Things we saw at Mayukuyuku, Kafue Nat'l Park

A couple of weeks before we went to Breezers, we spent a weekend at Mayukuyuku, a beautiful spot on the Kafue River in Kafue National Park. It's a little freaky at night because the hippos walk through the campsite on the way to their nightly perambulations through the bush.

We did three safaris while we were there, walking driving and boating. The walking was probably the most interesting. Inevitably on such adventures, you learn a lot about poop. I can now easily tell the difference between male and female hippo poop. The nice specimen pictured below is elephant poop. Let's see, you've also got a nice cicada there, some Saddle-billed Storks, a fish eagle, and some wild feline tracks, probably from a civet and a leopard.

Berlin!

For those who haven't heard the word, we found out on Tuesday that, unless some State Department weirdness happens, my next assignment is to be Berlin! Yes, we are very excited. Since there is nothing really practical we have to figure out right away, we are madly researching the fun. What is the best bike route from where we'll likely live to the embassy? How much do equestrian activities cost? How easy will it be to visit friends around Europe? Soon enough the nitty and the gritty will set in and we'll have to ask such questions as how do we get the pets there?

Roughing it

We went camping this weekend and stayed at Zambezi Breezers, a fishing camp just outside Lower Zambezi park. The camping was kind of run of the mill, but the river was amazing! They took us out once in the evening to view game and again in the morning to pursue the trophy of Zambian river trophies, the tiger fish!

Snuck into Zimbabwe

It looks like Zambia, but it's different!

A river's-eye view

Bee-eater cliff colony

We saw a tremendous variety of birds again on an evening game viewing cruise on the Zambezi Saturday. These bee-eaters were part of a large cliff colony right above the river.

Southern Carmine Bee-eater

Goliath

The Goliath Heron is as big as it sounds. The wingspan on this one reminded us of a condor!

Playing in the Zambezi

These two elephants were splashing in the tub, play fighting and rattling tusks as they wrapped up their bath and headed for shore as we approached.

Here, hippo, hippo, hippo...

Went fishing on the Zambezi river today. The mighty tiger fish proved as elusive as it is reputed to be, although one did steal some of our bait. In fact, all of the fish of the Zambezi avoided our hooks, except for our poor little bait fish.

Assignments schedule

Due to the extra long wait we had for the promotion list, they have pushed back the assignments schedule. So, I won't be hearing about offers for my next position until late October instead of mid-October. Just a couple of weeks in the grand scheme, but we're excited and anxious, so a couple of weeks is a long time right now. I'm going to use the extra time to lobby more of the posts I'm interested in. I've been quite focused on Prague and Warsaw, but there are many others that deserve attention too.

First rain

October 3rd, yesterday, it was overcast most of the day and the sky looked ominous. We heard that a few drops actually fell in other parts of the city. Last year we got a thorough soaking on October 10th as our first rain. Rainy season doesn't start really until the end of November, but it's on its way.

Abel, beat up

Wednesday morning there was a knock at the door at about 7am. Our housekeeper, Serafina, came to tell us that they had gotten word that our gardener, Abel, had been beat up in the street the night before and that he was in the hospital. However, he wouldn't be receiving treatment until we showed up to guarantee the bill would be paid (Any need for me to point out obvious parallels between the Zambian and the American experience here?). The hospital is only a couple of blocks away, so Kate and I got over there in a hurry. In addition to numerous bruises and a few lacerations, he had a broken ulna and his radius was dislocated from his elbow, which was causing him considerable agony. He ended up needing surgery to repair the arm, including a plate, screws and a bone graft from his hip. Thank goodness the Zambian hospitals aren't as effective at billing the uninsured as American hospitals. We're still out of pocket a pretty penny for all this but it's nothing catastrophic for us, unlike it would have been for Abel had we not been able to pay for him. He went home yesterday and he'll be out of action for at least a month.

What next?

Since getting back from the States, time has been getting short to turn in my bid list. For months now we've been pondering potential assignments and this week I finally turned in my bids. I bid on two spots in Warsaw, two spots in Prague, Berlin, Brussels, Belgrade, Budapest, Ottawa, Canberra, Buenos Aires and Ho Chi Minh City. The main criteria were: someplace in Europe, snow and good schools. All of these places have good schools. The rest is kind of up for grabs. I'm really hoping for Warsaw or Prague. Brussels would be great, but that's a stretch job for me and they have a lot of bidders at the right rank. Ottawa would also be great but it's also a stretch. HCMC, BA and Canberra are all in there because I had to bid at least three jobs outside of Europe. They are good posts, but they are sure to be bid on heavily by other folks.


I'm hoping to get an offer in a couple of weeks and really nervous I'll get none at all. Vote for your favorite and keep your fingers crossed for me. Stay tuned!!

R&R

Kate and the kids were in the USA for about 2 1/2 months this summer. I got 5 weeks stateside, including 3 weeks R&R and 2 weeks of training in DC. After the family left me alone in Zambia, I had several weeks of helping to run the embassy while about half the people were gone on vacation. Unless I'm deluding myself, blocking out the pain of that time, I think I actually enjoyed myself working a ton and doing all kinds of different jobs. I was even the financial managment officer for a few weeks there, in addition to being the Information Management Officer and doing my own job in my spare time.

At any rate, I learned a lot and I was really, really ready for my vacation when it came. I spent my first week in the States in Kalamazoo gearing up to get my buddy, Dan, married to the lovely Lorelei. It was an incredibly beautiful ceremony, held on a farm in western Michigan. The weather cooperated and we celebrated with a great group of family and friends.

After Kalamazoo, we went up to Elk Rapids. Kate had done a great job of getting our new house set up on a minimal budget. We begged donations from many generous folks and bought as little as possible at actual stores. Our numerous summer guests also genously donated to the cause.

We had a wonderful visit from our French daughter, Maude, who we hadn't seen since leaving Elk Rapids in 2006. She is working hard, getting through design school in Paris. It was fun to have her around the house, fitting in with us as naturally as she did when she first came to us. We were also fortunate to have a lot of time with our great niece, Rowan (photo). She and her mom, Carrie, are now taking care of our house for us while we are away.

For me, the two-week idyll in ER was over all too soon and I had to put the beach, the family, the donut shop and our new home behind me and head off again. My two weeks of training in DC were productive though. I had a supervision course, which was much more valuable than I had anticipated and also a Microsoft SharePoint class, which is coming in very handy now, as I update our embassy's web site. In DC I saw many old friends, including many from our Couples Coaching circle, notably Bill & Norma. I went to a baseball game with Bill and spent more quality time with him and Norma. I hung out with "Joven," the intern who lived with us when we were in Chile. He's in a holding pattern waiting for a chance to join the Foreign Service for real, but he's very happy with exciting professional opportunities in DC. On the last day I was in DC my dear friend Jenny B came back from a trip to Italy, so I got to have breakfast with her before I went to catch my plane back to Lusaka.

Kate and the kids had some scheduling snafus on the way out of Michigan but it all worked out and we managed to meet again in Atlanta for the flight to Joburg and on to Lusaka. We arrived home jet-lagged but happy to be here.

Bought a house, we did.

On Tuesday Kate was up in Elk Rapids closing on our new house! We've been looking the last couple of summers to invest in a place in Elk Rapids. The kids have always been upset that we gave up 201 Brand Street when I joined the Service, but we really couldn't afford to keep it at the time. We find that we are reliably in Elk Rapids during the summers and renting anything nice (let alone anything with room for visitors) gets really expensive, so buying a place got more and more attractive to us. Also, it's fun to have somewhere to pile up all of the souvenirs from our travels. So here it is, our Traverse Street digs. It's a newish house with a tiny yard, so we are hoping we'll be able to manage the maintenance from afar without too much trouble. It's a few blocks from Kate's sister who also lives on Traverse Street, about 8 minutes walk from Kate's parents and convenient to everything downtown Elk Rapids has to offer. The only bad thing is that we will have next to nothing when we move in this summer. Our surplus furniture is in storage in Maryland and we won't have access to it for the foreseeable future. Many family and friends have been generous and offered us some things to get us started, but if you come for a visit, don't be surprised if we put you up on a nice air bed!

Maggie and Cinderella

Here's Maggie having a riding lesson at Trotover with her coach, Patrick, and a spirited pony named Cinderella. Cinderella moves beautifully but is a very naughty pony. If a rider gives mixed messages then she will buck and even if the rider is doing everything right she will still turn around and bite any toes she sees sticking through a stirrup. Maggie sees all of this as a learning opportunity and she is a determined student. After a few lessons on Cinderella, the two of them have come to an understanding. When Maggie gets back from the States, she wants us to lease Cinderella from the stables so she can ride her any time she wants and take her to competitions.

Mutinondo Wilderness Area

Over the Memorial Day weekend we took a family trip up to Mutinondo Wilderness Area. This place was so beautiful, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. Unlike most destinations in Zambia, this place isn't about spotting big game, it's about being in the wilderness. Miles and miles of hiking trails, giant granite "whale backs" popping up out of the landscape, waterfalls, canoeing, horseback rides and sunsets. Our typical day started around sunrise with the light just sneaking in the windows and a soft voice outside the door of our chalet announcing the arrival of a tray of tea (fresh mint for the kids and black tea with milk and sugar for those requiring more stimulation to get out of bed) and biscuits. After tea in the chalet, we'd make our way down to the outdoor dining room for a "first breakfast" of fresh juice and cereal or porridge. Thus fortified, it was off to "morning exertions", which for Maggie and Kate inevitably meant a horseback ride, while Aidan and I chose a hike or canoe ride. Between 9 and 10, give or take, one could appear back in the dining room for "second breakfast", a leisurely affair featuring the typical British "fry-up", eggs how you like them, meat, grilled tomato, toast with jam and another pot of tea. I won't go through the whole day, but it just goes on like this: more exertions in beautiful scenery followed by more delicious, usually locally grown, food. The whole place runs on a minimum of solar power, with lanterns and firelight in the evenings and showers that are hottest in the late afternoon, just in time to clean up after afternoon exertions and get ready for the sunset. To top it off, the proprietors are the loveliest couple, who went out of their way to spoil our kids as though they were their own grandchildren.

Kate's first show, or "After"

Back in late April, Kate and her class at Trotover had their first pseudo competition. They all learned a proper pattern, dressed the part and rode it for judges. Kate, obsessed over the pattern for days beforehand and in the end did a really great job. Here she is doing her thing for the judges.

I'm All Alone!

Kate and the kids are in Kalamazoo, having endured the incredibly long trip through five different airports to make it there. They tell me that the culture shock is something else. Kate had a real "SAY WHAT?!" moment when the Starbucks girl in Atlanta told her how much a latte and a scone costs. Starbucks girl said, "Welcome back to the States. I'm sorry."

So, until I join them in late July, I'm all alone here in the big house. All alone with my housekeeper and her family, the guards, the gardener, a dog, two cats and the sea monkeys. Alone is a relative term in Africa, you see. The good news, dear reader, is that I'll have some time to catch up on the old blog. Some things have happened in the last two months and I'll bring you up to speed.

Science!

Aidan's homeschooling science action gets me involved every now and then. In mid-March he had to do a big project and he designed an electroplating demonstration to illustrate Faraday's Law. He moved a lot of copper ions around and we had a lot of fun. Got 100% too! Aidan worked really hard on the writing and re-writing. See how we copperplated that brass key!

Trotover

Kate and Maggie have continued their riding lessons at Trotover. It's a lovely place, especially this time of year when the rains green everything up. These photos were taken mid-February when I had a day off and Kate and Maggie had a special lesson with their talented teacher, Patrick. This week Maggie attended Pony Camp and had a blast camping out at the stables with a bunch of friends and doing horsey stuff. Her riding has improved so much that she's been bumped up to a more advanced class and she's now learning jumping. She says it's easy, "like the smoothest canter you ever felt." I just know I'm going to buy her some armor next chance I get.

In other news, the kids are now home schooling. The kids where just not feeling challenged enough at AIS Lusaka. They are continuing after-school activities to keep social. Our family room is now fully outfitted with wall maps, chalkboard, book shelves and a school table we designed and had made over in Kalingalina, where seemingly anything you can draw can be made in a week (even though they will tell you it can be finished in 2 days, it always takes a week).

OK, OK

I got so frustrated with our slow internet connection (curse you, Zambian infrastructure!) that I haven't posted anything for 2 1/2 months. So, I've got the tail end of a holiday weekend to work with and I'm going to try to do some catching up.

January 10th. My folks were still here and we took a nice day trip to catch a ride on the Kafue Queen. It was a relaxing 3-hour river boat tour on the Kafue River. We saw birds, fishermen and scenery but no crocs or hippos. Not sure if there even are hippos on that stretch of the river. Anyway, the food was decent and there was entertainment. We stopped on the way back and bought our obligatory tall giraffe carving.

Kawaza Village

On New Year's Day we visited Kawaza Village. It's a regular rural Zambian village but they have set up a cultural tourism project. We pulled into the village at about noon. Being New Year's Day and the beginning of the rainy season, the village didn't expect visitors but they quickly scrambled a guide to show us the school, which is well set-up due to the funding of the tourism project. The headmaster showed up a little while later and gave us a more in-depth orientation to the school. By the time that was done, the village had mustered Rafa, who was an actual tour guide for the project.

What the...? Boy in remote African village wearing a t-shirt from the Kalamazoo brewery??!!

More safari drive pics

Still trying to get caught up with life here. We took a drive on the morning of New Year's Eve in South Luangwa. Here is some of what we saw.
Red-billed Oxpecker on Thornicroft's giraffe

Bushbuck

Cape Buffalo




Knob-billed Duck

Pied Kingfisher

Safari Drive Pics

Here's a sampling of the wildlife we saw on our safari drive in South Luangwa the evening of 12/30/08. We had a great guide/driver from Flat Dogs camp.



African Jacana

Red-billed Hornbill

Common Warthog

Crawshay's Zebra

Impala

Maves's Starling

Lilac-breasted Roller (or, as our guide pronounced it Lilac-blested Lola)

South Luangwa National Park

We just got back from a few days up at South Luangwa where we rented a big house (with staff) just outside the park that had a great view of a plain full of wildlife. We could sit on our back porch and watch baboons play, elephants stroll and puku and impala graze. Once in a while we heard the hippos but they like to stay in the water during the day.

School holiday program

The highlight of the school holiday program, apart from our own kids' contributions, was probably the kindergarten's Diwali song. A wiggly butt dance by five year olds with paper lanterns--very cute. The show was the most international and multicultural I've ever seen. Maggie's class did a menorah song, danced the horah and sang "This Little Light of Mine." Aidan's class did "The Last Thing On My Mind", the point of which as relates to the holidays eludes us right now. Then again, the 7th graders did "Mamma Mia" so the holiday theme was somewhat out the window for the middle schoolers.

Before

This is a picture from a couple of months ago of Kate in her riding class. In her new career as a lady of leisure she is working very hard at this with lessons three times a week. Sometime soon we've been promised a judged show and hopefully I'll get some good shots for the "After" post.

Mango party

Know any good mango recipes? We have several trees on their way to a bumper crop!

Termites

We're getting fairly frequent rains now, although it's still not as rainy as it's going to get in what the tourist business folks call "the green season." After every few rains we are having emergences. At first it was just flying ants. Now we're getting termites too. We're told that they are quite tasty, although none of us has tried them. The other night I walked into the kitchen and glanced outside and the light was attracting quite a swarm of flying termites. Of course I said, "Maggie, I dare you to go out there." So she danced around in the termite swarm for a while. Nasty. Then we noticed how excited the puppy looked, so I let her out to play with Maggie. She chased and pounced at all the flitting little bugs. The termites lose their wings after they fly around and mate and Ginny, being a frugal Zambian, made a great feast of it. When the swarm had died down and the entryway was just a carpet of wriggly termites and discarded wings, Maggie swept the whole business into a pile, like so many autumn leaves. It was Serafina's day off, so that's all the sweeping that got done that night. The next morning, the leaf pile had spread itself out a little bit. Some of this was due to its own initiative, but some was thanks to some industrious, and apparently carnivorous, ants that had moved in to cart off bodies. I'm glad somebody ate them, cuz I was feeling guilty letting them go to waste. Of course, nothing left on the ground in Africa goes to waste!

Marine Corps ball

We don't get out much, but when we do we go in style. The embassy had its annual Marine Corps birthday ball last weekend. Here we are, all dolled up. But don't let that fool you. Late in the evening, after the ambassador went home, I showed the remaining guests how I can do the superworm.

My wife is cute!

Oh man... that's cute

So, we finally gave in to the fact that it's going to be outrageously expensive and complicated to get our sweet doggy, Sarah, here from Michigan. Couple that with the fact that she is so darn happy with Kate's folks and we were able to talk ourselves into letting her stay in Elk Rapids. Once we'd made that choice and Abby convinced us that she really, really was happy to adopt Sarah, we went looking for a carry-on sized dog. Here's what we found. A 1lb, 2oz fluff ball we call Ginny. We've made the deal that she is really Maggie's dog and she's been doing a great job taking care of her. The breeder we got her from told us that she is a Maltie-poo, but we seriously doubt the poo part. Regardless, she's adorable and is doing her best to make up for the lack of poo in her lineage.

Protea Lodge

On Veterans Day the kids had school but I had the day off, so Kate and I took a short drive to Protea Lodge, where we had a fancy lunch and a game drive (saw some lunch on the hoof!) and basically got spoiled for several hours. The area around the lodge was actually stocked with many of the animals you see here, including the semi-tame elephant, which is kind of cheesy, but it was such a pleasant day I didn't mind and it got us excited for more expeditions.

How do you get down from an elephant?

You don't. You get down from a goose.

Maggie's 10th Birthday Party

Yesterday was Maggie's 10th birthday celebration. She had a small but excellent group of friends over for one of her beautifully planned events. The theme this year was Star Wars and in addition to decorations and party favors featuring Yoda, Darth Vader and the gang, there were activities such as the light saber vs. blaster battle and pin the arm on the Anikin. And of course good old fashioned horsing around.

Joan of Arc visits Halloween Carnival

Maggie won "Most Original" for 5th grade for her Joan of Arc costume!

Kalimba Reptile Farm

Today we went to Kalimba Reptile Farm. It's just a short drive to the farm and we convoyed with three other vehicles full of Embassy folks. The Farm had lots of crocs of all kinds, as well as snakes and lizards. We had lunch there but passed on the croc burgers.

Trick or Treating

The Embassy had a trick or treat event at one of our housing compounds. Lots of candy, bouncy castle, friends and costumes! Joan of Arc and, uh, Aidan of Elk Rapids, our knights!

Rain!!

On October 10th we got our first rain of the season. It was very early in the season for rain and it has been raining every few days since then. It still isn't rainy season though. That first rain was really hard and lasted several hours. The kids went outside in rain gear and splashed around. Aidan and Adrian took advantage of freshly tilled soil in the garden to make some mud bricks. Abel, the gardener, wasn't annoyed. He understands that mud is fun.

Flapjack

Here is a fine specimen of the variety of spider known as a "flattie." This one hung about our dining room for several weeks, long enough that we got used to his presence there. We named him Flapjack. Not sure where he's gotten to. Hmm...

Muzungu at Buseko

Buseko Timber and Grass Co-Operative Society. It sounds so genteel.

We commissioned a nice metal artist fellow named Benson to make some shelf brackets for us. We decided we would go with brackets and boards to take care of our excess of books. He delivered the brackets late last week and they look quite nice. It's just a L-shaped deal with a curlicue connecting the sides of the L. So now all we need is boards. I was going to just cut up our shipping crates but the boards are too thin so I decided to just go shopping for some nice local wood. So this was the adventure of the day.

Benson took me to a lumber shop in the Light Industrial area of town but all they had was particle board, plywood and the like. Not bad, but it was pricey and not really what I had hoped for. Word on the street is that you can get nice hardwoods for cheap around town. So Benson suggested we just head down the street to Buseko Market. Not knowing any better, I agreed. Immediately upon pulling in we were surrounded. Benson said, "I've never gotten this much attention." As I looked around at what can loosely be described as a five acre open air lumber yard, I didn't see one white face. There were people moving everywhere though. Guys pushing huge logs on little carts, a small boy running an electric planer, women selling candy, nuts and plastic pouches of brandy and this crowd of guys all eager to cash in on the muzungu (white person) who had just dropped into their midst.

We did our best to just focus in on the lumber that interested us. As we found some nice looking boards and we were looking them over, one guy from the crowd came forward to talk price with us. The price he quoted per board (170,000 kwacha) was so outrageous that I told Benson we should just go and he should come back without me. I told the guy we would pay 40,000 per board and no more and we as we were driving off the guy running along side says 50,000, so we stopped and the deal was on.

Of course you can't just buy boards. You have to have them planed and cut to size and sanded. That costs extra. You also need a guy to carry the wood around to all of these stations. So, we contracted for all of those services. It took about 2 hours to get the boards all prepared. Meanwhile, the guys who sold me the boards are pumping me for more money. After arguing with them for something like 20 minutes me saying "a deal's a deal" and them telling me about the thousands of kilometers they had to travel, braving wild animals and the outrageous price of deisel, I decided to just have fun with them because I didn't have anywhere else to go. I asked them about the animals they faced, the best way to survive a crocodile attack (forget it), the taste of lizards, snakes and grubs (chicken, chicken, corn), poaching buffalo, what they think of the US (everyone is rich, even the poor people), what they think of Indian people (they are cheap, i.e. they know better than to pay muzungu price), how to say good afternoon in Nyanja and many other topics. We had a lot of fun there amidst the power saws and sanders, mountains of wood shavings, teeming humanity and swirling saw dust.

Getting out of there was a bit of a trip. First we had to get change so we could pay the guy 4,000 kwacha to open the gate. Then we had to buy a rope to tie down the boards and while we were out of the truck doing that Benson accidentally locked his keys in it. Somebody said "keys locked in car?" We said "yes" and this produced a crowd of guys all poking at the doors in a race to get the truck open for us. In the end a polio survivor on crutches won the race in about 45 seconds. Nobody actually saw him do it but he got the passenger side door open just like that and instantly demanded 10,000 kwacha, which I gladly paid.

Though I imagine just knowing I was there would have given the embassy security officer fits, the only trouble we had was with the guy who did the sanding for us. He turned out to be a crook and demanded double the negotiated fee to release the boards to us. We fought with him for a while and gathered another crowd. As the light started to change towards the end of the day though, I opted for safety at the expense of justice and gave the guy an extra 50,000 kwacha to scram, which he thankfully did.

At the end of the day I came home with some gorgeous, if somewhat unprofessionally prepared, boards to grace our shelf brackets. I don't think Benson will ever take another muzungu client with him to the lumberyard, but while they will likely get their boards cheaper, that will be the clients' loss. Once again, no camera, alas.

A little catching up

I see fascinating stuff every day, but I'm so busy just going about my life that I haven't been taking pictures, except of birds. Also, I haven't gotten used to the idea of waving around my flashy camera gear in public, where most of the interesting stuff is going on. Hence pictures of things in our yard and of our house.

There is one thing I have to get a picture of because I just can't figure it out. I'm going to have to ask. On lots of street corners people are selling stuff but all over the place I see teepee shaped arrangements of metal bars adorned with rubber gloves and occaisionally bits of pipe or hardware like a toilet float. Is this an ad for roadside plumbing services? Or is it just a roadside rubber glove and rebar boutique? I must know!

To catch up on current events, let's see. We have been living pretty quiet lives, just figuring out where to get stuff we need getting settled in. Our housekeeper seems to be a keeper. A good worker and eager to please. Only thing is she speaks English but really it seems like she doesn't understand it very well. It's the typical thing where she agrees to everything and then you don't know really what's going to happen next. Last night, for instance, Kate & I went to a progressive dinner sponsored by the school in order to meet some more people. We asked the housekeeper if she would stay with the kids. Sure, not a problem. She showed up on time and we left, tellling her we'd be glad to give her a lift home at 11pm when we planned to return. Great, thank you. Then we get home and she's getting tucked in on a sofa. Oh, no, it would be much too dangerous for you to drive me home, I'll just walk home in the morning. Huh? Well, that's fine. The miscommunications are almost always harmless (sometimes we end up with a LOT of potatoes at dinner) but there are enough of them that there is often an element of uncertainty in our conversations.

Anyway, the progressive dinner was lots of fun. Our appetizer course was at one of Aidan's friend's houses. They have this incredible place way out in the bush. They made homemade sushi, which led to the inevitable conversation that begins with "where do you get...," in this case wasabi and ginger. Main course was Indian cuisine at one of Maggie's friend's houses, just about a block from our place, followed by a dessert buffet poolside at the Intercontinental Hotel. We met lots of great parents, including an Irish/Scandinavian couple, Mairead & Finn (love those names!), who invited us to play whist with their Irish club. I didn't know whist existed outside of Jane Austen novels, but Kate, who does exist marginally outside of Jane Austen novels, was very excited about it, so I am too.

Earlier in the week we went on a newcomers' orientation of the Embassy. They took us around in vans to all the different compounds, Public Affairs, Peace Corps, USAID, etc. and we got presentations from the various program directors on all the things they are up to. It's pretty stunning how much is going into developing Zambia.

Aidan is leaving on a class trip tomorrow, a week at a safari camp west of here. The first Ferguson or Husband to go on safari! We'll miss him but hopefully he'll have a great time.

That's all for now. I'll try to get my camera off the compound to give you some shots of Lusaka this week.

Bored yet?

We keep hearing that a lot of folks here struggle with boredom. True enough, there don’t seem to be a lot of happening night clubs, museums, symphonies, etc., but we seem to keep entertaining ourselves. In fact, our past weekend felt pretty jam-packed to us.

We got up relatively early on Saturday to make it to a friend’s house for a tennis lesson by 9:30 am. After huffing and puffing and even hitting the occasional ball, we ran home and showered to go to an 11 am brunch for newcomers. Needless to say, we were a little late! We met many other new people and the kids had a really nice swim in the DCM’s heated pool. We got home by 2:30 in time for Aidan’s buddy Adrian to come over for a sleepover. I won’t go into the evening, except to say they all had a blast.

Morning came way too early for a Sunday (6:30 am). See addendum (below) about the house. Doug was generous and got up to make the breakfast, sweet guy! Doug and I spent the morning drinking coffee on the veranda, avoiding the kids. Doug took pics of the birds in our yard and we tried to identify them together using a borrowed Zambian birdbook. We found what we think are lizard buzzards, common bulbuls, red-eyed doves, blue waxbills, and yellow-bellied sunbirds, so far. We then had fun getting to know Adrian’s mom. After lunch, Doug and I went to the shops and bought a hair-cutting kit. We spent the late afternoon doing haircuts: Doug, Aidan and Maggie all got trims. I am proud to say that they have only a few terribly short bits on their heads! I expect I will improve my barbering skills with practice! After dinner we watched a nature film about caves and the kids went to bed.

I guess this is the slow lane, but it is our normal lane! So, we are not bored yet….


Addendum: The House
The layout of our house is quite strange and does not allow adults to sleep in. I have attempted a rough lay-out – I hope it uploads. So, looking at the drawing, we have entrances to the house in the kitchen and the living room. The living room is actually the whole L shape and is open to the small room along the front of the house (we use at the office space). The most important feature is that the kitchen, dining room and living room are all very open to one another, with wide doorways and archway/windows cut in the wall in-between them. Notably, the dining room is enormous and our bedroom is directly off it. We are beginning to like the ranch-like layout, but there is nowhere to escape to for quiet.

Kitchen
Dining
Room
Our BR
Living
Room
A’s BR
M’s BR
Sun Room
Hall

PS
It seems my drawing won't load. I'd be happy to email it to those few people who ask.

Tuesday Morning Shopping (Kate)

Since I am having almost all the opportunities to get out and about, I decided that I might tell a story today on Doug’s blog. Today I had a very eventful morning. First, I dropped by the embassy to return books and get more from the CLO office. While I was there, I got blank employee contracts so that we can “officially” hire our new housekeeper and gardener. I am a little afraid that someone is going to steal away our gardener before he even starts later this month!

Then, I had the joy of going to the once a week open air produce market. On this, my fourth visit, I am starting feel very comfortable. I know several of the vendors by name and have hired a particular young man (Andrew) who carries my things for me (every week!). He sometimes helps me bargain and suggests new fruits or vegetables to try. This week he had me buy 1kg of something called “butter fruit” for less than a dollar. I hope we like it! I am particularly enjoying using the few words I have learned in Nyanja. When I say “good morning” (mwoka bwanji), people laugh with joy. Mbosu, the egg man, always picks out the largest eggs for me and teaches me new words each week (quizzing the next week – which I have failed!). After buying spinach (four bunches), tomatoes (2 kg), cassava, sweet potato, carrots, lettuce, eggs (30), zucchini, cilantro and green beans (1 kg) – this was a light week – and paid a generous tip to Andrew, I had spent less than $20. This is the affordable side of Zambia.

Last week I had planned an outing with a friend to a highly recommended butcher, but Maggie was recovering from a tummy bug/food poisoning, so I delayed my trip. My friend said that the butcher had fresh lamb, so I decided to make today the day. It was a long drive south of Lusaka to the butcher shop, partly along the main north-south artery of the country and the rest of the way along a terribly pot-holed dirt road. It was hard to believe that I would find a busy butcher shop so far out of the city, but I certainly did. I went in and asked about the lamb and was shown a price list for different cuts. One of the many great things about this shop is that they have a poster on the wall illustrating the different cuts of lamb/mutton and beef. This is fabulous because so many are different, or at least have different names. I noticed that the price of a whole lamb was much less per kg than any of the cuts. I enquired if they would cut it up for me at that price and was told “of course”. I had just enough kwacha in my wallet to buy a 15kg (33lb) lamb. This was not a small purchase: at $5.80/lb, I spent $191. This is cheap though, by Zambian standards. An average pound of cheap ground beef (“mince”) is about $6/lb too. Plus, what was for free was the experience that followed.

The head butcher led me to the back and gave me a white coat and hat. Once I was properly attired, he brought out the butchered lamb for my inspection and had me stand with him while he cut it up so that I could tell him what I would like him to do with the different cuts! As if I knew!! But, with his advice, I made it up as I went along. It was a very educational and time-consuming experience. He deboned one of the legs and both shoulders – rolling and tying them into very nice roasts. We kept the short loins separate from the other chops and made stew meat out of the ribs (except a few for BBQ/brai) and the shanks. He took the breasts and made minced lamb and gave me the bones for Sarah (our dog – we will save them for her). I now have 3 legs roasts, 2 shoulder roasts, 2 loin roasts, 4 chop dinners, 1 rib BBQ, 4 stew dinners and mince for moussaka (17 meals at $11.25/meal is NOT cheap, but OK). By the way, he also vacuum packed everything. Needless to say, I was there more than 2 hours, but I can attest to the incredible cleanliness of the shop and will get to relive that experience every time we eat lamb! I know I will feel differently about the meat when I am cooking it; I now truly understand what the different cuts are!

P.S.
If you visit, I promise I won’t make you eat lamb! But you can if you like….

Tiles

One of the things about our house that made it hard to appreciate at first was the dreadful assortment of tile everywhere. Here's a sampler. From left to right, top to bottom:

1. Most of the house is done in this pattern, living rooms & dining room.

2. Bedroom floors are done in this false parquet (photo features a chipped tile, which detracts from the charm somewhat).

3. Bathroom floors.

4. Master bathroom wall (imagine it next to #3).

5. Kitchen and laundry room feature mostly the pale tile in this picture, but each room has a large rectangle of the darker tile.

6. Verandah outside kitchen.

7. Kids bathroom wall.

8. Front verandah.

Never thought I'd be so fond of the soulless area rugs the embassy provides.

Enduring Hardship

We tried out our pool for the first time as a family today. It's lovely and large with a nice changing house, bathroom & sauna. Kate noted that her toenails are the same pretty blue as the pool.

Earlier in the day we went out to Game, a sort of Home Depot type place, with the goal of buying a hot plate for our guards to cook their nshima on. We got them a nice two burner stove and found a bunch of nice stuff for ourselves too, including a 220V blender which we intend to apply to the ready supply of fruit dropping into our yard. We discovered a banana tree in the corner of the yard behind the cottage today and Maggie has discovered that she likes goose berries!

I'm getting some experience changing the plugs on appliances. Most things you buy have a South African plug (3 round pins) and Zambia uses primarily the British outlet (three rectangular sockets). Fortunately, appliances with the wrong plug come with a free replacement plug.

We also bought a set of wicker patio furniture today. Another artisans by the side of the road type deal. We got two chairs and a loveseat and the guys are making us a little table to go with it. The set looks great on our verandah and I can easily imagine my dad sipping his G&T's out there.

Swing in a Fig Tree

Kate stopped by the side of the road to talk to some weaver guys who were selling their wares and she asked them if they could make a swing for us. After doing some charades I wish I'd seen Kate and the guys figured out what "swing" meant in Nyanja. The weavers put their heads together and come up with a design. A couple days later we picked up a lovely seat made with a welded steel frame and a woven seat. We took it home and strung it up from the ginormous fig tree in our yard. This place is getting homier all the time.

In...ter...net...!

Well, we got some internet service hooked up at the house finally. It's about $100/month and is supposed to have speeds "up to 512k". As we expected, it's molassas slow. What I hear is that there is only one commercial internet link into Zambia, controlled by the government, and that all the ISPs have to share it. There is no fiber connection to any major trunk. Anyway, we have to have internet at least to be able to check our email. If I post any more pictures it may have to be done on off hours at the embassy. I'm attempting to upload a picture of our house as I type this, so If you see a house, it was good enough for that, if not, them's the breaks.

So, about life here. We are starting to like our house. At first it was hard to like. So many different kinds of ugly tile in these huge open rooms. We just couldn't imagine it being homey. However, now that we've been here almost two weeks and we've shifted around the furniture a bit and deployed some rugs, it is starting to feel like our place.

We have a gardener picked out and he'll start working for us at the end of September. (Oops, there went the power--have to restart the photo upload now that the generator has kicked on.) Right now he is working at the Embassy but he's getting let go (due to budget, not performance) and we are lucky to be able to pick him up. A housekeeper is proving more difficult to find. After several interviews we have yet to be impressed but we may give someone a try soon. Washing your own dishes is so tiresome.

The kids are enjoying AISL (their school) a lot. They both were assigned well-selected "buddies" to show them around on the first day and buddies are becoming friends. There is much more science in the curriculum than we expected and we're all enjoying that. Music and art are also stressed. Kate went to a presentation on the Middle Years Program, which is the grades 6-10 curriculum, and (I'm going to mess up the pedagogical buzz words here) they are shooting for an integrated, differentiated, experiential approach. That's all good, but they aren't much on assessment. "You can't fatten a calf by weighing it" was what it said in their presentation. Aidan has a great teacher for math and science. A great "geeks are cool" type role model for our bright young mind.

At the embassy, several parties, newcomer receptions and the like were scheduled to happen during our first weeks here but all have been scrapped or postponed during a three week national mourning period for Zambia's president Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, who passed away last week. Even sporting events, pick-up games, etc. are on hold. Makes life a bit dull but then again, Mwanawasa should be mourned by the world, as his leadership of Zambia made the country a great example of democratic, economic and social development in the region.

Alright. Last try uploading the picture of our house. Voila! (I really don't believe that worked)

Back in the U.S. of A.

S'mores feature heavily in summer life.
We took a walk at Kalamazoo Nature Center with my mom, buddy Dan and kids. This pic is at a spot called "Connie's Overlook," named in honor of my mama on her retirement from KNC.

Maggie & Aidan love playing in the fountain at the festival park in Kalamazoo, a short walk from my folks' apartment.

Kate & I went to the YMCA camp near Estes Park, Colorado for a couples retreat. There was a family campfire and the biggest s'more fest I ever did see.

Panorama in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Aidan asked for rhubarb pie for his family birthday party. "Happy Birthday to yoooouuu!"

Good bye to me

Last week my section had a goodbye lunch for me. They took me out to eat and then speachfied me in the rose garden and gave me a certificate signed by a good portion of the embassy folks.

Last night we had our housecooling party. We invited some friends over on the condition that they loot the place on their way out. Much as it pained me to part with my remaining half bottle of A1 sauce, we managed to get someone to take off with it.

Big day at school

Maggie won the President's Award for "Outstanding Academic Excellence". Nice ceremony, nice certificate and a letter from W. Most of Maggie's best friends also won the award, so it was great for us because we got to see them and their parents one more time. Maggie has worked so hard this year and really turned into a responsible, self-motivated learner. We are proud as could be.

Aidan gave his "Great Brain" presentation today, which is the culmination of a very long research project. He gave a PowerPoint presentation on ethanol that lasted about 15 minutes and then fielded questions. My favorite moment was when he said "the chemical formula for ethanol is C2H5OH. Does everyone know what that means?" Audience of 5th graders, mind you. In response to blank stares he generated more blank stares by drawing the chemical structure of ethanol on the white board (look closely at the picture), explaining as he drew, "of course everyone knows that carbon likes to form four bonds..."