April

Our lovely cards could at last go up...
 but one by one they fell down
 so new spot next month

Settling In
Well after all the excitement of moving, we soon spread out around the house and loved just being there.  We have inherited Sooty and Sarabeth, two very friendly cats, Sooty being a little on the large side. They stay inside the four walls of the garden, supposedly outdoor cats but usually on the sofa, like all cats they know who’s boss, we are just the new staff. Another inheritance, although this is rather life changing, is Estelle who helps around the house. We had already been told that it would be seen as the right thing to do as it provides employment.  So, Estelle comes twice a week from 8am to 1pm.  Her wages for a month are 150,000 kwacha, which is just under £20, so we can afford this and it is completely wonderful to have her help.  Happily for us too Mr Chivula from Chodort comes and does the garden once a week, it’s too hot to do anything ourselves even with the best of intentions.    

A glimpse of the garden - Rahem's palace just showing
as well as a visit from the egrets

The garden is bursting with fruit, currently 

guavas, so Jane felt the urge to make guava  jam as there are literally bucketfuls of them.  Made first lot, not the set kind but more the mashed kind, but tasty anyway.  I later made a second batch, still not as set as one might expect.  Also guava ice cream (delicious as it involved cream) baked guavas etc etc.

All Jane’s spare time seemed to go into making the mosquito net – so many visits to the Indian run Laxmi’s to chase supplies, a quick MOT from Chodort for the Russian hand sewing machine and then many sewing sessions; one in a thunderstorm in the afternoon, all the lights were on and it was nearly dark outside, the rain was coming down in stair rods. Mesmerizing                         

Saturday night pizza night with Jennifer, Paul, Famke and Lorraine

Easter    
Since we were so fortunate to be in this house, complete with working shower(s), we invited some of our VSO friends to stay, so on Good Friday we collected Lorraine (Vancouver) and Jennifer (Halifax, Nova Scotia) and Famke (Belgium) from the bus station. We thought we better give them the full experience so we dined on pizzas and pavlova.  On the Saturday we went to guess where the museum restaurant for coffee /tea etc, braved the market as it is easier in a group, and then had a BBQ with Wycliffe too. Lorraine had to leave early on Easter Sunday, but the rest of us went to church – unfortunately we missed the 5am start...At least we made it for 8 o’clock before the end, although we couldn’t fit inside the church and were on the extra seating in the doorway.  The beautiful sound of their singing flooded the whole place, truly uplifting. Very proud of our adopted church, also that our visitors qualified for the much prized special Fantas, Sprite, Coke etc afterwards.  It’s funny as it didn’t really seem like Easter Sunday at all, probably due to the lack of chocolate. We had bought some sugar coated chocolate eggs from Spar so we all had one of those, but, as ever, they were not the sort of chocolate we're used to!

Famke, Jane and Jennifer - all ladies were presented with a yellow rose -
outside St Stephen's in the courtyard at Chodort

Later we had a walk around the market which was deserted being Sunday, and especially Easter Sunday. It was good to have it empty to get our bearings and work out the way to walk through the market as it is another way to town for us from home, and we could do it in peace without being urged to make a purchase or to come and ‘just look’ at the latest items for sale. We decided on lunch at, guess where, the Museum, then have a walk.  This is something that Zambians find curious, going for a walk.  Why would you want to do that? Walking is for getting somewhere, not to wander around aimlessly looking around.   Anyway we walked to the site to see the houses Paul is building – a must for any visitor.  Coming on very well, so tidy. We walked further up the wide sandy road in the early evening sun, and came to a brand new church which has just been finished. This has caused a lot of discussion, and is called the New Apostolic Church.

Children's Easter Holiday Programme

Most of the youngsters in the programme -
 we used the room behind for our painting

Jane had agreed to help on an activity programme run by the Catholic Orphans and Vulnerable Children’s’ Committee. This was mainly for children who were HIV positive. It was to run for two weeks, and for the first couple of days I made a colour book with them, using one piece of A4 paper each and painting something of each colour on the pages.  The highlight was a trip to Mumba Farm, run by a Mr Mike Beckett and his wife Gina, white Zambian farmers in their eighties who were born here. They employ several hundred Zambian workers, preferring to help many families with employment, housing and medical care rather than use machinery which does happen sometimes on other farms. We saw the dairy cows being milked by hand and everyone had a go, we saw the calves drinking from a bucket, the beef herd and their prize stud bull, and all the kids were able to pick up (and drop) the lambs, an unusual breed bred for their short fur, a cross between a Dorset sheep and an African bald one.  Strange mixture.

Everyone had a go at milking

Friday with an unsuspecting
crossbred lamb

After the farm visit the kids painted from my drawings of the animals, traced at the window.  Some were smart and some slow, all adorable and very keen, but they all loved the opportunity to be actually painting, mixing colours and generally enjoying the process.  They varied in their ability of course, by the end of the sessions they spontaneously stuck their paintings on the outside wall of the little building we were in. As always they adored having their pictures taken, sometimes to the call “me only!”, so I have a growing library of photos of Zambian children, I find them irresistible.

Vincent with his cow painting

Lunch cooked on two open fires for 30+ every day,
from nshima to chicken or beef stew

The young children came each morning and stayed for a slap up lunch – all cooked in a camp kitchen over two open fires.  Took me back to scout camp days, but this was cooking out of doors as necessity as there was no kitchen, the norm for thousands of families here.  Every day they had nshima, the maize based food all Zambians adore without question. The older kids came for lunch and had counselling and discussions in the afternoon.  All children had one to one discussions about thei own needs, eg taking their medicine at the right time each day and having a proper diet, as most of them had no one responsible enough at home to remind them.  Some would be absent, notably from the farm trip, and I was told they had to do chores at home – collecting water, cleaning the house, washing the clothes. No way to spend a childhood, even worse when they have a programme like this laid on for them and they are not allowed to go.

Spot the Muzungu

Rahem came to help for last couple of days which was fun, we could handle more children and I could have some photos with me in action. On the last day we caused quite a scrum when we gave them all a packet of crayons each (thanks Tony and Nicola!) and bought some exercise books from Spar to go with them.

A Big Day on the Site

Nixon's Tower is finally up!

Painting, fitting doors, glazing windows and continuing to build the boundary walls, these things all continue throughout the weeks. The drainage system is being built to better standards than normal for here and connected to a septic tank. We’re all learning a lot!  The main water supply will come from a borehole on the opposite side of the site, so there’s lots of trenches being dug to lay the pipe and electric cable into.  April 10^th was a memorable day when we erected the water tower in readiness for the tank. The only crane in the area was hired to take the tower from the college, where it had been made, and then lifted it into position on the new foundations.  We named it ‘Nixon’s Tower’ after David (the Principal) who has returned back to Ireland.  It’s great fun on site with all the students and workers keen to learn and press on with the work and get things finished.

Trip to Lusaka 
Towards the end of April we made our second venture out of Choma. Some furniture made at Chodort needed to be delivered to Lusaka, Paul need building supplies for the houses, Jane needed supplies for the larder, and we both needed to see our friends and have a meal out, in the evening, in a restaurant. We had a slight delay on the Friday morning of our departure as some setting out posts Paul had used the day before had been stolen (for chair legs??) so he had to sort that out, but we set off with the pick up complete with it’s metal lid loaded with the furniture, our empty cool box, sleeping bags etc all ready for the capital.

One way to get there

Four hours to go

 It’s a long, straight and pretty good road, with bushland ether side, but every now and again in the middle distance there would be a collection of thatched huts all together mixed with thatched brick buildings, and these are villages, although not as we know them, more a family unit including grandparents, grandchildren, brothers,

sisters, children, aunts, uncles and yet more children.  More of that in May.  We came to the woodcarving stall we have already mentioned is at Kafue on the way too. No time to stop though as the afternoon was wearing on, bringing the 

darkness when no one is supposed to be driving around. Our first stop was to take the furniture to the General Secretary of UCZ, no problem, then we asked Moses the driver to show us the way to the apartment we were staying in.  Dark had fallen by now, difficult to navigate as well as work around the hidden hazards everywhere. Only drawback - Jane had to get inside the back of the pick up, I needed the door open so I wasn’t locked in pitch dark so it was quite strange especially at traffic lights being lit up by the car behind. 

We eventually found our apartment with Richeal’s help and it was as nice as had been promised, although power as well was a luxury too far. The only problem was the lack of tea in the morning ... but hey, we got by.  Over the weekend we got to know Lusaka, and where our friends were living.  We visited their favourite Indian restaurant Mahaks (twice, had to be done) with it’s bargain £4 all you can eat menu, and the other evenings we were invited to meals at their houses so we were made very welcome and it was so good to have them all around – we even bumped into people we knew, that’s always good.  We all got together on the Saturday night, and when someone made the comment about VSO Lusaka life being something like living in Hollyoaks; we know who would relate to that!

Dinner and drinks with Lorraine (and Sarah the photographer)

Lusaka has several Western style shiny new shopping malls, quite a surprise when in the UK we really only hear about the poverty here. We treated ourselves to breakfast in the Starbucks-style Mug and Bean, we were a little surprised to find that the bill came to almost a quarter of our weeks’ allowance.  So Choma is the right place for us, since if we lived in Lusaka we would not be able to afford ANY meals or drinks out, and the shops would be tempting too. Well, one or two of them perhaps. Pick and Pay was one of those huge supermarkets that could be anywhere in the world, with rather more choice than the little old Spar in Choma.  We went to an African crafts market and bought an elephant wallhanging and two tray tables.  The ritual negotiating ensued; the tables were eventually down to around £12 each.

Sweet As!

Quick blast of luxury tropical surroundings 

We went to friendly building merchants galore,given cold drinks all round while we were being served and bought Dulux paint mixed for the outside of the houses, plumbing fittings and other niceties.  We set off back to Choma on Tuesday morning, with a quick tea and coffee stop at Sandy’s Creations, a sort of garden centre with a guest house with manicured lawns, tropical palms, thatched roundels and such like.  Turned out to be South African, no surprise. We had to make a stop on the way home to that certain woodcarvers co-operative, where we bought an irrestible giraffe stool come table, which eventually only set us back 60,000 kwachas, about £8.  

Thank you Sooty

Often hard to get past the street vendors and inside

Back to Choma
Any spare hour for Jane at home was spent on the mosquito net, so that just seemed to roll on and on forever, although there was plenty of help available from Sooty.

I was also making several visits to the Museum (not the restaurant) to see the Director about a VSO position for me there, but funds are short at VSO so it is not looking likely at the moment. If I can get a bid together perhaps I will have a big fundraising effort, but more of that another time. I often visit the Craft Centre there too on behalf of Chodort Crafts, collecting cash earned as our items are sold there with commission for the Museum.

There are also frequent trips to Spar, sometimes with a lift home from Paul and sometimes with the plastic shopping bags cutting my hands in two with the weight! Paul is still managing to get home for lunch although sometimes things get busy on the site and lunchtime slips away.  So keen!

Mochipapa Road School Library
Jane’s next project was to help Rahem with creating a school library, which didn't exist until she found around 300 previously donated books in a small building in the school of about 80 children, aged 7 to 11 or so.Zambian children start school at the age of 7, and have to repeat a school year if they do not ‘pass’.  This means that they are often 20 or 21 by the time they finish school, and if they get to Grade 12 is a great achievement due to the cost of secondary education.  Anyway we spent some time documenting all the books, sorting them into grades with the help of Prudence one of the teachers, and putting onto some unused (surprise) bookshelves the school also had.

.

Waiting for customers

New shiny smooth floor

The headmaster initially viewed the whole project with some suspicion and was reluctant to supply us with any chairs for the library.  Rahem gave her own four dining chairs and he rustled up a few plastic ones eventually.  The floor was rough concrete so Rahem asked Paul to organise the laying of the typical smooth shiny cement surface on top, so then The Library was ready for action. We told the headmaster we wanted to open the library on Thursday 27^th, so on that day we arrived with sweets and stickers to give each child, but they had to listen to us first.  We gave each class a little talk and read out what we called the Library Guidelines.  Some did not know what the word library was, so we had explain and spell out some rules, such as replacing books to the same shelf, talking quietly, not drawing etc in the books. The headmaster was a lot more keen on the idea by this time, and enthusiastically translated into Tonga for the younger children so they would understand what the heck was going on.  We made plans for how the library could be used by the children throughout the week and very much hope that the head will continue with this. We can’t be there all day every day but will go in every week and read to the children class by class in groups of 10 or so.

Busy Weekend in Choma

Now Ben, this Rooibos tea,
are you sure it's good?

Jane you will love it

There were only four of us!  So much
washing up, well done boys

Ben asked us and Rahem for dinner on the Friday night, so inevitably, off goes the power. That's where the blessing of a gas cooker comes in (as well as an electric one) as our delicious dinner could continue being cooked at our house.  Rahem seems to have decided that photography was more important that washing up afterwards .. there are about fifty more of these ...

Lunch al fresco

Rahem, Ben, Rowland and Paul picnicking at Polocrosse

On the Saturday we decided to watch a cricket match at the Sports Club, and to make an occasion of it we would have a picnic lunch first.  Ben had no peace as he was asked more than once to play for Choma, but he had eaten too much of his infamous Chocolate Cola Cake.  Paul was allergic to the flowers on

the tree above us so he had a sneezing fit, but otherwise it was peaceful and calm.  

Sunday brought the annual Choma Polocrosse match, on the land of the same farm I had visited with the children.  This is something between polo and lacrosse and very popular in South Africa.  We heard there would be home reared and made beef burgers on a stall, so we didn't need persuading.  Roland (VSO, Newcastle) joined us for the day and we came across the white Zambian farming community for the first time.  It was just like an event in Sussex, we had to pinch ourselves.

So, a busy weekend to round off our April story. 

Back home behind our zebra gates