Life in Zambia after (nearly) 4 months

It’s hard to believe, but we have now been in Zambia for nearly 4 months; it feels much longer! I don’t say that in necessarily a bad way. I think that time just goes so much slower here and it does make me wonder what the next 20 months or so will be like.

Since my last blog prior to Christmas, life has been relatively busy here with plenty of visitors, a trip to Namibia, work which has been actually quite busy, the set in of the rainy season and a few sadder events that are so typical of Zambia.

Onset of wet season

Perhaps I should get the sadder events out of the way first.

The first was the loss of our security guard’s 9 month old son. Well, truth be told he was never our guard, he was there for our neighbours, but we did get to know him well as he would often sit on our porch to read (we would leave the light on for him). His son died of malaria, something that should be completely preventable, but was initially diagnosed as malnutrition caused through teething. Unfortunately we became aware of the gravity of the situation too late and were unable to offer help. Made worse is that he has been reassigned to a different property and after we found out he earns only 150,000 kwacha a month (the equivalent of $34) for 7 nights a week, 12 hours a day.

Our other sad event was the death of our puppy Manqui (pronounced as “manky”). We adopted Manqui after he turned up on our door step unfed, flea infested, frightened of people and well, manky! Nearly two weeks with us saw him turn into a happy, playful puppy until he didn’t come home one night. Our puppy had caught a virus of sorts that seemed to attack his brain and nervous system. Long story short is that we had to have him put down to stop him from any further suffering. Unfortunately Zambia has some pretty violent dog viruses and the vets here are not resourced to deal with them.

Manqui: When he was still a playful puppy

Manqui sitting in our bookshelf

So life does suck sometimes in Zambia!

However, it hasn’t all been sad and there have been happier events…..

The first was spending Christmas in Zambia. Definitely not the same as spending it with family in Australia, but great to be surrounded by a good group of people, a braai, a few drinks, a couple of carols and all on the red African soil.

Christmas in Zambia helped by a great group of people to spend it with

We have had quite a few visitors over the past month which means we get to visit some of the cool places in Livingstone without needing to make an excuse! One of our trips took us (back) out to Taita Falcon Lodge; a lodge situated about a 40 min drive out of Livingstone due to the state of the road but in a stunning location at the top of the Batoka Gorge. We had Zambezi Bream and chips there for lunch, all washed down with a couple of cold beers.

Taita Falcon Lodge: Overlooking the approximately 200m drop to
Batoka Gorge. Me with VSO Volunteers Phyl (left) and Emily (middle)

Work has picked up in the new year as new opportunities to receiving funding have come the way of my organisation and an increased focus has developed on building organisational capacity for the challenges that lie ahead. We have been working together hard as a team to get things done and meet deadlines. I was also able to finally meet the our board members at our first board meeting for the year. Apart from some of the members struggling with my accent, it was great to meet them and discuss what needed to be done to kick off 2011 in the right direction.

The team working hard on a proposal

Our first Board Meeting for 2011

And so, the past month really has been quite mixed. Wet season is well and truly in full swing, but has been a welcome relief from the heat. We still continue to encounter regular power and water cuts, sometimes for up to 12 hours at a time, but you do learn to adapt. And over the coming month a number of the friends we have made here in Livingstone will be leaving us to return home to their respective countries, so the ups and downs will continue. But I guess that is the life of a volunteer in Zambia!

Mike and I

Taking it easy having sunset drinks