The Zambian Way...

The following is a blog post that Annie and I have been wanting to write for some time. We could not possibly explain all the stories or the “mishaps” that have occurred thus far so we have gathered a collection of typical “Zambian” moments that continue to amuse…

1) Two days ago Annie, Mr. Luhana, and I were kindly invited to lunch at Mr. and Mrs. Kaoma’s house. Mr. Kaoma is 3rd in command of ZAWA (Zambian Wildlife Authority) here at Ngoma and his wife is one of the leading teachers at the school. Lunch here is done much like Europe in that everyone leaves work and has a big meal at home. As we all sat down for lunch, Mrs. Kaoma began to uncover the four pots of prepared food. The first pot was clearly vegetables, the next was a yokey substance (come to find out it was okra), the third was Nshima (the staple food in Zambia), and the fourth was identifiable…
Margaret: What is in that pot?
Mr. Kaoma: It is meat
Mrs. Kaoma: It is impala
Margaret: Oh great, I love impala
The meal goes on…five minutes later…
Annie: Where is the meat from (considering we are in a national game park)
Mr. Kaoma: It was poached
Annie: Oh?
Mr. Kaoma: Yes, we came across a poacher and he ran away so we captured the meat.

2) Today KnowledgeBeat was sponsoring day two of the girls’ empowerment camp training. Annie was at the venue helping to facilitate the program and I drove down to town to pick up food that we needed. I passed through one of the ZAWA gates and was told to slow down. Side note: it is extremely common here for people to hitchhike and drivers to pick them up because very few people have transportation. Continuing on…I pulled over to the side of the road where I was approached by four men who needed a lift “downhill” to town. I said I was only going as far as town but that I could accommodate them. They all crowded into the car and when I looked around I noticed each of them was carrying a machine gun…
Margaret: The guns make me a little uncomfortable
Man #1: Don’t worry madam, we won’t shoot you.
Margaret: Thank you!

3) Day one in Itezhi Tezhi, Annie and I got lost trying to drive to a campsite after dark. I had no idea where we were going but Annie seemed to think it would be a good idea to leave before dark; what a good idea that would have been!! Although she told everyone that she wanted to be on the road before sunset, it wasn’t until AFTER sunset that everyone said “it is dark, you must go.” As Annie and I were trying to find our way (there are no lights here) we took a wrong turn and stumbled across a ZAWA ranger at his post. He seemed abnormally happy and was very eager to jump in the car and the show us the way. Annie, smart little one, promptly said “no, no, no, no, we will make our way just fine. Thank you.” He seemed to get the picture and told us how to get to our campsite, i.e. “it is right behind that hill” pointing to a huge mountain in the middle of the bush with a dam on the opposite side. I looked at Annie and asked “would he tell us the wrong directions?”

4) As a continuation to the story above, we arrived in New Kalala, NOT our intended destination and found it completely deserted. After asking an employee if New Kalala had a campsite, we were escorted down to an area directly on the Itezhi Tezhi Lake. Now, in the states, you would think, wow, this is great, we are right on the water. Here, you think, ummmm, there are hippos, crocs, baboons, and more. The campsite was a fair distance away from the main camp area and Annie and I were not keen on staying. After convincing the manager to let us camp up by the pool (because they had no other guests) we found that we may have been better off by the lake. We woke twice, once, to a still unidentified cat-like creature traipsing across our tarp, and second, to me asking “Annie, Annie, do you hear that??” That sound was the distinct sound of a hippo munching grass less than five feet from our tent. The next morning, the staff must have been laughing at us because they commented “oh, so you were visited by a hippo last night. We saw him just there.”

5) We were having a logistical conversation with Mrs. Kaoma regarding the girls camp. Mr. Peery (a ZAWA ranger and head of the PTA whose 16 year old daughter just gave birth two days ago) suggested that if we needed additional beds for the girls, there were several guesthouses down the hill that we could use. Mrs. Kaoma stated that we were going to have to make sure that there were enough chaperones with the various groups of girls because otherwise some girls would come back pregnant and she didn’t want to have to “explain to their mothers that they took girls to an empowerment camp and they came back pregnant.”

6) The first afternoon we arrived in Itezhi Tezhi, Annie and I noticed a very angry bull tied to a tree in the center of town. The bull seemed to know more than us at the time. Annie, snapped a picture of the bull commenting to Mr. Luhana as we walked by “why is he tied there, that is not very nice to do that to a bull.” A few hours later, Annie and I were sitting in the center of town talking to a few local people when I head an unbelievable sound coming from the bull. I commented to one of the women that bull sounded extremely angry. As Annie and I were driving out of town I looked over and was astounded to see at least 20 villagers standing on top of the gutted bull with machetes. Annie ABSOLUTELY could not believe that the bull had just been slaughtered in the center of town! Annie asked Mr. Luhana, “why did they do that?” Mr. Luhana answered simply, “food.” I personally thought the most amazing part was that the next day there were no blood, no flies, no sign that a slaughter had just taken place.

Ahhhh, Zambia!