Nothing says “welcome to Africa” quite like waking up to find out the power and water are both out in our house! Yippee!
Anyway, after (sort of) finding our breakfast, we waited and waited and waited for our van to bring us to our project introduction. When we got there, we waited and waited and waited some more. I’m beginning to detect a trend here. Finally, we got our orientation and feel some relief now that we have an idea of what’s going on. A tour of Livingstone also was quite helpful as we visited the banks, bureau de change, and saw multiple internet cafes. Surprisingly, some areas of the town are quite Westernized.
After the brief introduction, we headed back to Mushili Way for lunch. Believe it or not, we waited and waited for lunch. I’m still in the process of figuring out if this is “Africa time” or just “African Impact time”. Right now, my feeling is it’s the latter, but I’ll keep gathering evidence. Lunch, by the way, was a tasty tuna pasta salad w/ fresh vegetables. We also discovered the peanut butter is just a bit different here, but highly edible nonetheless.
Once we got back to the main volunteer house, the plan was to take a tour of all the different projects in and around Livingstone. Shockingly, we fell behind schedule again. I did get the chance, though, to visit w/ a lovely group from the Shetland Islands of Scotland who are here to teach gymnastics for 2 weeks. The group leader has a beautiful young daughter whose father is a black Cuban gentleman…that’s quite the unique ethnic heritage for that young girl! Having visited Cuba many times, the mom told us of some terrible stories like her husband being able to visit his family at the hotel because native Cubans were not allowed into hotels. Just to see his wife and daughter, he had to produce a copy of his marriage license and pay $50. All the while, hotel staff shuffled in local prostitutes who paid just a couple dollars to enter the facility. Needless to say, this incident infuriated my Scottish friend. Being so close to this island nation, I’m stunned at how little I really know about it as an American and appreciate this insight gained in conversation with Joy from Scotland.
The delayed tour of projects was remarkable. We visited places with names like Dambwa, Maramaba, Nakatindi, and Libuyu. These were each townships, or ghetto-like neighborhoods, around Livingstone. The poverty was beyond belief, but in line with what we were prepared for. At each stop, the air smelled strongly of burning fires as families were preparing meals the only way they could. A big highlight of this afternoon was all the smiling faces of children who greeted us along the way. What a great feeling! These beautiful children were so happy to have the attention of all the volunteers. Even though it was a national holiday and classes were cancelled, the children still hung around the schools. This speaks highly to the importance of the schools in the community.
On our tour, we also got our first real few of Victoria Falls. Even though about 15 miles away, we could see the smoke rise up, and it looked almost like a forest fire. I can’t wait to see it up close.
Perhaps my favorite part of the day was traveling with a man named Brave. Brave, a Livingstone native, is just short of 30 years old. For the past 10 years, he has worked at Maramba Clinic as a peer educator teaching fellow Zambians about the dangers of HIV and other STDs. Recently, African Impact has hired him to be a community liaison between the agency and the neighborhoods of Livingstone. To us, he was beacon of friendliness and knowledge. He explained in first-hand terms the struggles of the community in terms of education and healthcare and showed the importance of African Impact here. As I mentioned, today was a national holiday in Zambia. The holiday, called Heroes Day, celebrates all those who fought for Zambia’s independence. Upon finding this out, our Scottish friends began calling Brave, Braveheart in honor of the famous Scottish independence fighter portrayed by Mel Gibson in the movie. Brave(heart) certainly enjoyed this new nickname.
After a long day of orientation and tours, we have just a short morning of instruction particular to our medical and education placements tomorrow. In the afternoon, we finally get to begin working in the community. My first endeavor is a project called “bricks”. The name is quite explanatory as I’ll literally be making, moving, or placing bricks. I’m excited to add masonry to my resume.
Today ended on a high note as Leah and I became brave enough to take a taxi into central Livingstone and find an internet café and coffee shop named ZigZag. Besides the great hazelnut decaf brew we enjoyed, ZigZag has free wi-fi that is mostly reliable. Since it’s not particularly safe for whites to walk at night in Livingstone, the café called a taxi for our return trip, too. After getting back to Mushili Way, our housemates inquired as to the price we paid, which we said was about 24 kwacha ($8) each way. They laughed heartily at this and informed us we were charged “muzungu” prices. Muzungu is a common word around Africa to refer to whites, sort of like the more familiar term “gringo.” From now on, our housemates said, we just need to call the bluff of the drivers and tell them we are volunteers, not muzunugu tourists and we’ll get the better rates (about $3). Lesson learned!
While it’s often frustrating to live apart from the large majority of the other volunteers at the main house, I’m about to go and enjoy the one saving grace of Mushili Way – it’s hot, high-pressure showers!
For now,
Zac
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