Friday, March 3, 2006:

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Last night was my first night in my new place in Kalomo. The place I am renting has a main room, with three rooms coming off of that, and then a fourth room just out the back door. The shower is outside with no roof and has a showerhead that points sideways. The toilet is an outhouse with walls, but no door, and it’s a squatter. Just behind the house is a servants quarters divided up into four rooms, and as of yet I have no idea how many people are actually staying back there (I have seen at least three women, a teenager, and three kids).

I am sharing the house with three people working on the same project as me. Jairos (who works for The Cooperative League of the USA - CLUSA) Steve (Who works for International Development Enterprises - IDE, same as me) and Princes (who works for Land ‘O’ Lakes). Not to mention Alice’s son Bernard (who everyone calls Junior because Bernard is his dad’s name) and her mother Catherine who takes care of Bernard while she works. All three of my co-workers are married and have families other places, so at least one of them will likely go home every weekend to see their spouse.

Since I got in quite late last night, I didn’t have a chance to go buy myself a mattress to sleep on, so I had to borrow one of Steve’s thin foamies he sleeps on. I also shared his room because the fourth room has no door handle, needs to be scrubbed, has no socket for a light bulb, and has a couple of wires running at about head level from the wall socket out the window supplying power to the servants quarters behind it. All in all, not quite ready for human habitation just yet.

I was really tired so I headed to bed around 9 pm. The rest of my housemates stayed up for a while and headed to bed around 11. When Steve went to bed he turned the light on… and left it on all night. I have dealt with this in the past when sharing rooms in guest houses with coworkers in Tanzania, but usually then I could convince them to just leave the bathroom light on instead. In this case the choices were darkness or exposed 100 watt light bulb, and I was to sleepy to say anything coherent. Turns out that when eli sleeps under that much light he doesn’t get a terribly restful night sleep.

In the morning I got up around 7 am with everyone else and had a breakfast of tea and bread with jam that tasted like tuity fruity hard candy. Sure made me miss the samosa and chapatti breakfasts I used to have in Tanzania. Around 8:30 another IDE worker, Joseph, came by on his way to meet our ride for the day at the CARE office. Steve wasn’t ready so we said we would meet them on the main road at 9 because they would have to head past our house anyway.

At 9:30 we called them to see if they were on their way, they said they would be there by 10.

10:45 a guy from CARE comes by on a motor bike and we flag him down. He says that they are almost ready and should be coming by in the next 15 minutes.

11:15 we see our ride coming down the road towards us…but they turn off into town

11:45 we get picked up and head for the meeting that was supposed to start at 9. Luckily the meeting was near by, so we were only three hours late when we got there. Plus, it was a great opportunity for me to get to know Steve better.

The meeting went quite well, almost everyone in attendance already had some knowledge about dry season vegetable crops and treadle pumps, and everyone laughed at me when I stood up and botched a greeting in Tonga.

After the meeting we had to go on to check up on a farmer CARE is working with because we were mooching the ride in the first place, this meant that we spent another half hour each direction with a fifteen minute stop. Not so bad if it means we are getting a free ride and getting work done without any real funding.

When we got back to the house, Joseph, Steve and I made a late lunch of rice and fried eggplant. I am having to adjust to the degree of communal eating that is assumed when you are living with people here. Even though Alice and Jairos weren’t around when we started cooking, we made enough food for them to have some whenever they happened to get home. Nobody buys food for themselves, we all just pick things up on our way home and put them in a pile near the cooker (which is actually just an burner propped up on a couple bricks).

After lunch, I wanted to go into town to buy a mattress and use the internet, so Joseph showed me the way. He comes 8 km each way every day either by foot or bicycle because we don’t have any transportation for the project yet. After using the internet, I went and bought a mattress. I decided to spend the extra money and get a nice thick one. But that did mean I had to deal with the extra bulkyness on the way home.

Because I always see people here caring things on their heads, I figured I could start with something as light as a mattress without causing any serious damage. So I got the store to fold the mattress in half and tie it, and then headed off with it purched on my head. I don’t have the balance or poise that most people here have, so I had to use both hands to keep it balanced. I got a lot of really great looks… and almost as many offers of help.

At the end of the 15 minute walk home, my shoulders were aching from holding my hands up, and despite how light it was, my neck was pretty sore from the weight. As is usual whenever I attempt to do something that a Zambian or Tanzanian does, I was not up to the task and my respect for how tough they are and how hard they work went up again.

I had plans on going for a run, but there was no water, and I didn’t want to get that sweaty and then not be able to get clean again, so instead I read my book for an hour. At 6:30 the water came back on, and I figured I would gamble and try and get a quick run in before it got too dark. I nearly made it home before the light fully went, but not quite. I tripped on a hole I didn’t see on my way around the last corner into the yard… much to the entertainment of Alice and Junior.

I have to say, showering under the stars with cold water was a pretty fun experience… but I’m sure it will loose it’s novelty in short order. Especially as it heads into the cold season. I can see all of you stuck in winter staring at that last remark about cold with a lot of skepticism. But do keep in mind that I live in brick house, I don’t have anything warmer than a long sleeve shirt because my fleece got stolen, and if I don’t want cold tap water for my shower, I have to boil some on the burner. So while it will be well above zero, it will still be cold for me.

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