June

Preschool on 1st    

A scrum for the next thing made of playduff

Friday morning means preschool day for me, and the first time I went to help in St Stephen’s preschool (situated in Chodort) I decided to take some playdough, which proved a big hit.  Here it is called Playduff - I can't work that one out?  Luckily I took 30 balls of it in which was just enough for us all to have one each, and then the teacher Audrine (I called her Audrey for about 6 weeks)  and I spent the next two hours answering requests to make things – Auntie, make me a car!  Auntie, make me a necklace, Auntie make me a bicycle (I ask you how do you make a bicycle from playdough), Auntie, make me a dog, etc etc.  The playdough jewellery was popular with the girls ranging from hair beads (not a huge success) to bracelets, rings etc.  

Royce with her playduff necklace and ring - she's so
beautiful!

Every one of the children, like all Zambians we've seen, is very good at singing, as well as very good at dancing, and at the end of the mornings we either have a story or a song - they prefer the latter.  I was able to teach them a few nursery rhymes they didn't know, but at the end of one morning I was treated to something like a well rehearsed West End musical.  It was amazing!  The children jumped into their positions, some on the desks, rocking and singing away, and every child put so much enthusiasm into it. The lead role was filled by Audrine, equally talented, with their tune – Working in the Kitchen ...

The Site

Mmmm Nshima anyone?
Dublin the woodwork teacher, Jane and Mrs Mbawe,
Odin (Pauls' star trainee site manager) and two
carpentry students

One Friday Paul had all 12 of the carpentry students over from Chodort to fix the fascias on to the first house, and so to thank them for the extra work we treated them to lunch (also saved transport to and from Chodort).  So we asked our friend Mrs Mbawe to cook up some lunch for them which she did, and Jane helped to dish it up from the back of the truck.  Mrs Mbawe is the chief cook and bottle washer at Chodort, and is in charge of  making tea and sometimes meals and she had no trouble whipping up a feast for the boys – nshima naturally, beef knuckles in gravy and a vegetable relish – green beans chopped and prepared with tomatoes and onions. (As that is the law here)  (Well, you would think so.  Whenever you ask how to prepare something that is ALWAYS the answer, oh, take some oil and fry it with tomatoes and onions.)  Anyway it all went down very well, even though there were not enough plates and they had to wash and return them ready for the next person.  

Goat curry

That Friday evening we ventured to the Golf Club with Ben and Rahem as we had heard there was an authentic Indian goat curry served there every week.  We met some Indian people we knew, since this is Choma, namely Rupek our ex-landlord, the very jovial owner of Arupees garage which sells not just fuel but also wait for it, stationery, saucepans, plates and glasses, material, dried foods etc.   Paul meets lots of the Indian businessmen when he’s out and about in town for the site, so he was welcomed by them all.  

The curry was delicious - very meaty goat, and the vegetables we had seen in the huge pot on the brazier (made from a tractor wheel we were advised) had all cooked down completely.  The curry is made on a Wednesday for the white farmers, and on a Friday for the Indians, since those two groups make up Choma Golf Club.  We are learning, we are learning ...

 Jubilee BBQ 

Well it's nearly a Union Flag  - dual purpose scarf

The red the white and the blue

We marked the Queen’s Jubilee in our time-honoured tradition – with a BBQ, naturally  – thankfully I don’t know how to put the short video of us and Ben singing the National Anthem on here.  I have brought a scarf (thanks Tor!) with a square Union flag (yes I know it's wrong!) on it for such occasions, and Paul and I wore our red white and blue.  

Otherwise the main event for us was the following day, where we watched the Jubilees Regatta at the Sports Club.  The locals started to watch supportively, but drifted off after a while, they couldn’t handle

all that water ... 

What does this word say?

Once Upon a Time ...

Library

On our Thursday morning visits Rahem and I are gradually working our way through the whole school, one grade each week in two groups, so they all would know the library and have had a story read to them, which we took in turns. The children all love the illustrations in the books, which are mostly excellent and make the books come alive to the children – they would giggle and gasp as we turned the pages of some of the more spectacular. We worked our way down the age groups, so with the younger ones in Grade 1 and 2 there was very little fluent 

reading out loud from the children, and some of the answers to our questions were rather unexpected, eg "What colour are the shoes?"  Answer "Bananas".  Mmm.  We realised the answers had been correct on the previous page so the kids thought it was worth a try; so we are not too sure about their understanding of English sometimes, but hey ho, we plod on.

Preschool

Sun, stars and the moon, it's all here

This week I made some stencils from cereal packets as the teacher had said we were painting, but she changed her mind and they were colouring, which meant the stencils would last another day, good thinking.  She is pretty organised and always has a plan for what the children are doing. On the walk home that day some of the children were on the way home and shouted out goodbye from the back of a bicycle, and then I met some more children from the Mochipapa School where we had opened the library, it’s so sweet when they call out Auntie, Auntie from across the street. Feeling part of the community.

Choma Life

How's that for a walk home?

Oden passing by - Paul just needs a quick word ...

... and a pose for the camera

Couldn't resist a Pointsettia Tree

That's where the scarf ended up

That's how cold it is at night here - morning of
12th June - frost on the garden

Visit to Rosemary the Brickmaker

Rosemary with one of her grandchildren

We think a lot of Rosemary.  We visited her first back in March with Rhoda and she was kind enough to give us all a slap up lunch.  She is a caregiver for the OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) Committee basically meaning she looks after heaps of children, some close and some distantly related.  She not only has a brick making enterprise which she runs with her daughter, but she makes the traditional hand brooms that sell well here, and also grows her own maize.  Then she tells us she doesn't have a job - she's amazing.

The OVC committee meeting that Jane was planning on going to had been cancelled (for the third time), and I met Rosemary outside as she had turned up as well as me.  We got chatting and she invited us to see her brick kiln, so we made a visit on the Sunday afternoon. It is quite a common sight to see these kilns around, as the soil from an anthill is ideal, and there are plenty of anthills.  Not little ones.  They are anything up to about 4 or 5 metres tall, and the soil is nice and sandy and very finely sifted by the ants.  Clever ants, they are the beginning of the brick making process here.

Work is very near home

The brick kiln, very hot and smokin

Thousands and thousands of bricks

Back home to see the family

.




Lusaka Trip

Mr Paul supervising the loading

More building supplies were needed for the houses, specifically floor tiles , so off we set on the Saturday morning at 6am, we made good time, just the four and a half hours (Uh what a journey).  Paul had been sold some Chinese floor tiles in Choma which turned out to be cracked and bubbled, completely hopeless, so we had to go and get some South African ones. We were lucky enough to be able to stay with Sarah from London, so had a great base to use, and some fun evenings too - we saw Richeal and met up with Sarah and Nicky's Zambian friends for a night on the town which was enlightening ...



After  stocking up on supplies which involved sitting in a hot truck in some long lengthy traffic jams, and a supermarket shop, the solace of the lovely Zebra Crossing Cafe was welcome.  It's a combination of art gallery/restaurant/internet cafe/art supplies shop, so it is like an oasis of calm in the chaos and heat of Lusaka.

So long as Paul has his tea all is well

Choma Life

Phew, back to Choma.  Jane is still painting with the art group every Wednesday, one of these days I will put some of my work on here!  We sometimes have a theme, sometimes not, but on one particular day we went out to one of the art group member's dam to spot the lechwe (antelope type) and do a spot of sketching..  It was real African bush, searing heat even in this cold season, and we did see the lechwe. 

Now I am in a tangle with this blog - the captions will not work normally on the following two photos for some reason so this will have to do.

The dam with the in laws house behind

A zoomed in view of the lechwe  

Some sort of e-blip there. 

If it's Thursday it must be the library

So, June rolled away, but the grand finale was a lovely weekend away on Lake Kariba, the largest man made lake in the world at 140 miles long. This blog is playing up so next bulletin for July will include our Lake Kariba trip.  It was the weekend of 30th June and 1st July after all. 

March

We need to speed up the blog as we are now seriously behind schedule – so this is a whizz through to the end of March.  We need to catch up, Zambia’s just as bad as the UK for getting on with these things.

Well, here goes.  It’s hard to remember just what it was like back in early March as we had still not moved then – we still had the questionable delights of a “house in the garden” to enjoy, so life was very different. 

The bridge at Victoria Falls from the Boiling Pot

At this stage Paul was getting to grips with taking over the running of the site and how things are done in Zambia. The first couple of houses were under way and a borehole had been drilled to 38 metres on to the water table. Foundations were dug for a water tower which would hold the tank of stored water to supply the houses on site. Drainage to a septic tank was also under way so things were starting to move!

Jane was whizzing about the place with Rhoda in their big white Isuzu 4 x 4 (not quite) to continue to meet people, being introduced as Rhoda had to say goodbye to them.  We still had changeable weather since the rainy season was still in full swing –  either rain for a couple of hours each day, or not at all for two weeks then a humungous thunderstorm.  The rest of the time it would be hot and sunny and you would think, what rainy season?  By hot it has always been somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees Celcius, so Jane was welded to her brolly, Zambian sunshade style, and Paul similarly welded to his Tilley hat. 

The upper reaches of the Zambeze River - Jane, Paul, Nuambe,
 Richeal, Ginny and the left half of Carole (Sorry Carole!)

On Saturday 10^th we made our first excursion, to one of the seven wonders of the natural world that is Victoria Falls. We boarded the 10am bus to Livingstone with Richeal, and were met by Ginny (VSO, UK) and Carole (VSO, Belgium) to stay at theirs.  After lunch the five of us set off in two cars to the Falls.  We had two young and enthusiastic Zambian guides, Levi and Nuambe, that the girls work with in their office, so they ensured we had the whole experience.  We stopped by the upper reaches of the great Zambeze River, hurtling along at enormous speed, we stopped at the first photo call bridge where the view of the Falls just takes your breath away, the power of the water pounding down the Falls is truly a memorable sight. We donned rubber ponchos (sweaty from the last ten people) to do the walk, you have your own personal rain cloud above you as the mist from the falls soaked us completely.  We walked along the edge of the Falls, did the Knife Edge Bridge (no sweat) and looked across the Falls to Zimbabwe.  We got rid of the sweaty ponchos and walked down, down, down a tropical paradise of a path, with lemons growing and flowers of all sorts, to the Boiling Pot where the river is a heaving mass of whirlpools after its high speed journey.  A beautiful, peaceful place.  However, the climb back uphill was no picnic.

Victoria Falls

That evening was spent in Olga’s, the only restaurant we had been to apart from Choma Museum Restaurant.  We had our fill of pizza and some rather cough-mixture style white wine – but even so the combination of cheese and wine was pretty good.  Cheese is something of a luxury, so melted all over a pizza is a good moment.  What a day.

On the Sunday we were joined by Lorraine (VSO Canada), Jennifer (VSO Canada) and Hans (VSO Netherlands) for a BBQ.  They had been staying the night before we arrived and did the Falls the day before, and then went on a two day overnight trip to Chobe, in Botswana, on a game viewing excursion.  They arrived fresh back from all this full of stories and photographs of elephants, giraffes, hippos and lions (also something about forged immigration documents and refusing to have a room without en suite) and it sounded like ‘must do’ trip.  That’s one to do soon, maybe September????

One of the trips was to deliver some Chodort Crafts stock to the Museum shop, and there were some takings to collect too.  (Jane later had to make three visits but got it in the end.)  The shop is the busiest part of the Museum – it has crafts from local individuals and co-operatives, mainly baskets, pottery, wood carvings, jewellery and textiles. So the Museum is the place to be in Choma.   It has the only craft shop and the only restaurant – we know how to live!  It also has an internet cafe, but sadly the museum part is rather faded and out of date.   It would be great to be able to do something about this, hopefully there will be some developments on that front but who knows.

It was around now that Jane started to order the material needed for making a bed canopy mosquito net, one that you can stand up in and it makes the bed look like a four poster when it is pulled aside in the daytime.  The netting was the first thing, and this was ordered from Laxmi Electricals (where else) along with ribbon and lining, to come from Lusaka. This was the beginning of the saga and eventually involved about ten trips to the aforementioned store, as when it finally arrived there was no cotton thread or the tape needed – that had to come from Zimbabwe. I was texting the assistant, Vincent, at one stage to see if the items were in yet. Lovely friendly service though! 

Lunch with Rhoda and David al fresco at our old house

Mother’s Day brought a lovely surprise, yes a call from ‘our three’!  It was such fun, wonderful to hear their voices and we had two mobile phones with calls from London and Chichester, with all five of us talking at once – I don’t know how we do it!  It didn’t feel like Mothering Sunday at all as we had been to a service at St Stephens earlier that day, but rather than the same as the UK it was an ‘HIV/AIDS Sunday Service in English and Vernacular’ with the fabulous choir in full voice.  Singing about HIV and AIDS ... that was a first for us.


 

From cow to churn
 (Rupek in red, milking boy in half overalls)

Later that day we went out with our landlord, Rupek, to his farm just along the road. He has a dairy herd which were being milked by hand while we were there, and several goats and chickens.  There is a disused tobacco drying barn which he showed us, explaining the processes involved – very labour intensive.  The prices have dropped apparently so they are growing more maize and soya.  The milking process was fun to watch, all the cows are trained to know their own name so the milkers know who has been milked, and they have a bag of feed with their name on it to eat at the same time.  Smart move.  We later went with Rupek to take the milk, in stainless steel churns, to the Dairy Board Depot in town – it was tested for whatever, accepted and added to huge refrigerated vats. All the milk is taken to Lusaka and processed and distributed from there under the name Parmalat, along with other dairy products.

Back at the farm though, there were a few local people waiting around to buy milk straight from the cow – still warm and frothy.  We watched a small boy with his even smaller brother, struggling to get a very large drum of milk strapped to the back of his grown up bike.  This took at least half an hour to accomplish, but once successful, off he went along the path through the field with, yes, his brother hitching a ride as well.  Good training I guess because the things we see on bicycles are beyond belief – cages full of chickens (several cages as well as several chickens) huge bundles of charcoal (again, several and they are BIG bags), sometimes furniture, or bits of wood approaching 5 metres long.  The best one that Paul saw was a pig strapped into the child seat.  Classic Choma. I did see a small herd of goats and chickens waiting at the bus stop the other day though.

The completed boundary wall at the front of the plot
- maize growing for now with houses in background

The following week Paul’s main focus on the site became getting the water tower up – the tower was ready and waiting in the courtyard at Chodort.  He had to find the only crane in Choma, and for that company to check that the crane, complete with the 9 metre tower could navigate the roads and tracks from Chodort to the site, tarmac or otherwise. Not a long journey by any means but you have to think of everything.  Also the main boundary wall to the front of the site was next to be built, so that needed setting out and bricklayers found and negotiated with. 

UCZ St Stephen's Preschool

Jane helped out at the UCZ preschool one afternoon that week – the teacher hadn’t turned up (no phone call to anyone and she had the keys to the cupboard with EVERYTHING in it) so the lady who makes tea and cleans at Chodort, Mrs Mwaybe, who is around 65 or so, was in charge of about 30 children with no toys or equipment, from 8.30 am to about 4pm. Not easy.  We had been given some coloured pencils to bring to Zambia so they went down well, and step by step the children all had to draw a portrait of Jane!  Interesting results.  A little bit of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star etc was surprisingly successful, and of course when the camera came out later that was fascinating to them - they all love a digital camera.

Mrs Mwaybe and her grandchildren (maybe not all of them)

Jane (and Paul later on) went to Mrs Mwaybe’s house on the local compound with Rhoda, as she and David had helped her with the building of a new house.  This comprised of a small sitting room and two very small bedrooms. Bathroom arrangements were not discussed (best way) and the kitchen was, well, the Great Outdoors.  Most people will cook in the open air, on a charcoal fire, and are so talented at what can be produced – they put us to shame.  The house had no proper floor only earth, no windows or glass just small openings with material flapped over and the door had no handle or lock, so Mrs M would pile bricks up against it at night to feel safe. She has no bed just a mattress on the floor.  This is her new house.  Between the Nixons and us we are working on getting her those missing basics she needs to be safe and secure, which, in our terms, is not an expensive project, but she is just one of so many people who live like that; of course some have far less.

The Friday of that week was Richeal’s last day in Choma – her VSO placement here hadn’t worked out so she was off to the bright lights in Lusaka.  We had a final Wonderbake cappuchino (Yes, the only place in Choma for those) and a few farewell visits around town.

We were getting close to moving day – David and Rhoda had lots of dinner and lunch invitations, and we were included in lunch with Subi and Sophia Thomas on the Sunday. (Subi is the accountant at Chodort and is running it with Mr Mwango who is now the Vice Principal.)  The Bishop and his wife (no English) were there too, and the Thomas’ have two boys, Harrington, 4, and baby David.  They have just moved in to a lovely house they have designed themselves, and lunch was served outside under a modern but traditional style thatched roundel with two tables built in – I couldn’t help but imagine them at a Garden Show at home!  (Sorry I digress.)

Back in Choma, the next big event coming up was the House Move, but that would be a bittersweet moment involving our goodbyes to David and Rhoda.  They did so much for us, made us feel so welcome and part of the community, and ensured that we had all the information we needed.  We had frequent visits to the house; very often for a meal with friends or a quick coffee between visits or, more often than not, to bring our washing to use the ... yes ... washing machine!  Such luxury.  The norm here is to wash everything by hand, sheets and towels, the lot, but this we have been spared. We know that we are house sitting until a new principal for the college can be found, and keep that thought at the back of our minds.  Paul’s houses better be good if and when we need to move in to one!

Moving day was approaching fast; on the Tuesday afternoon we said our goodbyes to David and Rhoda on their verandah, having been invited to pop in to exchange the contents of our cameras – Rhoda and Jane had taken SO many pictures over the last few weeks (surprising, that). They had made several trips to Lusaka to deliver their belongings to the airport for carriage to their home in Ireland, and the last few suitcases were packed and ready. So strange that they were off for a new life in Ireland after thirteen years here, very difficult for them to say goodbye to many good friends they had made during that time.  Even though we would move into the Nixon’s lovely house were very sad to say goodbye too; we will always remember the time we had together and how well we ‘clicked’ with them both.  A few cups of tea and home made biscuits sealed our friendshlp of six weeks or so, and we returned for our last night Chez Rupek.

All our worldly goods in Zambia on the back of a lorry

We had promised to move early the next day (Wednesday 28th) soon after David and Rhoda left around 7am, so they would know the house was never empty.  We were only too pleased to comply with that wish, and after Paul had got the site going he returned with the Chodort truck AND the Chodort lorry pretty soon after, we loaded our cases and the extra household things we had accumulated and made the very short journey (a giant leap in another way) to the new house, Plot Number 699 Edinburgh Road, Mochipapa District, Choma. Oh what a contrast, we couldn’t believe we had made it!  We were so happy to be there, ecstatic in fact.  Our two inherited cats Sooty and Sarabeth were fed, suitcases unpacked for the first time properly in six weeks and then, oh my goodness, a SHOWER!  Hot running water and everything spotless, I have never felt so clean in all my life.

Incidentally our address, should anyone feel like writing/posting chocolate etc, is: 
Chodort Training Centre, PO Box 630451, Choma, Zambia, even a landline 
00 260 213 220663.  There is a prefix number from UK of 0844 323 6444 so if you dial that first from a UK landline it costs 2.5p a minute.  Our connection to our old life!  

The house in Edinburgh Road

Paul returned to work the day after the move and Jane spend the next couple of days unpacking, finding homes for things and then moving them to somewhere better.  We now have a huge fitted part shelved wardrobe each so that is a first, as well as an en suite, along with more kitchen cupboards than I can imagine.  Also two spare empty bedrooms and a huge office, once a home school classroom.  The outstanding part of indoors though is a lovely wooden floor in the enormous L shaped sitting room, with windows onto the verandah.  Absolutely wonderful.  The garden is another story, a tropical paradise of fruit trees complete with wheelbarrow loads of guavas (literally) at the moment.

We soon met our lovely bubbly neighbour Rahem, another volunteer here working with Scripture Union and hails from Denver, Colorado.  Her house is in the garden of our house, and is compact but beautiful – she calls it her palace.  She invited us to dinner soon after we had moved which was delicious, so she is a great cook too. We don’t see each other every day, quite, but we lend each other things as good neighbours do; sometimes shop together and often have meals together with her and Ben as they are good friends. We've even joined them playing tennis on a Saturday!  


Next entry under way is for April, which seems the way to go at the moment. The delay is putting the photos on the blog; we get there in the end though. If you would like to be an official follower (we have a grand total of four at the moment) of our blog then follow the instructions, and you will receive a note by email of the next update.  Just found that out - would have been handy before but there you go.