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...