Zambia...

Hello everyone!

Things are going well here. We are in Katete, which is a small town (maybe 1 square km area) about 55km from Mozambique, and 80 from Malawi. It is a nice area, up on a plateau, nearly the same elevation as home. It is fairly flat with rocky hills jutting up randomly. Steph is working at St.Francis Mission Hospital ( www.saintfrancishospital.net). Apparently it is quite a nice hospital, but is still African, so very full and could use more funds.

My work is a little less straight forward. I am in Africa working for Engineers Without Borders (EWB). They don't do their own projects, but partner with existing organizations. I am partnered with a mobile finance company (a private company), which receives support from PROFIT (an NGO), which is a branch of USAID (a global donor). A cotton company (a private company) has shares in the mobile finance company, and has asked it to conduct research over 3 months on farmer money usage. I will be working on a team of 6 people. 2 Zambians from PROFIT, 2 Zambians from the mobile finance company and another Muzungu (non-african) who used to work for EWB, but now works for the finance company. I'm still trying to figure it out.

The simple version is:
There is a massive cotton company. Right now, they pay the cotton farmers in cash. An armoured vehicle drives with AK-47's to villages and gives out that cash. The mobile finance company allows people to have a bank account on their cell phone, so instead of trucks, guns and cash, the cotton company can pay the farmers over cellphones and the farmers can go to town and withdraw cash from the mobile finance company agent.

I will spend the next 3 months visiting villages and finding out if this would be helpful to farmers, why or why not, how could it be made better, how do they use cash now, etc.

So far I have visited 4 villages. It's pretty interesting. So many stereotypical things already. When I got to a village, a crowd of 10-20 kids forms and follows us around in interest, but really young ones run crying in fear of 'the white man'. Most people don't speak english (I'm learning Chichewa), they live in brick and sometimes plaster huts with either grass or sheet tin roofs. I was given a chicken and pumpkin as a present yesterday. We will eat it tonight. People are what we could call "poor" for the most part, living on less than a dollar a day. Men get married young, women very young and have children early. I met a 20 year old girl with a 4 year old son and one woman said she was married when she was either 13 or 14. People are very kind and humble and polite, except when drunk. Alcoholism seems to be a problem for a minority here. The idea of competition between individual venders in town is often absent. For example, last night, there were 5 women on the side of the road selling peanuts. They all sold 1 cup for 12cents. Each person was selling exactly the same product, at exactly the same price as the other 4 people sitting directly beside them. We eat Nsima every day. Nsima is pounded dried corn, then you add water and boil until it is a little thicker than mashed potatoes, it's quite similar to overcooked porridge. You eat it with your hands and a 'relish', which could be a meat stew, cooked beans, cooked pumpkin leaves, etc. It is the staple food, meaning that people eat it not just everyday, but for every meal everyday. Plain Nsima but with extra water in the morning. Nsima for lunch, nsima for dinner, everyday. It is very filling and fun to eat as well as tasty! It is so common here people can't understand that we don't eat it in Canada. People ask me what the staple food is in Canada. I used to say wheat, but now answer that there is no staple food in Canada, because we have completely different food pretty much every day. Plus if I start naming foods we eat, like pizza, pasta, burgers, salad I just get blank looks.

Oh, a funny note, I'm still training myself not to ask "OR" questions, like "Do you walk or ride a bike?" because I always get the same answer..."yes". Even if I repeat the question with emphasis on the or "Do you walk....OR....ride a bike", "yes".

I can't over emphasize how kind and gentle people in the villages are. The other EWB volunteers all talk about how they love the village and when I first went to one, I couldn't figure it out, latrines are gross and smelly, the food isn't exceptional, it's very basic living and people are often sick. But I think I am starting to figure it out now. Village people love to talk to you and share, they don't want your money, just company, they love to laugh and talk about Zambia and Canada, teach Chichewa, share food with you, and did I mention laugh!? The will clap their hands and laugh, shake your hand and laugh, I even had a 75 year old woman grab both my hands and just shake them laughing! Also, it's nice being out of a city or town and having fresh air, bright stars and quiet (except for animals).

So, after saying all of that. Steph is doing very well. I am doing well. I am excited to spend the next 3 months out in the villages making friends, picking cotton, harvesting corn and peanuts and learning. There is so much to learn.

Well that's all for now I guess. I kind of rambled on, but nobody's forcing you to read this!

Also, a note on birds of prey. I have seen 3 so far. One hawk about the size of an osprey, which apparently "bites chickens". Another hawk about the size of a red tail that was a beautiful hoverer, nicer than a rough legged hawk. And finally, in town, a grey one about the size of a merlin. I don't know if it was a falcon or more like a coopers hawk, I only saw it briefly from the back.

Lots of love, Ben and Steph

p.s. Another funny note. Coming from Canada I thought that WWE wrestle mania, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson were just for red necks, but apparently they're also for Zambians!