambezi River marks the boundary. In the US, a basic bridge would span the river. Here, we had to ferry across the Mighty Zambezi to the border post. While on the river, we are technically at the intersection of four countries: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. It’s like the super-sized version of the 4 Corners!
Shortly after crossing into Botswana, we hopped into an open-air safari vehicle. It was a briskly cold Botswana morning, but we managed to survive. We keep telling everyone that this is nothing compared to North Dakota winters! After this short drive, we pulled into a small dock along the Chobe River and boarded a motorboat for a game-watching cruise. Our group, which consisted of us two Americans, an Australian, and 3 Dutch folks, was joined by couples from Spain and Italy to form our own little UN on the Chobe.
The cruise was quite wonderful. We jetted along the Chobe, which demarcates the border between Botswana and Namibia. We game across such game as baboon, vervet monkey, waterbuck, crocodiles, hippos (including a massive “island” of hippos – probably 50 all together), monitor lizards, African fish eagles, and kingfishers. We got so close to many of these animals, especially the massive crocs!
After the cruise, we headed to Elephant Valley Lodge (www.evlodge.com) for lunch and to check-in to our accommodations. The lodge is nestled nicely into the African bush and includes a watering hole frequented by elephants. Each “lodge” is actually a permanent tent that includes hard flooring and a bathroom with shower. It is an absolutely fantastic place. I couldn’t keep track of how many times Leah said, “I love this place!”
After lunch, a brief nap, and high tea, we headed out on an afternoon game drive into Chobe National Park. While the boat cruise was quite nothing, it paled in comparison to the drive. The long list of animals we saw in abundance includes impala, kudu, giraffe, African hornbills, helmeted guinea fowl, Cape buffalo, vultures, jackals, and elephants. Chobe’s 11,000 sq. km park is home to nearly 85,000 elephant, so we literally saw well over 100 elephant during our drive. Most of these animals are right next to the vehicle. It’s quite something to be within 5 feet of a giant elephant. Many of the elephants actually had small babies with them. Our guide spotted one baby he presumed to be only one or two days old! Before we left the park, we heard reports of lions on the prowl. Our wonderful guide quickly found their trail and led us to two young male lions scavenging a baby buffalo that had been killed. Again, we were within 15 feet of these animals!
We left the park in total darkness. Our guide shown his spotlight along the bush on our drive home and was able to spot two hyenas, adding to our list of animals. During our wonderful dinner back at the lodge, we marveled as over 25 elephants paraded to the watering hole for an evening drink.
In the morning, after a great breakfast (Perri, our Australian friend, believes we were on an eating safari more so than a game-viewing safari), we headed on another drive into Chobe. While we saw many of the same animals as before, we added the sable antelope to the list. Our group was determined to find zebras also this morning. On the way, though, we made an even better discovery when our guide spotted a leopard! We saw it only briefly and from a bit of a distance, but even that glance is a lucky feat in Chobe. We have now seen four of the “Big 5” with only the rhino left to cross off the list. By the way, we never did find the zebras. So sad….
Exhausted, we headed back to the lodge for a last meal and to check out before heading back to our final week of volunteering in Livingstone. One interesting thing we noticed in Botswana was the government’s proactive approach to fighting HIV/AIDS. In each government building, like the border and national park visitor center, were distribution stations with free condoms and brochures with AIDS education information. These were funded by the Botswana government. With the highest HIV rate in Africa, it’s no wonder Botswana is trying anything that might work.
As we are leaving on Sunday, I’ll do my best to update the blog frequently while reminding Leah to post as well. The time is flying by here in Africa!
We hope all is well back in ND!
Zac (with a little help from Leah)
The border crossing into Botswana is just about an hours drive from Livingstone. Botswana and Zambia, though, do not share a land border, but instead the Zambezi River marks the boundary. In the US, a basic bridge would span the river. Here, we had to ferry across the Mighty Zambezi to the border post. While on the river, we are technically at the intersection of four countries: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. It’s like the super-sized version of the 4 Corners!
Shortly after crossing into Botswana, we hopped into an open-air safari vehicle. It was a briskly cold Botswana morning, but we managed to survive. We keep telling everyone that this is nothing compared to North Dakota winters! After this short drive, we pulled into a small dock along the Chobe River and boarded a motorboat for a game-watching cruise. Our group, which consisted of us two Americans, an Australian, and 3 Dutch folks, was joined by couples from Spain and Italy to form our own little UN on the Chobe.
The cruise was quite wonderful. We jetted along the Chobe, which demarcates the border between Botswana and Namibia. We game across such game as baboon, vervet monkey, waterbuck, crocodiles, hippos (including a massive “island” of hippos – probably 50 all together), monitor lizards, African fish eagles, and kingfishers. We got so close to many of these animals, especially the massive crocs!
After the cruise, we headed to Elephant Valley Lodge (www.evlodge.com) for lunch and to check-in to our accommodations. The lodge is nestled nicely into the African bush and includes a watering hole frequented by elephants. Each “lodge” is actually a permanent tent that includes hard flooring and a bathroom with shower. It is an absolutely fantastic place. I couldn’t keep track of how many times Leah said, “I love this place!”
After lunch, a brief nap, and high tea, we headed out on an afternoon game drive into Chobe National Park. While the boat cruise was quite nothing, it paled in comparison to the drive. The long list of animals we saw in abundance includes impala, kudu, giraffe, African hornbills, helmeted guinea fowl, Cape buffalo, vultures, jackals, and elephants. Chobe’s 11,000 sq. km park is home to nearly 85,000 elephant, so we literally saw well over 100 elephant during our drive. Most of these animals are right next to the vehicle. It’s quite something to be within 5 feet of a giant elephant. Many of the elephants actually had small babies with them. Our guide spotted one baby he presumed to be only one or two days old! Before we left the park, we heard reports of lions on the prowl. Our wonderful guide quickly found their trail and led us to two young male lions scavenging a baby buffalo that had been killed. Again, we were within 15 feet of these animals!
We left the park in total darkness. Our guide shown his spotlight along the bush on our drive home and was able to spot two hyenas, adding to our list of animals. During our wonderful dinner back at the lodge, we marveled as over 25 elephants paraded to the watering hole for an evening drink.
In the morning, after a great breakfast (Perri, our Australian friend, believes we were on an eating safari more so than a game-viewing safari), we headed on another drive into Chobe. While we saw many of the same animals as before, we added the sable antelope to the list. Our group was determined to find zebras also this morning. On the way, though, we made an even better discovery when our guide spotted a leopard! We saw it only briefly and from a bit of a distance, but even that glance is a lucky feat in Chobe. We have now seen four of the “Big 5” with only the rhino left to cross off the list. By the way, we never did find the zebras. So sad….
Exhausted, we headed back to the lodge for a last meal and to check out before heading back to our final week of volunteering in Livingstone. One interesting thing we noticed in Botswana was the government’s proactive approach to fighting HIV/AIDS. In each government building, like the border and national park visitor center, were distribution stations with free condoms and brochures with AIDS education information. These were funded by the Botswana government. With the highest HIV rate in Africa, it’s no wonder Botswana is trying anything that might work.
As we are leaving on Sunday, I’ll do my best to update the blog frequently while reminding Leah to post as well. The time is flying by here in Africa!
We hope all is well back in ND!
Zac (with a little help from Leah)
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Livingstone Living
Livingstone is a wonderfully interesting city. It’s the capital of Zambia’s Southern Province and the country’s most important tourist location. Behind copper, I’d assume tourism is Zambia’s second most important industry. Including all of its (impoverished) suburbs, Livingstone has roughly 140,000 people, so it’s fairly similar to the F-M metro area in terms of population. The similarities don’t extend much beyond that. For instance, there are no traffic lights in Livingstone. Of course, the need isn’t great when there are only a handful of paved roads. Really, there is only one short stretch of a “downtown” type area. It’s centrally located along the always-busy Mosi-Oa-Tunya Road. Here, one will find stores, banks, bars, restaurants, and markets. It is really a thriving commercial area. I even spotted a Chinese restaurant the other day!
With its large size, one will find nearly all occupations in Livingstone. In Zambia, the traditional patriarchal society is still the prevailing custom, so men dominate most of the white-collar professions. Women, though, are not overtly oppressed and do hold some important positions. Beyond traditional jobs, many citizens are street sellers. Some set up stands in the suburban areas while others line up goods on the sidewalk. Others still just carry goods in their pockets. It’s impossible to walk the streets without being offered cell phones, bananas, or copper bracelets. Watch out for the illegal money changers who will happily trade you some photocopied kwacha for your US dollars or British pounds.
Along Mosi-Oa-Tunya Road, I most frequently stop by a bank’s ATM, Wonderbake (for some goodies), ShopRite (for groceries), or an internet café. However, one can also find an ice cream parlor, several sewing shops, many restaurants and bars, and even a small casino. Of course, there are more unique features such as the David Livingstone Museum and the offices of the UN World Food Programme.
Thinking about Livingstone leads me to categorizing some of the enduring memories I’ll take with me from this great place. Chief among these is the image of Zambian woman. This image takes two forms: a woman effortlessly carrying a heavy load on her head or a woman with a small baby attached to her back by a simple piece of beautiful African fabric. These women are incredibly strong-willed and physically strong to boot. At Mwandi school, the kitchen women carried 50kg bags of maize and carried them on their heads. That’s over 100 lbs!
I’ll also always associate Livingstone with a burning smell. Sometimes this burning smell is a small fire used to fry up some fish or other foods. More often, its burning piles of garbage. Whatever the case, this woody/charcoal-y smell is quintessential Livingstone in my mind.
The sounds of Livingstone to me are honking car horns. The horn honking is not an aggressive sing of road rage like in the US. Instead, horns are used as gentle and friendly notices to other drivers to alter behavior, or more commonly to just say hello to a friend. For me, the honking horn also always signals the arrival of our project buses. It’s like an extraordinarily obnoxious wake-up call. In addition to car horns, I’ll also think of street vendors and curio shopkeepers offering an energetic greeting of “How are you my friend? Come see my shop. Looking and touching are free. All prices are negotiable.” Ahhh…if only Wal-Mart was like that!
Not many people make their home in Livingstone proper. Instead, they live in the suburbs/townships/compounds like Mwandi, Linda, Maramba, etc. These areas run the gamut of wealth. Some houses actually appear quite nice. Almost all of these are made of concrete breeze bricks and are ramblers. However, most of the homes in the neighborhoods are much simpler. Some may be built of concrete bricks but will be left unfinished. Most have an outhouse-style toilet, even in the poorest communities. I suspect some foreign aid source or agency funded that project at one time. In the poorest areas, houses are built of mud that dries into a fairly sturdy clay. Some yards have extra large tents that are labeled as gifts of the United States. Of course, these homes are literally side by side with no room for a yard, as if grass grows here anyway. Truthfully and thankfully, most of the homes are serviceable dwellings that are at least a bit adequate for raising a family. They are nowhere near Western standards of even the poorest homes, but the families here are not screaming for more luxury.
Another feature of Livingstone is the huge dog population. Every night I fall asleep to a chorus of barking canines. All the dogs here look like they are direct descendents of some sort of doggie Father Abraham. I have never seen so little variation in such a large population. All the dogs are the size of medium sized labs and have similar type of fur. Some dogs have homes (I know because the gates have signs warning me of this), but most are strays.
Livingstone truly is a remarkable place full of vigor and joy. Like many big towns, especially those in African, many of its modern Westernized trappings cover up the real stories seen in the compounds. Poverty, hunger, disease, and overpopulation are rampant in Livingstone. After experiencing the city for over 2 weeks, I firmly believe that the power of the gracious and kind people here will overcome the evil forces of those agents and lead to a thriving Livingstone not so far in the future.
Zac
With its large size, one will find nearly all occupations in Livingstone. In Zambia, the traditional patriarchal society is still the prevailing custom, so men dominate most of the white-collar professions. Women, though, are not overtly oppressed and do hold some important positions. Beyond traditional jobs, many citizens are street sellers. Some set up stands in the suburban areas while others line up goods on the sidewalk. Others still just carry goods in their pockets. It’s impossible to walk the streets without being offered cell phones, bananas, or copper bracelets. Watch out for the illegal money changers who will happily trade you some photocopied kwacha for your US dollars or British pounds.
Along Mosi-Oa-Tunya Road, I most frequently stop by a bank’s ATM, Wonderbake (for some goodies), ShopRite (for groceries), or an internet café. However, one can also find an ice cream parlor, several sewing shops, many restaurants and bars, and even a small casino. Of course, there are more unique features such as the David Livingstone Museum and the offices of the UN World Food Programme.
Thinking about Livingstone leads me to categorizing some of the enduring memories I’ll take with me from this great place. Chief among these is the image of Zambian woman. This image takes two forms: a woman effortlessly carrying a heavy load on her head or a woman with a small baby attached to her back by a simple piece of beautiful African fabric. These women are incredibly strong-willed and physically strong to boot. At Mwandi school, the kitchen women carried 50kg bags of maize and carried them on their heads. That’s over 100 lbs!
I’ll also always associate Livingstone with a burning smell. Sometimes this burning smell is a small fire used to fry up some fish or other foods. More often, its burning piles of garbage. Whatever the case, this woody/charcoal-y smell is quintessential Livingstone in my mind.
The sounds of Livingstone to me are honking car horns. The horn honking is not an aggressive sing of road rage like in the US. Instead, horns are used as gentle and friendly notices to other drivers to alter behavior, or more commonly to just say hello to a friend. For me, the honking horn also always signals the arrival of our project buses. It’s like an extraordinarily obnoxious wake-up call. In addition to car horns, I’ll also think of street vendors and curio shopkeepers offering an energetic greeting of “How are you my friend? Come see my shop. Looking and touching are free. All prices are negotiable.” Ahhh…if only Wal-Mart was like that!
Not many people make their home in Livingstone proper. Instead, they live in the suburbs/townships/compounds like Mwandi, Linda, Maramba, etc. These areas run the gamut of wealth. Some houses actually appear quite nice. Almost all of these are made of concrete breeze bricks and are ramblers. However, most of the homes in the neighborhoods are much simpler. Some may be built of concrete bricks but will be left unfinished. Most have an outhouse-style toilet, even in the poorest communities. I suspect some foreign aid source or agency funded that project at one time. In the poorest areas, houses are built of mud that dries into a fairly sturdy clay. Some yards have extra large tents that are labeled as gifts of the United States. Of course, these homes are literally side by side with no room for a yard, as if grass grows here anyway. Truthfully and thankfully, most of the homes are serviceable dwellings that are at least a bit adequate for raising a family. They are nowhere near Western standards of even the poorest homes, but the families here are not screaming for more luxury.
Another feature of Livingstone is the huge dog population. Every night I fall asleep to a chorus of barking canines. All the dogs here look like they are direct descendents of some sort of doggie Father Abraham. I have never seen so little variation in such a large population. All the dogs are the size of medium sized labs and have similar type of fur. Some dogs have homes (I know because the gates have signs warning me of this), but most are strays.
Livingstone truly is a remarkable place full of vigor and joy. Like many big towns, especially those in African, many of its modern Westernized trappings cover up the real stories seen in the compounds. Poverty, hunger, disease, and overpopulation are rampant in Livingstone. After experiencing the city for over 2 weeks, I firmly believe that the power of the gracious and kind people here will overcome the evil forces of those agents and lead to a thriving Livingstone not so far in the future.
Zac
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Zimbabwe Weekend Part II - Leah's update
After taking a quick nap we went to the main lodge where they had a restaurant balcony that over looked a watering hole. We watched the sun go down and then we had a really nice supper with our friends. During our supper we watched an elephant eat from a tree and water itself. We also saw a large cat but we are not sure which kind it was. The next morning we had to get up early again to fulfill Zac’s dream of riding an elephant. We went with a tour company that prepared a wonderful breakfast which we ate on a deck that was on a river in the wildlife protection area. After breakfast we mounted our elephants and road through the park. In the park we saw buffalo, kudu, and giraffes. After our tour we went to a huge market where things were generally pretty cheap. When we were done haggling at the market we departed for Zamiba.
People both here and in the US are very wary about traveling in Zimbabwe however I felt that it was a much better area. Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe is much more beautiful and well kept then Livingstone Zambia is. And in Zambia we often feel resented while we are here but in Zimbabwe people were incredibly nice. Zac and I had a lovely conversation with a woman who was causation and had been born and raised in Zimbabwe. She told us that if she was American she would have moved away but because she is Zimbabwean she has chose to stay because the people are so nice. When we talked to other citizens they all seemed to hold the view that Mugabe was a good president when he was first elected. You can see this in the roads, buildings, and developments that are found in Zimbabwe. It is only in recent years that Mugabe has become so corrupt. People are still proud of their country, and want their country to be better. They do not want to just leave and live somewhere else.
Today (Monday) I returned to work in one of my favorite clinics. Things were pretty uneventful except that I had to perform two malaria tests today. When a patient comes in with a high fever and complaining of headaches the clinics around here like to run a malaria test. The test is simple but it does require you to stick the person with a needle to get a blood sample. And of course these clinics do not have the nice automatic stickers so I had to do it manually. This was a bit unnerving but I now feel very competent at running the test which will really help out the small clinics that I work in.
Leah
People both here and in the US are very wary about traveling in Zimbabwe however I felt that it was a much better area. Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe is much more beautiful and well kept then Livingstone Zambia is. And in Zambia we often feel resented while we are here but in Zimbabwe people were incredibly nice. Zac and I had a lovely conversation with a woman who was causation and had been born and raised in Zimbabwe. She told us that if she was American she would have moved away but because she is Zimbabwean she has chose to stay because the people are so nice. When we talked to other citizens they all seemed to hold the view that Mugabe was a good president when he was first elected. You can see this in the roads, buildings, and developments that are found in Zimbabwe. It is only in recent years that Mugabe has become so corrupt. People are still proud of their country, and want their country to be better. They do not want to just leave and live somewhere else.
Today (Monday) I returned to work in one of my favorite clinics. Things were pretty uneventful except that I had to perform two malaria tests today. When a patient comes in with a high fever and complaining of headaches the clinics around here like to run a malaria test. The test is simple but it does require you to stick the person with a needle to get a blood sample. And of course these clinics do not have the nice automatic stickers so I had to do it manually. This was a bit unnerving but I now feel very competent at running the test which will really help out the small clinics that I work in.
Leah
Time and Money
Being a (white) volunteer in Zambia presents some unique struggles. Foremost among this is the (mostly accurate) perception that all muzungus are wealthy. Of course, in comparison to the material wealth of Zambians, most of us volunteers are rich. However, I firmly believe for the success of future volunteers, I must maintain I’m here to give my time and not money.
In the teaching projects, some of the biggest need is in infrastructure. Most of the community schools need to repair rooms or add more classrooms. If there would be more money, they would build an office for the teachers and perhaps another toilet for the children. As I re-learned again today, the decision to build and the actual building could be done in short order; the only struggle is finding the money.
Some volunteers have taken it upon themselves to fund individual building projects. At the most basic level, this is a great thing as it meets the needs of the community. However, it also puts other volunteers in tough spots. Once the school leaders learn that the volunteers are willing to pay for things like that, the requests for more money flow in. I have no doubt the need for money exists; however, not all volunteers can meet that need. For instance, the school I worked at today required over $7,000USD to complete its work. The other volunteer I was with suggested she might donate that amount. I could never come close to that without some large scale fundraising effort. I now feel I can’t compete with her value at the school.
Similar problems exist on the medical projects. During the home-based care project, volunteers dispense basic over-the-counter medicines and simple medical care to the homebound and those unable to afford the costs of the clinic. Some volunteers, though, also hand out money on these visits so patients can buy prescription drugs. Now that the precedent has been set, other volunteers are constantly harassed for money and not able to do the good work they set out to do.
Above all these practical problems, the whole situation lies within the context of a bigger moral dilemma. It’s obvious that as a Westerner, I have much more material wealth than almost anyone we work with on the projects. It’s hard to escape the sense of obligation one feels to share this material wealth. But, as others on projects have noted, one must think of the old saying about the virtues of giving a man fish or teaching a man to fish. We might not be teaching anyone how to fish here, so it’s tempting to at least feed people fish for one day. However, we all know what the right answer is to the dilemma posed in that age-old quandary. In Zambia, though, it’s hard to see when the right answer might actually happen here.
Despite this moral quandary, I don’t think African Impact or other volunteer groups can survive in the long-term if volunteers are also handing out funds. There needs to be a clear distinction between volunteering services and donating money. When the line is blurred, so are the benefits of both.
Zac
In the teaching projects, some of the biggest need is in infrastructure. Most of the community schools need to repair rooms or add more classrooms. If there would be more money, they would build an office for the teachers and perhaps another toilet for the children. As I re-learned again today, the decision to build and the actual building could be done in short order; the only struggle is finding the money.
Some volunteers have taken it upon themselves to fund individual building projects. At the most basic level, this is a great thing as it meets the needs of the community. However, it also puts other volunteers in tough spots. Once the school leaders learn that the volunteers are willing to pay for things like that, the requests for more money flow in. I have no doubt the need for money exists; however, not all volunteers can meet that need. For instance, the school I worked at today required over $7,000USD to complete its work. The other volunteer I was with suggested she might donate that amount. I could never come close to that without some large scale fundraising effort. I now feel I can’t compete with her value at the school.
Similar problems exist on the medical projects. During the home-based care project, volunteers dispense basic over-the-counter medicines and simple medical care to the homebound and those unable to afford the costs of the clinic. Some volunteers, though, also hand out money on these visits so patients can buy prescription drugs. Now that the precedent has been set, other volunteers are constantly harassed for money and not able to do the good work they set out to do.
Above all these practical problems, the whole situation lies within the context of a bigger moral dilemma. It’s obvious that as a Westerner, I have much more material wealth than almost anyone we work with on the projects. It’s hard to escape the sense of obligation one feels to share this material wealth. But, as others on projects have noted, one must think of the old saying about the virtues of giving a man fish or teaching a man to fish. We might not be teaching anyone how to fish here, so it’s tempting to at least feed people fish for one day. However, we all know what the right answer is to the dilemma posed in that age-old quandary. In Zambia, though, it’s hard to see when the right answer might actually happen here.
Despite this moral quandary, I don’t think African Impact or other volunteer groups can survive in the long-term if volunteers are also handing out funds. There needs to be a clear distinction between volunteering services and donating money. When the line is blurred, so are the benefits of both.
Zac
Monday, July 21, 2008
Project update
I officially left Mwandi school at the end of last week. As I mentioned earlier, the school is a success story and I simply wasn’t needed there. That is very much a good thing.
This week, I’ve started at Malota school. This school is African Impact’s newest partnership. It’s also the smallest and poorest school we work in here in Livingstone. Unfortunately, after just one morning there, I know it’s still not a good fit for me.
This school only has 2 classrooms. In the morning, grades 1 and 3 come for classes. There is already a volunteer in the grade 3 room, so I was put into grade 1. Regrettably, English is not taught until grade 2 at this school. As such, I’m virtually useless to the classroom. Today, all I was able to do was review the English words for certain body parts and sing Bible songs with the kids. To be fair, I LOVED singing the songs like “Jesus Loves Me” and “Whose the King of the Jungle?” The kids already knew “Jesus Loves Me” and sung along with enthusiasm.
As of now, I’m thinking about suspending my work in the teaching project for a bit. African Impact is doing some building projects at certain schools, and I feel I could be more useful there.
This afternoon, I’m headed to play football (soccer to those of us in the US) with the kids from Mwandi, and I’m sure that will be fun. The afternoon projects and Leah’s medical placement still continue to be great. I’m excited to give building a try tomorrow.
I’ll keep you posted…
Zac
PS - Before I left Mwandi, I noticed a gift box from Operation Christmas Child in their main office. It's really neat to see that the project that is such a big success at Faith actually does benefit communities like this.Zimbabwe Weekend Part 1
Greetings at the beginning of another week in Zambia. We are officially at the halfway point of our stay here and will return to West Fargo in exactly one month. Yay for home!
This weekend, Leah and I traveled to the town of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. We are going to split blogging duties about the weekend. I’ll tackle the first half.
Crossing the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe is a bit of an interesting process. In many ways, it is much easier than the US/Canada border. No one asks you questions or searches your vehicle. On the other hand, though, the need for buying visas makes the lines long and slow. We probably waited at the border for over an hour just to get 15 people across. That’s nothing compared to the line of semi trucks that stretch a mile on either side of the border crossing. We were told these trucks often wait in line for 3-4 days to cross the border.
In Zimbabwe, we stayed at a lovely place called Lokothula Lodges. The spacious lodges were almost luxurious compared to our accommodations at Mushili Way. Having got in later than expected, we rushed off to the Boma for supper. The Boma, which means “eating place” is a buffet style restaurant featuring traditional African food and entertainment. At various points in the evening, we played African drums, visited a witchdoctor, and wore African robes. Some of the food I sampled included lamb, chicken, pork, warthog, ostrich, guinea fowl, and kudu (a type of antelope). The warthog was absolutely wonderful! Leah and I both were brave and tried to the Mopani worms. We even have the certificate to prove it! Truth be told, they weren’t bad at all.
The next morning, our group got up before dawn to participate in a lion walk. African Encounter, the parent organization of African Impact, also runs a program called ALERT/Lion Encounter which is a breeding and rehabilitation program for the African lion. The program involves raising cubs from a young age, acclimating them to human contact, and eventually relocating them to various game reserves where they can breed and then their cubs will be completely wild having never been raised by humans. In doing the lion walk, we not only contribute financially to the organization, but also help them by giving the lions more human contact. The organization does have a website if you want more info. Google ALERT and Lion Encounter and you should find it!
After a brief education session where I learned all that, we began the lion walk. I thought it would be a pretty fun experience, but I was absolutely blown away at how awesome it was. Leah and I got to frequently stroke the lion and pose for pictures with it. We were accompanied by a brother and sister that were 18 months old; the brother, however, was a bit temperamental and didn’t want to be touched so we stuck to the female. The staff was incredibly enthusiastic and took loads of photos of each person with the lions. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that won’t soon be forgotten.
Though very tired, Leah and I went with some friends to the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls after the lion walk. There is quite a debate over whether the Zim or Zam side of the falls is the best. After seeing both, I can’t quite decide. If someone wanted to know which one view to see, I would recommend Zimbabwe because it offers a crisper more complete view of the massive Victoria Falls, although the view is not necessarily “better” but different. In Zim, you can literally walk to the edge of the gorge and look over, but be careful because they have no guard rails. It’s an awesome experience to walk through this tropical rainforest nestled in the midst of the dry African bush while getting soaked by the mist of Victoria Falls. Wow!
Leah will go through the rest of the weekend’s highlights, but I just wanted to make a quick note about the political situation in Zimbabwe.
As purely a tourist town, Victoria Falls is quite isolated from everything. We did, though, see political posters for the MDC and Morgan Tsvangarai. Mugabe’s official presidential photo is displayed in most buildings, though. The biggest evidence of a crisis was the lack of tourists in Vic Falls. The markets, lodges, and everything else is taking a big financial hit because of the news out of Harare and other areas of Zim. It was shocking to actually see the 5 billion dollar Zimbabwe note that is worth $1USD at best. However, the evidence of Mugabe’s good side was also apparent. The city was considerably cleaner and more modernized than Livingstone. The streets seemed much safer, even in the midst of a crisis. If anyone asked me if they should visit Livingstone or Victoria Falls (the town), I would definitely recommend the Zimbabwe city. I just hope and pray that the people can return to some sense of normalcy. They are a kind, welcoming, and friendly group of people and deserve a good leader. With the news breaking today about upcoming talks between Mugabe and Tsvangarai, let’s hope things get better soon.
More to come about Zim from Leah and more to come from me about my experiences in Livingstone.
Until then,
Zac
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Picture Time
We’ve had some requests for pictures, so here you go. One thing that’s fascinating so far is that the Zambian people (especially kids) LOVE to have their pictures taken. “Mister, mister…can you copy me?” is what they ask me any time my camera is out. With digital cameras, they are able to see their picture immediately, and it’s a great joy to watch their faces light up and hear their laughter. Like Leah mentioned, these people we work with most benefit from our loving attention, including the camera. We haven’t taken a lot of pictures working at actual projects yet, so I haven’t posted more than a couple pictures of Zambians because the pics we have right now of the people don’t have a lot of personal meaning. Once we bring the camera to our projects, we’ll post again.
By the way, we won’t be posting over the weekend as we are spending the whole weekend at Vic Falls on the Zimbabwe side. It’s very safe and we’ll be with a group of about 15 from African Impact and just staying in the tourist areas. I’ll post about that experience on Sunday night or Monday.
Cheers,
Zac
**Ok. The Zambian internet connection is quite strong enough to upload pictures. I'll keep trying at other cafes or wi-fi spots and hope to post some photos soon. Sorry.
By the way, we won’t be posting over the weekend as we are spending the whole weekend at Vic Falls on the Zimbabwe side. It’s very safe and we’ll be with a group of about 15 from African Impact and just staying in the tourist areas. I’ll post about that experience on Sunday night or Monday.
Cheers,
Zac
**Ok. The Zambian internet connection is quite strong enough to upload pictures. I'll keep trying at other cafes or wi-fi spots and hope to post some photos soon. Sorry.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Leah's first post!
Hey Everyone,
I realize I have been in Africa for a week now and this is my first post. I apologize for that. I have been incredibly busy here. Zac and I share our evening and weekend experiences but our day experiences are quite different. As you know Zac is in the teaching program, and I am in the medical program. Obviously the medical system here is a bit shocking compared to the US system I have been quite surprised by the conditions. Each morning I work in one of the five clinics in Livingstone. For a patient to be seen by a doctor (which are only found in the hospitals) they must be referred by a clinical officer. Clinical officer is a position that was created by the Zambian government in order to keep medical personal in their clinics. Therefore, no clinics have doctors, and the clinical officers have only a little more training then a nurse. It costs about 1 USD to be seen by a clinical officer. If a person has the money they can skip the clinic and go straight to the hospital for 3 USD. I should note that almost no one can afford to bypass the clinic.
When I first arrive at the clinic I take the vitals (temp, weight, blood pressure) of all the patients who wish to be seen by the clinical officer. We are also responsible for weighing infants and tracking their monthly weight progress. At the first clinic that I worked at, only two out of the three clinical officers showed up and they were over two hours late. The treatment of patients is also hard to get used to. In this society it is looked down upon to show weakness or express physical pain. During child labor mothers must remain silent. If they moan of yell they are yelled at or even hit. Patients sit and wait for hours without ever complaining. I have had a child with severe burns on his leg and a man with his finger almost severed sit and wait patiently for me to take their temps. When children cry they are disciplined, and the mothers apologize. Doctors, nurses, and clinical officers are very cold and usual abuse their positions. They often talk on cell phones and leave randomly during patient interviews. This is all extremely frustrating.
Half way through the mornings I usually go sit in with the clinical officers to gain experience. This part of my day has come with its own challenges. Clinical officers often ask me for medical advice like, “Do you think this is chicken pox?” and, “Do you think that hand is fractured?” They will also ask me my opinion on what drugs to prescribe. Since being here I have diagnosed syphilis, preformed a lung exam on a tuberculosis patient, diagnosed gonorrhea, taken patient histories, confirmed a pregnancy, and reviewed the bones of the human body with a nurse that did not know them. To say that the medical system is broken is an understatement, but I am happy to be here and there is progress being made. One of the five clinics is in relatively good shape and hopefully others will improve with time.
In the afternoon I work in community projects such as adult literacy classes and elderly homes. I find that the people of Zambia usually appreciate your work, but they more so appreciate our attitudes. We are the only people who smile in the clinics; we are the only people who ask how they are and compliment them. Volunteers come here with a caring attitude, and that is something that the young and old, and ill and injured really need here.
More to come,
Leah
I realize I have been in Africa for a week now and this is my first post. I apologize for that. I have been incredibly busy here. Zac and I share our evening and weekend experiences but our day experiences are quite different. As you know Zac is in the teaching program, and I am in the medical program. Obviously the medical system here is a bit shocking compared to the US system I have been quite surprised by the conditions. Each morning I work in one of the five clinics in Livingstone. For a patient to be seen by a doctor (which are only found in the hospitals) they must be referred by a clinical officer. Clinical officer is a position that was created by the Zambian government in order to keep medical personal in their clinics. Therefore, no clinics have doctors, and the clinical officers have only a little more training then a nurse. It costs about 1 USD to be seen by a clinical officer. If a person has the money they can skip the clinic and go straight to the hospital for 3 USD. I should note that almost no one can afford to bypass the clinic.
When I first arrive at the clinic I take the vitals (temp, weight, blood pressure) of all the patients who wish to be seen by the clinical officer. We are also responsible for weighing infants and tracking their monthly weight progress. At the first clinic that I worked at, only two out of the three clinical officers showed up and they were over two hours late. The treatment of patients is also hard to get used to. In this society it is looked down upon to show weakness or express physical pain. During child labor mothers must remain silent. If they moan of yell they are yelled at or even hit. Patients sit and wait for hours without ever complaining. I have had a child with severe burns on his leg and a man with his finger almost severed sit and wait patiently for me to take their temps. When children cry they are disciplined, and the mothers apologize. Doctors, nurses, and clinical officers are very cold and usual abuse their positions. They often talk on cell phones and leave randomly during patient interviews. This is all extremely frustrating.
Half way through the mornings I usually go sit in with the clinical officers to gain experience. This part of my day has come with its own challenges. Clinical officers often ask me for medical advice like, “Do you think this is chicken pox?” and, “Do you think that hand is fractured?” They will also ask me my opinion on what drugs to prescribe. Since being here I have diagnosed syphilis, preformed a lung exam on a tuberculosis patient, diagnosed gonorrhea, taken patient histories, confirmed a pregnancy, and reviewed the bones of the human body with a nurse that did not know them. To say that the medical system is broken is an understatement, but I am happy to be here and there is progress being made. One of the five clinics is in relatively good shape and hopefully others will improve with time.
In the afternoon I work in community projects such as adult literacy classes and elderly homes. I find that the people of Zambia usually appreciate your work, but they more so appreciate our attitudes. We are the only people who smile in the clinics; we are the only people who ask how they are and compliment them. Volunteers come here with a caring attitude, and that is something that the young and old, and ill and injured really need here.
More to come,
Leah
Monday, July 14, 2008
Confusion
First off, Leah is working on some updates to post soon. All of you waiting anxiously to hear about her medical placement will be rewarded shortly with news from her!
After a week here, I’m still quite confused as to what my purpose is within the teaching project. To be honest, African Impact is often very disorganized. We as volunteers tend to have nightly complaining sessions about all the mistakes we think AI made each day. Nonetheless, the organization has done amazing things in and around Livingstone like building schools, creating HIV education and adult literacy courses, and creating opportunities for afterschool art and sports clubs for kids. The good work of African Impact here cannot be disputed. When it comes to managing and utilizing its individual volunteers, though, AI could do much better.
The whole teaching project in Livingstone is a bit confusing. I mentioned in prior posts that most teaching volunteers are placed into one classroom for the duration of their stay. Ideally, most volunteers help the teacher with grading and lessons and can make time for those struggling with the subject. In reality, though, African Impact volunteers in the classroom just create an excuse for the regular teachers to not show up for work. To be fair, most of the Zambian teachers are also volunteers. However, they would faithfully come to teach each day if AI volunteers were not in the classrooms. As such, it feels as if we teachers are more problematic than productive.
In Zambia, as I mentioned before, standardized tests and rote learning are really the only teaching methods used. Being a trained educator, I’d love to offer better instruction, but feel it’s pointless and actually counterproductive because the students must adapt to learn in the style their regular teachers use. The cultural gap between Western teachers and Zambian students also hurts progress. For instance, I had to teach simple interest to the math students today. These students had never even been to a bank, let alone worried about interest rates.
My concerns are not unlike most other teaching volunteers who are struggling to find a role. I have yet to speak with a teaching volunteer who feels useful and needed in their schools other than to give the regular teacher an excuse to stay home. There seems to be such an opportunity to help with education here. I’m on the verge of requesting an assignment change, but the better option would be to find a way to use my skills and training to serve Livingstone’s students. Perhaps with some patience and prayer, clarity will come my way.
With frustration,
Zac
After a week here, I’m still quite confused as to what my purpose is within the teaching project. To be honest, African Impact is often very disorganized. We as volunteers tend to have nightly complaining sessions about all the mistakes we think AI made each day. Nonetheless, the organization has done amazing things in and around Livingstone like building schools, creating HIV education and adult literacy courses, and creating opportunities for afterschool art and sports clubs for kids. The good work of African Impact here cannot be disputed. When it comes to managing and utilizing its individual volunteers, though, AI could do much better.
The whole teaching project in Livingstone is a bit confusing. I mentioned in prior posts that most teaching volunteers are placed into one classroom for the duration of their stay. Ideally, most volunteers help the teacher with grading and lessons and can make time for those struggling with the subject. In reality, though, African Impact volunteers in the classroom just create an excuse for the regular teachers to not show up for work. To be fair, most of the Zambian teachers are also volunteers. However, they would faithfully come to teach each day if AI volunteers were not in the classrooms. As such, it feels as if we teachers are more problematic than productive.
In Zambia, as I mentioned before, standardized tests and rote learning are really the only teaching methods used. Being a trained educator, I’d love to offer better instruction, but feel it’s pointless and actually counterproductive because the students must adapt to learn in the style their regular teachers use. The cultural gap between Western teachers and Zambian students also hurts progress. For instance, I had to teach simple interest to the math students today. These students had never even been to a bank, let alone worried about interest rates.
My concerns are not unlike most other teaching volunteers who are struggling to find a role. I have yet to speak with a teaching volunteer who feels useful and needed in their schools other than to give the regular teacher an excuse to stay home. There seems to be such an opportunity to help with education here. I’m on the verge of requesting an assignment change, but the better option would be to find a way to use my skills and training to serve Livingstone’s students. Perhaps with some patience and prayer, clarity will come my way.
With frustration,
Zac
Weekend Update
One of the nicest features of African Impact is it gives you the weekends off to have some fun and encourages you to invest some tourist dollars into the local economy. To be sure, plenty of others are here just to do simply that; it’s nice that touring is secondary for us and the other volunteers.
On Saturday, we spent the day familiarizing ourselves with Livingstone. It was nice to walk from Mushili Way to downtown Livingstone and see the shops that line Mosi-oa-Tunya Road. We briefly explored the curio market full of so many African crafts. We had been warned it was an intimidating experience by other volunteers; truthfully, I thought the markets in Mexico were much worse. The sellers were friendly enough, and no one ever harassed us. Perhaps it was easy to walk around because we had no intention of buying anything. The sellers, though, were interested in trading goods and particularly wanted some of Leah’s hair bands…we’ll have to remember this if we ever go shopping.
Later, we stopped in some general stores. The clothing is interesting here because one can tell much of it must have come from donations in the US. I’ve seen shirts from Boston College, just to cite one example. Sadly, all the stores in Livingstone are quite pricey ($7USD for a towel?!?!) Shopping won’t be a regular occurrence for us, I’m afraid.
Next, we took an extended lunch at Zig Zag to take advantage of their free wi-fi, which happened to be working incredibly fast for Zambian standards. Both Leah and I got to dive into some overdue emails and internet surfing. It was a welcomed relief from being on the clock at the internet cafes in town where service is 150 kwacha per minute (although that’s only about $0.20/minute).
Our whole day was scheduled around the sunset cruise we’d be taking at night with other African Impact folks. At 3:15, we all met at the post office and waited for our transport to come at 3:30. “Waited” is the key word in that sentence. Regrettably, the waiting never resulted in hopping on a bus. Apparently, the cruise company had mixed up our booking. Luckily, we hadn’t paid for anything yet!
Very frustrated, we headed back to Mushili Way since it was nearly dark. We returned home only to find out power and water were both out. What a great day! We tried to drown our sorrows in Diet Coke and pizza, but in Livingstone, a pepperoni pizza comes with onions and mushrooms…Leah and I don’t like those things on our pizza. Our first Saturday in Zambia was not a good one.
Thankfully, Sunday was as good as Saturday was bad. We had planned to attend church, but plans changed when we were able to head to Vic Falls with our whole house. I was sad to miss out on church, but grateful to have some friends show me around the Falls. Most of these new friends are leaving within a week, so this was our last opportunity to go with them.
When we got to the Zambia/Zimbabwe border, we watched 3 of our fellow volunteers jump off a perfectly useful bridge. This bridge was located in “no-man’s land”, a bridge spanning the Zambezi River and Batoka gorge where the borders of Zim and Zam meet. Here, Jack, Kirsteen, and Phil all did the bungee jump and gorge swing (like the bungee jump, but you jump out and down instead of just down…Google it if you’re curious). I was terrified just to stand at the bridge railing, and I can’t imagine how they must’ve felt jumping. Thankfully, all made it back to land in one piece and with great memories.
Next, we walked to a very posh resort/hotel called the Zambezi Sun. Along the way, Leah and I marveled at the baboons. These creatures have no fear of humans and regular like to rob the tourists of food, cameras, and wallets. Nonetheless, Leah got a picture of the biggest one we saw! She is a wee bit braver than I am (thanks to my Scottish pals, I seamlessly say things like “wee bit” now). At the hotel, we impatiently watched the rest of our crew relax in the sun. Being in Africa, we weren’t about to waste time around the pool. Kirsteen had told us the hotel had giraffes on its property. Excited to see these animals, we set off on a journey. Leah and I were expecting to wander by a large fenced-in area and hoped to see some giraffes there. The actual story is much better.
We walked along the path Kirsteen pointed us down. This path led us into the bush area and, we assumed, towards the giraffe pen. Just about 5 minutes into our walk, I stopped. I told Leah to look up. For a few seconds, she saw nothing and worried I had seen a snake or other scary creature. Suddenly, she screamed because no more than 10 feet in front of us was a free-roaming giraffe! Just then, another giraffe walked up along side its colleague and began munching on the trees. We followed these giraffes around for a bit and got some fabulous photos and stood within 5-7 feet from them. They are gentle and beautiful creatures.
I guess I always knew that Africa had wild animals and safaris to see them are quite popular. For some reason though, I never truly grasped how remarkable this was until we ran into the giraffes. I’m more excited than ever to see more wildlife now!
After the high of the giraffe encounter, we decided to walk into Victoria Falls. If you ever travel to Livingstone, enter the Falls from the Zambezi Sun hotel because you’ll be spared the $10/person park fee. Anyway…the walking path started off quite basically with a few nice trees and other plants to look at. All of a sudden, though, we were greeted with the thundering fog of Victoria Falls. We snapped some photos thinking we had seen the Falls. With nothing else to do, we continued on the trail to explore a wee bit more (I am honestly developing a Scottish accent, too. It’s quite sad).
Just up the path, we walked by a stand selling umbrellas and raincoats. Now you should know the weather in Zambia this time of you is completely predictable. It is always about 80 degrees in the mid-afternoon with no clouds and no rain. It NEVER changes. We knew the raincoats had nothing to do with the weather. We also knew we didn’t want one!
Our decision paid off as we continued on the path and encountered the full breadth of Victoria Falls. One cannot even begin to describe the enormity of the falls. It literally stretched as far as I could see through the mist (actually mist isn’t a strong enough word for the precipitation at Vic Falls). The sound is very thunderous, just as the name Mosi-oa-Tunya implies. Walked for one a few hundred yards, Leah and I got SOAKED with the mist from Victoria Falls…and it was GREAT! The few photos and videos we took really don’t do it justice. You truly have to see it to believe it. For anyone that questions God the Creator, let me take them to Victoria Falls for a little chat.
If the giraffes and Victoria Falls weren’t enough, we decided to join our African Impact mates on the river cruise that was supposed to happen the night before. This proved to be a wonderful decision.
The cruise came with great food and an open bar, which for Leah and I meant all the Diet Coke we could throw down! I also fell in love with a drink called Mazoe, which is basically an orange juice concentrate mixed with water. The cruise down the Zambezi was quite lovely and the views were stunning. But things quickly got better.
About 1/3 of the way through the trip, we came across a large herd of hippos playing in the water. There were at least a dozen hippos just a few yards from our boat. Hippos and giraffes…what a day! But the hippos were about to be outdone because just upstream was an elephant grazing right on the shore. Hippos, and giraffes, and elephants, oh my! While the hippos and giraffes were fantastic, the elephant was simply majestic. Never before had a seen an elephant with its ivory tusks intact. This one had not only beautiful tusks, but was large and imposing. It effortlessly snapped the tree branches it was eating. If there was any lingering doubt before the cruise, we fully realize we are in Africa!
After the elephants and hippos (we spotted another herd upstream again), the sunset became the main attraction. The hues of the setting sun on the Zambezi River are breathtakingly beautiful. I won’t even attempt to describe them beyond that. I do hope you all get the chance to experience that some day.
With a busy week of teaching and medical care ahead, this weekend help us to relax and bit and refuel our souls to be ready for the week ahead.
Cheers,
Zac
On Saturday, we spent the day familiarizing ourselves with Livingstone. It was nice to walk from Mushili Way to downtown Livingstone and see the shops that line Mosi-oa-Tunya Road. We briefly explored the curio market full of so many African crafts. We had been warned it was an intimidating experience by other volunteers; truthfully, I thought the markets in Mexico were much worse. The sellers were friendly enough, and no one ever harassed us. Perhaps it was easy to walk around because we had no intention of buying anything. The sellers, though, were interested in trading goods and particularly wanted some of Leah’s hair bands…we’ll have to remember this if we ever go shopping.
Later, we stopped in some general stores. The clothing is interesting here because one can tell much of it must have come from donations in the US. I’ve seen shirts from Boston College, just to cite one example. Sadly, all the stores in Livingstone are quite pricey ($7USD for a towel?!?!) Shopping won’t be a regular occurrence for us, I’m afraid.
Next, we took an extended lunch at Zig Zag to take advantage of their free wi-fi, which happened to be working incredibly fast for Zambian standards. Both Leah and I got to dive into some overdue emails and internet surfing. It was a welcomed relief from being on the clock at the internet cafes in town where service is 150 kwacha per minute (although that’s only about $0.20/minute).
Our whole day was scheduled around the sunset cruise we’d be taking at night with other African Impact folks. At 3:15, we all met at the post office and waited for our transport to come at 3:30. “Waited” is the key word in that sentence. Regrettably, the waiting never resulted in hopping on a bus. Apparently, the cruise company had mixed up our booking. Luckily, we hadn’t paid for anything yet!
Very frustrated, we headed back to Mushili Way since it was nearly dark. We returned home only to find out power and water were both out. What a great day! We tried to drown our sorrows in Diet Coke and pizza, but in Livingstone, a pepperoni pizza comes with onions and mushrooms…Leah and I don’t like those things on our pizza. Our first Saturday in Zambia was not a good one.
Thankfully, Sunday was as good as Saturday was bad. We had planned to attend church, but plans changed when we were able to head to Vic Falls with our whole house. I was sad to miss out on church, but grateful to have some friends show me around the Falls. Most of these new friends are leaving within a week, so this was our last opportunity to go with them.
When we got to the Zambia/Zimbabwe border, we watched 3 of our fellow volunteers jump off a perfectly useful bridge. This bridge was located in “no-man’s land”, a bridge spanning the Zambezi River and Batoka gorge where the borders of Zim and Zam meet. Here, Jack, Kirsteen, and Phil all did the bungee jump and gorge swing (like the bungee jump, but you jump out and down instead of just down…Google it if you’re curious). I was terrified just to stand at the bridge railing, and I can’t imagine how they must’ve felt jumping. Thankfully, all made it back to land in one piece and with great memories.
Next, we walked to a very posh resort/hotel called the Zambezi Sun. Along the way, Leah and I marveled at the baboons. These creatures have no fear of humans and regular like to rob the tourists of food, cameras, and wallets. Nonetheless, Leah got a picture of the biggest one we saw! She is a wee bit braver than I am (thanks to my Scottish pals, I seamlessly say things like “wee bit” now). At the hotel, we impatiently watched the rest of our crew relax in the sun. Being in Africa, we weren’t about to waste time around the pool. Kirsteen had told us the hotel had giraffes on its property. Excited to see these animals, we set off on a journey. Leah and I were expecting to wander by a large fenced-in area and hoped to see some giraffes there. The actual story is much better.
We walked along the path Kirsteen pointed us down. This path led us into the bush area and, we assumed, towards the giraffe pen. Just about 5 minutes into our walk, I stopped. I told Leah to look up. For a few seconds, she saw nothing and worried I had seen a snake or other scary creature. Suddenly, she screamed because no more than 10 feet in front of us was a free-roaming giraffe! Just then, another giraffe walked up along side its colleague and began munching on the trees. We followed these giraffes around for a bit and got some fabulous photos and stood within 5-7 feet from them. They are gentle and beautiful creatures.
I guess I always knew that Africa had wild animals and safaris to see them are quite popular. For some reason though, I never truly grasped how remarkable this was until we ran into the giraffes. I’m more excited than ever to see more wildlife now!
After the high of the giraffe encounter, we decided to walk into Victoria Falls. If you ever travel to Livingstone, enter the Falls from the Zambezi Sun hotel because you’ll be spared the $10/person park fee. Anyway…the walking path started off quite basically with a few nice trees and other plants to look at. All of a sudden, though, we were greeted with the thundering fog of Victoria Falls. We snapped some photos thinking we had seen the Falls. With nothing else to do, we continued on the trail to explore a wee bit more (I am honestly developing a Scottish accent, too. It’s quite sad).
Just up the path, we walked by a stand selling umbrellas and raincoats. Now you should know the weather in Zambia this time of you is completely predictable. It is always about 80 degrees in the mid-afternoon with no clouds and no rain. It NEVER changes. We knew the raincoats had nothing to do with the weather. We also knew we didn’t want one!
Our decision paid off as we continued on the path and encountered the full breadth of Victoria Falls. One cannot even begin to describe the enormity of the falls. It literally stretched as far as I could see through the mist (actually mist isn’t a strong enough word for the precipitation at Vic Falls). The sound is very thunderous, just as the name Mosi-oa-Tunya implies. Walked for one a few hundred yards, Leah and I got SOAKED with the mist from Victoria Falls…and it was GREAT! The few photos and videos we took really don’t do it justice. You truly have to see it to believe it. For anyone that questions God the Creator, let me take them to Victoria Falls for a little chat.
If the giraffes and Victoria Falls weren’t enough, we decided to join our African Impact mates on the river cruise that was supposed to happen the night before. This proved to be a wonderful decision.
The cruise came with great food and an open bar, which for Leah and I meant all the Diet Coke we could throw down! I also fell in love with a drink called Mazoe, which is basically an orange juice concentrate mixed with water. The cruise down the Zambezi was quite lovely and the views were stunning. But things quickly got better.
About 1/3 of the way through the trip, we came across a large herd of hippos playing in the water. There were at least a dozen hippos just a few yards from our boat. Hippos and giraffes…what a day! But the hippos were about to be outdone because just upstream was an elephant grazing right on the shore. Hippos, and giraffes, and elephants, oh my! While the hippos and giraffes were fantastic, the elephant was simply majestic. Never before had a seen an elephant with its ivory tusks intact. This one had not only beautiful tusks, but was large and imposing. It effortlessly snapped the tree branches it was eating. If there was any lingering doubt before the cruise, we fully realize we are in Africa!
After the elephants and hippos (we spotted another herd upstream again), the sunset became the main attraction. The hues of the setting sun on the Zambezi River are breathtakingly beautiful. I won’t even attempt to describe them beyond that. I do hope you all get the chance to experience that some day.
With a busy week of teaching and medical care ahead, this weekend help us to relax and bit and refuel our souls to be ready for the week ahead.
Cheers,
Zac
On the road again...
On the road again
I will never complain about potholes in Fargo ever again. Seriously.
Zambia has some serious infrastructure problems. Actually, can I country have infrastructure problems when an infrastructure doesn’t really exist?
In Livingstone, I’ve only discovered only about 5 paved roads. To be fair, these paved roads are acceptable. They are littered with speed humps and rumble strips, nonetheless. The rest of the roads are dirt, or rather sand. These roads are not at all level, vary in width, and are washed out in the rainy season. Four times I day, I drive at least twenty minutes on these roads.
Each morning, we are picked up in what they call a mini-bus (it’s what I call a 15-passenger van). The bus must have been bought at a discount because I swear it does not have shock absorbers. The ride on the dirt roads is like driving through a pothole field. “Bumpy” does not describe the experience justly. We literally are bouncing up and down and side to side throughout the bus. Our drivers are extraordinary and a blessing, but there is nothing they can do on these roads to make it any better.
Back home, I easily get car sick, especially if I have to travel in the back seat for a long stretch. Remarkably though, I have not been sick at all. It’s amazing how driving through the scenic African bush or the poor townships communities of Livingstone can cure car sickness quickly.
Another powerful anecdote for these brutal rides is the smiling children we encounter. Sometimes, our trips are made in mammoth overland safari vehicles that have open sides and no windows. To say the least, these vehicles full of muzungus stand out a bit on the sandy roads. The children absolutely flock to the cars with arms waving and smiles as wide as you can imagine. The love a simple waive back and cherish a quick photograph. If you want a quick boost to your soul, I suggest driving through Dambwa or Maramba in a muzungu bus.
On a final note, it’s amazing that one cannot escape the global economy, even in rural Livingstone, Zambia. Here, several Chinese firms have been contracted for building and repairing roads. They have imported massive machinery and workers to complete these tasks. It still strikes me as a bit anachronistic to see a Chinese worker laboring under the hot Zambian sun.
By the way, they drive on the left side of the road here in Zambia. I would advise you all to give me a friendly reminder to go back to the right side of the street once I’m back in the US.
For now,
Zac
I will never complain about potholes in Fargo ever again. Seriously.
Zambia has some serious infrastructure problems. Actually, can I country have infrastructure problems when an infrastructure doesn’t really exist?
In Livingstone, I’ve only discovered only about 5 paved roads. To be fair, these paved roads are acceptable. They are littered with speed humps and rumble strips, nonetheless. The rest of the roads are dirt, or rather sand. These roads are not at all level, vary in width, and are washed out in the rainy season. Four times I day, I drive at least twenty minutes on these roads.
Each morning, we are picked up in what they call a mini-bus (it’s what I call a 15-passenger van). The bus must have been bought at a discount because I swear it does not have shock absorbers. The ride on the dirt roads is like driving through a pothole field. “Bumpy” does not describe the experience justly. We literally are bouncing up and down and side to side throughout the bus. Our drivers are extraordinary and a blessing, but there is nothing they can do on these roads to make it any better.
Back home, I easily get car sick, especially if I have to travel in the back seat for a long stretch. Remarkably though, I have not been sick at all. It’s amazing how driving through the scenic African bush or the poor townships communities of Livingstone can cure car sickness quickly.
Another powerful anecdote for these brutal rides is the smiling children we encounter. Sometimes, our trips are made in mammoth overland safari vehicles that have open sides and no windows. To say the least, these vehicles full of muzungus stand out a bit on the sandy roads. The children absolutely flock to the cars with arms waving and smiles as wide as you can imagine. The love a simple waive back and cherish a quick photograph. If you want a quick boost to your soul, I suggest driving through Dambwa or Maramba in a muzungu bus.
On a final note, it’s amazing that one cannot escape the global economy, even in rural Livingstone, Zambia. Here, several Chinese firms have been contracted for building and repairing roads. They have imported massive machinery and workers to complete these tasks. It still strikes me as a bit anachronistic to see a Chinese worker laboring under the hot Zambian sun.
By the way, they drive on the left side of the road here in Zambia. I would advise you all to give me a friendly reminder to go back to the right side of the street once I’m back in the US.
For now,
Zac
Friday, July 11, 2008
On religion
Zambia is a very strongly Christian nation. Nearly everyone is a practicing Christian, meaning they attend worship regularly and frequently speak of the power of Jesus in their lives. Moreover, the Zambians I’ve met are very evangelical. They have no hesitation in asking volunteers what church they attend back home. In fact, Christopher, whose one of our bus drivers, is going to take us to his Anglican church on Sunday morning.
I’m very comfortable being surrounded by religion here. Other volunteers, though, are not. In fact, the vast majority of the volunteers I’ve met are not religious at all; some are actually actively anti-religion. As guests in this country, most that are not religious do take everything in stride and just beg off questions about their own religion. Unfortunately, some do push their own anti-religion agenda when talking w/ Zambians. To me, that’s unacceptable behavior from our volunteers.
What’s most surprising to me is that so many without any religious conviction still feel called to serve in a place like Livingstone. Personally, I was driven to come here by my faith. Quite stereotypically, I expected everyone to have the same motivation. As such, I’m stunned that those without that drive still come here. What, then, motivates these people? I’m intrigued to keep trying to find out those answers. For now, though, I’m just trying to reshape my thoughts about nonreligious people. Because of my experience w/ the volunteers at African Impact, I see that those with no faith life still have strong values and a desire to do good in the world. What a learning experience!
I’m very comfortable being surrounded by religion here. Other volunteers, though, are not. In fact, the vast majority of the volunteers I’ve met are not religious at all; some are actually actively anti-religion. As guests in this country, most that are not religious do take everything in stride and just beg off questions about their own religion. Unfortunately, some do push their own anti-religion agenda when talking w/ Zambians. To me, that’s unacceptable behavior from our volunteers.
What’s most surprising to me is that so many without any religious conviction still feel called to serve in a place like Livingstone. Personally, I was driven to come here by my faith. Quite stereotypically, I expected everyone to have the same motivation. As such, I’m stunned that those without that drive still come here. What, then, motivates these people? I’m intrigued to keep trying to find out those answers. For now, though, I’m just trying to reshape my thoughts about nonreligious people. Because of my experience w/ the volunteers at African Impact, I see that those with no faith life still have strong values and a desire to do good in the world. What a learning experience!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
My first day of school
While I don’t intend to continually give a play by play of my days here, it remains the best way to describe the experience for now. I anticipate that by week’s end, I’ll be able to get away from this technique, so bear with me for now.
Even by Zambian standards, Mwandi is a materially poor community. It’s literally on the edge of the African bush. More than once, school has come to a standstill when students and staff had to chop the head of a trespassing cobra. Mwandi (ma-WAN-dee) also is nestled on the top of a hill overlooking the other communities of Livingston, and in the distance, one can see the risking smoke of Mosi-o-Tunya (Vic Falls). This will be my teaching home for the next several weeks.
The day was not unlike the beginning of my student teaching semester actually. I met my cooperating teacher, Mildred (ironically, my grandmother was named Mildred and also was a teacher). I sat in a seventh grade classroom with about 20 other students. I was actually surprised by the level of their schooling as today the kids learned about the planets of the solar system and multiplying with reciprocals of fractions. Mildred gave me the 7th grade social studies books and told me to start preparing lessons. Tomorrow, she said, I can teach a art lesson. Obviously, she doesn’t know I’m completely ungifted in art. Oh well, it actually will give me a chance to learn students’ names by having them make some name plates.
I was disappointed when coming to Zambia prevented me from working on the pumpkin patch much at Faith. Ok, that’s not true…I was quite relieved to have an excuse to miss out on the pumpkins. I just do not enjoy gardening/farming. I’m not a great ambassador for North Dakota in that way. Well, my afternoon assignment today was to work at Maramba Farm. Despite my misgivings about working the land, the project was for a great purpose. In Maramba community, a group of women have started a small farm that sells produce in order to raise money to buy medication for those too sick with HIV, TB, or malaria to visit the clinic in Maramba. The women’s biggest money maker is mushrooms, but I helped with a crop of eggplants. Did I mention that yesterday, a larger poisonous snake slithered right by the legs of some of our volunteers? Did Africa not get the memo that I’m petrified of snakes? Well, thankfully today, there were no snakes, but instead crocodiles were the bigger concern. You see, my groups job was to water the eggplants. To do that, one person had to work the water pump which really resembled a Stairmaster in the gym. Other volunteers watered by hand. This involved one person flinging an empty bucket attached to a stream into the river (more like a stream) behind the farm. Then that person (which was often me) would pull up the full bucket and pour it into the other buckets. Volunteers then walked these to the rows of eggplants. The farm’s permanent workers told us not to worry, though, because the crocodiles would not come out when there was so much noise. Just two days ago, Brave told us never to go by the river because the crocs could see us even if we couldn’t see them…I just can’t wait to go back to the farm! (I know sarcasm doesn’t come across well in blogging, so I hope you all caught it just then.)
The farming project did have one big highlight, though. The project leader, another local woman, mistakenly thought I was Dutch because another male volunteer was from Holland. She asked me if eggplants were eaten in Holland, but I told her that I was from the United States. Just after I said I was American, I previously silent woman who was boiling fish for lunch simply said, “Obama.” I was able to have a brief chat with her and express my fondness for Obama and told her I was excited to vote for him. She was not a strong English speaker, but I could tell she felt a lot of pride because someone with African heritage might become the most powerful person in the world. I, too, was proud of our country because of this.
Cheers (I’m starting to pick up the language from the Brits in my house),
Zac
Even by Zambian standards, Mwandi is a materially poor community. It’s literally on the edge of the African bush. More than once, school has come to a standstill when students and staff had to chop the head of a trespassing cobra. Mwandi (ma-WAN-dee) also is nestled on the top of a hill overlooking the other communities of Livingston, and in the distance, one can see the risking smoke of Mosi-o-Tunya (Vic Falls). This will be my teaching home for the next several weeks.
The day was not unlike the beginning of my student teaching semester actually. I met my cooperating teacher, Mildred (ironically, my grandmother was named Mildred and also was a teacher). I sat in a seventh grade classroom with about 20 other students. I was actually surprised by the level of their schooling as today the kids learned about the planets of the solar system and multiplying with reciprocals of fractions. Mildred gave me the 7th grade social studies books and told me to start preparing lessons. Tomorrow, she said, I can teach a art lesson. Obviously, she doesn’t know I’m completely ungifted in art. Oh well, it actually will give me a chance to learn students’ names by having them make some name plates.
I was disappointed when coming to Zambia prevented me from working on the pumpkin patch much at Faith. Ok, that’s not true…I was quite relieved to have an excuse to miss out on the pumpkins. I just do not enjoy gardening/farming. I’m not a great ambassador for North Dakota in that way. Well, my afternoon assignment today was to work at Maramba Farm. Despite my misgivings about working the land, the project was for a great purpose. In Maramba community, a group of women have started a small farm that sells produce in order to raise money to buy medication for those too sick with HIV, TB, or malaria to visit the clinic in Maramba. The women’s biggest money maker is mushrooms, but I helped with a crop of eggplants. Did I mention that yesterday, a larger poisonous snake slithered right by the legs of some of our volunteers? Did Africa not get the memo that I’m petrified of snakes? Well, thankfully today, there were no snakes, but instead crocodiles were the bigger concern. You see, my groups job was to water the eggplants. To do that, one person had to work the water pump which really resembled a Stairmaster in the gym. Other volunteers watered by hand. This involved one person flinging an empty bucket attached to a stream into the river (more like a stream) behind the farm. Then that person (which was often me) would pull up the full bucket and pour it into the other buckets. Volunteers then walked these to the rows of eggplants. The farm’s permanent workers told us not to worry, though, because the crocodiles would not come out when there was so much noise. Just two days ago, Brave told us never to go by the river because the crocs could see us even if we couldn’t see them…I just can’t wait to go back to the farm! (I know sarcasm doesn’t come across well in blogging, so I hope you all caught it just then.)
The farming project did have one big highlight, though. The project leader, another local woman, mistakenly thought I was Dutch because another male volunteer was from Holland. She asked me if eggplants were eaten in Holland, but I told her that I was from the United States. Just after I said I was American, I previously silent woman who was boiling fish for lunch simply said, “Obama.” I was able to have a brief chat with her and express my fondness for Obama and told her I was excited to vote for him. She was not a strong English speaker, but I could tell she felt a lot of pride because someone with African heritage might become the most powerful person in the world. I, too, was proud of our country because of this.
Cheers (I’m starting to pick up the language from the Brits in my house),
Zac
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