Just at home

My Goodness!

I have just sat down to play some games on my computer. I said to Donald that it sounds like it is raining. I didn’t think it was as this is the dry season. The noise outside is all the swamp flies that have hatched and are hitting the windows and roof! They are here literally in the millions and our pale yellow walls are black with the insects. Not so much fun! They come and buzz around us and land on us and the computer – time to go I think!

Also this afternoon Katie and I were watching the long version of pride and prejudice and I heard a plop sort of noise not far from me. When I had a look there were two lizards right by me!!! Then I went to go out the front door and there was another one just by the door handle! Needless to say I screamed and didn’t go outside!

Cultural Differences

Donald was talking to one of the men yesterday and he was telling Donald how he had a nasty rash on his armpit!
Donald asked him how he got it
Now wait for it!!!
He told Donald that after he had shaved his armpit, he put deodorant on and it had a reaction! That is right, you did read it right - he shaved his armpits!!!
Apparently here in Zambia married men shave their armpits!!
Can you hear the laughter when Donald was telling Katie and I!
Donald told him that in our society, it is a sign of masculinity - having hairy armpits!
The two of them were able to laugh about how different cultures can be!

Can you imagine a good kiwi bloke shaving his armpits hahahahahaha Now Donald you are in Zambia so you should do what the Zambian’s do hahahahahaha

Well for those of you who have asked – the photos on this blog are photos of our view from our house. Isn’t it just amazing! We see the lake as far as you can see. At night time it looks like there is a city out there with all the paraffin lamps glowing in the fishing boats. We tried to take a photo but it didn’t come out so well so you will have to use your imagination!

I thought I might point out some differences between Hastings and Samfya.

POWER: The electricity here is very inconsistent. It goes off most nights between 6pm and 8pm approx. Sometimes when the power is on, it is low so boiling a pot of water can take well over an hour or biscuits that should take 15 minutes can take nearly 2 hours! I must admit that when there is power on we make the most of it getting washing done and also the cooking. Because of the power going on and off people who have fridges quite often have to get new ones as they blow up!

ROADS: Although the roads to Samfya are tar sealed (careful of potholes) most of the other roads are dirt. It is very pretty though as it is red.

SHOPS: Shops always seem to be open even late at night. They are more like little booths and sell a variety of things rather than specialising in one or two things eg the dairy kind of shop will sell everything from an ice cold coke to BIG bags of grain, or some even sell pesticides as well as clothes. They also name their shops funny things (well they are funny to us but normal to them), God Given Investments is one (a diary type store), Back to My Roots (a shoe shop) is another one. The butcher here has all his meat in freezers thankfully. But he mostly just goes to the big towns and buys the meat and comes home and freezes them. The fish market is another tale. Nothing is refrigerated! And ohhhhhhhhhhhhh the smell. Whenever they see us white people (hehe) they want to sell us something even if we don’t want it! Sometimes they get a bit stroppy if we don’t buy!

LIZARDS: Well need I say more. Even while typing this, a lizard thought it might be nice to say hello to me! HA he got it wrong. I screamed and ran and Katie shoed him out under the door! They seem to think this is their place and they can roam as they please – inside and out!

SAFTEY: It is really safe to go out walking here. At home I would not let Katie and her friends go any distance on her own but when Lily comes they will be able to go to the stores up the road and I know they will be safe. There are a few mad men (yes I actually mean mad) but others would make them go away if they were being a problem. There doesn’t seem predators here like at home. I think if they tried anything on young girls the villagers would beat them to a pulp – hmmmmm maybe we should try that at home.

GREETINGS: Whenever anyone passes you when you are out walking (no matter what colour you are)they will greet you and expect a greeting back. At church you are made to stand so everyone can see that you are a visitor. After the first service every one leaves and stands in a line outside and as you leave you shake hands then stand at the end of the queue until everyone has gone through.

THE SUNRISE AND SUNSET: Ohhh man photos just don’t do them any justice. They are amazing and the colour of the red/orange is brilliant. You can’t even look at it sometimes as it is so bright. It is like nothing I have ever seen before! Absolutely beautiful!

FOOD: The fruit just seems so much sweeter here than back home and certainly bigger. I guess they haven’t been imported and have just been picked although I must admit to buying them on the side of the road not at the supermarket. The granny smiths there were gross. I don’t think they would even be sold as seconds at home! Needless to say we left them there. Bananas, pawpaw and watermelon is what we have had most of. Granidillas (a different variety of our passionfruit) just tastes amazing as well – they are light green when ripe not like our dark purple!

Then there is nshima. This is the staple diet here. We don’t mind eating it. I have had a lesson in cooking it but need more practise in making it! They eat it with ‘juice’ as they call it which is usually a tomato type sauce which they make by grating the tomato and then adding onions and boiling it. They would usually have some small chicken pieces with it. They also have spinach (we would call it silver beet), rape and Chinese cabbage. They would just have one and cut it up into very small pieces and add red onion and boil until cooked. They would however eat fish more than chicken. They love to drink Coke. I can’t have coke due to my diabetes but sometimes the shop will sell coke light. It doesn’t have sugar in it but I am sure it doesn’t taste like coke zero, or diet coke back home. Most times I just choose to have bottled water. They don’t usually have dessert or baking. They don’t have ice cream or cream here in Samfya. You can buy it at shoprite but that is in Mansa which is an hour away. They also don’t have cream that you can whip here.

Oh their lollipops are amazing too and I must admit I have had one. Katie really likes one brand in particular. Chippies and things like that they do have here. Some are nice but they are not like our bluebird chippies back home. We have not seen any twisties, burger rings or anything like that here.

DOGS: There are a lot of dogs here that just seem to roam around but people are petrified of them – in particular Copper and Spice. Copper and Spice are very big dogs though and if you run will chase you.

LAKE BANGWAULU is really big. The meaning is ‘where the water meets the sky’ and it is a fitting name. The water really does meet the sky when you look out to the horizon. They catch a lot of fish here – the most popular being bream. It really looks like it is the ocean. People here have never seen the ocean. I just can’t imagine that! They also think it is strange that the ocean would be salt water as the lake here is fresh. It is where they get their water from. It is very beautiful.

BIRDS: The bird life here is just so amazing. I wish we could get photos to show you all but they are just too quick for us! They range from being tiny to absolutely massive and everything in between.

HOUSING: Most people here would live in a shack with an iron roof. The walls are made of mud bricks covered with cement and then painted. You are fortunate if you have a concrete floor. Some are just mud. There are also lots thatched roofs, oooh yuck can you imagine all the lizards that live in those! Some people have quite nice houses as well and as people are getting more affluent the houses are getting better. Most people would still have a pit loo outside and have a wash from a bowl, and cook over hot charcoal! Even if you have electricity you would still have charcoal to cook with as a backup because of the power situation, but most of these homes would not have electricity.

TELEPHONES: No one here has a land line! Communication all happens with cell phones and there are cell phone towers everywhere. It is rather amazing that someone would not have a Bible but would have a cell phone. It is hard for me to get my head around that one.

COMPUTERS: Unlike NZ not many homes have computers. Most people if they need a computer will go to the Samfya Basic School to use their ones but most do not have any need for a computer or internet.

MALARIA is very common. Most people will have it at some point in their lives and more than likely more than once. It is caught by a female mosquito biting an infected person and then biting someone else. It is the leading cause of death here – even above aids. Prevention in the most part would be easy. Mosquito nets should be a must but a lot choose not to have them. They are readily available and are very cheap. The govt (or whoever it is who should do this) needs to put drains in to drain off stagnant water as that is where mosquitoes breed. These two things would reduce the amount of people who get Malaria. Education is also important. People don’t seem to understand how easy it is to do some things to prevent getting it. None of these are fool proof however and the only way not to get it is not to get bitten – easier said than done.

People with Malaria do get quite sick although the cerebral malaria is the worst as it attacks the brain. The other is like getting a bad case of the flue although can and does often cause death.

Well there are amny other things that are different as well, but as usual this blog has turned out to be a marathon. Sorry.

Gotta go and have lunch now.

Gwen