Blog Post 25 – Closing Remarks

Agenda:

Prayer and Introductions

Group Register

Vegetable trainings

AOB

Closing Remarks and Prayer

Typical IDE agenda. You start with a prayer, then take a list of everyone present. Do the important stuff, any other business, and then turn to the makuas and guests too add some words of wisdom. Finally the chairman can give a little speach. And then someone prays. Interestingly enough, it seems that of all things, the closing remarks are always transcribed word for word in the minutes. Notes of the trainings themselves are usually quite limited.

So lets ask the makua: what are your closing remarks? How did it go? Was the placement a success?

Well, IDE is an NGO. They serve farmers, which is to say farmers are the clients. And the farmers want me to stay, so my work with IDE was a success.

EWB is an NGO. At EWB we serve field staff, which is to say Willard is my client. And he wants me to stay, so my work with EWB was a success.

Mike is not an NGO. But he had a pretty sweet time in Zambia. He got to explore an African country that not many foreigners go to. He built a solar dryer, spent time teaching kids C++ at the secondary school, lived in a small hut in a village for about 2 months and had his own garden and spent time every day farming. He tasted good food, and terrible food, and ate so much, and then tried to work it all off pedalling my bike through a sand bog every day to work. He got to learn some Tonga, and see the confused look on old ladies' faces when he greeted them in the morning. Transcribe that into the minutes, and call it what you like, but Mike is calling it a pretty sweet success!

Blog Post 24 – Busy??? (Sunday August 9)

Busy is not a word I use often, especially not on a Sunday in Zambia. But today was busy! Ahh I love busy days!

Started off the morning with a little gardening – we were transplanting onions today. All in all, I think we have transplanted about 3000 over the last week, which is a pretty impressive feat. And a good core workout too, when you are bent over double, feet spread about 1m apart, digging holes with a stick and shoving tiny onion plants inside.

After this, I washed, had breakfast and expressed my intent to build a solar dryer. Thinking it was a simple matter of cutting some branches, tying them together and covering it with plastic (you can even see the plans in my notebook), I was surprised when Morrison insisted that his younger (12 year old) son Talent would be helping me. So Talent and myself headed off into the bush, and with broken English, Tonga and sign languages we managed to find some suitable trees.

This solar dryer was not good for the environment. We chopped at least 6 sizable trees (~3 inch diameter) for the frame, and carried them back. Sorry, I should say Talent cut the trees, I watched, feeling a bit ashamed that a 12 year old boy knew way more about this stuff than I did. It became obvious that twine or string was not a local material, so we went back into the bush, cut a few more smaller trees, and got 'fibres' for tying these logs together.

To get fibres, you first cut down a tree (about 1” diameter). Then you trim off the branches, and find a place the tree forks. Here you stand on one of the forks, and pull the other, to split the tree in half. Then you pull off pieces of bark, getting thin strips. Then you peel the bark off, leaving just a thin fibre, that can be up to 2m long, if done properly. We got about 12 of these fibres, and took them back to the house, leaving them in a bucket of water to soak.

After constructing the frame, it became apparent that my design was terrible (thanks ENSC SFU for never teaching me any civil) but a couple cross-members seemed to help things. Everything was tied together with these fibres, and it seemed to be holding. Ugly, but it was a frame. At this point, most of the family was standing around watching Talent and myself building. I grabbed the clear and black plastic that I had bought in town, and we tied it on too, using these fibres. Clear plastic on top to let sun in, and black on the bottom to absorb the heat. Design complements of a sweet DAPP book my friend Deg bought at the Ag-show in Lusaka.

Biggest problem we saw, was at the present we had a tent with open ends. Ideally a metal screen of chicken wire would keep out birds and goats, but we had no such thing. Morrison came up with the idea of using old sacks, which still allowed plenty of airflow, but could keep out animals. An old fishing basket was laid on the black plastic to keep the food elevated, and the dryer was complete.

So does it work? Seems to be OK so far, but further testing is required of course...

After lunch, I went with Olice and Amulonga to prepare to make chibuntu. Chibuntu is Tonga “sweet beer”, which has 0% alcohol content. The first step is to head into the bush and find the mukoya root. Luckily Olice had seen some previously, so we just had to dig it up. This was accomplished using the massive shaka hoe, and was actually the first time I was allowed to use the tool. Next we went to these ladies' house to use their grinding mill. We ground a 5L bucket of maize, and it took about 20 minutes! Now I see why they use hammer mills, and don't try to do it by hand for mealie meal. Of course they also fed us, and all the necessary conversation that you have when you visit someone.

It was interesting though, because it was the first time I have gone visiting other farms with Olice (normally I go with Morrison) and I would say that there is much more pompousness when Zambian men visit each other than women. Zambian men must always show each other their gardens, and discuss how hard working they are, and ponder all the problems of this world. Not exactly sure what the women talk about (though I hear the word makua a lot, so I assume I'm a part of the discussion) but it seems to be a bit less arrogant.

Finally in the afternoon I went to Pemba Secondary for another computer class. I am quite impressed, school ended last week, and still students want to learn about computers, and C++, and the computers teacher is happy to come and open the door for me to use the lab. So far we have done lots of work with printf and are finally moving into variables and if statements. Looks like we have one more class on Wednesday so I may try to cover for loops. Biggest barrier is their lack of general computer knowledge and fear of breaking the machines. Half of them won't even try to compile unless I'm sitting with them at the computer. But hey, with time they are getting a lot better, I even have one or two start students, who actually seem to understand what is going on.

And now its time to start off a busy week. Monday some meetings, and hopefully a chance to go see Chikuni mission and their solar dryers and vegetable programs. Tuesday to Mbabala, which involves traversing one of the worst roads around. Though every time I say this, I have a sneaky suspicion that if I headed off 200km into the bush, the roads would be way, way worse. Wednesday some business with pumps. Thursday we are running a big workshop for record keeping, planning and marketing. And Friday is my last full day in Pemba town, so that one is set aside for knowledge transfer type stuff. Ahh busy days, but I like it that way.

Blog Post 23 – As tu Paiele

“As tu Paiele, Mike.” Ok, so if it was meal time, I would expect to hear this. “Let us pray” usually comes before we eat, not at 9:30 on a Saturday morning. “As tu Paiele ku Church.” Ahh, now I get it, she is asking me if I will come with her to church. Knowing my limited Tonga, and her even more limited English, it was a clever way of putting it, that's for sure. So I raced to my room, put on my nice pants and choose the blue dress shirt, black shoes and a pair of clean socks (it was a wonder that all these were clean enough to wear to church) and we started off.

Conversation on the way was limited to “So this church, it is at Pemba Secondary?” I asked. Something between “Eeee” and “ahhh” was the reply. I assumed correctly that this was yes. We arrived late (I think), because there was already biblical discussion going on, though others arrived after us, so I didn't feel too bad. It was a small group of about 10, and I had met the leader previously, as well as one of the other men in the group. He was also alternating between English and Tonga, which was nice for me, and I was even able to contribute to the discussion. We were debating how you tell if someone is a false teacher, and is not spreading the true message of Christ. Half of the people had textbooks that they were working from, and one person lent me his so I could follow along. At the end, they rang a bell, and the leader looked at me: “Brother can you pray?” “As tu paiele...” I began.

After, the other discussion groups, of all different ages came together into one room and we did some songs and prayers. The message was fun to watch, the speaker (pastor?) got really into it, and there was a translator who was mimicking his actions, and I wished I had brought a camera (though even if I had, I probably would have been scared to use it). After there was some time for fellowship and then we went back home. Not having been to many churches in my life, I am very unqualified to comment, but I think I like the SDA, they have a good system of open discussions, and it was a very easy environment for me to go into. Now I just need to get myself a Tonga hymn book, and I'm ready to go.

Going to church did make me think of a number of other religiously related things. Like are these imported, missionary religions helping Zambians? Sure the Mission schools are nice, but it seems to be playing havoc on the minds of many villagers, especially with the already strong traditional influence. There's a strange mix of God, Satan, and Witchcraft that seem to underly many stories and beliefs.

And what about the attendance? Why is there such a high religious following here, much higher than Canada from what I can tell. Do people here need the Church to give them comfort? Are the churches here more fun so people go for the fellowship and singing? Is it because they have nothing better to do on a Saturday or Sunday? Well I can't offer any answers, but they are fun questions to think about.

Blog Post 22 – Mike goes to Lochinvar

Sunday afternoon I visited the internet cafe, and even managed to get free internet. The owner was so happy that I had a free anti-virus on my flash (yay Antivir, glad I downloaded you before I left) that there was no charge. Before he could only protect 3 computers because of the Norton license, but now they are all safe. Stayed with my counterpart Willard that night, and at 5:00 AM we got up to go to Lochinvar.

We reached the gates about 7, he paid the regular price and I paid the tourist price (about 4 times higher) and in we went. We took the road to the Kafue river and on the way we saw Zebras and a herd of Impala crossing the road. At the road we met a friend of Willard's who took us to see the hippos. Apparently it was safe to get close because they were in the water and we were on land... but I was still not convinced and kept my distance. Because it was a Monday, the people from the islands (about 3km offshore) were coming on boats with fish, and people from Monze were coming in trucks with food and drinks and ice and clothes. Transactions ensued, boats were overloaded, trucks were overloaded and everyone went their way.

Possibly more interesting was the Ila people (a Tonga tribe) bringing their cattle to cross the river. There are greener pastures on the other side, so they bring the cattle by the thousand to the edge of the river and then some men beat drums really loudly. Some people pile into boats, others grab the tails of their favourite cattle and the cattle all swim about 12km to the other side. Supposedly this happens once each year, so I was pretty lucky to see it given I didn't know about it until the cattle arrived en masse.

On the way back to the main lodge, we saw more impala. Willard remembered a great view from the lodge, but now it is pretty run down, and the trees are too big. Instead I managed to find a suitable view from the top of the water tower, it was a pretty magnificent outlook over the park. We also checked out some local hot springs (sorry no pics, the bathers may not have been too happy) and found hundreds of baboons running around. All in all a really cool visit, and I got to go on a Safari in Zambia, which is pretty sweet.

Blog Post 21 – Mike Goes to Lusaka

I have decided to split up this post into 2. Originally it was going to be “Mike's Long Weekend”, but since my experience in Lusaka was so different than Lochinvar, we now have 2 blog posts. Anyway, enough rambling, on with the heart stopping excitement of Mike's African Life.
I think I have discussed mini-buses before, so just to recap there is a driver and a conductor. The driver drives and honks the horn, and the conductor yells out the window “Lusaka, Lusaka” and knocks on the door frame when someone wants to 'drop'. He also collects the money and bargains for the fares. I was boarding in Monze, so I found a half-full bus going to Lusaka, arranged the fare and sat down. I insisted that I wouldn't pay until we actually left (good business when there is no driver yet and the bus is only half full) and about 40 minutes later we did leave. Chilled with my IPOD and 'dropped' in Kafue about 3 hours later.

Met my friend Deg and stayed at his place that night. His host family is really nice, though Deg's 'brother' talks way too much. I am now an expert in the cotton industry and the industry of selling blankets imported from Botswana. Next morning we got up and went to check out the fairly new Kasaka roadside market. We arrived around 10:00 and observed that even though it was market day, and about 80 people had built stalls in the first few weeks, there was exactly 1 person selling. A bit disappointed, I am sure to tell the market committee in Pemba, which is arranging a similar market, that there could be problems in the near future for them too.

Kasaka roadside market is very empty

Then we went to Lusaka for the Agriculture Show. This was impressive, even by Canadian standards. There were so many booths, arenas with horses, motocross, and bands, and tons of agricultural displays. Even light engineering and metal work companies were there, with proper welders, torches and valves. I was disappointed to see that the combines were made in China and only assembled in Zambia, but still it is better than being build and assembled in China I suppose. I got to talk to people interested in Uranium mining and had sent a research team to TRIUMF in Vancouver to learn about radiation. There were displays with mining and gems. Zamshoe, Zambeef, Zamchick and Zamfeed were all there. I was even able to find seeds for basil, chives and parsley which I bought for Morroson who loves to experiment. It was a very impressive show.

Checking out the massive combine harvesters

On the way back I came very close to being pickpocketed. As I was boarding a bus back to town, and was walking up the stairs, I felt some guy's hand in my pocket. Luckily of all the pockets he could reach for, he choose the one with nothing in it. Close call! Next day I visited Lusaka again in the morning, and then went back to Monze for part 2... Lochinvar!

Blog Post 20 – What is Mike Actually Doing?

So I hope we have another chapter phone call coming up, as the first was a ton of fun, and there were tons of great questions and stuff. But no one really asked what I am actually doing here, and I don't think I've ever written about it, so here goes my attempt at accountability to my donors :)

Office work:
I can't lie, IDE is remarkably understaffed and I spend a lot of time putting out fires. Like today Willard was in Monze and I was in the office so I explained about and sold 4 treadle pumps, helped a new co-operative type up their constitution and in between managed to spend time typing up a proposal for our new workshop. I have been helping with our monthly report, and budgeting and timetabling for next month. We are hoping to run a large workshop focusing on business planning, marketing issues and record-keeping for farmers in early August, so this is a big focus for me: planning, proposals and arranging for this to happen. When farmers meet nearby for market committee meetings, I have been helping them and reporting to Willard what is going on.

Fertilizer Training at a Demo Plot

Field work:
Sometimes I am able to go to the field by myself. We have 3 nearby areas within 5km that I can easily ride my bike to, so I like to go to these farms and see how they are doing. In addition they all have demo plots which are good ways for IDE to show farmers the proper way to grow vegetables. I can offer the farmers help with growing techniques and spacing (sometimes), and more often help with farm planning and business and record-keeping type stuff. A good portion of the farmers are able to speak English so its not a big problem communicating.

Sometimes I go to the field with Willard. This is usually when we give treadle pump manufacturers or buyers tours of the area. Then we hold small training workshops to groups of farmers. Normally these are conducted in Tonga so I have to find a translator if I want to get anything that is going on.

I think this man likes treadle pumps!

A couple times I have been able to run my own workshops. One was unexpected, Willard was busy in a meeting so he sent his nephew to get me and a pump and take me to the meeting. I showed up and demoed the pump and then answered questions about IDE and treadle pumps until Willard showed up just in time to add closing remarks to the meeting. A second was a gong show because I thought I was talking to experienced farmers and helping them elect a new board, while none of them knew what IDE is. The third was a workshop I designed on credit and loans and this one went sweet. All the farmers drew pictures of their gardens and determined how much each crop was worth. Then they budget each crop's profit to be used for things like clothes and food and school, and this helped them see what they could afford to take out as a loan and still be able to repay. All of these workshops definitely need translators, or else about 90% of the farmers would have no idea what was going on. But attendance is usually good, I think because they like the idea of a Makua presenting.

Community work:
I have been trying to spend some time helping out in the community. Recently I've been working with the computer teacher at Pemba High and teaching a class of students about computers during their extra time. Not many of the students know much about computers, but I feel like we are getting somewhere, and the fact that they are coming even though it is exam season is pretty encouraging. Even the staff want some C++ lessons as soon as exams are over so that's pretty exciting.

Capacity Building:
So the official terms of reference said I should be doing some capacity building stuff. I definitely agree that most of the things I mentioned don't have much to do with Capacity Building of the IDE Field Staff, but I think it depends on how you view it. Given Willard and I are working together most of the time, we are constantly working together to develop new ideas on how to improve the marketing situation in Pemba. Our new scheme is to have farmers grow maize and beans now (as opposed to during the rains) since the prices are about twice the usual and the local markets are huge. We are working on getting local agro-dealers to stock treadle pumps and sprayers. And for the first time we have been offered credit for our farmers. I feel like his innovative streak and initiative are considerably higher than they were when I first came, and I like to think that I have had something to do with it.

All in all, a massive thank you to everyone who has supported me thus far, and I just wanted to let you know what I am up to, and will continue working on, for my last couple weeks here in Zambia

Full steam ahead,
Mike

Blog Post 19 – Livingstone

Wow! Livingstone, rafting and cruising on the Zambezi, visiting a couple beyond swank hotels and seeing Victoria Falls, all in a couple days. My body and mind are quite shocked (and relaxed too). Its definitely not at all like the village life I've been living for the last couple months.

First day we arrived we went to the curio market. Here I got to use all my bargaining skills I've been building up and still probably got ripped off. These people have some scams I've never seen before, like trying to get me to trade my socks for their stuff. Of course once you take off your socks, then they try to get you to add more money on top. But I learned that putting your socks back on and walking out of the store gets the price down faster and further than any other method. Should have tried to trade him my underwear.

I thought I had malaria that night. I had fever, dizziness, chills and all that good stuff. But I took 4 of Tony's Malarones that night and next morning I felt fine. That day was a 'work' day, so we went to the fee paying park (no joke, you pay about Kw1000 to get into parks in Livingstone). But as long as you use the free toilets a couple times you get your money's worth because fee-paying toilets are about Kw1000 also. I should confess the park was nice, complete with waterfall and pond. And no people because who would pay too use a park?

In the afternoon we visited Maramba market, which is a bit out of town and had no Makuas. Prices were sort of fair, and I bought 4 sweet looking chitenge cloths, which I shall make into shirts, a hoodie, and (if I can find someone willing to make it) very colourful underwear. Also if you want tobacco, this is an ok place to go, for 1000 (about 25 cents) you can buy about a ziplock bag full, and for K5000 (1 dollar) you can get a ziplock bag full of “the other type” of tobacco.

Friday was rafting day. We started with a great breakfast, and then a ride out to the gorge. Here we grabbed paddles, life jackets and helmets and learned the techniques I never thought I'd need to know. Like if someone fall out of the raft, but is hanging on the side, you first push them underwater, and then pull them in. Or if you overturn and are under the raft, grab for the rope on the side. Or if you are a long way from the raft, face downstream so your legs can push off any rocks. We climb down the cliff face on a sketchy wooden set of 'stairs' which was pretty fun. Then get into the boats, and start off.

First few rapids were tons of fun. We started off with the “Creamy White Buttocks” which quickly became our team name, beating out our other favourites like “Eeway” and “The Minibus.” Then we approached the “Three ugly sisters” and “The Mother” and our guide started cleaning the throw bag which is used for helping people who are out of the raft and a long way away. The Sisters were no problem, but then we hit the mother and capsized pretty good. I ended up under the raft, forgot to grab for a rope and about half a second later was about 50m from the raft. It was a pretty exciting ride down the 'Mother' and at the other end another boat picked me up. Absolutely unreal experience floating down on my back with the massive boiling waves around me.

That night we went for the Booze Cruise on the Zambezi which was really fun too, but not as exciting. Saw some hippos, crocodiles and a really nice sunset, had an OK dinner and drank some Castle and Mosi, (as in Mosi-oa-Tuna or “The Smoke that Thunders”). Asked for Chibuku but seems they didn't have any on board, I guess it was a bit classy for that.

Saturday morning was pretty relaxing. Went for breakfast at the Zambezi sun, which was the biggest buffet I have seen in my life. I just kept eating partly because there was so much food I could never get in Pemba, and I had paid a month's rent for breakfast so I though I'd better make good use of it. Walked into the bush nearby and saw some zebras, impalas and giraffes. Yeah, thats right, just went on a stroll and saw some Zambian wildlife. Well actually it was kinda disappointing because they were feeding the giraffes and zebras out of some big sacks of food, and the trainer was standing there, but it sorta felt like we were observing wildlife in the bush. Also there was a baboon that kept opening people's sliding doors on the porches. It would shake the door to unlock it, then slide it open and walk inside. It was funny but the guests were not too impressed. Next to the Zambezi Sun was the Royal Livingstone. This was in a class of its own, the staff even dress up like Colonial Age workers, while driving you around in golf carts. We went for drinks on the patio, which was cantilevered over the Zambezi and you could see the smoke from the falls in the distance.

Giraffe in the Wild

In the afternoon we went to the falls. These were pretty remarkable, even a few hundred meters away and above you still get soaked walking by. And apparently 2 months ago you got even wetter, and could barely see the falls from all the mist! We walked down to the bottom to the “boiling pot” which is at one of the gorge's switchbacks and the water forms a big whirlpool. Also saw some more monkeys and the biggest rat I've ever seen. This one was fatter than the bunny's at UVIC!

Mike and his 'stash taking a well deserved break on the patio

I should also give an honourable mention to the food we ate, from Greek the first day, Chinese the second, and Indian the third. And also an honourable mention to the Mazhandu bus company which is the only one that actually runs on time is decently comfortable. Unbelievable all round trip, and I took over 200 pictures and movies so don't forget to ask me about it.

Blog Post 17: What EWB Does Right

I didn't come to Zambia to explain the benefits of EWB over my blog. You can look on their website for those. Neither did I set out to write boring blog posts. Because I hate reading boring blogs. So let me attempt to do neither, and at the same time explain why EWB is unlike other NGOs, and what we do right.

First, working in the field is not part of my TOR (Terms of Reference). I am instead expected to work with one person, my counterpart Willard, and help him become a better field officer. Additionally I should be looking at the IDE systems that are in place, and offer recommendations for improvement. The idea here is that I spend lots of time working with one person, and even after I leave that one person can have a great effect on every farmer he works with.

So lets get to the point. Can working with one person and only one person have an effect? Is it a worthwhile use of resources? Allow me to illustrate with an example...

The farmer I stay with is a hard working man. He doesn't need me to spend an hour each morning to help him irrigate his gardens, or transplant crops, or apply fertilizer. He can do these things about 5 times faster than me (with the exception, of irrigation which he does about 2 times faster). But I like to help for two reasons, first I am learning a ton and I am also (I hope) building a trusting relationship with him. And in the evenings I probably spend an hour or two talking with him and his family over dinner and after, usually about business and farming, or Canada, or NGOs. All in all, I spend a ton of time with Mr. Morrison and his family.

Finally it has paid off. At first he was always asking for my advice, wanting to know how I can improve his farm. Ha! Like I know more about farming than he does. But with time he has come to see that while I am not the best person to ask about pesticides or different fertilizers, I can help in other ways. Like helping him to type up his business plan he made a few years ago at a training session. And while we were sitting by the treadle pump (of course!) talking about how guava and apple trees would be an interesting addition to the garden, I mentioned the product life cycle. How a new product takes a while to develop, then makes a ton of money, then competitors come and the market gets saturated, and you must keep improving the product or make a new one (thanks Andrew for the “Naked Marketing” textbook pdf). Which I applied to his garden, because he was making tons of money but now more people are gardening and profits are lessening. And how fruit trees take time to develop, but could make lots of money for a few years. And then I mentioned the SWOT analysis. Where you look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and technologies it takes you to get there (actually T is for Threats but I told him it was technology because it sounded better). And for the first time ever, I heard him say “I would like your help with doing this.”

This was a massive breakthrough for me. People here love to ask me for help, and advice, but never for a specific thing. Its always: “Help us to improve our farms.” Or “Help me to have more knowledge.” Finally my help has been requested for a specific task, one that will require his input, and I know that this SWOT analysis will actually be useful to him because he wants it to happen.

So how does this relate to my actual job? What the heck does SWOT have to do with EWB? Well, I am thinking of the amount of time I have spent with this farmer before he has asked for my help. Before I actually feel like I can truly help him. Looking at IDE Pemba, a more typical NGO, who has 3 field officers, 1 intern and me, trying to help 3500 farmers, I can see it is not possible for most NGOs to spend this much time with one man. But EWB does not set unrealistic goals. We do not pretend to be able to help more farmers than we could ever know the names of. Instead we focus intently on a small aspect, and I think this is the only development technique that can lead to actual, self-sustaining change.

Blog Post 16 – Witchcraft

Blog Post 16 – Witchcraft

Heh heh heh, I've been sorta interested in this one since I came, and it appears that living in a village I get to hear many stories about local witchcraft.

Like the girl who was lost, and was forced to live in an underground house for 7 years. Then a local preacher prayed for her, and suddenly she was found again. She told stories of a man who brought her food every day, but never talked. Turns out, according to my source, that this is the cause of a satanist, likely one of the wholesalers in Lusaka. These men do no work, but boxes of money and goods just show up in the night at their wholesale depos.

Luckily we have witch doctors. Witch doctors are the ones who help to cure witches. And on top of them all are the traditional healers. These are the leaders of the witches. They are experts on the local herbs, plants and animals, and can cure anything. Like broken legs. This girl (actually the first daughter of the family I stay with) broke both her legs in a car accident, so she was taken to the hospital and they were put in a cast. But the thing that did the trick was the magic ointment that a traditional healer put on the outside of the cast, in order to ensure the legs healed properly. And they did. Unfortunately the girl is now cursed and has not been able to find a job even though she graduated from collage, on account of this traditional healer also putting a spell on her, but her legs are fine.

So is it real? I have yet to meet a witch or traditional healer – for some reason no one wants to take me to one – but I shall keep trying and inform you once I find out. But I can leave you with one more story of potions that I know is true. While travelling with a man from FreshPikt, one of the Lusaka agro-processors buying beans from the farmers to make into canned and baked beans, we stopped in Mbabala for nshima and to pick up Steve. Steve lives in a pretty sketchy part of town, and we stopped the truck near some men tasting powder from a plastic container. This man from FreskPikt was quite interested in the contents, and purchased a large quantity for about 5 pin (1 dollar). After listening to much laughter and Nyanja, I discerned that the contents were indeed the mystical Tonga potion, with similar qualities to Viagra. Supposedly this amount will last him more than a month.

Blog Post 15: A Day in the Life – Today is Saturday

When I was prepping to go to Zambia, one big concern for me was what to do on the weekends. Especially in the village where there's no power, and not knowing many people, and not speaking much of the local language, I though I would spend the whole time bored. So to dispel any fears, here is one Saturday in the life of Mike.

Most days, Mr. Morroson is busy farming. Watering, planting, transplanting, preparing beds, or anything else that needs to get done. The rest of the time he usually spends in meetings or committees, or helping people fix stuff, pretty much he is busy working from sun up to sun down. But as a Seventh Day Adventist, he takes Saturday off. Even his wives are less busy today. Still there is sweeping in the morning, and cooking throughout, but they aren't also trying to help on the farm or sell produce at the market or anything like that.

Today I slept in until 0700. Then I cleaned my room, put on some clothes, washed my face and brushed my teeth and went for a long walk in the garden. I got to see my cabbages getting sizable leaves, and the onions are still healthy. Tomatoes are looking OK, though some got eaten by ants, and others were bitten by the frost. Around 0800 Mr. Morroson woke up and we had breakfast of sweet potatoes and honey. I should quickly mention that honey here is pretty awesome, this was freshly harvested by his brother a couple days before.

As we were half-way through breakfast, some visitors came. “Hodi!” (traditional greeting when you enter someone's village). “Mwabonwa” (literally “you are seen”, or translated “you are welcome to come in”) replied Mr. Morroson. Tradition states that if you don't hear a 'mwabonwa' or 'yeebo' then you are supposed to leave. The second wife grabbed them some stools and they sat and exchanged pleasantries while we finished eating. Then they were offered food (which they declined), and got down to business. They were part of some sort of fertilizer cooperative scheme, which looked like a bit of a scam to me, and Mr. Morroson didn't sign their agreement. As I pointed out later, why would he since he doesn't grow maize for selling anyway. However he did enter an agreement to plant them some jatropha (used for bio-diesel and live fencing) and sell it to them later at Kw2000 per plant, which is a pretty good deal. And he had a plan to use it for live fencing anyway if they didn't live up to their promise.

After these guys left, we grabbed some sugar canes and went for a short walk to see “this man” (imaging Mr. Morroson waving vaguely off in some direction). But in Zambia, farms are quite some distance apart, especially when you are walking, so you make best use of your time if you just “touch this man's place” on the way. The first farmer's place we touched was a short visit. Then we proceeded onwards, Morroson leading the way through the maze of roads, pathways and ox cart trails to the next place. “Hodi!” “Mwabonwa!” and one of the children gets us stools. In Tonga he asks the equivalent of “Is this man around?” And someone goes off to find him. About 30 minutes later “this man” appears, and we talk for a couple minutes before going to see his garden.

This farmer, Mr. Chatyloa, has a nice garden by the river. He also has a treadle pump, but because he has not yet received hosepipe, he is still watering by buckets (he was promised hosepipe about 1 year ago...now there's some Zambian efficiency). On the way back we passed a mound of charcoal. This is an enterprise that requires you to cut down big trees, burn them under a mound of dirt, and then put the charcoal into bags. One big bag sells for about $2 (25kg for Kw10000). And I think 90% of the wood's energy is wasted when the charcoal is made. But its an easy way for people in the cities to cook if the power is out, so charcoal is in pretty high demand.

Next we proceeded to Mr. Brian Kabeta, who was the original “this man” we were going to see. This place is of special interest to me because we just sold him a treadle pump and I wanted to see how much he likes it. He loves it! His farm is right next to a reservoir that provides water for Pemba Secondary School, so he has more than enough water all year round. He also has an orchard of about 140, beautiful, neatly laid out orange trees and another 100 banana plants. And is preparing his farm for growing maize, where he probably has about 1 hectare of land.

Even though Brian has a diesel pump, he still prefers the treadle pump because of the lower running cost. It seems many Zambians don't put a price on time or labour, so the treadle pump appears to be a much better deal for them. After examining the orchard, and discussing the differences between Canadian and Zambian fruit production (of course) we had lunch – Musoya. Actually this is one of my favourite lunches in Zambia, though it really fills you up. Its made from maize, beans and groundnuts, which are all boiled together into a soup-like thing. Then you add sugar and salt, and eat. It has a sort of purple colour, and tastes really good.

On the way back, we took a different route, and began discussing the fine points of the tribal systems in Zambia. I learned that the overseeing person is a chief, of which there are about 13 in the Southern Province. Ours is chief Harmony. Except that we don't actually have a chief, since he died 10 years ago, and because chiefdom stays in the family and this family can't agree on who should take over... well you get the picture. Then each chief looks after about 2000 headsmen, who are the leaders of their respective village. Headsmen send report to the chief informing them of what is going on. When a village gets too big, the chief will select a new headsman, give or partition him some land, and make a new village. Our headsman is Sirius Mazuma, and the village name is Hamanda which means 'tomorrow' in Tonga. The village is relatively new, and was only formed about 10 years ago.

The next man we visited was Mr. Chuma. Chuma makes bricks from anthills, and is currently has about 20000 which he is taking to Choma. To make bricks you mix anthill dirt with water, and get really dirty stepping in it and shovelling it and mixing it good. Then you put it into a brick press and form the shape. Next you cover with grass for a few days, and let them dry. Finally you stack them into these pyramids and burn them with fire to harden them. It was cool because Chuma also had a treadle pump, and was using it to pump water for making his bricks.

About 1600, having visited 4 people and passed by about 20 other farms without stopping, we returned home. Total time: 6 hours. I was a bit embarrassed to find that this is the route that Morrison must walk every time IDE calls a zone meeting for Pemba and asks to have all the farmers meet in one place. Not many people have phones, so you literally have to walk to each house. Hmm... maybe set meeting times at the previous meetings???

A hot bath, and I felt pretty refreshed, and then learned some cooking techniques from Morrison's wife. She still won't let me cook the nshima, but I think that will come soon It seems it can take a while to build trust with some people here. After eating we talked about farming business, and discussed the idea of making an orange press for squeezing orange juice. Read for a bit and went to sleep about 2100.

Very quickly what else do I do in my free time? There's always local sports to watch, either at Pemba Secondary School or in town. I've started learning to cook so that I can make nshima for everyone when I return to Canada. Farming, and studying Tonga all take up time, as do writing blogs and working on my EWB project (a new SO workshop). There's always people to talk to around town, and sometimes we end up working on the weekends. And if I'm lucky, I have time after all that to go to Monze and use the internet. But that only seems to happen about once or twice a month.

Blog Post 14 – Mike gets Philosophical

Not sure exactly what has spurred my philosophical spirit today. Maybe I am looking back on the first half of my trip to Zambia and wondering how to make sense of everything I've learned. Maybe EWB's values of internal reflection and planning are finally getting to me. Or maybe I am just finding something to do this Friday afternoon after visiting the headsman, landing a job teaching computer's at the local secondary school and waiting for the 'chairman', Mr. Snallebum, to come pick up some eggplant seeds. But whatever the reason I have a few fun question's I have been pondering recently that I will try to tackle now.

Question 1: Farmers are smart people. Do they really need our help?

Quick background: I was visiting the headsman, Mr. Mazuma, today and we spent quite a while discussing marketing issues. He seemed to be of the opinion that I could help him generate ideas for how to make more money, so I asked him about his garden and plans.

Me: “Is there any crop you think you could grow that no one else does, so that you have a good market?”
Mr. Mazuma: “Well I am looking to grow ginger and garlic which I can sell at SPAR. Maybe you could help me with some advice on those. Oh, and last year I planted a few Irish Potatoes and got about Kw1.3 million. This year I'll try to plant half a lima or so.” From what I've seen practically no one else grows garlic, Irish Potato or ginger. And Kw1.3 million is a lot given I pay about Kw100000 for a month's room and board.

Me: “How about record keeping? Maybe if you started keeping records you could see which crops do the best, and make you the most money?”
Mr. Mazuma: “Yes! I think next time you visit I will show you both my records and long term farm plan. In fact I draw out my garden on paper and after the season compare the expected yields with what I actually got to see where I need to improve. And I also keep family labour records, so that I can reward some of my family with money if they work a lot this month.”

And so the conversation went. How am I supposed to help someone who already does all this stuff? These guys are a few steps ahead of me. So do farmers need my help? What else can I offer them? At first glance it seems nothing. Short of creating a massive factory that takes tomatoes and cans them in Pemba, there's not too much I can do to help them find markets for their goods. Of course there are a couple major flaws with my argument: this man has a grade 12 and collage education, so there are likely many illiterate farmers who do not keep records, and records or not, he is still a small scale farmer.

Question 2: So why do small scale farmers seem to remain small scale farmers?

I think there are a number of things that contribute here. I have been fortunate enough to talk to a few very good small scale farmers, who seem like great candidates to move up to larger farms, and yet do not. Here are my thoughts why:

One issue seems to be with priorities, and what farmers spend money on. Many have large families, and even in their 50s they still have school-aged children. This means they have the cost of sending these kids to school, which is quite significant for farmers. So I suspect that instead of using the money to finance new enterprises on their farms, they spend that money on schooling instead. Which is nice because it will lead to a better educated next generation, but it is definitely holding this one back.

Next comes something I will call “total farming power”. I was surprised to find here that sons do not help their fathers on the farm very much. Most of the labour is done by the man, and then his wives will also help. However there are only so many person-hours that can be spent on the farm, and I think this is a limit some farmers are reaching. There are a number of solutions including purchasing animals or hiring labour, but I think many of the farmers are afraid of the extra costs these will bring. The small scale farmer does not appear to put a value on their own time, so the idea of hiring labour seems foolish since they could just work harder themselves. Which is fine, until you are working 12 hour days, 6 days a week and still not managing to keep the whole garden under control.

Question 3: How do we help these farmers to move up to medium scale?

Well that's easy! I've just identified the barriers: farming power and money, so all we have to do is remove these barriers. We give them more animals and money, and all the farmers will increase their scale. What? Oh, NGO's have tried this in the past and it didn't work? Ah, now that is a problem.

One thing I have noticed is that farmers are quite jealous of each other. One farmer I have talked to said that he actually plants decoy vegetables because he knows others will follow him. Then he plants the real garden and ensures himself a less crowded market when it comes time to sell. No joke. So maybe we find these farmers who are the trend setters, and somehow boost them up to medium scale. Get them tractors and animals and financing, and get someone on their butts making sure they do it properly. Then the others will all say “Aha! Look this man has bought a tractor, lets all do the same”. Ok, a bit optimistic but I think with some refinement the idea has potential. If these natural leaders already exist, why are we not using them more? No this is not my idea, I think its called “Positive Deviance” and we learned about it in pre-dep, but I think its a good one...

...Mike

Blog Post 13 - Innovation on the Farm

Here the solution to the Twitter challenge. What challenge you ask? Well why aren't you following my tweets??? Hey you get with the program eh? Mike recommends: "Follow mhenrey on twitter today and upgrade your Overseas Programs Experience"

Looking forward to chapter phone call on Wednesday...

...Mike

Blog Post 12 – A Day in the Life #1

I promised a Day in the Life post, but then when I set out to write it I realized that the days are all so different. So instead of defining an average day, I will try to document a few different days.

Today I got up at about 6:00 when the rooster crowed, but lazed in bed for about 30 minutes. It is so cold. I spent the first hour or so cleaning my room as I just got back from the retreat. About 7:30 the second wife had prepared me a small tub of water for cleaning my face, so I washed and brushed my teeth and had breakfast. Today (like every other day) breakfast was sweet potatoes. I eat with one of Mr. Morrison's sons. We wash our hands, pray, and then eat. Sometimes we get honey or groundnut butter, but today it was just potatoes. There was also hot water that you add sugar to, and make a sort of tea. Conversation was pretty limited as he speaks no English, and I speak no Tonga.

Since today was transplanting day for the Magoye group, and Mr. Morrison is the head of the Magoye group, I could stay at the farm and wait for everyone else to show up. So I helped with some irrigation and talked with the farmers as they slowly trickled in. Finally the IDE team arrived with a bag of manure and the transplanting started. Mr. Morrison did most of the teaching, so I spent my time getting Willard or Lianne to translate for me, or talking with Willard about marketing and work related problems. After an hour or so Willard and Lianne left, so I helped with the transplanting, planting onions and cabbage and tomato.

At around 13:00, lunch was a maize, beans and groundnut porridge, which was quite tasty. There were also sweet potatoes. And Mr. Morrison had this cool trick with grenadillas, where he made juice by stirring the fruit into water and adding sugar. Quite tasty. Back to work around 14:00, and we finished by about 16:00. The farmers talked for a while, and then went home. The second wife heated up some water for me, and I took a bath. Then I sat in the sun for an hour or so and worked on my Tonga. When the wife started to cook I moved into the kitchen to talk with her and learn how she cooks. It is quite interesting, though I am still quite disappointed with how limited their cooking is. It seems they only have a couple recipes and cooking styles, which really limits the possible dinners.

Mr. Morrison returned from the fields around 18:00 when it became dark, and took his bath. Then we ate, and discussed the state of the world (and Zambia) until about 20:00 when I retreated to my room. I read for about an hour, and then got some good sleep. More Days in the Life to come in the future...

...Mike

Blog Post 11 – On the Shores of Lake Malawi

Take a peek at any other JF blog for Southern Africa, and I expect you will find a post similar to this one. And I highly encourage you to, because they probably have nicer pictures, and many other quality stories that I have forgotten to mention. While the travelling was pretty epic, it truly was a fantastic vacation, and Lake Malawi is one of the nicest places I have ever been to.

It was tough for me to gather my thoughts to write this post. I'm super jealous of Rob who lives 20Km away from the resort we stayed at. The sheer volume of water we were looking at was pretty amazing. How about the temperatures? Warm all night and morning instead of the frost I have here in Pemba? The Chibuku drinking competition? Not having nshima (or kapenta, bream, boiled sweet potatoes or okre) for an entire night? And of course the ideas and energy I got from talking with all these other smart Canadians. Yes, there were certainly lots of great memories from this trip, so I will share a couple and post some pics, and leave it at that.

I will start with the bus trip. Since I have not yet discussed buses in Southern Africa, please skip to section (*) if you are bored or scared of buses. Unfortunately this is the majority of the excitement for this post.

From Pemba, the first step for me was to mini-bus to Mazabuka. This was not essential, as I could have gone straight to Lusaka, but Mike Klassen and I planned to do this last piece together as buses are boring by yourself. I started from Pemba around 9:30, and reached Monze at about 10:00. However Monze is a hub, and we stayed there until about 12:00 for some reason, which I still don't understand because the bus was full and people were definitely ready to go. Reached Mazabuka around 13:00 and we started looking for the Mazhandu agent.

The Mazhandu bus company is quite innovative in that they leave on time, regardless of whether they are full or not. This seems to allow them to fill about 10 buses each day, instead of the 1 or 2 that other companies fill. Hmm, interesting business model, I am wondering what would happen if IDE farmer meetings started on time – maybe more farmers would come to our meetings. They also serve soft drinks if you are coming from Lusaka or Livingstone, which is an added bonus. But the agent was nowhere to be found so we hopped on another mini-bus which was Lusaka bound.

Mini-buses come in a couple flavours, but work pretty much the same. You fit about 30 people into a small van fitted with 24 seats, bargain with the conductor for the price, and go places. Most have a staff of 2 – a driver who drives and honks the horn, and a conductor who opens and closes the door, handles the money and yells at people out the window to inform them of where the mini-bus is headed. You are inevitably squashed, but unfortunately big buses rarely stop at places like Pemba so these are the only option until you get to a larger town like Monze.

However getting on the mini-bus was probably a mistake. We left about an hour later after touring town, picking up and dropping off about 10 people and a chicken, taking all the passengers from another mini-bus at a gas station then having them suddenly get up and leave again. Finally the driver seemed content with the number of passengers and we progressed again, reaching Lusaka at about 16:00. At this point Mike and I felt pretty bus savvy and decided to try our hand at mini-busing (instead of taxiing) to Mikishi Road where the backpackers is located. And we both only had a small bag of stuff, so we weren't afraid of a small walk.

Actually this stage was OK, some nice people guided us in the right direction, amidst the craziness of people trying to shove you into their bus, drag you to their taxi or sell you their stuff. We got off at the wrong place, but a 10 minute walk later (and collectively saving about a dollar over the taxi ride) and we made it!

The trip to Chipata was slightly more eventful. We went for the bus that leaves at 5:30 (and actually left at 6:30 which is pretty impressive). Its too bad the Mazhandu only runs in the Southern Province, but the NPS is usually quite respectable. I say usually because when our front tire blew out with a loud bang, and we almost crashed into a bus travelling the other direction, and then sat for a couple hours in the middle of nowhere because we had no jack or spare, my impression waned slightly. But Zambians are quite resourceful, we borrowed a jack from another bus, swapped the tire for a rear tire (which are dual tires so I guess you don't need both?) and headed on our way. And Zambians can also be entrepreneurial – many came from the nearest village with scones, Coke, Fanta, sugar cane and popcorn strapped to their bikes and got pretty decent business. After realizing how much these people were making, I became slightly suspicious, and considered walking back to look for a spike belt on the road.

We got to Chipata around 17:00 or so, and then crossed the border, and found a mini-bus to take us to Salema on Lake Malawi. After Lilownge (about halfway) we had the bus to ourselves so we made a quick detour to Shoprite for beers and marshmallows, and Nando's Chicken for food. The rest of the ride was pretty fun, and it felt nice to have some good spicy food with protein and nutrients.

(*)
After arriving safely and without incident at the resort, we had a couple days of workshops. The typical day was as follows. Get up between 5:30 and 7:00, depending on whether I want to watch the sunrise or just go for a morning swim. Morning sessions, usually a workshop on EWB or what we have been up to. Lunch, volleyball, great discussions or another swim. Afternoon sessions, usually in smaller groups and discussing specific work or life related challenges. Get some beers. Make dinner, or discussing very specific work related challenges with my coach Hans. Eat dinner. Beers. Campfire on the beach, swim, sit and talk. Snack. Bed around 22:00 or so.

The stay itself was pretty uneventful, but extremely scenic. We were surrounded by monkeys, birds, and huge trees. On the last night we went for a boat cruise to a nearby island, and got to see more of the lake (which is absolutely massive). We even did some swimming and jumping off the top of the boat, though I must confess that boat cruises make me feel pretty seasick, especially since the lake is so big that there are decent sized waves. I've posted some pics, just so everyone is properly jealous.

Blog Post 10 – Sanitary Insanity

“Can you wash?” Yes, this is a pretty intimidating question to get from a Tonga man the second night you are staying at his place. Especially right after you return from a long bike ride and sit down in the kitchen near him. Do I smell? “Yes, yes I can wash” I reply.

“Go, go” and the man indicates with his hands toward this low thatch structure with a chitenge covering the enterance. Well covering is a bit of an exaggeration I realized as I got closer, it had multiple holes in it, more than large enough to reveal everything. Everything, that is, that you had not already revealed by standing up in the barely more than waist height structure. And to top it off, the door faced the rest of the camp, so anyone happening to glance your way was looking straight into the bathing room. Luckily it is night I was thinking to myself. Ha, how wrong could I be.

While night kept me from accidentally revealing my body, I'm sure it revealed my bathing incompetence. I approached in jeans, shoes and a shirt, carrying a towel and soap. I removed my shoes outside, and entered the structure, promptly bashing my foot into the piece of tin roof that serves as the floor*. Then I removed my clothing, hanging it on the wooden posts that hold up the structure. At this point my jeans are upside down and everything in my pockets falls to the muddy dirt below.

*here floor is used in the sense that it keeps your feet somewhat out of the dirt and water.

After some time, my eyes begin to adjust to the darkness, and I begin the bathing process. This is actually pretty easy, you just splash some water, use the soap and rinse off. It definitely helps to have short hair. Upon completing the bathing, and having finished towelling off, and feeling quite good about myself, I begin to put my clothes on. Of course there was now water on the ground and floor, and my jeans got soaked as I stumbled while putting them on. I also managed to drop my shirt in the mud, which made it pretty wet and dirty. I did eventually emerge, my feet suddenly becoming dust magnets as I tried to put the shoes back on. Back in the privacy of my room, I changed all my clothes and began to formulate a new bathing routine.

Good thing too, since the “Can you wash” seems to come every night. But with the new bathing 2.0 system, the question is no longer dreaded but actually quite welcome. Now I begin by removing all my clothes except underwear, sandles (tropicals) and an undershirt. Bathing begins by removing the undershirt and underwear and proceeding as usual. At the end I can wash my underwear in the tub (I finally understand why no one else's underwear is on the clothesline after washing) and wrap a towel around myself to walk back to my room. And sometimes it is so dark I don't even use the structure, but just bath outside. Simple, and actually a nice warm bath is a really nice way to end the day.

I believe I have reached bathing level 3.0 yesterday when I had the opportunity to bathe in broad daylight. My fears about revealing myself through the hole filled curtain were subdued when the second wife used some extra chitenges to increase the cloth to air ratio. And while a hot bath is nice at night, it is even nicer around 16:30 hours when dusk is just coming, and it is still very warm outside. You towel off, with the warm sun still beating down, and realize that “Can you wash” is the start of the nicest African sanitary experiences.

Blog Post 9 – First Thoughts on the Village (June 10)

When I first came to Pemba, my counterpart Willard greeted me with a “How are you?” and “Welcome to the Village!” Of course, Pemba is not actually an official village, but many people in town call it such because it is so small. But last night I finally moved (or 'shifted' as they say in Zambia) and am now living with Mr. Morrison's family.

Tonga families live together, in a sort of camp in the middle of their farm. The ground is light dusty sand (which is most certainly swept at least once per day), and there are a series of houses, kitchens, bathing area, and toilet arranged around the camp. The observant reader may suspect that the number of kitchens appears to be related to the number of wives, according to the equation k = w, where k is the number of kitchens, and w is the number of wives. In the future we shall refer to this relation as Mike's Theorem. At the present, it appears k = 2. The kitchens are large, open thatch-roofed shelters with a fire in the middle, and are nice places to sit at night when it is cold. My house is quite small, about 4x4 meters, though the main house is larger, and probably has 4 or 5 rooms.

The first night was pretty surreal. I arrived about 5 PM, and was greeted by Mr. Morrison. He grabbed me one of the ubiquitous stools that exist at every village home, and we sat and talked for a couple minutes. Then he excused himself to quickly visit a friend, and showed me to my room. As I followed him to my room, one of his daughters followed me with the same stool, in case I should feel the sudden urge to sit. While I waited, I sat outside and read my Tonga textbook, hoping to pick up some phrases. Willard, brought my blankets, mattress and clothes by motorbike at around 5:45, and as soon as he stopped, one of the wives rushed over to unload the bags and carry them to my room. I was impressed, one of my bags was quite heavy, and she lifted it while carrying her child on her back.

Then I sat in one of the kitchens while the wives rushed around preparing the room, putting a table in it, and covering the windows with sacks nailed to the plaster to protect me from the cold and wind. One of his daughters brought me some sugar cane to gnaw on while I waited in the kitchen (proper sugar cane gnawing technique will appear in a later post). Later two of his sons came to sit in the kitchen with me, but we didn't talk much. I think Mr. Morrison is the only one in the family who speaks English, prompting me to start reading that Tonga textbook more seriously. Sometime shortly after it got dark (6 PM or so), Mr. Morrison reappeared and we talked for a while before dinner was served. Us men ate in one kitchen, while the women ate in a different kitchen. I'm still quite unsure about typical gender role etiquette, so I will have to examine further and report in a future post.

Food was good, there was nshima with veg (rape) and groundnut paste. But it is quite hard to eat nshima with no light, because you don't know if you are getting the proper amount of relish when you scoop, or even if you are scooping anything. And eating roller meal nshima was interesting, it has more flavour than breakfast meal, but a much coarser texture. I think it is like white bread and brown bread – everyone in town buys the breakfast meal because it is white and more processed, but the roller meal has a much fuller taste, and everyone in the village uses it because of the cost. This one was milled from Mr. Morrison's own maize.

Over dinner we talked little, but after Mr. Morrison got some beans to shell, and we discussed farming, marketing, and problems with business in Zambia. In short, I was quite discouraged by our discussion – it seems to me that there is almost no market in Zambia for food because 85% of people are farmers, so they are all competing to sell their food to the other 15%. The market is saturated, and there are very few large factories or agro-processors to accept more supply. Especially somewhere as isolated as Pemba, where dirt roads/paths are the norm, and transportation costs are insane, accessing new markets just means taking the profit away from one farmer and giving it to another farmer. The schools and hospitals already buy locally, and no one here eats at restaurants or stays at motels (guesthouses). This means taking the produce to Lusaka or Livingstone, which is a very long, expensive trip and a volatile market.

However he also gave me a great idea that I didn't even realize until this afternoon. Mr. Morrison loves experimenting with his crops, for example he has started placing sand around his seedlings to keep them warm, because the sun warms the sand and keeps it warmer at night and in the morning. Or he has successfully grown orange trees by grafting, which have started producing after a couple of years, because the traditional method of planting the seeds took too long. He now was having problems growing tomatoes this season, and he wants to make some sort of shelter of grass (thatch) almost like a greenhouse to protect them from the cold. He thinks of these ideas himself, he has no formal training, just a love of experimenting and a huge drive to improve his farm, which is a refreshing change from typical Zambian attitude.

I am now thinking that instead of trying to access new, non-existent markets it could be more profitable to help the farmers develop some technology to grow crops when the market is not saturated. For example now tomatoes are Kw3000 for 4. In a couple months when everyone harvests, the price may drop to Kw1000 for 4. In short, some sort of greenhouse that enables farmers to be harvesting now (i.e. planting in January or February when it is hot and rainy and very difficult to grow) could let them access a non-saturated market. And how about planting maize, which is typically a rain fed crop, now and harvesting in September or October, which means growing it during the driest season. It would be possible if you irrigate using a treadle pump, and the prices you fetch during those months are apparently huge! I'm still formulating these ideas, but I hope to roll some of them out over the next little while, and see what we can do, possibly meaning I plant some maize of my own, just to prove that its possible.

We went to bed around 8:30 PM, which is when I finally managed to arrange my stuff, setup my mosquito net and all that. I was surprisingly tired, and had no problem sleeping until my usual 6:30 AM. It was a very cold and awkward morning, especially with no Mr. Morrison to interpret for me. However hand gestures allowed me to suspect that the bucket of water was for cleaning my face, and the cup of water was for brushing my teeth. I took a wander around the garden, looked at some of the vegetables, and demonstration plots. I ate potatoes for breakfast with Mr. Morrison's sons, and left for work around 9:00. Its amazing how long things take here. On my ride to work I found Mr. Morrison, who was up and about, informing farmers about a meeting taking place for a community school they were trying to build.

One other interesting aspect of Mr. Morrison's place was the outdoor decor. The shrub of grass outside my hut is finely complemented by a fluorescent light tube and cooking spoon. The other nearby decor consists of a small piece of tin roof, standing in the ground like an obelisk. The baby chicks are quite cute, running around the camp after their mom. And he also manages to keep a few doves, which love to live in the kitchen. I think they like the free food, but apparently doves are also a sign of a house that gets along quite well. This is good news!

I am of course under-qualified to explain all the nuances of life in a Tonga family, however I just wanted to offer you, the interested reader, an insight into what I saw when I first encountered rural life in Tonga-land. Over the next couple days I will take some pictures so that when I post this, you too can see my new residence. And in future posts, I'll be sure to keep you updated on my extended village stay, a few kms from Pemba. I'll try to write another blog post before I leave for our retreat in Malawi starting the 17th, and I promise is is almost time for the “A Day in the Life”, hopefully that will come early July...

...Mike

Blog Post 8 – Getting into the Rhythm of Things (June 4)

I think I'm starting to get a feel for Pemba, which is to say that I am getting better at embracing the unexpected, and going with the flow. For example last Saturday the power went off, and stayed off. Apparently the Kafue weed has suddenly blocked the dam, and reduced the water flow, and places like Pemba didn't warrant power except between 23:00 and 01:00 at night. Which is inconvenient if you require electricity to power your electric water pumps, though Mukalabi and I fortunately had a large stash of water. Now things are getting better, and I am hopeful we will continue to get power, for at least some useful times of the day.
Take Monday, when I went to work and no one else showed up. So I did some reading, got up to speed on the reports our office writes, and then went for a bike ride. It is always neat to walk or ride around Pemba, because everyone is friendly, and greets you as you travel. It can be slightly embarrassing when they know me by name, and I don't even recognize them, but as the only 'Makua' (white man) in town, I'm getting pretty used to it. The kids here are quite funny, as they like to stand in their yards and yell “HELLO! HOW ARE YOU MAKUA?”, or some similar variant, over and over again until I greet them properly.
Or Tuesday, when I went to Mr. Morrison's to see if I could start moving in. Apparently he meant Tuesday, Zambian Standard Time, as I will not be moving until next Monday at the earliest. But I did ask his permission for a couple pictures of his farm, and I have posted one here of him and his watering apparatus. And one huge advantage of visiting farmers is all the produce we get, oranges, potatoes, and whatever else they have to give us as gifts for stopping by.
Or yesterday, when Willard and Lianne had some other things to do, so I went with Mukalabi to see what his work promoting Conservation Farming was like. I learned a ton about different planting techniques, fences made of closely spaced plants to keep animals out of gardens, and saw a farm that was harvesting maize, to the tune of 200 bags and counting (most farmers will get 60 if they are good). Pauline, a friend of Mukalabi, is married to a European, and appears to be quite well off. She drives a truck (owing a vehicle is pretty rare) and rents the farmland where they are harvesting an incredible amount of maize (interestingly enough, the owners of the land are not nearly as good farmers). She also runs an agro-dealer shop, selling seeds, fertilizer and stuff like that. And lives in a fantastic house, complete with a patio, fence, and all that. It was quite interesting living the good live for a couple hours, talking politics with a highly educated Zambian, and eating a fantastic meal. It was an interesting contrast to the usual livelihood of farmers I see here in Zambia.
Or today, when I attended my first farmers meeting, which was cool, except that I hardly understood anything. I am getting good at the Tonga greetings, but beyond that, I am quite inept at speaking or understanding Tonga. And for some reason, everyone assumes I am quite knowledgeable about all matters to do with farming, business, wealth acquisition and stuff like that, and just by my telling them stories of Canada, they expect to find solutions to poverty. If only it were true! Ah well, just one more thing to get used to. And while I ponder how to come across as less of an authority figure, and more of a student learning about Zambian farmers, I leave you with a picture of the farmers at the meeting examining the treadle pump and demo gardens...
...Mike

Blog Post 7 – First week of work (May 29)

The power goes out in Pemba a lot. At least every couple nights around dinner time for about an hour and a half, and then sometimes in the day as well. Its some sort of power sharing scheme, to ensure that Zambia can get by on as few power plants and dams as possible. Though I'm not sure what the ecological effects of everyone cooking on charcoal are. It is times like these, when there is no light (daylight is from 6AM to 6PM), and my house-mate is away somewhere, that I am very thankful for the comfort of my 6 hour battery life on my laptop.
Soon, I will be very used to the lack of power. Tuesday I started work for real -- Lianne and I rode to some local farmers on our bicycles, and I met a farmer that soon I will be staying with. Mr. Morrison is an excellent farmer, I'm guessing he has about 10 acres of land, full of cabbage, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and a few orange trees. He is near a stream, which he uses for irrigation – he pumps water into a couple massive drums using his treadle pumps (it takes about half an hour to fill). Then he opens the valve on the drum, and using a long hose he waters his crops. I'm sure after staying with him for a while I will be able to learn a ton about farming in rural Zambia. And he has said that I can grow a small garden on his land, which I am looking forward to greatly.
My future home is about a 30 minute bike ride from Pemba, so I am looking forward to some good exercise in the morning. And there is no power, so I suppose I will be charging my devices at work. And getting home at a reasonable hour will be a must, as Zambia gets increadably dark at night. I am excited about getting away from my current life though, I didn't come to Zambia to watch crappy pirated DVD's, or listen to Chris Brown, or play pool in the evenings, as I can do all that in Canada. But in Canada I don't have the opportunity to live with a farmer who has 2 wives, or eat nshima every meal and observe how a rural farmer's family interacts.
Anyway enough excited speculation, I'm sure I will have good stories about rural life after living with Mr. Morrison for a few weeks, and now I will discuss work.
Some background: Zambians in the Southern Province generally grow maize, and harvest about now. Maize is a rain-fed crop, but now the rains are done, so any crops will require the use of irrigation. And by done, I mean it will probably not rain the entire time I am here. Maize is sold to the government at a price of about Kw 65000 per bag, which is about $13 CAD or so. I think good farmers will harvest about 100 bags. But the government only pays you in October, so you can also sell to other people now for about Kw 48000 per bag and get cash now. I believe this is illegal. Traditionally this single sale is the only source of income for the farmers, so they either use the money to buy ground maize to make nshima, or grind it locally and store it to feed their family for the rest of the year. Now the farmers are looking to other ways of making money, which IDE is strongly encouraging. Some already have established gardens of cabbage, tomatoes, beans, rape and peppers. Most of these plants are small and are in the transplanting stage, but some cabbage and rape is ready for harvest.
So Tuesday we went about 5 km into the field on our bicycles (yes, it shouldn't take 30 minutes, but you are not considering the sandy dirt roads or the Zambian speed at which we travelled), past the school and to a few farmers gardens. I say gardens partly because that is the word to describe a non-maize plot, and because these plots are often literally the size of gardens. Good ones are about 30 paces by 50 paces, and not so good ones are maybe half or a quarter of that size. The biggest barriers to large gardens seem to be access to water, as it often requires the farmers to walk a few hundred meters from the water source to the plot, carrying the water in a bucket. Mr. Morrison is able to grow such a large number of plants because of his treadle pumps.Wednesday Lianne was tired from all the cycling, and we walked to a local cluster of houses sponsored by the Catholic Church. In all there were 13 families, and all are members of the IDE project. The houses are quite reasonable, compared to other local houses, and all are about 500m from either of 2 hand water pumps. Each has a decent size of land for a garden, and most are taking advantage of it, some more than others (one farmer was making bricks from mud obtained by mixing water with dirt from a local termite mound, to supplement his gardening income). Some farmers had potentially a few hundred kg of crops to be harvested in August or September, while others will only have a few kg. It was very interesting to see the differences in quality of crop, and I hope to find out why some are bigger and better than others. A couple hypotheses I'd like to examine: size and composition of family, soil quality, other part time or full time jobs.
Thursday Lianne was still too tired, but Willard and I went to meet the chairman of the closest group, who is also a good farmer. He owns a guest house, which he is renovating, and a significant portion of land which his garden is on. He told me that if he could obtain a source of credit, he would make his garden 2 or 3 times larger, and was showing me his weir dams, where his tank and treadle pumps will go when he buys it, and his drip irrigation system which is pretty good. He was confident that he could manage a larger farm, even while working on his guest house. However when I probed further, he also mentioned that besides credit, the other main problems facing Pemba farmers were access to water and access to markets. In fact, with the current markets available to him, he probably couldn't even sell what he had, so I'm not totally sure if obtaining credit would help him or hurt him. Especially with the interest on loans being insanely high (I think up to 25% if I understand correctly).
During these 3 days, we were talking to the farmers to collect information. We are trying to find out what farmers are growing which vegetables, and when they expect to harvest, so that we can try to find markets for them. This is important because it appears local supply far exceeds local demand.
Friday we had a team meeting, so while during the other days I was able to find out what the farmers identified as issues, Friday I found out what the IDE workers saw as major obstacles. IDE Pemba is divided into 3 field offices, which are about 100km apart. Without internet, it makes for very awkward communication lines, so the team meetings that happen a couple times a month are pretty important.
From what I could gather, the field workers are having major problems disseminating the information that they have. The plan is to teach program promoters (PPs) in each of the major zones, and then the PPs are supposed to spread the info to the other farmers. However Tonga farmers live very far apart from each other, even within a village, and it can be hard for the PPs to travel between the farmers to teach them. Add on the fact that IDE does not offer incentives to the PPs and other local NGO's do (for example bicycles that enable the PPs to travel to other farmers), and the field staff are getting quite frusterated.
Even in training sessions where farmers do show up, the IDE staff sometimes make little progress. For example, one of our pillars is Gender (the others are input supply, marketing, capacity building in farming techniques, irrigation and credit) and while many farmers promise they will be more sensitive to gender issues during the trainings, in practise there is no change. Because Tonga's are quite polygamous, and traditionally men and women have very different roles, this is a major sticking point.
On the positive side, there are some successes. We have obtained a possible source of credit for some farmers. Markets are being found in local schools, hospitals, Spar market and the like. And irrigation is being widely embraced, with over 100 farmers requesting vouchers that will reduce the cost of irrigation technology that they wish to buy. This includes treadle pumps and drip irrigation kits.
So that was the first week of work for me, and here are some pictures of Pemba to show you what I've been up to. My camera had an incident, I broke the LCD screen, but it still takes pictures, so I just have to guess what I'm aiming at and it seems to still be OK. Next time I go to Lusaka (in a month or so) I can hopefully get the screen repaired, and then go picture crazy...
...Mike

Blog Post 6 – First thoughts on Pemba (May 24)

So I've only been here 3 days, so I am probably not completely qualified to comment, but I will anyway. There is a ton to explain, so I will list some Zambian facts here, that you will need to understand in order for the story to make sense. However I this post will still be pretty disorganized and jump around everywhere, and long.

-There is no garbage collection in Pemba (or most of Zambia from what I've seen). This means you throw your garbage wherever you like, in the road, in the ditch, sometimes in big holes in the ground.
-Everyone sweeps their yards. Yards are small (20 or 30 sq ft.) dusty patches of sand.
-Washing and evacuation tasks are undertaken in different venues depending on the location.
-Zambia is cold in the winter. I was surprised, but often at night and the morning, or when it is cloudy, I am wearing a sweater or jacket, and apparently it gets colder, before heating up in August. I am actually considering getting another sweater, but we will see.

For now I am staying with a 27 year old Zambian, Mukelabai, who is a friend of my counterpart. Mukelabai just moved into a new place the day I arrived, so the two of us are sharing a 5 room house. The first thing that had to get done, according to Mukelabai, was to fix up and clean the place. While I expected this meant we would spend some time cleaning the yard and rooms, it actually meant he had paid a local woman to clean the inside, and pick up all the garbage and sweep the yard. Today we also did some more sweeping and cleaning ourselves, and its starting to look pretty good, though there are spiders and cockroaches everywhere (including all over the food!)

I probably won't stay here too long, maybe a week or two. I am hoping to meet some of the local farmers over the next week, while working with IDE. Some nearby villages are only 5km or so from the office, so I can easily walk or ride a bike from one of them to work in the morning and night. It would be good exercise too. I am hoping that if I get on this right away, I can even start a small garden of my own, and get a feel for how to grow vegetables, and how local farmers deal with irrigation, weeds and fertilizers. Something like tomatoes or onions could probably be harvested before I leave in August.

Mukelabai and I have running water, at the tap outside. In Pemba, the water comes from 5 boreholes and is pumped out using electric pumps. Then it is chlorinated, and stored in the water tower. This is fed underground to a series of taps, it appears there is one in each yard. Generally you will fill a bucket (or many buckets) with the water and use this for your water needs. It is interesting to see how much less water you use for things like washing your hands, showering and dishes when you have to carry your own water, even from a nearby tap. Staying in a village could be pretty interesting.

Today we did the laundry, which was fun. The preferred laundry detergent here is BOOM which apparently makes your clothes lighter after some use, so I'm glad I don't have any super nice clothes here. The technique is as follows: you fill a bucket with water, and squeeze out some BOOM paste into your hand. You rub this into the water, to make suds. Then you put some clothes in, and grab a fistful of the clothing in your left, and rub with another part of the clothing your right. For stains, just apply extra BOOM. Then you rinse in a second bucket, and make sure to get all the BOOM out. Hang dry on a clothsline. It probably took me an hour and a half to wash 5 shirts, a pair of khakis, and socks and boxers... so there is room for improvement. But they are drying pretty fast.

Here is a picture of my first morning at the office. Yes, that is men standing around fixing a motorbike. After a while of learning the ins and outs of fixing stuff with very limited tools, which people here are excellent at, I went inside the office and talked with Liana about what she has been up to. Liana is an intern from one of the local collages, and has been at IDE since February. She has been going to 3 local villages, interviewing farmers about their crops to find the most profitable vegetables. Recently (in the last week of so) she has setup some demonstration plots at each village, to showcase correct planting techniques. She will be gone before the crops are done, so part of my job is to go around with her over the next month or so, learn how to do her work, and then take over when she leaves.

For bathroom uses near the office, there is a concrete room and a door, which I opted to close, and then found myself locked in! I had to climb out the window, much to the amusement of my counterpart who explained to me that the door automatically locks, and the door handle is missing, and then opened it using a spoon. Bathroom facilities are a hole in the concrete floor, which is the entrance into a pit about 20 ft deep (my best guess by shining a flashlight down). Aim is important, since the hole is only about 5 inches wide, by 10 inches long. Showering requires a bucket of water and soap, and then you sweep any excess water into the hole with a nearby broom. Some places do have flush toilets, but no running water, so you have to flush with a bucket of water.

Our house has some interesting electrical oddities too. Only 3 light bulbs can be on at once, without tripping the lighting circuit. However the electric stove, Mukelabai's stereo and TV equipment, and 2 laptops can be plugged in without any issues. “The stove has no power switch” explains Mukelabai as he separates the hot wire from the stove from the hot wire from the wall, and a small stream of blue sparks appear. The wires are bent into hook shapes to facilitate this primitive power switch. Hmm, pretty sketch.

I should mention that the stars here are unbelievable! It is insanely dark in Pemba, because there are almost no streetlights, and everything goes quiet past 6 or 7 at night. You can look up and see way more stars than I can see, even in Langley.

I know this was a fairly long post, as there are a lot of neat things about Pemba. Instead of trying to detail each one now, especially with my limited knowledge and experience, I think over the next month or so I will try to document a few things in more depth. A quick sneak preview of upcoming blog posts could include: food in Zambia, nearby towns, the market, clothing, village life, and of course a day in the life at IDE...

...Mike