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Published: April 10th 2008
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(NB tried to attach short video clips- hope works!)
My first day here (Wednesday) was spent on a bit of an orientation. Was picked up and taken straight to meet the Bishop of Chipata as he was having breakfast- very friendly chap, and was very nice to be introduced to him. Next stop was the town centre so I could pick up a new sim card, so I now have a Zambian mobile number. Was then taken to the office where will be working where had a short discussion and got introduced to a few people. Was taken back to the sisters' house for lunch and then in the afternoon was driven round the various parts of Chipata and got some stuff from the supermarket, Shoprite (including a couple of bottles of cider- the posh South African stuff they have in Nando's was all they sold). Felt very odd being chauffeured around by a driver, who also helped me carry my bags. With all the sights flashing past as we drove through with local bouncy music on the radio, seemed like watching a documentary, slightly detached and unreal.
Had dinner with the Sisters, but evening curtailed by powercut from
6-9ish (am very grateful for laptop batteries).
It seems powercuts are nearly every night right across the country at the moment. I've been told that this is because energy priority is given to the mines in the Copperbelt region. Candles are also quite expensive so they are used as sparingly as possible. Since you can't really do much in the dark in the powercut, people (not just nuns) tend to be in bed by 9. However, they do get up early to make the most of daylight and, I think, do the things they can't in the evenings; guess my bodyclock will eventually join theirs.
So, Thursday was to be my first formal day at work. I dutifully got out my new suit, new white shirt and office shoes and packed a couple of bottles of water to keep me going until lunchtime when I expected to be taken back to the house.
Got dropped off at the office, expecting to start having meetings and find out the detail of what was required from me. Instead, I was told I was going off on a 'field day' to two neighbouring villages,Utukani and Mbwindi and we left about 9.30am.
These turned out to be fairly remote and was a couple of hours' drivetime squashed with another staff member on the front seat of the minibus. They put the seatbelt around me... We stopped twice, once when, I think, the engine overheated and we waited a bit. We were then stopped at one of the many police roadblocks; some dispute about the certificates plastered on the windscreen. The problem was resolved with a payment of 54k kwacha (about £8) and we were issued with a very official-looking certificate, which itself was in quadruplicate, stating its status as a receipt for 'guilty money' of an 'unlicenced vehicle'.
When we got there at about 11.30, most of the two villages were sat waiting for us (and, I believe, had been for some time) on the floor under some trees in a big semi-circle. There was a group of men at each side and all the women and babies (lots of babies) together in the middle. We were seated on chairs facing them. I later learnt when I showed my colleagues these photos that in the interests of 'gender' some effort is usually made to get the men and women to
Gifts for the visitors
Including a live chicken sit together, but this hadn't been managed this time.
We had prayers, the local field officer (the Diocese representative on the ground) said some things and one of our guys said some things (all in Nyaanja of course). It was then whispered to me that we were all going to introduce ourselves, and did I want an interpreter? Fortunately, by this point I had picked up 2 local phrases 'Zikomo' and 'Muwli Bwanji' (probably spelt wrong here) meaning 'Thank You' and 'How Are You?' which, in that order, I thought was reasonably appropriate. So I said that in my loudest voice so they could all hear, which got a good laugh, and then, in English, my name and job role and I got a good clap when I sat down.
Anyway, on to the field trials. The premise was that Caritas had previously selected 100 underprivileged families to give new seed types of maize (sweetcorn) and groundnuts (monkey nuts) and the associated inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides to trial. The maize (which is what we discussed most) yields are reputedly 11 greater than the traditional varieties. It also does particularly well when there is long wet season,
Cooking and washing
I think this is the lady who prepared our meal like this year.
When they had arrived with the 'inputs' it was clear there were far more needy families, so in the end they gave either maize or groundnuts to each family, doubling the number of families they could help.
The purpose of this visit was to evaluate how well the trials had gone.
The whole village trooped out to a plot of the new maize and with everyone gathered round, the farmer told us the regime he had followed. It must be said that his maize was definitely superior to the maize next door, but there was some debate as some locals said that their traditional maize was not as bad as that we could see. There was discussion for, I think about 20 mins, and then we trooped back to the trees we had started from as it was agreed that the groundnuts were too far for us to walk to. I believe the general consensus was that the new seed type was a success.
Various people discussed the trials further and us visitors were each presented with a cooked sweetcorn to eat (straight out from boiling water). Think I avoided a diplomatic incident by
noticing in the nick of time that Zambians do not just gnaw it like we would, but use their thumbs to push out the bits; this is easier than would be the case with one of ours as each seed is a lot larger- some thumb strength still required though.
There was then some singing and dancing before some villagers brought over gifts of food to us, including maize, groundnuts, sugar cane, pumpkins and a live chicken. This is so we didn't forget them once we had gone.
We were then ushered away for a slap up Zambian meal in a dining hut; nshima, chicken, rape and offal- far more than the group could possibly eat, followed by a branded pineapple squash drink in a sealed bottle, for which I was very grateful. I understand 'village' chicken is regarded as far superior to town chicken as the chicken live longer before slaughter (and I would have thought their diet and living conditions are generally better).
I had assumed that our departure for lunch would have been the signal for the meeting to close and for everyone to get back to what they would normally be doing on
Unloading Jatropha seedlings
Jatropha is a bio-fuel crop for the farmers to diversify, produce some fuel and sell the surplus a Thursday and I was very surprised when we reemerged to find everyone waiting patiently for us just as we had left them. Possibly to say goodbye and out of politeness, but there was also an incentive as we had brought along additional plants for distribution. This was 'Jatropha', a biofuel crop, from which it is hoped that farmers can get fuel for their own lighting but also as a cash crop to generate additional income. The seedlings were unloaded and some people started dividing them into little bundles of about 10 plants. This was obviously going to take some time and we left.
So that was Thursday- am not going to forget that one in a while!
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Huw Sanderson
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Sounds great, Rosie
Really interesting entry, Rosie, you must have been burning your laptop batteries at both ends to get the account ready so fast! Good to hear that your favoured tipple is available, maybe you will have converted to some cheaper local alternative before you are finished. I look forward to future installments.