Pictures from our Easter Vacation in Livingstone: April 2011

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Pictures from our site in Chebele Village: April 2011

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"Where the Water Meets the Sky"

Shaun and I recently watched an inspiring film about women in Samfya, Luapula Province, Zambia: "Where the Water Meets the Sky". There is a lake in this area, Lake Bangweulu which means "where the water meets the sky." I encourage all to try to see it. It was produced by Camfed aired on Sundance Channel.

We were able to see this film becasue of the generosity of our new friend Brittany. We met Brittany while we were passing through Lusaka on our Livingstone and Victoria Falls vacation over Easter 2011. We got to talking about our site in Luapula and Brittany's beginning her Third-Year Extension in Lusaka. Upon hearing we are posted in Luapula, she immediately offered to lend us her DVD of "Where the Water Meets the Sky." Fortunately, we were staying at a homestay in Lusaka where we had access to a DVD player, so we watched the video the next day.

The video calls together a group of undereducated, unempowered women and they are guided in creating a film telling their story, which turns out to be about being orphaned by HIV/AIDS and then going into prostitution to get by. Then, the women are given by Camfed the tools, guidance and license to create their own film about their story and then show it to their communities. It's a film about female empowerment and community education- and it's incredibly inspiring. Thank you, Brittany, for lending us your DVD!


We were so inpired by it that we have to pass along the recommendation to our family and friends. I noticed the Camfed website helps people host screenings of the film. If I could I'd host a screening to share these women's stories and success and (selfishly) to give our friends and family a clear window into the community we live with and work with. It was incredible to watch on film people who look, move, gesture and dress exactly like the community of Chebele Village, Mwense District, Luapula, Zambia- which has become our Home. It was so fun to hear on screen the Bemba that fills our ears everyday here in Zambia. The surroundings, the town, the village, the school depicted in the film- it's just like our everyday life! The film captured our community and our daily expereince in a more articulate way than I could ever attempt.



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ESL Workshop in the boma

Today was the last day of the 4-day ESL Workshop I've been facilitating for our district's Women's Development Association. It's been going great and I've been inspired by these women's enthusiasm and tenacity for learning. Some cycle 40km one way and are entirely engaged each day of intense language acquisition. My hat's off to them!

 Picture Above: We are in the Women's Development Association office in the Mwense boma. We held our classes here and it was a great venue for them. We have a table and chairs for the women to study and learn at, and we had plenty of wall space to tack up flipchart paper to explain the lessons (in lieu of a chalkboard). Also, the office in the Mwense boma is centrally located, as these women come from all over Mwense District.
In this picture, the sun is shining in the windows of the office and the women are gathered around a flipchart I put up on the wall, so they can copy down the exercise on it (unfortunately I wrote too small on that one when I was preparing it the night before).

Picture Above: Here are the ladies for a group snap under a tree outside the front of their office in Mwense boma. They are all dressed in lovely dresses made from chitenge material. The wood-plank structure behind them is a small tuck-shop Shaun and I frequent to buy our bread (it's independent of the Women's Development Association).

 Picture Above: The women are working on a verb tense exercise during our workshop.

Picture Above: Here we are breaking for lunch. At the lunch break, we put all our papers and learning materials to the side of the table and converted it into our lunch table. The ladies prepared "ubwali wa mataba" (maize-meal nshima) - the white food in the furthest large white bowl - and a vegetable and a "kapenta" (tiny fish) "umunani" (relish, or side dish). It was delicious and very nice of them to provide it for us all.

Tonight's Brazier-side Chat

Tonight's brazier-side chat topic: what it's like flying in airplanes. Our neighbors came over for our nightly dinner visit. These visits always lead to fun discussions and culture exchanges. Tonight we got to talking about how we traveled to Zambia and seeing a large plane fly overhead earlier in the day. Then, it became apparent that while this is something Shaun and I and everyone we know in the U.S. take for granted, our neighbors had never experienced traveling by plane - nor do they know many folks who had. We explained what it's like to be inside a plane, to see the country from the air, and I even got to explain popping your ears.


Last night, we spent the evening on our porch watching satellites float through the Milky Way, which is crisply visible from the vantage point of our front patio. Shaun and I explained to our neighbors; children about the stars, the sun, the moon and speed of light. We also introduced them to horseradish sauce, which they didn't care for-  haha!

That night, we were having chicken-flavored, breaded soya nuggets with BBQ sauce. I added to my plate a packet of Arby's Horsey (horseradish) sauce my parents mailed to us. Our visitors asked what it was, so we let them try it. We always have visitors in the evenings with whom to share our meals and this Horsey Sauce was the first things we've shared that our Zambian neighbors have refused seconds. That sure gave Shaun and I - and our visitors - a good laugh. That's one more thing we truly enjoy about Zambians- they have a wonderful sense of humor and love to laugh.