victoria falls and wildlife in mosi-au-tunya national park:
http://cornell.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2126332&l=46fba&id=407940
some zambian fun:
http://cornell.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2126332&l=46fba&id=407940
work pics, goat project:
http://cornell.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2126262&l=4fdfd&id=407940
Monday, August 13, 2007
Thursday, August 9, 2007
mr. mostisms are back! and more...
and i'm back! the last week has been a blur. denia, my co-worker (and zambian sister!), took me in in my broke end-of-trip state for the last week i was in lusaka. so sweet. and she took me to all the places in the cut where you could get good deals on stuff, outfits made, etc. it was like lusaka's version of chinatown. except it's "indiantown." lots of indians in lusaka and they own a lot of small businesses. denia and her friend also took me to some bridal showers which are usually called kitchen parties here. one was traditional with lots of drumming. the matron, who is usually hired to sort of entertain the guests, was this big lady who could DANCE! her belly hung down below her crotch, but she was so comfortable with her body! it was refreshing to see a woman comfortable in her skin. she was dancing and pulled up her shirt and started flapping that belly around like it was a scarf she had tied around her waist! i said ok girl git it!! at one point at the next kitchen party, which was more church centered, a lady stood up and said "if you are HIV positive and living with it stand up!" so all these women stood up and started cheering. and they went through this whole affirmation, taking turns speaking on how they were grandmothers and how they take their medication and it's keeping them well, and saying how long they've been living with HIV. in south africa, i read that 40% of the women in the 25-29 year old age group are infected with HIV. it doesn't help that when AIDS first started being identified, the government presented it as a propaganda strategy being used by the west to make africa look destitute and backwards. they said it wasn't a real disease and that since it was a "syndrome" it could be controlled and prevented with good nutrition. denia was telling me that there was this case a while back where the vice president of the african national congress (nelson mandela's party) raped his friend's wife, who he knew to be HIV positive. he thought he could avoid getting it by washing up afterwards. and this was relatively recently; denia thought it happened within the last 10 years or so.
the trip back to the states was something. i had to pay off the lady at the check in desk, at the suggestion of the guy helping me with my bags (i'm sure he got a cut), to avoid paying the $220 fee for checking a third bag (!!). so i gave her $40 and kept it moving. when i got to johannesburg they're asking for a receipt and whatnot. the guy just ended up putting me through but he said they might charge me "again" when i get to london. so i was stressed about that for the flight. i got proposed to by the woman who frisked me at johannesburg airport security. saying she has a brother who is looking for a wife, and am i married? i said oh i'm going back home to the states. she's talkin' 'bout "ok i will tell him." too much. and a black american guy, even after i opened my mouth and asked if he was from the states, asked me if i was south african. interesting. he was the very first black american i met during my entire stay in southern africa! then this white south african guy on the plane started aggressively pushing my seat back up when i was trying to recline it. meanwhile, his seat was fully reclined. he kept doing it every time, so aggressively that i had to tell him about himself and even call for one of the flight attendants! then he's pretending to be asleep. finally he stopped and i reclined. i was talking with the black american guy and he was saying how the white people, especially in south africa, still act like they can just say and do whatever when they see some brown folks. then they hear you don't have an african accent and they wanna act different. pushing in the airport was a problem in general though. grown men pushing me out the way with their suitcases to the point i had to be like "UMM excuse me, you see me standing here in line already don't you??" they're all ohh ok. then they cut in front of the woman behind me. johannesburg is just really violent in general. on the bus back from livingstone i sat next to this zambian guy who was taking classes in south africa. he was telling me that he was in johannesburg recently and saw two bus drivers arguing over passengers. the one who felt like he got cheated out of some passengers pulled out a gun and shot the passengers on the other bus and said, "who ya' gonna drive now?" wow. didn't even make the evening news.
1. some zambianisms: zambians have a lot of very colorful colloquialisms, it's almost like music to hear people talk! here are a few of the popular zambianisms that they use when speaking english:*end sentences with: "...and the what what." *start sentences with: "me i like..." or "me i want..." i love it.*and the ever popular, multi-purpose "aghh," complete with a hand (usually the left) placed on the side of the head. "aghh" may mean any and all of the following, depending of course on intonation, inflection, and pronuncification:
a) that's great!
b) that's bad...
c) i don't know.
d) that was fun!
e) that was NOT fun.
f) my phone died.
g) the car broke down. (a popular one.)
h) i saw an elephant. it was big.
i) i will be late because the elephants are crossing to the river to drink and are blocking the road. there are hundreds and it may take up to an hour.
j) i am drunk.
h) he is DRUNK!
i) there is no __________________________ (insert staple food (cooking oil, mealie meal, tomato, onion) here)
j) there are many termites in the house.
k) there is no electricity.
l) the electricity is back on!
m) there is no water.
n) nshima is delicious.
o) big bessie is gone.
p) big bessie has returned.
q) i was wrong.
r) i was right.
s) i will check on that for you.
t) where did you get that chitenge? (the cloth that women make outfits out of or just wrap around their waist; it's tradition for women to wear a wrap while cooking, cleaning, etc...)
u) how you gonna eat all my vegetables??
2. when people greet you on the street they clap their hands together twice or put a hand to their chest and stop walking for a step while speaking. there is so much sincerity just in that small gesture.
3. and now for another installment of 'isms.' jamesisms have been replaced until further notice by "brazzioisms." brazzio is one of the night guards for the wcs office in feira. his english - not so good. my nyanja - not so good. so we had some pretty interesting conversations. don't worry folks, mr. mostisms are back!
mr. mostisms:
1) mr. most: i want you to teach me to speak american.
me: american? but you already speak english.
mr. most: ahh yes. like that.
2) me: mr. most, you got some peri peri (hot) sauce?
mr. most: ohh you like peri peri?
me: yes.
mr. most: so that's why your mouth is like that.
me: like wh...you know what? don't even wanna know...
3) (commenting on my plain white plastic hoop non-african looking earrings): "ahh tamika you look beautiful in those earrings! you look simply...IN-DI-GE-NOUS."
*debut installment of...brazzioisms!
1) god is loving you long time.
2) after i did some pushs ups:
brazzio: ahh but you are chinese tamika.
me: chinese? what you do you mean?
brazzio: because you are too hard. doing push ups and walking to the market and back to soweto (where we lived in town). very hard. you are chinese caretaker. (i think he meant "karate master" because he sure kicked his leg up in the air from a seated position when saying "caretaker.")
3) me: brazzio i have a mouse in my house.
brazzio: don't worry. this is luangwa. you shouldn't worry. i will eat it.
4) me: do you drink beer brazzio?
brazzio: no beer. better go to church.
5) brazzio: i will come to america to find you. you are my sis-tah. i will swim.
me: but what will you do in america? you have a wife and child!
brazzio: i will be your gardener!
me: i don't have a garden.
brazzio: aghh.
*random quotes:
"you don't drink beer?? ahh. women who don't drink beer...you can't...you just can't understand them! beer. it just makes your brain...SHARP..." - drunk guy on the street
"what are you cooking, boiled potatoes with mayonnaise?" -drunk guy (who has a position it the feira district office) who came knocking on my door on a friday when i was cooking. guess that's what americans must eat! had to kick him out with the quickness.
4. all businesses are required by law to display a photo of president mwanawasa (current president).
5. people here, especially in the rural areas, get malaria an average of 4-5 times per year!
6. when young men here are trying to get at a young woman they give her what is called a "manifesto." two guys on different occassions used this word to refer to it when they were telling me about how they met their fiances. this is when they tell the young lady exactly how they feel and what they will do for her. this happens even before any type of courtship. i said ok more men everywhere should do that! but not just while they're drunk in the club trying to get some play.
7. mambo the ex-poacher: i met mambo in mpanshya chiefdom. very charismatic and quick to laugh. he was a poacher for seven years and stopped in 2000. he was telling us some crazy stories, boy. he once killed two buffaloes with one shot. no good reason not to believe the man either. handsen said he used to be the most notorious poacher in mpanshya. and he used to be some cadet captain - so he has a background in arms training, he's not just some layman who decided to hunt. he told us that the authorities came knocking on his door at "0-1 hours" looking for him one time. know what he did? put on a skirt and snuck out the back, almost in plain view. "techniques," he says, "techniques." another time his brother and friends killed 3 elephants one night. they were discovered and blamed it on mambo. so mr. mambo had to head for cover in lusaka for six months! he was such a good storyteller though, someone needs to put a camera in front of that man. once he and his poaching buddies were standing over a buffalo they had just killed, smoking guns and all. all of a sudden, two shots whizzed past the nose of one of them. mambo says, "you know - i think ed (his cousin who worked for the wildlife authority) is shooting at us." then he went into how he knew it was an ak-47 he was being shot at with and how he had to run zig zag to get away. i asked him what made him stop and he said pressure from the community and tightening of anti-poaching patrols and regulations. now he works at the mission hospital in mpanshya. i also asked how he became a poacher in the first place. he wanted to join the zambian army but one of the captains at the registration pulled him out of line and said "mambo go home and become a poacher." so mambo went into the next line. some other official told him to leave too, for whatever reason. so according to mambo, the zambian army is to thank for turning out one of the nation's most notorious and elusive poachers!
8. some of the people in feira believe that some of the farmers with cattle (which is rare because cattle are expensive to keep compared to other livestock) practice witchcraft in order to have more animals. in the market they'll ask "where did this beef come from," and if it's one of the people they suspect of witchcraft they won't buy the meat!
9. these two little girls stalked me almost all the way from the market one day. i was not in a mood to be tracked that day so i tried to shake her. i would walk fast. then she would walk fast. i started walking S-L-O-W. she pretended to drop her school books until i caught up. i think she just wanted to speak, so finally i was like "do you want to say something?" then one of them opened her notebook and pulled out a test she had gotten a good grade on, all proud to show me. melted my heart and my cranky mood. just wanted some attention...aww...
the trip back to the states was something. i had to pay off the lady at the check in desk, at the suggestion of the guy helping me with my bags (i'm sure he got a cut), to avoid paying the $220 fee for checking a third bag (!!). so i gave her $40 and kept it moving. when i got to johannesburg they're asking for a receipt and whatnot. the guy just ended up putting me through but he said they might charge me "again" when i get to london. so i was stressed about that for the flight. i got proposed to by the woman who frisked me at johannesburg airport security. saying she has a brother who is looking for a wife, and am i married? i said oh i'm going back home to the states. she's talkin' 'bout "ok i will tell him." too much. and a black american guy, even after i opened my mouth and asked if he was from the states, asked me if i was south african. interesting. he was the very first black american i met during my entire stay in southern africa! then this white south african guy on the plane started aggressively pushing my seat back up when i was trying to recline it. meanwhile, his seat was fully reclined. he kept doing it every time, so aggressively that i had to tell him about himself and even call for one of the flight attendants! then he's pretending to be asleep. finally he stopped and i reclined. i was talking with the black american guy and he was saying how the white people, especially in south africa, still act like they can just say and do whatever when they see some brown folks. then they hear you don't have an african accent and they wanna act different. pushing in the airport was a problem in general though. grown men pushing me out the way with their suitcases to the point i had to be like "UMM excuse me, you see me standing here in line already don't you??" they're all ohh ok. then they cut in front of the woman behind me. johannesburg is just really violent in general. on the bus back from livingstone i sat next to this zambian guy who was taking classes in south africa. he was telling me that he was in johannesburg recently and saw two bus drivers arguing over passengers. the one who felt like he got cheated out of some passengers pulled out a gun and shot the passengers on the other bus and said, "who ya' gonna drive now?" wow. didn't even make the evening news.
1. some zambianisms: zambians have a lot of very colorful colloquialisms, it's almost like music to hear people talk! here are a few of the popular zambianisms that they use when speaking english:*end sentences with: "...and the what what." *start sentences with: "me i like..." or "me i want..." i love it.*and the ever popular, multi-purpose "aghh," complete with a hand (usually the left) placed on the side of the head. "aghh" may mean any and all of the following, depending of course on intonation, inflection, and pronuncification:
a) that's great!
b) that's bad...
c) i don't know.
d) that was fun!
e) that was NOT fun.
f) my phone died.
g) the car broke down. (a popular one.)
h) i saw an elephant. it was big.
i) i will be late because the elephants are crossing to the river to drink and are blocking the road. there are hundreds and it may take up to an hour.
j) i am drunk.
h) he is DRUNK!
i) there is no __________________________ (insert staple food (cooking oil, mealie meal, tomato, onion) here)
j) there are many termites in the house.
k) there is no electricity.
l) the electricity is back on!
m) there is no water.
n) nshima is delicious.
o) big bessie is gone.
p) big bessie has returned.
q) i was wrong.
r) i was right.
s) i will check on that for you.
t) where did you get that chitenge? (the cloth that women make outfits out of or just wrap around their waist; it's tradition for women to wear a wrap while cooking, cleaning, etc...)
u) how you gonna eat all my vegetables??
2. when people greet you on the street they clap their hands together twice or put a hand to their chest and stop walking for a step while speaking. there is so much sincerity just in that small gesture.
3. and now for another installment of 'isms.' jamesisms have been replaced until further notice by "brazzioisms." brazzio is one of the night guards for the wcs office in feira. his english - not so good. my nyanja - not so good. so we had some pretty interesting conversations. don't worry folks, mr. mostisms are back!
mr. mostisms:
1) mr. most: i want you to teach me to speak american.
me: american? but you already speak english.
mr. most: ahh yes. like that.
2) me: mr. most, you got some peri peri (hot) sauce?
mr. most: ohh you like peri peri?
me: yes.
mr. most: so that's why your mouth is like that.
me: like wh...you know what? don't even wanna know...
3) (commenting on my plain white plastic hoop non-african looking earrings): "ahh tamika you look beautiful in those earrings! you look simply...IN-DI-GE-NOUS."
*debut installment of...brazzioisms!
1) god is loving you long time.
2) after i did some pushs ups:
brazzio: ahh but you are chinese tamika.
me: chinese? what you do you mean?
brazzio: because you are too hard. doing push ups and walking to the market and back to soweto (where we lived in town). very hard. you are chinese caretaker. (i think he meant "karate master" because he sure kicked his leg up in the air from a seated position when saying "caretaker.")
3) me: brazzio i have a mouse in my house.
brazzio: don't worry. this is luangwa. you shouldn't worry. i will eat it.
4) me: do you drink beer brazzio?
brazzio: no beer. better go to church.
5) brazzio: i will come to america to find you. you are my sis-tah. i will swim.
me: but what will you do in america? you have a wife and child!
brazzio: i will be your gardener!
me: i don't have a garden.
brazzio: aghh.
*random quotes:
"you don't drink beer?? ahh. women who don't drink beer...you can't...you just can't understand them! beer. it just makes your brain...SHARP..." - drunk guy on the street
"what are you cooking, boiled potatoes with mayonnaise?" -drunk guy (who has a position it the feira district office) who came knocking on my door on a friday when i was cooking. guess that's what americans must eat! had to kick him out with the quickness.
4. all businesses are required by law to display a photo of president mwanawasa (current president).
5. people here, especially in the rural areas, get malaria an average of 4-5 times per year!
6. when young men here are trying to get at a young woman they give her what is called a "manifesto." two guys on different occassions used this word to refer to it when they were telling me about how they met their fiances. this is when they tell the young lady exactly how they feel and what they will do for her. this happens even before any type of courtship. i said ok more men everywhere should do that! but not just while they're drunk in the club trying to get some play.
7. mambo the ex-poacher: i met mambo in mpanshya chiefdom. very charismatic and quick to laugh. he was a poacher for seven years and stopped in 2000. he was telling us some crazy stories, boy. he once killed two buffaloes with one shot. no good reason not to believe the man either. handsen said he used to be the most notorious poacher in mpanshya. and he used to be some cadet captain - so he has a background in arms training, he's not just some layman who decided to hunt. he told us that the authorities came knocking on his door at "0-1 hours" looking for him one time. know what he did? put on a skirt and snuck out the back, almost in plain view. "techniques," he says, "techniques." another time his brother and friends killed 3 elephants one night. they were discovered and blamed it on mambo. so mr. mambo had to head for cover in lusaka for six months! he was such a good storyteller though, someone needs to put a camera in front of that man. once he and his poaching buddies were standing over a buffalo they had just killed, smoking guns and all. all of a sudden, two shots whizzed past the nose of one of them. mambo says, "you know - i think ed (his cousin who worked for the wildlife authority) is shooting at us." then he went into how he knew it was an ak-47 he was being shot at with and how he had to run zig zag to get away. i asked him what made him stop and he said pressure from the community and tightening of anti-poaching patrols and regulations. now he works at the mission hospital in mpanshya. i also asked how he became a poacher in the first place. he wanted to join the zambian army but one of the captains at the registration pulled him out of line and said "mambo go home and become a poacher." so mambo went into the next line. some other official told him to leave too, for whatever reason. so according to mambo, the zambian army is to thank for turning out one of the nation's most notorious and elusive poachers!
8. some of the people in feira believe that some of the farmers with cattle (which is rare because cattle are expensive to keep compared to other livestock) practice witchcraft in order to have more animals. in the market they'll ask "where did this beef come from," and if it's one of the people they suspect of witchcraft they won't buy the meat!
9. these two little girls stalked me almost all the way from the market one day. i was not in a mood to be tracked that day so i tried to shake her. i would walk fast. then she would walk fast. i started walking S-L-O-W. she pretended to drop her school books until i caught up. i think she just wanted to speak, so finally i was like "do you want to say something?" then one of them opened her notebook and pulled out a test she had gotten a good grade on, all proud to show me. melted my heart and my cranky mood. just wanted some attention...aww...
the bush spa
so i'm back in lusaka after a month in feira; very limited e-mail access there so i haven't been able to write. the power there is on a "ration" system, meaning you might have it when you're supposed to, or you might not. sometimes we would go a couple of days with no power, then the next day, power all the time! whoo! in the beginning of july i ran a 2-day training session on goat management and health (and some poultry management) for the extension officers and trainers that work in the chiefdoms in feira. then the next couple of weeks we visited the officers and trainers while they started training villagers. it was BUSY BUSY until about the fourth week, when alas, big bessie had her last hoorah. it seems she has reached the last of her 9 lives. shed a tear. so then for about the last week i played pool, read, and went on low-budget walking safaris with my zambian peeps trying to find some elephants! and we saw some! so exciting. it's like they were hiding from me the whole time i was there though; people would call and say "oh i'm going to be late to work, the elephants are crossing the road." this means that 100-400 elephants were crossing and it could take up to an hour. how does a 5-ton elephant hide?? beats me. we even took the tractor one day, had to jump start it and e'rythang because there were reports of elephants nearby. not a one. one day i even unknowingly walked through the elephant corridor where they almost always cross, and came back to people asking me "but tamika, you don't fear elephants? we saw you walking that way." still nothing. but in the end, i found you. no hiding from me, elephant! i went to livingstone for the past couple of days and saw victoria falls! it was absolutely AMAZING. it makes niagara falls look like a dripping faucet. i also went on a 3-hour guided walking safari in the national park there. it was too fly. we saw giraffes, wildebeest, hippos...but of course, NO ELEPHANTS. tsk tsk. i took a mini-bus from the backpackers' place i was staying at to the falls; it was like $.50 and people were fully sitting on my lap. and five guys had to push the bus for it to start. it was great!
some mo':
1. living in feira was like a spa treatment every day. full-body massage on car rides over those bumpy roads, full facial exfoliation with the sand from the daily windstorm in your face. the house i live in is even referred to locally as the "chalet." i call it the nature center. crickets, termites, lizards, mice, we all share. the chalet is a termite's dream! termites just falling on my bed and whatnot. lizard poop on the bed. one time some termites even fell in the rice i was cooking! good thing i saw their creepy crawly selves on the lid to the pot, because termites actually happen to look a lot like grains of rice. i would have had some extra protein that night. all part of the experience! one with nature. that's me.
2. people call me "sister" or "cousin" here. or "madame." i was interested to see how i would be viewed, racially. i usually confuse folks wherever i am. some people ask me "which part of africa are you from?" just off the top. lots of people come up to me speaking nyanja or some other native language and are surprised when i tell them i'm not zambian. another common guess is that i'm south african. this white south african guy asked me where i'm from and i said "the states." he said "no no, but before that," like brown folk can't be from the states. slow your roll player. born and raised. and some people call me "muzungu" which means white person! so it seems like i'm viewed all across the racial spectrum.
3. homosexuality is illegal here in zambia. but i find it interesting that men are very often seen holding hands in public. just ironic to see that in such a homophobic culture.
4. we went to an area called shikabeta. the people had VERY little; i was told by a co-worker that one time they went there and the people were literally living on just mangoes. but during the training sessions they seemed so interested, asking good questions, participating. they were so hospitable too. i left a biography of che guevara out on a bench there and they just seemed so interested; you can tell not many books pass through there. it was in stark contrast to some of the other areas where people would be drunk at any given hour of the day. at one of the places where they make a lot of kachaso (home-made beer that can cook meat if you just pour it on top - no lie), we went to a training at 2:00 in the afternoon and even the old ladies were blasted! we had to reschedule that session. then i was serenaded by drunken villagers as we were leaving. the difference in shikabeta is that the chieftainess punishes people who brew kachaso. she holds it down. and i was told that most people respect the rule and there's not many problems related to alcohol there. one of the trainers in shikabeta is a transformed poacher, meaning WCS agreed to teach him a trade (carpentry) if he agreed to stop poaching and turned in his weapons. poacher transformation is one of the many projects running through here. and he is also a polygamist with two wives and 16 kids.
5. we went to a village called kavalamanja. kavalamanja road is more exciting than a roller coaster. we were just bouncin' around like it was a moon bounce out that joint. massage to the fullest. handsen was driving like it was a video game to navigate that bad boy. and i was told that there are still land mines a few meters off the main road on either side, leftover from the rhodesian war. zambia has never seen war of its own, but the zambian army had to set up headquarters in that area to protect civilians from the guerilla fighters that would hide out in the forest there.
6. adorableness: a little boy with a wide brimmed straw hat was carrying his little sister on a bicycle on this little dirt road. she had on a pink ruffly dress. neither one of them could have been older than about 7. he was just walking along pushing the bike, letting her ride, moving the bike off the path when cars were coming. it was the cutest ever.
7. i can't walk anywhere in feira without a group of children following me. asking my name, and when i tell them there is a little chorus of name repeatedly, with giggles and kee-keein' all in between. one day a little girl named maria, about 13 years old, with her little brothers, knocked on my door asking for some water. after they finished, we said good night and i closed the door. another knock. maria is still there and says she forgot to ask if i could be her "play mom." huh? i said well what does that mean, pretend right? yes. so i'm thinking i needed to check with a zambian and make sure i didn't make some verbal agreement to feed this child and her brothers three meals a day. about a week later she sent her brother with a "letter" for me. first of all, she drew some ladies on the front dressed like video hoochies. with no hands. i said "maria, thank you so much, but where are my clothes at? you think i dress like this??" too much. it was a sweet gesture though.
8. my friend told me that some of the people in the border towns in mozambique are so poor that they give diamonds and gold in exchange for mealie meal over the zambian border. mealie meal, by the way, is corn meal. they are that desperate for just their basic staples. wow.
i'm flying out this afternoon...time has flown!
some mo':
1. living in feira was like a spa treatment every day. full-body massage on car rides over those bumpy roads, full facial exfoliation with the sand from the daily windstorm in your face. the house i live in is even referred to locally as the "chalet." i call it the nature center. crickets, termites, lizards, mice, we all share. the chalet is a termite's dream! termites just falling on my bed and whatnot. lizard poop on the bed. one time some termites even fell in the rice i was cooking! good thing i saw their creepy crawly selves on the lid to the pot, because termites actually happen to look a lot like grains of rice. i would have had some extra protein that night. all part of the experience! one with nature. that's me.
2. people call me "sister" or "cousin" here. or "madame." i was interested to see how i would be viewed, racially. i usually confuse folks wherever i am. some people ask me "which part of africa are you from?" just off the top. lots of people come up to me speaking nyanja or some other native language and are surprised when i tell them i'm not zambian. another common guess is that i'm south african. this white south african guy asked me where i'm from and i said "the states." he said "no no, but before that," like brown folk can't be from the states. slow your roll player. born and raised. and some people call me "muzungu" which means white person! so it seems like i'm viewed all across the racial spectrum.
3. homosexuality is illegal here in zambia. but i find it interesting that men are very often seen holding hands in public. just ironic to see that in such a homophobic culture.
4. we went to an area called shikabeta. the people had VERY little; i was told by a co-worker that one time they went there and the people were literally living on just mangoes. but during the training sessions they seemed so interested, asking good questions, participating. they were so hospitable too. i left a biography of che guevara out on a bench there and they just seemed so interested; you can tell not many books pass through there. it was in stark contrast to some of the other areas where people would be drunk at any given hour of the day. at one of the places where they make a lot of kachaso (home-made beer that can cook meat if you just pour it on top - no lie), we went to a training at 2:00 in the afternoon and even the old ladies were blasted! we had to reschedule that session. then i was serenaded by drunken villagers as we were leaving. the difference in shikabeta is that the chieftainess punishes people who brew kachaso. she holds it down. and i was told that most people respect the rule and there's not many problems related to alcohol there. one of the trainers in shikabeta is a transformed poacher, meaning WCS agreed to teach him a trade (carpentry) if he agreed to stop poaching and turned in his weapons. poacher transformation is one of the many projects running through here. and he is also a polygamist with two wives and 16 kids.
5. we went to a village called kavalamanja. kavalamanja road is more exciting than a roller coaster. we were just bouncin' around like it was a moon bounce out that joint. massage to the fullest. handsen was driving like it was a video game to navigate that bad boy. and i was told that there are still land mines a few meters off the main road on either side, leftover from the rhodesian war. zambia has never seen war of its own, but the zambian army had to set up headquarters in that area to protect civilians from the guerilla fighters that would hide out in the forest there.
6. adorableness: a little boy with a wide brimmed straw hat was carrying his little sister on a bicycle on this little dirt road. she had on a pink ruffly dress. neither one of them could have been older than about 7. he was just walking along pushing the bike, letting her ride, moving the bike off the path when cars were coming. it was the cutest ever.
7. i can't walk anywhere in feira without a group of children following me. asking my name, and when i tell them there is a little chorus of name repeatedly, with giggles and kee-keein' all in between. one day a little girl named maria, about 13 years old, with her little brothers, knocked on my door asking for some water. after they finished, we said good night and i closed the door. another knock. maria is still there and says she forgot to ask if i could be her "play mom." huh? i said well what does that mean, pretend right? yes. so i'm thinking i needed to check with a zambian and make sure i didn't make some verbal agreement to feed this child and her brothers three meals a day. about a week later she sent her brother with a "letter" for me. first of all, she drew some ladies on the front dressed like video hoochies. with no hands. i said "maria, thank you so much, but where are my clothes at? you think i dress like this??" too much. it was a sweet gesture though.
8. my friend told me that some of the people in the border towns in mozambique are so poor that they give diamonds and gold in exchange for mealie meal over the zambian border. mealie meal, by the way, is corn meal. they are that desperate for just their basic staples. wow.
i'm flying out this afternoon...time has flown!
Friday, June 29, 2007
picture links
new pics:
http://cornell.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2115790&l=515c9&id=407940
old album with more photos added:
http://cornell.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112579&l=58498&id=407940
http://cornell.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2115790&l=515c9&id=407940
old album with more photos added:
http://cornell.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112579&l=58498&id=407940
it's a mileage reducer
1. jamesism of the day:
i met james on the road a little ways away from the office this morning. this is what he had to say:
james: tamika, let me introduce you to zambian way of life. you see this [showing me a small piece of square cloth]?
me: yes james. what is it?
james: this is what we call "mileage reducer."
me: oh really. why's that?
[james bends down and wipes the dust off his shiny work shoes]
james: you see? the mileage is now reduced.
2. we saw a sign for "tse tse" fly control. tse tse flies are some of the main reasons it's been hard to introduce horses and western cattle into africa, they carry lots of diseases that those animals are really susceptible to. on the one hand, this has probably saved wildlife habitats and tribal lands indirectly because of the inability to expand livestock operations. on the other hand, expansion of farming land would probably make it more possible to provide food to more of africa, especially in drought-prone areas where it's hard to grow crops anyway...to tse tse or not to tse tse? that's the question...
3. mr. peri, who's the gate guard at the house i stay in lusaka, and who is a "proper bushman" according to the neighbors, jumped up from his little fire the other night when we walked in. he had on nothing but his boxers, and started saying loudly "madame! madame! good evening." he's normally pretty quiet by the way. i think he was drinking that kachaso. too funny.
going back to feira tomorrow, won't have much (read: any) internet access until the beginning of august. hope you're all having a great summer!
i met james on the road a little ways away from the office this morning. this is what he had to say:
james: tamika, let me introduce you to zambian way of life. you see this [showing me a small piece of square cloth]?
me: yes james. what is it?
james: this is what we call "mileage reducer."
me: oh really. why's that?
[james bends down and wipes the dust off his shiny work shoes]
james: you see? the mileage is now reduced.
2. we saw a sign for "tse tse" fly control. tse tse flies are some of the main reasons it's been hard to introduce horses and western cattle into africa, they carry lots of diseases that those animals are really susceptible to. on the one hand, this has probably saved wildlife habitats and tribal lands indirectly because of the inability to expand livestock operations. on the other hand, expansion of farming land would probably make it more possible to provide food to more of africa, especially in drought-prone areas where it's hard to grow crops anyway...to tse tse or not to tse tse? that's the question...
3. mr. peri, who's the gate guard at the house i stay in lusaka, and who is a "proper bushman" according to the neighbors, jumped up from his little fire the other night when we walked in. he had on nothing but his boxers, and started saying loudly "madame! madame! good evening." he's normally pretty quiet by the way. i think he was drinking that kachaso. too funny.
going back to feira tomorrow, won't have much (read: any) internet access until the beginning of august. hope you're all having a great summer!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Zambia Digest Vol. 3
so i'm back in lusaka after spending a couple of weeks in feira a.k.a. "the bush." we were staying in a house (i'll send pictures) made out of plaster and grass thatch. it's super-cute. the first couple of days were spent making courtesy calls to all the government official and tribal chiefs so they know we're there and what we're doing. so i met a chief. with ashy legs. me, not the chief. well, his might have been a little ashy too. the first one we met was not in the greatest health. his liver is shot from drinking this really strong distilled alcohol called kachaso that people make in their yards. it's supposed to be really dangerous, can blind you, etc. when we got to the chief, everyone was very formal and deferential and alice (the professor i was with) and i are just trying to sit quietly and smile and follow the example of what everyone else was doing. so one of the workers did like a whole step routine before he shook the chief's hand; we're lookin' at each other like umm are we supposed to do that too?? we need to have a practice session before we can do that. luckily a simple hand shake sufficed.
and let me just say that feira is unreal. it's almost like a time warp. some of the houses in the villages literally are huts made of brick with grass roofs. the professor who came with me to feira is the director of an international development institute, so she's travelled all over africa, the middle east, central and south america, and she said that she's never been anywhere before where the houses look like they probably did about 100 years ago! zambia is just an extremely poor country. this goat project is a good fit because everyone - EVERYONE - has goats. and they just wander around free; they don't require much maintenance. we met with the people in one of the villages and they estimated that 60-80% of the baby goats are dying before weaning - with good management that number should be around 10%. the good news is there are a few relatively simple things we can recommend to help turn that around so i'm excited about doing the training! i'll be training community extension officers in a two day session, then they will be training farmers in the villages. then i'll be doing follow up visits to the individual farms and villages to help with further training and answering questions, as much as i can. so that's pretty much what i've been doing.
i will also say that the landscape, with the baobab trees, mountains in the background and wildlife, is BEAUTIFUL. and the sky at night and the sunsets are gorgeous. i have never seen a night sky like that. also, there's a huge baobab tree that they used to chain the slaves around before they took them on the ships; there are some slave huts as well. amazing. and the people there are so warm and friendly. like i mentioned before people are always singing and always greet you. when we got to feira, some little kids were following us saying "hi how are you?" all excited they could use their english on someone. when i responded they got all giddy, started giggling and ran away. all kee kee-in' and whatnot. so i think they had a meeting and distributed a memo because after that EVERY time i see a child they blurt out "hi how are you?" in their cute little zambian accents. i rode in the back of the pick up on the way to the market and every time we passed some children, whether they were on a hilltop or on the road, they were waving, all excited, and i'm waving back like i'm miss america. in the back of a toyota hilux. hilarious!! feira doesn't get too many foreign visitors, so of course when there a couple everyone knows!
highlights:
1. there is a group of, i guess about 20 kids that sing at the top of their lungs in the distance for like 2 hours every night. harlem boys' choir got nothing on them. ok, maybe they're a little less...how you say..."refined" than harlem boys...but they sound good. for real.
2. i'm learning to drive stick on a 1970's land cruiser. i named her big bessie, but she also goes by one eyed bessie. or princess. she's sensitive, she has a complex about her size so we try to keep the positive reinforcement going. we have to jump start her every time we turn off the engine or stall. they have wired the button that beeps the horn to the starter motor so you have to press this button before you try to start the ignition. so i said "ok how do you beep the horn now?" there are two copper wires that i have been instructed to press together delicately in order to sound the horn. i couldn't even make this up if i tried. the first day bessie got there, alice, the professor who is here with me until tomorrow, bravely volunteered to teach me how to drive manual. so after a 20 minute driving lesson at the "airstrip" a.k.a. cow and goat pasture, and after a few episodes of having to have the four guys who came with us push the car to get it started (stalling? what stalling? when in doubt clutch it out! thank you gil), the program director comes knocking on my door and says "ok now we're going to pick up 16 goats. you're driving." alrighty then. so i drove like 40 minutes on bumpy dirt roads in big bessie hoping hoping HOPING i didn't stall (the car was also full of people as well - about 7) until we get to the village. good news, i didn't stall on the long part of the drive! handsen (director) is like "ok turn right here." i'm like "all i see is bush!" "no no, right here!" and then i see a foot path about 2 feet wide. bessie, let me tell you, is just a little more than two feet wide. and by the way, the path has people on bicycles, and people walking, on both sides, coming towards me.
3. everyone has a cell phone, even in the poorest areas. i'm like "how you got a motorazr...and no shoes??" but that's how it is. i guess we have people in the states living in subsidized housing driving mercedes right? hmm...
4. more jamesisms:
*"tamika, you know we have women here who bleach their skin? know what we call them? FBI - formerly black individuals."
*"your eyes do not choose what your motner-in-law looks like." interpret that as you will.
5. so there's a shop keeper in the market who i find so amusing. he's this little man named most, and he's full of soundbytes. this will be a new soundbyte installment to accompany the "james-ism digest." mr. most-isms:
*mr. most: yes, i've been to the states.
me: really, where have you been?
mr. most: michigan
me: oh ok. what were you doing there?
mr. most: well...you know i am a short man.
(that was his final answer.)
6. on the drive to feira, we stopped at one of the COMACO store houses to pick something up. there was this crazy dwarf there who ran up to me and held out his hand, palm down. i don't know what he wanted me to do with it. he was lookin' crazy so i just folded my arms, nodded and smiled. then the prof went to the back of the storehouse to do her "business." do you know that dwarf followed her right back there and ogled her while she was handling the biz!?! madness. but hilarious.
7. the district agricultural officer is a zambian who went to school in moscow for 7 years. there's another woman here who did the same. they speak russian fluently; they were teaching me some words! who knew i'd come to zambia and learn some of the language from my fatherland. : )
and this blog has been long enough...thank you for your attention if you've read this far... : ) if you haven't read this far, you're wack. but then you didn't read this far to know that. small details. SO i'll have e-mail access until the weekend, then back to feira! i hope you're all well and that your summer is going great!
and let me just say that feira is unreal. it's almost like a time warp. some of the houses in the villages literally are huts made of brick with grass roofs. the professor who came with me to feira is the director of an international development institute, so she's travelled all over africa, the middle east, central and south america, and she said that she's never been anywhere before where the houses look like they probably did about 100 years ago! zambia is just an extremely poor country. this goat project is a good fit because everyone - EVERYONE - has goats. and they just wander around free; they don't require much maintenance. we met with the people in one of the villages and they estimated that 60-80% of the baby goats are dying before weaning - with good management that number should be around 10%. the good news is there are a few relatively simple things we can recommend to help turn that around so i'm excited about doing the training! i'll be training community extension officers in a two day session, then they will be training farmers in the villages. then i'll be doing follow up visits to the individual farms and villages to help with further training and answering questions, as much as i can. so that's pretty much what i've been doing.
i will also say that the landscape, with the baobab trees, mountains in the background and wildlife, is BEAUTIFUL. and the sky at night and the sunsets are gorgeous. i have never seen a night sky like that. also, there's a huge baobab tree that they used to chain the slaves around before they took them on the ships; there are some slave huts as well. amazing. and the people there are so warm and friendly. like i mentioned before people are always singing and always greet you. when we got to feira, some little kids were following us saying "hi how are you?" all excited they could use their english on someone. when i responded they got all giddy, started giggling and ran away. all kee kee-in' and whatnot. so i think they had a meeting and distributed a memo because after that EVERY time i see a child they blurt out "hi how are you?" in their cute little zambian accents. i rode in the back of the pick up on the way to the market and every time we passed some children, whether they were on a hilltop or on the road, they were waving, all excited, and i'm waving back like i'm miss america. in the back of a toyota hilux. hilarious!! feira doesn't get too many foreign visitors, so of course when there a couple everyone knows!
highlights:
1. there is a group of, i guess about 20 kids that sing at the top of their lungs in the distance for like 2 hours every night. harlem boys' choir got nothing on them. ok, maybe they're a little less...how you say..."refined" than harlem boys...but they sound good. for real.
2. i'm learning to drive stick on a 1970's land cruiser. i named her big bessie, but she also goes by one eyed bessie. or princess. she's sensitive, she has a complex about her size so we try to keep the positive reinforcement going. we have to jump start her every time we turn off the engine or stall. they have wired the button that beeps the horn to the starter motor so you have to press this button before you try to start the ignition. so i said "ok how do you beep the horn now?" there are two copper wires that i have been instructed to press together delicately in order to sound the horn. i couldn't even make this up if i tried. the first day bessie got there, alice, the professor who is here with me until tomorrow, bravely volunteered to teach me how to drive manual. so after a 20 minute driving lesson at the "airstrip" a.k.a. cow and goat pasture, and after a few episodes of having to have the four guys who came with us push the car to get it started (stalling? what stalling? when in doubt clutch it out! thank you gil), the program director comes knocking on my door and says "ok now we're going to pick up 16 goats. you're driving." alrighty then. so i drove like 40 minutes on bumpy dirt roads in big bessie hoping hoping HOPING i didn't stall (the car was also full of people as well - about 7) until we get to the village. good news, i didn't stall on the long part of the drive! handsen (director) is like "ok turn right here." i'm like "all i see is bush!" "no no, right here!" and then i see a foot path about 2 feet wide. bessie, let me tell you, is just a little more than two feet wide. and by the way, the path has people on bicycles, and people walking, on both sides, coming towards me.
3. everyone has a cell phone, even in the poorest areas. i'm like "how you got a motorazr...and no shoes??" but that's how it is. i guess we have people in the states living in subsidized housing driving mercedes right? hmm...
4. more jamesisms:
*"tamika, you know we have women here who bleach their skin? know what we call them? FBI - formerly black individuals."
*"your eyes do not choose what your motner-in-law looks like." interpret that as you will.
5. so there's a shop keeper in the market who i find so amusing. he's this little man named most, and he's full of soundbytes. this will be a new soundbyte installment to accompany the "james-ism digest." mr. most-isms:
*mr. most: yes, i've been to the states.
me: really, where have you been?
mr. most: michigan
me: oh ok. what were you doing there?
mr. most: well...you know i am a short man.
(that was his final answer.)
6. on the drive to feira, we stopped at one of the COMACO store houses to pick something up. there was this crazy dwarf there who ran up to me and held out his hand, palm down. i don't know what he wanted me to do with it. he was lookin' crazy so i just folded my arms, nodded and smiled. then the prof went to the back of the storehouse to do her "business." do you know that dwarf followed her right back there and ogled her while she was handling the biz!?! madness. but hilarious.
7. the district agricultural officer is a zambian who went to school in moscow for 7 years. there's another woman here who did the same. they speak russian fluently; they were teaching me some words! who knew i'd come to zambia and learn some of the language from my fatherland. : )
and this blog has been long enough...thank you for your attention if you've read this far... : ) if you haven't read this far, you're wack. but then you didn't read this far to know that. small details. SO i'll have e-mail access until the weekend, then back to feira! i hope you're all well and that your summer is going great!
Zambia...some mo' (the Spike Lee version)
so i was just talking with one of the guys that works in feira, where i'll be going to work with the goats, and he was telling me about all the wildlife that is there; he said you see elephants all the time! i'm so excited to see all these animals outside of a zoo!! don't worry, i'll be careful. i won't be trying to make friends with dumbo okaay? now that i think about it, what a demeaning name for an elephant! more disney propaganda. they're actually very smart creatures. the place where i'll be at is at a point where you can see three countries from one spot - zambia, mozambique and i think malawi.
if you're not really sure what in the world i'm doing in zambia, here's a link explaining the project i'll be working on. i've been spending most of my time so far putting together a goat production manual: http://www.itswild.org/news
and some pics so far:
london: http://cornell.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111892&l=2e2d3&id=407940
zambia: http://cornell.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112579&l=58498&id=407940
other news. so i went to the goat markets the other day. can you imagine me, ms. vegan, wheelin' and dealin' on buying some goat intestines?? goot lort. we were trying to get an idea of what kind of goats are valued at the market and how much they cost, evidence of disease, etc. we went to the live goat market and i tried to take a picture, and i almost got CUSSED out. everybody started speaking in nyanja (i was with a zambian at least, who even asked permission before i took the shot) and we were taken to the goat market chairman. i knew he was official 'cuz he was sitting in the middle, bien crecido de la panza (with a big belly for all you monolinguals...lol...) and he was holding the money. he told us in no uncertain terms that picture taking is PROHIBITED in the market. alrighty then. as i slickly slid my camera back in my bag before it got confiscated...but i took some stealth shots from the car before we got out so it was all good...
some sad news regarding wildlife in zambia (tara sent me the link before folks in the office here knew about it - big ups sis): some poachers got through the HEAVILY SECURED park at victoria falls where the last two white rhinos in zambia live, and shot both of them!!! killed one. some guard must have gotten paid off or something. sounds sketch. my neighbor, mark the white african (that's his new official name...lol), was telling me his uncle owns a game farm and it costs like $36,000 or something crazy to shoot an elephant legally when they do the elephant culling. man oh day.
more randomness for the masses:
1) for all you jilani fans out there, i think i saw him selling cell phone cases on the highway. straight hustlin'.
2) zambians are some SINGING folks. just walking down the street you hear people singing lady smith black mambazo type harmonies (if you don't know who they are i think you better get on some limewire). the world would be a better place if more people sang in the morning. some people were singing in the office this morning and i commented on it. one of the accountants (james, who made the comment about "tell americans we don't live in trees"...lol) said "that's how we are here. over there you have all the money in the world and you don't even say hi to each other on the bus." wow. you right brother. you right.
3) more "jamesisms:"
james on music preferences: "ears don't choose." deep.
james' response to "how are you?": "i am how you see me." all right now.
4) it is "winter" here, meaning 60-65 degrees. people are breaking out space heaters in the office.
5) "bread basket," which is like our minimum wage, comes to about $3600/year, right. and the cost of living, when you buy basic things in the store at least, is about the same as in the states! recently there's been more investing in zambian enterprise, mostly by rich south africans, so zambia's economy which has been suffering for decades is getting a little boost; but the prices for everything have gone up a lot in the past 5 years or so. a similar thing is going on in zimbabwe, but more intense - the president there is basically reclaiming all this valuable land that white colonials had taken from natives years ago, and is redistributing it. as you can imagine, investors are pulling out, etc., so inflation is CRAZY there.
6) regarding the "no pictures in the market" phenomenon, people were telling me that it's basically because none of the villagers, who are all very poor, want to end up the next poster-child for "poverty-stricken Africa," as portrayed in national geographic, etc... a zambian here was telling me how the media knows how to pick out the most pitiful, destitute, poverty-stricken person and make that the representation for all of zambia, or all of africa even. i was thinking how there's a parallel with the media in the states; think about the images of blacks and latinos we see even on BET and throughout popular culture... just an observation...
if you're not really sure what in the world i'm doing in zambia, here's a link explaining the project i'll be working on. i've been spending most of my time so far putting together a goat production manual: http://www.itswild.org/news
and some pics so far:
london: http://cornell.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111892&l=2e2d3&id=407940
zambia: http://cornell.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112579&l=58498&id=407940
other news. so i went to the goat markets the other day. can you imagine me, ms. vegan, wheelin' and dealin' on buying some goat intestines?? goot lort. we were trying to get an idea of what kind of goats are valued at the market and how much they cost, evidence of disease, etc. we went to the live goat market and i tried to take a picture, and i almost got CUSSED out. everybody started speaking in nyanja (i was with a zambian at least, who even asked permission before i took the shot) and we were taken to the goat market chairman. i knew he was official 'cuz he was sitting in the middle, bien crecido de la panza (with a big belly for all you monolinguals...lol...) and he was holding the money. he told us in no uncertain terms that picture taking is PROHIBITED in the market. alrighty then. as i slickly slid my camera back in my bag before it got confiscated...but i took some stealth shots from the car before we got out so it was all good...
some sad news regarding wildlife in zambia (tara sent me the link before folks in the office here knew about it - big ups sis): some poachers got through the HEAVILY SECURED park at victoria falls where the last two white rhinos in zambia live, and shot both of them!!! killed one. some guard must have gotten paid off or something. sounds sketch. my neighbor, mark the white african (that's his new official name...lol), was telling me his uncle owns a game farm and it costs like $36,000 or something crazy to shoot an elephant legally when they do the elephant culling. man oh day.
more randomness for the masses:
1) for all you jilani fans out there, i think i saw him selling cell phone cases on the highway. straight hustlin'.
2) zambians are some SINGING folks. just walking down the street you hear people singing lady smith black mambazo type harmonies (if you don't know who they are i think you better get on some limewire). the world would be a better place if more people sang in the morning. some people were singing in the office this morning and i commented on it. one of the accountants (james, who made the comment about "tell americans we don't live in trees"...lol) said "that's how we are here. over there you have all the money in the world and you don't even say hi to each other on the bus." wow. you right brother. you right.
3) more "jamesisms:"
james on music preferences: "ears don't choose." deep.
james' response to "how are you?": "i am how you see me." all right now.
4) it is "winter" here, meaning 60-65 degrees. people are breaking out space heaters in the office.
5) "bread basket," which is like our minimum wage, comes to about $3600/year, right. and the cost of living, when you buy basic things in the store at least, is about the same as in the states! recently there's been more investing in zambian enterprise, mostly by rich south africans, so zambia's economy which has been suffering for decades is getting a little boost; but the prices for everything have gone up a lot in the past 5 years or so. a similar thing is going on in zimbabwe, but more intense - the president there is basically reclaiming all this valuable land that white colonials had taken from natives years ago, and is redistributing it. as you can imagine, investors are pulling out, etc., so inflation is CRAZY there.
6) regarding the "no pictures in the market" phenomenon, people were telling me that it's basically because none of the villagers, who are all very poor, want to end up the next poster-child for "poverty-stricken Africa," as portrayed in national geographic, etc... a zambian here was telling me how the media knows how to pick out the most pitiful, destitute, poverty-stricken person and make that the representation for all of zambia, or all of africa even. i was thinking how there's a parallel with the media in the states; think about the images of blacks and latinos we see even on BET and throughout popular culture... just an observation...
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