Dr Livingstone I presume ...

Coal market in one of the compounds

On Good Friday morning we set out from Lusaka for our Easter Weekend excursion. Our first destination was a place called Siansowa located on the banks of Lake Kariba.. Here we had rented two comfortable cottages. We enjoyed two wonderful days relaxing, reading and playing a lot of cards. They also had a beautiful pool on the property where we spent a good deal of time both afternoons. On our first evening we enjoyed a fantastic sunset cruise on the lake. We had the boat entirely to ourselves and Charlene had thoughtfully brought along ample supplies of delicious party drinks and snacks.

Zambian fishing on Lake Kariba

Wielers enoying the cruise

Brothers hanging out together on the lake

Captain Erin takes the wheel

God's light breaks through the clouds

The Bush Camp where we were staying was also located next to a huge commercial crocodile farm. So on our second morning, we took a tour. This was incredibly interesting and entertaining as we were shown how the crocs are raised from eggs taken from the wild, to full grown crocs of about 3-5 years. The crocs are raised for their skins that are largely sold to Asia and then turned into beautiful Gucci handbags and belts. We were fortunate enough to be there on the day they were preparing the food that they feed the crocs. Let’s just say this was not a mouth watering recipe. The recipe for Crocodile food is roughly as follows: one tonne fresh Kapenta (a small sardine like fish), boiled maise, approximately two tonnes hacked up chickens that have been jammed through an industrial sized meat grinder and some blood for flavor (and I’m not joking either). And yes, we got to witness the “chefs” in action. The tour concluded with dramatic tour of the lagoons where the oldest and largest crocs live. It was very exciting to watch as these crocs were fed huge hunks of raw meat.

How to make croc food

A few of the crocs being raised for skins

Croc buddies share a hug

Big breeder crocs don't like to share

Mmmmm carpaccio

Then it was off to beautiful Victoria Falls. It was a cozy ride as all four girls were sharing the back seat of the truck. Unfortunately for us, the road was riddled with more pot holes, and bigger pot holes than I have ever seen on any Canadian road in spring. We stayed in another fantastic place called Jolly Boys which is a haven for South African back-packers. Imagine beautiful tanned young bodies everywhere dressed in skimpy Bohemian style clothing, tattoos and dreadlocks. It was the kind of scene that made even me feel old. But, we tried to blend in as best we could and had a great time.

Double rainbow in the mist of the falls

A view of the bridge to Zimbabwe

The next day we walked around Victoria Falls. The Falls are much longer and wider than Niagara Falls. Since it is the end of the rainy season, the falls were in full force and we got completely soaked. The spray coming off the falls alone was so powerful, it made us feel like someone was aiming a hose right at us. It was an incredible experience. The highlight of the day was a micro flight over the falls. Erin, Danica, Richard and I all took the flight which transported us, via Ultra light, a couple thousand feet into the air to observe the falls in their full glory from above. I think it was probably the most exciting thing I have ever done.

A small slice of the falls

Heidi and her amazing flying machine

Sadly, today was our last full day in Zambia. We spent the morning doing laundry and packing up. In the afternoon we were able to have one touching encounter with the people we have met here. Charlene took us to a Project called Chikumbuso. I will try to keep the description short for, what was for me, one of the most moving experiences of our trip.

A few of the women at Chikumbuso

Chikumbuso means to remember, and it is the name of a project here for widows and single women in the compound of Ngombe. The program was begun by an American woman named Linda. She recognized the many needs for women in this compound and created her own N.G.O. to support them. To make a long story short, this project helps women come together and crochet purses and beach bags out of used plastic bags. The program has had such an impact on the seven women who began it, that it has grown exponentially since it started. Now, it includes about 75 women making bags, a school for about 250 of the women’s children who come, a lunch program and now a tailoring school. During our tour we were interrupted by the sound of a group of women singing. We joined the group and found all the women who were crocheting bags having a time of sharing together. The sound of their voices united immediately brought me to tears. The women sang, clapped and danced and then shared their stories. It was powerful to hear how this project had changed their lives and their children’s lives. One woman shared that before she joined Chikumbuso, she was contemplating suicide because she had no way of feeding her children. She now feels free and always has food for her family. Their testimonials demonstrated how incredibly strong in spirit these women are. As well, it became clear that they shared a strong community spirit as they encouraged each other to share what they had with the many other women who are still in dire need. The afternoon concluded with more singing and dancing and we were all pulled in to the mix. The old mama’s got a good laugh out of watching Richard join in the dancing. It was wonderful. Needless to say I spent all the rest of our money on purses to bring home. I will try to send more information about this project for anyone who might be interested in learning more or supporting them. You can see a video of the ladies dancing and singing at Chikumbuso here.

The final product

This will be our last posting as we leave for London tomorrow. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Richard and Heidi

Day 7 - 10 Safari Time!

Hello,

We returned yesterday from Safari in South Luangwa National Park. What an amazing experience. We stayed at a camp which was a combination of camping spots, tents and chalets.
We opted for staying in a chalet given the wildlife in the area. Our camp was outside the park on the banks of the Luangwa river (opposite the park). Our neighbours (i.e. wandering outside our chalet) included baboons, elephant, leopard, impala, hippos and civet.

In the park, zebras in the background

We arrived late in the afternoon and we were picked up at the airport and whisked off to the park for an evening/night drive. On these drives you view animals in the daylight/dusk for about and hour and a half. At sunset the driver stops in some beautiful part of the park and you have drinks (sundowners). After that point the spotter (a second guide) gets out a very bright spot
light and you drive around the park looking for eyes. The night time is the best time to find the predators in the park (lions, hyenas, leopards) . Our first night drive was probably the best. Highlights included stopping in the middle of the bush, and realizing we were in the middle of large heard of buffalo. The spotter shone his light around and all over in the bush we could see them. The noise was quite loud as well. Later in the evening just before leaving the park, we got a tip from another driver and were able to find a lioness and her two cubs wandering around nearby. Luckily for us they were in an open area, as this time of year the grass and the bushes are very thick lush and green, and is quite hard to find the cats and smaller mammals.

Bull elephant in the pond

Our striped friends

Thornycroft giraffe by the roadside

The next day we were up at 5am so that we could be on our morning drive by 6. The day drives were quite amazing for the number of birds we were able to see. Many different types of eagles, storks, herons and song birds. One of the more interesting birds was the masked weavers. The weavers (there are many varieties) build enclosed nests. The masked weavers are very colourful (bright yellow and black). The masked part is the black strip that goes across the face and covers the eyes. The males will build a nest (the nest hangs from a branch), and the female will come and inspect it. If she likes it she will enter the nest, and the male follows (the rest is left up to your imagination). If she does not like the nest, the male destroys it and starts again. While we were watching there were probably about a hundred males building nests on a single tree. Quite a site.

Tree full of masked weavers

Close up of masked weaver building their nests

The flora (or at least the trees) in the park were amazing. There were mahogany, ebony, marula, baobab, and many others. The trees were huge and green, and many had huge vines growing off of them. There was also a very interesting tree/shrub. Although the name escapes me, this particular tree is a favourite of the elephant. The elephant will eat the bark, to get the minerals it needs. This will in turn kill the tree. Elephants can wipe out a large track of land filled will these trees. (they turn a forest into a plain). The plant the grows back after is a shrub (of the same family). The elephants will eat the leave of the shrub, but will not kill it. As the shrubs fill the space left by the trees, new trees start growing under the shrub. By the time the are large enough to be noticed by the elephants, they have enough years of a head start to establish themselves. It really is quite an amazing eco system!

Heidi with massive baobab tree in the background

Interesting enough we some some of the best mammal viewing just outside the park. The thornycraft giraffe is a endemic species to the park. One of its favourite place to browse was on the road between the park gate and our camp. Along this road we also saw the largest bull elephant as well as hippos. All together we were able to see the following species: elephant, zebra, giraffe, warthog, hippo, lion, hyena, puku, impala, waterbuck, buffalo, crocodile, storks, eagles, and many birds. Unfortunately we saw no leopards. The park has the highest concentration of leopards in the world, but it is so lush and green that is very hard to spot them.

Baboon on the road

Baby baboon with mother

A pregnant chameleon (you could see the eggs in it's sides)

On our way to back to the airport we stopped at a factory called tribal textiles. The factory is owned by a white woman (I don't know her background/story), but employs many locals. She does the design for the textiles and then the designs are passed onto the factory floor where they are reproduced. It was a very interesting process and of course we left with a souvenir. The finished product is sold in up-scale stores in Lusaka and other locations.

Pattern is added using a wheat/water starch mixture

The patterns are painted in

The starch is scraped off the painted textile

The finished product

Today we are getting ready to leave for Lake Kariba and Livingstone. We will blog on our adventures there when we return.

Day 6 - church, shopping and easter eggs

Hello,

Day 6 and we attended church in the morning with John and Charlene.

This was the traditional nshema meal from a previous post

In the afternoon we headed out to the craft market. The market is setup on the parking lot of the high end mall (equivalent to a nice strip mall in North America). The people buying are primarily tourists or ex-pats. Like other markets around the world the price usually starts at around twice or more of the final selling price. The best strategy is to show disinterest after which the deal gets better and better. We picked up a few things for the house. As with everything in Zambia the prices are close to on-par with North America so you can pick up some nice stuff for a reasonable price, but this is not the rock bottom pricing found in Asia and some other parts of the world.

Danica, Heidi and Erin making cinnamon buns

When we got back Heidi helped Erin and Danica make cinnamon buns. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the baking experience and the rest of us enjoyed the fruits of their labours.

Colouring eggs with the family

As we will be on the road during Easter we got an early start and coloured easter eggs. The girls were very creative with wax and colours and turned out some fine master pieces, while I (richard) opted for the solid colours. It was a great start to the week.

Happy Easter!

Day 5, a trip to the waterslides

Today’s entry is short and sweet. We spent the day at a place called Adventure City. It is a beautiful park full of paths and gardens that surround a series of about 10 or 12 different swimming pools and water slides. Thankfully it was warm and slightly overcast so we did not get any more sun burn. I already have a burn on my neck and shoulders because, as Charlene said, “I have not been respecting the African sun”.

Tonight we are taking John and Charlene out for dinner and the girls are staying home to watch Harry Potter.

Day 4 - the real urban africa

Hi Everyone,

Well here we are and it’s day 4. It has been another remarkable day. This morning we set out to visit a couple of schools in the compounds. The compounds are where the poorest Lusakan’s are living. The roads are incredibly rough and full of large pot holes left at the end of the rainy season. There is a lot of garbage lying around and any plants growing here or there are covered in a muddy dust. The roads are lined with shacks made up with wood and tin roofs that may either be homes or little stores. Some of the better homes are made out of cinder block and covered with anything that would serve as a roof . And then there are the people. Children are running everywhere, almost all of them in extremely dirty, dusty and torn clothing. The moment the children see our white truck coming, they begin yelling “Mazungu” and run along side the truck and wave furiously. I have never felt so much like a celebrity unfortunately, for all the wrong reasons. Other people are going about their work washing clothing, fixing cars, nursing babies.

A child outside the school

As soon as we pulled up to the school we were surrounded by children saying hello and wanting to shake our hands. We were greeted by Esther the woman who started and runs this school. It is a very grass roots situation, as Esther lives in this community and saw too many children in the compound not able to go to school. They now have 230 students and have to turn many away. They are meeting in a building made out of cinder blocks with only half a roof. It has a mud floor. Fortunately this building is also used as a church and there are wooden benches for the children to sit on. Each grade has their own corner of the building. Today was also interesting as it was a health clinic day. All of the children were being treated for worms and Bilharzia (and for all you medical types, that is Shistosomiasis) which the children contract from all the contaminated water around the compound.

Another highlight at the school was that the children all gathered round and sang for us. After that we had to lead them all in some singing - so we sang the chorus "I've got joy like a fountain". Below is a short clip of the children singing for us.

Zambian school children singing

Esther then took us to visit some of the families of children who would be attending the school so we could have a better understanding of the situation of the children and people here. The first woman was we visited was Gertrude. She is a widow with HIV. She was in better health and so she could sit up and talk to us. On her hip was an18 month old baby simply clad in a very dirty tank top. She was very attractive but I felt her eyes held a sadness and stories I would never know. I could go into detail about her one room home but I will just say it was the most meager and ragged dwelling I have ever been in. Esther told us that when Gertrude is really sick, her 10 year old daughter looks after her and runs the house. I found Gertrude’s situation and story extremely compelling and I know that her story represents the stories of thousands of other women in Africa.

Doris and Heidi

The second family we visited was a household where the grand parents are the head of the household as all of their children have died. They in turn are looking after all of the 9 orphaned children. The grandfather had not had employment for 21 years due to health problems, so it was unclear as to how they survived. They were currently hoping the school, or the community would somehow be able to raise the money for a school uniform for their grand daughter Doris. Esther said Doris was exceptionally bright and in order for her to go to school she needed a uniform and a small fee for tuition. It took a lot of self control to not just open my bag and thrust all my money at the people we were meeting. However this experience put a real face on the many problems faced here, and it reinforced my thinking over what type of projects we would like to support financially when we get back home. It has been very interesting to learn about the different aid agencies, how there are different ways of helping and that providing aid and help can be complicated and is not always an easy thing to do.

More school kids

We also visited a second school in the same compound. This school was slightly better off than the first. It was also a community school, however it was not free. The school has been supported by MCC for a few years. Last year a SALTer was located at the school teaching computers, grade 8 and civics. The school has a computer lab, which is using used computers supplied via MCC. My brother John has been responsible for setting up the computers, and getting the network hooked up. He has also managed to get the local internet provider to supply wireless connection for free as part of a pilot program. The lab doubles as an internet cafe and it is successful it will eventually pay for the internet for the school use.

John in the computer lab

All in all it was a meaningful and thought provoking day, the details of which I hope not to forget.

Day 3, A trip to the country side

Greetings after day 3. Today we traveled to the country side to visit Amy Spaulding in Mumbwa. Amy is working in Mumbwa with MCC as a SALTer (Serving and Learning together). She works with the CHD (community for human development). The purpose of our trip was to deliver school books to some village community schools. The books were donated by North American schools and were bound for the shredder before being intercepted (brand-new school books).

Our trip started off eventfully, as half way to the town of Mumbwa, the truck overheated. Luckily there were some boys with bikes were we stopped who were able to bike to the next village and bring us back a large container of water. After waiting for the rad to cool slightly John opened it up to a small volcano of muddy water. We put the new water in, and were on our way. No further issues with the truck so we never quite figured out what went wrong.

doing a bit of knitting by the school yard

Once we got to Mumbwa, we sorted out the books and headed off for the first school. The main highway was a dirt road, and when we switched on to the "main road" we found a rutted mud path (sometimes half a truck wide, sometimes for a full vehicle). We made our way along until we came to the first large structure which was the community school.

The outside of the school

Inside the school with the students

The children at these schools are so beautiful, and eager to learn. The community representative was there, but we don't know where the teacher was. There were lots of students. The school was also located next the community pump/well. People from around the area would come with buckets/containers to use this well. Everyone walks, and walking a few kilometres for you water is not unusual.

Heidi with student showing off the MCC school bag

The second school we visited was a bit larger and more advanced. The were building new school rooms with bricks donated by another NGO. They had also built a chicken barn. The chickens raised were being sold (about $6 for a chicken) and also used for the school lunch program. Again the kids and the teachers were very appreciative of the visit and the books. At both schools we saw kids with MCC school kits. We have learned that in Zambia while the bags are treasured, the contents of the kits are not always suitable compared to the locally available supplies. Material aid is always a tricky thing to get right.

The schools chicken barn

John trying to do some teaching

After the school visit we got to meet Amy's first sponsor parents (she has sinced moved into the town) who live on a farm property. They have a compound with a single building where the parents live. Over time they have built additional structures for kitchen, (just finishing) , bedrooms, chicken coops etc.

This is the room that Amy lived in for 2 months

This is the kitchen, the shelving unit was just completed by the daughter. She made it from mud.

When we were done we went for lunch at a restaurant were we were able to try the traditional nshima with relish (fried greens or vegetables) and roast chicken. I pronounced it "not bad". The way to eat nshima is to take a clump (it has the consistency of dough, but is a very thick corn meal based porridge), smush it back and forth in your hand until it is a ball (and cooled slightly). You then form a small indent in the middle and scoop up some relish. By the end of the meal your hand is very sticky and full of nshima.

All Zambian children are beautful

Thankfully we made it home with no further truck troubles.