Shit happens

So I always debate whether to post negative things or not.. not that there have been many negative things, but when I do have something negative to say I ask myself, in the grand scheme is it really worthwhile? I wrote this yesterday and then mulled it over all of yesterday and today and have decided to post it. 

 This morning I woke up to find we had been robbed the night before. I woke up and went to unlock our front door and noticed all of the stuff that was on top of my fridge was no longer there.. 2 bottles of olive oil which you can only get in the capital and it’s expensive.. a lot of the goodies my mom and husband had sent from Canada that I just picked up, my salt, sugar and other cooking oil.  My iron.. etc even the curtain that was covering that window. All of our windows have buglar bars.. however the window wasn’t locked and they opened the window and reached in and took everything, they even emptied my freezer of all meat and dinner pies that were there as well.

I have to say I’m exhausted and disgusted all at the same time.I’m off to the police to make a report,, which will do nothing because they’ll do nothing with it but it’s supposed to be done so I’ll do it.

I feel violated and annoyed at myself for not locking my windows..  but I keep being told Siavonga is so safe. I will miss all of the stuff my mom and husband so lovingly packed up to send here.. but I will miss feeling secure in my own home more.. I feel like someone was checking out the house for what they could take and came back in the middle of the night to steal all of our stuff.. 

So I went to the police to make the report I was there more than 45 minutes.. they filled out 3 pages worth of information and then the detective wanted to come and see the scene of the crime.. We walked to my house and he took a look at the empty freezer and bare top of the fridge.. and then said we’ll be in touch with you if we hear anything and if you hear of anything please be in touch with us.. I said no problem and off he went. I’m pretty sure I won’t ever hear anything more about it. The police told me that bolt cutters have been stolen from a nearby company and that there have been a few break in’s recently and they have stolen food when they have broken in.. I guess it could have been worse they could have cut through the burglar bars..so I have to just move on.. and let it go.. which is harder than I thought to do, I just keep thinking about all my nice stuff that I was going to enjoy that’s gone and then I get frustrated and sad all at the same time. 

Valentine's day

So it's Valentine's Day in Africa. It's not as commercial as North America people where red and do nice things for their partners.. My partner is of course very very far away.. I actually said to him last week that today was going to be really hard for me because we haven't been apart for V day in 10 years. It's really weird to be in a country who doesn't commericalize Valentine's day.. but to be honest I miss the commerical-ness.. I miss the flowers and the going out for dinner.. In fact if I didn't say it's Valentine's day to some of my colleagues it might have gone un-detected. I just wanted to say to all the other volunteers who are away from their loved ones.. Happy Valentine's day.. and I hope that you don't feel too lonely.
I got to speak to my husband today and it was supposed to be a surprize but he is having flowers delivered to the city's capital because I'm going to be there this week. He had to tell me of the surprize because I changed my plans to go into town from Friday to Wednesday or Thursday and with the plans changing and my uncertainty he had to ruin the surprize.. but the idea was enough.. It made me realize how special my husband is.
If you are at home with your loved one(s) give them an extra squeeze and look at them in the eye and appreciate you're able to do it, because there are moments when Skype just doesn't cut it.. I miss my Puppy.. Happy Valentine's Day baby.

Lack of Postage

I haven’t been writing frequently these days.. I think it’s because depending on when you ask me how’s it going.. my answer varies so much.. at this moment... I feel great... I had a great weekend.. Friday night out with some local friends, Saturday we had a great movie night and Sunday we celebrated a friends birthday with a fabulous lunch and a trip to a lodge for swimming, drinks and pool and then out for dinner.. a great day and a great weekend.. Saturday as I walked out local market I found the cutest new shoes for 18,000, just under 4 dollars.. a great price.. and they are super cute! Everything is feeling really good at the moment.

But  last Wednesday I was crying about how lonely I felt and how much I missed home.. last week was tough.. I really find the evenings hard.. because there is nothing to do in town except for drink.. firstly i don’t want to turn into an alcoholic and secondly it’s not like I can go to the bar by myself.. it’s not unsafe like something will happen to me.. I’ll just be hit 100 times, because women don’t go to bars themselves unless they’re prostitutes... So I watch TV, and sometimes a movie on my computer, listen to music and read my book but that gets boring really quick! Although I have met a few great people hear my social network is small and therefore I tend do see the same people very regularly. Not only was I lonely but my Ipod was stolen.. a long complicated story.. my watch stopped working and the bracelet my mom bought me before going to Africa broke when a little kid pulled so hard the silver bracelet snapped in half. (AHHH) 

I still really like Siavonga, I just wish there was more to do in the evenings. I have definitely improved my pool playing while here; I wouldn’t say improved.. now I can make contact with the balls and sometimes even hit the right ones.. I guess you can call that an improvement! I do like our sleepy little town; I was thinking of a way to improve our nightlife.. it’s not easy.. I haven’t come up with a plan.. but if anyone has suggestions I’m all ears.

Special projects

So last weekend I celebrated my 35^th birthday.  We actually celebrated on my real birthday

 I planned a pool party for 2o to 25 people, unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate so it ended up to be a Braai (BBQ)  with no pool activity at all, but fun none the less. It was nice to have everyone together for a nice afternoon, after the Braai we went to Eagles Rest (on of the lodges a little bit further from us) it was a nice night.

I was shocked at how much vodka I consumed, and although I was not hung over.. I had a rough time getting anything done.. It was a very lazy day on Sunday. Sunday afternoon we went to Sandy Beach to watch the sunset..Every time I go there I realize how beautiful and peaceful it is.. it reminds me of an all inclusive.. beach, sand, sun and palm trees. What’s not to like. (except maybe the mosquitos)

This week brings interesting work.. there are 3 volunteers from an NGO called SPICE in  Wales here to do an analysis on a time banking project.. basically this group helps an NGO to start a  time banking project. They help you to set up the project, to run it, to fund it and to make certain that it’s sustainable long term. They have over 40 of these projects currently running so they are experts at knowing the right questions to ask to uncover all of the information needed to start a project like this.

All these projects are currency based and the idea is that you develop a local currency to encourage a community to reach a common goal. So as an example if you were looking for teachers.. you would provide them with 1 hour of “currency” in exchange for 1 hour of their teaching time. They could then exchange their 1 hour of currency for an hour of needed service, it could be babysitting or wood cutting etc.

They have never done a project like this in Africa, most of these projects are running very successfully in North America. They have a few of these projects  running in South America and they have decided that SNG could potentially be the first African partner.  We have our initial meeting today to discuss what would be our unit of measurement because I don’t think anyone is convinced that time would work here in Africa.. but we’ll see what happens..

Tonga lessons

Yesterday I had my first official tonga lesson.. I have made friends with a local kid who is going to teach me tonga. He’s 22 and works full time at our local liquor store. The plan is to have lessons twice a week and to practice in between and hopefully I’ll be able to pick it up.  I have decided I want to learn the language to better communicate but it’s also killing me that they are taking about me and I can’t understand what they’re saying! All I hear is Musungu (white person) and that’s all I understand.

One of the huge benefits of being here is there is no stress at all.. The only thing I need to worry about is what I’m going to eat and what I’m going to do to entertain myself.. the entertainment part is very limited. ..and it’s becoming clearer to me why so many Zambians drink..  There is 1 night club here in Siavonga and honestly I really enjoy going to it because it’s the only place where you can dance.. but it’s full of drunk and disorderly people so I can only go if 1 of my local friends is available to escort us otherwise it can get messy and unsafe.

Life is relatively easy here as long as you have some money, there is someone to do your laundry, clean your property, cook  your meals if you like.. all for a cheap price, physical labour is very inexpensive because it’s so easily available.

 Without money you need to worry about where to get your water, electric and figure out how you are going to pay your bills.. the local who is teaching me tonga makes 300,.000 kwacha per month that’s about  $70.00 monthly and half of that goes to rent ... which leaves 150,000 Kwacha to live on. Most locals live in millimeal (this is maize that they eat daily) it costs 50,000 kwacha for a months supply. That leaves 100,000 for all other expenses.. $25.00 for the rest of the month. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THEY DO IT

The biggest misconception about Africa is that everything is so cheap.. it’s NOT. It’s very expensive to live here. Most things are imported and as such have a high price tag. A bag of pasta is $3.00 it’s not .99 like back at home. It’s something I’m still trying to wrap my head around.  So the question is how do people survive and manage to keep a roof over their head.. They take advances on their pay,  a lot of stores extend people credit, they borrow, they sell services of stuff on the side to make extra money..

It’s interesting because although they are poor they are also proud.. my tonga teacher and I had lunch yesterday.. he knows I work with VSO and that I make quite a bit of money but he insisted on buying me lunch.. (he makes 300,000 monthly and lunch was 15,000 for the two of us.. ) He helps take care of his younger brother and helps his parents out. It’s actually humbling that he’s 22 and his priority it to make sure that everyone is taken care of. At 22 all I was concerned about was what I was doing that night and where we were going to go for cocktails..  Although there is a deep sense of commitment to family and community, they aren’t working together to get out, to do better...

Since I’ve been getting tutored the community has been asking this young man.. where he found me... because they want their own white man to befriend. The hope is that a white man will befriend you and give you stuff.. they don’t want to learn from you they want to sponge off you and be bought.. this is the concept that I have the most difficulty with, young cheeky boys asking you to buy them a softdrink because you’re white.. I always look at them and say you need to buy me a soft drink I’m a visitor you need to treat me well so I can go home and tell everyone they need to come and visit Zambia.. oh no no no you can buy me a soft drink.. we play the same game every time. 

Africa is a strange and beautiful place... more soon xoxox If anyone has any questions they want answered fire away..

No one does it better than my husband

Over the last several weeks when I reflect on what this experience has brought to me so far.. I keep going back to the fact that if it weren't for my amazing husband I could not have easily been here. It's been tough on him, I think it's always more difficult for the person staying behind. 
He never complains or makes me feel guilty for being selfish enough to leave him for 6 months.. and although he doesn't realize it he has given me the most beautiful gift..to follow my heart and to live out a dream, to make a choice to be selfish because it was just that important.
So I just want to say it publicly like I do privately I have the best husband in the world.
This experience is enriching me in so many ways.. and teaching me things I never thought I would learn and I owe it all to my husband.. thanks Puppy for letting me go. My heart is always with you no matter how far away I am physically.

Batteries recharged

We got back 2 days ago from a 10 day vacation, we started in Zambia’s capital Lusaka. Lusaka is a very built up city, if you saw pictures of the city centre you would never know you were in a developing country. There are Mercedes trucks and the road is full or cars and people selling airtime and anything else you can think of on the side of the road, tomatoes, puppies, clothes, sunglasses.. but mostly airtime for cell phones.

We stayed in 3 different VSO volunteers houses while there, we had a great time enjoying city life that we miss while in Siavonga. On reflection though.. we crave city while here in Siavonga but a week into the trip I was thinking of “home” in Siavonga. There is something very nice about living in a small enough town to see familiar faces and know some of the local shop keepers where you shop regularly.

After being in Lusaka for 3 days we headed to Livingstone – 7 hours away from the capital and 10 hours away from Siavonga. We took a “luxury” bus that leaves from the city centre twice daily and costs 110,000 Kwacha.. which is about 22.00 cdn. The huge benefit to taking this bus was that it leaves on time. It was actually the most luxury we’ve seen since arriving in Africa. They gave us the newspaper and drinks and snacks while on the journey.. we even made a toilet stop.. you have to pay for use of the toilet but you need to supply your own toilet paper, just 1 of those things in Zambia I’ll never understand. 

Livingstone is a small tourist town..we stayed at Jollyboys backpackers.. owned by a Canadian couple who moved out here from Vancouver 2 years ago. It’s a great place to stay if you find yourself in Livingstone.. it’s very laid back and very reasonably priced.. they cater to people who want a chill out vacation. With a pit of pillows in the centre of the resort.. they have a very nice pool a very small and laid back restaurant and bar. They make a decent cup of drip coffee which is very hard to find here. For that alone I would stay there again.

While in Livingstone we went to walk the famous Victoria Falls.. it’s really beautiful, I had my doubts as a Canadian that they would be as impressive as Niagara falls but honestly I was more impressed because you can get closer to the falls and you can walk down 1km to the water on a stair trail. (great workout) and along the way you’ll see baboons and beautiful vegetation. It was a great day. Livingstone also has some really great lodges with art and jewellery for sale to benefit the local community.  They also have a market area with a line up of about 30 vendors selling similar stuff, scarves, earrings, carvings, paintings etc.. if you can fight your way through the vendors there is some nice stuff that`s not very expensive.

We did a lot of reading and laying at the pool, ate a lot of great food that we don`t get in Siavonga.. pizza and Mexican.

For Christmas eve we went to a volunteer couples house who live in Livingstone from Australia, and they had a few friends over in addition to our group, Mary, Ety, Joi and I. It was a really great time, nice to be with people who are fun to hang out with, and are like extended volunteer family.

We were due to have a crazy night out of dancing and drinking and it never happened but honestly it didn`t matter. We had a great time anyway.. Mary and Eti carried on to Chobe national park and Joi and I made the long journey back to Siavonga in 1 day.. 6 hours in the luxury bus and then 3 hours in what they call mini bus. This is really the only mode of public transportation that comes into Siavonga. It looks like a VW bus. They seat  8 people including the driver  but we were 12 and the conductor felt he could get 3 more in.

Ironically the police have set up check points along the route from Lusaka to Siavonga to check for more capacity vehicles... because all of us had some part of our ass on the seat so that`s no problem.

But we made it home safe and sound.. yesterday and today we went to our usual market to greet our community and buy some food and drinks.. all of our usual vendors asked where we had been and what we did for Christmas.. and of course most of them said Christmas was boring because they stayed in Siavonga.. when you ask them why didn't you go anywhere? the answer is always the same because Siavonga is my home..