Blogs from Zambia, Africa - page 90

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I hope that you all were able to celebrate a wonderful thanksgiving this past weekend with many loved friends and family. Now, when all of you were sitting down about to stuff your faces with as much Turkey / Tofu-rkey that would fit in your bellies, you probably asked yourself, “mmm, I wonder what people in Zambia do for thanksgiving?” Well, the obvious answer is that they do what they are used to doing every other day because they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Zambia silly. However, if you were to be a little more insightful and instead ask yourself the question “mmmm, I wonder what three Canadians who are working for Engineers Without Borders in Zambia do for thanksgiving?” then all you would have to do is read the story below to find ... read more

A friend and I in Canada were bantering back and fourth about the conditions for teachers these days versus the hours they work and the time they get off. He asserted that teachers receive no more vacation days than anyone else. I quickly reminded him of the whole summer with July and August. He sat there bewildered for a second and then replied with a smirk, “Oh yeah, I guess we count those in months.” While I’ve always been a proponent of teachers and education in general, it was always something that was more of an automatic response: is education good? Yes, of course. However, I don’t think I ever really appreciated the value of system for education with all its direct and indirect manifestations. I’ve had an opportunity to visit schools and orphanages while talking ... read more

I thought it might be valuable for everyone to gain an appreciation for Zambian domestics but it seemed an overwhelming task since the term “family life” is about as close to nuclear as Canada is tropical. Canada itself, with the divorce rate at approximately 50%, has experienced major paradigm shifts in the past fifty years in the traditional definition. Add a fatal pandemic infecting between 20-30% of the population, intermarriage between 72 tribes in Zambia alone that haven’t always lived in harmony, and a dash of traditional social norms mostly absent in North America and you have the recipe for a distinctly different family milieu than Kevin Arnold experienced in those Wonder Years. There are countless other factors contributing to various family models here but overall, it’s safe to say that the typical in Canada does ... read more

Yes yes y’all, Good newz, I’m in the capital city of Lusaka this afternoon and they actually have intenet access here without a phone wire going into the bback of the comp which means some pics are up, booyaa http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/KoolguyTy/ The past two weeks have been reminiscent of university as I’ve taken a couple of road trips. I hit a friends farm that is 15 km outside of town. We rode bikes like it was grade five and my bike fell apart faster than a… well… a Chinese bicycle. It was a one speeder with a broken seat, pedal, and crooked tire but at least it had heart and breaks… well, the breaks actually broke too half way there. It was a brutal but hilarious ride because it was really hilly dirt roads with lots of ... read more

Geo: -16.5045, 28.3137On our way back to Zimbabwe, we stayed for a night in Siavonga to admire the beautiful manmade Lake Kariba. By my standards it is much more a sea than a lake, absolutely huge! We crossed back into Zimbabwe across The Kariba Dam. Quite a feat!... read more