So, like I’ve said before, even though I haven’t been able to respond to any of your comments I do read them and I do enjoy them.
I’ve seen a few questions pop up here and there. I’m sure some others of you have questions as well about one of the Namumu businesses, the Namumu children, the current state of my beard, everyday Zambian life or Innocent, my little naked neighbor, so if you do post them here. I’ll do my best to answer them in next week’s blog.
If you’ve previously posted a question I apologize for not yet answering. Go ahead and post it again and I’ll try to answer it here.
Hit me. And be creative.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Breakdowns
Business is good here at Namumu. But still, for various reasons, every day is a struggle.
One major problem is that something breaks down EVERY SINGLE DAY. Without exception. Every day. It’s ridiculous. In case my use of capital letters and repeated phrasing didn’t drive home the point, let me give you an example:
Sometime last week Namumu’s electric water pump broke down. This has without a doubt been the most frustrating breakdown yet. Now, to get water we (Namumu children and Namumu staff living on the Namumu grounds) have to make a trip to one of two nearby bore holes, both of which are around a quarter of a mile away, and to pump water out into 20 liter jugs.
It wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but given that we’ve just done a good deal of planting in our gardens it’s gone from a minor annoyance to a major headache. The gardens are suffering. So far I’ve been recruiting groups of children to fetch water with me every afternoon, carrying the jugs back and splashing the beds. The gardens are surviving but it’s taking quite a bit of both time and effort.
Since fetching water is such a pain and most of the water that I fetch goes toward gardening or drinking or bathing I don’t usually have much left over for things like laundry. I only own 3 pairs of pants, 4 shirts, 4 pairs of underwear and 4 pairs of socks and I haven’t done laundry for 2 weeks. You do the math.
TMI?
Friday was especially difficult. The water pump had been out for a few days. That morning the kapenta rig came back with a few busted light bulbs (which, again, are a crucial part of attracting and catching kapenta). Awesome, I thought, just what I need, more broken stuff.
Then, as I moped back toward the Namumu office I heard a loud sound that was a little something like on LOST when there’s a bright light and the Island jumps through time. A snake had climbed up the pole and had caused the transformer to blow, knocking out the power for all of Namumu. So we were without power. And rig lights. And running water.
Not a happy day for Sam. Not a happy day at all.
I suppose I have to count my blessings, though. After all, nobody has pooped on my kitchen floor for the last few days, so that’s good.
So, if you get a chance it would be super duper if you could pray for our water pump to be fixed so that I can stop cracking the whip on my water-carrying Namumu minions. And while you’re at it, please pray that we can at least have a few days where nothing breaks at all.
One major problem is that something breaks down EVERY SINGLE DAY. Without exception. Every day. It’s ridiculous. In case my use of capital letters and repeated phrasing didn’t drive home the point, let me give you an example:
Sometime last week Namumu’s electric water pump broke down. This has without a doubt been the most frustrating breakdown yet. Now, to get water we (Namumu children and Namumu staff living on the Namumu grounds) have to make a trip to one of two nearby bore holes, both of which are around a quarter of a mile away, and to pump water out into 20 liter jugs.
It wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but given that we’ve just done a good deal of planting in our gardens it’s gone from a minor annoyance to a major headache. The gardens are suffering. So far I’ve been recruiting groups of children to fetch water with me every afternoon, carrying the jugs back and splashing the beds. The gardens are surviving but it’s taking quite a bit of both time and effort.
Since fetching water is such a pain and most of the water that I fetch goes toward gardening or drinking or bathing I don’t usually have much left over for things like laundry. I only own 3 pairs of pants, 4 shirts, 4 pairs of underwear and 4 pairs of socks and I haven’t done laundry for 2 weeks. You do the math.
TMI?
Friday was especially difficult. The water pump had been out for a few days. That morning the kapenta rig came back with a few busted light bulbs (which, again, are a crucial part of attracting and catching kapenta). Awesome, I thought, just what I need, more broken stuff.
Then, as I moped back toward the Namumu office I heard a loud sound that was a little something like on LOST when there’s a bright light and the Island jumps through time. A snake had climbed up the pole and had caused the transformer to blow, knocking out the power for all of Namumu. So we were without power. And rig lights. And running water.
Not a happy day for Sam. Not a happy day at all.
I suppose I have to count my blessings, though. After all, nobody has pooped on my kitchen floor for the last few days, so that’s good.
So, if you get a chance it would be super duper if you could pray for our water pump to be fixed so that I can stop cracking the whip on my water-carrying Namumu minions. And while you’re at it, please pray that we can at least have a few days where nothing breaks at all.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Kapenta Sales
There are two paths one can take to get to the part of the lake where our kapenta rig arrives.
There’s a more direct path via the main Siavonga road that leads right down to the water. However, that path brings you to the opposite side of the lake from where our rig arrives, so you have to hop on a boat and ferry across. The ferry boats are small and have either one or two young guys paddling. It’s a short distance across, maybe about 75 yards, and you only have to pay 1,000 Kwacha (about 20 cents). Still, I prefer the second path and use it every day.
The second path loops around a bit more, but it takes me right to where our rigs arrive. I’m not on the main road for long. It follows mostly small dirt paths and, at one point, passes through a small village (where all the kids stare at me, pointing and yelling “mukuwa” ,the Tonga word for “white man”, every single day…sometimes they wave and smile, but mostly they just point). It’s quite a bit of up and down and is a pretty strenuous, but it’s nice because it gets my blood flowing in the morning. Plus, Saviour told me I got fat, so I have to exercise.
The boat usually arrives somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00 am (we have two boats but only one has an engine so the other stays out on the lake and all eight fishermen return on the other). Jere, one of our day-workers who stays with the rigs during they day and helps dry the fish, arrives about when I do. Since Mubita, our kapenta sales supervisor is still on leave, Kebby, the Namumu boys’ caretaker, has been showing up to help out as well.
100% of our customers are women. At the beginning of the month there were around 20 showing up each day. They buy in bulk from us and sell the kapenta all around town, mostly in the main market. They are business-savvy and, let me tell you, they can be vicious. I do as much flirting as possible to ease the tension.
It was madness on the first day. We tried to be fair and divide up our catches equally amongst the women, giving them all small quantities. This month we’re only catching around 80-100 kgs a night, so almost all of them wanted more than what they got. They crowded around us as we weighed out the catches, trying to get our attention and even putting their money in our faces to get what they wanted. Most of the women are from the surrounding villages and don’t speak much English, so Kebby did most of the communicating.
At first I thought, “Well, I guess this is just how businesses operate in Zambia. It’s crazy and unorganized, but that’s just the way things go.” To Kebby and the women it just seemed natural. I figured that to develop any formal system would be too American of me and that it was best just to keep doing what we were doing.
However, after a few days of dealing with middle-aged-cat-fighting Zambian women we tried something new.
It wasn’t anything fancy. One day we had a lottery. Each woman was randomly assigned a day on which they could come and buy from us, with two women assigned per day. If on any woman’s particular day they did not want to purchase all of their half of the catches they could designate any of their friends to receive the remainder, but only the day’s two assigned women control over the catches. To assign them days we just had them draw slips of paper out of a hat.
It was simple and it worked. Even the women themselves appreciate it and think it’s fair.
After talking with a number of other fishing camps I’ve found that some of them use a system somewhat like what we created. It just makes sense. So, things have calmed down around our area of the harbor and we're having no problem selling all of our catches every single day.
After we sell the fish there’s not much to it. We have racks set up, long wire sheets on top of wooden polls, where the customers spread out their fish to dry after buying them. Jere, our day-staffer, stays around to monitor and I head home.
So there you have it. Our kapenta business is coming right along, and every day we find some way to do things better than the day before.
There’s a more direct path via the main Siavonga road that leads right down to the water. However, that path brings you to the opposite side of the lake from where our rig arrives, so you have to hop on a boat and ferry across. The ferry boats are small and have either one or two young guys paddling. It’s a short distance across, maybe about 75 yards, and you only have to pay 1,000 Kwacha (about 20 cents). Still, I prefer the second path and use it every day.
The second path loops around a bit more, but it takes me right to where our rigs arrive. I’m not on the main road for long. It follows mostly small dirt paths and, at one point, passes through a small village (where all the kids stare at me, pointing and yelling “mukuwa” ,the Tonga word for “white man”, every single day…sometimes they wave and smile, but mostly they just point). It’s quite a bit of up and down and is a pretty strenuous, but it’s nice because it gets my blood flowing in the morning. Plus, Saviour told me I got fat, so I have to exercise.
The boat usually arrives somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00 am (we have two boats but only one has an engine so the other stays out on the lake and all eight fishermen return on the other). Jere, one of our day-workers who stays with the rigs during they day and helps dry the fish, arrives about when I do. Since Mubita, our kapenta sales supervisor is still on leave, Kebby, the Namumu boys’ caretaker, has been showing up to help out as well.
100% of our customers are women. At the beginning of the month there were around 20 showing up each day. They buy in bulk from us and sell the kapenta all around town, mostly in the main market. They are business-savvy and, let me tell you, they can be vicious. I do as much flirting as possible to ease the tension.
It was madness on the first day. We tried to be fair and divide up our catches equally amongst the women, giving them all small quantities. This month we’re only catching around 80-100 kgs a night, so almost all of them wanted more than what they got. They crowded around us as we weighed out the catches, trying to get our attention and even putting their money in our faces to get what they wanted. Most of the women are from the surrounding villages and don’t speak much English, so Kebby did most of the communicating.
At first I thought, “Well, I guess this is just how businesses operate in Zambia. It’s crazy and unorganized, but that’s just the way things go.” To Kebby and the women it just seemed natural. I figured that to develop any formal system would be too American of me and that it was best just to keep doing what we were doing.
However, after a few days of dealing with middle-aged-cat-fighting Zambian women we tried something new.
It wasn’t anything fancy. One day we had a lottery. Each woman was randomly assigned a day on which they could come and buy from us, with two women assigned per day. If on any woman’s particular day they did not want to purchase all of their half of the catches they could designate any of their friends to receive the remainder, but only the day’s two assigned women control over the catches. To assign them days we just had them draw slips of paper out of a hat.
It was simple and it worked. Even the women themselves appreciate it and think it’s fair.
After talking with a number of other fishing camps I’ve found that some of them use a system somewhat like what we created. It just makes sense. So, things have calmed down around our area of the harbor and we're having no problem selling all of our catches every single day.
After we sell the fish there’s not much to it. We have racks set up, long wire sheets on top of wooden polls, where the customers spread out their fish to dry after buying them. Jere, our day-staffer, stays around to monitor and I head home.
So there you have it. Our kapenta business is coming right along, and every day we find some way to do things better than the day before.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Random Updates
Phew. I’m tired.
I wish I had more time to write this week, but internet time is short and there’s work to be done so I’ll have to try to catch you up quickly on what’s new around Namumu with a few short updates
My schedule has changed quite a bit in the past two weeks. Mubita, our kapenta fishing sales clerk is still away on leave (more on his situation later), so I’ve been especially busy as of late. We started fishing last Tuesday, April 14th, so with Mubita gone I’ve had to high-tail it to the harbor every morning to sell the night’s catches. The boats usually arrive around 7:00 am or somewhere shortly thereafter, so I’ve have to set out from my house around 6:30. Since the garden beds need to be watered early and I’m never sure when I’ll get back to Namumu, I’ve been getting up around 5:30 to water (I’d assign one of my little Namumu minions to water but, I have to be honest, they all suck at it…just have to do that one myself). Since the boats go out every night for 24 days there’s no break on the weekends. I’m worn out.
The Namumu children are happy and content as always. They’re still on break from school, so these days they just play around and talk all day. School should be starting in a week or so, so it will eventually be back to work for them.
The cholera scare has died down, thankfully, so thanks to all who prayed for that one.
Of course, now our water pump is broken, so if you could switch your prayers from cholera to our water pump that would be just dandy. We’re trying to make other short-term arrangements, so there’s no need to panic. Still, prayer would be nice.
My little naked next-door neighbour, Innocent, wandered into my kitchen again the other day for another naked dinner party. This time he didn’t just watch me, though. This time he pooped on my floor. Yes, you read that correctly. I would have informed his mother but as she speaks zero English and I haven’t yet learned how to say, “Your 1 ½ year old took a dump on my kitchen floor” in Tonga I just cleaned it up and kept quiet. Innocent has been banned from my kitchen indefinitely.
Bread has made up about 90% of my diet recently. The bakery in Siavonga is the bomb dot com. Once our vegetables start coming in I’m planning on getting a little bit healthier, but for now I’ll stick with my bread, nsima and eggs.
The dogs have been staying out of the garden, but I think they got together and decided that since they couldn’t tick me off that way they’d have to find another way. They found it. Now they’ve started howling outside of my window around 4 am. I learned my lesson last week, though, so I’ve stayed away from murderous thoughts.
So, all is still well here in Siavonga. I’m hoping to post another update in the next day or two about selling kapenta, I think you’ll find it interesting, so stay tuned. Until then, take care.
I wish I had more time to write this week, but internet time is short and there’s work to be done so I’ll have to try to catch you up quickly on what’s new around Namumu with a few short updates
My schedule has changed quite a bit in the past two weeks. Mubita, our kapenta fishing sales clerk is still away on leave (more on his situation later), so I’ve been especially busy as of late. We started fishing last Tuesday, April 14th, so with Mubita gone I’ve had to high-tail it to the harbor every morning to sell the night’s catches. The boats usually arrive around 7:00 am or somewhere shortly thereafter, so I’ve have to set out from my house around 6:30. Since the garden beds need to be watered early and I’m never sure when I’ll get back to Namumu, I’ve been getting up around 5:30 to water (I’d assign one of my little Namumu minions to water but, I have to be honest, they all suck at it…just have to do that one myself). Since the boats go out every night for 24 days there’s no break on the weekends. I’m worn out.
The Namumu children are happy and content as always. They’re still on break from school, so these days they just play around and talk all day. School should be starting in a week or so, so it will eventually be back to work for them.
The cholera scare has died down, thankfully, so thanks to all who prayed for that one.
Of course, now our water pump is broken, so if you could switch your prayers from cholera to our water pump that would be just dandy. We’re trying to make other short-term arrangements, so there’s no need to panic. Still, prayer would be nice.
My little naked next-door neighbour, Innocent, wandered into my kitchen again the other day for another naked dinner party. This time he didn’t just watch me, though. This time he pooped on my floor. Yes, you read that correctly. I would have informed his mother but as she speaks zero English and I haven’t yet learned how to say, “Your 1 ½ year old took a dump on my kitchen floor” in Tonga I just cleaned it up and kept quiet. Innocent has been banned from my kitchen indefinitely.
Bread has made up about 90% of my diet recently. The bakery in Siavonga is the bomb dot com. Once our vegetables start coming in I’m planning on getting a little bit healthier, but for now I’ll stick with my bread, nsima and eggs.
The dogs have been staying out of the garden, but I think they got together and decided that since they couldn’t tick me off that way they’d have to find another way. They found it. Now they’ve started howling outside of my window around 4 am. I learned my lesson last week, though, so I’ve stayed away from murderous thoughts.
So, all is still well here in Siavonga. I’m hoping to post another update in the next day or two about selling kapenta, I think you’ll find it interesting, so stay tuned. Until then, take care.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Business Updates
As usual, things in the front office are busy but good.
Our two fishing rigs have been sidelined for the past week. Once a month, every month, around the time of the full moon all kapenta fishing companies shut down for around 6 or 7 days. The boats use special light bulbs, both out of the water and deep down in the water, to attract the small kapenta fish into the nets. When the moon is full or close to it the small lights are ineffective, so everyone takes a little break. It works out well though. The fishermen set out to fish around 3:00 pm and return the following morning around 7:00 am for about 24 days straight, so they need and deserve a rest.
While our boats were sidelined we took them to a neighboring fishing company’s engineers to have some maintenance work done. Most of the local owners are friendly and willing to offer advice, something that I’ve been trying to take advantage of. I’ve hit a number of owners with question after question and have received a crash course in everything from engine repair to catching strategies. I’ve come a long way but still have a lot to learn.
Catches were pretty terrible last month, so we’re hoping for some improvement here in April. Still, there’s only so much we can do. Much of it depends on weather and, to a certain degree, on luck.
I’ve also received a crash course in both carpentry and welding. I’ve been trying to find out what tools our guys really need and what they say they need but could really do without to get the job done. Again, I’ve learned quite a bit but still have a long way to go.
Last but not least, farming is coming right along. I’ve got a few hard working little Namumu-ans helping me every day. I’ve discovered the secret to effective farming here. Before, I’d try to organize big groups to come to work and get a lot accomplished. They’d always mess things up and get in each others’ way. Now, instead, I just walk over to the beds and start working. Inevitably, around 4 or 5 of the kids will wander over to see what’s going on and to help me. With the small numbers we always get a lot finished and I’ve been able to teach them a thing or two.
Recently we’ve been seeding and mulching and building fences to keep out the stray dogs. These dogs are really ticking me off. They wander all around Namumu and keep doing little dances all over our newly planted beds. We built a fence but they continued to get through. Man oh man did I start to get angry. Really angry. I learned my lesson after God punished me, though…
It was early in the morning and I was tired and grumpy. I walked over to the beds and found the usual doggy footprints all over some recently planted cabbage. While I was gathering straw to do some mulching I started having Michael Vicki-ish thoughts about the Namumu dogs, I mean really terrible thoughts about what I wanted to do to them. As I was having said thoughts, and I mean RIGHT when I was having said thoughts, my foot fell into a deep hole, a hole that had previously been used for an outdoor toilet. God’s punishment was swift. I quickly repented for my bad thoughts and for my anger.
So there you have it. God spoke to Moses through a burning bush and he spoke to me through an outdoor latrine.
Our two fishing rigs have been sidelined for the past week. Once a month, every month, around the time of the full moon all kapenta fishing companies shut down for around 6 or 7 days. The boats use special light bulbs, both out of the water and deep down in the water, to attract the small kapenta fish into the nets. When the moon is full or close to it the small lights are ineffective, so everyone takes a little break. It works out well though. The fishermen set out to fish around 3:00 pm and return the following morning around 7:00 am for about 24 days straight, so they need and deserve a rest.
While our boats were sidelined we took them to a neighboring fishing company’s engineers to have some maintenance work done. Most of the local owners are friendly and willing to offer advice, something that I’ve been trying to take advantage of. I’ve hit a number of owners with question after question and have received a crash course in everything from engine repair to catching strategies. I’ve come a long way but still have a lot to learn.
Catches were pretty terrible last month, so we’re hoping for some improvement here in April. Still, there’s only so much we can do. Much of it depends on weather and, to a certain degree, on luck.
I’ve also received a crash course in both carpentry and welding. I’ve been trying to find out what tools our guys really need and what they say they need but could really do without to get the job done. Again, I’ve learned quite a bit but still have a long way to go.
Last but not least, farming is coming right along. I’ve got a few hard working little Namumu-ans helping me every day. I’ve discovered the secret to effective farming here. Before, I’d try to organize big groups to come to work and get a lot accomplished. They’d always mess things up and get in each others’ way. Now, instead, I just walk over to the beds and start working. Inevitably, around 4 or 5 of the kids will wander over to see what’s going on and to help me. With the small numbers we always get a lot finished and I’ve been able to teach them a thing or two.
Recently we’ve been seeding and mulching and building fences to keep out the stray dogs. These dogs are really ticking me off. They wander all around Namumu and keep doing little dances all over our newly planted beds. We built a fence but they continued to get through. Man oh man did I start to get angry. Really angry. I learned my lesson after God punished me, though…
It was early in the morning and I was tired and grumpy. I walked over to the beds and found the usual doggy footprints all over some recently planted cabbage. While I was gathering straw to do some mulching I started having Michael Vicki-ish thoughts about the Namumu dogs, I mean really terrible thoughts about what I wanted to do to them. As I was having said thoughts, and I mean RIGHT when I was having said thoughts, my foot fell into a deep hole, a hole that had previously been used for an outdoor toilet. God’s punishment was swift. I quickly repented for my bad thoughts and for my anger.
So there you have it. God spoke to Moses through a burning bush and he spoke to me through an outdoor latrine.
New Friends and a Break-In
So, as I noted last week, a few of the children that lived next door were, for a while, absolutely terrified of me. As I’d walk up to my house they’d quickly run away and the smallest ones would even begin to cry at times. No joke. We’re in a rural area and while there are a few whites around town, most of them just work in the local fishing industry and live elsewhere, separated from the local Zambians. These kids just hadn’t been exposed to many whites and I was strange and different and scary.
On second thought, maybe it was just the beard…
Either way, I’ve turned the corner with the kids next door. They love me now. They’re used to me. I get to throw them around and play with them some nights when I’m out chatting with the adults next door. It’s almost getting to the point where I wish they were still scared because now they come up and bug me all the time to come throw them up in the air. Most nights I can’t even relax and read on the porch anymore because they are always coming around and wanting to play.
To further illustrate, I was cooking dinner the other night, whistling a little diddy and minding my own business when my smallest neighbor, Innocent (if you met him you’d note the irony there), about 1 ½ years old, wandered right on through my back door and into my kitchen. His mother was nowhere to be found. He was, as you might have guessed, completely naked. He just stood there and stared for about 30 seconds, smiling, with no intention of leaving. He wandered around a bit, checking the place out and watching me cook.
It’s funny how quickly things can change. This was the kid whom I scared the most and here he is showing up in my kitchen for a naked dinner party. I escorted him back to his mother quickly, lest she think I had kidnapped her naked son.
So, I’m getting a little less peace and quiet these days but a lot more play time.
On second thought, maybe it was just the beard…
Either way, I’ve turned the corner with the kids next door. They love me now. They’re used to me. I get to throw them around and play with them some nights when I’m out chatting with the adults next door. It’s almost getting to the point where I wish they were still scared because now they come up and bug me all the time to come throw them up in the air. Most nights I can’t even relax and read on the porch anymore because they are always coming around and wanting to play.
To further illustrate, I was cooking dinner the other night, whistling a little diddy and minding my own business when my smallest neighbor, Innocent (if you met him you’d note the irony there), about 1 ½ years old, wandered right on through my back door and into my kitchen. His mother was nowhere to be found. He was, as you might have guessed, completely naked. He just stood there and stared for about 30 seconds, smiling, with no intention of leaving. He wandered around a bit, checking the place out and watching me cook.
It’s funny how quickly things can change. This was the kid whom I scared the most and here he is showing up in my kitchen for a naked dinner party. I escorted him back to his mother quickly, lest she think I had kidnapped her naked son.
So, I’m getting a little less peace and quiet these days but a lot more play time.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Animal Attacks and Church
My favorite time of day here is in the early evenings. I get to sit out on my porch, kick back and do nothing for the first time all day. I sit and read, sit and chat with my 15 or so neighbors, or just sit. There’s a nice view. I can turn my chair and watch the sun go down behind the Baobab tree. The sky is orange and purple and hazy and beautiful. Later on, if I pull my chair out from underneath the overhang I can see the stars. Most nights now are clear and I can see about a million of them. It’s wonderful.
Except, that is, when I get attacked by freakish African animals. A few nights ago I was sitting and enjoying the view when a bat flew into my leg and fell to the ground. That’s right, a bat. I don’t know what compelled the crazed devil-bird to come into my personal space, but needless to say I wasn’t very happy. Have you ever seen a bat up close? They are freakish and terrifying. I shooed it away but my peaceful evening was pretty much ruined. It’s ok though, I’ve had a few nights since with no incidents.
Other than being under attack by one of Satan’s little friends things are still going well. I don’t have cholera, so that’s good.
I’ve enjoyed settling into my new church home at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church. Siavonga isn’t a huge town but there are a number of churches to choose from. There’s the United Church of Zambia, the Reformed Church of Zambia, the Seventh Day Adventist Church and the Catholic Church to name just a few. St. Marks is in Mitcho, an area a little ways from town, but I can usually get a lift with Munjongo in the Namumu truck. The Namumu children and staff are pretty much split up amongst all the churches in town, but a few go to St. Marks with me.
St. Marks has undergone quite a few changes since I was last here (I wrote about it in a blog way back) and it’s looking good. It has new doors, windows, benches and a new pulpit. It has four walls now, too, which is nice. It’s coming right along. Attendance is still a bit low but everyone expects it to grow.
The building is new but the worship remains the same. There’s singing and praying and singing and preaching and singing. Most of the service is in Tonga, but every now and then I get an English prayer thrown out there. Still, I can follow along with the Bible passages and can get the gist of the sermon. The singing is out of control. These guys can harmonize like you wouldn’t believe. The songs are all in various Zambian tribal languages but it’s ok because God can understand them even if I can’t and I’m sure they make God happy. They make me happy too.
I got to go with John Luneta this week to his choir practice at the United Church of Zambia, one of the bigger churches in town. There they have microphones, a keyboard, speakers and a mixing board. I felt like I was in a recording studio. Their singing was very nice as well, but I think I like the simple sound of the Presbyterian singers better.
So worship and life in general are just swell. I discovered a local type of hot sauce that is pretty darn good, so when my stash from home ran out I didn’t have to kick that addiction. Our crops are starting to come up already. Beans and cabbage are looking good with eggplants close behind. The little kids next door aren’t scared of me anymore (white is/was scary sometimes for the little ones) so I get to play with them sometimes. I finished “The Catcher in the Rye” which might just be my favorite book of all time. On Sunday I got a nap after church and then at night I slammed a few Cokes and watched LOST season 4.
If you ask me, life couldn’t be much better.
Except, that is, when I get attacked by freakish African animals. A few nights ago I was sitting and enjoying the view when a bat flew into my leg and fell to the ground. That’s right, a bat. I don’t know what compelled the crazed devil-bird to come into my personal space, but needless to say I wasn’t very happy. Have you ever seen a bat up close? They are freakish and terrifying. I shooed it away but my peaceful evening was pretty much ruined. It’s ok though, I’ve had a few nights since with no incidents.
Other than being under attack by one of Satan’s little friends things are still going well. I don’t have cholera, so that’s good.
I’ve enjoyed settling into my new church home at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church. Siavonga isn’t a huge town but there are a number of churches to choose from. There’s the United Church of Zambia, the Reformed Church of Zambia, the Seventh Day Adventist Church and the Catholic Church to name just a few. St. Marks is in Mitcho, an area a little ways from town, but I can usually get a lift with Munjongo in the Namumu truck. The Namumu children and staff are pretty much split up amongst all the churches in town, but a few go to St. Marks with me.
St. Marks has undergone quite a few changes since I was last here (I wrote about it in a blog way back) and it’s looking good. It has new doors, windows, benches and a new pulpit. It has four walls now, too, which is nice. It’s coming right along. Attendance is still a bit low but everyone expects it to grow.
The building is new but the worship remains the same. There’s singing and praying and singing and preaching and singing. Most of the service is in Tonga, but every now and then I get an English prayer thrown out there. Still, I can follow along with the Bible passages and can get the gist of the sermon. The singing is out of control. These guys can harmonize like you wouldn’t believe. The songs are all in various Zambian tribal languages but it’s ok because God can understand them even if I can’t and I’m sure they make God happy. They make me happy too.
I got to go with John Luneta this week to his choir practice at the United Church of Zambia, one of the bigger churches in town. There they have microphones, a keyboard, speakers and a mixing board. I felt like I was in a recording studio. Their singing was very nice as well, but I think I like the simple sound of the Presbyterian singers better.
So worship and life in general are just swell. I discovered a local type of hot sauce that is pretty darn good, so when my stash from home ran out I didn’t have to kick that addiction. Our crops are starting to come up already. Beans and cabbage are looking good with eggplants close behind. The little kids next door aren’t scared of me anymore (white is/was scary sometimes for the little ones) so I get to play with them sometimes. I finished “The Catcher in the Rye” which might just be my favorite book of all time. On Sunday I got a nap after church and then at night I slammed a few Cokes and watched LOST season 4.
If you ask me, life couldn’t be much better.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
A Good Week
Greetings from Siavonga, where the weather is mercifully cooling and the kids next door still run around naked. It’s not even just in the morning anymore, actually, they’re naked pretty much all the time now.
It’s been another good week here, even with all the complications and frustrations. I promised you a happier blog this week and I will try to deliver.
The big news from this past week is that I got to make a trip to Lusaka on Thursday to pick up some farming supplies. Munjongo had a few business items to attend to in the big city and our fishing coordinator, Mubita, had to pick up a new ceiling wire to fit on one of our kapenta rigs (it seems like something breaks on one of the rigs every other day, this being one of the aforementioned frustrations), so I got to come along. In order to carry everything we hired a truck driver for the day, which meant I wouldn’t be traveling in the fetal position this time. Imagine my relief.
Since it won’t be raining much at all this upcoming season we figured securing irrigation supplies would be priority number one, so we upgraded on hoses and got a few sprinklers as well. I’ve been fooling around with them for the last few days and have been trying to teach a few of the older children how to work them so that the beds can be watered even if Kebby (the boys’ caretaker and my farming partner) and I are not around. Manga, one of the oldest girls, is very bright and speaks good English, so it’s looking like she will be my point-person with the watering.
We also picked up shovels, garden forks, hoes and more seeds. We started planting on Friday.
Farming is going to be very important for a few reasons. First, we’re planning on selling our vegetables to have some more income for Namumu. More importantly, though, it’s critical that the children learn these skills. We’re in a rural area and many of them could be doing some form of farming after leaving Namumu. We’re trying to teach them the skills they need now so that they’ll be equipped when they leave.
The other businesses are doing fine. We’re looking to hire a new welder to work with Vincent, our young current welder who is good but perhaps still in need of some mentoring from someone with more experience. We’ve interviewed two and should be making a hiring decision this week.
Since I’m usually either working, cooking or cleaning I haven’t had much free time. On nights when I have time I’ve been reading a bit and watching old episodes of LOST on my computer. I hope all you LOST fans back home are enjoying season 5. If you wouldn’t mind giving me a spoiler-free critique of the last few episodes I’d love to hear how it’s going. If you aren’t a LOST fan then all I can say is I’m sorry (for you).
Well, that’s about it for the week. God is good and is still doing wonderful things through his workers at Namumu. Please continue to pray for Namumu and the community.
Since I promised you an uplifting blog I’ll leave you with a true story from the streets of Lusaka:
It had been a long day. We’d been running around the city for hours and hadn’t even had time to stop and eat. The sun was going down and, to top it off, we knew that we still had a three hour drive ahead of us back down to Siavonga. I was dragging. We all were. But then God sent me an angel to give me the encouragement I needed…
As I was walking back to our truck from one of the stores, I saw a younger Zambian fellow point at me, turn to his friends and saw, “Look, it’s Chuck Norris!” I kid you not.
You know, growing out my beard hasn’t always been easy. I’ve faced opposition from friends and family alike. However, moments like this make it all worthwhile. To have been associated with a true American hero like Chuck Norris, all because of my beard, gave me a feeling I can’t quite put into words. What a great ending to the day.
It’s been another good week here, even with all the complications and frustrations. I promised you a happier blog this week and I will try to deliver.
The big news from this past week is that I got to make a trip to Lusaka on Thursday to pick up some farming supplies. Munjongo had a few business items to attend to in the big city and our fishing coordinator, Mubita, had to pick up a new ceiling wire to fit on one of our kapenta rigs (it seems like something breaks on one of the rigs every other day, this being one of the aforementioned frustrations), so I got to come along. In order to carry everything we hired a truck driver for the day, which meant I wouldn’t be traveling in the fetal position this time. Imagine my relief.
Since it won’t be raining much at all this upcoming season we figured securing irrigation supplies would be priority number one, so we upgraded on hoses and got a few sprinklers as well. I’ve been fooling around with them for the last few days and have been trying to teach a few of the older children how to work them so that the beds can be watered even if Kebby (the boys’ caretaker and my farming partner) and I are not around. Manga, one of the oldest girls, is very bright and speaks good English, so it’s looking like she will be my point-person with the watering.
We also picked up shovels, garden forks, hoes and more seeds. We started planting on Friday.
Farming is going to be very important for a few reasons. First, we’re planning on selling our vegetables to have some more income for Namumu. More importantly, though, it’s critical that the children learn these skills. We’re in a rural area and many of them could be doing some form of farming after leaving Namumu. We’re trying to teach them the skills they need now so that they’ll be equipped when they leave.
The other businesses are doing fine. We’re looking to hire a new welder to work with Vincent, our young current welder who is good but perhaps still in need of some mentoring from someone with more experience. We’ve interviewed two and should be making a hiring decision this week.
Since I’m usually either working, cooking or cleaning I haven’t had much free time. On nights when I have time I’ve been reading a bit and watching old episodes of LOST on my computer. I hope all you LOST fans back home are enjoying season 5. If you wouldn’t mind giving me a spoiler-free critique of the last few episodes I’d love to hear how it’s going. If you aren’t a LOST fan then all I can say is I’m sorry (for you).
Well, that’s about it for the week. God is good and is still doing wonderful things through his workers at Namumu. Please continue to pray for Namumu and the community.
Since I promised you an uplifting blog I’ll leave you with a true story from the streets of Lusaka:
It had been a long day. We’d been running around the city for hours and hadn’t even had time to stop and eat. The sun was going down and, to top it off, we knew that we still had a three hour drive ahead of us back down to Siavonga. I was dragging. We all were. But then God sent me an angel to give me the encouragement I needed…
As I was walking back to our truck from one of the stores, I saw a younger Zambian fellow point at me, turn to his friends and saw, “Look, it’s Chuck Norris!” I kid you not.
You know, growing out my beard hasn’t always been easy. I’ve faced opposition from friends and family alike. However, moments like this make it all worthwhile. To have been associated with a true American hero like Chuck Norris, all because of my beard, gave me a feeling I can’t quite put into words. What a great ending to the day.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Keep the Comments Coming...
One last thing before I go...I've enjoyed reading all the comments, please keep them coming. Due to time constraints I won't be able to respond to them but I always like to look at them and to be reminded that I'm not writing to myself on this blog.
So thanks for the comments, and on that note thank you all for your support, whether it be financially or through prayer. Until next time...
So thanks for the comments, and on that note thank you all for your support, whether it be financially or through prayer. Until next time...
Cholera
There’s been a recent, serious development that I’ve been debating whether or not to write about, mostly because I know it would make certain people overly worried (you know who you are), but there has been an outbreak of cholera in the community surrounding Namumu. It’s serious enough that they have temporarily closed the Namumu Community School. Two people in the community have already died.
We’ve already had a meeting of Namumu children, staff, and surrounding families, informing all about what cholera actually is and how to prevent its spreading. The response has been quick and we are spreading information, but some people are still, understandably, quite worried.
Please take a moment today to pray for our community and that our children and staff can stay safe now and in the future.
(Sorry to post two real bummer blogs this week…next week I promise to be more positive and uplifting)
We’ve already had a meeting of Namumu children, staff, and surrounding families, informing all about what cholera actually is and how to prevent its spreading. The response has been quick and we are spreading information, but some people are still, understandably, quite worried.
Please take a moment today to pray for our community and that our children and staff can stay safe now and in the future.
(Sorry to post two real bummer blogs this week…next week I promise to be more positive and uplifting)
Story Time
Gather ‘round, boys and girls. I’d like to start this week off with a little story (actually it turned out to be not-so-little but please read anyway as it involves me looking foolish and should be entertaining) that I think illustrates certain frustrations I’ve encountered in the work arena quite well:
Sunday morning was shaping up to be just great. I’d had a long week in and around the Namumu office, running here and there, seeing to the daily details of the Namumu income-generating activities (which shall henceforth be referred to as IGA’s). Even Saturday I spent most of the day working, preparing and planting in the garden beds and going to check on the repairs to our kapenta boat engine. But Sunday…oooh Sunday I was going to get to sleep in. I’d been getting up around 6 each morning to clean my house before heading to the office, but since I wouldn’t have to get out to meet Munjongo to go to worship until around 9:30 (Munjongo said 9 but in African time that means 9:30) I was going to get some quality rest.
My phone rang at 6:14. Yes, I have a phone now, something I avoided getting until recently, probably because I knew that once I got one people would be calling me at 6:14. It was the captain of “Lucy”, one of our kapenta boats (“Namumu” is the other), wanting to tell me that there’s a problem with the engine. At least that’s what I gathered, as our fishermen speak Tonga, the local tribal language, almost exclusively, and while they do know some English we still have communication difficulties.
We have a man who has been supervising the fishing operations, a nice man in what I’m guessing to be his late 30’s, named Mubita. Mubita speaks good English and is my guy I use when I need to communicate with our fishermen. However, as I had recently been informed that Mubita did not have a phone at the time, I had no way of getting in touch with him to find out the specific problem. Plus, he usually meets our boats in the morning at the harbor to collect and sell the night’s kapenta catches (the boats fish all night), but since the boat’s engine had been miraculously fixed the day before I started to think that perhaps the message had not reached him that they had gone out the night before and that he might not even show up. So, I rolled out of bed, got dressed, grabbed some bread and headed out the door to meet our boat at the harbor.
It’s a nice 30 minutes walk to the harbor, partially through the woods on a foot path and partially on a paved road. The morning air was fresh and cool. I was now fully awake with my blood flowing, feeling better about life. Then it started to rain. Awesome, I thought. Just the previous evening I had loaned out my only rain coat to my friend, Patrick Luneta (you may remember his cousin, John Luneta, from a previous blog) for his walk home from my house, so turning back home wouldn’t do much good as I had no other rain gear. I decided to press on (wearing only, ironically enough, an old high school t-shirt that says on the back, “The Rapids will get you wet”).
So there I am, walking briskly along the path, still feeling pretty good despite everything. I came up to a section of the path that goes through a stream. It’s not a big stream, but it was higher and faster than usual with all of the rain we’d been getting. There are a number of rocks sticking out, so I decided to, as I’d seen done by many and as I myself had done before, jump nimbly-bimbly from rock to rock to get to the other side. Three-quarters of the way there I make a not-so-nimbly-bimbly jump onto a rock and it turns over, sending my foot about 5 inches down to the bottom. So I reach the other side with one wet foot, seriously considering sticking the other foot in since having shoes of a mismatched dryness might actually be more annoying than having two wet feet. I decided against it, however, and continued.
Undaunted, I cruised through the path and up the road to the harbor. The hills are very green and quite lovely at this time of year, which I was able to appreciate even given my somewhat miserable state. I made it to the harbor after a brisk 25 minute walk, expecting to find the boat waiting.
After standing, shivering, under a lakeside hut for around an hour, chatting on and off with some young local guys who didn’t speak much English and who I’m pretty sure were laughing at me, the boats arrived. Since they park on the opposite side of the lake from which I was standing, they swung by, picked me up, and took me over.
Where I found Mubita. Who, by the way, does have a phone, and has had one the whole time, about which I had apparently been misinformed.
The engine was indeed broken and in need of repair, so we sold off all the night’s catches (easily done this time of year as most boats’ catches are low and as kapenta are always in high demand) and made plans to repair the engine, the same engine that we had been taking for repairs the entire previous week, all of which could have been told over the phone. Then it started to rain again. Hard. And I got back too late to go to church.
The story does have a happy ending, though, and if reading it made you as sad as it made me living it then you’re going to need to hear one. I came back home and collapsed into a long, peaceful sleep that pretty much took up my entire afternoon. Boo ya.
Before I end this sad, sad post, let me be clear: there’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be at this moment. God has me right where he wants me. I love the people around me and I love my job. Sometimes, and almost always because of communication issues, it just gets very very frustrating.
Sunday morning was shaping up to be just great. I’d had a long week in and around the Namumu office, running here and there, seeing to the daily details of the Namumu income-generating activities (which shall henceforth be referred to as IGA’s). Even Saturday I spent most of the day working, preparing and planting in the garden beds and going to check on the repairs to our kapenta boat engine. But Sunday…oooh Sunday I was going to get to sleep in. I’d been getting up around 6 each morning to clean my house before heading to the office, but since I wouldn’t have to get out to meet Munjongo to go to worship until around 9:30 (Munjongo said 9 but in African time that means 9:30) I was going to get some quality rest.
My phone rang at 6:14. Yes, I have a phone now, something I avoided getting until recently, probably because I knew that once I got one people would be calling me at 6:14. It was the captain of “Lucy”, one of our kapenta boats (“Namumu” is the other), wanting to tell me that there’s a problem with the engine. At least that’s what I gathered, as our fishermen speak Tonga, the local tribal language, almost exclusively, and while they do know some English we still have communication difficulties.
We have a man who has been supervising the fishing operations, a nice man in what I’m guessing to be his late 30’s, named Mubita. Mubita speaks good English and is my guy I use when I need to communicate with our fishermen. However, as I had recently been informed that Mubita did not have a phone at the time, I had no way of getting in touch with him to find out the specific problem. Plus, he usually meets our boats in the morning at the harbor to collect and sell the night’s kapenta catches (the boats fish all night), but since the boat’s engine had been miraculously fixed the day before I started to think that perhaps the message had not reached him that they had gone out the night before and that he might not even show up. So, I rolled out of bed, got dressed, grabbed some bread and headed out the door to meet our boat at the harbor.
It’s a nice 30 minutes walk to the harbor, partially through the woods on a foot path and partially on a paved road. The morning air was fresh and cool. I was now fully awake with my blood flowing, feeling better about life. Then it started to rain. Awesome, I thought. Just the previous evening I had loaned out my only rain coat to my friend, Patrick Luneta (you may remember his cousin, John Luneta, from a previous blog) for his walk home from my house, so turning back home wouldn’t do much good as I had no other rain gear. I decided to press on (wearing only, ironically enough, an old high school t-shirt that says on the back, “The Rapids will get you wet”).
So there I am, walking briskly along the path, still feeling pretty good despite everything. I came up to a section of the path that goes through a stream. It’s not a big stream, but it was higher and faster than usual with all of the rain we’d been getting. There are a number of rocks sticking out, so I decided to, as I’d seen done by many and as I myself had done before, jump nimbly-bimbly from rock to rock to get to the other side. Three-quarters of the way there I make a not-so-nimbly-bimbly jump onto a rock and it turns over, sending my foot about 5 inches down to the bottom. So I reach the other side with one wet foot, seriously considering sticking the other foot in since having shoes of a mismatched dryness might actually be more annoying than having two wet feet. I decided against it, however, and continued.
Undaunted, I cruised through the path and up the road to the harbor. The hills are very green and quite lovely at this time of year, which I was able to appreciate even given my somewhat miserable state. I made it to the harbor after a brisk 25 minute walk, expecting to find the boat waiting.
After standing, shivering, under a lakeside hut for around an hour, chatting on and off with some young local guys who didn’t speak much English and who I’m pretty sure were laughing at me, the boats arrived. Since they park on the opposite side of the lake from which I was standing, they swung by, picked me up, and took me over.
Where I found Mubita. Who, by the way, does have a phone, and has had one the whole time, about which I had apparently been misinformed.
The engine was indeed broken and in need of repair, so we sold off all the night’s catches (easily done this time of year as most boats’ catches are low and as kapenta are always in high demand) and made plans to repair the engine, the same engine that we had been taking for repairs the entire previous week, all of which could have been told over the phone. Then it started to rain again. Hard. And I got back too late to go to church.
The story does have a happy ending, though, and if reading it made you as sad as it made me living it then you’re going to need to hear one. I came back home and collapsed into a long, peaceful sleep that pretty much took up my entire afternoon. Boo ya.
Before I end this sad, sad post, let me be clear: there’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be at this moment. God has me right where he wants me. I love the people around me and I love my job. Sometimes, and almost always because of communication issues, it just gets very very frustrating.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Weekend Road Trip
I got the chance to mix it up a bit this past weekend, to get out of Siavonga and head into the big city of Lusaka. Even though I had work to do here (updating spreadsheets, preparing garden beds, all while drinking copious amounts of Coca Cola), Munjongo’s daughter, Ndandula, invited me to come up for her 24th birthday party. How could I say no? I decided the work would have to wait.
After about 3 ½ hours of riding in the fetal position in the back of a minibus I arrived in Lusaka around midday. Ndandula and her cousin, Janet, picked me up at the bus depot and took me back to Ndandula’s place just outside of the city, a nice, two-bedroom house, where I spent the afternoon helping Ndandula and her friends cook for the party (and by help them cook for the party I mean I watched them cook for the party and periodically asked if they needed any help all-the-while knowing that they would say no and I would be safe) and rocking out to music on their stereo (it was all girls…we listened to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” no fewer than five times).
The birthday party was great. I made some new friends, most of whom were about my age. So, we ate and danced and danced and danced. It was actually a lot like the dance parties I’ve been involved in back home, only instead of standing around in a circle with my guy friends seeing who can do the best robot or Michael Jackson impersonation I was in the middle of cute African girls droppin’ it like it’s hot. No complaints from me.
Munjongo arrived in Lusaka the next day and took me to worship at a large church in the city. There was a special ceremony going on, so there were a good number of people there from all over Africa, including my friends, Ted and Sue Wright, the Outreach Foundation’s Regional Liaisons for Southern Africa. We didn’t get to chat long, but it was nice to touch base anyway. After the service and a quick trip to the grocery store I re-entered the fetal position in another minibus and headed back home.
As for life back in Siavonga, I can’t complain. Work is going well. With fishing we’ve installed some good record keeping systems, and despite a few problems here and there the boats are doing well. As for gardening, Kebby and I have been trying to lead a small army of boys to get new beds cleared. We’ll get there. Also, I’ve planted beans, lettuce and peas in my backyard garden, so I’ll keep you updated on the progress (if you’re reading this, Pete Markham, I want you to know that I’ve followed Eliot Coleman’s instructions perfectly, so I’m pretty much guaranteed success…).
Well, I suppose I should be working and not blogging. Catch you later…
After about 3 ½ hours of riding in the fetal position in the back of a minibus I arrived in Lusaka around midday. Ndandula and her cousin, Janet, picked me up at the bus depot and took me back to Ndandula’s place just outside of the city, a nice, two-bedroom house, where I spent the afternoon helping Ndandula and her friends cook for the party (and by help them cook for the party I mean I watched them cook for the party and periodically asked if they needed any help all-the-while knowing that they would say no and I would be safe) and rocking out to music on their stereo (it was all girls…we listened to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” no fewer than five times).
The birthday party was great. I made some new friends, most of whom were about my age. So, we ate and danced and danced and danced. It was actually a lot like the dance parties I’ve been involved in back home, only instead of standing around in a circle with my guy friends seeing who can do the best robot or Michael Jackson impersonation I was in the middle of cute African girls droppin’ it like it’s hot. No complaints from me.
Munjongo arrived in Lusaka the next day and took me to worship at a large church in the city. There was a special ceremony going on, so there were a good number of people there from all over Africa, including my friends, Ted and Sue Wright, the Outreach Foundation’s Regional Liaisons for Southern Africa. We didn’t get to chat long, but it was nice to touch base anyway. After the service and a quick trip to the grocery store I re-entered the fetal position in another minibus and headed back home.
As for life back in Siavonga, I can’t complain. Work is going well. With fishing we’ve installed some good record keeping systems, and despite a few problems here and there the boats are doing well. As for gardening, Kebby and I have been trying to lead a small army of boys to get new beds cleared. We’ll get there. Also, I’ve planted beans, lettuce and peas in my backyard garden, so I’ll keep you updated on the progress (if you’re reading this, Pete Markham, I want you to know that I’ve followed Eliot Coleman’s instructions perfectly, so I’m pretty much guaranteed success…).
Well, I suppose I should be working and not blogging. Catch you later…
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Bonus Blog
Since I have a few minutes, in addition to the week's update I'd like to include a few interesting notes/observations/facts about my new life...
1) I'm living in an apartment that is one half of a duplex. Both apartments in the duplex are of equal size and are alike in every way. I am the only one living on my side. I haven't gotten an exact count on the number of people in the family living next door to me, but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere around 15. No joke.
2) Every morning I wake up to the sound of birds and cows and the sight of my neighbor's little naked African children running around outside. Every...single...day. It's interesting, though, they only run around naked in the morning. I guess if I had a choice that's the time I would choose to run around naked, too.
3) On Sunday afternoon I watched about five hours of WWE professional wrestling, including two separate five-man every-man-for-himself "No Way Out" steel cage matches. After said matches I had a lengthy discussion with various members of the Namumu staff where we broke down the strategies and tactics of each wrestler. What a day...
1) I'm living in an apartment that is one half of a duplex. Both apartments in the duplex are of equal size and are alike in every way. I am the only one living on my side. I haven't gotten an exact count on the number of people in the family living next door to me, but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere around 15. No joke.
2) Every morning I wake up to the sound of birds and cows and the sight of my neighbor's little naked African children running around outside. Every...single...day. It's interesting, though, they only run around naked in the morning. I guess if I had a choice that's the time I would choose to run around naked, too.
3) On Sunday afternoon I watched about five hours of WWE professional wrestling, including two separate five-man every-man-for-himself "No Way Out" steel cage matches. After said matches I had a lengthy discussion with various members of the Namumu staff where we broke down the strategies and tactics of each wrestler. What a day...
Week Two
Yes, I'm still alive and yes, I'm still sweating like a 4th-quarter Patrick Ewing.
My job as Income Generating Activities Coordinator began on Tuesday, so I've been working in the Namumu front office all week. Things have gone well so far. I've been getting caught up on how the businesses are performing and am trying to organize their records. Exciting, I know. Still, it has to be done. Besides, having an actual job and a purpose in life again has done wonders for my self-esteem.
Kapenta fishing and farming are the first two operations on my hit list. Fishing is going great. Namumu recently made a large staffing change, suspending or terminating the employment of all fishing staff as it had become quite clear that they were stealing on the job, making side deals with the fish caught on the Namumu boats. It was a big change but a necessary one. The new group has done incredibly well in its first month and has even out-performed a number of the boats from other companies. I've been compiling and organizing the fishing records for the past few days to see where to take things next.
Farming is moving in the right direction as well. Kebby, the boys' caretaker and I are working together on this operation. This season's crops of maize and ground nuts is almost finished, and with the rainy season about to coming to an end we are busy preparing beds and planning our crops for next season: tomatoes, beans, peas and rape.
My home is great. I've been cooking almost all of my own meals so far. Funny, I know. I haven't been eating much because Saviour said I got fat. Just kidding. It's been mostly rice, eggs, vegetables, bread and kapenta. And Coca-Cola. Lots of it. It comes in glass bottles here and on warm days tastes a little bit like heaven.
So, that's about it for now. Life is good. I hope all is well back in the US. Until next time...
My job as Income Generating Activities Coordinator began on Tuesday, so I've been working in the Namumu front office all week. Things have gone well so far. I've been getting caught up on how the businesses are performing and am trying to organize their records. Exciting, I know. Still, it has to be done. Besides, having an actual job and a purpose in life again has done wonders for my self-esteem.
Kapenta fishing and farming are the first two operations on my hit list. Fishing is going great. Namumu recently made a large staffing change, suspending or terminating the employment of all fishing staff as it had become quite clear that they were stealing on the job, making side deals with the fish caught on the Namumu boats. It was a big change but a necessary one. The new group has done incredibly well in its first month and has even out-performed a number of the boats from other companies. I've been compiling and organizing the fishing records for the past few days to see where to take things next.
Farming is moving in the right direction as well. Kebby, the boys' caretaker and I are working together on this operation. This season's crops of maize and ground nuts is almost finished, and with the rainy season about to coming to an end we are busy preparing beds and planning our crops for next season: tomatoes, beans, peas and rape.
My home is great. I've been cooking almost all of my own meals so far. Funny, I know. I haven't been eating much because Saviour said I got fat. Just kidding. It's been mostly rice, eggs, vegetables, bread and kapenta. And Coca-Cola. Lots of it. It comes in glass bottles here and on warm days tastes a little bit like heaven.
So, that's about it for now. Life is good. I hope all is well back in the US. Until next time...
Friday, March 6, 2009
Siavonga at last
Greetings, blog-readers, from Siavonga. I’m very happy to send you this, my first message from Zambia.
I’m sitting here in the Namumu sauna/front office sweating like Patrick Ewing and avoiding dive-bombing malaria-parasite-carrying mosquitoes while praying that the power doesn’t cut off again and staring out the window at children playing around the Baobab tree. I’m officially in Africa.
By the grace of God I have arrived alive and well. My 2nd plane touched down in Lusaka around 9:00 pm on Monday evening. I was greeted by Munjongo (the Namumu Executive Director) and his 6th born, his daughter, Ndandula. It was too late to drive back to Siavonga (a three hour trip), so we spent the night in Lusaka with Munjongo and Esther’s 5th born, Mauvita. African hospitality is unbelievable and we were treated quite well.
We spent the next day driving around Lusaka in the Namumu truck running errands. I picked up my Zambian work permit and a few items for my new home in Siavonga (pots, pans, utensils, etc.), all the while playing the "count the white people" game. I made it to about nine. After darting around town and narrowly avoiding umpteen traffic accidents we hit the road and headed for Siavonga.
I was greeted warmly by the Namumu staff and children and was shown my new home. It was good to see everyone again. Except, that is, for Saviour, the girls' caretaker, who's first words to me were "Sam! You got fat!"
My new place is wonderful and probably larger than I need. I'm staying in what used to be the nurse's quarters and have my own bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. I even have a guest bedroom (Come play. Bring hot sauce). I've spent the last few days fixing it up and clearing the back yard to start my garden, since the Namumu bosses have given me until Monday to recuperate and get my affairs in order before getting back to work.
That's about it for update number one. As of right now it looks as though once-a-week updates will be about all that I can manage. I'll try to keep them consistant and at the end of the week so that you'll know when to expect them. Catch you later...
I’m sitting here in the Namumu sauna/front office sweating like Patrick Ewing and avoiding dive-bombing malaria-parasite-carrying mosquitoes while praying that the power doesn’t cut off again and staring out the window at children playing around the Baobab tree. I’m officially in Africa.
By the grace of God I have arrived alive and well. My 2nd plane touched down in Lusaka around 9:00 pm on Monday evening. I was greeted by Munjongo (the Namumu Executive Director) and his 6th born, his daughter, Ndandula. It was too late to drive back to Siavonga (a three hour trip), so we spent the night in Lusaka with Munjongo and Esther’s 5th born, Mauvita. African hospitality is unbelievable and we were treated quite well.
We spent the next day driving around Lusaka in the Namumu truck running errands. I picked up my Zambian work permit and a few items for my new home in Siavonga (pots, pans, utensils, etc.), all the while playing the "count the white people" game. I made it to about nine. After darting around town and narrowly avoiding umpteen traffic accidents we hit the road and headed for Siavonga.
I was greeted warmly by the Namumu staff and children and was shown my new home. It was good to see everyone again. Except, that is, for Saviour, the girls' caretaker, who's first words to me were "Sam! You got fat!"
My new place is wonderful and probably larger than I need. I'm staying in what used to be the nurse's quarters and have my own bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. I even have a guest bedroom (Come play. Bring hot sauce). I've spent the last few days fixing it up and clearing the back yard to start my garden, since the Namumu bosses have given me until Monday to recuperate and get my affairs in order before getting back to work.
That's about it for update number one. As of right now it looks as though once-a-week updates will be about all that I can manage. I'll try to keep them consistant and at the end of the week so that you'll know when to expect them. Catch you later...
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Off I Go
It's a rainy Sunday in Richmond and I'm on my way out the door to the airport. To everyone I didn't get a chance to chat with before leaving I hope you stay well and that you will check out this blog every now and again. Well, no time to dilly-dally...hopefully the next time I update will be from the office computer at Namumu.
Let the adventure begin...
Friday, February 27, 2009
New Departure Date
Welp...after weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks I've gotten the go-ahead from Munjongo and am set to take off. I have purchased a plane ticket (my third, the previous two being cancelled...don't ask...) and am set to leave this Sunday, March 1st, from DC in the early evening. If all goes according to schedule (and it should, as Eloise Hawking has informed me that this flight does not, in fact, fly over The Island...) I should be in Johannesburg, South Africa around mid-day on Monday, March 2nd, and then off to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Munjongo has gracially offered to pick me up from the airport there and to find somewhere for us to spend the night before travelling back to Namumu.
Thanks for your support, one and all. I'll try to post once or twice again before I take off...
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
John Luneta
John Luneta is wise beyond his years. The nephew of Namumu's head accountant, John lives on the Namumu site with his family. Having just recently finished school, John is making every effort to attend college somewhere in the U.S. and, until then, spends his time studying for the SAT's and helping out around Namumu.
Despite his age (I think he's 20), John knows a thing or two about the world. He's intelligent, polite and he loves God as much as anyone I've ever met in my life. He was one of my two best friends during my stay and guided me through the wild world of Siavonga. He showed me around town, introduced me to his friends, and laughed at all my jokes even when they weren't funny. We got along quite well.
My last full day at Namumu this past summer just happened to be July 4th, my birthday. Later, after the Namumu staff threw me a rockin' party (where everybody was twirkin' it), John handed me what I would consider to be the best birthday card I've ever received (sorry, Grandma, it's true...but yours are wonderful, too). On a piece of white computer paper he had written,
"Brother, happy 24th birthday. 24 years is not a joke. You are a big man now. But remember maturity is not with age, but by accepting responsibility. May the almighty God continue adding more years to your life. Read this scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:11. From your brother, John."
In Corinthians 13:11 Paul writes, "When I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me."
Wow.
Reading this letter again made me snap to attention today. I guess it's time to go ahead and stop spending hours and hours and hours surfing through my parents' movie channels (holy crap there are about 80 and I have watched...so...many. Bad ones. Good ones. I've stopped and watched "Airheads" with Brendan Frasier, Steve Buschemi and Adam Sandler about 4 times in the past two weeks...and in no way is that depressing...) and get to work, refocusing for this trip and getting things together.
On that note, I will try to do more blogging as well. If you need more prayer material this week, pray for John, that if it's a part of God's plan John will be able to study in the U.S. and that he will continue to be a positive role model in Siavonga.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Update
Yes, I am still in the country. No, I do not currently have a departure date in mind. I am still waiting patiently (or with as much patience as I can muster) for the Virginia State Police to return the results of my background check, the last item necessary for me to gain a work visa for Zambia. As soon as the background check results arrive I will fax them over to Zambia and schedule my flight for a day soon after.
I'm hoping the results arrive this week. Am I worried? Slightly. Any number of aspects from my checkered past could cause a problem (e.g. my relationship with Chuck Jones and Rick Palmen, the fact that I spent three long years living at the Shed, my struggles with addiction [to hotsauce], etc.), but I suppose that no news is good news at this point.
Until then I will be around and blogging whenever I get a chance. However, I need your help and your feedback. What would you like to hear about Zambia or Namumu? More about a certain topic? Less about a certain topic? Nothing at all? More pictures? More stories? More sentences ending in question marks?
I have fielded a few requests from loyal blog-readers in person, but I encourage you to either leave comments on the blog or to shoot me an email at ssc2x@virginia.edu to let me know what you would like to hear.
Give me a holler.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures Part II
A few more pictures chosen at random...
Africans love Uno. Fact.
Fortune and his train. This goofy six-year-old is the child of the girls' caretaker. He's tiny and has quite a gap in-between his two front teeth. They don't get much cuter than this.
The Baobab Tree. It's a monster. It stands on the Namumu complex just outside of the main office. I wish I had a picture with somebody standing beside it so that you could get an idea of how big it actually is. I climbed it once. No big deal. I didn't make it that high, though, because Esther yelled at me and told me that if I didn't come down she'd give me a spanking. Yikes.
I think that paying to use the toilet is a ridiculous concept. I would have pee'd all over this sign if I could have reached it. But hey, I'm no Will Duke...
The blue van, called a "minibus", taxis people from city to city within Zambia. This is how you travel from Lusaka, the capital city, to Siavonga, where you find Namumu. It's tight. It smells. TIA.
Munjongo, Esther and their youngest daughter, Ndandula, kicking back in the living room. Their place is nice. They have a TV (where we watched professional wrestling three nights a week), a DVD player (where we watched professional wrestling videos on the nights when professional wrestling wasn't on TV), and a laptop computer (where we downloaded wrestling clips from the internet so that we could watch professional wrestling when we were somewhere other than the living room. Just kidding. This is where Munjongo does work. Although I'm sure that he would certainly download professional wrestling highlights to his computer if Namumu had a faster internet connection.).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
