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Now Entering Lusaka - Sunday, August 5, 2001
by Rat & JP
Letter #6 July 8, 2001
More Words From Africa: On the occasion of our departure from our homestay family (for 2 weeks of training in the east). Our Bamaama slayed one of their prize roosters. I'm sorry to report that he was NOT the beast that wakes us at 3 am, 4 am, and again at 5 am, but it's still a good day when a rooster dies! Our host family say they will miss us so....but I suspect that they (at least Bamaama) will be a bit relieved to have two less mouths to feed.
Have I given you a profile of our fellow PC volunteers yet? Our group of 9 spans ages from 22 thru 57 (?). Three women, six men -- I'm told this sex ratio is about the opposite of normal. The two young'uns are Matt from Wisc. and Beckie from Israel. The two mid-20's boys are Buck from Colo. and Micah from Ky. The next cohort includes 4 people near the golden age of 30 -- coincidentally we are the 4 volunteers who will be posted in the Tonga-speaking region. (We'll all be within about 50 km. of each other). Paul, from upstate NY, and Jason from S. Dakota are our fellow Tongans. The most experienced member of our small group is Jane from Colo. -- a wonderful woman who sold her home and left a grown son and 2 ex-husbands to come to Africa. It's truly a good mix.
July 9 - in Lusaka now after a bumpy 4-hr ride from Kitwe. The main roads in Zambia are paved, but in pretty bad condition. The occasional pothole is all the more dangerous because you have a chance to build up a bit of speed. My kidneys hurt! July 12 - now sitting in a village 120 km from the nearest paved road (eastern province, just outside N. Luangwa Park)
Catchup: spent a wonderful evening of margaritas and enchiladas in Lusaka at the home of our PC boss Kim Jenkins. Next day drove about 7 hours to Chipata, the capital of Eastern Province. Beautiful drive. Good road, first baobob tree (eat your heart out, Dr. Suess) hills with acacias and scattered round huts (huts in our neck of the woods are rectangular). Spent one night at Chipata, then drove 8 tortuous hours on a dry river bed/seasonal road to the village in which 5 of our group will briefly reside. For 4 days we are staying with a currently-serving volunteer in our project. Of the many goals of our project (environmental education, income-generating activities, improved farming and grain storage, work with community natural resource committees, etc.) our host has focused on environmental ed and some work with the game warden.
We're about 15 km from North Luangwa and wildlife abounds! Saw a covey (?) of baboons yesterday, heard elephants last night, and stepped in elephant dung this morning (it's not as massive a pile as you might guess). Our host tells us that last week an elephant was "controlled" by the game warden. For the first time in the year that Kim (our PC host) has been here, a group of elephants was causing massive damage to crops and grain storage structures. Just as in the states, it is less a case of mean vindictive animals but instead more people expanding into the animal's territory. When a subsistence farmer loses part of the year's harvest, he either starves or eats bush meat. In the case of this village, the animal control troops came in and shot one of the male elephants -- the theory being that the group would then move elsewhere. The meat of the slain beast was distributed to the locals and had we arrived days earlier we could have sampled "nyama ya muzovu" (meat of elephant). That's life on the edge of a game park.
July 13 - Had a meeting yesterday with some of the park employees -- very knowledgeable and kind fellows. They allowed us to view the tusks of the "controlled" elephant. They were about 7 feet long, very heavy, and still had blood and bits of flesh clinging to them. The ivory is under lock and key, and will likely be incinerated. Seems like a shame to burn it, but it can't be sold for fear of encouraging the black market ivory trade.
New birds: lilac-breasted roller, Ross' turaco, and the African gray hornbill -- all three are exotic enough to warrant a place on the cover of a field guide! Kim's hut is spitting distance from a wide "dambo" (what we call a dry wash in America). Since it is now the dry season, the dambo is a swath of sand 100 feet wide -- when the rains come in November/December, it fills the banks and can be over 6 feet deep. Must make for an exciting crossing by bicycle!
Unlike the charcoal used for cooking in the areas near Kitwe, most people cook with wood in Eastern Province. They use what's called a three-rock fire and burn some tropical hardwood that resembles purpleheart. All of the furniture is hand-hewn, and is likewise a beautiful rich hardwood. Some basic carpentry concepts are foreign to Zambians though. I've seen many pieces of furniture and even door frames with bent-over nails. Even watched a guy install wood screws with a hammer rather than a screwdriver. Perhaps I'll teach woodworking rather than sustainable farming.
I just ate a green orange in the shade of a mango tree, greeted a child in Nyanja, and watched a parrot fly by. We must be in Africa!
We're just back from a 24 km bike ride to teach environmental ed at a neighboring village. It's a brick, 2-room building with 6 grades, 40 kids and 1 teacher. And on this day we arrived to find that only 2 students had come for lessons. The teacher had been away all week, so by Friday the students had simply stopped showing up. This situation did not distress anyone present (6 PC volunteers, a Zambian environmental educator from North Kafue, an elections official, a game scout, a teacher, 2 pupils, and some guy with a broken bicycle.) Apparently the teacher is paid once per month, but his check is available only in a town 120 km away. Lacking an automobile, he bikes to town, which takes 4 days roundtrip. Meanwhile, there is no teacher at the school, so the students are left to their own devices (and from the look of their classroom, their devices are few.)
July 14: New birds of note: carmine bee-eater, glossy ibis, lappet-faced vulture and an African jacana. New mammals of note: vervet monkeys, more baboons, puku (antelope-type guy), impala, hippopotamus (!!) New alcoholic beverages: frothy millet beer. Life is good-- last night our PC host procured a bucket of the local hooch, a bubbling concoction made from millet and wild yeast. It is uncarbonated, served hot, and consumed communally with the same straw -- in short nothing like American beer. No ill effects yet, aside from copious flatulence [Editor's note: Is he really trying to blame the beer?].
This morning a neighbor served as guide and led a bike trip to the Luangwa River, the far shore of which is N. Luangwa National Park. It's an exciting 12 km through mopane woodland where we admired fresh elephant footprints, dodged piles of hippo shit, and sped past the occasional brushfire. Once at the river we spotted what we had really come for: a group of about 20 hippos basking in the sun. Incredible hulking beasts that look malproportioned out of the water, but were quite at home and grunting with delight while in the river. I could have watched them all day. This evening we're going back into the bush to find elephants, then a 10 hour drive tomorrow to South Luangwa Park. But now I must study Tonga.
Back from the night drive now: No elephants, but one spotted-eagle owl, several nightjars, and LOTS of tsetse flies. If we die of sleeping sickness, blame the Luangwa tsetses.
July 16: After a long and uneventful day of driving, we arrived last night at a safari camp at the edge of South Luangwa NP (we were near North Luangwa previously). Our scrappy group of 9 found warm showers, flush toilets, and Castle Mile stout beer, not to mention hippos, elephants, crocodiles, and vervet monkeys in the camp! For the next four nights we will live in elevated tents on the bank of the Luangwa River, which has a 24 hour parade of large animals and tropical birds. As part of our "training" we took a 4 hour game drive this morning and spotted buffalo, zebra, elephant, various antelope species, warthogs, crocodiles, hippos, monkeys and two female lions!
We love this place but am out of space! Better start another aerogram.
Love
RT and JP
- Created:
- Tuesday, October 12, 2004 at 12:42 PM