Archive for May, 2009
Matt • 31st May 2009 • Africa
So we just finished our Monday morning management meeting, it’s 9:45am and there’s no power in our house. It went out at 6 this morning… And as far as we know, all parts of Lusaka have no power. We live on the east side of town, and it’s out here and at 3 other houses we know per here.. And it’s out in Lusaka West where our farm is and it’s also out in 2 other farms where we know people on that side.
Things are fine without power, ands it’s funny that we can get all kinds of work done today without it.
Such is life here in Zambia, and it’s a good life.
Matt • 30th May 2009 • Dailly Thoughts
Matt • 29th May 2009 • Dailly Thoughts
Matt • 28th May 2009 • Dailly Thoughts
Matt • 27th May 2009 • Africa
We have two main newspapers here in Zambia… The Times and The Post.
There are people selling the newspapers all day at certain stoplights (robots) around town, and today I saw the two headlines side by side:
“U.S. Pledges Continued Aid”
and
“Rupiah Tackles Corruption in Government’s Highest Offices”
The thing about these headlines is that they’re simulaneously funny and sickening side-by-side. Rupiah Banda is the Zambian President and thought he hasn’t really been proven to be totally corrupt, all of his friends he’s appointed more or less have been and he’s been “tackling” their corruption ever since he’s been in office. And then there’s the U.S. government… continuing to send aid money through these corrupt government officials. I don’t have the patience with myself to write out a full blog entry about what this means and doesnt mean for alleviating poverty, but check out these links for some thoughts on the issue, and comment back to me with some thoughts, if you’re so inclined.
Matt • 25th May 2009 • Africa, Fun
Friday after work we left town for Lake Mulungushi, which is a little over two hours outside of Lusaka. We stayed the night in Kabwe so we could spend time with our friends the Moyers. We had a great dinner with Tina and the kids (Dan is out of town) and after a few quick games of lazertag (in their backyard) we played volleyball from about 10pm-12am. AFter a good night’s sleep and a great pancake breakfast we loaded up and drove the buuuumpy road out to the lake.
When we finally make it, we unloaded our gear and food, chatted for a while with some of the other people staying there, checked in on the house that Vaughn and Dustin are building right on the lake, and then went for a hike in search of the Mulungushi waterfall. With only a little effort we made it to the bottom of the big waterfall, went swimming in the pool it had created, and even climbed a bit up the face of the waterfall to a little cave where the hundreds of gallons of water would flow over our bodies. (It was a small “cave”… probably not as cool as you’re imagining, but cool nonetheless to be SEEING THE BACK SIDE OF WATER out in the wild, and not just on Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise (shoutout to Al Stewart).
We hiked a little more, jumped off a cliff into the lake (sorry mom), evaded a Monitor Lizard, and then sunbathed and watched the sunset from the highest peak around the whole lake. Dinner was fantastic as was the bonfire that followed, and by bed time we were all ready for it. The next morning we made a great egg scrambler breakfast and went canoeing to the other side of the lake, through some marshlands, then to a different cliff jumping spot for swan dives (sorry mom) and aloe vera plants that soothed our skin.
A picture of us cooking/eating (Vaughn IS in this picture, don’t worry):
So, it was a great weekend! … or you can read an excerpt from an email that I sent to Heather and my mom:
“so my external hard drive here is officially broken. the jack that i plug the little USB thing into the hard drive broke off, and so i just opened the whole thing up and tried to fix it but it’s just busted. i think the data is recoverable, but it might cost a bunch of money… ugh. i hate this. i need to get my other one from college recovered as well.
i guess the best thing to do would be to order that one from amazon to your house, and you can send it over with dustin when he goes/comes in june. i’m thinking about buying two of those MyPassport ones… both 500GB… maybe that way you can have my two hard drives recovered (or i can do it when i get home) and put onto one of them, and you can send the other with dustin to me. also for the future since having one backup is apparently not enough, i can have two.
this just annoys me because i bought the external to be a safe backup of my computer just in case, and now it’s broken… and i got it for my birthday last year. I also voided the warranty while i was opening it up, so whatever. I just need to get the data recovered i guess.
i also threw my back out this weekend. i didn’t really realize it until this morning when i started walking around. this happens every so often in my lower back where I tweak it somehow and it doesn’t hurt too bad when i’m lying down or walking upright with my body straight, and it doesn’t hurt too much when i’m sitting down with my body bent, BUT when i move between bent at the waist and straight (getting up from a chair, or sitting into a chair after standing/walking or lying down, it hurts almost unbearably. it’s in my lower back on the right side. this happens to me every so often and i could feel it coming on after playing volleyball on friday night and i think it would’ve been fine if i hadn’t have hiked, cliff jumped, canoed, etc at the lake the following two days. this usually just takes stretching and time to make it go away. i should be fine by wednesday or so.
pray for me.”
So there you have it. A Mulungushi Weekend, or A Weekend of Ups and Downs… However you want to see it.
Matt • 21st May 2009 • Africa
Baking chips in our new oven, Baking a cake in our new oven, Giving Norma a bath, and now she’s outside learning practicing her bike riding.
I’m not saying it’s not tough cleaning up after the 5 of us, and staying up with our laundry, and dealing with a puppy, but she’s got a pretty great job, I think.
And we’re lucky to have her around.
Matt • 20th May 2009 • Africa
So Daryl left Zambia for the summer. He’ll be back in a few months (about the time I’m leaving) but he’s definitely missed around here… His expertise in so many different areas is inexplicably valuable to this project.
The one good thing that comes out of Daryl going, though, is that I just moved from op bunk/no closet space in vaughn and dustin’s room to taking daryl’s spot in jeff’s room, where there is peace, cleanliness and space aplenty.
There’s something about having one’s own space to be comfortable in that makes a person… Comfortable I guess. There were so many times when I had to tiptoe around the other room… Three people in the one room with as much stuff in there as we three had was manageable but uncomfortable, and the serenity that exists in my own space now feels like such a luxury.
And it’s nice to not have to climb in and out of that top bunk to accomodate my small bladder.
