Goodbye Africa

Netebe Village
Yuyi and random baby at HIVE
Brave getting us Mahuluhulu
Sam and the Mahuluhulu (aka best fruit ever)
Saxophone marching in the parade

October 26, 2009

For my last post from Zambia I thought I would start with some random things that have happened in the past few weeks that I haven’t written about yet and then end with some general comments on the trip as a whole.

Last weekend there was a regatta being held out by the African Queen boat club. The rest of the volunteers were either at Chobe for the weekend or helping with the Indian festival being held at Amit’s sport’s club so I went to the regatta by myself. I was one of the only Mzungus (white people) there but it was a lot of fun. Each race featured three or four teams. The captain would down a coke and then run and jump in the raft. They then paddled down and around some buoys and back and then jumped out of the boat, grabbed their flag and ran to the master of ceremonies. The winners of each round then proceeded to the next round until they had a champion.

Last Monday while building at Maanu Mbwami School the vice president of Zambia came to speak to the community. Naturally Sam, Malou and I stopped building and went over to listen. His speech was less than inspiring. He promised to fix the broken water well in the community but also took credit for building the roads that the Japanese government was building in Livingstone. He even gave the government credit for building the new school buildings. That we were building. Brilliant. I found out the next week that the ruling party lost the local elections.

Last Wednesday morning while I was weighing babies at Linda Clinic, a program was being held by the government to give bikes to a peer-mentoring group. The group goes around to local communities and teaches children things like alcohol awareness and the dangers of drugs and alcohol through music, skits and talks. The bikes will help them reach farther away communities. The mentoring group started the program with a drumming and dancing bit where a few of the guys were dressed as woman. Then a few people spoke and the program ended with a skit and the presentation of the bikes.

Last Friday morning we went out to Netebe community. It is a rural village that has very little access to health care. Four of us went out to do home-based care while the other four volunteers stayed at the school to give health talks. We saw only five patients but did plenty of walking in between. It was not as gratifying as I thought it would be but it is mostly because two of the patients had no complaints and the others were chronic unknown problems that weren't life threatening and we weren't really able to treat.

Friday night we all went to eat at Ocean Basket. It was quite pricey but the food was fantastic. Afterwards we went to Fezbar for dessert. I had the apple crumble but there was also chocolate cake. We played some pool and then headed over to Limpo’s for a few drinks. At one point Charlotte went up to get us another round, which left me sitting by myself. A grown man tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to buy him a lager. I said no and then proceeded to ignore him but it seems that white people cannot go anywhere in Zambia without being asked for money or gifts. After Limpo’s five of us made a quick stop at Step Rite for some chicken before heading to a dance club called Fairmount. Around 3:30 am we called it a night and headed home.

The next day was Independence Day. We wandered into town in the morning to watch the parade but I was soon back at the house. I spent most of the day sleeping but apparently there were numerous festivities going on all around town. They included mostly music, dancing, speeches and alcohol.

Sunday morning I got a cab early and went to Zambezi Sun. They have a breakfast buffet that runs from 6:30 to 10:30. I sat down around 7:30 and did not leave until 10. In total I had six courses that included cereal, fruit, meat and cheese, muffins, an omelet, some breakfast meats and three glasses of fruit juice. When I went to get my first plate I loaded it up with fruit and then went to get some cereal. I had to put the fruit plate down to put milk in the cereal and it ended up falling to the floor. So, not only was everyone in the place looking at me but the plate had landed on my big toe and it was bleeding fairly significantly. I stood there for a while debating what to do. I decided that the hotel staff could clean up the plate so I hobbled back to my table with the cereal. I wrapped my toe up in the napkin and wiped the blood off of my sandal and proceeded to eat my cereal as if nothing had happened.

Today I am just wrapping up some stuff around the house and around town. I might possibly go swimming this afternoon and will probably go out tonight. I need to remember to pack too. I tried to exchange some of my old clothes at the curios market but they kept wanting money on top of what I was giving them and I really do not want to spend money on souvenirs right now. I stopped by the post office as well but the package mom sent me is still not here (guess you’ll be getting back some really old cookies in a month or so…).

Back at the house the staff is on strike. Guess I will not be getting my lasagna tonight. Hopefully things get resolved. I would really like to see the drivers and rest of staff before I leave tomorrow. I have loved getting to know this town and the people in it. I am going to miss it. But I will be back. Someday.

That’s all until Thailand. I fly out tomorrow around 1:30 and will then be staying in Johannesburg for two days. On Thursday I fly out to Bangkok with a short layover in Hong Kong. I will be travelling around Thailand with eleven other people. I will post when I can but internet might be a little bit trickier there. Miss you all!