Make a joyful noise

As many of you know, I am a regular member of First United Church in Ottawa. For my fellow church goers, I think you understand how special First United is to me. Among the reasons I go to church: great people, great music, deeply thought-provoking sermons, a wonderful sense of openness, and a welcoming environment where it's safe to explore big questions about life, love and God. I usually come away refreshed and invigorated to pursue another demanding week of work and “what what” (see yesterday's post).

I'm not sure I've ever written publicly about my views on church and yet I'm just scratching the surface. It's not my style to be public about religion. I even feel a bit apprehensive penning these words today. Perhaps it's a Canadian thing (respecting others' traditions, etc.) but in the end, perhaps it's just me.

In any event, what I want to relate today is about the importance of church life here in Zambia. Believe me, it is important. In fact, one of the most common questions a newcomer (e.g. Andrew Sacret) is asked is “Are you a Christian?”. Almost invariably, the follow-up question is, “What church do you attend?" There are so many to choose from here. The Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostal, and Catholic Churches appear to be the most prevalent in Mazabuka specifically, however there are many more including the United Church of Zambia and the Anglican Church plus others that I'd never heard of before.

I am increasingly certain that it helps me to relate to local people when I can answer the first question affirmatively. People brighten right away and are eager to discuss more (to my quiet delight). To the second question, I answer, “I attend the United Church of Canada.” People then ask, “Do you know that we have the United Church of Zambia?” As a matter of fact, I do.

It was a little strange at first, but I'm now used to the fact that people will then proceed to invite you to their church. I have taken up a couple of invitations, which have been “interesting”. The first church service I attended here was on invitation; I won't say exactly that I regretted it, but it certainly wasn't what I'm used to. We met in a burlap/plastic tent for four and a half hours and the speakers were turned up to full blast. As a guest, I was ushered to the front row and made to stand so everyone could welcome me. The music was very energetic. The preachers were very energetic. There were many words spoken about sin and evil and Satan (in Tonga and English). Despite this, I admit that it was still a spiritual experience. I've since attended another church on invitation but I'll spare the details.

My own choice is the Anglican Church for one outstanding reason alone: the CHOIR!!! Can these folks ever sing! The group is not big (maybe 20 people) but they make a huge, beautiful, harmonious sound - and all of it a cappella. They mostly sing in Tonga or Nyanja, so naturally I don't have a clue what the lyrics are. The hymns are in either English or Nyanja and fortunately there are hymn books available so I can follow along. I must say it feels great to sing again even in an unknown language!

Today, I asked the choir director about joining. He said yes enthusiastically, then told me the choir practices all day Saturday. Um... er... well... you see...

Whether or not I actually decide to join the choir, at least I know why they make such a joyful noise. :-)

Wishing you peace and blessings on a warm and breezy Sunday in Mazabuka!

Zambian expressions and buzzwords

Every culture has distinctive expressions – Zambia is no exception. All professions have their share of jargon too. In this post I thought I'd introduce you to some of the common expressions and buzzwords that make me either smile, laugh, frown or shake my head.

Are we together? = Do we agree? (or when said with authority: “This is settled. Next.”)

this side = somewhat close to where we are (e.g. I think the office is this side).

that side = somewhat farther away than where we are now (e.g. “Where is so-and so?” “Oh, he's gone that side.”)

just now = very soon

now now = now

“...and what what.” = and so on, and the like, and such.

“How did you move?” = “How was your trip?”

“Progress” = “Let's move to the next issue”

“What is the way forward?” = “What are the next steps?”

sensitisation* = public education and awareness building (sadly, projects appear to remain at this stage for years)

“Gender balance!” = an exclamation of “unfairness” made by some man in a meeting when women appear to be gaining some infinitesimal advantage for once (you can tell how much I love this one).

empowerment = at best: a concept Council would eventually like to embrace whereby disadvantaged people have some say in municipal decisions; at worst: the term some Council officers use to describe the generous sitting allowances they receive for meetings.

personal emoluments = salaries and benefits

mainstreaming (e.g. issues of gender, HIV/AIDS, environment) = making certain issues part of everyday policy discussions/decisions (in practice, often means that there is no clear lead person/department on the issue).

* The third "s" in sensitisation is not a spelling mistake in this former British colony.  :-)

Check your shoes!

Friends warned me to check my shoes before putting them on. I now see why.

This morning, I nearly stepped into a spider. I haven't any clue whether this is a dangerous spider, but I was not interested in finding out.

I am currently staying at a guesthouse outside the "lovely" town of Monze. I have been dragged somewhat reluctantly onto the municipal budget team and therefore find myself on a budget retreat with representatives from each municipal department. We start the days early and finish late. The first scheduled tea break yesterday morning became a "working tea break" and it's all been downhill from there.

The guesthouse is definitely not a luxury property but it's habitable. However, I can hear little creatures scurrying around above the ceiling of my room, which I suspect may be bats. As long as we can maintain our respective levels of privacy while I occupy the room, I'll try to ignore the fact that they're there.

Incidentally, my roommate Rob recently had an experience at his office that involved bats; I would prefer not to repeat it here at the Mayfair Lodge. After years of building neglect, the bats had pooped enough guano onto the upper surface of the ceiling (the floor of their "cave"), that the ceiling collapsed into the office. I think the mess has been largely cleaned up now, but the stench was noticeable all around the BOMA for days after the incident.

Best alarm clocks ever

If you have difficulty waking up in the morning, I highly recommend buying a rooster and putting it directly outside your window.  They wake up faithfully before your target time so you won't miss it.  If the rooster doesn't work, I recommend disabling the hot water supply when you go to take a shower.  I guarantee you will wake up, plus you won't waste any time luxuriating in the shower.  Combine both approaches for maximum effect.

(Experiences drawn from this morning at the guesthouse selected for the Mazabuka Municipal Council Budget Retreat.  Definitely not a Fairmont Property.)

Some real work for a change

I've heard of these beasts before, but not having worked directly in a municipal government, I've never helped to assemble “the Budget”. Until now.

Before you doze off or move to the next blog in your list, let me say that it's not that bad.

Perhaps a bit of history is required before I launch into this. In addition to VSO, which has placed a number of volunteers at the Council over the years, the German-based organization GTZ has been working with the Mazabuka Municipal Council for several years. Part of GTZ's mandate is to revamp Council management and budgeting practices. As part of this mandate, they have created a number of manuals, guidelines and training programs on several topics like Strategic Planning, Budgeting, Service Delivery and so on. Though it does sound a bit dry, it's all important stuff and I'm very impressed with the kind of work that they have done in Zambia and in Mazabuka specifically.

At any rate, I was asked to help in developing the Council Strategic Plan and the budget. This year, the Council is going to attempt a new type of three-year budget process that they call the Medium-Term Expenditure Forecast, or MTEF, which is to be based on the Strategic Plan. Unfortunately, there has been a of procrastination on these two initiatives; the budget needs to be completed by the end of September so that it can go to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing for approval by year end. For such a complex project, they should have started preparing in earnest much earlier in the year.  As for the Strategic Plan, well, that one will just have to wait a bit longer.

There is more to the story but I won't bore you with that stuff. What I do want to say is that I have been conducting a series of workshops with the staff of each of the Council departments over the last few days. The discussions have been fruitful but our overriding dilemma is that there is so much material to cover in so little time. At least it's a start.

My observation is that many staff, particularly those at the lower rungs of the ladder, have never really been asked about what they should be striving for. Often it seems that the management either ignores or simply fails to recognize the efforts and talents of the people that actually get the work done. One of the participants today confirmed my suspicion; he admitted that he'd never been asked about his views on how his unit works, despite having worked for the Council for 3 years.  I can definitely see the value in participatory methods, which form the basis of VSO's approach; they do indeed work and those who are included invariably appreciate being heard. Yesterday, though we didn't finish all that was on the agenda, one of the participants came up to me afterwards and paid me a very nice compliment. He said, “Andrew, you're a very good facilitator. I want to learn from you.” It doesn't get much better than that.

Anyways, I just wanted to share some of the “real work” that I was brought here to do.

Discussing the "objectives" for the Planning Department with the assistance of my lovely counterpart Victoria.

Developing strategies to ensure better coordination with other development agents.

A day's output.  I think it makes sense to us. :-)

The Muzungu CAN dance!

This past weekend marked another “muzungu convention” (i.e. party weekend) here in Mazabuka. Every time we get together, the group seems to grow. In total, we were close to 30 people this time.

The reason for the get together (if there has to be a reason), was to attend the annual Radio Chikuni Festival in the nearby, yet still somewhat remote village of Chikuni. In convoy, we travelled down to Chikuni on Saturday morning to take in a variety of Tonga music and dance. We all had an excellent time!

Fun music and dancing at the Radio Chikuni Festival

All were welcome - young, old, muzungu, etc.

Ilene and Jerry enjoying their first taste of raw sugarcane.  It's much juicier than it looks on the outside.

At the end of the day, I bought two CDs of Zambian music for 25,000 kwacha each ($5), which seemed like “a song” (sorry, I just couldn't resist the pun). The two bands I really liked were Green Mamba and Mashombe Blue Jeans. I have yet to open the CDs though, so hopefully I'll still like the recordings.

These guys seemed to be engaged in some sort of friendly dance competition.

One thing that really surprised me was that the audience hardly moved at all. With all the rhythms, melodies and dancing emanating from the stage, it only seemed natural to move with the groove. This muzungu caught the dancing bug, which prompted lots of smiling and snickering among many of the Zambians near us. I tried to encourage others to dance but mostly they just smiled wider!

While waiting for some members of our group to catch up just before we left the festival, I took some photos of more kids... an activity which is fast becoming my favourite pastime in Zambia. All in all, it was another great weekend.

The girl in the foreground made me laugh - I loved her expressions!

One of my favourite photos so far in Zambia.

Saddle up!

If these cockroaches get any bigger, I'm going to start riding them to work! Between the cockroaches, the geckos and the mozzies, we've got quite the zoo here in the house.

High highs and low lows

As I near the two month mark, I am conscious of how my feelings towards my placement experience have ebbed and flowed.  There have been days when I've been ready to pack my bag and head for the airport, and others that have made me think that six months couldn't possibly be long enough.

I've explained to some folks in various emails that it's really a challenge to get information around here.  Consequently, I've reflected a lot on that saying "knowledge is power".  It really is true.  Most of the time, I feel utterly powerless and it's usually due to a lack of knowledge on a particular subject.  I'm used to planning ahead for meetings in order to understand the purpose of the meeting, to know who is going to be there, to have the right facts and figures available.  But the game has changed entirely over here.  I routinely get called into meetings that are happening in five minutes (or that started half an hour ago) and am expected to say something intelligent.  Mostly, I feel foolish in these situations.

Where all the big planning business gets done...

My office is the middle door.  Sometimes there are chickens pecking away at things on the "lawn" out front.

On the other hand, the work I have done is appreciated.  This morning, the Chief Health Inspector needed someone to draft a floor plan for a new facility they're planning.  Our draughtsman/surveyor was out for the day doing some fieldwork, so naturally the project fell into my hands.  The design had to be done in AutoCAD... but the last time I seriously used AutoCAD was in 1999.  As you can imagine, the program has changed a bit.   Though it was a struggle, the Chief Inspector came back later in the day and was seriously appreciative of the work.  He said something along the lines of, "This will finally make it look like we've got our act together!"

I was promptly dragged into a meeting to comment on how to redesign one of the markets in town.  No small task (see my previous comments on Choma market).

Colourful crafts at the Dutch Reform market in Lusaka.  The church holds a fantastic craft market every month.

Despite the work challenges, the social life continues to be fun.  Last Thursday, I traveled to Lusaka for some meetings with government ministries.  I also took the opportunity to visit with some friends in town.  I stayed with Jerry and Ilene, who are also VSO volunteers.  Ilene and I were part of the same training sessions in Ottawa in April and June, so it was great to reconnect.  They are both working for an organization called Pestalozzi, which runs a terrific school for disadvantaged kids.  On Saturday afternoon, the staff and kids put on a show for trustees, donors and other interested people, which of course we went to see.  It was also the birthday of another VSO colleague, Dan.   The organization he's working for mounts drama, dancing and drumming performances to educate about HIV/AIDS issues.  The birthday party on Saturday night was tons of fun, and involved a series of performances by Dan's colleagues.  Since Dan plays the drums back home in the UK, they gave him an African drum as a birthday gift. 

Pestalozzi kids entertaining the crowd.

Dan receiving his birthday present from colleagues

Dan's wife Helen, and my roommate Rob were also there.  On Sunday afternoon, before heading back to Mazabuka, the six of us went to see a Rugby Sevens tournament at the Lusaka Showgrounds.  There were teams from all over Southern Africa (South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda).  We were delighted to see the Zambian ladies win the women's trophy.  The Zambian men put in a good show but the Zimbabwean team won the final against a South African team.  All in all, it was pretty great weekend!

Zambian men's rugby team consoling each other after the game.

Happy spectators: Dan, Helen and Rob