odds and ends

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so here's the deal - i have a couple of incomplete blogs so i'm just going to combine them into one - some things might repeat or be boring...life here has settled into a routine so sometimes there's not too much to write about.

partial blog 1
After nearly 2 weeks in Zambia, I finally made it to Victoria Falls - the primary reason why Livingstone exists. After horseback riding was canceled due to lack of transport, Gemma (project coordinator) took Karen and I to Vic Falls on her way to the Zambia/Zimbabwe border. So the plan was to walk into the Zambezi Sun, a very swank resort, and walk back to the private entrance to Mosi-u-tanya Park (the water that thunders) and avoid paying the enormous entrance fee. There are two price systems, local and white - whites pay up to ten times more than the locals for taxis, curios, whatever. Sometimes I get a discount as a volunteer, most of us wear an African Impact shirt if we’re going souvenir shopping, and we have a list of taxis that know that we’re volunteers and not just regular tourists, but anyway, after signing in as Mary French, room 3141, I was in. Off to the falls, the water is really low right now, so the water is flowing at maybe 10% of normal - but still amazingly impressive. Just google Vic Falls - it’s amazing. So then we hiked back around to the Falls side and walked along the falls - in low water you can do this because enough rocks are exposed that you can easily rock hop - though Karen and I stayed well enough away from the edge in case we slipped, but you can literally hang your feet over the falls, much like Preikstolen in Norway. In the time that we were on the Falls the flow had increased so it was a bit dicey getting back to dry land. I then tried to pull a “Europe” move at the front desk by asking if there were any shuttles back into Livingstone - unfortunately not so I haggled for a taxi and got the rate I wanted - it’s the first time I tried it and am fairly surprised it worked, though I’m sure I still got charged double the local rate - some things you just have to accept. We saw three elephants on the way back - about 20 meters from the side of the road. I’m still not used to that - random big game eating on the side of the road. But it’s pretty normal here - lots of villages that are just a bit out of Livingstone have tremendous problems with elephants - elephants that are being harassed in Botswana or Zim just cross the border to Zambia. Ah, then one of the highlights of the trip - an ice cream cone from Wonder Bake - 3000 kwacha (75 cents) for a fat cone. And it was good. The rest of the day was spent napping and hearing stories from the people who went to Zim. I needed a rest day anyhow - both Friday and Saturday are better classified as early mornings rather than late nights and I’ve managed to get a cold.

So this morning (Monday) I was back at Maramba Clinic, not quite as busy as my first day, but still nonstop. But I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with taking blood pressures, so it’s not nearly as stressful. I did almost get bitten though - one little boy was terrified by getting his temperature taken and wanted nothing to do with me - most of them think that they’re getting an injection and go ape when you try to take their temp. Then out to baby weighing - I learned how to assign baby numbers and fill out paperwork . And I got invited by Brave and Norman to go to church with them on Sunday - I’m guessing it’ll be a bit different than in the US J And it’ll be in English (and translated to Nyanja) so I’ll even be able to understand it. This afternoon was spent planting chili seeds and watering spring onions - nothing too exciting there.

I’ve been sitting at the computer not knowing what to write for the past 15 minutes - mainly because things seem so normal - Zambia is such a polar opposite of the States, yet I’ve gotten so used to the way of life already that things don’t register as odd. And I also have some crazy ideas floating around that I need to think about more and see if they’re at all possible - don’t really want to write about them yet (but one of them does involve me living here part time) So apologies for this entry being boring but my roommate’s computer was available so I figured I’d write. And now I’ve sat here for another 10 minutes and I’ve got nothing (what I‘m really doing is trying to breathe through a stuffed up nose and trying to decide if I want a piece of bread with peanut butter)- so I guess it’s time to go to bed - lots of love to everyone - good night.


partial blog 2
Today was awesome! I was on my own for a few hours in an unusually quiet Maramba Clinic taking blood pressures and temps. Brave came in to tell me that he was off to do a community HIVE dance so i invited myself along. Once again the combi was PACKED with 20 people, today's mission was to give classroom talks to two schools and do a community dance. After a long bumpy drive down a random road, we dropped off a few of the girls and then off to the next place. We turned off just before the border of Botswana (Zambia borders with 9 countries, talk about potentially tense borders) after passing a bus with a bunch of white people (I yelled 'muzungu' at them - which elicited a laugh from my bus). Another bumpy ride down a long road and we were at the next little village. I was the first white person that some of the little children had seen and of course I was introduced to everyone. I've been practicing my Nyanja, except that this village speaks Lozi, so no luck there with practicing my newly acquired language skills. Brave and the rest of the guys walked around to find a place for the drumming (of course I'm tagging along with Brave the entire time) and me trying to make friends with the little kids. A digital camera is a fantastic way to make friends - just take it out and the kids start posing. A few of the volunteers have broken their cameras and had to get disposables - when those are used they get mocked and the kids yell at them! The drumming started after a bit, I was MOBBED by kids once they realized I had a camera, getting down to their level and showing them the pictures was hilarious - I also took some video of the dancing and they got a kick out of that. There was a brief interruption when the local drunk wandered into the dance circle - he was escorted out and then tried to play one of the drums, so then the villagers yelled at him. Before the dancing began I asked the guys who was the best dancer so Brave, Dillon, Alex and Theophilus had a bit of a dance-off, except Alex dances like a girl - not an insult, he just does the traditional initiation dance that the girls do. Everyone got a kick out that, I'll eventually post the video - the singing is amazing as well, I know that when I hear it in the States I'll be right back in Zambia. The guys who do the community HIVE are great - tons of energy and really funny - even though I don't understand 99% of what is said, it's just a really good vibe. I was supposed to be introduced to the village (like I said not many white people visit) but the gathering broke up before I was - not that I was too upset. Back in the bus, everyone was a bit thirsty - the well in this village wasn't good - hot and salty water, so nothing to drink, and not so much in the way of food.

partial blog 3
Muli bwanji! (how are you?) I'm slowly picking up Nyanja, trying to learn 10 new words and phrases a day. I was at Nakatindi school for the reading club today and counted from 1 to 5 in Tonga (komwe, tobile, totatwe, tone, tosanwe) for a little girl and she was thrilled and told everyone that I could speak Tonga - so that made me a bit more popular! I got the little boys to translate animals into Nyanja - I'm definitely getting better at spelling, most words I can hear once and spell correctly now, so the language aquisition is coming along. But it does complicate things when there are 73 dialects - I'll know a mixture of Nyanja, Tonga, Lozi and Bemba. One of the guys that I work with on the elephant pepper project can speak one of the 'click' languages - that's super cool. I'm also learning the not so common words and phrases that only the locals would know - phrases that are useful on the very rare occasion that you would really need to insult someone - like a drunk who won't leave you alone, hasn't happened yet,

This week I've been at Maramba Clinic in the morning - I'm really loving it, I'm comfortable there now and just really look forward to seeing my friends there. And I'll have to take video of Brave talking to the mothers - he doesn't take any crap from them at all and will lay into them if he thinks they're not paying attention or cut in line - it can be pretty comical.

So, I won't bore you with all of the little details of my day-to-day - I'll just share some of the highlights of this week.

1. Wearing a baby, African style - lean over, put the baby on your back, piece of cloth over the baby, pull cloth under an armpit and over a shoulder and tie in a knot in front. Very comfortable - I will wear my babies like this

2. Eating nshima and vashishi - local dishes eaten with the fingers, made out of maize meal and pumpkin leaves and groundnuts

3. Going to a local gym - mud hut, rusty weights and copious amounts of marijuana - enough said

4. Going to a local movie theater - building made of branches and plastic with a TV in front

5. Doing a community HIVE and being the only white person some of the children had ever seen and watching my friends dance.

6. Going to a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant for a frozen coke and ginormous peanut butter sandwich after HIVE

7. Being able to yell 'muzungu (white person)' to a bus full of white people while i'm in a combi with 18 Zambians.

8. Nyanja lessons in the back of the combi out in the bush

I'm really falling in love with life out here - it's impossible to compare to anything back home - but it's already so familiar and routine in a really good way

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