Hey! New Pics!

My village friends.

 My neighbor with his grandson, Savior.

 Puppy who has been stealing my shoes. I have to search my yard when she does that. She's so cute!

    My buddy Lawrence. He is 11, has never been to school and lives with his uncle. I don't know why he doesn't live with his parents. I am teaching him to read and I am trying to find a way to get him in a school. 

And now for something completely different...

     Fellow Peace Corps Volunteers get together periodically to celebrate like we are here in the following pictures. We are holding a COS (close of service) party for Volunteers in our province who will be returning to the United States now that their service is over. 

     Our parties usually involve a theme. This theme is ABC--Anything But Clothes. This is how we bond (haha). Many of us wore plastic bags. And one wore newspapers!

Daily rolling blackouts, decreased water pressure, farmers searching for places to sell their maize, gas shortages, increased food prices, layoffs at the mines…

     

     This has been happening in Zambia the past few months and it’s continuing to worsen. Zambia is expected to completely black out by the month of November. Imagine a country the size of Texas without power.

     The main reason for the power shortage is there is not enough water in Kariba Dam to supply electricity needs for the country. Zambezi River is low and rain isn’t expected to fall until November.

     So, with the rolling blackouts, refrigeration isn’t keeping food cold anymore. Milk producers are throwing out spoiled milk.

       

     Increased gas prices are causing a fuel shortage. Sometimes people are stuck where they are because there is no gas at the gas stations.

     Mines are laying off employees or even shutting down completely due to a decrease in the price of copper. The power shortage is making things worse for the mines, as well.

     This all trickles down to the small farmer; the people I have been working with for the past year and a half. Most of them live without electricity, so why would they be affected? Well, they are stuck with maize they can’t sell because the government has no money left in the reserves to buy maize. Most farmers rely on income from maize as their only income source of the year. This means they will have no money to buy the things they need; including food.

     Some water sources rely on electricity to run. Women and children will have to spend a large portion of their day walking longer distances to retrieve water for bathing, cooking, cleaning, watering their gardens, and drinking.

     Another worry is the increase use of charcoal. Charcoal is made from trees. Much of Zambia is battling deforestation.  Charcoal is one of the few fuel alternatives for cooking and boiling water when people’s power is out. Even people living in gated communities in the suburbs are turning to charcoal.

     Millions of people are expected to go hungry on top of entering hunger season next month. Children who come over to my hut to play games, draw with chalk on my kinzanza floor, look at National Geographic magazines will suffer from hunger like they’ve never known before. And there’s not much I can do about it. I can only watch this happen. I love these children. And the people…these peaceful people…will suffer.

     But, the spiral I am witnessing here in the country I am serving is spiraling fast; too fast for anyone to know what will happen next. My home of almost two years will become another African country forgotten about after the headlines make it known to the world it exists. But, it doesn’t matter because there is nothing anyone can do.

     Zambia has made its way into my heart. I love it here and I love its people. A place I’ve experienced feeling safe, safe enough to hitch rides on my frequent travels and not one time feeling threatened. How many countries can you name where a woman can hitch alone and feel safe?

     Zambia is a place where great opportunity can happen, but, for now, the people must wait. Wait for years until it gets back to where it was when I arrived. This isn’t the States; it’s a developing country. Developing countries can’t afford setbacks such as this. I just hope it stays peaceful and the children I’ve become friends with hang in there until things get better.

*Since I wrote this article the copper prices continue to drop and the Kwatcha is now $1=K8. Expatriates are starting to emigrate to other countries due to job loss. 

What you think isn’t how it is…

     Some Peace Corps Volunteers hand out ‘sweeties’, or candy, regularly to children. I don’t. Reason why I don’t is because I want children to appreciate ME as a friend. I tried handing out candies to children early in my service when they performed tasks, but that leads to children coming by frequently asking if they can do something for a sweetie. It sounds reasonable, but having children coming by several times throughout the day is tiresome and annoying and I don't have that many tasks to delegate.

     

     This culture has been sensitized to receiving things for free; especially from white people. That is what we do. It is our fault we’ve created this way of thinking.

     The only thing I will freely hand out is chalk to use to draw on the cement floor of my outdoor kitchen, which I rarely use. Children eagerly practice writing their names and draw pictures of bicycles and cars with the chalk. They don’t have many opportunities to do this because paper and pencils are a rare commodity in the village.

     Another reason I don’t hand out sweeties is these children don’t visit the dentist or even brush their teeth. They may live their entire life not flossing their teeth. This is a big concern of mine.

     So, if you envision visiting a third-world country and hand things out; change your vision. In the States we do this handing out of things like sweeties so we can see the smiles on children’s faces. Here I want to see a smile on a child’s face because he can write his name without help anymore.

True African experiences...

     This past weekend I attended Chief Mumena's Lubinda Ceremony. Got a picture taken with my new Kaonde friends.

     The ceremony is the annual gathering of people of the Kaonde Tribe. The ceremony showcases traditional dance and local people sell foods they harvested and items they make. 

     Two weeks ago I attended a camp (Camp Tree) at Kafue National Park organized by a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer. Each Volunteer brought along two students to attend the camp. I presented tree planting demonstrations.

     The man beside me is Harrison who is from my village. He acted as my interpreter for both Lunda and Kiikanonde and he presented tree talks and demonstrations, as well. 

 This is the Africa we see on documentaries!

      We traveled to the northern part of Kafue National Park for the camp where most visitors fly in by airplane. We drove in a 50 passenger bus following a bush path for several  miles; the second bus driver had to get out every few meters to move tree branches out of the way for the bus to pass. 

    The bus had to cross a plank bridge over a river. All of us had to get out of the bus while the bus crossed while we all crossed our fingers hoping the bus wouldn't fall into the river. The bus also had to literally bushwack around a fallen tree. 

     We reached camp around 2 in the morning. Our bus was the first bus to travel this route. So glad we made it.

     We camped along a river with hippos and crocks. I heard elephants off in the distance and lions were sighted 8k away.

Active demonstration on desertification.

My fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and me.

      The wonderful and lucky group of students who attended Camp Tree in Kafue National Park.