Bwanji zonse!

Bwanji Zonse! Hello Everyone! Things have been extremely busy for me in Chadiza since I wrote back in May. Now that I have oriented myself with the community and with my job roles I have been able to assess some of the needs and begin several projects. Also, I have had some pretty interesting personal and cultural experiences that I know you guys are eager to hear—ONLY I N ZAMBIA!

It is the cold season now and yes it does get cold in Africa. The high winds are the major cause of the drop in temperature. At night the air is so cold I wear my good ol’ Western sweatshirt and fleece pants. Then by 9:00 am I am cycling up a huge mountain wiping sweat out of my eyes. I’ve been told July is the coldest month with frost on the ground in the early morning. Hey, one good thing about all the goats sleeping around my house at night is that they might provide some form of insulation! Ha ha! But the afternoon heat continues to be intense..if this is the cold season I am by no means looking forward to the hot season in October. I have made some close friends in the village. My closest friend is Violet Zulu (in the picture above), she is the headman’s daughter-in-law. She is pretty educated (went to grade 10) and can speak English fairly well. Violet is my support system in the village. I eat with her and her family, I go to the fields and garden with her to harvest, she washes my clothes for me, and she fills me in on all the history (or gossip if you will) of the people in the village. I have gotten used to village life. So much so that sometimes I have to stop and say okay if my friends and family could see this right now they would freak out…oh but me, I am used! I can start fires like an Eagle Scout, I can see in the dark like a superhero, I can cycle off-road paths somewhere between Lance Armstrong and Cary Hart, I can make peanut butter like Rachel Ray, and I can build just about anything with a stick and a piece of string like MacGyver!

Plan Banda
In my last letter I told you that I was given a tribal name, Kristena Zulu. I learned from the Chief that Zulu is not a Chewa Tribal name. The name Zulu is actually from the Ngoni Tribe. My Headman’s last name of Zulu comes from his mother’s family. Here in Eastern Province tribal passage is matriarchal; therefore, passage of headman was given to my Headman from his mother’s brother. The Chief insisted I receive a name from the Chichewa Tribe of his Chiefdom. As a result, I am now Agnes Banda! In my village I am still called Kristena Zulu however, in the boma and around the Chief I am called Agnes Banda. For those of you that follow celebrity gossip the name Banda may sound familiar. Banda is the name of the child that Madonna adopted from Malawi. Malawi is only about 30km from Chadiza and we are of the same tribe, the Chewa Tribe. So if all else fails I can come home and be the nanny of Madonna’s adopted child. I mean who else can teach the material baby the language and culture of his tribe? Everyone needs a Plan Banda.

Kill Count Dracula
I am sure you are wondering about the bat that lived in my latrine. Operation Kill Count Dracula was a huge success. After many high anxiety trips to the pit latrine, I couldn’t take the threat of the bat a moment longer. Through a series of bat reenactments and my limited Chinyanja vocabulary, I was able to explain my problem to my Headman. Yeah, that was a morning I will never forget. My Headman speaks deep deep Chewa and I was trained in Lusaka Chinyanja, so our communication is difficult to say the least. Although I didn’t know the words for bat or wings in the local language, I did know the word for rat, choswe. So I said in my botched Chewa something like this…Ku chimbuse, ili yima monga choswe koma ili ndi…um…um …um. (In my toilet, there is an animal like a rat but it has…um…um). Because I didn’t know the word for wings I used my universal sign language and start flapping my arms up and down. I am sure anyone would have gotten a good laugh at me trying to explain ‘bat’ to my Headman. The villagers walking by probably said “Oh, that white one, she has lost her mind.” Once he made sense of my bat pantomime, it was time to discuss an action plan. I was extremely proud of my fluency in the language as I was able to fully explain my carefully plotted plan of Operation Kill Count Dracula! Thanks to my beekeeping group that I meet with every Friday (yeah I will get to that later), I knew the word for smoke. We pulled some of the grass thatch from the roof of my latrine and set it on fire and put it down in the hole and covered the hole with a plank. Bye Bye rat-like birdie! The Operation was a success and I can now “Be Free” in the chimbuse!

Blind Leading the Blind.
During my community entry period I traveled to each school and village within my catchment area to complete sensitization activities. I have 8 GRZ government schools and 6 IRI centers/community schools (like here in this pic). I held meetings in each village to orient myself with the area and the people, meet the village Headmen, sensitize the people regarding Peace Corps and my work in their village, and to share and exchange information about American and Zambian cultures. One day while I was waiting at Kapachi Basic School for the IRI mentor to escort me to his community school 2 km away I met Mr. Michael Banda. Mr. Banda is a highly educated man who attended a school for the blind in a nearby town within Eastern Province. After a lengthy conversation we learned that we were headed to the same village and that our escorts were both extremely late. I had never visited Khalika Village and didn’t know the bush path that would lead me there. And although Mr. Banda walked with a walking stick, the path was too rough for him to travel alone. With a lot of confidence from Mr. Banda and a lot of uncertainties from me, we decided that with the combined efforts of my sight and his knowledge of the village paths we could make it to Khalika together. There could never be a more appropriate time to use the old saying of ‘the blind leading the blind.’ This was it in the truest form. Thirty minutes later, not only had I made it to the village but I had made a friend. The meeting was a success as I was able to listen to the villagers identify their needs and concerns. There were farmers who requested assistance with beekeeping, women who are interested in information on family planning, and those living positively would like to form a support group. After the meeting I began to question my abilities in assisting these villagers. What do I know about beekeeping? How can I assist these villagers if I can’t fluently speak the language? Could I even find my way back to this village alone? I was reassured by my experience with Mr. Banda on the walk back to Kapachi School. I realized that any task no matter how big the challenge can be accomplished as long as you are not walking alone. Mr. Banda is interested in learning more about the culture within America. If anyone is interested in becoming a pen pal or if anyone could connect Mr. Banda with another visually impaired person please let me know.

Got Beans?
I have been very fortunate thus far in my service in regards to my physical health. Other than the expected stomach troubles, I have only been sick once. This particular occasion I thought I might have been experiencing malaria-type symptoms. I had a fever, the chills, body aches, vomiting, and diarrhea…all the signs of malaria. But I didn’t have any mosquito bites nor were the symptoms I was experiencing as severe as the horrifying stories I had heard from other volunteers. The day I was feeling sick my friend and fellow PCV, Micah came to take care of me. She cooked soup and closely monitored my symptoms while keeping the Cortem (malaria medication) nearby. The soup was amazing, potatoes, eggplant, soya, tomatoes, onions, green beans and vegetable cubes…a feast for the village! Sadly I didn’t have much of an appetite. The following day I was feeling better and needed rest so Micah left. Long and not so appetizing story short, there was a lot of left over soup b/c as we all know it is difficult to eat something that you tasted on the way back up the night before. Due to the lack of a refrigerator and any type of electricity for that matter and the fact that I didn’t feel comfortable with the thought of giving the villagers food poisoning, I decided to give the starving dogs in my village my leftovers. I poured the soup on the ground behind my house and called for the dogs. Green beans are not commonly seen or eaten in the village so the dogs devoured everything but wouldn’t touch the beans. In the short amount of time it took me to walk to the front of my house and get my grass broom to sweep the beans away, the curious children had come. I turned the corner and the children were gathered around the dogs’ leftovers. A small girl turned around with a mouth full of green beans!! The children had picked the beans off the ground, the same beans that the dogs had eaten all around and were eating them! What could I do? Who needs to worry about food poisoning from lack of refrigeration? After witnessing this I only worried about all the dirt and dog saliva they had consumed! I guess they have a tolerance for dirt…no children were harmed in the making of this soup.

Traditional Healers
During training I learned of witchcraft, juju and traditional healers from others experiences and stories. Now that I am in the heart of the village I am able to experience this deep cultural belief first hand. These are true stories and the Chewa people truly believe in the power of witchcraft. A woman in my village fell ill. She was feeling weak, dizzy, and experiencing headaches. Her husband took her by ox cart to the neighboring village to the traditional healer. The healer told her that she did not have any blood in her body and that she needed to drink blood. They traveled to the boma and bought a bottle of blood at a shop. She drank the entire bottle of cow blood mixed with milk! Yummy Yummy! Another woman in my village was experiencing headaches and pain in her legs. The traditional healer made small holes on each side of her head and her knees, ankles, and feet, and then smeared black charcoal over the holes.

There are countless stories and many cross-cultural experiences I can’t wait to share with everyone. I am truly happy here and I am learning more about myself with each passing day. I have to challenge and push myself to adapt to the culture and to recognize my strengths as well as my weakness. I miss you all tremendously. I will be back to Chipata July 1st for my vacation to the game park in south Lilongwe about 5 hours from Chipata. I will be taking a safari and seeing The Big Five: elephants, zebras, hippos, cheetahs, and giraffes. We will be camping in tree houses and reportedly the animals roam beneath you at night. So I will be sleeping with the wild African animals! Til next time……
Charlye, Kristena, Agnes