Zambian single-speed

Eat your hearts out Oak Cliff, TX and Madison, WI. Before single-speed bikes were cool and everyone wanted to look like a bike messenger, there were rocking them in Zambia.

High income residential area

Here is an example of what a high income residential area looks like. As you will see, there are no pictures of actual houses, which is b/c all house lots are encompassed with walls made from cinder blocks that have some type of impediment like broken glass on the top of them. So, you can never get a view of what your neighbors property looks like, and there is a gate which is either remote control or operated manually that has to be opened for a car to enter the property. You can see this in one of the lower pics. The trees in these neighborhoods are usually quite mature and since the trees can have colorful blooms, it can make for a very beautiful streetscape. Houses in a neighborhood like this would probably run $3,000 (USD) and up to rent per month.

$8 lunch

Here's what an $8 lunch looks like in Zambia. You get fish (head still intact), rape (greens), beans, red sauce, nshima (two white nuggets which are ground maize and the staple food product in Zambia), a bottled water and a bottle of the local Zambian beer (Mosi).

Texas two-step at an Indian wedding reception in Zambia, Africa

This is how I figure the exchange will go 50 years from now:

Me: "Grandchildren, did I ever tell y'all about the time I did a Texas two-step performance for 200 people at an Indian wedding reception in Zambia, Africa?"

Grandchildren: "PawPaw Denz, please don't tell us that story again..." 

 The crowd, feigning approval.

And this pic is just to document to the people back home that I still know how to get down when the DJ starts doing his thing.

Fishing for tiger fish

So, I went fishing on the Lower Zambezi River with a bunch of Brits this weekend. Here's the chateau we stayed in. It didn't have A/C, but as you can see is pretty nice.

Here's the crew (sans Rebecca, who was using the ladies room) and this picnic table is where we did all of our meals. It was greatness, as one of the ladies had organized for all or our meals. To my chagrin, I did confirm that they all wished there was a container of Marmite there to spread on their toast, but fortunately that bane of humanity was left at home for this trip.







Here I am with our guide Stewart. Of the seven people in my party, I was one of two who had ever cast a rod, so there were some tutorials given on the boat. Hence, when ever I flicked a line out into the water, my cast was met with "oooo's" and "ahhhhhh's". That was good for my self-esteem, but not good for my ultimate fish count, as two of the new comers landed our two tiger fish.





Here was the first tiger fish we caught, it was about 6lbs, so pretty small, but we were excited to pull on in. As you can see, the teeth are quite gruesome.

This is about an 8lb tiger fish, which is about small-to-medium size. This guy said that he never thought he'd have his picture taken with a fish, but that he now understood the reason people enjoyed fishing.









Here are a couple of local villagers in a homemade boat cut from a single tree trunk.

Here are a pack of hippos just doing their thing in the water. Apparently there is one male and all the others are females.  These hippos are actually standing on ground, and would stay slightly submerged (as in the pic) for multiple hours. I guess when you're super fat and don't have webbed feet, then any buoyancy you can add is beneficial.

Here is a pic of a Baobab tree with a village hut behind it. Baobab trees are the iconic African trees that have the enormous trunk.

Here was a very unexpected and welcomed treat we found along the banks of the river. We ran across a pack of African Wild Dogs, which is an endangered species, with only about 5,000 in existence. The fact that we weren't in a national park, makes this all the more unique. We were able to sit in the boat and watch the pack for about 10 minutes.

Going to fish for tiger fish tomorrow...

I'll be sure to post pics once I return, but this is what a big one looks like. We'll be on the lower Zambezi river.

Low Income Area

So, I just got back from a tour with a local group called Experience Lusaka. They take you through a local, lower income compound (this is the word that is used for a neighborhood, but usually the area is a little bigger than a US neighborhood, b/c there is commercial activity in the area, but it is still smaller than a town), where they teach you some about Zambia and try to let you experience a little how a large majority of the population lives.

The compound we were in is called the Garden Compound. It is called this b/c during the colonial times, it was a large farm, due to the fertile land. Now it is the home of the Lusaka Water and Sewage water treatment facilities, so there is a distinct smell to this area. Apparently they drain the sewage ponds (open air ponds) twice a year, and people will then go into the emptied pools and collect the soil as fertilizer.

Here are some pics of a local learning center that is funded by non-profits like World Vision and USAid. These are built in communities where you have a lot of at risk children (usually due to families being poor and parents not being able to afford things like school uniforms and books), and they provide a library and opportunities to work on laptop computers for free. Here are two pics from the computer area. The kids were working on math problems and other educational games.

Here you can see some pics of a homemade stands in which people will sell things like veggies, sweets and baked goods and the general look of a lower income residential area. You'll also notice the public water source from which people in the compound can collect water for their house.

This next sequence was from an unexpected but fun stop at a local gymnasium. The gym was super small. It was probably about a 10 x 10 ft room or at best a 12 x 12 ft room where there were about 8 guys lifting weights. I noticed that some of the weights they were using were actually large gears from some type of industrial use. Again, they were actually using large gears for plates to put on barbells. It was awesome. I of course had to get in on the action, and you can see where I was struggling on my 10 reps the Zambians told me I had to do (notice the old school strong man picture on the wall). The owner of the gym introduced himself as Big Robert and you can see me talking to him (bottom pic in white shirt), as he gives me a few pointers on how to not be a little girly man, while also inviting me to come back and visit his gym.

 

Here are two pics from a local sewing business that a woman named Charity runs out of her house. She makes things like purses, zippered pouches and oven mitts. These are then sold to vendors who peddle them at the local markets. She also teaches children and other women how to sew, so that they can also be self-sufficient. Charity is married, but as I understand, she is the primary bread winner in her family, through her sewing business.

 

For lunch we stopped in a small restaurant/house (10 x 10 ft) that a local woman ran. Here we had some local Zambian cuisine. You can see on the first plate kapenta (small cooked fish - kinda salty tasting) and rape (some kind of green). In the second pic, you can see the staple Zambian food known as nshima. It is simply ground maize that basically serves as an edible fork. You roll up a small piece of nshima and use it to put the other food on top of, then you eat it as one. It's not too bad. Basically, the nshima is a tasteless starch, and it all comes down to what you're eating it with that dictates the taste of the meal.  

Here I am with some local artwork that has been done on the side of some of the buildings. The first pic is of me next to a depiction of Oprah. Apparently when Oprah visited Zambia some years back, she had her picture taken at this location, so they painted her likeness there. In the bottom pic, you can see the little kid talking to me. Whenever I'd walk by little kids in the compound (being the VERY TOKEN white guy), I'd always hear murmurings of the word "muzungu". It means "white person", but it is not a derogatory term. The kids would often want to talk to me, stare at me or would sometimes give me a high-five. Basically, I was an anomaly that was out of the ordinary for them to see in this area, apart from other tour groups that Lusaka Experience took through.

As stated before, this is a low income compound, so here is a pic (not very good) of the scope of the nicest commercial area they have in the compound. It was comprised of a bank, restaurants, a barbershop and other odds and ends.

Despite what you've otherwise read, the most adventurous part of this excursion was documented in this picture. It was when I drank Shake Shake, which is a local line of beer that is served in a large carton, which you have to shake before you drink it. The reason you have to shake it is b/c it is not filtered like beer we're used to drinking, so there are a substantial amount of solids in the beer that are from the fermenting process. It is all very safe to consume, but that is of course if you are willing to deal with the WRETCHED taste of it. I threw back one small cup of it, as did my guide and the local DJ with whom I'm pictured (real name is "Linda", DJ name is "Cash Money"), then I gave the rest to a guy on the street.

All in all, it was a great experience. I was really happy to take part in a Zambian-devised business that is run by a few young men, which really provides a real look into how the majority of the population lives. I also appreciated how these men took you to local vendors and brought further income into the community through that.

Central Business District in Lusaka

At the request of my buddy Schneider, I've included some pics of the downtown portion of Lusaka, so that people can get a better overall feel for what life in general looks like in Zambia. In the future, I'll post pics of other areas around town.