Nico and a few thoughts

(jan and i went surfing in lawrencetown…yeah its freezing)

It was surprised to find me a few places this past month, some happy, some miserable, as I come to the end of the ride that started with a very dry mouth. The story goes, that on the eve on the Kuomboka ceremony, as I made arrangements to see the Lozi king in the western province of Zambia travel down the river on a huge canoe, I checked into the clinic down the road, because of the dry mouth I had been having for the previous weeks - thinking, it was malaria. The very instant looked like this:

doctor pricks my finger and puts it on a stick. i hear a beep. the doctor says “are you diabetic?”

To sum up, I’ve spent the last 3 weeks in my home of Halifax being massaged by the Canadian social medicine system and fed well by friends and family. I was diagnosed and will forever be until a cure is discovered, type 1 diabetic. ‘Well atleast its not AIDS!” says mom. which…i am happy for..i think.

I will spend the next week at home, and will once again return to the mother land, which i have been calling home , this coming saturday night. I will be finishing in Zambia with an end of service for my volunteers who have been with me since july 07, and then I will be leading 6 students from the university of birmingham around southern Africa for 7 weeks - which leads to september…and the fall shall be another flight. i flight to end all flights - and so will end the findthesky journeys…for now.

Maropeng, south african volunteer placed in Nyimba. to the left, the classic look of most small towns on the side of the road to Malawi

When a group of norwegians, dutch, scottish, zambian and canadians get together for food and drinks in cape town following a meeting at night- rarely does anyone think its a good ideat to have 4 hours sleep and wake up to climb a mountain at 5am to watch the sunrise. Well, i dont know how i did it, maybe it startd with the guilt trip and turned into peer pressure. well either way, we made it to the top of lions head for this, and i slept all the way back to Zambia that
morning.

everyone loves fishing, and everyone loves pictures, here i am finding the fisher man and the police guard at the bridge that boarders luapula province. its almost like the guard is pulling a sly stallone pose

easter weekend meant flatmates harry, adam , and irish friends natasha and maeve set a journey to Jungle Junction, outside of Livingstone towards Botswana, - HIGHLY recommended by me - if your looking for a quiet get away, time to chill, hippos running a muck at night, and general sense of peace, go here. i woke up in my hut to see this from my bed

cant have a get away without box wine. only way to jungle junction is by dugout canoe

Masaai warriors sell me flip flops they make out of old tire. if you know me, you know i dig sandals. 

i have not forgotten, but i work and live comfortably here in lusaka - life is as exciting as it always is, however there is finally routine which is nice, but which makes me less interested in updating this blog. I think in the next month I will write down some stories for everyone, however i am nearing the end of the blog phase - africa is wonderful and a challenge and lesson, and it is difficult to write down my experiences. enjoy the pics however, these are the same ones i’ve posted on facebook recently. They are all from Zanzibar where I held my 2nd christmas away from home. sunny beaches,  1000s of years of arabic influence and general relaxation.
Nico

ah, its been a while.

its been hard to keep up with this blog, a year and half into this, far from the “honeymoon” of livin in africa - its great and wonderful, but its work, so therefore i have been losing interest in posting stories and pics constantly. BUT i’m still here,

currently in cape town for meetings and a few days off to cruise around one of the most beautiful cities in the world. its true. i climbed table mountain yesturday. something for everyone to do.

A traveling man. You’d think this much traveling is a dream job for my kind. Well, in some ways it is, but I’ve realized something: humans are not meant to do this. Due to housing challenges, constant travel and my own frugality, I have not had my own room to sleep in since May. Alas, my new house! Located in “the Beverly hills” of Lusaka. Living with previous flat mate irish Adam and Zambian friend Angelo. Do I deserve this?
• A pool (needs to be painted and filled with water)
• A sauna (hasn’t worked for years I am told, but still, a sauna exists)
• A huge wall around my house, and the other 2 houses on this propriety (feels a bit exclusive which I do not like, but safe)
• Big backyard (hammocks and bbq soon to come)
• A Zambian family which stays in the “servants” quarters. Lungu washed my car and his daughter did my laundry. A true expat you could say, ugh.
• A lush mango tree (mango season in 2 months)
• Spacious rooms (as we have no furniture yet)

Yet I have had no time to enjoy it as my other home is the road and my jeep, which enjoys breaking down. The past 3 weeks I managed 3 community site visits with 4 volunteers, a HIV/AIDS workshop deep in the Kalomo bush and a sport specific workshop for 30 community school teachers in the city of Kitwe. Also I will add rafting trip on class 5 rapids on the Zambezi River. C’mon, it isn’t all work here of course.

Score volunteer Teddy gets some ideas from the participants. Which sexual acts can or cannot HIV be transmitted?

AIDS: American Ideas Discouraging Sex

A year ago I was in Namibia taking a level 1 training course on Kicking AIDS Out (see Namibia in Oct 06 on blog….whoa..has it been a year?). Since that time I have been thrown around, taking on many different positions within SCORE, but hadn’t had time to facilitate the workshop itself.

I now have two volunteers placed within a partner organization called Response Network in Kalomo, southern province. Unlike other SCORE volunteers which live and work in the same community, these lucky two, Vidar from Norway and Samuel from Namibia, live in the small town of Kalomo, but focus their work deep in the rural bush land. (previously visited see blog Man with 24 wives)

Bush means 1-2 hours drive on non-roads into Tonga village land (the main tribe of southern province) Dirt bike paths, goat paths, no electricity outside a good day way, no reception, peaceful. SCORE has been working within some of these remote rural communities for more than a year, and has trained many youth as strong facilitators, and they were now ready for a Kicking AIDS Out peer leader workshop – www.kickingaidsout.net . General HIV/AIDS education with skills on how to facilitate hiv/aids sessions during sport lessons, tournaments, trainings or even in school with students. I facilitated the 3 days workshop with help from 3 of my volunteers, including Teddy, a SCORE volunteer who was originally from Kalomo – who acted as our much needed translator. (I know some general phrases and greetings in 3 zambian languages including Tongan, but really it is nothing much)

The Tongan village set up

Thoughts of Bushland, and Workshop:

• I camped on a mans farmland, or hut land, or very small village, I am not sure how to describe it. He had 3 wives and 13 children, one of the wives participated in the workshop.
• I ate guinea fowl for the first time, strange looking bird with a blue rock thing sticking out of its forehead
• Goat is cheap here. A full goat to buy is equivalent to what I pay for the two foot long subs in Lusaka.
• The translation of an answer I received concerning the subject of women wearing short dresses: “when a farmer shows off his cabbage, he is looking to sell it! “
• At the end of the workshop, a man stood up to say basically “great, I’m going to use condoms now…where do I get them? Where do I get tested?” The unfortunate bit of this was that we had just done an HIV/AIDS education workshop for a very remote community, where to get condoms or to get tested, one would have to walk a full day or bike 4 hours to pick them up from the town clinic.
• “do you taste a sweet with the wrapper on?”- quote, a tongan man, relating to the use of condoms

Teddy demonstrates how to protect yourself from diseases that are found on broom sticks…just kidding.

Score volunteer Vidar warms up by the fire where we camped for the workshop, although hot during the days, Kalomo is one of the coldest places in Zambia due to its altitude

The gang, of newly trained HIV/AIDS kicking aids out peer leaders. Yellow shirts score volunteers Teddy and Vidar.

The rapids of the mighty zambezi - to the right Zambia, to the left Zimbabwe. Beautiful land.

Class 5

Rafting, who ever came up with this? Put a handful of humans on a piece of rubber that sometimes floats on a river was created to drown people. But of course, it was time to go rafting in Livingstone on the Zambezi River, apparently at the best time, huge rapids, but slow current, at times with no rapids, we could jump out of the boat, just float slowly down the canyon through and enjoy the scenery (scenery includes crocodiles)

That leg is my leg. Falling off a class 5 rapid, kinda fun.

This is why I’m hot.

I missed thanksgiving, almost completely where I even forgot that it had occurred. But I won’t be missing Halloween this year, as a party is already in the works. As for life, it is hot. It is now the “Hot dry” season, where it hasn’t rained for 5 months, and the stinging sun heats the day to 38-40 degrees +. Missing the cold, windy Canadian autumn, even the frigid wet Sunday morning wake ups with nothing to do but listen to the rain

Last night on my way back from Samfya on a crowded bus. I checked my cellphone which indicated it was exactly the time i predicted, 2:38 am. Seconds prior, a video came on the screen, yes in africa- buses do have mini tv screens, and at 2:38am, as with the previous 4 hours and the next 4 hours, the bus conductor would play very loud ear crushing gospel music with the combo mix of nigerian movies. For those who have ever travelled to southern africa, they will know these movies well. Nigerian movies are characterized by bad acting, witch craft themes, shouting throughout, hilarious special effects, ultra close up shots, oh and also very loud shouting. I had sat through my fair share of Nigerian movies at that point, as most zambians have come to think of it as their hollywood equivalent, but at that exact moment, “ndifuna ukulala” - i wanted to sleep. I asked the guy next to me, why? especially as this same fellow had said they would probably turn it down at 1am. He chuckles. “..thats how things are”

As I have realized before, in the 5 hours waiting for meetings to happen, my bus being impounded at night in a random village, bribing traffic and immigration officers for ridiculous fines, and bureaucracy which has you in 6 different offices and then finds you back where you started, and the clouds of never ending flies in malawi - thats how things are - there is a sense of surrendering yourself and letting go whenever possible in my experience here - if you can’t do this, don’t come to africa.

Mama Malawi

Around the world and back these past four months. This month you could say things have cooled down a bit. As you may have forgotten, I am still Team Leader of SCORE Zambia - what that means currently is 10 volunteers, from 6 countries placed in 8 communities all over zambia. They will be here for 1 year time, with their contract finishing in June 08.

After the General Orientation for volunteers in cape town - I came back to zambia with them all to do my own zambia specific orientation, mostly discussing sport, politics, history, language, health concerns and reporting specific to their work in Zambia. Then came drop offs in the volunteers many communities. After I arrived back in one piece - the past 3 months monster was over, it was time for a break with my flatmate irish Adam and his visiting friend Casey took a much needed break to Malawi - specifically Cape Maclear on the southern end of Lake Malawi.

Malawi is made up of many tribes, but mostly the Chichewa - the language, Chewa, is very similar to Nyanja what they speak in Lusaka - which was great for Adam, who had memorized all the nyanja swear words already. Malawians are great truly friendly people. In terms of friendliness, I will make a brief comparison

Jo’burg and some parts of south africa - Toronto and Ontario
Zambia - the Maritimes
Malawi - Newfoundland

- if you know any newfies, you know what i mean by this.

Lake Malawi is beautiful it is true. It makes up most of malawi, dried baobab trees fill the rocky and rolling hills that lounge next to the expansive lake. Dug out canoes, women washing clothes, fishing nets and kids playing make up most of the beach coast line. While snokeling, thousands of multi coloured small fish pick at the rocks, purple, orange, stripped oreo. I relaxed. Other than the break in Canada, which was part work related - this was the first non SCORE work related trip or leave I’d taken since Christmas. Deserved and needed - i hiked, snokeled, canoed, swam and ate fish on the beach everyday. No crocs where I was, but many hippos further along the lake as i found out. Did I get any parasites from this lake water? hrmm..so far so good.

Commercial Sex Work

Last weekend I stood in a room of 25 commercial sex workers, my volunteer and her colleague- and told 15 of them to go home. I suppose this was a strange situation for the lone male - but I did what I had to do.

SCORE has recently started a partnership between the Kwenuha Womens Association (KWA) in Livingstone. KWA is a faith based organization that aims at the rehabilitation of commericial sex workers (CSWs) that surround livingstone. The town lies in the centre transit point between Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe - adding it being a tourist capital - creates a situation for the highest numbers of commercial sex workers in Zambia. I will also mention that more then 2/3 of these women are HIV positive. The difference between prostitutes and csw , to my knowledge, is based on poverty, hunger, and desperate need to support dependents- basically these women have ventured to CSW because there is nothing else - a quote from the KWA womens- AIDS may kill me in months or years, but hunger will kill me and my family tomorrow.

Ah so what am i doing again in this room of 30 CSWs? The whole 3 year program comprises formal education, income generating training, skill development in agriculture and sowing, psycho social support and one more interesting addition - sports. This is SCORE steps in, and myself will be managing parts of the sport specific training. My scandinavian volunteer will be managing most of the sport project by living and working with KWA directly in Livingstone, and I will aid with managing the program, budget and facilitators from Lusaka. Unfortunately as this was the first workshop, there was a miss match between the budget and program plan. The budget had planned for 10, but my volunteer invited 30, which was great, but due to a few management/funding miscommunications, the budget stayed - and the 3 days workshop on organizing sport activities were only to fund for 10 participants x 3 days of food. Shame, but it is still just the beginning and there are bound to be a few hic cups at the start.

The Victoria Falls - wonder of the world

Indeed a wonder. During the workshop I had time to check out the Vic Falls, in one of the best times I have ever seen them before. Previously there had been far to much water following the rain season to see anything - now it was perfect. My volunteer and I also got a “illegal” tour from one of the locals, taking us to Angels Armchair. To get here you have to cross the river that will be flowing off the cliff, following it to the edge to find a mini waterfall and pool just before the real waterfall. There you can swim, sit on the edge, check the view and try not to fall.

.

lake kariba, between zambia and zimbabwe

one year.

when I think back from my time here, the usual traveler thoughts prevail. 1) so much has happened 2) it has all gone so fast. 3) it continues
This month I did end of service workshop with my volunteers who have also been here for a year and were now returning home, sad. Now i find myself on the waterfront of Cape town, just after a nice stroll on the beach. Here I stay in Stellenboch, huge wino area, where I’m helping run the general orientation for SCORES new volunteers, 41 of them! I’ve been here for a few days, and so far no injuries so i am happy.

From talking to many friends at home, people have enjoyed the pictures, and I also enjoy taking them. Pictures are good, stories are better, but monthly reviews are boring. I will continue to post interesting stories and photos, but in terms of what I am exactly doing : “what does nico actually do in africa?” email me and i’ll tell you all about it.

Back in Zambia next week…with a whole new batch of volunteers, or fresh meat as i would say,

back in the mother land - Nico

ottawa fans - stanly cup

Trews -canadian rock band performs at scotia bank area in ottawa - they also performed in my college basement once, but thats another story.

climbing the baobob tree outside lake kariba

Chitenge Toga Party at my with with flatmates Harry and Adam. We decided to cross cultures with bringing the college party theme of toga party and using strictly traditional chitenge sheets, which are commonly worn as skirts by all zambian women. It was a huge success, once again trying to force north american culture in africa, check!

A above two, views from around lake kariba. the hills almost look like it is a proper maine inspired autumn, but it is definitly the middle of winter in zambia.

along the road, we notice a man standing in the middle of the road with a large object. turns out he wants to sell us a tortoise. we buy it and name it Nyama Nyama (the sea monster of lake kariba) and her, yes her, english christian name Deborah. Seh now lives in our backyard and enjoys cabbage and carrots. Apparently its also very illegal to own her, so we may have to look into a license. oh deborah, why are you playing with our hearts.

Few knew the secret plans - the plan come back a few weeks early to surprise the parents.

step one - tell my parents friends about the plan. have them invite my parents over for diner the day i come back
step two - find friends to pick me up at the airport
step three - open door at parents friends house when they come to the door for diner
step four - say SURPRISE

it worked well. lucky me i even got to do it twice as my parents came separately - my dad had the best expression - the classic “whhhhaaat!??!” .

Back home in Halifax now, soaking up as much canadian life as I can. Next week i’ll be in ottawa for debrief - then back to Zam Zam for work work. more adventures to come,

Nico

Herring cove old fishin village

herring cove, outside halifax, (10 mins from downtown)

our new korea student looks at the dingle tower from a friends backyard in halifax

…a month of photos and some interesting quotations…

“There is a hippo in that room, her name is Billy”
-guard at chimpanzee orphanage, outside Chingola. our guide pointed us in the direction of Billy, who was laying down in her favorite hide out. No cages for this one, she wanders freely and seemed to find shade in an old barn

“I’m not so good today..well..i shot a guy last night, i hope he’s dead”
- an employee who works near me, Lusaka. Robbery is too common here, in the past month myself and 2 other houses of my friends were robbed (yes, i was robbed at night while asleep, thats another story, no quotes with that one)

“hey good morning, breakfast soon, who’s up for shooting stuff?
-shawn the owner of a game farm, where i went camping last weekend, outside Mazabuka. beautiful game farm owned by a friend of a friend. A bunch of my american friends went down, chilled out, saw some animals wandering around and of course, shot at some stuff before breakfast (stuff is not animals, stuff is bushes and trees)

“well actually yes there is crime here, yesturday there was a guy outside there closing shop…over there see…and a whole gang attacked him…and…wha tha…*runs off and chases a gang*
-the one guard with a big ak47, city market, lusaka, when I asked him if he had ever had to use the gun. my bus from livingstone broke down on the way to lusaka, and I ended up taking a sketchy ride into City Market, where plenty of crime just happens to be going down at 11 pm ofcourse. I was waiting 2 minutes there for a pick up and watched a gang of people rob someone, and run off…and ofcourse the guard had to run after them with his gun. my ride came right then, didn’t bother to find out how things turned out.

“They are NOOOT monkeys!!! they are apes!!”
-chimpanzee orphanage owner, outside chingola. She got reeeeally mad when i said they were monkeys..sorry, did i insult the monkey?

“i’m not sure what i’ll say.. maybe that i ate really bad chips yesturday, thanks for that one nico”
-ngo worker friend i brought up to Maheba Refugee Camp. We were invited to attend a traumatic counseling workshop for refugees - and although i’m sure we all had low points, we all figured our story sharing wouldn’t include anything as traumatic as being run out of your own country by war. So this girl thought she might bring up the “traumatic” fact that i brought her to the worst chip place in zambia.

“it should get better when the wind picks in the afternoon”
-vilage neighbor at Maheba. the “spot” for cell phone reception is in a miniscule piece of a air space half way up a termite hill. It also apparently gets better with more wind…hrmm… it didn’t.

“grandpas not doing so well…”
-myself, somewhere along a 10 hour drive, concerning “grandpa lion” my jeep. the windows decided to stop working.

“he’s a character”
-my volunteer when asked what it was like to have nico as a boss. we had a teambuilding weekend in livingstone, time to relax, see the victoria falls, and for the volunteers in rural communities especially, a time to take a shower and eat pizza.

“i’m pretty excited to slaughter my first chicken”
-myself, chikuni mission village. one of my volunteers was preparing a course, and finding food for the youth who would be participating, we thought live chickens would be the most economical and satisfying.

“these are not cooked enough”
the general opinion of those trying to eat cooked caterpillars bought from the market, Livingstone. i’ve had caterpillars before as I’ve stated, but these ones definitly needed an extra 30 minutes of frying. yes, they were still moving you could say.

“what? malaria AND jaundice…again?!”
-myself, Lusaka. Getting the news that one of my volunteers had just been informed they had malaria again, for the 2nd time in 2 months.

“there’s no words to describe how happy I feel right now”
- translated from french (spoken in congo) by a refugee in maheba camp.An american staying at the refugee camp had a small party for everyone. Sudanese, congolese, angolans and others. Its not hot showers, food, nice cars, or internet that makes people. Its a sense of community, which these refugees have none. that is all they wanted, and thats what made this person happy.

-home very very very soon. find me in halifax and ottawa…

I’m not sure where I’d find scenery like this else where. on the road to Samfya you hit swamp land - more than 3 hours of straight, flat, swamp filled space. the actual drive is maybe 9 hours from Lusaka, which i

willingly drive alone to visit one of my volunteers placed here. And yes, without Tim Hortons coffee stops, it can be difficult - I’ve gotten to a bit of a routine - as I make sure to pack the necessities when i go on such long trips -
-sunscreen, charged ipod, thermos with very hot coffee, clean water, malaria pills and toilet paper.
Settled in the City
After traveling by a jeep nicknamed Grandpa Lion on and off for the past month a half - it “appears” as i’ve settled down a bit. I currently share a three bedroom apartment with two American NGO workers in a good safe

central location in Lusaka. The following comforts are provided at a cost
-guard, gardener, maid, satellite television, hot water, shower, double bed, microwave, backyard, parking space -
some african experience you could say, well i’d say considering i lived in a remote south african community for my first 6 months and half my time here is spent outside of these comforts - i’m content with what i’ve got.

In the city, things also happen. I get to go to irish pubs, movies, nice restaurants, and even music concerts. This week was Francophonie week, celebrating french culture in Lusaka. There were a few concerts by Congolese musicians and one great show by a group from Guinea shown below. They held massive instruments called Koras, that were plucked like a harp, but more resembled like a giant mandolin.

Fun with the neighbours.
If you haven’t kept up with African political situation outside of Darfur - i’ll fill you in. Things are happening in Zimbabwe. Maybe a 4 hour drive from where I stay lies the border of the country formally known as Rhodhesia. Robert Mugabe, the 83 year old president who has been in power for 27 years, seems to be a bit of a bully. The economic situation is beyond my explanation, as one of the potentially richest african countries in terms of resources has the highest inflation rate in the world, with money that actually states an expiry date. Recent attacks on opposition leaders do not seem to make things better for Prez Mugabe, who has one of the creepiest moustaches of all time. So i predict, as the other news agencies and locals also confirm, that something is going to happen. I’m not sure what that something is - but, i don’t think i’ll be backpacking Zim anytime soon. know that i am very safe here - but realise that there resides a number of development through sports volunteers place in Harare the capital - that i doubt are too comfy right about now.

Site visit season has begun. This means I visit all my volunteers, in 6 different communities around Zambia, with this past week visiting Livingstone and Kalomo in the southern province. One trip I ended up deep in a Tongan village where I was reintroduced to polygamy. I can’t say it was common practice in my previous South African community, although I heard of it in remote communities. Zambia is perhaps another case all together. In this village community, the surrounding huts were owned by one big family, the head chief with 24 wives. He had 80 children, 30 girls, 50 boys. After discussion with many locals of the area, this seemed to be less and less of an exaggeration. One of the main facilitators my volunteer was working with will be soon having his second wife of his own. He made me think of it another way : “why should I be so selfish, why not help support more than one wife” – he meant the food, education, and shelter he will provide to his 2nd – whereas without, this wife may be left hungry on the streets. Hey, not my words, his, but something to think about.

There was discussion about the man with the most wives. It started sounding like something guys would brag about, like capturing a 5 mile long whale. But it came down to what seemed to be the honest recount of the man with 600 children. My volunteer and I did the math, and yes, it is possible, however ridiculous it may sound. I guess he was in the production business.

Livingstone

Hot shot missionary David Livingstone wandered the bushes of Zambia before any other white guy. He stumbled onto one of the great natural wonders of the world ,and promptly named the giant waterfalls after the queen, and so named Victoria Falls.

Vic Falls, is the biggest attraction for tourists in Africa, a big mother of a waterfall. During the rainy season, a giant cloud of mist makes the falls almost invisible, add a full moon (eclipsing full moon) and you get a massive “lunar rainbow”. Maybe Niagara falls has it too, or maybe anyone with a hose at night can make it, but c’mon, its still is great sight. I will be back here with my own pics in another month, so use your imagination for now.

Sad thought of the day.

Commerical sex workers in livinstone are paid 5000 kwacha (Zambian currency) with condom – 10,000 without condom. Which do they pick?