"Don't be sad."

August 29, 2012

Today at the craft market in Livingstone, the people selling things start all kinds of conversations to try and get you to buy things. 

"Where are you from, miss?"

"The United States."

"Oh! The U.S. and Zambia are good friends."

Then they ask what your name is, and then tell you that "looking is free" and ask you to look at their crafts.

One woman started the standard conversation. Then she asked me for my name. 

"Claire," I said. The woman stared me and started to get tears in her eyes. 

"My only daughter's name was Clara," she said (Zambians often add vowels to the ends of names). "she was my firstborn. She died at 8 months."

She went on to say that she has 4 sons, and that "This is life. Don't be sad. Clara would be 11 by now."

But I am sad. 

This isn't any life I know, and the pain in this stranger's eyes connected in a way I never expected. 

Day 1 - Livingstone

Those "chirps" from last night weren't a security system--they were fruit bats! And they're loud. 

The noise at 4am was the neighbor's rooster...I guess we got lucky that morning, because sometimes he likes to wake up even earlier.

We were in the guest house that night, across from the LCCA campus and in the walled-in yard of Dave and Dee, two Kingdom Workers who work on campus. 

On Day 1 we had a light breakfast before heading out at 6:30am. These days you have to leave Lusaka early to get out before traffic hits. Mass urbanization in a short period of time, combined with only two major roads through the city, results in lots of congestion. The leading cause of death for expatriates in Zambia is... you guessed it... car accidents.

Jason did a great job on the 7-hour drive south to Livingstone. On our way, we saw...

Dozens of goats in the road

6 vervet monkeys

2 big bulls who made us stop in our tracks

Farmers selling potatoes, tomatoes, bananas, maize

People selling baskets, chairs, charcoal, clothing

Thousands of people biking or walking to the nearest city, often 40 km away from home

We stopped in Choma to eat lunch and visit a cultural museum that focused on the Tonga people of southern Zambia. After stretching our legs for a bit we continued on to  Livingstone. 

Funeral rite materials at the cultural museum in Choma (above) 

We arrived around 2pm and ventured into a craft market where I got some gifts for family and friends, and a chitengi for myself (a chitengi is a 2-yard piece of cloth that can be wrapped around to make a skirt...something I found VERY handy later on the trip). Then we checked into our lodge, the Maramba River Lodge, which is right along the Zambezi River. After getting changed, we went on an incredible sunset boat cruise on the Zambezi.

 At the departure spot for the cruise, they urged us not to feed the vervets, which were jumping in the trees overhead. Apparently they're like Zambia's squirrel, only much bigger!

Please...

The boat, complete with dinner and drinks (and a perfect view)

We saw several pods of hippos on the boat cruise. They would grunt and bellow, but mostly minded their own business. One is yawning in the photo below.

A hippo yawning

Sunset over the Zambezi

Sunset over the Zambezi

The sunset was absolutely beautiful, and immediately after we got to see the moon rising to the east. Back at the dock, we saw vervet monkeys from tree to tree! I never got "used" to seeing such wild things. 

Back at Maramba Dan and Vicky Kunz, Jason Paltzer and I had a few Mosi (a lager made here in Zambia) while ducking the fruit bats and spotting small lizards that were dashing along the cobblestones. Later, we heard a low, loud rumble. 

A lion?

A hippo?

Then, out from the  trees across the shallow bay, we saw a mother and baby elephant walk out and start making their way toward our shore. What a sight! They ate and drank from the water, their tusks gleaming in the light of the full moon. We watched them for about 15 minutes, standing just a quarter mile away from these huge animals, until noise from the lodge restaurant sent them back into the woods. 

After that we all retired for the night to our luxury tents, below. Each one had a lamp and nightstand, and a cozy little bed. I slept more soundly that night knowing what more of the noises were. 

Our luxury tents at Maramba. Roughing it with hippos, baboons, elephants, and fruit bats

Chicago, Amsterdam, Lusaka

August 28-29

After a few days well spent in Chicago, I headed to the airport to begin this incredible journey!

Check-in went very smoothly; a great way to start foreign travels (and pretty abnormal for me). Amanda Paltzer met up with me around 2:15pm, and we got to visit for a while before boarding the giant KLM aircraft. 

The 7 1/2-hour  leg had us take off at 4pm our time. I slept from 6-10:30pm and switched my watch over. We have just an hour of our flight left before a 6:35am arrival in Amsterdam... 

Currently: 37,000 feet above Dublin

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Our layover in Amsterdam was well spent looking at famous paintings in a mini Rijksmuseum  (in the airport), finding little clogs and tulips everywhere, and passing the time. I was just excited to be on my way--out of familiar Europe and into Africa!

I now understand the difference between an 8-hour flight (which I've done quite a few times now) and a 10-hour flight immediately following. It feels infinitely longer, and with 3 hours left I found myself thinking, "We're almost there!" I was also reminded of all the luxuries we have being on just two planes to get all the way to Lusaka, not to mention the means and opportunity to get all the way to Zambia. I feel truly blessed. Groggy, but blessed =)

We arrived safely and on time in Lusaka, just in time to go to sleep after a long few days of travel. 

As I went to sleep I heard tons of noises. Dogs barking, some strange thing chirping? Beeping? It sounded like a security system, only more...animal. I slept very lightly that first night.

We're in Africa!

Leaving Madison

The time has come! I'm leaving Madison at 7am today. I'll be in Chicago for a few days seeing friends, making sure I'm ready, and nearly exploding from excitement about the trip  that's about to take place!!

For those of you I haven't talked to yet, here's a brief overview of my trip...

I'm going to Zambia, Africa to do some volunteer communications consulting for a health & development program. The program is a branch off of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa (LCCA), and it reaches community members in the capital city of Lusaka as well as surrounding villages and rural areas. The services this health & development program provides are:

1. The Reflect Literacy Project

2. Bio-sand and filter training

3.Home-based medical care 

The Reflect Literacy Project puts learners into small groups, where they select the topic they'll learn about through learning how to read. Most literacy groups are based around a development project such as bio-sand and filter training.

Seeds of Hope International (SHIP) trained members of the Health & Development program  from five urban and peri-urban congregations in the areas of community health promotion and bio-sand filter construction. The participants graduated from the program as Community Health Promoters (CHPs). The trainings took place   in three phases between February and April 2011 with each training lasting four days. A total of twenty-one  functional filters were constructed during the trainings with another nine filters donated by SHIP so the participants could achieve their goal of thirty filters.

My Goal:

To help the Health & Development Program organize and motivate its volunteer base and  provide board members and volunteer coordinators with options and solutions for improving communications at the various levels of the program. 

To do this, I'm talking with people at all levels of the organization--from its founder, who I've been working with this entire time and who has supported and led this entire trip, to influential board members and decision makers, to committee members and volunteer coordinators, to the very volunteers that carry out day-to-day work with the program's constituents.

Itinerary:

Aug 29-Sept 1 - In Lusaka, Zambia

Sept 2-5 - In South Luangwa National Park, sightseeing and going on a safari, visiting Victoria Falls

Sept 6-11 - In Lusaka and surrounding peri-urban and rural areas interviewing volunteers  in local villages.

I am so thankful to have this opportunity to serve people across the world. I am proud of the work being accomplished by the program, and can't wait to be a part of it!

I won't have Internet access while I'm abroad, so I'll use this space to post photos, stories and video when I return

Prepared.

"All things are ready, if our mind be so."

Preparedness is an interesting concept. Yesterday I felt unprepared for my upcoming travels. A friend could see it on my face; I was running my packing list through my mind, thinking of all the little things I needed to buy, gather and pack.

Last night I created a packing checklist with just the essentials. All of my toiletries are packed into a quart-sized bag. All of my clothing serves a purpose. I'm only packing one pair of shoes. Me! Only one pair! 

Now that the material things are set into piles, the true preparations begin. Now it's sinking in.

In a week I'll be in a completely foreign land, getting ready to help people whose culture I know next to nothing about. The combination of excitement, uncertainty and quiet acceptance of the fact that I cannot know everything until I arrive, is truly thrilling. 

I am so blessed to have been given this opportunity. I can't help but think of all of the pieces and parts of my life that have come together to make this possible. God's hand is certainly in all of it. From the conversation with Jason Paltzer about my major in college, to the stages of planning that have steered us in the right direction, to interviews and email communication that have given me insight before I get onto that plane, to the incredible generosity of Dan and Vicky Kunz and the Antioch Foundation, this experience would not be possible without every piece coming together as it has.

The secret to success is being ready for opportunity when it comes. Well, it's here. 

I'm ready...

Let's go!