Mega Vacation

CAMP GLOW (KASAMA)

Summary from ‘News from Zambia’, a compilation of press coverage. Original Article ran in ‘The Post.’

Official urges more ties in life skills empowerment
- Senior Education Standard Officer Dennis Chisulo said there is need for collaboration to empower youths in the country with life skills.
- During the graduation of 21 youths who participated in the ‘Girls Leading Our World’ sleep-over-camp at Kasama Girls High School organized by Peace Corps volunteers in collaboration with Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia, Chisulo said government appreciated the support of stakeholders in gender youth development.
- Peace Corps Project Coordinator Sally-Rose Mwachilenga said this was the fourth camp, others having been held in Chipata, Chongwe and Serenje. Mwachilenga said the other camp was expected to be held in Mpika. Camp Glow is an initiative of Peace Corps volunteers aimed at encouraging girls to become active citizens of society. (The Post)

Camp Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) was created by Peace Corps volunteers in Poland but has since moved all over the world. Camp GLOW Kasama was held from 6 – 10 December and organized by 10 Peace Corps volunteers, each of whom brought two female grade 7 or 8 pupils and one teacher or community leader from their respective villages. Activities included sessions on HIV/AIDS, rape and sexual assault, sugar daddies, confidence and self-esteem, journaling, sewing menstrual pads, and games. The girls were groomed to be peer educators and expected to create GLOW clubs at their schools. In Zambia, girls are less likely to be educated in higher grades than boys owing to familial pressures for the girls to get married, teenage pregnancy, and cultural expectations about the role of women. In poor, rural villages, especially in ours since the Sable road workers have moved in, sex is about economics. Girls expect to be given gifts or money if they hook up with older (often married) men with stable incomes, so this compromises their ability to negotiate condom use or refuse sex. A very high number of girls are sexually assaulted, with the guilty very rarely prosecuted. Girls are very vulnerable, and the purpose of GLOW was to empower them to practice abstinence, stay away from sugar daddies, respect themselves and their bodies, and plan for their futures rather than short-term goals.


SOUTH LUANGWA NATIONAL PARK
MFUWE, EASTERN PROVINCE OF ZAMBIA

South Luangwa is one of the premier national parks in the region. We stayed at Flatdogs lodge for three nights, camping on a treetop platform amid curious vervet monkeys. Hippos came to graze on the field at night from the nearby river and elephants also wandered through, so we were relieved that our tent was several metres of the ground. We went on a day drive and a night drive, so we saw many different animals. The best sight came when our guide heard a group of baboons making an alarm call. He sped the land cruiser off in their direction, and we found around fifty baboons hovering under a large canopied tree and screaming up at the branches. After a few moments, a leopard leapt to the ground, skulking away. The largest baboons trailed him, chasing him away with their persistent vocalizations and sheer number. The leopard hadn’t made a kill, and was probably only dozing in the tree, but the baboons showed him there is strength in numbers.

We also saw four lionesses sleeping in the shade. That’s the first time we’ve seen more than one solitary lion.


NKHATA BAY
MALAWI

From Eastern Province, we crossed the border into Malawi. Our destination was the northern part of Lake Malawi, around 700 kilometres from the capital city of Lilongwe. We stayed in a bamboo hut right on the beach at Njaya Lodge. The people in Nkhata Bay were very friendly, and there were even three kids that came right up to me and attached themselves around my legs in a hug, and a group of young girls that were swimming and wanted to play, using the few English words they knew. Kids in our village that know me well will crawl all over me, but the ones who I don’t see often are terrified of me and the younger ones will burst into tears at the sight of me. So I was surprised how fearless the Nkhata Bay kids were around white people.

We took a boat trip to the cliff where the fish eagles live. The fish eagle, which closely resembles the majestic American bald eagle, is the national bird of both Malawi and Zambia. These wild eagles have been trained so that when they hear a whistle and see a fish being thrown into the water, they’ll fly down by the boat to retrieve the fish, presenting tourists with a unique photo opportunity. Chris, of course, took full advantage.

We also got to snorkel off the shore around schools of bright, tropical fish. Then we tried paddling the local canoes, made from dugout logs, and jumped off a cliff into the clear water. There was a village nearby, so there was a bunch of young boys also jumping from as high as 5 metres. They were fearless, even scrambling into a nearby mango tree to get even higher from the water, and screaming as they plunged down. I jumped from 3 metres up, but got really nervous jumping from higher because I was blind without my glasses.

The official language is iciChewa, which is closely related to iciNyanja, which we can understand a bit because it’s close to iciBemba. So it probably would have been easy to pick it up if we stayed for a longer period of time, but we mostly stuck to the words we knew because they were the same in iciBemba.

From Nkhata Bay, we took an excursion to Nyika National Park, possibly one of the most beautiful places in Africa. It’s called the Scotland of Africa for its rolling green hills and incredible views to as far away as Zambia. It was even more dramatic with dark blue storm clouds hovering above. We camped there for two nights, and had to pay a significant sum to hire a vehicle as the park is so remote it’s impossible to get there by hitch hiking, but it was well worth it. There are no dangerous animals in the park, so it’s safe to walk, and by walking you can get very close to zebra and roan antelope. Nyika is one of the few places where you can see roan antelope, which have a clumsy almost moose-like brown body and a white mask. Chris got some awesome pictures of the zebra because we were able to get so close to them.

After a wonderful Christmas in Malawi, we crossed back over to spend the New Year in Zambia. Unfortunately, we had a hang up at the border. We had crossed from Zambia on 17 December and were granted a no-fee visa for ten days. We returned to the Mchinji border post on 27 December. The 17th to 27th December is actually eleven days, according to immigration officers. So, we were asked into the office to speak with the in-charge, who turned out to be a corrupt, misogynist. After being in Africa for two years, you know when something is a big deal and when something is insignificant, but played up by officials so they can get a bribe. This guy, who refused to give us his name, said we had to either return to Lilongwe to request an extension (half a day’s journey away and we had very little money) or pay him 5,000 Malawian kwacha each (around USD $66). He had our passports and refused to let us leave the office. Then he said if we refused to pay, he’d cancel our passports so that we’d never be allowed back to Malawi, and hinted that this would effect us at immigration at the entry point in Zambia. I flipped out, which I think was justified and raised my voice. I can’t remember exactly what I said (it was mainly the mefloquine talking, my malaria prophylaxis which makes me somewhat bipolar and anxious), but it was enough so that the guy refused to address me from that point on. He even told Chris that I was acting like an animal and that he would throw me in the cells if I didn’t calm down. Chris took on the good cop role and tried to be respectful, which I couldn’t stomach because he was trying to show us that we were white, and therefore inferior in his office. I left the room in a huff before I said something I’d regret too much, then I marched back in and proclaimed that we were calling the US Embassy and our “boss.” Only Chris’ phone had a Malawian sim card to make outgoing calls, so he phoned Peace Corps’ Safety and Security officer, Allan. I muttered about how our “boss” would solve everything. The guy quietly stamped our entry on our passports and slid them across the desk at us as Chris was on the phone. When he hung up, the guy said we could leave. Then he launched into another obloquy about how Chris had to control me because I was an animal, so I ran out with my passport. Chris relayed what Allan had told him on the phone: The most the immigration officials could do was give us a warning, so the guy was only blowing hot air. He could have canceled our passports from entering Malawi, but it couldn’t be enforced, as we were using temporary no-fee government passports, not our civilian ones, and record-keeping isn’t that great.

Outside immigration, I cried to the sympathetic money-changers, then Chris and I discussed rates with them and quickly changed the small amount of money we had left to Zambian kwacha. Their rates are only slightly higher than a bank’s, but they’re more convenient, especially for small sums. We walked across to the Zambian entry point, and a white woman stopped us in the parking lot. “Did you just exchange money over there?” She asked. We said yes. “Isn’t that illegal?” She wanted to know. I studied the gravel parking lot intently. Chris shifted uneasily. We were both silent for a long time, thinking she was a plainclothes border post cop, then Chris mumbled “I don’t know.” The truth is we hadn’t really thought about it. They’re a conspicuous sight at African border crossings, and they often change currencies just out of view of the police. “I think they are,” the woman finally responded. “Did they give you a good rate? I was also thinking about exchanging some money.”


LAKE KARIBA
SOUTHERN PROVINCE, ZAMBIA

Lake Kariba is the favorite vacation spot for expatriates. It makes up part of Zambia’s border with Zimbabwe, and was created in the 60s after Kariba dam was created for hydroelectric power. Bradt’s guide book warns not to walk in the bush at Lake Kariba, because there are still unexploded land mines from Zim’s independence struggle.

We stayed at the Bush Club. Luckily, there wasn’t much bush. The owners had a herd of zebra, some cows, and a pet goat that roamed the facilities, but they’d also stocked the nearby islands with game and owned a crocodile farm. We wanted to go on a game walk on the island with a guide, but the owner said the scouts had reported that the elephants had swum over that day and the island wasn’t safe to walk on. The scouts had been charged that day. The elephants had emigrated from Zimbabwe, and were quite ferocious around people because Zim’s political problems meant animals weren’t well protected from poachers.

The owner felt bad so he took us on a tour of the crocodile farm for free. We wouldn’t have paid because we’d already been to a croc farm in Livingstone, but this turned out to be much better. They had many more crocs, and were the second largest crocodile farm in the world. Each year, they hatched around 16,000 crocodiles. They also captured and used “problem crocs” from around Lake Kariba; the ones that had killed people. They harvested the crocs at three years of age. Their skin was exported, and 2% of the meat was exported to Holland. The other 98% was fed back to the crocs, as they do practice cannibalism in the wild. Others were kept for breeding. We drove a land cruiser into the breeding area, which was several acres of a scenic pond fenced off with electrical wire, rather than an artificial cement pool that I’ve seen at other places. The crocodiles were so thick that the driver was beating a stick on the road to get the crocs to slide out of the land cruiser’s path. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to crocodiles, being literally just a bit above them sitting in a land cruiser. They threw out chicken innards to the crocs and we saw them feast.

We also ate crocodile curry at the Bush Club. We both love crocodile meat. I don’t know why it’s not more popular in Zambia or even the US. It’s delicious. In Zambia, you can usually only find it at game park lodges or at croc farms.

On New Year’s Eve, we took a sunset boat cruise on Lake Kariba around the islands that were stocked with game. It was the first time Chris had seen wildebeest. Back at the Bush Club, the other guests were mostly families with kids or older people, so most people were in bed by 21 hours. Chris and I sat at the bar drinking overpriced Mosi’s and watching music videos on VH1. Then another couple joined us; Vic and Helen from Lusaka, who’d put their 6-year old to bed. I think all of us were glad there was some companionship. Vic was born in Kasama, then moved to Ireland at age 12 with his
Irish mother when his parents split up. He was educated in Ireland and met his wife there, but they’d decided to move to Zambia ten years prior. At quarter of midnight, the winds began getting strong, and Vic ran back to the chalet to get some champagne. Electricity and thus the music videos went out, and the storm descended with a vengeance. At one point, Helen said “My watch says it’s midnight.” “I have 23:57” Chris responded. Mine and the bartender’s also displayed different times. We drank more Mosi’s and gazed at the storm ushering in 2011. Vic didn’t return. Fifteen minutes later the rain let up a bit so we went to their chalet to drink champagne. Their chalet was absolutely flooded as the windows had only screens. Our tent had a sizeable puddle at the foot. Still, it was 2011 at a lakeside bar in Africa.

Vic and Helen ended up adopting us and not only gave us a ride back to Lusaka (it took 6 hours returning; we spent almost 11 hours getting there on buses and hitch hiking on canter trucks) but let us stay at their house for two nights. We only had to put up with endless replayings of Toy Story 3 (surprisingly not horrible) and their son Aaron, an only child that would talk your ear off. Chris bonded with him, because he said he was the same way growing up as an only kid.

We then traveled to the Peace Corps office on the other side of town for our Close of Service conference. We were rewarded for our two years of service by lodging at the Taj Pamodzi, one of Lusaka’s fanciest hotels, on the US taxpayer’s dime. It was probably a bad idea putting twenty young PCVs accustomed to the bush and harsh conditions in a five star hotel. Or at least a hilarious one, as each of us had five plates a piece at the buffet every meal. They served three kinds of meat at every meal! We eat meat once a month, and that’s because we can buy it at the ShopRite in Kasama when we come in monthly. The Taj also restocked bottles of water and pens at the conference room after every break we had, so we stockpiled everything. I don’t even drink bottled water in Lusaka; I drink tap water.

PCVs usually stay at Chaminuka, a fancy safari lodge 50 km out of Lusaka for COS conference, but we got bumped out because the Vice President of Zambia wanted to hold an emergency meeting there. We ended up getting a free day there on Sunday because Chaminuka felt bad they couldn’t accommodate us. We went on a game drive (they also have stocked game on their property), but got rained out. We did see a giraffe right by the side of the road on the way out though. They had an amazing lunch buffet though and a jacuzzi.


PRE-SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION

We travel back to Kasama tomorrow (13 January) and I’m meeting Ba Allan and Ba Catherine there to buy building materials for the pre-school. I’ve been out of the village on our mega vacation for a month and a half, but I spoke with Ba Allan tonight and the community has been mobilized and is ready to start construction. Hassim, the owner of Sable construction, has agreed to donate and transport the tons of crushed stone we need. The Mumana Youth Care and Supporting Group molded and burned the necessary 12,000 bricks months ago. The parents are very supportive. Stay tuned...

THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE WHO HAS HELPED TO MAKE THE PRE-SCHOOL CLASSROOM A REALITY.

I promise I'll post about our mega vacation and our adventures in South Luangwa National Park, Lake Malawi, Nyika Plateau, and Lake Kariba when I get a chance.

In the meantime, thanks again to Appropriate Projects for making the protected spring box a reality. It's of course hard to measure, but I think safe drinking water can prevent some of the needless deaths of children in our village, and also improve the health of people with HIV or other chronic illnesses.

Here's the completion page:
http://appropriateprojects.com/node/474