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!
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