Final Days in Mwinilunga

Well, my days in Mwinilunga are quickly drawing to an end. I have only about a week left, after which i'll be taking a 2 weeks holiday in south africa to visit my huge family there. So, being that it's the few days, i've written up what i won't miss, and what i will miss, about mwinilunga. Also a couple other things about 1) The meaning of "suffering" and 2) Mining in Zambia. Enjoy!

9 THINGS THAT I WON’T MISS ABOUT MWINILUNGA

1) The dogs. People keep dogs here, but for some reason their dogs are always angry and vicious. Likely because they mistreat them and possibly don’t feed them enough. In general I have to carry stones or a stick on the 2km walk home because of the dogs along the way that often bark at me and run up to me. This morning was bad. I was walking to work and there were about 5 of them that just ran up in front of me and started barking angrily. Luckily there was a big stick right there that I picked up before they got there, so I slowly backed away while facing them and slamming the stick on the ground. They kept slowly advancing towards me and barking though until luckily someone else came up behind me and then they ran away. Good thing I knew enough not to turn and run otherwise they would have just chased me down. Funny enough, I wasn’t really scared, I was just really really pissed off that this was happening. As I passed one of the houses where I know some of the dogs stay, I started yelling at the woman about the dogs, and I asked her if they were her dogs. She guiltily said “no” even though I’ve seen some of them eating and staying at that house. Today I’m going to go and talk to the District Commissioner. This problem is getting worse and worse and someone’s going to get hurt soon. This is something I will definitely NOT miss about Mwinilunga living. It’s a good thing EWB pays for rabies vaccinations… oh wait, they don’t.

2) Not having electricity or water at home, and sometimes not even at work… enough said.

3) My “shifting” bed frame. The boards aren’t stable or fixed down so sometimes some of them will move around and fall to the ground under me.

4) Being stared at (and laughed at) on a regular basis, and as a walk by, being called mzungu (white man), chindeli (also white man), and even Chinese (because there’s a bunch of Chinese here from a mining company and since people have virtually no exposure to foreigners, many of them associate me by default with the Chinese because I’m different).

5) Being solicited for booze.

6) Lack of spices and any kind of flavoring in food, other than salt.

7) Lack of chocolate… and real coffee.

8) Daily pounding rain and muddy roads (meaning no going outside to play and muddy shoes and pants). Though fortunately the rainy season just ended, so I can enjoy dry weather for the remainder of my time here.

9) Having to use this crappy expensive GPRS modem for internet.


14 THINGS THAT I WILL MISS ABOUT MWINILUNGA

1) The stars. Since I’ve always lived in cities, I’ve rarely been able to enjoy an open sky full of bright stars.

2) Full moon nights. When the sky is clear and the moon is big, there is plenty of light shining down. It’s like an eerie pale twilight ambience that’s all around you.

3) Lighting. During the rainy season you see lightning almost every night, usually in the distance all around you. Sometimes it’s really close though, right on top of you, and you can just enjoy the show.

4) The lush forest. There’s crooked, “Africa-style” trees everywhere, shrubbery, tall grass, giant ant-hills… it sorta reminds of the forest in Avatar. Amazingly beautiful. And fruits a lot of the time all over the place growing on the trees; mangos, guavas, figs.

5) Open sky with big fluffy clouds. The sky seems to go on forever here. When it’s clear it’s a beautiful blue color and the clouds are really big and fluffy. Combine this sky with the forest environment, and a misty morning, and you have something truly gorgeous.

6) Helpful, generous people. People are truly genuine, gracious, and helpful. I think it’s the first time in my life I’ve lived in a place where a total stranger can say hello with a truly genuine smile. Plus, people will always watch out for you. Even though I’m lonely here, I’m comforted by the fact that if I ever need anything all I have to do is go to the nearest person (whether I know them or not) and they’ll help me any way they can.

7) The way people greet each other. When people greet each other, they bend one knee to lower themselves a bit, and also lower their head as a sign of respect. They do this for people of equal stature or for those that are more senior. It’s nice.

8) Happy children. The children here are really happy a lot of the time, despite what little they have compared to Canadian children. This morning, I saw a child playing with a kite crafted out of string, sticks, and old plastic bags. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Canadian kid as happy playing with toys as this kid was with his kite. You also see lots of kids playing with simple toy trucks made from local wood, and of course, the kids rolling the wheel along the road with a stick, running behind it. And happy .

9) Pineapples and mangos. The pineapples here are famous. They are incredibly sweet and juicy… and the mangos are amazing too. Too bad the season is over, but I did enjoy them while they were around.

10) T-bone bries at Chris’ house with pickled chilies and garlic.

11) Laughter. People here are really quick to laugh. In Canada, conversation often tends to be intellectual; even humor has to be witty somehow. But here, people get together to laugh, and they laugh easily and often.

12) Not having to care about what I look like. Since it’s a small, ghetto town, I can wear whatever I want, be disheveled, whatever. It’s no biggie!

13) No worries. I don’t really have anything to worry about. The town is small, there are not many people, there’s nothing to do, and you don’t need a lot of money. Basically there’s nothing here that can stress you out, so things are super chill all the time.

14) Space to think. Since there’s nothing to do here and it’s really peaceful, I’ve been able to just think a lot and come up with a lot of ideas and thoughts. In the city often you are so distracted by other things that you don’t just give your mind a chance to do its thing. It’s amazing what it’s capable of, given the chance.


WE ARE SUFFERING

I went out to the bush last week, to an area within the Mwinilunga District called Salujinga. I stayed in the village with one of the Forest Fruits agents that lives there.

One thing I noticed when I was there was that people often say to me, “we are suffering…”. And it made me realize that people have said the same thing to me in other villages I’ve stayed in.

But really, I had to ask myself, “are you really suffering”? These people have food, enough trees to make fire and cook, and mud structures with roofs to sleep under, and of course, family all around. I asked the agent, John, if he and his family ever go hungry, or if they always have enough food. He said he always has enough. So then, what is suffering, right? Are you suffering because you don’t have TVs and electricity, or because you are starving and sleeping under the open sky? Okay okay, fair enough, I’m judging a little bit. Who am I to say that these people are not suffering? But what is suffering really? If you have everything you need in life, are you really suffering? Granted, there are many things that would greatly improve the quality of life in the village, LIKE electricity, television, easier transport to town and school, and more means of making money than a few agricultural activities. Also, as an amendment that i'm making to this entry, Mark also informed me of a very important point about malnutrition, whereby even though people have enough to eat, they don't necessarily get enough protein and vitamins which causes physical and mental development problems, which is a further roadblock to getting ahead in life. This isn't always an obvious thing visually. It's an important thing to keep in mind though. Back to "suffering" though...

I think the problem is that people equate “suffering” to not having things that others have. It’s the same thing everywhere, people always want what they don’t have, and they don’t appreciate what they do have. For me, when I’m in the village, I appreciate the simplicity of life people lead, the strong community ties, the love for children… I appreciate these things because they are not really present in Canada. In a way, we suffer spiritually. But when the villagers look back at me, they see a fancy backpack from the west, a nice digital camera, clothes that aren’t torn, and a motorcycle, and they think that they suffer for not having these things.

So again, it comes back to that question, what am I doing here if people are doing more or less alright? I think it comes back to the point I made in another entry, that for me, poverty here isn’t so much about having the essentials for basic survival, but about having access to opportunities to get out of the village if you want to, getting a good education if you want to, and getting a job that you want, without succumbing to the vices of alcohol and unsafe sex. The thing is, when I look at the kids in the village, and I try to imagine how they could possibly get a good education, a university degree, and a good job, well it’s really difficult. I can’t even fathom how they can do it, without A LOT of help from someone outside. And malnutrition is certainly an opportunity-blocking factor as well. So for me, I think this is why I’m here and where I need to try and make an impact: opportunity.

So, what I’ve written here is based on my very brief experiences in the field, and is not representative of all of Zambia, let alone all of Mwinilunga. Though when I asked Evans about this, he said that he too, has never seen real hunger in the village. Although when I asked Simeon, he said that he has seen hunger when out in the field (he used to go out often prospecting when he worked for the mining companies). He said that he’s seen really poor villages with children eating maybe only a meal a day, if that. Chris though, says also that there isn’t really hunger in the villages, and that when you do see hunger, it’s a result of laziness more than anything else. He says that there is always the ability to grow food, so if people are going hungry, it’s likely because they’ve made a choice not to grow food, but that nonetheless, variety of food and malnutrition is a big problem. Anyways, just to make this clear, what I’m writing is only based on my brief stints in the village and from what I’ve heard from others, and is certainly not representative of all cases. Still, I think there’s an important point to be made about what it really means to “suffer”.

IS MINING BAD?

Yeah, I don’t know much about this topic, and haven’t done much research. I can only speak about what I’ve heard and seen, but it’s an interesting topic, so I’ll give it a go.

We hear a lot of bad things about mining, and let’s remember that Canada has a major mining footprint around the globe. Most of our pension/mutual funds invest in Canadian mining companies. Anyways, that’s another point. Yes, we hear a lot of bad things about mining companies, and we see lots of documentaries slamming them. We see them portrayed as big corporations that care only about profits, and that will happily destroy the natural environment and people’s health to get what they need. And in return, they give little, if anything to locals who work for them and don’t do enough for the local communities. I’m not disputing this, I’m sure it’s true in many cases.

BUT, on the flip side, mines DO create jobs, they do raise income levels substantially, they do spur development. Yes, they are not a permanent solution to income-generation, but hey, they’re better than nothing I say. I was speaking with a missionary a couple weeks ago, and he was happy to slam the mining companies, saying that they make Zambians work and then they don’t even bother to pay them, and that they cause deforestation, etc, etc. To the contrary though, all I have to do is think about Simeon (my old roommate).

Simeon worked for one of the big mines in the country for a couple years, made good money, and managed to start a few successful businesses as a result. He managed to save money and will be heading back to school in a few months to get an advanced degree. And generally speaking, I’ve seen and heard of many examples of people getting ahead because of the income they get by working in the mines. In a land of EXTREMELY little opportunities, I say we have to look at lesser evils. Yes, mines are not ideal, but they are, in my opinion, a lesser evil than, well, having nothing. Anything that can get people a step up on the ladder of development is good, in my opinion. And if you have a problem with mines and you are going to criticize them, then you sure as hell better provide an alternative for people who are just looking for honest work and a way to get ahead in life, before you start complaining.


THAT'S ALL FOLKS

That's it for now! As usual, if you do have comments, please send them to sarf2k@gmail.com.
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