We lost Kitty today.

It's a sad day at our house. Kitty died this afternoon after, we suspect, being bitten by a snake or ingesting something poisonous.

While she was only with us a short time, we quickly bonded, becoming a happy village family. She was a very friendly cat that won over most who met her. She was also a great hunter and kept our house free of rats, snakes and other creepy crawlies. I always felt much more confident at night knowing she was there to take care of the things that go bump in the night.

Now, the house feels quite empty without her, especially as this evening's rainstorm rolls in. We are going to miss her tremendously. Rest in peace, Kitty.

Bus Stop?

You know that joke when you're driving someone somewhere and you say:
"I'll just slow down and you jump out."

Well, our bus driver just did that to another passenger- FOR REAL!

The poor guy jumped out of the moving bus. He probably would have fared better if he'd employed the tuck-and-roll technique. Instead, he just jumped out the open door and fell into the ditch, which sent his hat, luggage and papers flying all about. As our bus sped off down the road, Shaun and I looked back to see this poor gent's confused expression as his papers fluttered all around him and into the tarmac road.

It really wasn't this guy's day. When he boarded the bus the driver, instead of pulling over and stopping the bus, just slowed down and opened the door. The guy had to run along side the bus and jump through the open door.  Whoever this passenger was, he was NOT on the driver's A-list this afternoon!

Even the Garden of Eden had a Snake...

And while I'm on the topic of our garden, you'll appreciate this behind-the-scenes story about what happened when Shaun was digging the beds for our soybeans and moringa...

While digging these beds, Shaun almost stepped on a Puff Adder snake, whose venomous bite would have been life-threatening. Shaun was digging along with his hoe when our neighbor's son yelled, “Shaun! Insoka! Snake!” Shaun thought the young man was pulling his leg, as Shaun has often done to the young man when joking around at the house or the swimming hole. So, Shaun responded with a laugh, to which the young man yelled, “Insoka- MOVE!” He pushed Shaun out of the way and swung his hoe down on the ground just inches from where Shaun's right foot had been. Shaun looked down, and, what do you know, there was a 2-foot long, black and tan snake! Shaun's heart jumped to his throat when he saw the snake and realized our friend wasn't joking. Shaun was inches from being in a really, really bad way.

Our friend's swing at the snake wasn't enough to kill it, but it did move the snake out of the grass and into clear view on our sandy walkway. The snake was stunned and we took advantage of this to crowd around, get a good look and even a picture. Then, Shaun slammed his hoe down on the snake, severing its head and definitively ending the snake's life. The decapitated body writhed in the dirt and our friend picked it up with his hoe and flung it into the bush where no one travels. The head we buried in the hole made by Shaun slamming his how into the ground. Then, after taking a breath or two, everyone went back to work... although more cautiously.

Here's the picture we took of the snake:

Everyone's a Farmer

Everyone here, it seems, is a farmer farming the very food they live off of. Most Zambians outside of Lusaka, whether they are formally employed or they are a subsistence farmer, have a garden and grow their own food for household consumption (and then some for selling). This is a necessity in Zambia that I don't see in America. Even among formally employed folks, it seems salaries aren't enough to allow families to rely on simply buying household food like we do in America.

 In our village, people are growing:

• Maize (a staple food everyone seems to cultivate)
• Tomatoes
• Cassava (another staple food; they eat the leaves, locally called “katapa”, and the root, locally called “tute”)
• Rape (leafy green vegetable)
• Pumpkins (they eat the leaves and the pumpkins)
• Groundnuts (Zambian peanuts)
• And a few people are growing: watermelon, oranges and soy beans

In our village, we've also seen people keeping the following animals:
Chickens:

• These are mostly kept as a “living bank account” (as the nearest bank is in the provincial capital 110km away) and for meat during special events (very little meat is consumed in our village).
• There seems to be little knowledge in our area about exploiting village chickens for egg production to improve nutrition and (much needed) protein intake for the family, as well as to generate income. However, of the farmers we've spoken to about this, there are several that say they wish to learn. Also, the Mwense District Women's Development Association in the boma is interested in having Shaun conduct Poultry Rearing trainings for its members. So, this is one of the projects we plan to take up after rainy season, when people are not consumed with cultivating their fields and when supplies will be available for building hen houses.

Goats:

• Again, goats seem to be kept as a “living bank account” and sometimes sold for meat or eaten by the household at holidays like Christmas.
• When Shaun and I arrived in the village in October, it seemed overrun with goats. In fact, our morning wake-up alarm would often be goats mating outside our bedroom window (quite a rude awakening, I assure you). Yet, even with this seeming abundance of goats in the village, families weren't eating meat or protein- at all. We found most families were only eating cassava nshima (which is pure starch and devoid of protein, fats and most nutrients) and possibly a green vegetable (usually katapa, a cooked spinach-like dish). We didn't understand why families would choose to starve rather than milk or kill and smoke the meat of one of the many goats. Smoking the meat would allow a family to have goat meat beyond just one day (for a week or more). I'll telly ya, there were mornings I fantasized about killing a goat or two...
• Milking the goats would provide a daily source of protein, fats and nutrients missing from most children's diets in our village. Goat milk is heartier than cow milk (though there are few, if any cows in our area) and an excellent source of nutrition. Though, unfortunately, there is no knowledge here about exploiting village goats for milk (and thus cheese) production. We'd really like to show our village that they can be getting more nutrition and income from the goats they keep. We see pregnant mother goats and adorable baby goats all over the village, so we've approached goat-owners about the possibility of milking their goats for drinking and possibly selling goat milk . However, we haven't yet found anyone willing to milk their goat (or let us milk it). We have friends in the village who, although they themselves don't own goats, continue to encourage us to bring this kind of knowledge and training to the village. So we'll continue talking to farmers about this topic and see if any interest in goat milk production develops.
• And on the topic of goats... There were so many goats in the village I was reluctant to plant a garden because I thought it would quickly be eaten by goats. However, our neighbors assured me that come planting season (mid-November) the goats in the village would all be tied up. Sure enough, all the goats are tied up and don't get into people's gardens or fields. That said, people who practice permaculture (maintaining permanent gardens) must fence their gardens to keep goats out during the dry season.

Pigs, ducks, guinea fowl (although we've only seen a few of these animals).

Fish (tilapia and oreochromis species, which is what Peace Corps has placed us here in Chebele to help farmers develop)


So, back to the topic of cultivating crops...
In order to grow that food, the villagers depend on this region's naturally high rainfall. There's very little in the way of irrigation systems set up here. Villagers rely on rainwater to fill streams and rivers, which are dammed to fill man-made furrows that lead to fields, gardens and fish ponds- thus irrigating crops and filling ponds. So, the rain is basically the backbone of a villager's livelihood. More on this to come...

Our Humble Abode

Hi Again, Friends

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETH!

I realized I haven't discussed yet our humble abode. We live in a mud-brick, thatch-roof house that's about 15 ft. by 15 ft.  We've been told it's small for a married couple of PCVs, and the previous two generations of PCVs who lived here were both single. That said, our neighbor told us that before PCVs lived in the house, a family of ELEVEN dwelled here. I'm finding that hard to believe, but that's what he said!


Mud-brick houses:
I find this amazing. Clay soil is dug up out of the ground by hand, and then formed by hand into brick shape. Then, the bricks are piled together in a sort of pyramid with a gap at the bottom. In that gap, a wood fire is created and then the whole pyramid of clay bricks is covered in mud and left for days to burn the bricks into solid, home-building material.

Our walls were at some point cemented, meaning after the house was built, someone (probably the first-generation PCV) mixed and then smeared cement over the mud-brick walls. This is a very nice touch, as it fortifies the walls (especially during rainy season) and deters termites. With just the cement, however, the walls are a dull gray cement color (as you'd expect). So, Shaun and I recently limed our walls and now they are brilliantly whitewashed making the corners not so dark and scary, making the walls even more termite-resistant, and making it feel less like a garage and more like a humble abode. It reminds me now of the village homes I visited years ago in northern Morocco. I remember being taken aback by how bright, cool and relieving the homes seemed inside, despite the blistering North African sun outside.


Thatch-Roofs:
Our roof is made of grass that's cut in the dry season, before burn season (starting in September) when farmers slash and burn large swaths of land to prepare it for cultivation (a practice known locally as "Chitemene"). When we first moved in, we'd look up to see wooden beams, our thatch roof and a small patch of sunlight right above our bed (which is only movable if we dismantle it so it stays put). To help with the rains and to keep thatch and other debris from falling on us, our neighbor lined the inside of our roof with black plastic (provided by Peace Corps). Bless his heart, he and his sons covered every inch of the roof creating a barrier between us and that patch of daylight above our bed.

Nonetheless, we had neighbors come by and tell us, rightly so, that our roof looked in poor shape and that we needed to gather more grass for re-thatching before the rains came. We bought 20 bundles of grass (3,000 kwacha each) and our neighbor said he'd help us re-thatch our roof. So, we waited, a bit nervously, for the first rains. In adding thatch to maintain your roof, we learned you must wait until the first rains, which is a bit disconcerting to American PCVs who are used to, well, American roofing. As it was explained to me, the reasons for waiting until the first rains is because the water causes the grass to expand a bit (like wood or another organic material does when wet), and it also weights down the grass so that the additional grass can be shoved underneath the existing grass and stay put.

So, even with our expertly done black plastic, we imagined waking up in a puddle during the first rain (after all, Zambia gets torrential rains and Luapula is known to be one of the wettest regions). The first hard rain came in late-October and to our pleasant surprise we stayed dry! So, all's well and dry at our house.


Our Patio:
In front of our house, we've laid a 5ft. x 7 ft. cement patio where we spend a lot of time entertaining, having meetings, quizzing the children on their timestables, swinging the brazier, cooking and eating breakfasts and dinners, and doing dishes (naturally). Most Zambian homes have an insaka- an outdoor, covered structure, where these things take place- but we do not.  The insaka at our house fell down a couple years ago and hasn't been replaced yet. We are thinking of replacing it after this rainy season (when bricks can once again be burned).


The Grand, Sand Entrance:
Leading up to our patio is a long, sandy walkway. It leads from the main dirt road/path that the village sits along to our front door. The walkway is flanked on either side by bush. Right now it's rainy season so it's mostly tall grasses and other native plants, but we've tamed a section of it and planted a garden.


Our Garden:

Just before leaving for Thanksgiving 2010 and again when we returned to our village in December 2010, we planted a garden in front of our house. We planted half out of our own interest in understanding Zambian gardening and half out of our neighbors' gentle but constant insistence that we cultivate the land in front of our house. Everyone in Zambia is a farmer- including American PCVs!

We found we were beginning to understand our fellow villagers' concern about the very late rainfall. Neither Shaun nor I are interested in irrigating our garden by hand. And, truth be told, we realize daily that we are in the very fortunate position of not having to depend on our garden to provide our household food. Peace Corps provides us a monthly salary that, while small by the standards of the western world, is sufficient for us to live, not like kings, but “comfortably” (i.e. meet our basic needs and then some) in rural Zambia.

What we've planted grows relatively easily in Zambian soil, sun and rainfall. We've sown soybean, cowpea, maize, sunflowers and moringa tree seeds- in addition to a mysterious black seed I found in back of our house (we'll see what comes up!). Our neighbor's sons helped us build the garden beds and planted the maize for us (from their own seed stock). In that bed, we've also planted cowpea, which is a nitrogen-fixing legume, and it should help replace soil nutrients where the maize extracts allowing the maize to grow more heartily (this was the case with another neighbor's maize crop last year). Also, cowpea produces a good source of protein (so we're told) and it's also great as compost in fish ponds. We've intercropped the cowpea with the maize also so the cowpea, a climbing plant, has something to climb on (its maize companion!).  We've also planted cowpea around the bed in hopes that it will grow into a living fence around the maize bed, further enriching the soil.

In the bed closer to the house, we've planted soybeans and moringa tree seeds. Soybeans are also nitrogen-fixing legumes and will help enrich the soil. In addition, soybeans are excellent sources of protein in the village (where protein deficiency is evident in stunted statures). I am very excited about the soybean crop we'll harvest later this growing season, as our friend and fellow Luapula PCV gave me two resource books on what can be made from soybeans and how they can be utilized in the village to provide good nutrition. I'm talking recipes for high-protein nshima & bread to mango soybean milk- I can't wait to share these with the women's groups in the area. Unfortunately, the soybean seeds we planted did not germinate (which happens), but if we find another batch of seeds soon we can still re-plant and harvest this year.

We also have high hopes for the moringa tree nursery we've planted. Moringa is a an agroforestry tree Peace Corps, the Zambian Forestry Department and others are promoting to combat deforestation and hunger. From what I've been told, these trees are easy to grow from seed and even cuttings, grow comparatively fast, can be used for charcoal, medicine, food and fish pond compost/food. We can't wait to see how these do. We got the seeds from the tree in front of the home of our pastor friend who lives in the Mwense township.

Kitty:

In other news, we have a new member of our household- Kitty. Kitty is our snake protection. She's a very cuddly, friendly orange kitten (about 4 months old) and a great hunter.  Her job is to keep the mice and rats away. Mice and rats are unwanted house guests, of course, but even more unwanted are the hungry snakes they attract. So far, Kitty's been earning her keep by pouncing on and eating just about everything that creeps into the house- mice, lizards, even roaches. We just adore her!

Here are some pictures of our house to give you a better idea:

Shaun, our PCV friend Jessica and our neighborhood kids hanging out on our porch. The grass structure to the left of the house is our bathing shelter ("ulusasa" in Bemba) and the structure behind it is our pit latrine ("icimbusu" in Bemba).

Shaun and our neighbor's children helping us dig beds for the garden in our "front yard".

Our friend Cola (pronounced Chola) playing our "My Little Pony Matching Card Game" on our front patio. The little orange kitty is "Kitty', our snake protection.

Here's where I'll sign off for now (because of our slow Internet connection it took hours to upload those photos), but I hope to post again in the coming weeks with more information and fun tales. Thanks for tuning in and here's to you having a lovely Valentine's Day!

I really hate having to pee in the middle of the night...

I really hate having to pee in the middle of the night. Really, what I dislike is having to venture out of out mosquito net cocoon when it's dark outside. We have little - and big- things that go bump in the night, like rats, mice, snakes, spiders, etc. We also have things that chase each other in our grass roof (and their pursuits can make such a ruckus in the black plastic that covers the inside of our roof), which I don't want to get in the middle of, especially in a groggy, befuddled state.

A friend of mine back in the U.S. asked if I wake Shaun up to go with me. I told her I just don't have the heart to wake him- it's such an ordeal. Gotta get a headlamp, untuck the mosquito net, put on something decent (in case neighbors are around) and shoes, unlock the door and make sure cat doesn't escape- and I'm not even to the "icimbusu" (pit latrine) yet, which is 25 feet- in the pitch dark- away from the house!

Another friend back in the U.S, upon reading this, was incredulous that we have a cat but no running water It's true- no running water and no electricity, a mud-brick house and a thatch roof. But we DO have a cat! We literally have her to catch and keep away mice/rats, which attract snakes (quite a concern in these parts). She's our snake protection :-)

Oh, and I keep looking for something to serve as a chamber pot, but I'm having a surprisingly difficult time finding an appropriately sized and shaped container. Oh well, I supposed I'm not really keen on sleeping next to a bucket of pee anyway (although it IS more practical).