Tidbits, by Scott

Here are some interesting tidbits:

New Ideas:  A tippy-tap is a simple tool to help clean your hands sanitarily after doing whatever dirty business one is up to.  It consists of a 2.5 L jug hanging from a horizontal pole so it swings like a pendulum at its handle, and a "pedal" on the ground connected to the neck of the jug.  When one steps on the pedal the jug tips and pours water onto your hands without its user having to touch anything with his or her hands.  This is being promoted Zambia-wide as a way to reduce the chances of contracting diarrhea and other diseases.  We built one of these with the help of a few young Zambian men.  They do not know enough english to understand our explanation of why we were building it, only enough information to know what parts were required.  A couple of times other people would walk by and ask the men what they were building and we could tell they were saying something like "we have no idea".  After it was complete, I demonstrated its use by washing my hands and one of the men stood there, smiled, rolled his eyes, and said "chindeli".  Chindeli is the Lunda word for "white people" or "traveler", and is not typically used in a derogatory way, but simply as a way to refer to the ways of white people, or for children to greet white people that they do not know.  My translation of the young man's use of it was "Here is another crazy idea white people want to share with us".

Scrabble Challenges:  Gina and I played scrabble in our hut one night without a dictionary.  We came across a few words for which we could not resolve our challenges to one another.  Gina used "om" and "ex", and I did not think either of those would be acceptable.  I used "avian" and "gorp" which Gina didn't think were acceptable.  I am sure the scrabble player's dictionary would find all of these acceptable.  What do you think?  Not that it really matters since my final score was 292 and Gina's was 170-something.  The cat jumped on our counter trays before we could get her official score.

Cross-Culture Spouses: One evening while I was cooking dinner and Gina was out of the village our friend Ryvus commented that Gina was very lucky to have a husband that cooks.  This was likely inspired by Gina saying these very words to him some days ago in an attempt to share American culture with him and instill a sense of gender equality.  I replied that I am lucky to have Gina as a wife because Gina is almost always happy.  The young man replied that Gina was always happy because she has me for a husband.  Whatever the reasoning, I enjoyed hearing his assessment of our relationship when so many relationships in Zambia appear unbalanced with regard to who does what for the family.  I have been told that for men to cook is a taboo, and that really was only half jokingly.

Zambian Women:  For the first time a woman asked if I could come help her set up a fish pond.  I've had women attend the fish farming meetings I have held, and asked me to come to their existing pond for a site assessment, but I had my first experience doing physical work with a woman fish farmer.  She offered me her axe to help cut down the small trees we would need as stakes to mark the boundaries of the fish pond, but I declined so as not to set a precedent that I am free labor for the fish farmers.  My job is to bring knowledge to the village, not muscle.  Zambians already have plenty of that.  So I watched as this 36-year old woman swung an axe in her bare feet, painted toe nails included, for about 1/2 an hour as I selected the trees and branches for her to cut.  This was my first time also going to a fish farmer without a translator, so I really got to test my Lunda skills.  I could get through the basics, but once out-of-the-ordinary circumstances arose regarding the site for her pond, my Lunda was not good enough to get my point across and her English was not good enough to read between the lines.  I am continuing to learn Lunda and the culture of women in Zambia that requires them to be both feminine and hard-working at the same instant.

Bush Notes:  How is this for a postal service:  Ryford can be given a note from a relative in his village, take a bus to a place over 200 km away, throw the note out of the bus window in the vicinity of the town where the recipient lives as the bus zips by at 80 km/hr and fully expect the note to be delivered to its intended recipient.  Gina and I sent a bush note to the chief of our area by giving it directly to a driver who was going to the chief's village.  Because it was an important person we were confident that it would get there, and after we got a reply from the chief our expectations were affirmed.