Today we’re heading to the Eastern Province to do a bunch of field visits and small-business consulting with the biz projects that Africare sponsors. We’re excited to see more of Zambia as we’ve only been in Lusaka thus far. Our time in this city has been eye opening, interesting, somewhat depressing – or at least enlightening as to the many infrastructure challenges that developing nations need to address before a functioning productive sector can get underway. We got downtown for the first time last week and we found what Lovemore had told us all along was true- the city of Lusaka is about 50 years behind even Zimbabwe’s capital city Harare. The infrastructure is minimal, most buildings are half built, roads are in need of repair, street lights are out, and the trash. Oh the trash-- in all of my travels to Latin America and Asia, I have never seen a city so full of unattended, loose garbage. Apparently the government cannot seem to work with the public utilities group here and thus the garbage has gone uncollected for years. So Lusaka is really depending on a more effective public sector until it can become the city of one million people that it needs to be. On the other side, everyone is very very nice and we’ve not been hassled once or felt any of the undercurrent of fear that we seemed to sense from time to time in Zimbabwe. While the economy is in shambles here, with 85%+ unemployment, it feels largely stable and steady on a daily basis despite ongoing government management issues.

We’ve been learning about the development environment here in Zambia because we’ve been lucky enough to attend a few amazing meetings, courtesy of lucky timing of our arrival and Ruth’s kind inclusion of us in a few key places. The Canadian High Commission hosted the U.N.’s “Consolidated Appeal” meeting last week, where all the U.N. aid and relief agencies discussed all the projects underway sponsored by the U.N. here. Amazing to hear the depth and breadth of U.N.-sponsored development work here. Then, we got to attend the World Bank’s kick-off meeting for the various NGO’s and country ministries (civil groups) that are responsible for managing the $42Million that World Bank is giving to Zambia for AIDS prevention and mitigation. It was a huge room full of all of the health development community in Zambia – such interesting topics discussed when its that much money, and a donor as demanding as the World Bank. Aside from these, we’ve been as helpful as we can be with reporting, donor appeals, and other things around the Africare offices. Clay has been appointed unofficial “computer guy”, thanks to word leaking that he was formerly at Microsoft, so he’s been running around de-bugging PC’s and doing anti-virus updates. Mandy’s been helping write everything from weekly reports to annual donor renewal appeals for Zambian projects. In one week, we’ve learned a ton already about Africare’s projects here in Zambia so we’re really ready to see them in person out around the rest of Zambia.

What other funny things have happened? Our systems are now finely tuned on oats for breakfast every day and chicken and beans for dinner every night. We have discovered a wonderful Indian restaurant down the road where we get our curry fix – who knew – whose looks outside did not match the tasty dishes inside. Mandy’s got some stories to tell about switching malaria medication, and we attended an amazing crafts market yesterday where the crowd looked like a U.N. meeting – people from every nationality and age were milling around between the clothing, food, and crafts stalls. It was fun and we found a few reminders for our time here, including two cool masks from western Zambia.
OK, that’s enough. Time to go – we’re off to Eastern Province and Chipata… followed by a couple days at South Luangwa National Park, the largest game park in Zambia – can’t wait. Love to all, more later….
Xo Clay and Mandy


- posted by Mandy and @ 11:42 PM

 
OUR ZAMBIAN WEDDING
I'm writing with the news that Clay and I had our second marriage yesterday- Zambian style. Ruth and Lovemore surprised us and arranged for a Zambian traditional wedding celebration! They invited a bunch of people and had tables and chairs and a caterer set up in the backyard. Then two "aunties" who are from Zambia came and took me into the house away from Clay for a few hours to teach me how to be a good wife. They wrapped me in traditional clothing, gave me symbolic beads, wrapped my head and then brought in the women experts on marriage. Who were they? A troupe of 8 women who are all related, one leader Mrs. Sacara was on the eldest, and leader of the drum players. There were 3 women on drums beating traditional songs and then about 4 dancers who danced and sang and taught me the lessons of marriage via dance and song. It was amazing! The aunties translated for me- the dances were about how to keep your man happy--- they were not exactly PG 13! I was so surprised that they were showing me via dance how to move my hips and pelvis to please my man, "so that he never strays". And they did a whole dance about not having violence in the house, another dance about respecting the elders, another dance about not gossiping... But the most graphic were the dances where they showed me how to show Clay that I was ready for the "act" as they called it (sex!). They showed me that there were ways I could indicate to him that I was ready and then there were other positions to try with him so that I kept a good amount of variety. I was laughing so hard- and after a while they made sure that I could do the dance and had me try. I kept moving my hips (salsa dancing !) and they stopped me so that i would only move my waist and pelvis! Apparently these women travel around and work with brides sometimes for a full two weeks before the wedding--- this is a Zambian tradition to prepare the bride--- I need the two weeks if I am ever to move my pelvis like they were- it was amazing!
Then they covered me and had a special song for Clay to come in and visit and look under the cover to make sure I was the woman he was to marry. Then they lead us outside and kept us covered and sat us down and revealed us to the crowd. Then they had people get up and tell us about what they had learned in their marriages (common themes: communicate, don't go to bed mad, trust in god, become each other's best friends), and together they all blessed our marriage. Then they had a big traditional zambian meal for us and everyone danced! It was our second wedding! I was so touched-- Ruth and Lovemore did such a nice thing and these people who don't even know us came and spent the day with us to celebrate our marriage. So, in a matter of 1 month, we've been married twice! We're starting our honeymoon all over again.

- posted by Mandy and @ 6:54 AM

 
sunday, a weekend of sun and relaxing after our first few days of work in the africare offices. so much to tell... i'll try to keep it brief as we are writing this from an internet cafe (one of just a few in lusaka, so forgive us if the updates are not so frequent while we are here in zambia for the next few weeks....)

our first few days in zambia were occupied with learning with open eyes and ears about the state of things here. it's generally more politically stable, it appears, than zimbabwe is -- and was, while we were there -- although the effects of the past administration's misrule are still quite apparent around lusaka. infrastructure and social services are almost non-existent, especially when considering the size of this city -- 1 million, comparable to harare. however, there was a generally peaceful political transition to a new president some months ago and the primary issues are those that result from the legacy of corruption and generally un-sophisticated civic and social planning (read: barely any). Interestingly, all of the infrastructure here seems to have been provided in the past as humanitarian assistance by Japanese, canadian, swedish, and other int'l development agencies. i haven't seen yet any truly zambian modern infrastructure. that said, people here are just as friendly and kind and, above all, welcoming as the people we encountered throughout southern africa last time. so, our arrival and settling into zambia and lusaka has been effortless -- everyone smiles easily, and the people we're meeting through ruth andlovemore especially have been so wonderful. the africare offices are larger than zim's, and it appears that with 9 different field offices located around zambia and namibia, there are interesting agricultural, AIDS education, and food security programs being administered throughout this region. oversight and programs management, as well as development grant fundraising and programs reporting, is all accomplished largely through the lusaka offices of africare --- where we will be assisting with reporting, computer infrastructure work (guess who's tapped with that one!), and other headquarters admin stuff for the next several days. we have already had one fascinating "sit-in" on a meeting where the local U.N. development offices hosted a variety of development donors and grantees + other NGO's for a big review of Emergency Food Security in Zambia programs proposed for this year ahead. Mandy and I got to basically observe and hear the proposals put forward to address a variety of emergency needs around zambia -- later we discussed with Ruth and the Programs manager at Africare and got additional insight into where the biggest areas of need are from an "emergency", (vs. long-term development -- another focus of other Africare and NGO programs...) perspective. One of the most fascinating things was hearing the head of U.S. AID speak candidly about their priorities for investment for the next year -- so interesting to be at the point of implementation for U.S. tax dollars here at the other end of the U.S. govt's allocation of tax revenues for international aid and development work.... Amazing learning for us, on our first day back with Africare!

It appears that in about one week we will leave Lusaka for a couple weeks working in the field at the rural areas, at the point of implementation for africare's agriculture and AIDS educ programs. we're hoping to really get the feel for the lives and experiences of the remaining 9 million people who live in the rest of zambia when we are out in the field... ruth and lovemore have also discussed the possibility of a weekend stay at a game reserve or similar remote part of zambia -- which would be amazing, especially iwth ruth and lovemore who are also learnign their way through zambia as well.

personal experiences that are new and fun include getting to know the 4 nephews and nieces of ruth's who have been staying with us all at the house here in lusaka since we've arrived. they are on holidays leave from zimbabwe, and they are the cutest and most kind, well-behaved kids i've ever met. Tatenda and Tafwadza are the two boys, 8 and 14 respectively, and Charise and Kudzi are the two girls, probably 12 and 7 respectively. They are such a hoot to play with and talk to =- we've got plenty of photos to show upon our return. they are learning to swim, there is a pool in ruth and lovemore's backyard (quite nice for here, for sure, as is their rental property -- we are comfortably lodged in one of their bedrooms, which is so nice of them to spare space for us durign the length of our stay). the other ngiht, mandy and i got ingredients for some distinctive food with a Europe-by-way-of-America feel -- pasta with homemade tomato sauce and French onion soup -- we cooked for 10 and while different that the traditional zambian dinner of mealie-meal sadza (corn meal thickened), chicken or meat, bean+vege soup, and beans or greens, it was received well by the kids (ruth and lovemore are always adventurous when it comes to mandy and me cooking for them, which is fun).

ok, i've saved the most amazing personal experience we've had while here to the end... our surprise traditional Zambian wedding ceremony, which was held for us yesterday throughout a long day of ceremonial preparations! TO describe this amazing event (which we, thankfully, also have on photos to share upon our return as well), I'll leave it to Mandy and her descriptions in the next post...

ok, we send our love to all and hope to have more photos up on Ofoto or something like that later... until then, these posts will help us and you remember the experience, we hope! xoxo
- posted by Mandy and @ 6:36 AM

 
zambia- lusaska, we are here at last!
after trains,buses,planes, 5 inflight movies, one stop over in dubai, and about 18 hours on planes, we arrived to songs and dance and ululating at the lusaka airport last night. ruth and lovemore greeted us with open arms and we felt we had landed in our family',s lap when we arrived at their house to more hugs and songs from their little nieces and nephews waiting for us at the front door. we are so excited to be back in africa and curious about this unknown country. while it looked similar to zimbabwe when we looked around today, we know that is vastly different . there are over 70 tribes here and 70 languages spoken, the infrastructure is not as developed as zimbabwe, africare offices and programs are twice the size of those in zim, and there are tons of immigrants here from china, india, japan...should be interesting! over dinner last night with ruth and lovemore we scratched the surface learning about the real story of zimbabwe's nightmare, a bit about the state of zambia and a lot about what we are going to do in our short time here with africare. ruth, as usual, has lined up a bunch of work for us and there is more for the taking if any one of you is interested. we know that we'll be spending some time out in the field advising small businesses but also time in the headquarters documenting progress of grants/projects and sending along letters and reports to the donors (bill and melinda gates will likely hear from us this summer). we feel so lucky to be with ruth and lovemore, to be back in africa and able to learn more about how a struggling country and its people survive and thrive despite the difficulties they face. more to come.
- posted by Mandy and @ 2:55 PM

 
stockholm = the start of the looooong honeymoon!
the first week of our trip was just the right way to start our travels -- since it involved great food and architecture + a new city for us both... we started off from london for stockholm about a week ago and we hit our first travel snafu. seems london stansted airport, in addition to being extremely inconvenient and a total zoo at all times, is unattainable by public transportation for early flights -- specifically the 6:30 to stockholm. after waking at 4:00 and taking the earliest train possible out there, we missed our flight check in by 5 minutes and therefore had to return to london and then back to airport that night for next flight - at considerable cost. so much for a cheapie trip to a new locale in europe to start out honeymoon! oh well, no biggee, we rolled with the punches and made it in to stockholm and our nice little pensionat hotel with no more problems... a lovely 3 days were spent among stockholm's beautiful old pastel buildings, waterways and harbors, and especially in the amazing delicious modern restaurants that are throughout the city. stockholm is hip, expensive, but generally worth it and particularly when it comes to food quality, presentation, and inventiveness. then we took a day trip all the way out the swedish archipeligo which lead us to the baltic sea- and some 24,000 islands. we had one final meal of swedish meatballs and lingdon berries, an underrated delicious delicacy from sweden, and headed back to london to get ourselves down to africa. we recommend stockholm for well preserved architecture, cutting edge design, amazing 80s fashion observations, innovative and incredible foods. keep in mind, the dollar is NOT strong in sweden but you get great value for what you pay for!


- posted by Mandy and @ 2:41 PM

 
wednesday, the adventure is underway. we've learned that the key to conquering jetlag is procrastination the night before final move out from one's house. patrick has been a fantastic host for our brief time in london, facilitating our emergency run to the travel health clinic in london due to my belief that mandy had thrown away our 5-month supply of malaria pills for our trip. after we arrived at patrick's and i removed all items from my pack it became apparent that mandy had "thrown away" our malaria pills into the depths of my pack (that's my story and i'm sticking to it...). tonight we returned to a rivington street pub in shoreditch and i had nostalgia while we enjoyed a new moment with best friends and new stories to accentuate the memories i formed there solo 4 years ago. then we had another pint. now we prepare for a brief jaunt in stockholm followed by arrival in lusaka on august 19th. we can't wait to see lovemore and ruth and learn what our new experience with africare will entail. love to all, we can feel the flexibility of travel settling into our overly scheduled lives. cheers....
- posted by Mandy and @ 4:21 PM

 
Let the fun begin (just after we get the house packed and car stored...)
More to come after our adventure has begun...
- posted by Mandy and @ 12:25 PM