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.
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.
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