Motorbikes and Days Off

3Matt • 12th Mar 2009 • Uncategorized

To start let me say that my camera was not stolen.  It accidentally made its way with Vaughn to the US and and will return on the 18th.

In the last week, we’ve had two public holidays.  The first was Womens’ Day (complete with a parade with marching bands and women dressed up in colorful beautiful dresses) and the second is today, Youth Day.  i’m not totally sure what happens on Youth Day, but we’re not really allowed to have our people work so we get the day of as well, no matter how much we want to work and get some stuff done.  We have taken the opportunities to run some errands (I got a new mosquito net for my bed because my old one kinda sucked, Jef got some tools for his building project out at the farm, and we got a new shower curtain that isn’t moldy) but mostly we’ve been relaxing and going on motorcycle rides.

Jeff and I went last Sunday afternoon on a ride out in Lusaka West and made a loop through the bush to one of the main road in Zambia, Great North Road.  It travels basically from the bottom to the top of this side of Zambia, and so after a 35 mile ride through the bush on our bikes, (225cc Honda and 225cc Yamaha) we made it to the open road and cruised the last 10 miles or so back to the pub near our house (O’Hagan’s) at around 90kph.  I don’t know how fast that is in mph, but it felt pretty fast. (I actually just checked and it’s about 55mph, sorry mom).  It was awesome to be out in the bush for the first time and to be riding a motorcycle again, which is something that I haven’t done in a lot of years.

Then on Monday, we joined up with our friend David, a Zambian who has lived all over the world for most of his life and is now living in Zambia to be back with his family and to do social business, for another ride that David knew about to a town called Kafue.  We made the mistake of not leaving early enough in the day, so we didn’t make it all the way to Kafue before it started getting dark, so we turned around at Leopard’s Hill (which is a lush, green forested series of hills that look like a leopard lying down… the three humps being its head, shoulders, and hips.  After finding nobody at the visitor center of the Leopard’s Hill national monument, we cruised home, again going between 80 and 100 kph but this time it was part of the time on tarmac (asphalt) and part of the time on broken, pothole laden, and rock/dirt-bumped tarmac (still asphalt).  It was really fun and a little scary to be flying across it, but I kept up with the guys just fine.

Oh yeah, and we wear leather jackets when we ride.

I’m feeling a lot better about being here and I’m definitely finding my rhythm.  My job here is making more and more sense to me and I’m becoming more and more confident in who I am and how it relates to this place, these people, and this job.  I am who I am, and that is exactly what I am supposed to be here.

In other news, I’m really getting to know Jeff and Daryl pretty well.  In the absence of the strong-personalitied Vaughn and Dustin (they’re still in the States on a trip for Dustin’s brother’s wedding) I have been able to spend a lot of time opening up to and being opened up to by the other two guys I share my house with.  I’m really encouraged by them and am so glad that they’re here experiencing all of this with me.  They’re really helpful and we have a lot in common which makes things a lot easier.

Zambian Nugget Of The Day: The main staple in most people’s diets is called nshima.  It’s pronounced with a silent ‘n’ and is ground up maize (corn) and boiling water.  It’s a really thick cornmeal that results in a really bland starchy mush that they eat at most meals alongside a ‘relish’ that is often cabbage, but sometimes beans, if you’re lucky there’s sausage or chicken involved (if you’re unlucky you get the chicken gizzard, bone marrow, or foot) and even then it’s usually nice to add some hot sauce.  Also, the nshima stays hot for REALLY long and i burn my hand every time i take a handful (I forgot to mention that we eat it with our hands out of one communal bowl) and the Zambians make fun of me endlessly for this.  I guess I need tougher skin (literally, not figuratively).