Things we don't see every day... thankfully

I thought I might show off a couple of surprising events from the main streets of Mazabuka.  I noticed the first a few days ago when I was walking along the main street of town.  For some reason, a dead cow lay across the tailgate of a a pickup truck right in front of the municipal offices.  A bunch of people were standing around the cow deciding what to do next.  There was an unpleasant odour when I got near, which must have meant that the poor cow had been dead for a while.  Gross, I know... sorry but these things just don't happen every day where I come from.

The second incident I wanted to share occurred overnight last night.  The Great North Road passes directly through the heart of town.  I am told that this road was part of Cecil Rhodes grand plan of connecting the Cape to Cairo.  Despite its importance, it is not a particularly wide road.  One of the major complaints in Mazabuka is that many trucks trundle through town every day.  The hazards are compounded by the fact that the road coming into town from Lusaka is all downhill, at which point vehicles have to make a 90 degree turn to the left.  Judging by the photos below, it's obvious that the driver couldn't or didn't brake enough at the turn (which by the way has no traffic signals or stop signs).  Crossing this intersection as a pedestrian makes me a little nervous every time.

As a result of the truck hazards, a by-pass road is something that stakeholders have repeatedly identified as a priority issue for the town plan.

My first view of the rolled truck... which apparently didn't stop the traffic that much.

Cars, trucks, people and bikes continued to pass by the wreckage.  I couldn't figure out what the pink stuff was.

Another big truck, rounding the corner.  The wreck was still in the road at the lunch hour today!

Excellent Edibles

Many people have asked what I'm eating here in Zambia. Generally I'm eating quite well – much better than I thought I would. The fruits and vegetables grown on farms just outside town and sold by the roadside are typically quite excellent. Tomatoes, bananas, lemons, onions, eggplants and of course corn (maize) are plentiful, fresh and tasty! For special occasions, a trip to the butcher yields some excellent cuts of meat from local farms. For bread and baked goods, we have a great little bakery that was set up as a Catholic Church project. I've also taken quite a liking to the coffee grown in the Munali Hills just outside Mazabuka. The 100-mile diet is just about achievable under these conditions.

The two supermarkets in town are decent too, though there's not nearly the selection one would find in a Loblaws or Metro back home. But who needs Blue Menu frozen dinners when sharing a house with an equally creative chef. Life is less hectic so there's typically plenty of time to cook in the evenings too.

For this relatively short post, I thought I'd introduce you to the food that powers the people of Zambia through their day. The staple food in Zambia is a maize porridge called nshima (pronounced with a nearly silent 'n'). I've never had it for breakfast, but I understand that the breakfast version is more runny than the type served at lunch and dinner.

At first glance, nshima looks a lot like a big heap of mashed potatoes. Typically, nshima is almost always served with a few side dishes (relishes) and/or some meat (beef, chicken or fish). The relishes I've had so far have been quite tasty. The typical green vegetable is called rape, which is a leafy vegetable similar to collard greens or swiss chard. Below is a photo of my first nshima meal from a couple of weeks ago. As you can see, I chickened out and asked for a knife and fork that time.

I have become more Zambian since that first meal and now eat nshima with my hands. The technique involves taking a goodly quantity in one hand (which I might add, can be very hot) and then rolling it around to make a ball. The next steps are to press a dimple into the ball and then to fill the dimple with some of the relish. Enjoy and repeat until all is gone... mmm, tasty!

Week 2 Experiences

It's hard for me to believe that I'm only starting my third week in Zambia. So much has happened in such a short time. This past week in particular has had me on the road a lot; consequently I've seen some wonderful things and met some great people.

Last weekend, I went to the neighbouring town of Choma to visit with VSO volunteers Ros and Catelijne. These two are also planners working on a similar project to the one I'm doing in Mazabuka, as well as some work in land administration and surveying. It was great to spend some time with them and to hear about their experiences to date.

Ros and Catelijne took me on a tour of Choma, including the market area. I was astonished to see that the market literally straddles the train yards – some of the market stalls are only a few metres from the tracks and one must cross about six sets of rails to get to the other side. A far cry from our fenced and barbed rail rights-of-way!  At the market, I bought several brightly coloured “chitenge” (pronounced chee-ten-gay) which have now been put into service as curtains and tablecloths. Anything to make this house look more full and lived-in...

Ros and Catelijne also took me to see one of the “compounds” - the local parlance for the many informal settlements in each town. While the living conditions would make most North Americans squeamish, the people we met throughout waved, smiled, shook our hands, asked how we were doing and seemed genuinely friendly and interested in us. The level of interest reached an entirely new level however when we pulled out our cameras. Hordes of children suddenly materialized out of nowhere, asking us to take their photos. And then to hear the squeals of delight when we turned our cameras around to show them their own images! Even some adults were eager to have us “take a snap”.

On Monday, after attending my first Council committee meeting, my boss, the Town Clerk and I were set to head down to Livingstone for a two day meeting of the Provincial Development Coordinating Committee (or PDCC). We were initially supposed to set out at 14:00, but as the afternoon dragged on and we were still without a vehicle, it seemed we wouldn't leave until dark. Everyone warns against driving at night, and with good reason. Part-way along our journey, we hit an owl at full speed, which cracked up the windshield pretty badly.

In Livingstone, I stayed with another UK-based VSO volunteer, Emily. Emily and I had a great visit together. One evening, we went down to one of the fancy waterfront hotels for a drink, where we met up with Kris and Jac, who are a VSO couple from Australia. Since they also had family visiting, we all went out for dinner at a Zambian restaurant where we were then invited to join in some traditional dancing. I think I looked pretty foolish but was the only one from our party brave enough to join in!

Another evening, we went to a fundraiser for the Livingstone Tourist Board where Emily introduced me to another volunteer named Kimberley. Upon introduction, she and I had of those "We know each other, don't we?" moments. Although Kim graduated a few years ahead of me, I realized that we had both gone to Clarkson Secondary School and played clarinet in the senior band. It IS a small world.

Apart from the social aspects of the trip to Livingstone, it was also successful on the business front. The PDCC meeting is a biannual meeting of Town Clerks, District Commissioners, Planning Department Heads, provincial government representatives and so-on. It ended up being quite a big gathering. There were several presentations, some good questions and comments, but in the end, I couldn't really discern what had been decided at the meeting. Putting the issue of concrete decisions aside, the meeting introduced me to the way that development works around here and provided an opportunity to make some other contacts in various municipalities and organizations.  I also met with representatives at the Provincial Centre for Geographic Information Systems, with whom we will collaborate to make the maps for the Mazabuka Integrated Development Plan (IDP). Lastly, I met with the Deputy Director of Planning for the City of Livingstone to ask questions about their completed IDP.

No trip to Livingstone is complete however without a visit to the mighty Mosi-oa-Tunya (or Smoke that Thunders). Since I didn't have meetings on Thursday afternoon, I went to see Victoria Falls which are as thoroughly breathtaking and awesome as everyone says they are. I splurged for the rental rain poncho, but I don't think it made much difference – I still got quite wet from all the spray. The sheer amount of water tumbling into the gorge each second is unbelievable.

The falls are located within a small national park, which also has some wonderful wildlife viewing opportunities. I signed up for a walking safari, which was truly spectacular and qualifies as the highlight of my stay in Zambia thus far. Our guide was a national park ranger who explained so many interesting things about the animals, plants and the landscape in the park. We saw a number of giraffes, impala, baboons, zebras, elephants and one of the five rhinos in the park. Rhinos were completely poached out of Zambia a number of years ago - the government reintroduced a few rhinoceros to the Mosi-os-Tunya National Park about 10 years ago. Our guide says that two of the three females are pregnant so prospects are good for the rhinos to repopulate. But can you imagine a two-year gestation period!?

As if all that travelling wasn't enough, today was Farmer's Day, which is celebrated as a holiday much like the Civic Holiday back home in Ontario. A good-sized group of expats thus got together this weekend and headed off to the remote town of Siansowa on the north shore of Lake Kariba. There we rented a lovely cottage at the Kariba Bush Club. Fabulous food, drink, conversation and games were contributed and enjoyed by all. My housemate Rob made pancakes for breakfast one morning, which were perfectly complemented by some Canadian maple syrup that I had packed in my suitcase. For many in our group, composed mainly of Italians and Germans, rounded out by my British housemate Robert and an American volunteer, maple syrup was a much-appreciated novelty.

Despite all this travelling and socializing, I am beginning to get a better sense of what I will need to do for the IDP. This coming week, I am looking forward to settling in more in Mazabuka and in my house. I feel as though I've been living from suitcases for almost all of July!

As always, I would love to hear news from home too. Don't be shy to send me an email or some snail mail!

Email: andrew.sacret [at] gmail.com

Snail mail: Andrew Sacret

c/o Mazabuka Municipal Council, Department of Planning

P.O. Box 670022

Mazabuka, Zambia