An international audience

The other day, I realized that I could check the statistics on how many people are reading my blog.  I was really astonished to find that my blog has had over 5,000 visits since I started it up last year - an average of about 18 per day.  Okay, perhaps that's not a huge amount of traffic, but I still find it interesting.

I was most surprised to see where my readers come from (South Korea and Ukraine were the most surprising).  The top ten are shown in the column on the left.

Page views since inception - click to enlarge

Peter's Farewell

Sadly, another farewell party. This one was for Peter, a Ugandan volunteer who has been working with the Council for the last two years. His placement was to assist in implementing the Council's Workplace Policy on HIV & AIDS. It's no secret that HIV & AIDS is devastating Africa and Zambia is no exception. Though I'm no expert on the issue, I have heard that the prevalence rate exceeds 15% here. Scary stuff.

Peter has made an important contribution to the Council's understanding of how to respond to the human resource aspects of HIV & AIDS. Most Council workers are affected by the disease in one way or another – either they are personally infected, or else family and friends are. This can result in missed work days due to illness or the need to take care of family members, inability to do certain tasks (particularly physical ones), and significant strains on household resources.

This post is not intended to dwell too much on the HIV & AIDS side of things (plenty of other resources out there), but I did want to point out that the personal nature of the work Peter has done really made an impact on people working for the Council. As a result, when we had the farewell party at the Council motel on Wednesday evening, it was touching to hear all the comments offered up by those in attendance. Each person had an opportunity to say a few words about their experience working with Peter. I recalled his friendly and unique way of greeting me each morning: “How are we?” and how he thoroughly entertained the University of Zambia students last December, all the while disseminating some very serious information on HIV & AIDS prevention. That's a talent.

After the speeches and formalities, we all tucked in to a tasty braii and found our groove on the dance floor! Peter will be missed by many.

Posing with the Planning Department (Peter: 3rd from right)

Posing with the Deputy Director of Planning and the Mayor

Peter imparting a few final words of wisdom to the Council and accepting a gift of appreciation.

All smiles!

Leaving Livingstone

Two weeks ago, my friend Emily returned to England after her year as a VSO in Livingstone.  To send her off, a bunch of us went down to Livingstone for a celebration.  I saw a new and impressive aspect of the falls called the "Boiling Pot", which required a somewhat arduous descent into the canyon below the falls.  Frankly, the hardest part was keeping a footing on the slippery path.

It was sad to send off another good friend but I guess this is just the way it goes.

Enjoying drinks (or about to, I guess) at the Royal Livingstone Hotel.

Victoria and Andrew - all smiles!

Emily contemplating her next moves... in more ways than one.  Best of luck!

The Boiling Pot below the falls and the Zambia-Zimbabwe bridge.

Posing at the Boiling Pot

We had to tread carefully around the mother baboon and her babies on the way up.

Juxtapositions 3: The Mazabuka Olympics

The Mazabuka contingent of expats and volunteers has acquired a reputation as a party crowd. Befitting the reputation, we organized an Olympics party last weekend. Competitors vied for the medals in Darts, Ping-Pong and Billiards. Teams of two were drawn randomly, along with the country they were to represent. In a strange twist of fate, I was the only person who drew his own country – Canada!  It was a close competition, but the Zambian team prevailed to snatch the gold medal. 

Double 19 to win!

Refreshments between events!

Posing with Victoria

... later declared the bronze medalist from "Team Germany"

The gold medalists from "Team Zambia"

Juxtapositions 2: Birthdays

Despite the tensions in Mazabuka, there are always reasons to celebrate... such as birthdays. My colleagues and friends Pami and Ennie celebrated their respective birthdays a few days ago and insisted that I take some photos. Camera ownership is not so common in Zambia so people usually find it a great novelty to have their snaps taken. Now that I've posted the photos, I'll need to make good on my promise to print them out for the ladies...

Posing with the birthday girl, Ennie

Ennie with Rob and Judy

Pami (2nd from left) and colleagues

Sweet treats

Juxtapositions 1: Modern Life in the Capital

Upon leaving Mazabuka amid the protests, store closures and the general sense of unease, I came to Lusaka for a long weekend. My friends Helen and Dan have been generous hosts on short notice. It's always a pleasure to spend time with them.

I spent Friday morning at the VSO office catching up on some correspondence, updating my computer and informing the VSO staff about the situation in Mazabuka. In the afternoon, I went to the clinic for an overdue check-up (all fine), and then off to the mall to replace my decaying dress shoes (the uneven pavements and muddy roads have badly abused my shoes!) I tried setting up an appointment to see Habitat for Humanity, but seeing as it was short notice on a Friday, I got nowhere with that request.

As I sat at the mall enjoying a delicious cup of mocha java at Mugg & Bean, I couldn't help but think that this felt like such another world from the one I'd left the day before. A shiny new mall, a western-style coffee shop, and several styles of shoe to choose from...

Manda Hill reopened in November after a major renovation.  Could be the Eaton Centre.

 

Not so different from Loblaws

Evacuated

Unfortunately, the situation in Mazabuka has escalated.  The police were out again today allegedly looking for the protesters in the Nakambala neighbourhood.

This morning, my VSO Country Director wrote me an email asking how I felt about staying/leaving, and as I wrote my response to her, I heard new gun shots.  And then some machine gun fire.  The Deputy Director and I subsequently decided it was time to close the office and send everyone home.  As we were leaving, a new crowd started to gather around the police station which is quite literally a stone's throw (or perchance a bullet's trajectory?) from our office.  I understand there were at least two more deaths today.

While I probably wouldn't have been in any real danger by staying in my house, I took the first offer of a ride and came to Lusaka to chill out for a few days... with my passport, just in case.  I would never have expected this excitement.  I am safe, but I hope and pray that the violence ceases soon.

Senseless tragedy

Around 9:30 this morning, a large and noisy crowd began to assemble on the street in front of the police station. Naturally, work ground to a halt and everyone went out to see what was going on.

Some of the mob started vandalizing the large stone planter in the centre of the town's one (pretty) roundabout intersection. From my vantage point, I could see that they were taking portions of the stone wall to blockade the road.

After a while, people started running away from the scene as the police began shooting canisters of tear gas into the street. My very open office is not more than 100 metres from the scene. I didn't even have to get out of my seat to see and hear what was going on. Or to feel the mild effects of the tear gas on my eyes, nose and tongue. I would not want a full dose of that stuff...

Police considering their next moves.

Once people fled the original scene, the street became rather deserted. However, the rioters obviously moved off in other directions, as there were still many shots (of just tear gas, I hope) in the distance.

So, what prompted all this?

It's no secret that there was a Manchester United vs. Chelsea football game on last night in the UK. It's also no secret that Zambians are crazy about football. Although the rest is third-hand information, here is what I understand of the situation.

There was a bar in one of the compounds where the football game was being shown on TV. There was a crowd of people at the bar, watching the game. Since the rules prohibit bars from opening past 21:00 on weeknights, there might have been a noise complaint from a neighbour. The police came and decided to fire tear gas into the bar.  Three people died as a result of the scuffle - early reports said they suffocated due to the gas, but more recent reports say they died in the stampede to get out of the bar.

This morning, the people came to protest the deaths outside the police station. Apparently nobody came out to address them, so they started throwing stones and causing (minor) havoc. The police then sent out their people with more tear gas, Plexiglas shields and guns and essentially the town has been shut down as the forces mobilized to suppress the protesters. To make things worse, I am told that the tear gas suffocated a baby.

It's not the first time that a sporting event has led to havoc and deaths, nor unfortunately do I think this will be the last.

Rainy relief

It turns out that those teasing thundershowers last Friday were the beginning of some more substantial rains.  It has rained hard at times over the last few days and nights (though not as steadily as before).  Consequently, many people are breathing sighs of relief.

Before now, I've never really been in a place where the threat of drought has had such severe implications.  Droughts and famines are among those "tragedies" that we hear about from afar, but rarely experience for ourselves.  By the time agricultural calamities reach Canadian grocery stores, the effects show up as temporarily higher prices or a few days where we can't buy grapefruit.

Here, lack of rain means that the main staples fail and people truly go hungry.  Food for thought...