skip to main |
skip to sidebar
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.
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.
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?
No comments:
Post a Comment