First Day at Habitat for Humanity Zambia

27 September 2012

We left at 720am to walk the mile to work (Nigel says it’s a mile, I say it’s more!). Nigel to SC (Save the Children), and me to HFHZ (Habitat for Humanity Zambia), which is right across the street. Nigel usually leaves at 735am to arrive at 800am, but I wanted more time on my first day, not knowing how the walk would be.  It’s been many years since I’ve walked that far in hiking boots with a heavy backpack – I am definitely getting a smaller laptop when I get home, my ancient one weighs a ton!  Luckily the weather was cool this morning with a nice breeze and we made it there by 750am. Walking home was a different matter; mostly uphill, although only slightly, and 90 degrees outside with same heavy backpack.  I was very tired when I got home since I haven’t walked that much or worked such a long day in quite a while.  I work 8am-5pm with lunch from 1pm-2pm.  But after I finished lunch at 120pm, I just went back to work.

For now I am doing online research in order for HFHZ to update their brochures, other printed materials, and their website. Most of the figures they quote regarding HIV/AIDS, sanitation, water, diseases, infant and child mortality rates, urban and slum populations, etc. are from outdated studies.  I spent most of my day on every kind of governmental and non-governmental website you could think of: USAID, UNICEF, CDC, WHO, UNHCR, UN General Assembly reports, census tables, Homeless International, CIA World Factbook, and on and on ad infinitum.  The one website I needed to access the most is the Zambian government website with the country's statistics, but every time I tried to get on it I got a message saying "the

bandwidth limit had been exceeded and the server was temporarily unable to service my request; try again later"  As Nigel says, welcome to Africa!  After I gather all the stats, we will analyze them and decide which ones to cite.

There is a big fundraising event on October 31^st. (I don’t think they celebrate Halloween here because no one mentioned it).  I will most likely get to help with that too. It is a dinner at a very nice hotel for corporate executive types. 

I work with some really nice people.  I am working in the Resource Development and Communications Department, and I really like the manager, Linda Sharon Mafonko. The two men who report to her are the people I work most closely with, Voster Tembo and Sakalimi (nicknamed Saka, pronounced sacka) Yoyo.  They have all been very kind to me.  At a meeting yesterday about the event, I met women whose names are Choolwe, Mofya and Chanda. They don’t work for HFHZ, but are with the co-sponsors of the event.  It is very hard to remember the names, but I have found that writing them down helps.  I have a cheat sheet at the back of my notebook where no one else can see that I am doing that!

Lunch is cooked on site by a paid cook, the same as at Nigel’s office.  Everyone pitches in 125,000 kwacha per month – which equates to about $25, and you get a cooked lunch every day.  From the amount of food I saw piled on some people’s plates, it could be the only meal they eat each day.  Most of the office appears to sit down and eat together at a large table in the kitchen. The food was very interesting.  I knew from Nigel that the staple in their diet is nshima, which is made from a maize flour and water and cooked into a mass.  It is very white and as it dries, gets hard and tacky, so it is much better to deal with when it is warm and pliable.  It is sort of like thick polenta, but has no flavor at all.  It is always served at every meal and is used as a utensil as well as a food.  You take a piece of nshima about the size of a meatball with your right hand from the serving you put on your plate.  Then you sort of roll it around and flatten it a bit with your right fingers.  Next, you use it to scoop up a bite sized portion of the other food on your plate, and pop the nshima with the other food into your mouth, and start all over again for your next bite. 

It doesn’t taste of anything, but it also doesn’t taste very good, if that makes any sense, so I used the same piece of nshima for as many bites as I could get away with, just nibbling a bit off with each bite of food, until it was gone and I had to start again. We had rape, (which is a kind of dark green leafy vegetable related to broccoli and turnips which I think is also known as canola – because rapeseed oil is canola oil) - chopped up very small and served two different ways; just cooked plain, and also cooked in a sauce with tomatoes and ground up, ground nuts.  (They call peanuts ground nuts.) That was actually pretty good.  And then the chicken - I have never had chicken as overcooked as this in my life– it was like shoe leather, but it tasted better than the nshima! Nigel told me they overcook all their meat, and really the only meat you see in the stores in chicken, beef and pork – maybe some fish, usually bream. No lamb, which Nigel misses.   He thinks they overcook everything to make sure to get all the bacteria or whatever out, especially since you often see flies on it at the butcher.  So, with that in mind, I don’t care about eating well done meat!!  

HFHZ – it’s so much easier than typing the whole name out – seems to be really pleased to have a volunteer.  They said I showed up at exactly the right time. My plan is to work there Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and more if needed.

The Menagerie

Caesar and Gus

Gus

Buddy

Buddy

 

 

 

26 September 2012

We are very lucky to be living in our flat here –obviously in much better circumstances than the majority of the country.  There are little things, though, that remind me we’re not in Kansas anymore.  There is mosquito netting around the bed, which is not a problem until you wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and forget it’s there!

And, when you do go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, it is imperative that you turn the light switch on first, which is conveniently located outside the bathroom door, to give all the little creatures like spiders and cockroaches time to hide before you go in and end up screaming!  The first few days there was a small lizard in the bedroom every night, but I think he has left now……. I think the average per day is one large cockroach, a million ants, a million flies, 25 moths and not too many spiders. Certainly learning to adjust my attitude!

We have “two cats in the yard”, both young males, probably six months old – just past the kitten stage.  Nigel had already named one Caesar before I arrived, so I named the other Augustus (Gus).  In the late afternoon when we sit outside, they both come around looking for food and affection.  We haven’t given them much food yet.  I worry that if we do, they will be too domesticated to fend for themselves when we leave.  But last time I was at the grocery store I did linger for a long time in the pet food aisle!  I miss our cats at home, Tom and Tosca.

Our next door neighbor Vinod, a retired Captain from the Indian Navy, has a fantastic dog named Buddy who he rescued from a local shelter.  Buddy can almost jump up into a tree when he is chasing the cats. He is very high energy and a lot of fun.  He obeys about as well as Tucker does!  Makes me miss Tucker.

One of the nicest things of all is the birds.  In particular, at sunrise and sunset a bird called a bulbul sings constantly.  It is a beautiful song; unfortunately I can’t hear the beauty in it all the time because something Nigel said sticks in my head.  He says the birds sound as if they are saying “sweet chop suey”, so now it’s hard to think of anything else!  As soon as I can get a good picture and possibly a recording of the sound, I will post it!

Off to my first day of “work” tomorrow at Habitat for Humanity Zambia as a Communications Coordinator!

Nigel's Beer

Sylvia from Melissa grocery

Most mornings I walk down to Melissa grocery to shop.  I return some of Nigel’s beer bottles because when you do, you get a discount on the beer you buy.  As you walk in the door, there is someone standing by a table that takes your empties and they write the number in a book.  When you check out, you tell the clerk how many bottles you returned, she calls over that number to the return table, they verify that they have an entry for that number of bottles, and then the clerk charges you less for the equivalent amount of bottles.  Quite a system.  A new law went into effect about buying alcohol last weekend, or to be absolutely correct, a new law was passed ages ago, but they only started to obey it last weekend.  You can only purchase alcohol between the hours of 10am and 7 pm, Monday through Saturday.  When we went grocery shopping at SPAR last Sunday there was a guard standing before the liquor section of the store not letting anyone by. 

I usually walk to the local store in the morning before it gets too hot.  Yesterday I returned three beer bottles and I thought they acted a bit strange, but ignored it.  As I was shopping, I put three new bottles of beer in my cart along with my other purchases.  Sylvia, the really nice clerk, whom I have never seen out from behind her counter, walked up to me and after saying a very pleasant good morning, leaned in to tell me in a low voice that I couldn’t buy the beer yet as it was only 930am and could she put them back in the cold case for me. We arranged that I would buy the other things in my cart and return after 10am to buy the beer.

I wandered around the area, looking at other shops, and returned to the grocery store just before 10am, got the three bottles of beer and as I walked up to her register, I asked if it okay to buy the beer now.  A group of men, who always seem to be hanging around, roared with laughter and assured me it was after 10am! Not sure what they thought – maybe that I was desperate!!

The Market

 Sunday 9/16/12

Nigel made us a great breakfast this morning with fried eggs, tomatoes and bacon – which is like the bacon you get in England – an FEB (Full English Breakfast)!   During breakfast we were serenaded by a choir located at a church just behind where we live.  Unfortunately this morning it was a male voice that was not very good at all and we had to listen to him over and over again.  Nigel said usually it is a female with a very good voice – hope she’s back next weekend!  Sunday morning we were treated to the same thing all over again.  It’s not close enough to understand the words, but you sure can hear the tone and pitch!

We then took off via taxi to an open air marketplace, Arcades, which conveniently was near a large grocery store, SPAR, and an Airtel store.  Inside the Airtel store I was sad to discover I left my glasses at home and had to get by with my prescription sunglasses – not easy to read anything while inside a grocery store for example!  We got a flash drive modem for my laptop and my cell phone set up with a new sim card and a local number, after a bit of palaver. Then off to the marketplace where we looked at an overabundance of things – carved hippopotami and elephants, masks, cheap jewelry, fabric, baskets, and a few treasures in between.  We found a very cool framed carving of five African figures to hang on the wall, and bought two pictures by an artist, Boniface Mahamba, that are of African figures made with feathers.  I just realized that my description does not sound as attractive and unique as they are – you’ll just have to trust me!

We did a big shop at SPAR because it has a lot more variety than Melissa grocery which is closer.  I loved the oatmeal box with the brand name Jungle Oatmeal. (Photo below)  SPAR is not within walking distance, but because we took a taxi there and back we can do a larger shop.  Thankfully, Nigel arranged with the same taxi driver, Lackson, to return and pick us up.  When Nigel called him from SPAR to arrange the ride home, Lackson, who has a strong accent, asked Nigel if we had left something in his cab. Nigel thought he said steak, and from our end I could hear Nigel say, “Steak, like in T-bone” and then, “no, we didn’t leave any steak in the cab”.  When Lackson arrived he asked me “are you sure you didn’t leave any “specs” in the car?”  He then produced my case with the glasses I have to wear every waking moment just to see properly.  The subsequent patron in his cab had found them in the back seat.  I had not left them at home, but in the cab! I was unbelievably lucky that they weren’t taken.  Thank you Lackson!!!

In the late afternoon after returning home, Nigel’s friends Patrick and Bush (his first name is Kelvin, but everyone calls him Bush) stopped by to meet me and say hello.  They were thrilled with the gifts Nigel had me bring over for them.  It was readily apparent that they really like Nigel and enjoy his company. Patrick said he loves Nigel’s sense of humor which is like his – warped! Patrick and Bush are just two members of a group of about fifteen Zambian drinking buddies who call themselves “the mongrels”.  Any night of the week you can go to the bar at the Mulungushi Village Lodge and some or all of them will be there. Because the flat wasn’t ready when he arrived, Nigel stayed at the Lodge for a couple of days last June and became acquainted with them.  It is a very diverse group of men, including a contractor, a printer, a banker, a lawyer, an IT guy and, as Nigel says, some general wheeler and dealers, ranging in age from late 20’s to early 50’s.  They took Nigel with them for a weekend away to Ndola to watch the Zambia vs. Uganda football (soccer) game earlier this month.

Last thought - while shopping at SPAR I got to the herbs and spices shelf and as I was reaching for some basics such as thyme, oregano and basil, it dawned on me how long I’m going to be here – long enough to buy whole bottles of herbs. Whoa!

A Freezer for Beauty

15 September 2012

This morning Nigel went out with Andrew, a friend from his office and Beauty, who got a friend from her church to drive them around looking for a freezer that Nigel purchased for her.  Apart from cleaning for mzungus (whites), she cooks and sells food, so the freezer will be a big help for her business.  Beauty was widowed last year and has two small children, a son Joshua aged seven and a daughter, Loveness aged three.  She lives with her children, her sister, and her sister’s two children in a room the size of our bedroom here, and believe me, it is not a big bedroom.  Nigel believes she is the primary wage earner of her family.  He came home much shaken after seeing how small and primitive her home is.  She lives in a compound called Bauleni.  Neighborhoods here are often called compounds. The toilet is a hole in the ground in an outhouse made up of three concrete block walls with no roof or door. They have a well with a hand pump to get their water.  There are masses of children playing in the dirt and not a male in sight, although they could have been working.  Nigel said he can’t even imagine what the area will look like when the rains begin; it will be a mud-hole.

After he got home, we walked up the road and had lunch at a chicken place which was actually quite good. We sat on the patio and watched the world go by - the restaurant is situated on a corner where minibuses stop.  Each minibus can carry 14 people if you pack in as many as you can and has a driver and a conductor as well.  The conductor jumps out at the corner and yells out the destination of the bus and collects the (negotiable) fare from the patrons. Nigel told me once when he and Andrew went out, the conductor charged them for three fares instead of two because between them they took up the space of three people!  When the minibus is full, the conductor sits on the floor, and as they take off from their stop, you can often see the conductor still climbing into the bus and closing the sliding door behind him as the driver roars off down the road.

The Danish Embassy hosted an annual sports day that ends with a buffet dinner, for the Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Norwegian families associated with all four Nordic embassies here. There is a fierce but good natured rivalry among them.  Nigel works for a branch of Save the Children which is funded by the donors in Sweden.  Naturally, the Director of his office was invited, although neither he nor his wife is Swedish, and he graciously invited us to attend as well.   We hadn’t been given much information about the evening, and didn’t know that the dinner we were attending followed a day of mildly competitive sports, so we had no idea what to wear.  Nigel ended up in slacks, sport coat and tie, while I found the nicest skirt and tee shirt I had brought with me. I felt under-dressed; we had no clue whether the dinner was inside or out, fancy or not.  Upon our arrival, I was pleased to see I was dressed very appropriately, while Nigel was overdressed!  It was set up in the garden of the embassy, with a large, natural wood fire pit burning in the middle of the grounds, and lots of tables set for dinner placed around it.  One of the people we met was the Swedish ambassador to Zambia, Ms Lena Nordström, and her husband whose name totally escaped me!
It was very nice meeting Mark Nosbach, the Country Director for Save the Children in Zambia, and his wife Amy. It turns out they live about ½ mile away and we are hoping to get together with them again soon.  He is German, she is Australian, and they met at university in Vermont! They have lived in seven countries during the last 15 years and said Ethiopia was their favorite.  Mark is leaving Save the Children here at the beginning of the year and has been offered a position with an NGO in South Africa.  Amy said they really have to think about it because they have elementary aged children and they are not sure that the So. African values and outlook on life, which still has a pervasive element of racism, is where they want to raise their children.