I think we’ll break this one up as follows: 1) Mwinilunga (the town I’m living in), 2) Where I Live, 3) Work, 4) People, and 5) A Day in My Life.
1) Mwinilunga. Mwinilunga is a tiny town in the North West corner of Zambia. Actually it’s something smaller than a town. It’s known as a BOMA or something, which stands for British something something municipal administration or something… basically, it was an old British term for the place meaning an administrative centre. It’s still called a BOMA, people don’t even refer to it as a town.
The North West of Zambia is incredible beautiful. It’s essentially all forest, and largely untouched. It’s extremely green and lush, there are plenty of trees and shrubbery, and rivers. And one of the most surprising and incredible things I witnesses was the ant-hills, or more specifically, termite hills. They are HUGE. In town, you can find ones that are a good 10-12 feet tall. When you go out to the bush you see even bigger ones, 20 feet and more, and even wide all around. People actually even use the hills to make bricks. Something about the saliva the termites use (I think) makes the dirt really hard and solid, almost like concrete. They also make for really rich soil. You see plenty of vegetation coming out of the ant hills. Often there’ll even be a tree growing off the top.
Also, it RAINS like crazy. The area borders the equatorial rainforest in Congo, so it rains like big fat cats and dogs and giraffes and hippos and all of noahs arc coming down. Since there are virtually no paved roads, this also means its muddy everywhere all the time. It was actually raining for the past 36 hours non-stop, hard! It just stopped this morning. This is a reality of living here, but it’s what makes things so green and lush I guess!
Mwinilunga is pretty much an isolated, forgotten town. It seems like the federal government doesn’t care much for it. Electricity is pretty much only available every 2nd day to households. There are plenty of rivers around though… hmmmm… hydro power? But instead, it’s diesel generators powering the whole town. It seems like the energy company just doesn’t really care enough. It’s also hard to find stuff. One day I was hungry so I went to a “restaurant” and asked if they had any meat pies (which you usually find easily in Zambia). The two waitresses started laughing at me, so I left. Then I went to another place that said “Take-Away” on the sign, thinking they must have something I can grab (I was in a hurry by the way) and leave quickly. I went in and asked what they had for takeaway. The boy working there said “Coke”. At least he didn’t laugh… A lot of the products here have to be brought from somewhere else so they tend to be a bit more expensive as well. Yeah, I’m a city boy and this is my first time living in a town, let alone a tiny town in rural Africa, so it’s definitely different… sometimes I think I’m going a little crazy because there’s nothing to do and no one I can relate to (as a westerner) here. But I’m taking it all in stride…
2) Where I Live. I’m living with one of the guys that works here at Forest Fruits, Joshua. He’s 27. We live with his friend, Simeon, 25, and two boys in high school. The two boys are looked after by Joshua and Simeon (and now me, sort of). They also do all of the household chores, like cooking and laundry etc. We live in a brand new house. So brand new in fact, that there aren’t yet doors, paint, a toilet, or even water or electricity. So it’s basically a roof with walls. It’s located sort of at one edge of town, and just below it the land drops down into a valley. As such, the view is really beautiful. The path to get home is really muddy, so usually by the time I get there my shoes have an added weight of 1 or 2 tones from mud.
How do I go to the toilet and take a shower and cook and see with no water and electricity you ask? I generally use the toilet and shower at work, but for emergencies, there’s a hole dug out in the back yard that serves as a toilet. We cook with charcoal, and so does almost everybody else in the region due to the lack or unreliability of electricity. For light, we use candles.
Oh yeah, and bugs are a fact of life. I usually have bites somewhere, and when I wake up in the morning it’s not surprising to find something crawling on me. The worst are cockroaches, because they’re big. The best are spiders and lizards, because they eat other things. I’m okay with mosquitoes because there aren’t too many where I am. Though I did have bed bugs in the place I lived before. Those were the worst because I could never spot them… There, that’s my rant on bugs.
All in all, even though the house isn’t finished, it’s quite spacious, tidy, and like I said before, great view.
3) Work. I work at a honey manufacturing company called Forest Fruits Zambia. They basically get honey from beekeepers in the area, process that honey, and sell it (mostly to Europe). This is good for the beekeepers because they get money, and this is how Forest Fruits (and therefore the private sector) can be very good for helping those with little to no income.
My job at Forest Fruits is mainly to help the management team improve. This is what’s known as “capacity building”, a term you may have seen tossed around before. This is of course where my experience with Accenture really comes in handy. I basically became an expert in management systems, processes, and tools, and I’m able to spot areas for improvement here at Forest Fruits and help the team. Frankly, it’s a bit boring! It’s slowly and I have to work around everyone else’s schedule. I prefer to have my own work and help people out on the side. But still, it is rewarding when I see that one of the team adapts a process or new way of looking at things. Very rewarding indeed.
The environment here is like a typical plant floor, for anyone that’s worked in a plant, factory, warehouse whatever. It’s unskilled labor, a bit hectic, lots of yelling, physical labor, and yup, BEES. Bees everywhere. But bees are cool, all they ever want to do is work; I respect that. Plus, I’ve only been stung three times, which is okay. I have no fear of bees, I even consider them my fuzzy friends . (this is where you see the craziness of small-town life kicking in…)
Because the owner of Forest Fruits is originally from Canada, and because someone else from EWB was here before me for almost 2 years, the company has already adopted a number of good management systems and ways of thinking, and is very open to learning, which makes my job a lot easier. People here really want to learn and improve themselves, and that’s something I really respect.
Another aspect of my job is going out to the bush. Last week I was in the bush for about 5 days. I stayed at a mission. By the way, there are missions everywhere, usually each run by an old white person with donor money. I’m not knocking the missions, I just find it a little funny that everyone’s already Christian but there’s still all these missions everywhere. But they do a lot of good work, I know that… Anyways, the mission was beautiful, with cattle, tall grassy plains, and a river. I went for a bath in the river and a swim which was great.
My most memorable experience in a village was at a particular village we were in to weigh their honey. The people, to my great surprise, were Ba-Hai. I had no idea there were Ba-Hai’s in Zambia. Apparently there’s 15,000 of them here. They were really remarkable, extremely kind, curious, and generous. They asked me lots of questions about Canada, and gave me mangos (lots) and bananas. One of the children in the village asked his dad if I was their relative, and he said, yes, I was. That’s something. The Ba-Hai’s believe that everyone (men and women) and all races are equal and should be treated equally.
I love going out to the bush. It’s beautiful and I meet lots of people. I’m looking forward to getting out again, probably in March.
4) People. People are my favorite part of being here. They are kind, humble, considerate, self-sacrificing, and gentle. And they love to laugh. In town people who I don’t know often say hi to me, mostly because I’m a foreigner, but to some extent because it’s a small town.
So, I want to say a word about self-sacrifice. People here with even a little money being made, are pretty much obligated to take care of their relatives. My roommate Joshua, makes about $100/month, and is also putting two of his nephews through school. Simeon (other roommate) makes about $230, and is doing the same. He also has a kid. The father at the last place I lived (and one of the managers I work with at Forest Fruits), has 2 of his own kids, but has adopted 6 others and is supporting them. People here really do support each other. Which is very good. Very very good and selfless. But also bad at times, because people become dependent and don’t work to better themselves. It also puts a big strain on those that get even somewhat ahead. But that’s the way it is. The manager here at Forest Fruits, Chris, says he couldn’t even fathom an African volunteering abroad with no pay, because s/he has so many responsibilities to others at home.
I hang out with Joshua, and a few others that I see around. The town is small so I usually spot people. There’s also a local pub that it seems everyone goes to. Sometimes I go there and meet people. It’s hard sometimes not having any foreigners around, because I can’t fully relate to anybody here, but at the same time, the people here are extremely welcoming and friendly, so I never have to be alone.
Oh, and there’s more self-sacrifice. Joshua gave me his room, while he sleeps in the living room. He won’t have it any other way, and he refuses rent. The family I stayed with when I was in the bush rented me out a room in the mission because they wanted me (a foreigner) to be comfortable. I didn’t like that because I don’t like being treated differently, that’s not why I came here. Still, the man of the house wouldn’t accept money for the room, despite my efforts. At the same time, the wife apologized to me one day for the food being “poor”, because they hadn’t been paid yet. I thought the food was just fine, but the point is that they did so much for my comfort when it was probably quite difficult for them financially. The point is, people here can be truly amazing.
Also, people are really really Christian. One of the people at work once asked me if I “knew the bible”. I said I’d read parts of it, but no not really. He asked me, “why”? I said I wasn’t Christian. He said, “So you’re not close to Jesus”? I said, probably not. This BLEW his mind… I don’t know what more I can say about that… but it’s a pretty typical response here if you say you’re not a Christian.
Oh oh, and the best part… people stare at me like I’m an alien from another planet. I guess in a way I am. Everywhere I go I’m stared at, mostly by children. In fact their heads are capable of swiveling around like an owl as I walk by, so they can get a full 360 degree look. Often their mouths are even gaping open. It’s quite disturbing I have to admit. I feel like some kind of weird spectacle. But the worst is when they point and laugh. C’mon kids, that’s just rude (well, where I come from anyways). But actually, the kids here are wonderful. When they’re staring, you just talk to them, or poke them, or something, and then they come to life and usually smile or laugh, and all is well. Children here are really happy, curious, polite, and take joy in simple things. And they’re rugged. I sure as hell haven’t heard of a child here with something as stupid as a peanut allergy. Even when they’re sick, they still go out and play and have a good time (not like in those World Vision ads… but I’ll get to the NGOs soon…).
Wait, one other thing on people here. They’re promiscuous I have to admit. I don’t know if they’re any more promiscuous than people in Canada or the USA, but the problem is that they don’t use condoms, so the results are very very evident. You see lots of young mothers with no father in sight, and of course, a lot of people have HIV (though this is not so evident, you can’t see it). Part of the problem is that’s it’s sort of the norm and almost accepted, at least that’s the impression I get. Although you do see ads everywhere telling people to use condoms/abstain to prevent HIV and babies. I’m not sure how effective these are though.
But but but in the end, people here are WONDERFUL. And they are humbling me greatly and breaking down a lot of the capitalistic, materialistic, selfish traits that I’d picked up living in the western world all my life. I just hope it lasts.
5) A Day in My Life. A lot of people have been asking about this. I’ll use yesterday as the day in my life.
Morning: I woke up, found a couple spiders crawling on me, and brushed them off. Joshua started yelling at me, good morning or something. The guy has crazy energy; he popped into my room and told me to get up for work. In my room there’s no shelves or closet or anything. All my stuff is on the floor, sort of lying on top of (or in) my bag. I picked up some things to wear, put them on, popped in my contacts, packed my bag, and was good to go. I had to pee, but didn’t feel like peeing outside in front of one the neighbors, so waited until getting to work. The walk to work was muddy, but beautiful, with lots of trees and shrubs around. As usual, I got stared at by people, but it doesn’t seem as bad when I’m with Joshua. It takes about 25 minutes to get to work. I think I picked up a meat pie on the way, and some talk time for my phone.
Work: I used the facilities and had a cold shower, got dressed and stepped into my office (which I share with Evans, the manager of processing). I had a session with Chiko (Purchasing and Logistics Manager), trying to improve his data management and reporting skills. Then I had a session with Evans, teaching him how to identify problems in his data entry system and fix them. The theme of the week, if you hadn’t noticed, is data management. We get lunch at work. Yesterday we had beans, rape, and nshima (lump of tasteless white processed maize). After work I had a session with Mary, the admin assistant, trying to figure out the best ways that I can help her. I think the rest of the time I checked email, goofed around a bit with the managers, and started to develop a learning plan for Mary. Oh and it rained like hell.
Evening: After work Joshua and I picked up some food. I decided to have a go at cooking this day. I got some proper western food (pasta), and some meat and beans. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any spices anywhere, so it was going to be boring-ass pasta night. I got home to find my laundry hanging out on the line, soaked, from all the rain that day. That’s a regular occurrence here. If anyone can bring cheap solar-powered clothes dryers here, hurrah! The rain doesn’t help you dry your clothes. Anyways, I got in and we got to cooking. Joshua lit up the coals. Albert, one of the high school boys was helping me. It’s hot cooking with coals, and the pan gets hot too. We cooked on the floor with candle light. I sat on a crate, and so did Albert. I did the meat, then added some chopped tomatoes and onions, and then the beans. Then I realized, for pasta, we needed forks, and didn’t have any… so much for my foreigner food. We had nshima instead, which Albert made. He tried to teach me (unsuccessfully) how to do it but I gave up, and decided some things are better left to those who know what they’re doing. We ate dinner. We sit on the floor in the living room. You start by washing your hands in a bowl of water. Everyone uses the same bowl of water. Then you eat with your hands, and then you wash your hands again.
Night: Last night we were all pretty tired so we went to bed early. I peed out in the yard first, since there’s no toilet in the house. Then I removed my contacts and got to bed. But first, I decided to watch an episode of top gear off my laptop and kill a cockroach that was roaming around. On other nights, we might just hang around, listen to music, and talk. Often the guys speak the local tongue though, so I’m just sitting around listening. But they make an effort to speak English with me sometimes too. Or I might try and teach Joshua some computer skills. He’s trying to learn, so I try to give him a lesson every night.
Okay, there’s a pretty typical day. Sounds boring don’t it? That’s my life… but it’s rich in a lot of ways, so it’s good for now.
…
I wrote A LOT. And I have more to write about, mostly about what I think about development, NGOs, private sector, etc. But I’ll leave that for the next time. If you’ve read all of this, you’re a champ. Pat yourself on the back. If you have any comments send me an email at sarf2k@gmail.com. Big Love from Mwinilunga…
PS I’ll post pictures somewhere in 2 weeks when I’m back in the capital for a team meeting and it’s more affordable…
