Getting acquainted

We survived our first night in the hut with a few aches and pains. The roosters started early but we manages to stay in bed for a while. After a breakfast of leftover rice with cinnamon and sugar and some coffee we loaded into the Rover to check out the area. We headed into town where we picked up Jeff, a new volunteer from Boston. From there we took a dirt road 20 or so miles out to Jeff's site. He was recently placed and is getting adjusted. He does not speak the language yet and no one in his village speaks English so it is a bit of a challenge. He eats dinner with his host family so he is picking things up slowly.
The village had just built Jeff a new rack for his dishes. The wood was so clean and bright. The construction was quite beautiful. When we arrived we were greeted by several of the village children. They came running with the stools from their homes as a gesture of kindness to provide seats for us. I had fun taking pictures of the kids and then showing them the screen on my camera. It was cool to see their faces as they recognized their friends in the photo and then the light would go off as they recognized themselves, maybe for the first time in a photo.From there we piled back in the truck and drove back to Kasempa and back down the road that we traveled on the way in from Solwezi to the tree farm, Andy has been working on the project with Joseph, an educated man from the village and the owner of their hut. They are worried that the villagers may someday try to destroy the tree farm because they are jealous of Joseph and have previously taken it out on him by beating his father and burning his house down. So far they have not had any trouble, but it is a ways out of town which may give it some protection. They are planning to tell the people that it is bad juju to harm the trees which will probably keep them away. Fingers crossed. There was a large open structure with a thatch roof and a long log that was burning at one end in the center of the space. Andy described how the caretaker for the tree farm often stays there at night and it is a shelter for the crew and a place to cook a meal. There are several acres of land that have been cleared of trees and brush only the termite hills remain. There are many more acres yet to be cleared and that work is ongoing although no new saplings can be planted until the dry season passes. There are rows and and rows of saplings ranging from 10-24" high. Around each sapling are a several large sticks to mark the planting. It will be 20 years or more before the trees can be harvested, but the chief of the village is also starting a tree farm so there will be many jobs created for the next several years which will help to boost the local economy.

We dropped Jeff off in town on our way back to BA Fritz. We had to get back pretty early as the sun goes down early and it takes a couple of hours to prepare food. Ashlee got right to work on a traditional Zambian meal consisting of nshima, a corn meal mush the consistency of Playdough, with relishes of rape, soya pieces and beans all sauteed with tomatoes and onions. Can't say it was the tastiest thing I have tried, but it was good to try something truly local. It is shocking to me that the people live on nshima three meals a day every day. No fresh fruit or vegetables. No seasonings other than a pinch of salt. No meat. No variety. I know I am a food lover but wouldn't life be that much less enjoyable without the variety of foods we have available to us in the States?

Tosh barked up a storm all night, but at least she was keeping whatever was out there at bay. The roosters were having their own musical battle all night long. Funny how I can fall asleep to the TV any time but the sound of a few dogs and chickens kept me up for hours. We have to be on the road at dawn for the 9+ hour drive back to Lusaka on our two day journey to Livingston.

Welcome to BA Fritz

The Royal Solwezi offered a good English breakfast. We filled our tummies and then loaded the truck to hit the road for Kasempa. We traveled the narrow paved road past clusters of mud brick huts most of the 2 hour trip. We arrived at the Kasempa Seventh Day Adventist Church near the end of Sabbath School and the ladies joined a class while the guys went to check the air pressure in one of the tires that was running low. We strained to comprehend the English being spoken by the teacher. At some point I noticed that Mom had given up on trying. The accent was thick but thanks to my Andrews multicultural education I was able to get most of it.

The church was built similarly to the mud brick homes only the roof was built of a ad hock wood trusses. The connections between the crooked members were scary but somehow it seemed to be holding together. There were cotton curtains on the windows and fake flowers on the podium not unlike many Adventist churches in the States.

After several beautiful a Capella songs with complex harmony that it is hard to believe just comes naturally the elders filed in and a long session of announcements began. We were asked to stand and were welcomed one by one. The pastor gave the sermon in English and one of the elders translated into the local language. The church was full of children and women and we later learned that the men were evangelizing to outlying villages that day. After the service was over they made a couple of short announcements they asked Mom to say a few words about the Columbia Seventh Day Adventist Church that has become a sister church to them. They told us that the pews we were sitting and the recent repairs to the church were made possible by their donation. They were very thankful and hoped that they would be remembered in the future.

We made a quick escape as Ashlee feared we would be asked to stay for lunch which would mean strange food and several hours of difficult conversation. Because of our delay the day before due to rain we were behind schedule for all that they had planned for us. So we headed over to the market for a couple of ingredients Ashlee needed and to take a look at the local market. This was much more of a manageable speed for me. It was a similar set up to the market in Solwezi but about a fifth the size and not bustling or crowded. There was still trash everywhere on the ground. We looked at kitenge and other interesting offerings in the various shops and met Andy and Aundre who were hanging out with Andy's friend, Alvin, and a new volunteer to the area, Jeff. From the market we drove out to the hospital campus to visit Andy and Ashlee's friends, the doctor, his wife and their three kids. The campus had fairly modern buildings with running water and electricity. We had a cold glass of water, the first in a few days, and sat and chatted for a while. The baby girl was bubbly and smiling the whole time and the boys popped in and out sneaking peaks of the strangers. From there we headed back to the main road and the down a dirt path. More than once Andy had to stop and move a log or check a culvert. We bumped along for 2o-30 minutes with glimpses of houses and gardens between the tall grasses. Andy jumped out and grabbed his machete and slashed a wider path so we could back the Rover up near the house. The kids came running as soon as they heard the truck and by the time we exited the vehicle there were a dozen or so kids all around. Ashlee made a quick sweep the house to check for intruder of all types, but found it clean. We unpacked the baggage and groceries and Ashlee and Andy took turns giving us tours of the grounds. The kazanza, or cooking hut, the outhouse, the shower the garden, the compost heap, etc. Ashlee, Mom and Andrea headed up to the mill to get the corn pounded for dinner the next day at the mill up the path. I played with Tosh for quite a while. Such a happy dog, but clueless to the concept of fetch. Mostly she just wanted to jump on me or sit on my feet. She seemed to understand that we were family right away and took to taking orders and begging for affection.

Ashlee got started on dinner right away. She made a stir fry with all local ingredients. She wanted to give us a taste of what one of their typical African meals are like. The stir fry consisted of tomatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, soya and greens that she served over rice. Soya is a dried soy bean product that is in chunks that can be rehydrated and are tofu-like. Many of the volunteers use is to help keep some protein in their diet. The dark sneaked up on us as we ate, and with no light other than that of the moon we sat in a circle of the kazanza and sipped on an after dinner cocoa or tea.

We headed for bed early. Andrea and Ashlee shared a two man tent set up next to the kitchen, Andy found a private spot out back for his tent, Mom snuggled up on the couch behind the mosquito net and Aundre and I tucked ourselves in A&A's fortress-like bed only after stuffing the three brooms under the door to keep the snakes out. We must have laid there for a couple of hours whispering about the day and jumping at every little sound. It wasn't long until we could hear Mom gently snoring. More than once I made Aundre shine the light around the room just to double check, but ultimately there were not any visitors in the night. Tosh was hard at work scaring everything away with her barks which was a disturbance, but we were still thankful she was there keeping whatever was out in the African night away from the house.

On the Great North Road

6:30 am came quickly. We groggily dragged our bags out to the Cruiser and loaded up. There was a minute for a slice of toast and a cup of a tropical juice and yogurt drink, popular in Zambia, before we loaded in. Our trip will be a long one and we are hoping to make it all the way Kasempa in the daylight. The city turned from a series of walled properties with fairly modern buildings into clusters of mud block houses with a range of roofs types from plastic to metal to thatch. Our view for a good portion of the trip was the back of a packed minibus, one of the main modes of transportation for Zambians on the go.
Ashlee filled us on the joys of riding these buses. First, the have do a scheduled departure time, but typically the bus driver will hang around for the bus to fill up so that he can maximize his profit. She said that this has been up to five hours in her experience. She also said that many women traveling with small children have no problem plopping a toddler on your lap which is bad enough, but they do not use diapers. Gross! She has gotten wise to the gig and now refuses. It is just one of the reasons they often end up hitch hiking. There were many interesting sites along the road side: bicycles loaded win ways that defy the laws of physics, a woman wrapped in kitenge (brightly printed fabric) with a baby slung around her in another kitenge covered with a fleece blanket and a 3' basket on her head full of her latest crop and groups of kids from age 3 or so on up lounging along side the highway nearly the entire stretch.
And some more disturbing sites: the raping of the landscape by the huge copper mines, piles upon piles of trash due to a total lack of trash service and the newly paved roads that are already full of huge potholes because they are so poorly built, 1-2" of asphalt over dirt, by the Chinese because they know the roads will be repaved by them when they fail if they know the right palms to grease.
It made for a headache for Andy along the way as he zigged and zagged his way around the pits in the road.
A storm was on the horizon as we got closer to Solwezi, a very strange thing for this time of year in Zambia, when typically they will go months with absolutely no rain. It was getting dark because of the storm and with sunset just a few hours away Andy decided it was best to spend the night and go the rest of the way in the morning. So we booked a couple of rooms at the Royal Solwezi, a very modern lodge built on the hillside by a British couple. Then we loaded back into the Cruiser to visit the provincial house where Andy and Ashlee spend a lot of their off time. Below is a mural Andy painted in the hallway during one of their stays. Then we went for our first taste of the Zambian market. That proved to be a test for a few of us. The odor was overwhelming when we first entered through the dried fish portion of the market. There were rows and rows of ladies behind large piles of various types of dried tiny fish. I think I may have threw up a little in my mouth... but I sucked it up as we made our way through trash filled aisles of shops with people shouting out for us to visit their stands. We moved into the vegetable portion of the market and Ashlee purchased some rape, a favorite African green, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and some bologna-like substance made from nuts for our meal the following evening.
We ate dinner at the restaurant in the Royal Solwezi, where there was a broad offering of options. The power went in and out several times throughout the evening which was giving Ashlee fits and did limit the menu that was available. The lights and televisions kept going out, but there were several of the main lights on the generator which would kick in when the power would go out. I thought it set a relaxing mood for dinner and I rather enjoyed it myself. There were again mosquito nets on the beds, but in a more elegant fashion and we cranked up the air and slept soundly through the night.

Welcome to Zambia

The flight from London to Lusaka was torture from the minute it started. Full of rambunctious 4-year-olds and one baby that screamed at piercing "Noooooooooooo" for hours at a time. As we descended through the early African mist the runway in Lusaka didn't look adequate to slow the plane. The pilot laid on the breaks and we screeched down the runway before doing a 360 and taxiing for what seemed like 20 minutes back to the terminal. After a wait through the customs line with the bad American parents who had allowed their child to scream through the night, we collected our bags and came out the arrival gate to find a much browner and skinnier Ashlee and Andy waiting. We had to wait for the car rental office to open. When it finally did open we learned that a travel agent in the US makes an online reservation with a company that doesn't have online reservations it won't always mean a car waiting on the other end. Ashlee was able to get things worked out and about and hour later we were wading through a group of Zambian men wanting to load our bags into the Land Cruiser for a few cents. We were a little heavy on the bags so Ashlee piled on top in the back section with a small area of seat still exposed. She said she didn't mind as it is still much better than how she usually gets around. Andy was our driver for the trip and he maneuvered the entire trip like a champion! They started out by taking us to the guest house where we would stay for the night so we could clean up and rest while they finished up a few things for work. The guest house was within a 10' wall like everything in the nicer neighborhoods in Lusaka. There was an empty pool and a guard at the gate. The woman that manages the house was there cleaning dishes and helping to carry in bags. It was basically a large house with four bedrooms and three shared bathrooms. There was also a large living room and kitchen. Ashlee showed us around, as this house is often used by the Peace Corp volunteers. There were mosquito nets over the beds. The bathrooms were rough but functional. After dark bugs started to appear though.

Later in the day we headed out to visit the Peace Corp house where we met several of the leaders and volunteers. There had just been a training session for the group so many of the volunteers were in Lusaka. They showed us around the campus where they have demonstrations of the gardening techniques they are teaching. Then we went to the Busy Bee, a small restaurant that had sandwiches made to order, meat pies, mixed salads and other treats that we took back to the guest house to eat. They also had a garden out back where they sell plant material for landscaping. Mom enjoy looking around and found several plants that she has in her garden already.

Later we headed to exchange some money and visit the Shoprite (Shop-rit-E), the large very nice grocery store, to pick up some travel food and supplies for while we are visiting the bush. It was a hectic inside. After battling the isles we headed for an ice cream cone or sundae. We went back to the guest house to unload the groceries and repacked them for the trip.

The sun was starting to set when we walked a few houses down to a Chinese restaurant that is a favorite of the volunteers. It smelled great when we came through the gate. The house had several small dining rooms and we got a private room with a large round table. We requested the first of many Cokes for the trip and ordered from their vaguely familiar Chinese food menu. During the meal Ashlee took a call from a guy they met days earlier in Lusaka. They were hitchhiking and were picked up by a Zambian man. When asked where they lived they said Kasempa and after some back and forth they realized that the man's mother lives just down to path from Andy and Ashlee, small world. So the man was calling to bring by a package for us to take to his mother, some sugar, salt and oil, small luxuries for the Zambian. We finished up dinner and walked back for an early retirement. Aundre and I snuggled up under the mosquito net and chattered for quite a while before drifting off to a fitful sleep. We are planning to set off at dawn so that we can try to make it the whole way to Kasempa in the day light as driving after dark is a risky business, so hopefully we can catch some zzz's in the car.

The end of a whirlwind romance

We slept in and dined on the breakfast buffet before hauling our bags down to the lobby for the next few hours while we wander. We started off to find China Town. It was a much smaller version of the one Andrea, Aundre and I visited a few months ago in San Francisco. We grimaced at the raw creatures hanging in the windows advertising their freshness.

We decided to head towards the British Museum and found a quaint shopping district and spent a while nosing through shops. With little room to carry purchases it was mostly window shopping until we came across a Nike store that had computer stations where you could build your own sneakers. Aundre and Andrea were memorized. The selection in the store was unlike any I have seen at home. Both Aundre and Andrea found a pair that they could not live without and made purchases. We then made our way on to the British Museum. Andrea really wanted to see the Egyptian collection so we wandered through the school kids for an hour or so. Aundre found the Rosetta Stone which was impressive in size. It was a favorite attraction and was full surrounded with interested guests.

From there we headed back through the Covent Garden where we stopped at a street side cafe for lunch. We then made our way back to the hotel to collect our bags and hop a cab to the airport. This time we asked for a van so we had room to breathe. After a stringent inspection of our passports and tickets by the Heathrow staff we made our way through the duty free shops to the waiting area. From there we boarded our flight to Lusaka, Zambia. Once again we will wake up tomorrow in a different world, we have not idea how different.

London by bus and boat

We started the day with a typical European breakfast at the hotel: runny scrambled eggs, potatoes, toast and croissants, beans, yogurt, fruit, juice and, of course, a spot of tea. Then we walked a few blocks down to the Visitors' Center where we purchase tickets for the doubledecker bus tour. We had just missed the walking tour of the changing of the guard but one of the old chaps that worked at the place offer to run us down to catch up. He was a funny guy. But not nearly as funny as the tour guide, Uncle Bernie. He took us on more like a running tour from where the new guards exit the one of the smaller palaces and march down the boulevard past Buckingham Palace to the guard house. There are different uniforms for the guards one different days because they represent the armies of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Whales. We also went to a smaller scale changing of the guard at the palace where Prince Charles lives.

From there we made our way back to the pick point for the bus and climbed to the open top for the prime view of the city. We circled back around by Buckingham Palace, past Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, to St Paul's, through the financial district, over the Tower Bridge to the London Tower with the commentary of an aspiring young actor as our tour guide. We got off at the Tower of London and grabbed a bite to eat from an strange under ground food court of sorts built into the side of the hill. We dined on large stone benches surrounded by pigeons watching the demonstrated catapulting in the yard. Then we started off on foot for our Jack the Ripper walking tour with the same interesting tour guide from the morning. On this tour he was really pouring on the drama with his crazy eyes and slashing motions when he described the brutal slayings. I have to admit I didn't know a lot about Jack the Ripper when we decided to take the tour, but it sounded interesting and we got to see a part of the city that most visitors would never visit.

We boarded the the boat at the Tower of London and traveled back down the Thames past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern, and the London Eye before docking in Westminster near the Parliament and made our way back along the bank with lots of joggers and other casual walkers towards the hotel. We took a break for a rest at the hotel and then went to an Internet cafe across the street to select our seats on the flight to Lusaka, Zambia the following evening. Then we made are way along the cobbled sidewalks up to the Covent Gardens area where we enjoyed a late dinner alone in a small, but delightful Greek restaurant called Pad. Then back to the hotel to pack up catch some BBC before falling asleep.

London by foot

We arrived in London just after 10am. The red eye had proven to be just that, but you can't waste a day sleeping it off when you are in a new city. So after gathering our bags and literally walking right through customs we exchanged some $ for pounds we grabbed a cab downtown. Aundre straddled the bags and we strained to understand the "English" that the cabbie was speaking on the 45 minute ride to Charing Cross Hotel. A rather nice hotel located over the Charing Cross tube stop and right in the middle of Westminster, walking distance to many familiar sites.

Only one room was ready when we arrived so we make a quick wardrobe change and set off on foot with a map of London to conquer the town. We made our round-a-bout way around to a bridge and crossed over the Thames as a sprinkle of rain passed through. We grabbed a baguette at a riverside cafe and made our way along the opposite side of the river from the hotel. We walked under the bridge and discovered a row of street performers earning their pay in the gentle dripping. We came to the Eye and despite the overcast sky we decided to give it a whirl. The view was amazing! So many of the buildings have beautiful courtyards that are not visible from the street and Big Ben and the Parliament were incredible from that angle. We came full circle and walked across the Westminster Bridge to the Parliament. There was a large group of protesters in support of Sri Lanka filling the center open space. We walked around the perimeter to the Westminster Abbey for a closer look, but didn't feel inspired to pay for a visit.We meandered back past the Horse Guards through Trafalgar's Square and Piccadilly Circus. Basically we got lost, but it made for some great site seeing. We headed back to the Charing Cross for a shower and a little nap. Later in the evening we ventured off to the Covent Garden area for a bite to eat. We settled for the Maple Leaf, a local pub with fish and chips, steak and a veggie burger on the menu, which satisfied us all, so we sat around a heavy wood table with TVs playing soccer on ever screen and people watched for a while before heading back and succumbing to a coma-like sleep.

Reason #1 why American Airlines sucks

So we were packed and ready for the start of our adventure. The parents showed up and we loaded the bags into the trunk on a mild Sunday afternoon in Missouri. We arrived at KCI and made our way to the American Airlines baggage check in. With itinerary and id's in hand we got to the counter just before 2:30pm.
"What flight?"
"The 3:40 to Chicago."
"There isn't a 3:40 to Chicago."
"According to my itinerary we are scheduled on the 3:40 flight to O'hare."
"Oh, well they probably changed the schedule. It leaves at 3:00."
"Well no one notified us. Can we still make the flight?"
"I think so, let me check with my manager."
"I can run their bags down to the plane right now myself. It's right there."
"Absolutely not. The flight closes 45 minutes ahead of departure."
"Please we are meeting up with our family in Chicago for an international flight."
"No!" Grrrrrrrr..........

So that was the start of it. Frustrated and getting frazzled we had no choice but to reschedule for the next flight. There is only 35 minutes for a connection, but they all but guarantee we can make it. Aundre did his best to get some customer service, but all the offered was a website that we could go to. Gee thanks, because we have a computer with us and your just standing there wasting air! Apparently down sizing has resulted in absolutely no phone support these days for good old American Airlines.
So we sit in the airport restaurant and I munch some less than mediocre nachos while Mom nervously sips an iced tea. When we could handle the unbalance HVAC system that was dumping ice cold air on our heads the with force of one of the jet engines just outside no longer we trudged through security to wait the two more hours for our flight.
Andrea arrived in Chicago while we were still in KCI so Aundre did a little bargaining with her to buy him the Chicago-style deep dish pizza that we was craving. He fell in love with it on one of our first trips to Chicago and had been going on about for days maybe weeks in advance. So with Pizza in hand Andrea met us at our gate with enough time to make a quick stop at the restrooms and then get on our flight to London's Heathrow Airport. After a crappy snack from our less than helpful cabin team and a single drink service they lowered the lights and we all put on our headphones, selected one of the movies and sunk into our seats as much as is possible on a commercial airplane in the Economy section.
When we wake up it will be Monday morning in London and we will be on foreign soil for the start of our adventure.