31 August 2008

When we spoke to Andy and Ashlee they were stuck in Solwezi because the recently deceased president, Levy Mwanawasa, body was making the rounds to the cities and villages for viewing and so all the traffic was coming into Solwezi but not out. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7570285.stm So they stayed a few extra days at the provincial house on their way back from a week of training in Lusaka. They were curious to see how the country would react as this is the first elected official to pass away. So far everything has been peaceful. They are very interested to see how the election process works in Zambia. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7607444.stm Ashlee was telling my how the mourning period is 7 days and there is hour upon hour of wailing.

They enjoyed their training where they learned about grafting trees so provide a variety of fruit types. They were grafting oranges on to lemon trees. They also had training in growing bananas and business planning. They will hold weekly classes on business planning with the village.

Ashlee said that she had 7 chickens hatch from her chicken Ethel, but 4 had already been killed by hawks. Hopefully they will be able to keep a couple of them alive. An epidemic has been going around that is killing the chickens so they were going to find out how to get vaccinations for the birds.

Ashlee has started a knitting club and met with the town council to get it approved. That will be a valuable skill to teach the ladies. Ashlee said she has started to work out a lot of different patterns including socks to teach them. Mom’s knitting club has been sending Ashlee needles and yarn to get started, as well as yarn to do the rag rugs. Mom found a pattern online for making a loom out of a cardboard box so they should be able to figure out a way to make that work.

They have befriended a boy from the village whose father lived in Lusaka recently died of TB which is a result of HIV. His family would not let him leave the village to attend the funeral and now he has been left to fend for himself with his education which is nearly complete. Andy and Ashlee are going to sponsor him (10,000 quatra which is only a few dollars) in return for work around their house for this year, but are trying to find a sponsor for him for the next year. He is the cousin of the boy that does quite a bit of work for them now at their house.

Ashlee said that she had received a letter from Christi, her high school friend, who has recently traveled to Russia with her acting group to teach the children about playwriting. They think that it may be possible for her group to visit Africa in the future for a similar program. Ashlee was very excited about this prospect and hopes they can get the details worked out.

Mujy Byepi Mwane

3 August 2008

Well after 2 weeks of diarrhea Ashlee is finally starting to recover. They had to stay at the provincial house for 5 days as she was not able to hitchhike back to their house due to her illness. They planned to stay only for a few days, but it got stretched out. Not a good reason to extend your vacation, but at least they had lots of movies to pass the time. They had been at a going away party for another volunteer and drank some local beverages which maybe the culprit but Andy managed to only be ill for a couple of days. They were tested for malaria but they were clean.

Andy’s bike is now out of commission and since they are American bikes they cannot find parts anywhere nearby so they have to wait until they go to the city this week to get them. Hopefully by now they have what they need. Andy has been riding Ashlee’s bike into town for what they need as he is the better rider. Plus I don’t really like the idea of Ashlee riding around by herself.

Ashlee finally got her chicken. It has laid 12 eggs, but refuses to stay at their house. She came from the neighbor and so she goes back over there to lay her eggs. They decided to let her have a few chicks and plan to take them back to their house after they are born, so hopefully that will keep her close to home. Her name is Ethel (for those of you who don’t know that is our grandmother’s name). Ashlee is also planning to add a duck sometime soon. She said that chickens there are like a bank account you save up what you can so you can trade them when you are in need. They are very valuable. The pigs all got wiped out by an epidemic a while ago and the locals really want to get them back. Ashlee said she is encouraging ducks and that is why she wants to get one. The pigs have parasites called jiggers in their droppings that get into your feet. So she said she does not care to have that to worry about. There are however a lot of predators for the fowl including wild cats, snakes and hawks. They were telling us about watching a hawk catch and kill a chicken the other day. They get a lot of entertainment from watch the local wildlife.

They said things have been a bit strange around the village the last week because the man who used to live in their house died and the village has been in mourning. Approximately every two hours around the clock they start wailing and carry on for a while and then take a break. They are not really sure what they should be doing, but they think they people understand that it is not their culture. They said that the man’s son is an educated man with a degree in science who has travel the world but has now returned to the village to live. What a strange thing that must be. Travel the modern world only to return to a village with no electricity and no running water. But I guess for him it is home. They said it is a common thing. The local school principal actually went to school in Minot, ND and spent 5 years in Germany and is now back in the village.

They are going to buy an internet phone this week when they are in the city, so they should be able to receive email all the time. They won’t be able to reply as it will be very expensive but they will be able to get messages every day. They said they would let us know when that is up and running.

Ashlee is planning to help the ladies build a loom so that they can make rag rugs to sell. They have a lot of brightly colored fabric that will make for beautiful rugs, plus it will give them another source of income. She said they can buy a bag of scraps for 1000 quatra and turn around and sell the rung for 10,000 quatra, so it could be a pretty lucrative project. They have been a bit discourage lately as they haven’t been getting many people to turn out for their meetings, but they said that is common and so they are trying not to get frustrated. Andy has been working with the Kasempa Town Council to design a bridge that will be built. He has been doing blueprints of options and seems to be enjoying that.