My journey into Zambia

Two weeks ago, we headed to the airport, destined for Zambia. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dad's recent work, he's doing a survey of Zambian villages in the Heifer program to gauge its effectiveness over time. I spent many hours in front of a computer entering the data from these surveys, so he thought it would be nice to bring us to the villages and let me put faces to the numbers I've been working with for the last few months. In addition to being nice for the family to see another part of Africa, Dad was honoring the villagers by bringing his family thousands of miles to see them, away from the comfort of home. The plan was to thank the survey participants by taking their pictures, printing them out, and giving them a Christmas card with the picture inside. Since internet access in Zambia was hard to come across, I made journal entries each night to capture the highlights on that day. To avoid making a reallllllllllllly long post, I'm gonna post the entry from each day separately, and shorten them a little bit.

Monday, 12/10/2012:

Today was our first day in Zambia. We flew in from Jo'burg yesterday afternoon, but only had time for a brief walk around the area before it got dark.
The flight was pretty boring-- we'd woken up early, so I slept for most of the time. When we landed, the airport at Ndola gave me quite a shock. It was tiny! Three half-cylinder buildings, each about 60 feet long and 25 feet wide were all that made up Ndola International. It reminded me of the airport from The Rescuers Down Under. We took a taxi to the Kaps Villa and Lodge, where we are spending the week. Despite the name, it's a pretty rundown place-- doors that don't shut, broken lights, rickety chairs, and cracked walls-- but it keeps the mosquitoes out. When we first arrived, there was actually some question as to whether we'd all have a bed to sleep in at all. The receptionist couldn't find out reservation when we first checked in, but after a few minutes on searching, she realized she was looking at November 9, not December. It all worked out in the end, and everyone had a bed. I didn't get a mosquito net, but that's not a big deal indoors.

This morning we walked down the street to the local Heifer offices. We met our contacts there, Joyce and Djondoh (who had greeted us the night before and would be our guide this week), and hung out for a bit until everyone was ready to move on. I'm not sure what Mom and Tim did, but I workd my way through about six Kakuros.

After about 2 hours, Djondoh drove us to Chembe, about 100 minutes away from Ndola. Chembe was the first of the five villages we are visiting this week, as well as the smallest, with only 30 families. We were greeted by a parade of women and kids singing and shaking our hands one by one, and the led us into a town hall-type building. Djondoh introduced us in Bemba and found a guy to translate for our benefit. After leading the families in a call & response song, he introduced us-- stressing that we had come all the way from America to be there. First we met our peers-- he called up the married couples and teenagers to meet us first. When they discovered that my birthday is tomorrow, Djondoh led the village in a rendition of "Happy Birthday." He explained that we were there to thank them for helping Dad's work and Heifer by giving them photos and Christmas cards. Mike, the appointed translator, did well throughout-- only stumbling over "enumerators" and "Illinois."

We methodically took family pictures and printed them while Djondoh entertained those waiting. All in all, it was surprisingly smooth sailing for the first time. Some villagers were more photogenic than others, though. Our subjects ranged from the old couple who gazed into each other's eyes to the guy who used his daughter's head as an armrest, his fingers dangling in front of her face.

After we finished we were offered a small meal of fried chicken, rice, and pasta. I was bit worried that they'd use peanut oil (since peanuts are a main crop there) but 4 hours later I'm still healthy! I took too much pleasure in being able to eat with my fingers in front of Mom, since there was no silverware.

Interesting side note:
On the way to Chembe, Djondoh introduced us to a local fruit called Masuku. When asked to describe it, he could only come up with "yummy," which fit perfectly. I'd liken the fruit to genips, just less stringy and will four seeds.

Not the best picture, but it was the only one we have of Chembe's meeting place. It was the only  one that had cement-- all the other villages had thatched roofs and no walls.