Choma!!

---

My project in Western project is still waiting for my potential partner Africa Parks to finalize their relationship with PROFIT, so for the time being it’s a no go. I have thus traveled south to the wonderful town of Choma to get trained up in one of the most active regions of the country. A lot of the things I will be trying to start in Kalabo, Western Province are already happening here, presenting great learning opportunities. Tuesday I traveled back up north to near Mazabuka to see a vet begin her involvement with a group of rural cattle owners. PROFIT has been working to increase access to veterinary services for small holders all over the country, and this was the very first community to actually get everything going. The vets develop and price a herd health plan in collaboration with the communities, which the farmers then pay for ahead of time. The idea is that by organizing themselves the farmers can get vets to do preventative health care for their cattle all at once, making it affordable. Farmers can’t afford to get vets to come out for emergencies, but they can now get vets to give vaccines, and what not, to every cow in the village all at once. This fits into the basic way PROFIT works by making service provision to rural communities profitable for businesses. Wednesday I attended an all day meeting/training session in Choma with a few national office staff on agricultural input supply. We are working to get inputs into rural communities by working with retailers to expand their businesses. Right now we are mostly in the stage of facilitating promotional events in the villages to begin the establishment of relationships between retailers and farmer groups. The end objective is to get cheap inputs to farmers in every community. We hope to do this by making sustainable arrangements work for a small number of companies, which will then be copied by the whole industry. There is a huge market out there people! So anyway, lots of learning happening…

I am currently staying in the Choma PROFIT office by myself. I had hoped, based on everything I had heard before coming to Zambia, to be staying with a local family, learning the local language, and integrating, but for now it’s just me and random drunk guys…. I was on the phone with my parents this weekend when a drunk guy shows up, steals a blanket off my bed, and kicks my stuff across the room as he stumbles out. He actually stays in a little house behind the office, and it actually was his blanket, but he really didn’t have to show up after a long absence pissed out of his tree. Us EWBer’s like talking about building trust, that dude ruined any chance he had…
I am currently cooking on a two ring electric stove, showering with a cup, and washing my own clothes by hand. Light has turned into a big challenge (you ever try to cook in the dark? Didn’t think so) so I’ve spent a bunch of time coaxing a bulb into a socket in each room I need. And boy, do they take a lot of coaxing! I’ve heard that Dave and Eli (Long term EWB volunteers here in Choma) never did get a bulb to work in the kitchen, so I am very proud of my own success! I’ve been investing in some bulk food like a flat of eggs and 10 kg of potatoes (long story) but it seems that I might move on to Livingstone next week. So much for getting my living space all comfy. Next time I wont bother to unpack. The two people I am working with here in Choma are going on leave next week, so I need to move to a functioning office. I’m worried I’m becoming attached to Choma already. If it weren’t for the fact that this place is running fairly smoothly I would beg the powers that be to leave me here. In actual fact though, western needs me, and I am looking forward to boating the flood plane on the my way to Kalabo. Friday I will be buzzing around on the back of a motorbike for the first time…can’t wait. I was supposed to be going this same 100 km through the bush Monday, but the bike had a loose chain that took three of us five hours to fix, so the trip got cut.

The Choma team passed through Monze today, so Joshua swung us by the home of a long term volunteer there named Jenn. I was standing there waiting for a muzungu girl I didn’t know to show up (I’d never met Jenn before) when Maggie walks out of the house! I had no idea she was in Monze, or that she had been set a project… Maggie is a short term who came to Zambia a week after the rest of the group so I hadn’t seen her since Toronto. It was a big surprise, in a very good way. Jenn is also absolutely great, as my extensive five minute survey revealed. It really is a shame that back in Canada we only hear stories about Mike, Dave, Paul and Tom (that’s my experience anyway…. Weird how it’s all guys….), there are other volunteers here that are absolutely amazing. If any of the above listed are reading, I still love you guys, you’re just not the only stars in the sky. Which conveniently leads me to my next point -> without so much lights and smog the night sky here is great. The stars look like they are about ten feet away from you.

I am starting to get sick of my own cooking. If any of you out there have interesting recipes that can be made with a frying pan, a pot, one soup spoon, a wooden stick, no cheese, no peppers, no oven, and no just about anything else, let me know. ;-) So far I’ve figured out how to make nshima, rape relish, eggs with veggies, fries, and toast done over a red hot stove element. I’ve also learned to boil water, yay…. (tip: measure out water somehow before making oatmeal, if you use too much you get runny boogers)

Friday I went out into the field all day with Enock (see pics) to visit a number of communities where several projects are just getting started. We went by motorbike, which turned out to be an amazingly painful experience. We only had about one kilometre of tarmac on the whole trip (literally) so it was a bit bumpy. We were trying to cover some ground, so we hit some of those nasty pot holes at 70 km/h. The bike really isn’t meant for two, even though it was a fairly large one with plenty of juice. There were no foot pegs for the guy on the back, and the shocks really couldn’t take the weight. I ended up having to put my feet on the pegs intended for the driver, and then Enock just put his weight onto my feet. By the end of the first half hour my tailbone, back, toes, thighs, groin, and just about every other bone and muscle was sore. On the way back, after negotiating the worst section of road on the journey, we had to call a break and walk off some of the pain. I got some freezing cokes (see earlier entry ;-) ) and some biscuits, and convinced my legs to stop twitching. The bike, and the fact that tonga was pretty dominant in all the conversations I pretended to be a part of, lead me to be very angry at the Fates by the end of the day. I rewarded myself by taking the first hot cup bath I’ve had since I got to Choma. I took the time to boil water, and mix it with some cold to the perfect, almost too hot to take, temperature. It was amazing. Showers in the west are convenient , but they just aren’t as satisfying as the feeling of the first hot water in a week washing away a kilogram of dust from your body. I am exaggerating, I was wearing enough clothes and head gear to keep most of the dust off, so the kilogram of dust will have to be washed out of my sweater, jeans, and backpack.

One highlight of the crazy motorbike trip was getting to see a gorgeous little river running through some beautiful rocks (see pics). Apparently the bridge that spans it is remarkably sketchy, even for Zambia standards, and has taken a number of lives. I hear that it collapses under load, and without any railings over, before, or after the bridge, vehicles don’t always stay on it. There’s a big hill right after it (or before it, but that direction doesn’t have the same degree of…. interestingness) that, if you aren’t careful, will leave you rolling backwards into the gorge. I had great fun climbing around and being a huge muzugu snapping photos.

---

Photos

My Classy Range
Note that the frying pan is dirty, this is it's natural state of being.

My Bed
If you look closely you should be able to see all the springs sticking out.

Bike Repairs
The general idea is to bang the chain with a hammer against a piece of tractor transmission casing as hard as you can.

moo!
Through the amazing efforts of PROFIT this steer now has a nifty ear tag! Go development!

Thats going to leave a mark!!
This bull is becoming a steer. I feel for him, I really do.

Looking Cool
The other guy is holding nostril pliers, ouch!

Rocks
This little rocky valley was beautiful

Water
Not what you would imaging Africa looks like, huh?

Enock looking chill
No problems here with people looking too serious in pictures

Dan walking
I was chewing gum at the same time! wow

Comments

[Barry Baker]

Daniel back in Zambia
Daniel, I'm so impressed with your travels, and your commitment, and your photos and comments. You must be thrilled to be back in Zambia. I bet there isn't an undesireable place to be in Zambia, but are you going to spend time in Lusaka? Will you be able to visit the school and your house in Banani! I think that Livingstone sounds so historicval and so interesting. You'll be right by the falls. I know you have been there before-to the falls. Be sure to post a picture of the Falls on your blog. You were asking about rites of passage in Canada or wherever. The aboriginal people had rites of passage for me and women. In a more modern vein, the Newfoundlanders still have a rite. Its the great seal hunt. A boy is not a man in Newfoundland unless he has "gone to the ice", participated in the annual and very scary and very danderous and very killing seal hunt. Its not just the seals that get killed. The men get killed, or they starve and many of them freeze and horrid stuff like that. You know the pictures a seal hunt gone bad that are in my office, prints from David Blackwood, a Newfie through and through and a guy I used to work with at Trinity College Scool and who is now a famous Canadian painter and print maker. There is also a book entitles "In the Wake of the Great Sealers". David Blackwood cooperated with Farley Mowat, a famous Canadian writer. I have the book and you must read it some time. Men see "getting laid" as an absolutely necessary rite of passage. Its not one that girls regoice in as much as men do. That's about it. I guess the other one is drining the car. Nothing very challenging or exciting. Tribal. familiy centered groups are more self conscious of the family or the tribe and have challenging things for men (and women too, I guess) to prove themselves in and be recognised for. In times past we also had the thing where the sons were given or started their own farms. That was very much a pattern in the Ottawa Valley with Irish and Scottish families and clans. One of my rites was to "drive" a horse on your own, cultivating weeds from the tomatoes. I had a great old horse that I got free from the glue factory and which thanked me by working hard and being a very obedient cultivator puller. I didn't have a watch and so I tied an alarm clock to the horses harness. One day I forgot about the clock and the alarm went off at noon and the old horse took off and ran across the fiedld dragging the cultivator and detroying a great deal of the tomato crop. He thought he was Seabiscuit in the Kentuck Derby. And I am running after him all the way back to the glue factory. I forgave him and took him home. So much about rites.Your graduating from U. of C. will be a significant "passage". I am very proud. But I have to go. I am very well and a far way from the glue factory. I don't know about the Kentucky Dewrby but I am on the Treadmill every day. Daniel, I love you and am so impressed by what you are doing with EWB.Your boundaries have so expanded. Good for you. Keep at it Dr. Livingstone. Much love GoGo and Sandra