Time for disease and vacation

The last week of November I went back to Kelondu after three weeks out. I attended a workshop in Solwezi with one of my counterparts, Dominic Kazhimoto, on how to implement HIV/AIDS awareness in our area. During the workshop I became quite sick, and had to go down to Lusaka to be probed by Peace Corps medical. It turned out I had some sort of gastrointestinal infection which I suspect was salmonella. It was a pretty terrible infection and I was put on Ciprofloxin for 5 days to basically nuke my intestines of any organisms. Even the antibiotics haven't really brought me back to normal yet, and I've since been having recurring symptoms. I just have to be more careful about what I'm eating and touching, try to wash my hands more, and never stray too far from home. It's really something that I've been learning to live with. It's sometimes easy to forget that there is no health code in Zambia. You do everything at your own risk, and sometimes you pay for it.

It has been an interesting few weeks in Kelondu since I returned after Thanksgiving. The rains have become regular, though not always predictable, and people have begun to leave the villages during the week to go work in their fields. This is the time of year when people plant cassava cuttings, government subsidized maize, and pineapple suckers, the three major crops in our area. People traditionally make mounds for planting cassava so that the tubers are easy to harvest. The cuttings grow quickly and produce sweet potato-like tubers after a year. The tubers are pounded into flour and used to make nshima, which we eat at least twice a day. We wouldn't normally grow maize in our area because the soil is acidic and not very fertile. Also, we don't get much sun in the wet growing season, making it difficult to get good maize yields. However, the Department of Agriculture runs a maize and fertilizer subsidy program that provides matching grants to farmers.  Most farmers take advantage of this program to grow some additional food for the year.

Christas (center) brought me one of the large local mushrooms she found near the fields.

I finally finished the windows on my house, so now you can't easily break in anymore.

Inside my chota (sitting shelter). A favorite place for goats to rest now that it's rainy season. I'm going to build a bamboo trellis with morning glory around the outside to keep the goats out. Also you can see my fuel-efficient stove under construction in this picture.

My house and chota. There are some citrus and guava trees in front of the house.

These are my wheels!

We've been attending a lot of funerals in the past few weeks. Three people in Kelondu have died in the last three weeks. In Lunda culture, funerals are among the most important events. Almost every adult in the area attends the funerals. Most funerals last several days and include a mourning period, burial, and finalizing arrangements.  My host family lost one of our grandchildren, Christine, who was 6 years old, last weekend. She had been at Kaleni Mission Hospital for 5 days after coming down with malaria. After a few, days we had learned from her grandparents whom were at the hospital that she had serious cerebral malaria and her condition was worsening. When I heard that news, I was fearing that she wouldn't survive. Malaria is extremely bad in Zambia, and it is a major killer of young children. Rural Zambians simply not not have access to doctors, medicine, and good nutrition like those in towns. The night she died, Saturday,I had spent the night at one of the teacher's houses because of rain. Early the next morning, as I was returning home on my bike, I saw people walking toward my village. I knew immediately what had happened before I even got the news. As I came to my village, I saw people huddled around fires who had spent the previous night mourning. I greeted family members whom had arrived during the night, and went in the house to see the body. My host parents had empty looks on their faces, drained from being at the hospital for a week. Their daughter Clara, 23, the mother of Christine, was a complete mess. I couldn't believe that a little girl that I had seen almost every day of my time with the Musokola family, was now lying in front of me dead. The funeral was very quick the next day. Hundreds of people had arrived on Sunday once they heard the news of the child's death. Some people came from 60 or more kilometers away, a sign of the respect everyone has for my host family. People rallied to build the coffin and bury the child before noon on Sunday. The graveyard is in a patch of forest not too far down the road. For the next two days after the burial, my host family struggled to set terms with the child's father, who gives little support to the two children he has fathered with Clara. About a hundred people were sleeping outside my house for 2 days in the rain. I decided I had to get out of my village for a few days and visit the new Aquaculture volunteers in Ikelenge, Mike and Kinzie. I had yet to see where they lived because they had just been posted in late October.

My chicken house

One of my hens, Kimbo



My other hen, Maude, and her 4 chicks that look nothing like her. Only the white one in the front has survived.



Me using a shallow plow made from an old bicycle frame at Mujila Farms near Kanyama. The farm is run by the Methodist Church to promote improved agriculture in the area.



My finished and functioning fuel-efficient stove



My brothers Fred, Kellis, Kephaus, and Clicent out on Nyambela Plain, one of my favorite places to go birding.


   I'm now in Solwezi preparing to go on vacation for a few weeks. I'll be heading down to Lusaka for a few days to take care of some things, then I'll be heading to Chipata in Eastern Province to visit some other volunteers. We will be spending X-mas at the Lundazi Castle near Lundazi. Then after a few days I will be travelling with some other volunteers to Nkhata Bay in Malawi. It will be a nice, relaxing beach vacation I hope. Lake Malawi has among the highest freshwater fish diversity in the world. We will be staying at Njaya Lodge for part of the time and Mayoka Village as well over New Years'.

I have really enjoyed receiving all your letters and packages. It really makes my days sometimes. Getting mail has never been so exciting, so keep writing because I want to hear about what you are doing, even if you don't think it is important.