Category: (c)2008 Aaron E-J

2008 09 02
Well I will be in Lusaka for about a week while the cargo-trike is being created. Being in Lusaka feels like I am in a different country from the village. Lusaka is kind of like Hartford would have been like in the 1990’s if it didn’t have any environmental regulations on vehicles. Whereas the village is kind of like the US in the frontier towns of the 1800’s (save for prevalence of cell phones, radio and plastic bags/bottles). Lusaka actually has sky scrapers and strip malls. I will try to take some pictures of the city this week so that it can be contrasted. We went to the machine shop around 830 and came up with a rough idea of how to convert the one speed very heavy cargo trike into something comfortably rideable on roads unpaved and sandy with steep hills. Ideally I wanted to convert it into a recumbent cycle however that required buying some more parts, which required going back to the PC headquarters to try to get the funds to go and purchase the parts. This took until lunch time and it seemed that the funs would not really be available because PC was facing a budget crunch (like every government office except for the military) so we would have to go after lunch. In the mean time I talked to some volunteers who were headed back from a vacation in Malawi. I also found that a bunch of “junk” that had been piled up since I had been here was going to be trashed or worse burned. Most of the “junk” however could have been used in schools (most of it was chairs that had a few problems with them but could be fixed very easily) or other places in need of resources. I asked, or more pleaded with a number of PC admin people however they all seemed to think it would be too much of a hassle and they had been sitting there for six months and they needed to go and that transporting them. I thought, surely in those months a volunteer could have found a place that was in need of some chairs and a vehicle that was not loaded to max to bring them but the truck had already left but anyway. I wish Sub Saharan Africa had the infrastructure to transport things using methods other then petrol but as first world countries do not, it’s a fantasy in the near future. Had lunch from the cook at the headquarters then met for a while with the APCD. At about 1500 I went back to the shop and we did a little reworking of the plan. Unfortunately we won’t be able to begin work until Thursday because Wednesday the 3rd is the day of Mwanawasa’s burial and is a national holiday so pretty much all business and a lot of roads will be closed. Got back and spent the rest of the evening on the internet.

2008-08-23
I got up about a half-hour after my alarm went off and hurried to get ready because I was going to go with my DFO (District Forestry Officer) and a few other Eastern province counterparts. However, when I got down, they had already left. I ate breakfast then went to the main rode with some other PCV’s where we took a taxi to the bus terminal. The taxi driver dropped the others at a bus to central province first, then me at a bus that he must have had a relationship with the driver. I then began to whish I had gotten there earlier when the first group of busses left because it was over three hours before it finally had enough people to depart. The ride was alright, and they showed some movies. I actually slept a little toward the end. However, when I got off and tried to get awake I walked to the cargo area where they had put my bag to find that it was not there. Panicking slightly, I talked to the driver and he said that someone had called and said that a backpack had been left at the St. Francis hospital in Katete (There was another white lady on the bus who got off there and I guess they thought the bag was hers). Hoping that the driver’s explanation was correct and that it hadn’t been stolen, I got the contact information of the bus driver and the person who had called regarding the bag and then got a taxi to the PCPH. Fortunately I had put my laptop in my small backpack I brought with me on the bus and the “Zam-bag” (somewhat sturdy zipper bags that are sold at Shopright and that everyone uses to carry groceries and just about everything else imaginable in and which are really useful) that was not taken off but the only cloths I had were what I was wearing.

2008-08-24
I got up having gotten a relatively good night’s sleep although I was still tired and had a slow start – or actually I didn’t really start that day I think because I needed to unwind from the past week of busy schedules and the calamity that had taken place yesterday. I called the number the bus driver gave me who was helpful, and said she would call the driver. Then I txt’ed the driver to see whether he had left yet, and if so whether he had the bag, however he had not left. Still not sure as to what the status of my backpack was, some good luck came my way in the form of the PC General Service Officer (GSO) for eastern province coming and saying that he was going to pick up the Country Director because she would not be flying in on account of the late president being flown in and having a wake Monday. The hospital was on the way and he could pick up my bag, so I quickly txt’ed back the bus driver and told him not to big up my bag because someone else was. I was fortunate that he had not left and picked it up already, now the only question was whether the GSO could find the bag as I had not been able to get a hold of anyone who knew who had the bag. I then brought out my laptop and spend the rest of the day creating a CAD drawing of a cargo trike I am going to have made while half paying attention to the movies that were playing. About mid afternoon, the driver called and said that he was at St. Francis hospital but didn’t know who to ask about the bag. Fortunately someone else in the room who had spent some time there did. A little while later, he called and said that he had gotten the bag!

2008-08-25
No one was sure whether anything would be open today, but at about 10:00 I got out and went first to the cell phone store, which was open, and got some more talk time, although I didn’t get that much because I wasn’t sure whether the bank would be open. It was and I got some more kwacha, then when to Shopright and got some eggs and spices. Most of the market was closed, and therefore the stores that were open were selling things for higher prices. I got some peppers, cucumbers carrots and a few bananas but didn’t get a ton because they were really expensive and weren’t the variety that I like. Then I went back and had a little to eat. My next stop was going to be the Wi-Fi place, but unfortunately it was closed. Feeling kind of sick, I walked slowly back, getting some more talk time on the way. That afternoon about all I could do was sit and work on finishing up my CAD drawing. In the evening, the Country Director showed up, along with my backpack. I don’t think I’m going to put my backpack in the cargo area again. I was really annoyed that I wasn’t feeling good because the rest of the volunteers had made a really good meal, and had made an apple pie for desert, but the power had gone out before they could cook it in time for it to be eaten right after the meal.

2008-08-26
The country director, my two closest volunteers and the PCVL all loaded our stuff into the bus and left at about 800 hours. We stopped at the other education volunteer in the district’s site and had nshima with the family, then we went to the BOMA and met with counterparts that had gone to ISTT for the last two days for the program development training, one of whom was the DFO. He said that the district commissioner would like to meet the director and so we met him, then we went to my closest volunteers’ site, had lunch and finally went to my site. After the Director, PCVL and the GSO had left, I read a little bit, but not feeling that good again went to bed fairly early. I think the reason might be the water filters at the PCPH because it seems like it is nearly every time I drink water from it I don’t feel my best.

2008-08-27
Got up, studied a little Chichewa, read a little on DC electronics, then went to the dimba. A lot of things had not survived my being away, and it looked like nearly everything had been eaten by ngonbe (cattle). Watering went quickly though because I had the help of some Zambians visiting from the Mozambique border. Having more time as a result, I started putting up some DC lights I had gotten in Lusaka. On of the men in my family was very interested and helped me put the lights up. It was very nice to actually be able to read without the use of my headset.

2008-08-28
Today I went into the BOMA and met with members of a new organization that is just starting up in Zambia and that I think I will be able to help out a lot with. Then I went to the market and then I wrote some journal entries which I was going to try to post but the cell phone network was going slow and I kept getting Google page load errors so I was not able to post then. When I got done I biked back and started top make a salad for supper. When I had just finished making the salad, my atate/abale (father/brother [apparently the previous volunteer at Dovu and some other volunteers referred to him as their brother but I kind of think of him as a father because he has several children]) came and invited me to share nshima with their banja. In Zambian culture it is impolite to refuse nshima unless you have a very good reason not to eat it (came down with malaria, are deathly allergic to corn…). It’s a good thing that I enjoy Zambian food, although I wish they put less saladi (the Zambian [actually South African] name for cooking oil] and salt in their relish.

2008 08 29
Today I was going to make a solar stove. I somewhat cheated in that I had found one of those emergency blankets that are very reflective (was going to use aluminum foil) and spent a long time trying to make a frame to make the thin mirror like material concave. With some of the boys in my village’s help, I made a semi-semi-sphere by forming a circle out of a flexible stick, taping the reflective material over it, then putting a little bit of water in the bottom so as to make the material concave. When I put my hand over the area, it wasn’t incredibly hot and all my pots are made of unpainted aluminum so they don’t attract that much heat (somewhat silly when you think about it). I will try to get some black paint to paint the outside. After this somewhat disappointing experiment, I headed out to the dimba. When I was only a little ways on my walk there, I got a txt saying that I needed to go to Chipata Sunday to go with the GSO to Lusaka on Monday to deal with looking into getting a three wheeled cargo cycle (a pedi-cab that instead of another seat has a cargo area). This was slightly frustrating because I had just been in Lusaka and wished I had just stayed there but anyway. I quickly watered everything, not having time to transplant some tomato seedlings that were in need of transplanting because it was getting dark.

2008 08 30
Went to the dimba first thing today, calling a Chadiza-Chipata taxi on the way and transplanted a bunch of cherry tomatoes which I hope will survive when I’m away. That took until about 1400 and was fairly hungry as I hadn’t eaten breakfast. I was coming out of the dambo area (an area with a low water table that is where people cultivate) and stopped to great a family that had an adjacent dimba to mine and that of my banja. They invited me to share some nshima which was nice. Then I went back and didn’t have that much motivation, however I finally got up enough to pack and eat some of my perishable food. It is officially the hot season and I was in that transition phase. Therefore I didn’t really feel like eating… or drinking… (although this I needed to do as I was sweating like crazy) or doing much of anything.

2008 08 31
Woke up at 400 and hurriedly got ready, was just starting do drink my cup of coffee when my ride showed up about a half hour early. I hurriedly downed my mug, then got in the vehicle and headed off. We picked up five more passengers. It’s a very small car that has buckles for four passengers and we were six total, seven if you include the driver. My leg was almost asleep by the time we got there because I was sharing the front seat with someone else. I got to the PCPH about 900 and did some laundry, then washed one of the water filters because I think that’s the reason I haven’t been feeling good often when I am there. Then I went to the market, got back and put some ntochi (bananas) in the freezer for a little treat. At about 1500, the to be new volunteers (RAP [Rural Aquaculture Project] and HAP [I think Heath Action Project although the A & P could stand for something else]) showed up and we did our introductions. I will be going with some of them part of the way, then dropping them off and going the rest of the way to Lusaka mawa (tomorrow). It seems like a really nice group of new volunteers and I had nice conversations with a couple of them.

2008 09 01
Well it was about 1230 before we left for Lusaka; the PST’s got dropped off for their 2nd site visit, then the driver came back and loaded nine bikes and we left. We got in at about 2150ish and then my family called and we had a nice conversation.

2008 08 22
Well, I’m done with In Service Training and will probably be going back to Chipata tomorrow. The IT guy at the In Service Train Trust gave me the keys to the computer lab so I will be able to use the internet for a little bit longer. Need to go pack and see how my counterpart is getting back so that I know whether to travel with him. Will probably be in Chipata till Tuesday when I will go back to site with the country director. Till then, I hope you have a big pot of synthetic pig tails ready at a moments notice (synthetic because we wouldn’t want to offend the vegetarian story tellers now would we).

2008 08 21
Well today is our first day of training with a Zambian counterpart. I think the first three days were slightly more informative but it was nice to hear the differences in views between the Zambians and the PCV’s as to what the challenges are. Downloading some more podcasts and doing a little more research then I’m going to hang out with some PCV’s who will be going back to there respective provinces in two days time.

The president of Zambia died Tuesday. In other news, there’s free internet at ISTT…
Because the president died we had what I thought would be a free dinner at ISTT and I talked to a Lusaka forestry person for a while.
Today we in the morning we learned about how to file our quarterly reports, then had a meeting with the country director. After lunch we had breakout sessions on topics volunteers had expressed interested in learning more about. I attended sessions on fuel efficient cook stoves, jatropha oil making and community radio. Now I am doing some research on pedal powered and wind generators, (slowly) downloading some podcasts and sending some emails. I will be able to leave my laptop connected though so hopefully a couple of the 207 podcasts I would like to download will get done. Tomorrow we will start the second part of the training which will be a two day workshop on project design in which we will work with community counterparts, in my case my DFO (District Forestry Official)

2008 07 20
Got up at 345 and got to the bus stop at 515. I was slightly worried when I got there because there was no one there, but I called a number that was on a flier at the stand and he said he would be coming shortly. The bus left at 600 and got there at about 1530 (9 ½ hours if you don’t want to do the math) then I got a taxi to Shopright, bought some good granola, powdered skim milk 1kg of peanut butter and maybe a few other things that can only be found here in the capital. I then walked, carrying my hiking backpack loaded down with everything I brought with me from Chipata plus everything I had just bought, the kilometer or so to Arcades, the other mall, because I remember the grocery store there had good bread. Well they were all out of whole grain just about everything, although I finally bought some whole wheat buns. Spar is basically Shopright except everything is more expensive. Got a taxi to Mogul, the guest house all the PCV’s who have business at the Zambian PC headquarters stay. Checked in, started to walk to the office but, as it was then dark, wasn’t certain where the headquarters was so I went back and met the other PCV’s who was staying there then decided to splurge on Chinese food because I basically hadn’t had any since I left Connecticut, however it wasn’t the best dish I’ve ever had. Got to bed later then I wanted so I probably won’t get quite as early as a start as I wanted.

2008-08-17 to 2008-08-19ish
At IST (In Service Training) in the ISTT (In Service Training Trust, no relationship just a coincidence that they have the same name). Sunday night a bunch of my intake from a bunch of provinces went to an Indian all you can eat restraint for 20pin, then everyone else wanted to go to a bar and I didn’t really want to pay for a taxi myself so I went along. It was alright, there was good live music although loud, but I was really tired. Finally some other people who were also tired and I flagged a taxi and we got back. My room mate at the dorm we were staying at and I chatted for a while about what our last four months had been like, then I went to bed it being after 2300 hours and use needing to get up early. Pa Monday in the morning we started on “processing” how our last few months have been, then we had a visitor from the conservation farming organization. After a good lunch, we had medical and safety admin stuff for most of the afternoon and then about an hour more of “processing.” When this was done I tried to use the wi-fi here at the ISTT to do a few things but only was able to download some antivirus updates before the connection stopped working. I tried to reconnect for a while but finally gave up and ate some bread and ketchup, broccoli and ntochi (banana) mostly because they would go bad sometime soon definitely not because I was hungry. Then I cam out of my dorm and played a game with some other volunteers until about 2230 when I went to bed.
Today is my second training day, we have a little more “processing” then I think we are going to learn about citrus propagation. In the afternoon I guess we have medical all day.

-Well, Monday I met with the District Commissioner who said he would talk to the District Education Head. I then talked to my Forestry counterpart about finding a ride to Chipata or maybe directly to Lusaka for a dental follow up and then for In Service Training and he said he’d get back to me about a ride tomorrow.
-Tuesday I packed up and debated bringing a load of my stuff to the BOMA that day so as to lighten the load on Wednesday but finally decided I wouldn’t do a trip that day. I studied a little chinyanja and read a little, then went to the dimba (garden) and watered everything really good.
-Wednesday I got up at 400 hours and had a slow ride with all my luggage to hopefully find a ride as I hadn’t heard back from the Forestry officer as a result of insufficient cell service at my site. I just missed one government vehicle that was going past me as I rode in. No one in the forestry or education commissions knew of any vehicles headed for Chipata that hadn’t left already so I started walking towards the market to see whether I could find anyone there. As I was halfway there, I saw a SUV coming my way and I flagged it down. It just happened to be going where I wanted to go so I had a ride, although it was going to be a little bit before they left. They were with the health department and were just in the district to do checkups. I got to Chipata around 1200 I think and they let me off at the bank because I was down to k100,000 and the bus plus taxi was going to cost more then that. Then I worked on a web photo album with the hopes that I would be able to upload it in Lusaka if the Wi-Fi system had been seat up yet. Then I went to the market to stock up on vegetables because they are way more expensive for the most part in Lusaka and then went to bed because it would be another early rise tomorrow.
-Thursday I got on the bus to Lusaka for k30,000 more then last time as a result of petrol prices going way up. Then I sat on the bus for till almost 1600 hours. When I finally got off for good, I got waived by a taxi (instead of waiving too one) and he took me first to the place I bought my battery and a florescent light as the bulb for the light had gotten broken. He then took me to Shopright where I stocked up on granola, and then finally to the guest host were I was to spend the night.
-Friday (today) I walked to the PC Zambia headquarters around 700 hours and found that there was, in fact still not Wi-Fi. I met with the doctor who said I had an appointment with the dentist at 1000. I then met with the General Services Office (GSO) about what the next step should be on finding a tree wheeled cargo cycle, then at 1000 went o the dentist who basically said that it was still the same problem as the last diagnosis had been and suggested that I get Senseodine toothpaste that has something in it that is supposed to help sensitive gums. Then I met with my APCD who said that next week during IST we would do some more looking into companies that could make the cycle I’m looking for. I then had a lunch in the cafeteria there of lepu and kapenta. After that good lunch, I went to try to find someone who had been helping me finally file clams on the insurance I had on my camera that died. While I waited for here, I tried to download podcasts on the PC computers but it was annoying because the mp3’s I was trying to download would open using Windows media player instead of downloading. I finally met with the person who knew about the insurance company and we filled out everything with her writing something that would hopefully substitute a police, airline or embassy report. I then went back to my trying to download podcasts and successfully got the computer to not auto play using windows media so I could download two podcasts instead of one at a time.

I now am going to go back to the motel and sleep as I am very tired for some reason.