Volunteering in Zambia

FINAL BLOG: MY YEAR IN REVIEW

2012-03-20T18:06:00.000-04:00

The sun was beginning to set on the horizon. I could see the reddish tinge of the sun set against the powder blue-grey sky. The early dusk chill began to settle into my bones as I walked briskly across the native grasses towards Old Jim.

“Hi, could you tell me how to get to Old Jim”, I asked briskly to a fellow commuter peddling on his bicycle.

“It’s that way, but you . . . “, he quickly glanced at the slippers casually strapped to my feet. “There’s a stream – you have to cross”.

I nodded, thanked him, and plodded on.

The stream was actually a small creek, but my anxiousness to get across before the dark descended quietly onto the valley’s undulating landscape made the creek appear more ominous. To my eyes, the river gushed rather than gently rolled downhill, and as I crossed, I was too careful in balancing on the moss covered stones, which formed a trail across the gurgling water. I almost fell into the chilly water.

Once across, it occurred to me suddenly that there might be poisonous, dangerous snakes laying in silence between the tall, native grasses. I prayed quietly, feeling vulnerable in my slippers. I hoped the shuffling of my feet wouldn’t awaken any if they were indeed present.

The shortcut turned out to be winding, dirt trails that eventually took me back to the main road; the shortcut turned out to be unnecessary, after all, as I got to Mr Banda’s house in more time than if I had used the proper route. Moreover, the roads after the turn off to get to his house all looked alike that I began to worry that I was lost – but then when I arrived at a small intersection, I looked to my left and saw the familiar hump and garden adjacent to his neighbor’s house signifying that I was in exactly the right place.

When I arrived, he was just coming around his main house. Mr. Banda is building, using his meager monthly income to incrementally buy nails and bagged cement. He used the soil around his house to mold the bricks that would serve as the structure. He and his wife greeted me as a imposed on them.

“Oh, hello, Camille.”

“Hi Mr. Banda”, I greeted, using the formal way to address a stranger in Zambia. I handed him the plastic bag of vegetables I purchased from the market stalls on Lundazi Road. Tomatoes, kale, the usual items purchased by poor, Zambian households. “I wanted to make sure you got these. Sorry about not buying the cassava – I was sick the last few days and wasn’t able to get back to the Saturday Market”.

The real reason was that my memory wasn’t functioning well; the flu had done me in and I was bedridden for a couple of days. Three days later, my mind was still fuzzy and I had trouble keeping track of my days.

We bade each other farewell, as I did my other colleagues at the Council, and promised to meet up if I ever returned to Zambia.

The walk back to Chipata Motel didn’t feel as long. I returned to my room just as the last rays of sunlight sank into the red, dry soil of Chipata Valley and resumed packing, in preparation for my departure from Zambia. This day was my last in Chipata.

When I parted from Mr. Banda, I began to feel a little sad about leaving Zambia all together. It had been my home for a year, and even with all the aggravation that periodically migrated into my heart, I had discovered a home in Chipata and settled into the life there, somewhat, having developed friendships and acquaintances. Here I was again; having lived the full experience, I (as usual) recognized the familiar nostalgia that always hits me (to paraphrase an old cliché) like a ton of bricks as the end of the experience comes to a near.

As a volunteer funded by CUSO International, I cannot really judge my work at the Council by interpersonal relationships, alone. Because the funds supporting my service were partially paid for by Canadian taxes, I have to judge my work also by what I accomplished for the Council based on the targets that the planning department had issued to me.

In reviewing this past year, I would assert that the year was a success. The integrated development plan was written and I fit the format to the specifications of the Regional Urban Planning Act as well as the wants of the planning staff. It had become clear to me that the planners wanted an urban planning guide, so I fashioned the language and the format of the IDP according to the needs of the planners so as to make the planning process as painless and uncomplicated as possible.

Secondly, I completed the draft sectoral plan for unplanned settlements, which grew out of the local area plan written to upgrade the Magazine Squatter Compound. If everything was on my timeline and in my control, within a year, I would have signed the consent to legalize lands and started allocating land for community gardens, and worked with the social planners to develop a 3-year plan to saturate the houses with vegetable plots. As this was not my reality at the Council, I settled for a completed grant for building the market shelters, GPS coordinates of most features in the Compound to facilitate the mapping of the area, and the beginnings of a health outreach and food security program. It must also be pointed out that the work on the Compound had to bode well with the schedule of the other planners. Admittedly, I was a little selfish as far as pushing to get things done there.

In addition, I managed to include a few trainings into my otherwise mundane planning work load. The trainings helped to add spice to my professional life at the Council.

If I was unsuccessful in this placement, it was in failing to navigate through the politics of local government of Chipata District, which replicates the politics of governments everywhere. If you want to know what I mean by this, watch CNN or the local news coverage of your governments at all levels. Whatever you learn about in the news coverage also plays/played out in Chipata District.

The difficulty for me was the balancing of political interests with public ones. I’m not sure it this skill is one that I will ever perfect. I prefer simply planning and letting the more skilled people to politic, while I play the puppet master in the wings, pulling the strings.

Another year, another experience well spent. Thank you, CUSO International, VSO Zambia, and Chipata Municipal Council!

Another fundraising reminder –

I will continue to raise money for CUSO International until my $2,000 goal is met. Hence, I will keep this blog open until I’m told by CUSO that the goal has been reached. Please continue to send in your $10 donations through the link to the right of my blogs or by check/money order. The instructions are written on the fundraising page.

On that final request, I leave my readers with my favorite images of Chipata. These photos should explain to readers my sudden attachment to Africa. Thank you for staying tuned all year!

Posing with Naomi's children

Another photo with Naomi's children

Fish from the day's catch in Nkhata Bay, Malawi

Residents bathing in Lilongwe River not far from Mabuya Lodge

Musungu fruit - native to the Eastern Province (i think) - sweet and succulent. In a word, delicious.

A view of Lake Malawi from the Big Blue Start Backpackers

The Cewa Village in Katete from one angle

Children residing within the vicinity of Chipata center - eating a vsimbi fruit

One of Marco's students studying at his school in Magazine

Ngonis rehearsing for the Nc'wala Festival, which just passed


A scene of grain vendors taken when road tripping through Malawi


On the last leg of my return trip to Chipata from Nkhata Bay, Malawi

HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY PILOT PROJECT

2012-02-16T05:43:00.000-05:00

The dry, Savannah heat pulled me into SPAR during my lunch break on this day to snack on a mini-cadbury chocolate bar. The hot cup of coffee doesn’t solve the heat rash rising in my gut, a common occurrence with me in really hot weather, but the air conditioning in SPAR’s café corner, a popular hangout for foreigners, cools the hot, black liquid to make sipping it bearable. This moment is another one of my favorites in Chipata – writing in my journal or blogging, chatting with acquaintances and friends, and taking delicate bites of melting chocolate that contrasted well against the known bitter tang of coffee. I savor the contrast now as both tastes linger on my tongue.

Last Friday, 3 February, 2012, I embarked on the first of three pilot urban agriculture projects for poor residents. In the mid-morning, I rushed to the one shop in the Down Shoppes, my brisk steps closing the distance, to claim the two, broiler, day old chicks I was promised by one of the merchants. True to his promise, when I arrived, he fetched me two from one of the boxes of 100 and kindly put them in a box, which he put together for me. After, I took a bike cabbie to the street leading to the Magazine Marketplace in the compound where I have been working all year. I patted by citenge bag, feeling the metal brim of the hand held hoe I had bought for this occasion, and felt happy knowing that it was securely stuffed in my sack. I noticed a bag of cornmeal being sold at a stall near the entrance of the street. Concerned about whether or not the chicks would have food at their new owner’s home, I acquiesced to buying a small bag of cornmeal before proceeding onto the house. The price was a mere ZMK400.

Granddaughter of household beneficiary

The household nice enough to participate in this food security project was happy to receive the day old chicks. Greeting me with a smile, the granddaughter listened patiently as I explained where I thought she should put the plots. Drawing squares in the air to demonstrate elongation and size and gesturing to the open locations around her yard, she agreed and we set to work. We exchanged hoeing and planting, sharing the work. Within minutes, two other men from the compound arrived, asked us what we were doing and proceeded to help. One of the men, the household’s neighbor, got his larger hoe from his house and helped us plow the soil to make sowing easier on our backs. It was hard work – not exorbitantly – but hard enough to make me light headed.

The task would only take two people – one to plant and one to sow – but as a group of four, we finished in less than two hours. It turned out to be a community affair and became fun.

This project follows the model of City Slickers Farms, but includes two day old chicks to help the family start a poultry farm. As the chicks get older, we hope they’ll procreate and produce more chicks. I also used the inter-cropping model commonly used by organic farmers. I tried to explain to my helpers that with clay soil, fertilizer may not be needed because clay tends to retain nutrients. I realized while trying to explain the virtues of organic gardening that this might be another level of discussion, entirely, here because growers tend to rely so heavily on fertilizer – they may even swear by them. I’m not sure if the value of organic farming registered in the brief way I described it, but for the future, it might become a more popular method of gardening for the locals.

Once all the seeds were planted on each plot, we created borders out of string held together with sticks to signify to people that seeds had just been put into the ground. Finally, we were finished. The end of the project soon transgressed into that familiar discussion about needs. The needs of poor people here are pretty basic – a need for me to buy a pair of shoes, so I buy to help them with their business, or a loaf of bread so they can eat for the day – and on it goes. In the case of this day’s discussion, the need is a hose. The cost is a whopping ZMK110,000 because hoses here are all imported (very few goods are manufactured here). In dollar terms, this amount is quite small, but VSO volunteers – as do other volunteers – get paid in kwacha rather than in the currency of their home country. I’m not sure if I’ll have enough for the hose, but I might be able to buy him a steel or plastic watering can.

Inflation in Zambia is quite high; wages are low and volunteers get just enough to live on, but the perception of volunteers among the locals is that we’re all rich, when in fact the opposite is true. Local professionals working here do better in Zambia than some of the volunteers living in their home countries. In Zambia, those earning ZMK2.8 million can buy a house – even have a new one built. In volunteer’s home countries, the equivalent value of the same income may not even purchase a home. Outsider’s perceptions of Zambia – or even Africa – fail to take into account the class inequality that in my opinion is the basis of economic problems for many Africans. It is also often forgotten that the inequality is exacerbated by the social competition and marginalization that are evident between African groups. Discrimination between African groups are not always introduced into studies examining the causes of poverty or inequality.

Two days later, I walked with my colleague, Mr. Banda, to his home inside the Old Jim compound to help him plant tree (chico, soursop, date, and lemon) seeds. I also bought a bag of bean seeds and purchased some vegetables for his family because I knew he, as a casual worker, was paid little. The food would help them with the evening meal on that day.

While pounding the soil with his old hoe, it broke. Three days later, I bought him a new one to make sure that he can continue to farm his much-needed vegetables for relish as the growing seasons mature into the end of the year.

The food security project went well. Two and a half weeks later, I returned to the first house to check on the plants. I was pleased to learn that the seeds had already germinated and that some had grown to about 20 centimeters tall. The family there will have okra, beans, and pumpkin to eat and corn to sell.

Small corn patch

bean, okra, and pumpkin patch

Bean and corn patch

Another corn patch

Another pumpkin, corn, and okra patch

RAINY SEASON

2012-01-30T05:44:00.001-05:00

Neighbors and friends - the street vendors

The skin on my finger tips exhibit tight, scrunched up lines, like crinkled potato chips, an outcome of all this rain. Webs are starting to develop in the skin between my fingers and toes. Several days of straight rain, not the soft, London sprinkles, but the hard, jovial – sometimes angry – type that sounds like people are dancing on the metal roof top in black, Mary Jane’s. When this kind arrives at night on the tails of silent lightening rods that approach the valley, like sneaky, field mice at dusk, light up the bluish grey skies, I remain sheltered in my room. I love these moments in Chipata, the noisy clattering of rain drops intermingled with the earthy smell of after-birth, which sets the mood for contemplations or a quiet evening reading.

One motel guest complained about all the rain, which leaves large brown puddles of mud along the sides of roads. He explained that several days of rain, one day rhythmically ensconcing into another day, is unusual for Chipata, even for rainy season. If my calculations are correct, I believe there have only been three sunny days in the last three weeks.

On the bright side, all this water is good for the dams and for the maize, which surely love it, judging from the rate at which they’re growing. One large patch of maize on Lundazi Road grew three-fold over three weeks. Ndelema (mushrooms) have also popped up from out of the ground – miracle mushrooms I call them because of their size. White and tender in texture, like Japanese shiitakes, they fetch a mean price on the market – ZMK10,000 for a bundle. I was told they can be gathered from deep in the forest, where the soils smell dank and where the earthen worms like to feast on plant decay. When I expressed the desire to gather them myself – even commemorating the event by purchasing a shiny, green basket – I was warned about the snakes that lie in waiting for mushroom predators, waiting to strike. Apparently, the snakes like them, as well. Truth or lore?

On the 10^th of January, I am happy to report that the HIV/AIDS testing was successfully done at Magazine Squatter Compound. My gratitude is extended to Baby and the Corridors of Hope III people for following through. I hope to make it a regular cycle in the upcoming years by writing to USAID for funding the training of more outreach testers and for the portable HIV/AIDS kits. Diane Sawyer reported that conducting HIV/AIDS testing is cumbersome for many rural areas because blood does not keep for hours and the blood samples have to be ridden in on horseback into the nearest testing site. With these portable tests, they are done on site and are completed in about 20 minutes.

Unfortunately, the family planning workshop I also scheduled the day before with the Society of Family Health and Family Planning was a no-show without a word of warning. This outcome, unfortunately, has been consistent in my efforts to work with the public. And, often times, there is no written or verbal feedback from the social planners, who normally do this type of outreach work, about scheduling and planning. As such, I had to coordinate these programs myself. I waited at the Hope Campus Basic School, but no one from the SFHFP showed up. After an hour, I gave up and headed back to the office.

There have been other progress this month, albeit slowly, in relation to my placement at the Council. I managed to get a meeting with the Director of Planning to discuss the contents of the Integrated Development Plan, which will surely result in productive revisions to the document. As far as a response from the deputy directors, there have been none as of yet, but I continue to follow up with them. I anticipate this meeting on Wednesday with the Director, however, will be productive and help to move the Council one more step closer to acquiring an IDP for Chipata District.

Sleepy, lazy snail

Chipata has many different wildlife and not all languish at the South Luangwa Park in Mfue. In the Old Civic Center building, where I work, snails come out in droves. The rain seems to coax them out of their hiding places, wherever those nooks and crannies are. They sit on the underside of the leaves of flora plants, sometimes unfurling themselves out of their conch shells to glide from one branch to another. I found a green clump on a plant stalk on this day, when I decided to observe their movements, and realized it was snail dung. After observing one sleepy snail, I realized that they release dung from the middle of their soft undersides, through a tiny hole that’s barely visible to the naked eye.

On this same day, a small group of Ngoni people made their way to the parking lot to the right of Barclays Bank. A passerby told me they were performing a dance normally performed at the N’cwala Ceremony, which takes place for three days beginning on the 28^th of February. I will just miss them again this year, as I did last year. But, on this day, I was treated to their dance. I video taped them on a digital camera; I can’t upload it to this blog, but will eventually post all the videos on my Facebook page as soon as I learn how to do it. In the meantime, readers will have to settle for just the photos.

Child dancer - N'cwala Dance

Female dancer

Ngoni Warriors

Fundraising reminder – please keep in mind that volunteering anywhere is rewarding, but doing so in the Global South is an experience irreplaceable by any other experience, despite the undulating emotions that are normally attached to living in another country. Please send in your donation to help me meet my goal of US$2,000. I realize that some of you have opted to send your donation by check, so that will not show on the list of contributors on the My Fundraising Page. If you haven’t received your receipt, please contact Tara Henderson, whose contact information is found on the CUSO-VSO site (please see link on this page). You may also contribute with a credit card, which can be done easily and safely through the My Fundraising link. Again, as always, zikomo to those who have already done so.

A New Year and a Fresh Start

2012-01-03T04:18:00.001-05:00

Welcoming in 2012

The morning breeze snaking its way in through the open windows of my room beckoned to me, coaxing me out of sleep. The clock on my cell phone read 8h29, a late start compared to my usual waking routine of 7h00. Today felt different to me, not in the way I unfolded my form from my bed, but in my senses.

Breakfast was the same - English – consisting of two fried eggs, a sausage link, and canned, baked beans. I brought with me the dark, Frisco coffee because the brand the motel serves isn’t quite strong enough to suit my palate. I lingered over breakfast, reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, a novel about life in Afghanistan, written by Khaled Hosseini, the same author who penned The Kite Runner. Over Christmas weekend, I had borrowed other books from Alan’s and Frances’s collection, from whom many volunteers in and around Chipata also borrow. Reading gives us something to do on many slow days. I have to return the others that I have already completed.

When Judith, the cleaning lady, greeted me with a jovial, “happy new year”, I realized that today was the birth of 2012, a future I had been anticipating since the beginning of December. I greeted her back before discussing the minor detail of cleaning my bathroom. I like to help her with the cleaning because it gives me something to do and pleasantly passes the hours away. Sweeping, wiping my work desk, washing my dishes, and doing the laundry . . . weekends are usually uneventful, lazy days, perfect for tending to my chores. I usually hand wash my clothing every other weekend. I’ve devised a way to soak them overnight in my water tub and then rub them clean after breakfast the following morning. I do this to protect my fingers from being rubbed raw and so I don’t have to work my arm muscles so hard. The best part is dumping out the brown water, knowing that the red sandy dust and grime have loosened from the fiber of my clothing. Seeing the brown water go down the drain makes me feel like I’ve cleaned out the clutter from my life and victorious, knowing that I’ve tackled and won the battle with the dirt embedded in my clothes.

Since the start of the rainy season, laundry has become something of a guessing game. I’ve had to start reading the skies for signs of rain showers. Today, dark stains marked the bottom of the clouds, which signify that rain is hovering, ominously, waiting expectantly for the brush with the right temperatures to dissolve the mingling of hydrogen and oxygen gases, which patiently keep the rains at bay. The handy man said that it will start at 12h00 today, so I keep my watchful eye on the sky, ready to bolt out the door to retrieve my drying laundry at the first drop of rain.

In comparison to this season, summer was great for hanging clothes. The savannah heat meant that I could work outside in temperatures that would dry my clothes in a mere hour, and on most days, on the hottest of days, in even less time. Dragon flies and grasshoppers keep me company as I bent and hung each item on the line. I loved the predictability of it.

Nowadays, the unpredictability of rainy season puts me a little on edge as I never know when the sky will open. Sometimes, the cool breeze preceding the rainfall is the only clue. Today, the humidity that keeps licking at my face, my forearms, and neck mislead me into believing that my laundry will be safe. I still don’t know.

Christmas came and went for me this year. There wasn’t the usual anticipation of a hearty meal that I had the last two years as Christmas approached, although I did have the option of joining other volunteers to celebrate the holidays with a Christmas lunch. One of the volunteers from Katete, Lynie, who is temporarily staying at Michelle’s house, cooked up a huge meal. I learned later that she made various Filipino dishes; their celebration was attended by other volunteers in town and the vicinity. I ate cream lasagna at Protea Hotel, instead. That’s my plan again today – to treat myself to an expensive lunch with, of course, sweet red wine, and then come home and allow my body to absorb the delectable fatty cheese and cream.

Two Friday’s ago, I finally finished the rough draft of the integrated development plan. This past week I spent hours polishing it, going home early on some days to circumvent the distraction at the office, and stay on schedule. Today will be the day of completion before submitting it on Tuesday to the powers that be. I am thinking about trying to do the comprehensive planning training in January. My effort to conduct it last month was politely deflected purely by the Council’s ignoring my requests for a lunch budget. I think that once the planners go through the training, they’ll start to piece together the different elements of urban life and see the value of integrating tasks, such as business development trainings, to those wanting to start a business here and planning for economic clusters and corridors. In the training manual, I’ve also included guidelines for planning ecologically, which I have observed isn’t really done carefully in Chipata. One planner explained that urban forestry isn’t incorporated into the normative process of parceling land, selling, and developing. There seems to be reluctance, too, from the planning leadership to shift the planning guidelines towards an integrated plan. In fact, this IDP is one of the reasons, if not the reason, planners were brought here in the first place. Although everything happens more slowly in Chipata, I’m starting to think that there is the conventional manner of avoidance accepted and tolerated by locals and I wonder how much of it has to do with other social complexities that Zambians are privy to, but I’m not. I plan to do a departure presentation and leave the next volunteer with a description of goals accomplished and areas where planning may continue to progress in Chipata. The presentation, I hope, will allow the Council planners to see the value of building on work that has already been done and the value of seeing how important concepts, such as inclusiveness and integration, are to improving planning in Chipata District.

One of the jobs I'm quite proud of is the completion of the monitoring of the water kiosks in Magazine squatter compound, where I have been planning and attempting to map with GPS coordinates for the last few weeks. Hopefully, the town clerk and I can agree to do land valuing there and give legal title to the residents.

16h00 Same Day

I just returned from a two hour hike up the same mountain on which I usually trek on days I need to think. The air was nice today - after bouts with grey clouds, the day gave way to a beautiful sunny later afternoon. Next time, I'll upload photographs of the view from the top. In the meantime, I thought I would add some of the views and faces of Chipata.


Children of Magazine Squatter Compound

Kalongwezi Neighborhood facing the gorgeous Chipata mountains

Itinerant food trader

Another view of Chipata Mountains in Kalongwezi extension

My colleague, Namakau Maambo, one of the social planners, extraordinaire!

Another fundraising appeal

Just a reminder to you reading my blog pages - I am still fundraising for my placement. I believe I am closer to my goal of US$2,000, so if you haven’t done so yet, please contribute today with US$10.00 or more either through the mail or through the “My Fundraising” page link to the right of my blog. Your contribution allows CUSO International to keep sending volunteers overseas to support capacities in needy countries.

DRY SEASON: THE PERIOD OF SCARCITY AND HIGH TEMPERATURES

2011-11-26T09:09:00.001-05:00

I read in Jeremy Gould's Left Behind: Rural Zambia in the Third Republic that dry season is the period of scarcity. It sure is the case with ground nuts. I've been craving them, but haven't found any sellers on the streets. And, although this is the time green masukus are harvested, they all seem to have been sold out. Apparently, others enjoy them as much as I do, as succulent and sweet as they are.

I’m spending another Saturday morning and afternoon at SPAR, where I am tending to my private life, preparing for life after CUSO-VSO. I came back just yesterday from Lilongwe, where I bought tiny and hopefully meaningful presents for the children I know back home.

I’ve been neglectful of my blog to date due to my busy schedule. At least, I can say that the month has been a productive one for me. I finally finished the sectoral local plan for the Magazine squatter compound; it covers the many needs of the unplanned settlement and would serve as a model for legalizing and upgrading the other five unplanned settlements in Chipata District. The monitoring of the local area plan for the same compound has also taken up a lot of my time. In Chipata, if one wants to get something done, every request and every plan has to be written on paper, otherwise they are forgotten. More importantly, without the formal written request, it is difficult to be open about proposals and intentions to the public and even more difficult for relevant personnel to keep track of the numerous projects occurring around the district.

Likewise, October was a busy month for Chipata Municipal Council. Even though the federal elections are over, Chipata District had to conduct local elections, which took place during the first week of October and then the Council body had to orient the new Councilors to the responsibilities of their job. I attended the second half of the orientation, which was held in the second week, but couldn’t handle the heat in the conference room at Chipata Motel. It was truly stultifying; I could hardly breathe in there. Needless to say, I left early.

The overture of the orientation session was very British in conduct and appearance. The Town Clerk wore a whig, which was very commemorative of Zambia’s colonial link with England. I had never attended a British-style political event, so I found it to be very interesting.

November is turning out to be as frantically busy as October, as we in the district and the government all wind our way down to the end of the year and prepare for the Christmas holidays. During this month, I made the decision to complete the first draft of the integrated development plan for Chipata District on 31 December, 2011, so I have been taking pertinent images of the district to help readers of the IDP visualize the urban problems and the reasons for including the inserted elements as being integral and central to improving the appearance of Chipata District and its simultaneous elements.

In addition to writing the rather large IDP document, I added mapping to my list of to do’s this month. The features and housing settlements are not included in any of the boundary maps of the squatter compounds. Because it’s necessary to demonstrate that these areas have indeed become residential areas and to further illustrate the value of upgrading the Compound in terms of the health and sanitation conditions, and the overall appearance for future funders, mapping features and boundaries are important. So, over the last three days, I have been at Magazine recording GPS coordinates. Enoc, my colleague, very kindly explained to me how to use the device. Luckily, the visuals on the device are better now and more readable compared to before.

I must say, though, the heat has almost deterred me from heading out to the compound. Every day since the start of this GPS project I had to fight the urge to stay in the office and not brave the scorching sun. Every day after the day’s mapping session, I go home to my motel room to finish the day’s work because the temperature in my room is cooler than that in the office in the middle of the afternoon. However, my room is also where I can be shut away from the buzz of activity in the old civic center building. Working in the quiet solitude of my room, I am certain to meet my year targets and can advance the planning pilot into the next volunteer year without any distractions.

At the motel, after unlocking the door, I stumble into the foyer, eager to escape the reach of the sun’s rays and lay spread eagle on my bed, feeling like a beached whale. Fortunately, I don’t look like a beached whale, as the high temperatures occlude me from consuming huge mouthfuls of the comfort food, nshima. I suppose you could say that the heat is a blessing to my waist line.

As I’ve mentioned my dramatic reactions to the heat several times in this blog, you might have already guessed that we have entered the driest season in Zambia. Even with the occasional –very occasional during the dry season – rainy day, the heat is hard to put up with. I take cool baths now; the soothing cold water is welcomed by the heat rashes on my skin. On the hottest days, I want to scream out, "I'm dying here!!!!". But, then the rains come,which bring cooler temperatures, and make me long for the Indian summers of New England. But, with rainy season being just around the corner, I won’t be craving for long.

New Beginnings: New President

2011-10-01T13:35:00.000-04:00

The votes have all been tallied and last Friday (23 September), the Electoral Commission of Zambia officially announced the victor, Michael Sata, the lead presidential candidate against incumbent, Rupiah Banda. The inauguration was televised Friday during the day, and Michael Sata, representing the PF (Patriotic Front) party was expected to immediately assume office the following week. Sata’s ascendency also signifies the end of more than ten years of the reign of the MMD party.

While Rupiah Banda’s political platform focused on his development accomplishments during his presidency, he refused to acknowledge the patron-client relations that have tethered Zambian politics to institutionalized corruption. In comparison, Sata was highly critical of high-powered MMD corruption, which he alleged had gripped Zambia’s political and economic system for over ten years. If elected, he told the voters to expect him to combat political alliances unhealthy to the prosperity of Zambia. He also endeavored to bring justice and equity to Zambia’s poor. Sata’s campaign evidently struck a chord with the voters, especially those who live in the southern provinces because he won many of the southern constituencies by a landslide. I also suspect that the reason many of the rural residents favored him was because they were deficient in basic services, specifically water, and the MMD failed to bring this basic need to their communities timely, despite promises to do so.

Apart from some news of bursts of anger primarily in the southern provinces, the elections were relatively calm. The celebrations were plentiful in Chipata, with Sata supporters hooting and beeping their horns on the streets, expressing their ecstasy over his victory. What Sata’s ascendency means for urban planning in Zambia and here in Chipata remains to be seen. I am hopeful, anyway, that Sata will maintain the progress made in urban planning over the last four years and will continue to make progress towards an integrated way of doing planning.

During the week of the elections, I stayed mainly in my motel room, trying to finish up the schedule for the comprehensive planning training. Admittedly, it was hard to concentrate on what I was writing because I was eager to see how both lead presidential candidates were making out in the polls. I have developed most of the training schedule and anticipate finishing it this week. The training will take place over three days in the mornings; I have strong expectations about the outcome. I think comprehensive planning will become clearer to the planning staff and its value more urgent as they proceed with the training.

Now that the elections have finished, life - and the pace of life - are back to normal. I am under less stress now, as well, which is good considering last week I was feeling antsy about all the coordination and other work that I had to complete. I was able to pinpoint a schedule for the cost-benefit presentation for waste management and secure the projector. The permissions were formally requested and I don’t anticipate any problems with doing the presentation next week.

I’ve also noticed changes in the climate. Chipata Valley got hit with a heat wave last week, which lasted into Sunday. The heat seemed to have crept into my duvet, as I had trouble sleeping and took cool baths for a change. But then, this morning, it seemed a big gust of cool, savannah wind, had swept into the mountains to make me want to bring my black, winter sweater to work. It’s a good thing I didn’t because the heat wave came back this afternoon around lunch time (that’s 1:00pm here in Zambia). I went for my daily post-lunch walk on the roads of the neighborhoods encircling the center of town and could feel the heat scratching the inside of my blue, cotton blouse, causing me some discomfort.

During my walk, I noticed that many of the buds of the mango trees have started to sprout into fruits. I’ve noted several trees on the streets where I take my daily walks that will be within reach of my short stature, which means I will be able to bring home arm loads of the fruit when they are ripe enough to pick.

I have also taken photographs of the many artisans lining the road leading into Kapata Ward to illustrate to blog readers the talent of Zambians. The furniture makers and basket weavers like to display their wares on the road in easy view of passers-by, who might be interested in buying something. The three piece Morris chairs are my favorite. The craftsmanship is similar to that in Malawi and the quality is the same. The cushions are made out of soft, velvet-like fabric and the frame of the chairs from timber collected or bought from someplace unknown to me. For all of my partiality towards protecting rainforests and jungles, I admittedly find handcrafted furniture made out of quality wood difficult to pass up. I guess living at the Chipata Motel has its advantages: I am not tempted to buy this exquisite furniture, as my room is fully furnished.

Furniture maker


Morris Chairs

More furniture making

As I move out of my seventh month and into my eighth (October), I wish to remind my blog readers to please contribute to this placement with $10 or more. Your contribution helps CUSO-VSO continue doing their work of sending volunteers overseas to do the needed work that brings skills and resources aid to communities, such as urban planning to Chipata. You can donate easily through the “My Fundraising Page” button to the right of this blog. Or, you can send in your contribution with a check. The address of CUSO-VSO can be found on the website, which can also be accessed through the “CUSO-VSO” button visible to the right of this blog. Checks should be made out to CUSO-VSO and the addressee should read: c/o Tara Henderson.

A View across the Valley

2011-09-11T12:53:00.001-04:00

Sata supporters

Election fever has descended upon Chipata Central, giving an air of both tension and excitement to the community. The tail end of August has been consumed with elections; in the third week there were bands of people on Umodzi Highway, cheering and playing music loudly in the effort to bring attention to their favorite candidates. Government personnel and casual civil servants are spending days training in preparation for work at the polls and to look out for scoundrels eager to start a riot. The government has issued a national warning about riot threats and VSO has sent out information explaining evacuation procedures in case the violence gets out of hand. I thought about heading to Malawi two days before, but they have their own issues there with a president that won’t leave office.

Excited campaigners

Almost there

Accordingly, many of our Council members have been participating in public service messages, urging people not to riot, accept the election outcome, and commit to a peaceful election. As a result, the corridors of the Old City Council Building have been quiet; on most days during this period, I have been the only person in Room 3.

Zambians are a very political people, registering to vote, and wanting to talk politics with people.

The media seems to favor sitting president Rupiah Banda, even going so far as to claim that recent polls have already designated him the winner. Sata is the most serious contender to Banda, but he doesn’t really seem to provide an alternative to the ways things are done here. Some people seem fed up with the system, while others are very optimistic about what the elections will hold for the country.

The day of reckoning will be on September 20^th. On this day, the entire country will
know whether Zambia gets a new president
or another Banda term.

Woman campaigni

Admittedly, the gap in work intensity has provided Council workers also with the opportunity to catch up on work or to prepare for the upcoming months. I, myself, have been busy finishing up the comprehensive planning training manual and working with Corridors of Hope to partner in our health outreach program. The election has given me ample opportunity to write and submit my quarterly report to VSO in Lusaka and to meet with my program manager regarding my 6-month preliminary review.

August was also the month of the Kalumba Festival, a celebration of the Chewa people’s settlement in the Eastern Province from their places of origin in Mozambique and Malwi after breaking away from Ngoni brothers following an argument over power. According to Reuben, they are scattered around the
Eastern Province, but primarily in Chadiza, Katete, and Vubi.

Chewa Village in Katete, Dsitrict, Zambia

The Chewa people are mystical, which is evident in the masked dances. I thought the one of the men in the appropriate mask and the jerky, warrior-type movements to be very dynamic and fun to watch. The Kalumba Festival is held yearly over a period of three days from August 26^th to August 28^th.

I want to make another fundraising appeal to those reading my blog. I ask only $10 per person to help me reach my goal of
$2000 for this placement. Please use the link to the right of each blog and contribute by credit card or send in your contribution.

Mask Dancers

Thank you to all who have already contributed.

IN THE MONTH OF AUGUST

2011-08-11T15:18:00.003-04:00

Of course, my life during any given month in Chipata varies, but not considerably so. The occasional spontaneous occurrence arises and I welcome the change in what is otherwise a reiteration of the previous day.

01/08/11 – “A Capella Concert: Free for Diners”

Although I have complained about some of the goings on at the Chipata Motel, on occasion I run into guests, who add variety to my evenings there. On this particular evening, a group of four women shared a healthy plate of nshima, relish, and a large fried fish, talking in Nyanja or Chewa or Bemba. I couldn’t decipher the language. They interrupted each other, gesturing to the other to take a handful of nshima, dipping their fingers into the steaming, white meat of the fried beem fish. Suddenly, they broke into a song, a capella. A gospel song. Voices in harmony with each other, their lilting tune filled the almost empty restaurant and floated out into the night air. For some, the singing might be a tad annoying, but I enjoyed it, this “free concert”, on this balmy evening.

04/08/11 – “On Slow Days, I Will Ponder”

Sitting in my window office, in front of the second hand desk selected especially for me, I daydream about going for a long drive into Northern Zambia to see mountains and wild monkeys bounding from tree branch to tree branch.

On occasion, I sight a tree monkey, agile body positioned just so, on a bough that reaches across the roof of the Umodzi Restaurant. It is barely visible at times through the mango leaves. It almost escaped my sight the day I saw it, its shape not clear to me until it inched forward. That was when I could make out the silhouette of its arched back, right leg flung out in front of it, his identity made visible only by the powder blue canvass of the sky. I assume this monkey that I see occasionally is the same one I had seen at a previous time.

On slow days, I daydream about other things rather than focusing on the load of work in front of me. On this day, I am trying to move past the section I am writing about the history of urban planning thought, but to no avail. Jane Jacobs is not whom I want to think about today. I don’t want to write about the history of environmental justice today. As such, I procrastinate.

05/08/11 – “Dinners with Nazir”

Nazir, a native Zambian borne of Indian Muslim parents, returned to Chipata in early February to harvest, weigh, package, and trade his prized tobacco crops. His farm is his livelihood and while he grows different fruits, such as oranges, chico, and mangos, his primary trading crop is tobacco. He is in Chipata until the end of this month, and then he heads back to his wife and two young sons in Japan. His wife is a former JICA volunteer, a veterinarian, who now practices successfully in her native land.

I befriended Nazir one late afternoon while walking the familiar length of Umodzi Highway. Heading south towards Lusaka and just before the Total filling station, while chattering to myself in the usual way that I do, Nazir guided his car to a stop beside me and asked in that usual manner of his: “you okay?” He offered to give me a ride back to Chipata Motel, but we ended up at his farm, where we picked chicos and oranges to take home. An offer of a ride home resulted in a dinner invitation. Apparently, his chicken curry was already stewing on the stove and he was willing to share his creation with me.

Nazir is very generous and, apart from the occasional wanton comment so characteristic of the male culture here, is harmless. Enjoying the company of foreigners would describe him appropriately and sharing his food is his way of doing that. My offers to buy him a glass of wine and other goodies are always deflected. What do you give a man who has everything he needs?

Because I can’t cook for myself at the motel without being surrounded by a group of people, I can’t cook what I want to eat. I always readily welcome his invitations to dinner: pizza tonight, curry on another night, and tender, Lusaka steaks on yet another. We gab, I about my job and occasional frustrating occurrences and he filling me in on the cultural rules in Zambia.

These dinners have become a not so regular pattern, but his friendship has become an important element in my life here.

3 August, 2011 – “Lunch with Sebastian”

My semi-spontaneous lunch outing with Sebastian, a graduate student doing his fieldwork in Chipata to study mobile banking, introduced me to “Road Runner”, a restaurant that I had often walked past, but had never gone into. Sebastian told me it is owned and operated by a woman from Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, who makes homemade burgers and protein pies. It was a busy day for me, as I was making some progress on the comprehensive planning training manual, but I go off my usual routine, which consists of a lunch wolfed down at Chef’s Pride. Not only was my chicken sandwich tasty at “Road Runner”, causing me to return for another helping two days later, it gave my taste buds something new to feast on. (Two days later, I ran into Richard at SPAR, a clandestine meeting that resulted in a tea break and another two hours of procrastination).

(Any day in August) – “Personal Growth and Growing Personally”

Spontaneity is not my strong point. I’m a planner. I need to know how events that emerge off-schedule might set me back or impact me in the coming weeks and months. Most times, the spontaneity of the event does not affect me significantly, but I can’t shake the fear of losing control over my work and my schedule, which I set for myself daily. I’m that swimmer hanging on to the buoy far out enough in the ocean from the shoreline to incite fear, sometimes even panic. I also hold grudges, unlike Zambians, as I am told by them.

I go overboard, I know.

As I grow through the month of August, I am learning from the people I meet in Chipata to let go and to not hold onto these notions of perfection I seem to cling to. These spontaneous doings pepper my otherwise regular routine of grabbing a taxi to work, grabbing a morning Joe (coffee to those reading my blog not familiar with Americanisms) at SPAR until 8h30, planning and thinking about the progress of knowledge sharing and awareness, thinking about needed trainings, thinking about the future of planning in Chipata, fantasizing about landscaping designs that would improve the appearance of this burgeoning town, writing reports to guide the planning, and so forth. I hope as I continue to let go slowly by willingly succumbing to these unplanned events, I become less uptight and be more willing to flow with the ebb and wane of human interactions to a degree that feels comfortable to me. On 11 August (Thursday), I learned that I still need to grow by much in this area.

AUGUST 1ST, 2011

2011-08-03T13:28:00.001-04:00

Aaaaah. Easing into August was surprisingly enjoyable - must be due to my week long holiday on the shores of the blue, blue Lake Malawi last week. I was able to make the most of my trip out there, where I willingly ensconced myself beneath the shadows of the trees and languished on the veranda of Big Blue Star Backpackers, just a few steps away from the cool water.

Sitting on that veranda, I felt like I was at the edge of an ocean that threatens to drop you as the end of it nears on your unnamed journey, like the depth of the fall at the end of the world in Amy Tan’s book, “The Bonesetter’s Daughter”. Gazing across this expanse of lake, which isn’t really all that big if you look at it on a map, you get the feeling that where I was really is the end of the world, as if there is no continuity. Of course, this perception isn’t true. Somewhere over there on the other side is Tanzania and the island port of Mbamwe (give me a map, someone!). And then, there is also the continuity of there always being something more over there in the beyond.

One of these days, I’ll write a novel about the culture of backpacking, about the people one inevitably always meet on the road, about their stories of travel, and the inexplicable feeling of certainty, this odd knowing that I’ll see this person again, which has always given me comfort whenever I’ve crossed geographies. Conversations exchanged, mid-travel, also seem more colorful – if not unfinished - when you know that person is moving on in a couple of days. I’ve always found myself to be more than mildly inquisitive about the future direction of their journeys, but as usual was hesitant to ask for details out of fear that I would be thought too nosey. Nosey people are distasteful to some.

Easing into the following week was equally easy, as indicated by the completion of the waste technology cost-benefit report I had been working on over the past two months. Researching and writing the information that would be important for the Council to know was laborious. And finally, just last Wednesday, I finished the final revision of it and printed and bound it the following day. I feel victorious. After the labor of preparing the written report, the presentation will be a breeze. The Council now has something to work with and the members will be able to discuss and plan for waste management using concrete, qualitative and quantitative information.

Since my return from Malawi, I haven’t been able to keep the rest of Africa out of my mind. Maybe my restlessness is attributed to the morsels of braii goat meat I nibbled on somewhere between Nkhotakota and Salima, perhaps it’s due to the backpackers’ tales of their adventures in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, or quite possibly because of the written reminders from someone of how cumbersome overland travel can be. Whatever it is, I’m already planning my next trip during Christmas. Bus it to Botswana or take the ferry across to Tanzania? Whatever I choose, I’m certain that the people I meet will be as colorful as the ones I got to know on this last trip.

I’m taking suggestions.

SOME TIME IN MID-JULY . . .

2011-07-17T07:36:00.001-04:00

Sunday. Winter has arrived in Chipata Valley and brings with it several days of cold temperatures, gusty winds, and occasional grey, ominous skies. I hear thunder rumbling in the distance today, and the clouds threaten to spill big drops of rain. After several hours, the Valley remains dry and rain-free. Because of the cold, I stayed in my motel room and did some paper work. After two weeks of long weekends, I am ready to work vigorously and catch up on delays in my work. I missed two, self-imposed due dates because of office and personal distractions.
Last Thursday (9^th July), I presented the orientation workshop on the Regional and Urban Planning Bill (2009) for Zambia. I wanted to get the planning staff ready for thinking about what the changes in administration, as required by the Bill, will mean for Chipata Municipal Council planning. The RUP Bill now calls for the production of local plans, which are detailed neighborhood plans to address urban problems. It also calls for sectoral local plans that will serve as planning guides for addressing critical problems in local districts, such as transportation development and unplanned settlements, waste management, etc. I understand that the planning department does not currently write plans; they have relied on the old town and country planning guide, which does not address critical factors afflicting Chipata District. As such, I am thinking about how to best approach the comprehensive planning training planned for August and whether or not to include guidelines on writing urban plans in the training.

The workshop coincided with a Public Works Development Committee (PWDC) meeting, but enough staff attended, which included two people from the Provincial Planning Authority, to make it worthwhile. We also had a pretty good discussion after the orientation. People asked specific questions about elements of the Bill and I felt that we as a team were able to navigate our way through the fuzziness to see clear lines.
Volunteering, I am discovering, is also a collaborative process. Although I have training in some of the capacity needs, I am not an expert in all of them. One example is the ArcGIS training handbook I compiled to respond to the skills need for about three of the planning staff. Although I have been trained on ArcGIS, I am not an expert on database building and have not used the software in seven years. Thus, I need the assistance of a volunteer better at it than I, which forces me to seek out a GIZ volunteer because GIZ tends to bring GIS technicians to Zambia.

Monday. I bound the Local Area Plan for Magazine Squatter Compound today and included the minutes and illustrations to complete the required paperwork. This maneuver follows the guidelines for area plan production under the RUP Bill. I thought adhering to the guidelines was a good way to acclimate the planning staff to the planning practices desired by the Bill and to start new planning habits. On Friday, 15^th June, 2011, I was scheduled to present it to counselors at the Hope Campus School, so I rushed to make 40 copies of the worksheets just so I could make it to my pick-up point on time (16h00) and not have to make the driver wait. However, as it turned out my ride never showed. I waited until 16h22, and then gave up, as the talk was supposed to end at 17h00. Such is the working life at the Council.

Tuesday. I gave a presentation on Integrated Land Use Design to introduce the concept and the models of ILUD to Chipata communities and to the planning department. I discussed some of the ILUD models – green infrastructure, greenways – but talked mainly about the use of permaculture in ILUD. I covered the main principles of permaculture and explained how it connects to ILUD in urban and regional planning. I anticipate incorporating ILUD concepts into the Integrated Development Plan, which I hope will become a central platform by which to think about urban design and environmental improvement in urban areas for the planning department of Chipata Municipal Council.

My presentation preceded the more detailed presentation on permaculture given by Edgar Banda, who received HIS permaculture training in Zimbabwe. I am happy to learn that permaculture teachings are making their way around the world, including sub-saharan Africa. Mr. Banda was quite knowledgeable and was able to give the participants in-depth knowledge about the historical foundation of permaculture and its central tenets and ethics of permaculture.

Friday. I finally finished the small grant for the Japanese Embassy due at the end of this month. Hectic and stressful, so stressful in fact that I ranted during the last few hours! I needed to hitch a ride to Lusaka and my only opportunity is next Monday, which means the grant truly had to be completed by today by 16h00 at the very latest. At least the bulk of the costs are listed in the bill of quantity and if we get the grant, the bill of quantity will be polished. Monday morning, I take off with Richard, a volunteer for GIZ (Germany) and company, for Lusaka and plan to be dropped off at the Japanese embassy. The following morning, I head straight for Lilongwe, Malawi with my passport in hand for a short, four to six day vacation, which I anticipate will refresh me and gear me up to face work, again.

With that, I leave you with a beautiful image of sunset that greets me as I descend into evening in my motel bed, and is the reason the fires of frustration in my heart cool into passive embers.

Chipata setting

NACHOMA BWANJI IN JULY!

2011-07-03T09:53:00.000-04:00

One day in June, SPAR supermarket did not open until 9:00 hours, which drove a wedge in the spoke of the wheel of my daily routines. At exactly 9:00 hours, I left my desk at the Council to seek out my daily coffee at SPAR, but it still hadn't opened. I went in search of the butcher because they too sold coffee there. I used to go there for coffee before SPAR opened, but there is no place to sit comfortably without flies buzzing around my nose and ears. Irritating to someone accustomed to sitting in fly-free cafes. Music is also often not to be found at the butchers. I realized, on the walk back to my office, butcher coffee in hand, how much SPAR filled a void in my life, in which daily trips to pleasant cafes in the Happy Valley had become such a daily norm. Sad to say, but I do crave for the cafe culture; if I had to live without it, I could adjust, but definitely with some difficulty. I also realized, from living in a community practically devoid of cafe culture, just how much independent coffee shops had become an important element of the compendium of daily pleasures in my life – things that one should not do without for too long, in my opinion.

May got me a bloody nose. One morning, I awoke with what I thought was a stuffed nose. To clear it, I got out of bed, went to the bathroom, and tore off a piece of toilet paper, and blew. The blood was bright against the white paper. I blew again, and more blood came out. I began to panic because I couldn't remember how I could have gotten a bloody nose. I hadn't had bloody noses since I was a child. I racked my brain, trying to remember the previous night. I knew, though, that my evening ritual of one glass of wine or beer would not have produced the catastrophe regarding my bloody nose facing me. My first guess is I must have been clobbered on the head. What other reason could there be for my gushing nose? Eventually, the blood cleared and I called my colleague. His reaction was nonplussed. I asked him if he was at the motel last night because if he was, then he might have seen something. “No”, he answered, and then asked, “so you are not coming in?”, as if I had just told him that I had caught a simple cold.

Being clobbered on the head could have been the only cause, in my opinion, as it has happened before in Zambia, while my back was turned. I have a suspicion about who the culprit was, this time and in previous times. This incident, as I have been learning, is merely one of the wacky events that have happened to me. Women are not treated with dignity here, but I have also gradually learned that the circumstances are worse if the woman looks Chinese or is Chinese. I have been told by Zambians that the Chinese are not looked upon with high regard here because of the problem with the low pay of Zambian workers in the Chinese-owned mines. What, though, does that have to do with me? Certainly, on one side of the argument, there are the feelings of resentment because of labor exploitation, but on the other side, there is the gross stereotyping of black haired, Chinese-looking women, who have nothing to do with the mines, let alone authorizing the wge levels of miners. That would be me. Anyway, I am not here as a labor organizer, but as an urban planner.

The bloody nose incident is about as wacky as the fact that I am still living at Chipata Motel, where the food is the same, and I can't control my food intake. I have to tiptoe around one of the cooks, who works seven days a week, because he might take out his resentments on me. This is the cook, whom I might have mentioned in a previous blog, who saturated my relish with salt even though I asked him to not put it in my food (the cause of my stomach pains) and the one, who has consistently served my food at least two hours, sometimes three hours after I have requested it.

My life is not my own here. The agreement about living accommodations, as I was told, was that I would live with other volunteers, possibly by myself, but definitely in my own room. At 41, I would like to have such a luxury, but in Zambia, such agreements are apparently not honored. The failure to honor agreements also spill over into other areas of business in Chipata, as complaints from various Zambians have quite succinctly informed me. And, the bicycle that volunteers living more than 2 kilometers from the place of work are supposed to get, according to the agreement between the partner organization and VSO Zambia, has not materialized four months after the start of my volunteer period.

Which means, I have to spend money on a bicycle, taken out of my monthly allowance of ZK2.2 million (equivalent to US$ 425).

At least I feel very productive in my work. On May 29^th, I submitted my quarterly report to my programme manager and in looking it over, I realized that I had accomplished all of my goals for the first quarter. The upgrade plan for the squatter compound is complete and was presented to representatives from the development committee in the compound on June 9^th. I have set out to follow the policies of the new Regional and Urban Planning Bill, which requires local authorities to allow stakeholders to review an urban or community plan for 30 days. Once more comments are given to me, I can incorporate them into the final draft of the plan. In July, I will be submitting a grant to the Japanese Embassy. The funds from the grant will pay for upgrading the marketplace.Also in July, I plan to go out with the socioeconomic planners to the compound and begin the outreach programs regarding land laws and other regulations.

While my personal life here is very unpredictable, my professional life is pleasantly sailing along and I am accomplishing what I intended to do here, which is to share skills, build capacity, and help prepare the planning department transition towards the Integrated Development Plan.

Just a reminder to those reading my blog, I am fundraising all year for this placement. Please contribute $10, which is easy to do through “My Fundraising Page”, which can be accessed on the left of this blog. Zikomo kwambiri! (I'm learning very easy phrases in Nyanja).

SCENES OF CHIPATA

2011-05-29T10:30:00.005-04:00

I spent a good part of Saturday (May 29th) taking photos of different life images of Chipata. The images I selected are a constant in Chipata and give readers an idea of my daily life here.

Young tailor sewing bags

The first set of photographs is of downtown, or what locals call the "down shoppes". The tailor you see to the right is someone I met on Saturday (May 28th), who sews wonderful Zambian bags. They're great for shopping bags and other uses. This particular tailor has a unique style that is different from the other designs I have seen.

A busy Saturday in the down shoppes

The down shoppes is extremely busy on Saturdays right before closing down at 12:00 hours. Before then, the streets are teeming with cars and cars coming around corners block traffic. But it's not unbearable. I love the down shoppes during this time - people hurried, Saturday classes for the Muslim students in the Chingolo School.

Then, once 12:00 hours strikes, the

Knock off time

streets go empty. The entire vernacular looks like a ghost town; not one person can be found among the shoppes except around the Jami Mosque, where the Muslims come and get ready for the evening prayer at 17:00 hours.

The Jami Mosque was built in 1963, paid for by the Muslim community. Many of the Muslims are Indians, who were brought to Zambia during the time of British Colonialism to work in the mines and in agriculture. Today, they make up a large percentage of the entrepreneurs in the down shoppes and in the center of town, owning restaurants, tailor shoppes, electronic stores, stationery shoppes, etc. Those who have succeeded live in the middle income to upper middle income community, called Little Bombay.

Jami Mosque

The Eastside Mall, diagonal to the building where I work, Old Chipata Municipal Council, is shopping central for Chipata. People come from all over to do their weekly shopping here, even as far away as Nyimba, Katete, and Mambwe. A bus comes once or twice a week and shuttles people from these more rural areas into Chipata center and back. SPAR is located in this mall and ShopRite is only another ten minute walk down Umozi Highway towards Malawi. Public transportation serving towns in the Eastern Province is truly lacking. At best, buses make return trips to far away places, Like Lusaka, Botswana, and some not so far away, like Malawi.

Eastside Mall

Other developments occurring around Chipata are roads paving projects and a new gas station in the process of being erected.

Newly paved Road

Tourism is also a growing industry in the area, although there doesn't appear to be a written plan about how and to what extent the Chipata Council wants to grow tourism. Most of the accomodations are small-scale motels. There is a youth hostel, named Deans, and a 5-Star hotel, Protea, is within walking distance of Chipata Motel and Chipembele Lodge. Expensive, though. A pot of coffee costs a whopping ZK20,000.

Maize is a staple crop and Chipata is home to many mills manufacturing factories in the vicinity. One, Rainbow Milling, sits on Lundazi Road, just across from the Chipata Motel, where I live.

Also on Lundazi are numerous street vendors, which pose a problem to some local residents, who grumble over vendors blocking the sidewalks. Understandable, but the population growth is happening much too quickly for the Council to respond adequately. Mainly, vendors are forced to sit on bamboo mats along major highways in order to make a living because they cannot afford to pay the rental prices for retail space. On Umozi Highway in Luwangwa, a basket village (I name I gave it) just explodes with baskets. It seems to be a pit stop for tourists on buses. Basket village is just one example of how difficult it is to accomodate street vendors with appropriate retail space.

The uploading of these photos has taken me quite some time. The harddrive capacity on my netbook isn't really made for uploading large files. Thus, I've compiled some of them on the Kodak Slide Show, which can be accessed through this URL:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?facebook=true&sourceId=984136008703

CLOSING THE CHAPTER ON MAY AND TRANSITIONING INTO JUNE

2011-05-27T04:14:00.001-04:00

Sunday (22 May) was such a lovely day that I felt inspired to broadcast it. My friend, Richard, asked me to accompany him and his “family” on a brief hike up Kanjala Hill to get a hillside view of Chipata town. The view was breathtaking. I could see clear across along the mountain chain across to the Malawi side of Chipata. Malawi is just twenty minutes away from Chipata; the easiest way to get there is by taking Malawi Road, which leads directly to Mchinji, another squatter community (I think), inside Malawi.

On the other side of the part of Kanjala Hill that we were standing on is the Lutembwe Dam, a central drinking water source for the town. Surrounding Lutembwe Dam are acres and acres of forests, which not surprisingly are being cut down to make way for residential development, which seems to grow at a rate as fast as Amherst.

The director of the planning department in Chipata still has not sat down with me to talk about the extent and magnitude of development of Chipata into a city. There is clearly a need to complete the visioning process, as the city continues to grow outward in a way that spells potential environmental problems for the town. The lack of response to my review of the current planning document – over one month, now – implies futuristic, responsible planning might not be a priority for the Council. Instead, planning goes on as usual, which normally consists of identifying land spaces for parceling into plots, which are later sold to interested homeowners.

I have a desire to get into Malawi, but for now I have to be content with discovering Chipata. I haven't seen much of it, yet. I don't have a bike – so, I am on foot. The most I have seen of it so far is the Lundazi Road area and the town center. At best, I have gotten a bird's eye view of the area. I keep saying I'll walk to Malawi, but probably not this week. Perhaps this weekend . . .

The day was just stunning. The temperature was perfectly breezy; the afternoon sun hot on my shoulders and Richard, I, and his adopted family engaging in easy, conversations that were both focused and scattered. Richard and I, of course, tended to dominate the air with our complaints about the lethargy of Zambia, while the members of his family talked amongst themselves. The road was unpaved, which made walking downhill a little tricky. But, in a peculiar way, I liked periodically losing my footing as the iron-red gravel rolled around loosely beneath the soles of my Keen sandals.

Richard had thought far ahead, loading the trunk of his car with fruits, candy, and water. After snacking on them atop Kanjala, we all stopped at the fancy Protea Hotel for lunch, where his family met up with the children's mother, an employee at the hotel. Protea, an international 5-Star hotel, boasts a pool, probably the only one in Chipata. They all went swimming except for a handful of us. I languished on one of the plastic recliner chairs at pool side. I saw two sister's flapping about in the water, whose joyous, teasing laughter reminded me of Phoebe Prince and her sister, Lauren.

I have finally polished off my quarterly report for the VSO program office in Lusaka. Once I filled in all the boxes, I realized I had done more work than I realized. Perhaps doing all that work in a matter of three months is the reason my emotions continue to wax and wane: on most days, I feel I am having the time of my life and am having the best experience, while on the occasional nadir, I feel Zambia is the worst international experience I have ever had. I hope to stabilize my roller coaster heart in the second quarter by focusing more on the small things that I am accomplishing and less on the large, more difficult projects that are planned. Oh, and staying away from the evening news might help, as the news has endless reports about corruption, with the elections so near.

During the last two weeks of May, I learned how to use the total station. Well, “learned to use” is a bit of an exaggeration. I learned how to align the total station to a 90 degree angle, measured by the perfect positioning of a tiny infrared light on the head of a metal beacon, and learned which buttons I would have to adjust in order to make sure that the elevation and balance of the machine matched that of the land. I haven't been taught how to read the important symbols, but at least for now Mr. Total Station is no longer a mystery to me, thanks to my colleague, Paul. I still prefer the thinking part of planning, but the quick lesson on the total station gave me a general overview of its utility, which are distance, spatial depth, and plane coordinates.

I have finally bought a basic Kodak camera. I am still trying to work out why the camera is not charging my inserted battery. The model is an M550. I followed the instructions, but nothing. The light doesn't even flash. Once the camera begins functioning, I promise to get those photos posted onto this blog. In the meantime, please visit “My Fundraising Page” to the left of today's blog.

Thanks!

Labor Day Celebrations

2011-05-02T05:46:00.000-04:00

Labor Day holiday today, which means no work. Yesterday, some of the Council staff and invited participants marched in the streets in support of workers. Back at the motel, where Council staff and others arrived to eat, there was a huge celebration. I gathered this from the hooting, laughing, and clapping. Too bad I missed it; I was busy preparing my chiwawa leaves for drying.

Like in the United States, workers are given due thanks and appreciation for running the government, the economy, public services, etc. So, we should all give ourselves a big pat on the back for being commemmorated in such an important holiday celebration.

The motel is hosting another conference, which I think is part of K-International. The organization is doing some work with HIV/AIDS education in Chipata District and have been lodging at the motel over the weekend. The restaurant was crowded and it was hard to tell if I was supposed to eat from the buffet or not. I got up early to eat breakfast, believing all of the participants had departed for their homes, but it turned out that the buffet had not yet been served. I hate getting worked up over food, but even when I ask the kitchen staff about my meal, I often don't get the answers. This has happened on a few occasions with large conference participants in the motel. I also hate feeling aggravated when I don't know how I am supposed to eat because when I feel that way, I often sound that way. At the same time, if I don't push, the motel staff do not accommodate. It would be nice to live in a house, either shared or my own. At least I would not be regularly sharing it with 60 other people and I would be able to cook as soon as I got home from work. I would also be able to prepare my own meals without having to rely on the kindness of strangers.

Last Friday, I sent off the comprehensive proposal plan for the squatter community to the Commissioner of Lands. I believe I had mentioned this project in a previous blog. I anticipate hearing from him in two weeks. I hope the three plans related to land valuation and upgrading are approved. That way, I can start working on discussing the details with other Council planners and finalizing the logistics. Grants, too, can subsequently be written to fund those projects.

The rest of my work is flowing along smoothly. I also just finished the first draft of the Excel training handbook, which was requested by one of the socio-economic planners. These trainings, so far, are aimed at sharing skills for studies of urban and peri-urban problems, as mandated under the Urban Planning Act. This Act replaces the Town and Country Planning Act and the Zambian government is seeking to implement this new Act at the district level. To that end, I am attempting to develop another training that orients the planning department at the Council of the legislative changes in planning approaches. I am having some problems with the structure of the training, as I don't want the contents to be redundant. Otherwise, I'll put people to sleep. My goal is to facilitate the transition of the way planning staff think about planning, shifting their thinking away from viewing planning as strictly a process about parceling and selling land and building regulations and towards thinking about it in terms of an integrated and comprehensive process. More about that in another blog.

I continue to fundraise for this placement. USD$2,000.00 is my minimum benchmark. If you so feel inclined, please send in your donations via the “My Fundraising Page”. Thank you.

A RESTFUL EASTER WEEKEND

2011-04-26T02:54:00.000-04:00

It's Tuesday, April 26, the day after a long, four-day Easter holiday. I started the weekend at the office, completing the first draft of the comprehensive plan for the squatter residential area just on the edge of the center of Chipata. There are several parts to it, ideas generated after starting the rough mapping of the area, field observing infrastructural amenities and constraints, and generally talking very casually with some of the residents. After weeks of returning to the squatter community, its strengths began coming to the surface, and I began to see the community as a very mobile, vey entrepreneurially active one. The maize - what looked at first like accidental growth in little open spaces around the community was in fact urban agriculture plots intended to either feed or get the grower some income.

The objective, if my proposals are approved by the Commissioner of Lands and the Town Clerk, is to improve the physical conditions of the area and get another water kiosk in the section where according to some of the residents it is needed.

So, on this Easter holiday, I worked. Later in the afternoon, I was invited to my colleague's, Namakau, house. She works as a socio-economic planner and visits me at the office every once in a while, and I her in her squatting staunch in the deed office. We ate and watched a Nigerian movie called Blood Sisters. I'm beginning to understand the dominant themes in some of the Nigerian movies the more I watch them. They contain what I have come to interpret as folklore and in the right context the drama is very interesting to watch. The only problem with the movies is the sound; it echoes and the dialogue is at times difficult to understand.

It was a really nice lunch. I got a chance to taste other traditional Zambian foods apart from the usual fare of sauteed rape and cabbage. Namakau's cousin, Martha, the main cook for the afternoon, explained the preparation of her dishes: chiwawa and kalembula. The ingredients are pretty standard, salt, tomatoes, and onions, but the savory taste I've concluded is in the unique preparation of them. Chiwawa is first boiled, sliced into strips, and then dried for three days under the scorching sun. The kalembula is boiled, but is in addition spiced with ground nut powder. Martha also added another dish of liver stew, which had a broth that had a hint of red wine and complemented the nshima quite nicely. The entire meal was tasty and very enjoyable to eat!

I have to say that many of the foods here contain ingredients that can really only be found in the Zambian villages, but for those of you reading my blogs, if you are growing sweet potatoe or squash or pumpkin this summer to fall, you can gather the leaves of these crops yourselves, as they are the main ingredients in the dishes I ate. Clearly I love to eat, especially the healthy foods I have been able to sample here in Chipata.

I also got to see Katuta Lodge this Easter weekend with someone I befriended at the local stationery store. Tea, coke, and dinner. The garden is something to see; not really the kind of landscaping comonly found in Chipata. The green, green grass was a treat after months of seeing dusty, red clay roads.Very peaceful, but also unfortunately replete with mosquitos.

This month, I started saving up for a digital camera. I've decided that I wanted to give readers a visual idea of my life in Chipata and also offer faces of people I've met here so far. The Chewa (matriarchal) Festival is coming to Katete in August and I definitely want to take pictures of the festival participants in their traditional dresses dancing ritual dances.

I have only been living in Zambia for two months, but I am truly considering extending for another year next February. I would love to see these urban planning projects of which I have been a part completed.

WHAT'S ON TODAY?

2011-04-06T05:50:00.000-04:00

Today is the second day of the Chipata District Leadership Training workshop. My co-worker asked me to attend. The training is part of an European Union funded initiative to support the decentralization process in Zambia as well as to facilitate the enforcement of good governance through raising public awareness and improving government practices. The topics covered (i.e. character, leadership quality, use of power and authority) are the normal topics covered in leadership trainings., but it was interesting to see the way Zambia begin an official meeting. There is the announcement of the agenda and introductions, as elsewhere, and the official declaration of the meeting. The language medium is a combination of English and Nyanja, the official language of Chipata District and the Eastern Province, as it is most widely spoken here. And then, the morning prayer. Somewhere towards the end, the participants chant of encouragement, perhaps, or to promote wisdom. I forgot to ask the reason for it.

I have been eager to talk a little bit about my work here. There is a lot of planning to do in Chipata District, but very little money. The red tape of any government system is also present here, which makes project mobility a little difficult to expedite. I am doing some self-improvement work in this department, as patience is a virtue, and am letting time run its course. More often than not, I fail. I grumble to myself when my to tasks are delayed because of government red tape.

Overall, the objective of my placement is to support decentralization and the implementation of the integrated development plan, a revised version of the former land use guide that has driven planning throughout Zambia. The land use guide notes are really outdated, dating back to the 1970s, and does not reflect the complexity of urban spaces. As a planning guide, moreover, the guide notes focus too strongly on building codes and land parceling, rather than treating these elements of planning as part of a broader system associated with the planning of towns, cities, and regions. As such, the guide notes miss the interconnections of physical planning to other elements that influence the conditions of space, such as the environment, transportation, internet connection, economic development, and place values, concepts that are generally included when analyzing urban places.

One month later. I have proposed revising the guide notes and have also started tackling one of the more pressing problems in Chipata District, which is squatter communities. There are two large ones in Chipata township, Kapata and Magazine. Magazine has not been mapped, yet, and is a project I am trying to accomplish. It has been almost three weeks, now, and I have not finished the rough sketch of the Compound. It is bigger than I imagined and we at the Council are short-staffed. Fortunately, the federal government has designated it as a housing upgrade project, but I am trying to convince local government to approach upgrading more comprehensively. The Compound has a market, which is a good target for re-designing. Needless to say, with funding constraints, grants have to be written. I hope to get funds from different aid sources that have different development targets. I plan to complete pieces of the upgrade project in the year that I am here.

I look forward to providing more details about the other projects in another blog. I hope that this bit of information gives you a better idea of the value of volunteering to the development of Zambia. Remember that I am still fundraising for this placement. I only need to raise about USD$1600 to meet my minimum fundraising goal of USD$2000. You can contribute on line. Just click on the link, “My Fundraising Page” to the left of today's blog. A million thanks in advance to those inspired to sponsor my placement.

MORE ABOUT CHIPATA DISTRICT, EASTERN PROVINCE

2011-04-04T10:16:00.000-04:00

I should say something about Chipata, my home base for the next year. I should also let you all know, who are interested in knowing how long my placement is for, that I will be here for at least one year.

Chipata township is located in the eastern province of Zambia, about 20 kilometers from the Malawi border. Every now and then, I will see a representative from Malawi selling Malawi kwacha. They might be scalpers selling counterfeit, I don't know, but the money is really pretty.

I would have to say that one of the best things about this town, aside from the friendly people, is the mountain air. It rains intermittently and on some days like clock work around 14:00 or 15:00 hours in the early afternoon and continues for about 30 minutes to sometimes an hour, stopping briefly before resuming.

The hill on which the center of the city sits is encased by mountains. So, regardless of which direction you go from the center of town, you see mountains around you. The pace and congestion of the center is about the same as that of Amherst, Massachusetts.

Chipata is the fastest growing town and recently received approval from the federal government to achieve city status. The high density of large and small businesses and federal agencies has contributed to its growth. These institutions are also inviting many people from around the country to apply for jobs up here. The banking industry is one of the larger sectors, with the big ones like Barcalys, Stanbic, and ZANACO banks, represented here.

City growth, however, has also resulted in a need to upgrade the land use guide to reflect the anticipated growth of Chipata town and tailoring the guide to the context of Chipata township. The upgrading of the land use guide and the creation of a guide specifically for the town still needs to be approved by the Council. The high density of large and small businesses and federal agencies has contributed to its growing congestion.

Bicycles are the dominant mode of transportation here, that and cars. The public transportation system leaves much to be desired. For now, extending and increasing the number of city bus services is not something the Council can afford. So, many people either drive or hire a bike cabbie. Taxis, in addition, are commonly used for transportation around the city and the surrounding areas.

Chipata, surprisingly, attracts a lot of businesses and industries. One of its main attractions, I think, is that its fairly livable and is located in the mountains. The climate is not so hot, unlike other parts of Zambia, like the copperbelt, the southern province, and Lusaka. Lusaka has some dry heat. Thus, many people come here to establish businesses. Bicycle cabbies constitute one of the cottage industries in the town. Others are small-scale produce sellers, who sit on the side of Umodzi Highway. SPAR, which I think is a South African supermarket, just opened its doors. The owner of the store put up a small cafe in the supermarket, an added, pleasant touch for me, the quintessential cafe rat.

The Council is abuzz today with people around town waiting in line for interviews to be approved for their lands. I overheard a few people complaining about how long they have waited, telling me Zambians are not so different from Americans when it comes to expecting efficiency and expediency from their local government.

Unfortunately, no photos as of yet. I am looking for a really cheap digital camera.

FINALLY, ACCESS TO THE INTERNET . . .

2011-03-14T08:49:00.001-04:00

Apologies for the lack of communication on my part. I have been in Chipata now for two weeks and in Zambia for a total of three weeks. I am trying very hard to adjust to the pace of life here. The red tape doesn't bother me as much, as I have experience waiting and waiting and, well, waiting for government agencies to pass papers through in the United States. Here, the wait is a bit longer, but there is a ton of exciting planning work to keep me busy. There's a lot to report and many ups and downs since I first arrived.

As soon as we landed, I was immediately taken by the wonderful Zambian air. We stepped onto the tarmac from British Airways and I could feel this light breeze lifting the hair off the back of my neck. I expected something drier and instead was rewarded with a refreshing, rainy season breathe. I hear in June, the weather gets insanely dry and hoooooot!!

I've met my co-volunteers, mainly from England and we all appear to experience our share of ups and downs. Some handle the frustration better than others and so I try to learn from the cool cucumbers.

Our in-country induction was full of information about gender, working, and in general living in Zambia. During this time, the volunteers were able to meet up with some of their employers from around the country. I was assigned after all to a district called Chipata in the Eastern Province. I work at the Chipata Municipal Council as a Town Planning Advisor. I was one of the lucky ones - my coworkers gave me a short briefing on their general goals for the first six months that I am here. And, I have been working very quickly to assess the town and country planning situation here by reading all the relevant documents. So far, I've worked out some plans to address one of their most pressing problems, which is unplanned settlements, and am now roughly sketching the settlment layout and other amenities. This project, however, is one of many and I expect to provide some details on them later on in the coming months.

I live in a motel. While the accomodations are good because we get running water, a flushing toilet, and a bath, I don't get to cook and try out some of the recipes we have been given. Privacy is also something of the past at the motel. On my first night, I could have sworn I saw two men standing over my bed, but I was a bit ill and couldn't tell if I was dreaming in the middle of the night. I told the desk clerk about this and she said there is only one key. However, in the last two weekends, three other people have managed to enter my room using a magical spare key. Being intruded upon is unnerving, to say the least, and I am now forced to deal with these break-ins more strictly. A little concerned about my personal safety and feeling the stress of getting a very typical response: circumvension and denial.

Until next week . . .

But, keep the funds coming. I will continue to fundraise over the next months. Remember, my goals is to raise a minimum of $2,000.

IN FLIGHT

2011-02-17T21:03:00.002-05:00

So, the last few hours were a little hectic and filled with travel. I was dropped off at the Amherst Center at 8:30a.m this morning (2/17/2011), where I sipped a cup of coffee at Amherst Coffee, but the last several hours have been spent transferring from the bus to the subway to the AirTrain, before finally disembarking at Terminal 7.

I've just had a nice club sandwich at Starbucks and am a bit groggy from the Sam Adams pint I nursed a few hours ago. I think I might nap a few minutes at my gate before my flight boards. The time now reads 8:56p.m and I still have about an hour and a half to ward off before I am in flight.

There was a bit of hesitation on the part of the British Airways ticketing agent about my flight in light of the Homeland Security rules, but after much explaining and some verification of my documents and my placement with Lusaka, I was allowed through and am now swettled in at the airport. Airports - where I feel I am living now after two weeks of going in and out of them.

The long process of waiting for a placement is finally over. It was worth it for this opportunity.

ONE MORE DAY FORWARD

2011-02-15T19:55:00.001-05:00

Today is Tuesday. One more day towards my departure on Thursday, February 17th for Zambia. I received word from my advisor that I will be placed in the Chipata District instead to help strengthen municipal planning and to assist the planners working there. Meanwhile, I am gradually moving towards completion of my preparation, including temporarily suspending my cell phone service until August, at minimum. Tomorrow will involve more packing and errands-running to facilitate my transition to the Chipata District.

Here is an update on my fundraising activity. I finally checked my company e-mail and found a message there from Byron Koh, who informed me that he is sending a $50 contribution to CUSO-VSO. The amount helped me to break the $400 threshold, bringing my grand total raised to $435. Thank you, Byron. I am as always grateful for any help.

SKWID Training

2011-02-14T17:54:00.001-05:00

I just returned mid-week last week from the very intense, very fast paced SKWID training required of all CUSO-VSO volunteer newbies, otherwise known as the Skills for Working in International Development or Preparing for Change training in Ottawa, Canada. I must say, my brain is still processing all of the information and skills we practiced using role plays. The two trainers covered a LOT of different topics related to interpersonal skills, living in a different culture, and learning to manage emotions in the context of different surroundings. To belabor an obvious goal, the training forced us to imagine ourselves in different scenarios while in volunteering in our respective placements.

We ate well, became better acquainted, and fretted over our personal worries. We came from different parts of North America and Europe and are also headed to different parts of the globe. One volunteer, in fact, flew directly to Mongolia immediately after our five day training; she arrived safely.

But, now, I'm back in Sunderland, preparing my documents for entry into Zambia and planning my luggage. Pretty soon, you'll be reading more details about my work there.

Remember, you can still sponsor me with your $10 donation. The best way to do that at this point would be to visit MY FUNDRAISING PAGE on this blog site and give using your credit card.

NSHIMA: ZAMBIA'S STAPLE FOOD

2011-01-27T19:52:00.010-05:00


Nshima with relish (Miwzenge S. Tembo, Ph.D.)

Because I like food and find anything new and exotic interesting, I'll try it (barring, of course, some proteins that I might not be able to stomach). I have been wandering cyberspace in search of different Zambian foods in preparation for my volunteer placement, and came upon some informative articles about Zambians' staple foods.

It seems that Zambians rely on tubers and grains for their main dish, nshima, sort of like rice in the Philippines. Rice is used in various ingredients, including deserts, but is eaten most commonly as the plain, boiled form. Like Filipinos, Zambians eat nshima with side dishes, which has been most plaintively called "relish" (ndiwo). Like the "ulam" for Filipinos, the purpose of the relish is to accentuate nshima, rather than to dominate it. Ndiwo are usually made from poultry, dried kapenta fish, or wild greens. These ingredients are sometimes simmered into tasty stews, not unlike the meal illustrated in the photograph highlighted in this blog.

In an earlier blog, I mentioned that maize has become a staple for Zambians because it seems to grow well in the wetter, northern regions of the country. For this reason, nshima is most commonly made from maize, although other vegetables, such as cassava, potatoes, or sorghum, have also been made into nshima.

The relatively inexpensive price of maize also contributes to its status as the Zambian staple and iconic value in Zambian culture. Apparently, the cultural status of nshima is equivalent to the taro in Native Hawaiian society in that Native Hawaiians view themselves as having come from the taro plant. Perhaps to assert that Zambians are nshima is premature at this point - I haven't made it to the country, yet. But, Dr. Tembo implies this when he describes the preparation of nshima as being a community affair.

Also like the Filipinos, Zambians have traditionally eaten with their hands. Washing one's hands, therefore, is important for cleanliness and is a moral ritual.

Dr. Tembo offers this rather simple recipe to try.
4 Cups Water
2 Cups plain corn meal
Boil 4 cups of water in a pot. Gradually add the corn meal into the boiling water until the 2 cups have been added. Stir the mixture until it boil sand thickens.Once the mixture has thickened, simmer for 3 to 5 minutes.

The preparation of ndiwo is somewhat more complicated, as the wild greens have to be cured and intricately prepared to get the right texture. I suggest reading Dr. Tembo's blog to understand how to do this:
<http://people.bridgewater.edu/~mtembo/menu/nshima/nshima.shtml>

Fundraising Updating:
Jon Loper contributed this week, which brings the grand total to $385. Help me break $400 this weekend by sponsoring me with a $10 donation, now.

A BETTER ORIENTATION TO THE SINAZONGWE DISTRICT

2011-01-23T15:57:00.002-05:00

Location of Sinazongwe, next to Lake Kariba (in blue).

I was perusing the internet and came upon a Red Cross Vulnerability Capacity Assessment (VAC) report about the Sinazongwe District. Because I will be placed here, I thought it good to better acquaint myself with the district, following up on a previous blog, which highlighted some of the broad geographical characteristics of the district. The Red Cross report gave important information about education, health, and livelihoods, in which I thought many of you might have great interest.

The Sinazongwe District, populated by 11,528 people, is an elongated area situated at the very southern part of Zambia, comprised of two Chiefdoms: the Sinazongwe and the Mweemba. It is just to the northeast of Livingston, another major city in Zambia. It is a mountainous district with small pockets of settlements in the lowlands. The location of the district at the vortex of major roads leading to cities, Maamba, Choma, and Malima, has influenced the development of it into a rest stop for travellers.

The ethnic groups, who make up the Sinazongwe District, are the Valley Tonga. The primary livelihood here is livestock, specifically cattle and goats, and fishing. The reason so much of the economy depends on these two primary sectors is because the district is generally extremely arid and has had problems with droughts in past years. This was especially the case in the early 2000, when the area benefitted from very little rain. As such, agricultural crops are difficult to raise in the district, creating many food and economic challenges for the residents. Nevertheless, the Tonga people who reside in the valleys cultivate small plots of land of less than a hectare. The condition of the soil in the valley, moreover, are not very fertile, which poses another food access challenge for the people.

In 2007, however, the Sinazongwe district was victim to severe flooding, which took out the bridge connecting it to Lusaka and other major city ports around the country. About 100 houses, made of mud, were decimated. The district is still reeling from the impact of the floods.

The district is also home to the largest, if not the only, coal mining industry in Zambia, which has resulted in the population growth and development of the district. The conditions of the mine, however, have not met safety standards and is on its last breath. The district government is hoping to sell it if it can find a buyer. The mine, unfortunately, has led to environmental and health problems for the community, so continuing to mine coal may not be such a fortuitious endeavor, especially because maintenance and improvement would cost the prospective company and the district government some money to upgrade.

Land tenure is designated as Trust and Traditional. The former falls under the control of the President vis-a-vis the Commissioner of Lands, whereas Traditional land tenure is the domain of the Chief, who then determines occupancy and use rights allocations. Men usually make the decisions on land use, while women are relatively dis-empowered in this domain.

Public transportation is available, but most roads are not paved. The only ones that are paved lead to the mine and to service areas, an indication that development of the transportation system has been connected to major corporate investment projects. While electric power is available in select towns in the district, telecommunications is poor, which creates a problem for me. I think this means I have to come up with an alternative means of communicating my progress in my placement during my tenure here.

Sanitation throughout the district is also poor. The drought conditions create problems with water availability. The paucity and unsophisticated sewage and water infrastructure causes health problems and makes residents susceptible to cholera outbreaks and to diarrhea outbreaks, both of which contribute to dehydration and later death. There is a desire to build more pit latrines as well as a well-designed water infrastructure that allows residents to access clean and drinking water. Presently, they gather water from the streams and do not boil them.

The health problems associated with poor sanitary conditions is compounded by HIV/AIDS and malaria. Malaria vaccines are, therefore, greatly needed by the residents. HIV/AIDS is exacerbated by prostitution in the area. Girls are known to be sold into prostitution due to household poverty. Respiratory tract infection, because of the district's mining activities, have also been discovered to be a major health issue among the residents.

One of the weaknesses of the district is in education. The Red Cross VAC documented 40 schools offering education from the first grade through high school. The report gave no mention of vocational training programs for adults in basic construction skills or in skills that would augment livelihood activities for a larger market. Vocational training programs might help the district move in the direction of future sustainability if the right skills and knowledge were offered.

In the next blog, I will write more about food production and food security in the district.

Lake Kariba

Makonkoto School

Distressed Man

(All images on this blog are courtesy of picsearch.com)

Fundraising Note: This weekend, I received more donations from residents in Amherst. Thank you to Susan, Robert, and my aunt, Chona. My old floor mate in Cashin Hall at UMASS-Amherst also helped my with my fundraising effort. Together, they gave $95 this weekend, which brings my total funds raised to $375. Thank you once again to everyone who has sponsored me. I hope to break $400 by next weekend.

THE COMPLEXITY OF LAND USE AND LAND LAWS IN ZAMBIA

2011-01-17T15:04:00.004-05:00

Why is understanding land use and land use laws important?

Land has been credited for securing means to a livelihood and hence for building wealth. Because land renders socio-economic assets, under conditions of land constraints and/or scarcity, land has been a reason for ethnic conflicts and civil wars. In Third World countries, land is conventionally regulated as a common-use resource, albeit owned by a chieftain. Therefore, laws affecting land use and the resources featured within the land spaces are imposed from above. When exogenous actors gain access to land and corresponding resources as an outcome of political relationships, such as colonialism, foreign-trade, etc., local village access and entitlements are restricted. Understanding land use is, therefore critical to understanding how to manage and regulate land ownership and use.

Land use, access, and management in Zambia, not unlike other developing countries, has been affected by trade and colonial relations. Land ownership today is guided by customary law and common law. The former, customary law, stems from African customs and is the method by which Zambians conduct their land activities, which include contractual claims regarding marital inheritance, ownership, and disputes. Zambians mediate land activities in the local courts, which in judicial language means the lower district courts.

Common law is derived from the establishment of the English colonial government in 1924, which placed significant hectares of land as Reserves or that of the British Crown. The latter was open to only Europeans, an edict that forcibly evacuated Zambians, but reserves were open to Africans. Reserved lands are located in some of the most agriculturally prime areas. After colonialism ended in 1964, Zambia acquired formerly Crown lands that are now designated as State Land, Freehold, Reserves, and Trust lands.Reserves and Trust lands fall under the de-facto management rights of the Chieftains, although power is diluted, and is a status that was extended to them as a diplomatic gesture. Much of commercial agriculture in Zambia are held in State land, the bounties of which are channeled to urban areas. Now, 94 percent of lands fall under the administration of the Zambian government.

Like most countries, gender ownership has been delayed by customary laws limiting land ownership to men. Civic groups have proselytized for equal opportunity in land ownership laws, arguing that women in ownership of land will encourage productivity because they are likely to invest more in land they own, reduce economic hardship, as land is the gateway to livelihoods, and will empower women, overall.

The climate of Zambia differs across the country, modified by altitude. The southern western areas, home of the Luangwa Valley, are very arid and are prone to erosion, while other parts, specifically the Zambezi area, are flood prone. Around the Zambezi region, rain fall (precipitation) can average as high as 55 inches. Agricultural development is challenged by climatic variations and land use history.

I thank Martin Adams and the Online Edition of Britannica for improving my knowledge of Zambian land use laws.

FUNDRAISING UPDATE: I am now at $280, which includes the checks I have collected at the door and over Christmas. I would like to break $300 by this weekend. Please visit "My Fundraising Page" to the left of this blog and donate today.

Bangweulu Swamps. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Web. 17 Jan. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/120057/Swamps-

Zambia. Map. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Web. 17 Jan. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/70837/>.]

ABOUT ZAMBIA: GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHICS

2011-01-08T14:19:00.005-05:00

Zambia (map courtesy of EveryCulture.com)

Whenever I tell people in Sunderland and Amherst and the surrounding areas about my placement in Zambia, many ask me where exactly is Zambia, how large is it, and how many people live there? So, I decided to devote this blog to informing those not familiar with Zambia with demographic, geographic, and other interesting cultural tidbits to orient them, as well as me, to the background, yet very pertinent, information that will help me in my placement. I found this really nice map on Everyculture.com and thought it nice to add it here as a way of helping everyone visualize the location of this country on the African continent.

As you can see from this map, Zambia is landlocked and is surrounded by neighboring Mozambique, Angola, Botswana and Zimbabwe to the immediate south, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the north. As I have mentioned in other blogs, Lusaka is the capital city and is very modern and populated. The country is made up of wildlife, undulating hills and mountains, and natural water resources. The Victorian Falls, located in the southern region, is one of the main destinations for enterprising tourists.

Because most development takes place in the major cities of Zambia, most of the 9.87 million people living around the country reside in cities. In fact, almost half of the population are in urban areas, where most of the jobs are. Rural residents, who rely primarily on subsistence farming, comprise most migrants, but Zambia has also accepted refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.

Although Zambia is known for being a British colony (1924-1964), it was also occupied by other European nations, such as Portugal, and has had its fair share of missionaries. David Livingstone, to whom one of the cities is commemorated, was an industrious missionary, who fought to end slavery in Zambia. There are seventy five different tribes residing throughout the nation who live relatively peacefully with each other. The main tribes are the Bemba, Nagoni, Lozi, Chewa, Chokwe, Lunda, Luvale, Tonga, and Tumbuka, which also reflect the major geographical languages. The large ethnic diversity, however, is mediated by the "One Nation, One Zambia" ideology, promulgated and promoted by former President, Kaunda.

The food culture is another important and interesting characteristic of Zambia, but is best left for another blog date.

Fundraising note: Many thanks to my cousin, Abe, who donated yesterday. His gift brings my total to $255.