Lusaka

Travel

Excerpt from my journal:

May 14th, 10:18PM,

The monitor in front of me says that our plane is over the Mediterranean. We're out of Europe and crossing over into Africa; the continent I've been dreaming about visiting for so many years. While on some levels I am more excited than I've ever been before, I am also besought by intermittent feelings of intense anxiety. Tomorrow, every book I've read, every course I've taken, every essay I've written, and all the training I've received about international development will be meaningless. Tomorrow I won't be studying life in Zambia, I will be living it.

The monitor on the airplane.

Later on the flight,

I just work up after a long sleep on the plane. Right now, I am in the middle of the most surreal experience of my life. I'm staring across the aisle out the east window of the aircraft, watching the fiery sun come over the horizon, while my airplane headset plays South African music into my ears. All my doubts have been erased, this place, here sitting on this plane which will eventually take me to Lusaka, is where I want to be.

Sunrise over the Kalahari.

This was how my trip started. A three day series of plane rides and layovers, eventually resulting in us arriving tired, jet lagged and excited at the Lusaka airport. The sheer variety of emotions I experienced on the plane ride was incredible. At times, I was more worried and terrified than I have ever been in my life. At times, I was so excited I could barely think. Most of the time though, I was probably just thoughtful and tired, emotionally numb from the two extremes I was routinely experiencing.

The road from the airport.

Rough Landing

Our first full day in Lusaka was unbelievably draining. Jet lagged, and terrified of thieves (the first workshop of our in-country training was on avoiding pickpockets), we were sent out into the busy Solwezi market on a scavenger hunt to find a list of items given to us only in Nyanja. The market was overwhelming at first, and this, coupled with my inability to understand people's accents, my new found fear of thieves (again, courtesy of training), and the natural antagonistic relationship between buyer and seller at the market, led to me feeling uncomfortable, on edge, and untrusting the whole time. This first experience caused me to spend the next couple days not trusting anyone, and feeling uncomfortable and unhappy wherever I went.

This excerpt from my journal sums it up well:

May 17th, 2007, 2:26PM,

I'm so stupid in this country. That's the only way I can describe it. So timid and shy, so unable to feel the rhythm of conversations.

I haven't figured my way around greetings yet. Language is making little progress. I am not comfortable here.

Recovery

Ok, so on reading that you might think that I am having a bad time in Zambia. I am not! My first couple of days, and how bad I felt during them, were purely a product of me having too large expectations for myself. Just because EWB volunteers are typically strongly integrated into the local culture and society, does not mean I will be automatically. They all work hard at it and I will have to too.

After coming to that realization my time here has been incredible. I've realized that the awkward response my attempts at Nyanja were getting was because of the shy, timid way in which I was talking to people, not because they were unfriendly. In fact, people here are some of the friendliest I have ever met. I absolutely love it.

Sunday we (myself and some of the other new EWB volunteers) went and did some exploring of Lusaka. We went to the downtown area (Cairo rd.) and looked for some schoolbooks to help us learn the languages in the areas we will be working. I am now in grade 1 Bemba, with high hopes for how I will do. We also happened upon the Freedom Statue which is a very significant landmark in Lusaka. It's so important to the country, it's actually on every single bill of currency, although I suspect what's really important is what it represents; Zambia's freedom from British colonial rule.

Freedom Statue

Freedom Statue plaque.

Lusaka seems, interestingly enough, to be a large city. The fact that it is in Zambia doesn't seem to be affecting this at all. There are cars in the streets, stores selling things, people going to work, kids playing, large buildings on the horizon, trees, lawns, sidewalks (sometimes), and basically everything else I've come to associate with cities. There are, however, many differences from other large cities in which I have spent time before (a non-inclusive list of these would be: Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, and Dublin). Compared to other cities I've experienced, there is A LOT more activity in Lusaka. Everywhere I go there are people selling things, minibuses off-loading passengers, people shopping, people yelling at each other in languages I don't understand, and basically any other form of activity you can think of. It's truly an overwhelming place that defies me forming any conclusions after such a short time here.

I've taken a few random pictures to try to better illustrate Lusaka:

Just off Cha Cha Cha Rd. (I love that name).

Independence Avenue.

Cairo Rd.

Street near my hostel.

Kaunda Square market.

Train tracks through the city.

Tree-lined street.

People everywhere seem to be enjoying my attempts to speak Nyanja (except for maybe 20% of people who seem fairly indifferent), which is a refreshing change from a few days ago. Sunday I even had a woman and two kids follow me down the street getting me to repeat the 6 or so things I know how to say, laughing their hearts out each time. When I waved and said goodbye (Nayenda), they laughed so hard that all three of them fell over in the street. I don't remember the last time I saw people enjoying themselves so much.

A Few Thoughts

That last point actually brings me to something that's been on my mind for a long time, but has become especially acute since I got here. My question, simply put, is: What is poverty? This is something that sometimes I briefly feel I've figured out, but right now I have no idea. Everywhere I've gone I've seen people working, laughing, smiling, eating, or relaxing. I've seen fewer beggars here than I did during training in Toronto. Other than the obvious cultural differences, people in this city seem to be living out their lives with a very similar degree of satisfaction as we do at home.

That being said, I have seen acute material poverty. Many people here obviously have much less in the way of wealth than I do. Few of them can likely afford to travel to Canada the way I have traveled to Zambia. But is that poverty? A lot of people here seem fairly happy. Poverty has many dimensions beyond wealth. Can you be poor if you are happy?

I know that these observations are virtually meaningless. What I've seen has been only the briefest cross-section of life in Lusaka. I don't know if the woman who smiled at me when she sold me bananas today struggles to feed her family. I don't know if the kids I see on the street have homes. I don't know whether every single person on the street worked harder today, just to make ends meet, than I have ever worked in my life. I do know that statistically, 1 out of every 3 people I see is carrying the HIV virus. Still though, since I've been here I haven't been able to decide if what I see is poverty or if what I see is just life.

The short answer definition of poverty that I always come back to is that poverty is vulnerability to external shocks. You are poor if changes in the world around you threaten your livelihood, and you are helpless against them. However, I'm sure this is not complete. For now, I thought I'd also share a definition from a book I'm reading (which I'd also recommend to anyone seriously interested in international development); a definition not of poverty, but of well-being:

Well-being can be described as the experience of good quality of life. Well-being, and its opposite, ill-being, differ from wealth and poverty. ... Unlike wealth, well-being is open to the whole range of human experience, social, mental, and spiritual as well as material. It has many elements. Each person can define it for herself or himself. Perhaps most people would agree to include living standards, access to basic services, security and freedom from fear, health, good relations with others, friendship, love, peace of mind, choice, creativity, fulfillment, and fun. Extreme poverty and ill-being go together, but the link between wealth and well-being is weak or even negative: reducing poverty usually diminishes ill-being,but amassing wealth does not ensure well-being.

- Robert Chambers, Whose Reality Counts

Conclusions

For now I will leave things at that, and just say that life here (for me at the very least) is good. The people are amazing, the weather is beautiful, and Lusaka is full of crazy surprises. I started orientation at my office on Monday and its been amazing. It now seems I will be leaving this coming Monday morning (May 28, 2007) for Mpongwe and life away from the city. The language in Mpongwe will be Bemba, with English only being spoken by a minority, so it looks like its time to start studying. I've actually been getting help from random strangers all week and have amassed a small collection of things I know how to say, and now I have some books too. My goal is to be able to hold a simple conversation by the end of the summer.

My new school books.

On that note, I think I've written enough for today. On the work front, suffice it to say that OPPAZ (my partner agency) seems to be a truly amazing organization, and I'm very happy with how things are going. I will try to provide more updates as my work unfolds.

Until we meet again,

Salani Bwino ("Stay Well").