Guest Post from Brad and Jane

We've been with our friends Brad, Jane and Julie for the past few weeks seeing lots of Zambia from Livingstone, Chimpfunshi, our village, and Chisemwa Cha Lunda.  Now headed for some R&R on lake Tanganyika before Brad and Jane continue their journey to Tanzania.

Here's what they wrote about our village:

We hitched in a semi-truck to Solwezi, took a bus to Mwinilunga, and hired a cab to take us the 20 kilometers or so into the bush, to Scott and Gina’s mud hut.  What we found there was a sort of Swiss Family Robinson ingeniuty / creative repurposing that was wildly interesting, but not surprising if you know Scott and Gina well.  They have created a beautiful and welcoming home, complete with outdoor bathing room, kitchen, chimbushi (hole in the ground) (toilet), garden, and storage outbuilding (in the works).  The lack of electricity, running water, and most other modern conveniences has influenced the functional design of their compound. I helped Scott with the storage building one day, mixing water and clay from a hole and keeping him supplied with clay block for the walls.  It was really pretty similar to conventional masonry, but much more difficult.  Water conservation was critical, as all water must come from the spring a good distance away.  Jane and I fetched many jerry-cans full, the journey took us over on hour each time, even with the help of adorable village girls who liked to practice carrying the cans on their head.  The difficulty of the trip really increased our appreciation of running water.  Scott and Gina cooked us wonderful meals each day over the brasier, a charcoal stove.  Often ingredients came from their garden, or were harvested locally and given to us by friendly neighbors.  We learned Lunda quickly and spoke it very frequently to the super-friendly villagers.  We learned most greetings, and had some good conversations.  Village life was great, with many ‘programs’ and opportunities to interact with villagers.  Jane was great at playing games with the large groups of kids that constantly swarmed around her, teaching them to write, or drawing with them.  She helped during childrens health week at the bare-bones village health clinic down the road, where she assisted with measles vaccinations.  Older children sat bravely and waited for their shots as babies wailed and Jane helped tally children who had and hadn’t recieved shots.  It was a unique and rare opportunity for children to recieve vaccinations.  We went to the school one day, and helped students write letters to students in Jane’s US class.  Finally it was time for Chisema Cha Lunda, the huge festival celebrating Lunda culture.  We had already been to meet the chief, and he treated us very well, showing us around, joking with us, and playing traditional drums.   We arrived at his palace after a lunatic transport, which I shall someday describe, but will here omit, to speed the story.  That evening chief Kanongesha toured us around his palace grounds, and his ceremonial grounds, and bought us wine to drink with dinner.   The crowd of thousands was drunken with excitement, or by more traditional means, or both.  We were served dinner with his excellency, and treated to a wide vartiety of beverages.  We stayed in our tents in an area fencesd with tall grasses, and the sounds of the festival quited only between 6:00 and 6:15 AM.  The vice-president of Zambia, Guy Scott, flew in on his helicopter to the even, and we shook his hand in greeting.  Cheif Kanongesha took his seat in his throne/chariot, was lifted on several shoulders, and was carried amidst a dancing, drumming, singing groups of costumed men toward the ceremonial grounds.  Behind the dancers walked a group of dignitaries, including other chiefs, government officials, and generally influencial people.  The chief waved his tasseld and axe, and the ceremony began with his entrance, a grand circumnavigation of the grounds.  There were many poorly amplified speeches, dancing, drumming, and singing in traditional costume, and even a sacrifice of a goat.  I bought an enormous, intricate carving depicting the ceremony for 80,000 kwacha, or 16 dollars.  It will likely cost ten times that amount to ship home.  The festival was very fun, but we had to attend to our travels, so we convinced a lone driver to transport us and a few other peace-corps volunteers to a city in our direction of travel, Solwezi. 

  They're doing a much better job with blogs/pictures than us, so here's a link to their blog:

http://brad-jane.tumblr.com/

We'll write more during or after our travels!