Africa » Zambia
Africa » Zambia
Letter 2 (written 6/8) - Wednesday, June 27, 2001
by Ratty
Greetings from the hut !
Life is still good -- and if you STILL have not heard from us by telephone by now, don't worry. I won't waste valuable paper explaining the myriad of telephone issues here. We're adjusting quite nicely to the unplugged lifestyle (I've stopped fumbling for the light switch when entering our hut -- now I fumble with lighters and candles).
Our host family here takes such pride in having us stay with them; our Bamaama (host mom) cooks, cleans, launders, boils drinking water, and prepares bathing water for us. It's still a slightly awkward feeling for us, but the culture here is to _always_ pamper guests. JP and I have had many of our offers to assist with household chores rebuffed. If a neighbor were to see us, honored guests from America, washing dishes or hauling water, it would be shameful for Briton and Emma (Bataata & Bamaama)-- what sort of lousy hosts would make their guests work? Jena keeps reminding me NOT to get used to it -- she also finds no humor when I suggest complying with local sex roles. Oh, well....
As odd as it sounds, life here is busy. So far Peace Corps training has occupied most of our waking hours. Great material though: 4 hours of language/day, cross cultural exercises, small scale farming, malaria avoidance, bee keeping, etc. -- all the stuff they should teach in high school. (Side note here: JP wants me to describe our hut. Picture a rectangular box 8' x 10' made from mud bricks with a rammed earth floor (smoothed with the beer bottle-rolling pin) and a grass thatch roof. We have a "window" consisting of a 1' x 1' hole in one wall, and a sturdy door that actually locks. It's nowhere near as depressing as it may sound, although Martha Stewart would hate it. Our furniture consists of a mattress, a guitar, and a clothesline running between rafters: hanging underwear outside where god and all of creation can see it would be a shame of the highest order.)
Tonga lesson for the day: LOOHOOLOO means gourd although nobody grows them around here. The local crops of choice are maize, sweet potato, cassava, hot peppers, watermelon, pumpkin, some cotton, some coffee, leafy mustards, peanuts, mango, avocado, and ten million chickens. We're two months into the dry season and everyone is burning their fields -- makes for good sunsets and exciting short cuts through flaming grass (twice on our way to language class yesterday we had to run or jump to avoid getting toasted!)
Life here is alot closer to the edge, although peoples' reaction to that reality isn't quite what you'd expect. Everyone seems to know that life is hard and tomorrow is uncertain, so the recipe for happiness is simple: family, food and shelter. The friendliness and openness of these people still boggles me -- in "poor" areas of the States, friendliness is not usually the first feeling out on the streets. It's made me realize that poverty really only exists in comparison to others -- and in rural Zambia there is no example of gross prosperity by which to compare, thus no one really feels poor. I'm sure there are exceptions, but no one is made to _feel_ poor. They cling tight to everything they have, and are not apt to share. There is a Zambian saying that goes something like: "There is no piece of food too small to share." We could all learn from that.
Today we were out working in a garden when a pair of native parrots flew by. Every day, I can't believe we are looking at an African sky, African moon and stars -- digging African dirt from underneath our fingernails. It's nice when personal hygiene can feel exotic!
On that note, I leave you, fair reader. We miss you all very much, and hope that late spring in Oregon is as wonderful as it has always been!
Love RT and JP
(Editor's Note: The following things were written on the outside of
the aerogram:
* We're living in a deforested "Miombo woodland". The intact wooded areas are enchanting.
* "Mwalibizia Buti? Ndalibizia kabotlu!" Have you protected yourself from the sun this afternoon? Fine!
* Does anyone know the magnetic declination for Zambia? I think it's about 3 degrees west (?)
- Created:
- Tuesday, October 12, 2004 at 12:27 PM