The Sweetest Town in the Nation

Yesterday being a bright, sunny Saturday, I borrowed my roommate's bicycle and went out for a ride.  I decided to check out mostly unknown territory (to me at least), by visiting the Nakambala Sugar Estate.  It was quite a pleasant (albeit hot) ride.

Mazabuka is popularly known as the Sweetest Town in the Nation as a result of its long association with sugar production.  The fields that surround the town, particularly those lying to the north in the Kafue River floodplain are covered by hundreds of hectares of sugar cane.  At the heart of the cane plantations is the sugar factory, its associated offices and research departments, and several pockets of staff housing.

As I meandered through the housing area, what struck my eyes as a planner was how orderly and normal everything looked.  The roads are a uniform width and they have a proper convex profile to facilitate drainage.  Being a sugar plantation, the company even coats the roads with molasses as a cheap substitute for tar (on a hot day, the place does have a somewhat cloying scent, but it's not unpleasant).  Housing is set back from the road by an appropriate distance and the houses are well kept.  There are some community facilities which appear well-maintained and appreciated by residents.  My field trip showed me that viable alternatives to the conditions in many Council-run neighbourhoods are very possible.  The examples are even reachable by bicycle.

A molasses-sealed road in the staff area.  Looks pretty nice, doesn't it?

I wondered whether there could be some sort of exchange program for Council staff to learn from the "municipal works" staff at Zambia Sugar.  Building and maintaining roads is not rocket science!

The Nakambala Factory of Zambia Sugar.  Mmm... sweet!

 

Sugar cane, as far as the eye can see...

The road leading away from the Nakambala House - a relatively posh place to have a drink and a meal in town.

The road leading out of the sugar estate.  As I rode back towards home, I realized that this was the skyline of downtown Mazabuka.  At four storeys, the building between the poles on the right is the tallest in town.

Galvanized by tragedy

Truck accidents are an all too common occurrence around Mazabuka.  This morning, there was another horrible accident at the Shoprite intersection.  A truck loaded with several large bins of ice was en route to the Kafue River to collect fish when it slammed through the fence and rolled over.  The biggest tragedy is that there were several people riding in the back of the open trailer.  I am told that eleven people lost their lives and that another eight are in hospital with various fractures.  The scale of the tragedy is truly difficult to comprehend.

Incidentally, today was the scheduled quarterly meeting of the Full Council.  As a result, the councilors were definitely talking about the morning's accident.  They resolved that the Council officers should move ahead with the by-pass road and, as an interim measure, find some money to install warning signs and additional speed humps on the current route through town.  The sticky situation is that the Councilors are determined that the work should proceed on a different by-pass route than the one proposed in the IDP - essentially replacing an entire 60 kilometre stretch of highway.  While their proposal goes through much flatter terrain than the current highway, it will be an astronomically expensive route to build and will disrupt a number of small villages.  In contrast, the other by-pass road is about 8 kilometres, crossing through three large farms.  No solution is ever perfect...

The day's deliberations.

Recognizing the dangers of the Shoprite intersection, the Council did recently get out and paint the road with some markings to control traffic.  I've spent a bit of time observing the intersection and have noticed that people do pay heed to the lanes and the stop line.  It's a start, but it won't stop any runaway trucks.

More fresh produce

It just keeps getting better. Now the local bananas are back in season, along with these strange looking oranges called “naartjies”. I assume that's just Afrikaans for “orange” since in Spanish the word is “naranja” and in Italian “arancia”. The naartjies have a greenish-yellow peel which makes one think they've been picked too early; however the insides are much like tangerine – decidedly orange and decidedly tasty.

The finger bananas don't look like much on the outside (one would expect to see them on the mark-down rack at the supermarket), but inside they're oh-so-sweet and full of flavour. The texture is very smooth and creamy.

Local produce - yummy!

In addition, the maize crop is about ready to harvest. After a dry spell of a few weeks duration, the rains came back but with not as much gusto as in December-January. Nevertheless, the rains returned at just the right time to rescue the crops from an otherwise disappointing (disastrous?) harvest. Stella, our cleaner, planted maize in the garden, which has grown to about three metres tall. I never knew maize would grow that high!

The towering stalks of maize in the backyard.

Under African Skies

As we begin the transition from the southern summer to winter, the sunset comes earlier – around 5:45 p.m. It's now pretty much dark by about 6:30, whereas during December we still had some light in the sky after 7. Not a huge difference I know, but it is noticed nonetheless.

While people find inspiration in evening skies just about everywhere on the globe, those found in Africa must be among the most beautiful. These days, when I go running after work, I run under beautiful cloud formations painted all shades of gold, blue, orange, pink and purple. It's quite a nice treat after a sometimes difficult day.

I've decided to post some of the evening sky shots I've taken over the last several months, to give everyone the idea of what I mean. A photo will never fully do justice to a full sky-scape... I guess you'll have to come and see for yourselves some time.

Sunset over Lake Kariba

Setting up camp on the Lower Zambezi River after a long day of paddling.

The blues, golds and purples of Kasanka N.P.

Sunset on the walk home from work.

Skies over Mazabuka

Another evening sky phenomenon is also worth sharing. During the sugar harvests, the fields are set alight to burn off all the unwanted plant matter, which leaves the cane to be cut more easily. The first time I saw the fields on fire, I actually heard it first. It sounded a bit like the roar of a heavy rainstorm on the roof, but not quite. I went outside to investigate and was amazed to see the tongues of fire rising above the treetops!

Fire's burning, fire's burning, draw nearer, draw nearer, in the gloaming, in the gloaming, come sing and be merry.

This looked and sounded particularly impressive.

Colourful Currency

I've always been interested in nerdy things like currency and stamps. Yes, I said it, I'm a nerd. Didn't you know?

So, I've done something to further prove my nerdiness... I took photos of all the banknotes and made a collage. Hey, I had to test the fancy features of my photo editing software somehow...

ZMK 86,650 = $18.05

Environmentalism?

A few months ago, I bought a few of the “green” shopping bags proudly on sale at the Shoprite store. Since there's virtually no recycling, and waste disposal is a difficult issue here, I thought I'd do my part to reduce the amount of waste going to the dump.

The problem is that every time I go to the store, I get hassled by the security guard to check my environmentally-friendly bags at the store manager's office. At the checkout, as the cashier or bagging clerk starts putting things in plastic, I yelp, “Wait, I've got bags!” So I go off to get them, return, and find that the groceries are all wrapped in plastic anyway.

Today I did a major shopping and brought my knapsack, plus the reusable bags to carry everything home. I still ended up with eight additional plastic shopping bags... head office policy obviously hasn't reached Mazabuka.

"Shoprite bag saver: A Shoprite environmental initiative."

My actual grocery wrapping.

More trouble on the street

Today when I went into town for some shopping, I happened upon another scene of devastation on the main street of Mazabuka. Apparently a truck with failed brakes came careening down the hill towards the Shoprite, hit a bus and then flipped on its side before coming to rest in a series of storefronts along the main street. When I got there, a heavy piece of machinery was set up to drag the truck out of the way. It was more or less spinning its wheels.

There was plenty of debris around since the truck had wiped out several pillars from the colonnade along the storefronts. My thoughts also leapt to the fact that usually several informal salespeople are stationed directly outside those stores. I understand from another resident that two of the fruit sellers were injured but that nobody was killed in the accident.  This is all quite alarming... let's get crackin' on that by-pass road folks!

International Women's Day

Tuesday March 8 was International Women's Day, which is celebrated as a public holiday in Zambia. To celebrate, women (and a few male allies – good to see) march through town under various banners in coordinated outfits. The march ends up at a central location for a variety of speeches and other activities. It was certainly a nice treat to have a day off for this.

This year, so I am told, the riots of the previous week had disturbed the planning for International Women's Day. So the march was pushed to Friday. Of course, I went out to have a look and add my support. Everyone appeared to be having such a great time that Friday became a de facto holiday as well. I returned to the office for most of the day, where it was nice and quiet for a change!

 

Ladies from the Council marching in the parade.

Dangerous driver

After many months of walking, I rode a bicycle for the first time today.  It was quite a liberating experience.  However, after the first 200 metres, I wondered, "Why is that car coming directly towards me?"  It was at that moment that I realized I should be on the left side of the road.

Old habits die hard...