Back to Zambia

Tomorrow John and I are flying out and starting our journey back to Zambia. I must confess that I am not looking forward to the LONG plane ride back. We will miss you all so much, had a wonderful time visiting and celebrating Jeff and Becky's wedding. We'll let you know when we make it back to Mansa. All our love!

Back in the US of A!

We made it! After a grueling travel schedule we finally arrive in Chicago yesterday. It is nice to be back home and visiting with family. I sure was tired from the trip... I slept for 12 hours last night, going to bed at 7:30. Looking forward to seeing and talking to you all very soon.

Living the Lusaka Life

John and I safetly arrived from Mansa to Lusaka. We took the overnight bus and it was a bit diferent this time. We were stopped by the police and everyone had to show their passports/ID. But, finally by 5:30am we arrive in town. We had a nice relaxing Sunday and ate a chicken (yes, we ate the whole entire chicken, well not the head and feet or anything like that). We figured that the chicken accounted for at least 1/3 or all the total meat we have eaten here. Today we have beening doing little odds and ends- meetings, getting distilled water, Identifying snails, and collecting our mail at the embassy (a big thank you to grandma Mischler for the birthday card). We are anxiously awaiting our return to the States for the big Jeff & Becky Wedding! It will be such a joy to see you all. Love you lots and lots!

Its Harvest Time!

The sweet potato harvesting crew


Ruth harvesting variety 'Carrot C'

Yesterday John and I went out to help with the sweet potato harvest. It is quite a process. First we must record the varieties characteristic (color, shape, vine lengths etc.) and pest/disease resistance. I was in charge of collecting the yield data: the number and weight of marketable, unmarketable tubers, and vine weight.

At the end the farmers who helped us categorize the potatoes were given the harvest to take home (as payment). There was a dispute about who gets how much... it was eventually sorted out by the casual workers (who are paid in cash)who had to divide the potatoes up equally among the farmers. In a place where people often struggle and scrape to get by and often live day to day, they want to grab whatever they can get... its rather sad.

Today we harvested my sweet potato trial. John, Mr. Banda, and myself, along with a number of casual workers (Peter, Benson, and Dennis are the only ones I know by name) were a part of the harvest team. The work went pretty fast, all we had to collect were the numbers and weights of marketable and unmarketable tubers and the vein weights. At the end of the process we let the casual workers divide up the sweet potatoes among themselves (we also took a few home to eat this week). Most Zambians prefer the cream fleshed sweet potatoes but John and I prefer the orange fleshed ones.

On a non-agricultural note: It is not a good time to be getting sick in Zambia. The medical workers are on strike. John called his contact at the Mansa hospital yesterday, because he was wanting to know the situation on distilled water (that is where he has been getting distilled water for his experiments and the equipment that makes the distilled water has been down for the past few weeks). He found out that it will not be possible to get the distilled water because the lab workers are on strike. But, the lab workers are not the only ones on strike- the entire hospital staff, doctors and nurses included are on strike. They are striking because of poor working conditions and pay. They want to motivate the government into action. Sadly this is creating a life and death situation for people who need care. Thankfully John has been feeling much better this week.

A loss of life

Early yesterday morning, the mother of one of the workers here at ZARI, passed away. The research community came together and I was able to participate (in a small way) with the mourning process and Zambian funeral rituals.

In the early afternoon a group of people from the research station walked to the families home and sat with them. The women sit inside the home and sing songs (this was a christian family so we sang Bemba hymns). The men sit outside and talk about things that men talk about(politics mostly).

In the evening around 8:00pm everyone gather back at the house (some people have been there all day with the family). There is more singing and some dancing. The women are inside again and the men are outside around a camp fire. I didn't know that it would be a vigil (everyone brought pillows and blankets to spend the night sleeping on the floor with the family). We stayed until about 11:00pm and then went to our home (only a few minutes walk away). The burial was today, but John has not been feeling well since about 4:30am (he has been throwing up). He is feeling OK now and resting. So we did not attend the burial. I am feeling sleepy from staying up until midnight and waking up at 4:30 (poor John does not do being sick well at all). I am checking on him every couple of hours and hoping to get into town today to talk to ZESCO. They visited again to shut off our power because they are not sending us bills. It is all rather annoying and complicated because we have the money and will pay the bill if they ever send us one! But, we'll see how things pan out... I am starting to think that we will end up leaving without having this ZESCO thing resolved and will just have to leave money with the research station for the next person who occupies the house.

Friends, Fun, and Food

It has been such a joy having Isaac visit us here in Zambia. Our week with him in Mansa has flow by and I can hardly believe that this is our last day with him. We are sending him on the night bus to Lusaka tonight.

Since Isaac has been here we have attended a delicious meal at the Chiona's home. Mary Chiona cooked nshima, cassava leaves, beans, an American pasta dish, and lemon cake. It was quite the spread and we enjoyed sharing the time together.

We also went to Mumbuluma Falls with two friends from the research station. We went swimming in the deep pools under the falls, had a picnic lunch and john even climbed up the falls! It was beautiful and relaxing.

Samfya beach was another spot that we wanted Isaac to experience. We spent the day playing in the water, burying john in the sand, and reading on the beach. John and Isaac also took a little boat ride down the lake.

On Sunday we spent the morning at church then went around town to show Isaac the sights of Mansa (he is going to update the Wikipedia page on Mansa with pictures so you can check that out too). We went back to church for the evening service around 4:00pm. When we got home we had no electricity. John hooked up the kerosene stove (thanks Teri and Nick) and we cooked supper outside. The electricity returned by 9:00pm but we were one the way bed by then. At least Isaac got to experience a normal Zambian power outage too! We will be sad to see him go back, but we are also looking forward to coming home in a few weeks. We love you all much!