Almost home - November 11, 2008
After an incredibly busy three weeks, I’m on the British Airways flight from Lusaka to London, enjoying the relative calm and luxury while I can. I think I’ve talked to a few of you about how weirdly I like these flights – the food is great, there are tons of movies, the crew is always really nice. I think especially in comparison to the bus rides I’ve been on recently, this is not too shabby. I’m also really excited because I have an overnight layover in London and my plan is to go see Julie Veroff at Oxford for the night. I haven’t seen her in months, so I’m really excited to catch up there.
There is no way that I can effectively fill everyone in on what happened since I last blogged, so I’ll concede now to doing a shoddy job. In short, I traveled with Alyssa, our Lusaka-based Camp Operations Coordinator, to Kala Camp and Mwange Camp. This involved 2 bus rides of 11-14 hours, a minibus ride of about 5 hours, and a bike ride of a little under 3 hours. I was so dreading the travel, that it really wasn’t that bad. But, I will say that I was pretty sick on the day we did the bike ride and the minibus ride (yes, in one day), so that was less than ideal. I’m almost recovered by now, but it certainly didn’t make things pleasant there for a bit. The bus rides were long and crowded, but that was to be expected. I was with Alyssa on one, which was nice, and I was really sick on the other one, so people pretty much left me alone, which was nice in its own way.
The bus ride from Lusaka to Kalabwe (the town outside of Kala Camp) was a little bit notable, though, in that Alyssa and I were sort of scared for our lives. Basically the driver was insane. He was going SO FAST, which was not a problem in and of itself. The issue was that these roads are horrible, with huge potholes and whatnot. So, he would take half the bus off the road to avoid the potholes, and we’d all tilt WAY to the side. It was really scary because the bus was clearly overloaded in the first place, so it would actually sway at points like it was about to tip. We weren’t just being whimpy Americans, either – everyone on the bus was really scared and murmuring and looking around. Alyssa was awesome, though, and went up and told them to slow down. They mocked her and scoffed at her, but ended up slowing down a bit. Everyone on the bus was grateful to her, and we also did not die which was nice. Oh and this reminded me of another story. Like I said, the bus was WAY overloaded. So we got to a weight station and we went through and we were too heavy. So the officials said, “OK you’re too heavy, you can’t continue”. And the drivers said, “umm ok give us one second” and they made about half of the people get off the bus and the rest of us move around to distribute the weight. Then we went through again, and we were magically no longer too heavy. So the officials said “Oh, awesome, OK go ahead!” Then, still right in front of the officials, everyone piles back on and we continue on our merry way. Someone please explain how that makes any sense. It does not. But, because there are towns along this bus route where a lot of people sell things, people were bringing so much stuff onto the bus. At one point I was barricaded into my seat to the point that, in order to exit, I would have had to vault over about 6 bags stuffed with random merchandise. It was really weird and really uncomfortable. But, I guess there’s really no other way…
That was a long tangent, so I’ll get back on track. The things I did in Kala and Mwange were really similar to what I did in Meheba – a lot of budget cuts and programming decisions. So, I’m going to bypass that stuff in this blog. I will say that it was really great to see Kala for the first time. It’s way up north by Mwange, and in the rainy season it is very green. I thought it was beautiful. We got caught in some epic thunderstorms there, too, which was sort of fun. There was one afternoon where we were sitting in the house trying to cut budgets when it started to pour. The roof of the house is tin, so it was deafeningly loud. We yelled numbers at each other for a while until things calmed down, but it made for a few funny moments. The refugee Coordinators in Kala are all really impressive – incredibly smart and motivated. I was so honored to meet them. Also while we were there, a group or performers from the Congo showed up. They are part of a program we’ve been partnering with called “Search for Common Ground”. They do performances live and via radio that basically try to relieve Congolese refugees’ fears of returning home by explaining what life is like in the Congo now. It was really cool to meet them, and I got to practice my French for a bit, which was nice (but embarrassing). I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there has been a recent outburst of violence in the Congo, though, which is really bad for these refugees who are supposed to return home soon. Surprisingly there was little talk of the violence in the camps, but I am sure it makes it more difficult to think about going home.
In between Kala and Mwange, Alyssa and I shelled out the big bucks to stay at a place in town with a TV so we could watch the US election results. It was pretty funny because the owner was trying to charge us 200,000 kwacha for the night, but we were determined that we should pay more than 140,000 kwacha (about $40). He kept telling us that we had to pay so much because of the TV, but we were not convinced. So we were standing there bargaining with him, and neither of us was budging. All of the sudden, the city’s power went out, and he said “OK, 140,000 kwacha, deal.” It was awesome timing for us, and the power came back on about 2 hours later, so we got to watch the election! We stayed up all night pretty much, watching the results on BBC, the local Zambian news, and Al Jazeer (I don’t really know how to spell that). It was so awesome to be able to participate in that moment, even it was 5:00 in the morning for us!
So after that sleepless night we had to take care of some business in town before we headed to Mwange. One of the major struggles FORGE’s on the ground staff face is the lack of vehicles. The only camp that has a vehicle is Meheba, so Kala and Mwange are always having to get creative. We checked around with UNHCR, World Vision, and other IP’s to see if they were going to Mwange, but nobody was. So we ended up finding a “taxi” that was headed that way. This was a car that could barely run, and 6 of us piled into it. The amazing part was the luggage – the trunk was filled, and about five feet of baggage was stacked on top of it and tied down. Then, a BIKE was strapped to the back of the luggage. So, we made our way for the 2.5 hour drive on horrible bumpy roads with this ridiculous amount of baggage, but we did make it to Mwange eventually!
It was great to be back in Mwange, where I was in 2006. When I was there we lived in Melu’s Village, but FORGE has recently moved to Kalabwe, a village a short distance away. We live next to the headman. It is customary to go greet him upon arrival, and he is known to talk your ear off with various legends – there’s one about a woman washing her hair in the river? I don’t know, we sort of made it clear that we couldn’t chat for too long because there was so much work to do. He seemed pretty suspicious of Alyssa and I the whole time. If you want me to tell you the story, I can, just remind me.
The house in Kalabwe is the most basic. It’s mud with a thatch roof. It is actually really adorable. It’s a bit scary, though, because mud huts aren’t grounded, and there are no tall buildings around or lightening rods, so it’s dangerous in storms (of which there are tons during this time of the year). Laura, our PM there, is incredibly tough, and I admire her a lot.
In Mwange we did a lot of hard work. We got to go in the camp for one day, though, and I reunited with a few people I’d worked with two years ago. That was really nice. The camp was pretty similar, though emptier as people have repatriated to the Congo. I came right on the heels of a bit of drama with the Coordinator for Journal Mwange, the project that I helped start in 2006, so I had a long and painful meeting with him. Again, I can tell you about that in person, but it added to the general “I am the bad guy” feeling I had the whole trip. I was certainly not the most popular person in the camps this trip – I hope I can show my face there again!
When we were done in Mwange, we left at 5:00 in the morning to bike into town to catch the minibus. Like I said, the bike ride was about 2.5 hours, and it was actually kind of nice. I wish I hadn’t been sick, but it was certainly doable. It was funny because there were tons of people on the road, biking into town to sell their goods, so their bikes were really loaded down. Alyssa and I just had our backpacks, and Laura had the big bag of project supplies (thanks again, Laura!!) because she’s in better biking shape than were are. So, we were generally able to pass most people. But we came up on this one kid who was about 10 and he was determined to not let us pass him. At one point he cut me off to get in between Alyssa and I. I was not having this, because I was supposed to be watching Alyssa’s bag to make sure it didn’t fall off her bike (we had run out of bungee cord and had to tie her bag on with shoelaces), so I got in an epic battle with him. He was totally glaring me down while I squeezed in front of him. Then, a few minutes later, he came shooting in front of all of us. For the rest of the time we were on the same road, he would look competitively over his shoulder every few seconds to make sure we were still eating his dust. What a punk.
Now a three-hour bike ride is definitely hard on the bum. But, the kicker was that the minibus we got on immediately after had no cushioning on the seat, so we were basically sitting on bars covered with cloth. Yeah – it was not comfy. And we kept stopping every half our to fix the bus. It was pretty disconcerting to watch them make their repairs. They used a few legitimate tools, but I started to worry when one of the men tore off a piece of a plastic shopping bag to use for who knows what. The kicker was when he found a “Shake Shake” carton on the side of the road to use as a tool. OK this require explanation. Shake Shake is this really popular alcoholic drink in Zambia that is basically milk mixed with whisky. It comes in a carton, and you can’t walk five feet without seeing a carton on the floor. So, somehow, this old crusty carton from this disgusting drink was used to repair our bus and get us into the next town. It boggled my mind – and grossed me out.
The bus took us to Kasama, the town in between Mwange and Lusaka. We had to spend the night there before we made the last of our trip to Lusaka the next day. Alyssa had a Peace Corps friend who was able to find her really cheap housing for that night and a free ride (in a car!) for the next day, so she took that opportunity, rightly so. I was not so lucky. I stayed at a guest house and rode on the bus the next day. Before we parted ways, though, we had a nice beer with some of the Peace Corps people and got some food. I got to my guest house at about 4 pm, at which point I immediately showered, got in my PJ’s and got in bed to read, make some calls, and watch TV I have in my iTunes (lucky accident!).
I had to be at the bus station at 4:30 the next morning, but the bus was of course late and we didn’t leave until after 6:30. I was the last one on the bus, since I was having to negotiate getting a receipt for FORGE accounting purposes (thanks a lot, IRS), so I had last pick of seats. My seat was in the middle, of course, next to this woman who had put her bag next to the window. She sat next to the bag, so that she was half in her seat and half in mine. She didn’t really feel the need to move her bag when I sat down, so I sort of half-hovered over my seat for the first 3 hours of the ride until she THANKFULLY got off. Then I swooped into the window seat and tried to give off vibes of “I’m sick and grumpy so please don’t talk to me”. This pretty much worked, with the exception of a painful conversation about wars and Christianity that, again, I will happily fill you in on in person if you’re interested.
I arrived in Lusaka that night and felt really horrible, so Alyssa picked me up and pumped me full of medicine. I hadn’t eaten anything all day, so I had a few veggies, then tried to get some sleep. It wasn’t totally successful, but I felt marginally better the next day.
And that brings us to yesterday, Monday, my last day in Zambia! Alyssa and I had a bunch of computer work to do, so we did that most of the day. Then we made a quick stop by a local arts market to look at the goods. Then, we went to dinner with Holly, a former FORGE employee who married a Zambian and now lives in Lusaka. It was so great to see her and catch up. And, it was SO great to eat a salad and drink some wine! Even though I still wasn’t feeling that well, Alyssa and I had so been looking forward to a glass of wine on Monday night that I figured I could handle it, and it ended up being a lot of fun.
After dinner I had some more work to do at home, packing, and then sleep! My flight left at 8:50 this morning, and it was not without a bit of drama. I had a mini-repeat of the fiasco at SFO. The people here couldn’t find my reservation either for some reason! I was so frustrated, but trying not to be an annoying, overbearing American. But, again, I made it to the gate 10 minutes before it closed. Ugh it was so so frustrating, because I had even gone up to the main office to make sure everything was clear ahead of time and they said it was. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there won’t be any drama in London, but we’ll see.
OK that ended up being really long. If you read this whole thing, you are an amazing friend and I owe you a hug. Thanks for being interested in the things I do – it really means a lot to me! I hope I get to talk to you all in person soon and fill in some of the gaps from my sporadic writing. I can’t wait to see you all, and I’m excited to be back in California soon! I love you all and again, thanks for caring enough to read this. It’s pretty flattering, actually!
