A Safe Return

I just touched down in Lusaka, Zambia about an hour and a half ago. The trip went well despite the fact that I spent the last two nights on planes. My route was Des Moines to Minneapolis, MN to Amsterdam (overnight), Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya (overnight), and finally Kenya to Zambia this morning.

I had an 11 hour layover in Amsterdam and decided to go hang out in the town. I spent 6 or so hours having some beers and coffees and just wandering around aimlessly for the most part. It made the time go by very quickly. The red light district really cracks me up because you have all of these prostitutes just standing behind windows waiting for some patron to come by, enticing men with their sultry eyes and pouty lips. But as you walk through the alleyways I saw a couple situations like this; whore, whore, whore, laundromat; or whore, whore, whore, tailor shop. So waiting for your clothes to dry or your pants to get hemmed really isn't so annoying anymore.

Again, I'd like to thank everyone for making my trip back home so enjoyable. Sorry to those of you who I didn't get to spend any time with. I am very sorry. Time went by very quickly. Take care everyone and I'll see you in early 2008 more than likely.

Brett

Back to Zambia

Well, needless to say it has been a whirlwind three weeks back in the U.S. of A. I got into town a few weeks ago and it seems like I haven't had much downtime at all because I've been running around trying to maximize my time with everyone. I wouldn't have it any other way however. In my short time here, I've managed to accomplish a lot. I've attended two weddings, gone to a Chicago Cubs game, gone to a Ween concert, visited the camp I worked at a couple of times, played 40 holes of golf, gone innertubing at beautiful Saylorville Reservoir, gone swimming at Ashworth pool to hit up the 3 meter board, gone to the Iowa State Fair, visited the Des Moines Art Center (highly recommended), visited the Science Center of Iowa (not recommended), and spent endless hours with friends and family. Thanks to those of you who came to visit or went out of your way to spend time with me.

I'm excited to get back to Zambia just because I was mentally prepared to commit 2 years there and have 16 months left, but I must admit, I could definately use another week home. As I said in previous posts, I had been working on a grant proposal to send some farmers to an agricultural training center in the capitol city of Zambia, and I just found out a week or so ago that my proposal was accepted. That's very exciting because it's a $3000 grant so it's fairly substantial. (That's more money than I make in a year;)

I have a few goals when I return to Zambia. The first is to successfully get those farmers down to the training center at the end of October, then get them back to the village to start passing their new knowledge on to other farmers. They've verbally agreed to teach over 10 sessions in their village in the first 3 months followed by a lesson each month until I leave, so that is our attempt at making these new farming practices sustainable. My next goal is to spend 2 months in my village without coming out because I've been gone for a long time now between having visitors and coming back to the states. My third goal is to grow the most obscene beard I've ever had in my life. I aim to not touch it until Valentine's Day, so I'm not sure what 6 months of growth will do, but it should be impressive.

Right now I'm scheduled to finish my service up in December of 2007, but usually volunteers travel around for a few months after finishing up, so the earliest I'll say 'see you later' to you all is early 2008. My ideal trip would be to fly to Egypt, travel by land across northern Africa to Morocco, cross the Mediterranean to Spain, and then travel through Europe until my funds expire.

I've thoroughly enjoyed all of my time back here and thank you all so much for everything. If you haven't seen them for awhile, check out my pictures. I've got almost 200 more pictures up than I did a month ago. I'm returning to the same place, so if you want to, please write to the Mporokoso address provided.

I hope this post finds you all in a happy and healthy condition and I look forward to hearing from you along the way. At the very least, see you in a year and a half.

Take care.

The Great Vacation

After finishing my time as the Peace Corps Volunteer of the week for the new training group, I went down to Lusaka to pick up my friend Justin who was coming to visit me for a month. Below are several posts that cover the range of activities he and I partook in while galavanting around the dark continent. I apologize for some longwindedness in some of the stories, but it's amazing how much more I can type when I'm not paying for every minute that I'm on the computer.

If you haven't checked my picture website for awhile you should go there because I just put about 150 new pictures up the other day. I'll take this moment to give credit where it is due. Justin took a majority of the recently posted pictures. Thanks for that J.

So far my time in the states has been amazing. Thanks to all of you who have helped make it so. I truly do appreciate it. I'll have far more to write about in a few days, but for now I've been typing for about 3 hours and will stop. Take care.

Livingstone...again

The first thing Justin and I did after he flew in was to take a bus to Livingstone. I'd already been there in April, but no trip to Zambia is complete without taking in the legendary Victoria Falls. We stayed at Jolly Boys Backpackers (highly recommended) for a few nights and just hung around the town and saw the falls.

The highlight of the trip by far was our decision to go bungee jumping. Neither of us had ever done this before and were both quite excited. The place has a 100% success record, so we felt confident that we were in good hands. Justin decided he wanted to go first, so I got a few pictures of him jumping (check out my pictures section to see). He was quite composed and when jumping, threw out the bull horns (first and pinky fingers) and gave bellow of "Cowabunga."

After he jumped, I was next and asked the guy where I should put my hat, sunglasses, and camera, because Justin was dangling upsidedown below me. He pointed to a trunk/chest nearby and assured me all would be safe there. I had no reason to doubt this information. So I stepped out to the little platform and sat down where directed to and the guy started explaining how things would work. During this he was wrapping my ankles up with padding since that was where I'd be connected from. Upon the completion of that, I was directed to stand up and get mentally prepared. As I was enterinig my Zen-like state, I looked over to the direction of the aforementioned trunk/chest and saw a guy wearing a hat that looked remarkably similar to mine. I thought that was a bit odd. Then I looked at his chubby little hand and saw he was clutching my sunglasses. (The guy I speak of was this short little Dutch fellow who jumped a few people ahead of me). So I said to the employee I was with, "Hey, that guy is trying to steal my stuff." He looked at him, then me, and said, "Well, you better do something about that." So I hopped over to the fence (since my ankles were bound together) and said, "Hey buddy, I'm sure it's some misunderstanding but I think you accidentally grabbed my sunglasses." He had a confused look on his face so I thought I'd help him out, "They're in your hand. The left one there." It was all clear for him then. He said sorry and acted like he had no idea how they got there. That made my next comment more easy because he was playing dumb...so I said, "You've also got my hat." Again a confused look as he looked at both of his empty hands. Again I helped him out by offering, "It's the one on your head. Yeah, that's mine. If you could just put it back where you took it from I'd appreciate it." Then a look of bewildered recognition from him like he couldn't fathom how my hat was perched atop his head. He placed them back in the box for me.

Anyways, back to the jump. So they had me hop up to the edge of the platform and hooked me in. After that they really give you no time to think. I was standing at the edge for less than 10 seconds before the started the countdown. I was really concerned before that they'd have to push me off, but at 2, I leaped for all my rubbery legs were worth at that point in time. I was not quite as eloquent as Justin for the only distinguishable words I yelled were "Holy shit!"

At the end of the day though, it was a fantastic time and we both agreed we would 'jump' at the opportunity to go bungeeing again. So from there we went back to our backpackers and prepared to arise the next morning and take the 5:00AM bus to Lusaka so we could go to the beer cricket tournament.

The Beer Cricket Tournament

Justin and I caught the 5:00AM bus to Serenje, Central Province for a 4th of July Party and the Bembaland Beer Cricket Tournament. (I've mentioned beer cricket a few times in previous posts and will suffice it to say that it is the single most entertaining drinking game I've ever played. I won't attempt to explain the rules and regulations here, but if any of you ever wish to play this respected national sport of Peace Corps Zambia, you've to do nothing more than ask and I'll be more than happy to teach it to you.)

After 14 hours of transport, we finally arrived at our destination and were the 16th team to enter. We were Team PC Loadletter. In preparation I had taught Justin the ins and outs of the game while in Livingstone so he would have a good idea of what he was getting into. Some athletes eat pasta and get a good night's sleep before a full day of competition, we (as well as many other teams) decided it best if we went into Serenje to the bar 'Cafe de la Restaurant' (no joke) to have a few libations. After one beer they ran out of all alcohol in the place. The party decided to shift to always shady, always disgusting, 'Bantus.' They too were out of beer, but had Nikoli Vodka. In my slightly jovial state, I decided it best to buy a $4 bottle of vodka and just pass it around to everyone so we could drink it straight. That bottle was empty in an hour. It was about that time that everyone started migrating back to the Peace Corps House for a deep slumber for the night.

Early the next morning around 9:00 am after a hearty breakfast of bread, all players and spectators gathered on the cricket pitch for an explanation of rules of the tournament. (Since there were players from all over the country, some rules are used there that aren't in other areas). The first game started at about 10:00 with excitement and tension at the maximum. Justin and I weren't to play until the fourth bracket, so we had about 6 hours to kill before then. What better preparation than to split a crate of Castle? None. When it came time for our first game, we were ready and excited. I'd be lying if I said there weren't some butterflies in my stomach. We played Team WolfTank and had an overwhelming victory of 6-0. The next game we lost to Team Meathead 6-3 who would eventually go on to be champions. In our final game, two Luapulans came out with guns blazing and beat Justin and I to knock us out of the competition. I was disappointed in myself because I think I can hold my own with most any players in the country, but today I could not. As a consolation however, Justin and I looked great. If there was a prize for handsomeness we would have won.

The next day, play continued with those 8 teams that advanced and ended with Team Meathead beating a Northern Province team of Montana and Daaron. After that, we removed the pig that had been buried and was cooking for the previous 24 hours and we ate some of the best pork I've had in my life. Shortly thereafter, Justin and I had to take our leave, because we were to catch the TAZARA train to take us to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania en route to Zanzibar.

Tanzania

The train ride to Tanzania was actually much better than we anticipated. We had purchased first class tickets under the auspices that we were students (for some reason I still had my Iowa student ID) so we scored some half price tickets. First class cabins sleep four, but lucky for us nobody else was booked so we had a cabin to ourselves. We settled in for a 48 hour trip give or take. The train ride there was quite smooth, it had decent food, and a quality bar/lounge cart so it was a very comfortable ride.
After our second night of sleep in our cabin, we awoke to find that we were going though the Selous Game Park and saw many giraffes and a variety of antelopes.

We arrived in Dar Es Salaam in the early afternoon and made our way to a very Muslim area of town where a recommended guest house could be found. It was a nice place and hearing the call to prayer every few hours was very different/neat. After a fulfilling dinner we headed to The Protein Bar. I'll take this moment to dispell any notions out there that this may be a gay bar. The name may lean that way, but it certainly wasn't. That night we made friends with a Tanzanian guy named George who took us around to several different bars so we could see several different sides of Dar.
The next morning we awoke, ate, and headed to the docks to catch the slow boat to Zanzibar.

Zanzibar

To get to Zanzibar (off the coast of Tanzania), you can either take a boat or fly. Due to our lack of funds, Justin and I of course chose the former. When presented with the option of the slow or fast boat we inquired as to the specs of each of them. The fast boat, we were told took 2 or 2.5 hours and was $40 whereas the slow boat was 3 to 3.5 hours and $25. I don't mind taking another hour for $15 savings so we opted for the slower boat. At noon we loaded up, got a nice spot claimed on the floor along a railing so we had a good view. We took some Sea Legs (dramamine) and were mentally prepared for our 3 hour tour. About 2 hours into the trip i noticed that Dar Es Salaam (or origin) was still in plain view, but Zanzibar (our destination) was nowhere to be found on the horizon. Simple math and observation lead me to believe that we had been misinformed for how long this would take. We asked a nearby local and he said, "No, we'll be there by 17:00." Our 3 hour trip had increased to 5 hours. This wasn't good news because our stomachs were already a bit queasy as it was. To make a long story short, the trip ended up taking 7 hours so we didn't get into town until 19:00. It was certainly a learning situation.

After disembarking from the boat and heading into Stonetown (the 'capitol') our main concerns were beds, food, and finding some guy named Ally Keys. Ally was recommended to Justin and I by another volunteer as a guy that can provide reliable dirt bikes for us. There are some guys who make a living just helping tourists find places, so this guy Ali took us to a guesthouse and when we asked about Ally, he made a call and 5 minutes later Ally's brother showed up. We told him of our desire to rent dirtbikes and he inquired as to our experience with motorcycles. We said we had no experience and his response was "No problem. Give me your licenses, 6000 shillings ($5) and I'll get you international licenses tomorrow morning." Strangely enough we didn't really question it at all, we just forked over the requested items and he was gone like that.

The next morning we were waiting at the agreed upon time and he showed up with two beautiful Honda 250cc Bajas. He gave us our state and international licenses and we rode to an empty soccer field. Ally and his brother separated Justin and I and explained how to drive a motorcycle to us. For awhile they just had us practicing getting into first gear and then starting and stopping. After a firm mastery of that we started changing gears to second and third and driving around the soccer field to practice up and down shifting. After 45 minutes or an hour we got the nod that we were ready to go out on our own. They drove us out of the city, turned the bikes over to us and said "See you in 4 days." As I saddled my Baja for the first time by myself, unsupervised, a certain Steppenwolf song began playing in my head.

Our first destination was to head north to Nungwi Beach at the northern tip of the island. We'd only been on our hogs about 10 or 15 minutes before making a right hand turn and immediately coming to a police checkpoint. No problem, I had my licenses to prove I was more than safe at driving this vehicle. Problem, the officer informed us that we had cut off a median at the T-intersection and as a result were on the wrong side of the road. He explained it was a 50000 shilling ($45) offense and that we would need to go to court on Monday. That really didn't work into our schedule so it was time to take evasive action. I karate chopped him across the neck and we took off. Well, that never happened, but I slyly asked "Well, we don't want to come back into town to go to court, is there anyway we can just pay you?" The trick is to offer a bribe without backing yourself into a corner. He went on to tell us that there were rules in Zanzibar so we apologized and said we'd learned our lessons and thanked him. Again we asked if we could just pay him. He said no, then said that we were done. It was a bizarre turn of events and it ended up we just got a verbal warning and that was that.

Driving around Zanzibar was amazing. The place is truly a paradise on earth. The roads are pretty much empty of other vehicles and lined with tall coconut, palm, and banana trees. Everywhere you look it's green. Occasionally you have to pass an ox-pulled cart, but other than that the hour it took us to get to the trip we were basically all by ourselves on the road.

For 2 days we stayed on the beach in Nungwi and just threw the frisbee and hung out at the bar. It was overcast for most of our time there which was unfortunate. The place we stayed at was $10 a night per person and that included a great breakfast right on the beach there. After two nights there we saddled back up and rode to the southeast side of the island called Paje Beach. Again there, we just hung out on the beach and checked out the brightest blue waters I've ever seen in my life. It was an incredibly relaxing trip.

After a couple nights in Paje we made our way back to Stonetown to spend a night there. Stonetown is a place unlike anyother I've been to. It's a very old port town that used to be a slave trading hub back in the day. There was a sultan or sheik that was incharge of things so most people there are Muslim. Many of the women wear burkas that reveal only their eyes. There are a couple of main streets, but mostly it's a cornucopia of narrow, winding alleyways that with buildings less than 6 feet apart from each other. Zanzibar is known as the 'Spice Island' so everywhere you go there are vendors hawking cloves, cinnamon, and just about any sort of other spice, tea, or coffee you can think of. Everynight in Stonetown there is a fish market where vendors come and set up tables with fresh lobster, snapper, tuna, shark, barracuda, crab, squid, octopus, and other sea food. Most these you can get a kabob of for about 80 cents. You can stuff yourself with the freshest seafood you've ever had for $7 or $8.

We stayed the night there and headed back to Dar Es Salaam the next afternoon on the fast boat. I highly recommend everyone who has the opportunity to head to Zanzibar. It's beautiful and very cheap. I also recommend you to rent dirt bikes from Ally Keys. It's surprisingly easy to pick up in a short amount of time. And it provides a good story to tell as well.

Village Party

So Justin and I headed from Dar Es Salaam to Kasama, Zambia via train. I'll just say that the trip was not nearly as smooth as it was going out and took 8 hours longer returning than it did going out even though we had about 400 miles less to go. But we arrived in Kasama unscathed and ready to head back to the village.

The next day we hitched out to Edmeé's house where we hung out for the evening and eventually had to crash there for lack of other transport going to Mporokoso. The next morning we headed out to the road bright and early and got a pretty nice ride fairly early on. We got to Mporokoso in the afternoon, grabbed some bikes, and went to my village. It was great to get back there and see my family, neighbors, dog, and house.

Justin and I went to visit one of my best farmers so that he could see some fish ponds and have a bit of an idea of what I do from day to day. We were only in my village for a couple of days, but had dinner with my family on the last night we were there. Justin liked the nshima, and the intimate family dining setting, so all in all it was a success.

After my village, we headed to Annie's village, Chilala, to visit her and her boyfriend that was also in from America. We had her villages cook up a bunch of nshima, chickens, and cabbage that night and then had a party. They built a proper fire, pounded on the drums, sang and danced. Zambians are good at being sure that nobody gets away without dancing, so there are pictures of each of us dancing at the party. The next morning, JJ and I biked into Mporokoso and caught transport to Kasama where we'd spend two nights.

While in Kasama, I worked for several hours on my SPA (small project assistance grant) proposal to send some of my farmers to an agricultural training center. Luckily I finished it all up before Justin and I had to head to Lusaka.

Conclusion of Vacation

When it was all said and done with, I'd rate the vacation with Justin at 8.5 or so. In his words, there were definately times when it was a 0 (transport, screaming children, etc.) but most times it was a 10. We figured out that we had traveled by almost every mode of trasportation possible...bike, plane, train, motorcycle, bus, boat, car, truck, and foot. That may be how I rate all future trips.

After Kasama, he and I headed to Lusaka. He flew out on 7-24 and I flew out the next day. The day he flew out I was in the main Peace Corps office putting the final touches on my grant proposal. I think it was very good, so hopefully the grant board agrees. I can't really convey to you the excitement that was rushing through my head as I was in the taxi on the way to the airport preparing to embark on my trip back home. It was almost surreal.

My Books Thus Far

As I've said in many a previous post, I've got a lot of time to read in the bush. Per the request of several people, below I've provided my reading list of all of the novels I've read thus far. Bold titles are books that I'd highly recommend people read.

1. Me Talk Pretty One Day : David Sedaris
2. Rules of Attraction : Bret Easton Ellis
3. Killing Pablo : Mark Bowden
4. The Five People You Meet in Heaven : Mitch Albom
5. Things Fall Apart : Chinua Achebe
6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone : J. K. Rowling
7. Choke : Chuck Palahniuk
8. The Things They Carried : Tim O'Brien
9. Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets : J. K. Rowling
10. Slaughterhouse Five : Kurt Vonnegut
11. Green Hills of Africa : Ernest Hemingway
12. Siddhartha : Hermann Hesse
13. Lord of the Flies : William Golding
14. High Fidelity : Nick Hornby
15. A Midsummer Night's Dream : Bill Shakespeare
16. Robinson Crusoe : Danel DeFoe
17. The DaVinci Code : Dan Brown
18. Lenin's Tomb : David Remnick
19. A Million Little Pieces : James Frey
20. Cat's Cradle : Kurt Vonnegut
21. Lamb : Christopher Moore
22. A Charlie Brown Christmas : Charles M. Shulz
23. Angels & Demons: Dan Brown
24. How To Be Good : Nick Hornby
25. The Lovely Bones : Alice Sebold
26. Fluke : Christopher Moore
27. Grapes of Wrath : John Steinbeck
28. Chronicles of Narnia : C.S. Lewis
29. Life of Pi : Yann Martel
30. Culture of Fear : Barry Glassner
31. Lullaby : Chuck Palahniuk
32. Heart of Darkness : Joseph Conrad
33. Catch-22 : Joseph Heller
34. Gulliver's Travels : Jonathan Swift
35. Night : Elie Wiesel
36. Speaking With The Angel : (Edited by) Nick Hornby
37. The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime : Mark Haddon
38. A Brief History of Time : Stephen W. Hawking
39. The Constant Gardener : John Le Carré
40. In The Lake of The Woods : Tim O'Brien
41. Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas : Hunter S. Thompson
42. A Beautiful Mind : Sylvia Nasar
43. Hunger : Knut Hamsun
44. House of Sand and Fog : Andre Dubus III
45. The Poisonwood Bible : Barbara Kingsolver
46. A Confederacy of Dunces : John Kennedy Toole
47. Into The Wild : John Krakauer
48. The Sun Also Rises : Ernest Hemingway
49. The Monkey Wrench Gang: Edward Abbey
50. Digital Fortress: Dan Brown
51. Monsignor Quixote : Graham Greene