100 posts and the Real Reason I Am In Zambia

This is the 100th blog post that I have submitted.  I doubted that I could find enough to say - but apparently I am wordier than I thought.

Today I have reflected on what I am really here for and what we spent 90% of our time working on.

Working in a Mission Home office as the only couple and no office missionaries, lets us do whatever we can or are asked to do to make this mission run as smoothly as possible.  I could do more to make things prettier or nicer but most things are up to date and fairly efficient.  

The very best thing about this calling is the interaction with the young missionaries.  They make me laugh, every day, and sometimes they will wait patiently while I tell them about the "good ol' days".

These young folks are truly a marvel.  They are just like any other 20 year olds around the world, yet they have chosen to be of service to everyone they meet, and to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world.  The diligence and commitment they show and the continual reassessing of their motives and effectiveness are inspirational.

I thought I would show you a few of the photos I have taken of them in the last few months.  I tend not to take photos when they are around as it seems sort of touristy and they definitely are not tourists.

This was a farewell dinner for a large group going home after two years in Zambia/Malawi.

I was sort of appalled by their living conditions when I first saw their flats.  Then I remembered my mission's conditions and the rooms of my children at 20 years old and thought about the long hours they put in, along with their domestic duties of washing everything by hand and trying to get it dry.

And whenever you see them, they are smiling and happy.

The new ones are smiling, but they don't know what changes are ahead of them.  Below is President Chansa welcoming four new ones, straight from the MTC.

Here I dropped Elder Daniels off for his first night in Zambia.  We had put an additional bed in the flat and he was the "fifth wheel" for a while.  Of course he ended up with the worst bed, blanket, no mosquito net and bucket showers like the rest of the flat's occupants.  I felt bad as I drove away, but knew he would be a better person because of the experience.

The other four in the flat were truly great missionaries.  Two years from now he'll look back on this as the "good ol' days".  I was a little appalled at all the bike parts.  We cleaned them out and auctioned them off at the Lusaka chapel to members.

I took this photo of what the Zone Leader's van should NOT look like.  Now I have been here longer and have experienced all the tasks they are responsible for and how limited their time is, I have more sympathy for them.  This week this van was parked until it can be sold, and now they are driving a truck.  I had the sliding door repaired once.  (a member held on to it while I drove it to the body shop).  It is ready to fail again so hopefully it will be sold soon.

At the five year point vehicles need a safety inspection.  It is an all day event about 15 kilometers south of town.  I could write about that experience for an hour.  The missionaries will miss this van.

I took this photo right after they obeyed a security guard at the Toyota dealership and backed over a water pipe.  Water was squirting everywhere, but I failed to get it in the photo after they moved.

Here is a sad but common sight of saying goodbye to missionaries after their long two years.  Little did they realize how different they were compared to their friends they left behind at home.  There language, their values, their goals for the future have all been affected.

This is Sister Louthan below,  in the middle of her piano students.  She was assigned here with her husband to work in the Public Affairs aspect of missionary work.  She took the time to teach many how to play the basic piano.  This photo was taken after the last group's graduation recital.  When they completed the whole basic hymnal they were awarded their own keyboard.

New Flats for Missionaries

Since we have been here (six months), we have closed one flat and opened three new flats for elders, and one for a senior couple.  This involves moving all the furniture and buying stove and fridge, fans, dishes, rugs, tables, etc.  Here we are picking up some bed frames from the bed makers.  (Dropped my camera here and that is another story of trying to get it fixed).

Here is Kristi trying out a new chair.

I wanted to go to this large furniture place on the Great North Road since I thought they would have some furniture that hadn't been out in the rain.

It turned out is was a huge cooperative furniture business.

I don't know how they kept track of everything or how the money was divided for the piece work.

There were salesmen, frame makers …….

Fabric cutters, sewing machine experts, and upholsterers.

The products were displayed along the road and the old market behind was a beehive of furniture making.

I am just guessing this fellow's shift was over.

Couch, chair or loveseat, the price seemed to average a little less than 100 USD each.

A couch, two chairs and a love-seat all loaded up.  Enough for two flats.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Zambia doesn't have a Thanksgiving like the United States.  The Mission President and his wife had all the sister missionaries over to their house and we helped the Lyles serve all the Elders at their house.  

It was fun to see them relax a little.

I took a minute and shared with the African Elders, and the guards that joined us, about how Thanksgiving started in America and what the traditions were.

Here are shots from each end of the table.

One of the turkeys was placed on the table so they could see it before it was carved up.

Here are Elders Lemperle, Daniels and Patton.  Elder Lemperle threw up during the meal, (away from the table).  I call him the "seagull" as he came back to finish his meal and another piece of pie.  Isn't that what the seagulls did so they could eat so many crickets?

So after 100 blog posts and six months in Zambia this is the real reason I am in Zambia.

Vehicles, immigration, housing, finance,  flat rentals, insurance, registration, accidents, hauling boxes of pamphlets and books, car repairs, reports, standing in line, standing in line and standing in line.  It all adds up to freeing up the time of the missionaries so they can go "two by two" to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is a privilege to be here with them.

Road Kill and Why You Shouldn't Look The Other Way!

Perhaps you remember back in September I posted I was really excited to see my first wild animal of Africa.

The problem for me and especially this little guy was it was dead,  apparently from a night time tangle with a vehicle.  It was misidentified as "some sort of bush baby."

Friends, let me introduce you to the now famous SELOUS' MONGOOSE!

I received the following note from Clare Mateke.  At first I thought, "oh, oh, I am going to jail".  But no, Clare was very nice and made me feel very important and special to have crossed paths with Selous' Mongoose.  Here are Clare's words on the subject. 

Dear David Skidmore,

I came across your blog, "If not now? When?" quite by accident and was fascinated to see a photo in your Sept 2 post of a dead wild animal you saw in Chaminuka Nature Reserve.

I am a mammalogist at the Livingstone Museum in Livingstone, southern Zambia. I have recently done some research on small carnivores.  Your dead animal is definitely NOT a bush baby (which is a primate - member of the monkey family)  I am pretty sure it is actually a Selous' Mongoose, a small carnivore which is very rarely seen even in the larger national parks.  I have never seen one and during an email survey across most of Zambia that I did in 2007 none of my correspondents had seen one in the last 10 years or had any record of anyone having seen one in this period.  During my study in Lower Zambezi National Park in 2009 we recorded one or two possible sightings of Selous' Mongooses by park guides in the past 10-20 years but these could not be confirmed as they were not very sure of the identity.

Photos of rare mongooses like this one are just as rare, as you will notice if you do an internet search, and in fact, most of the ones one the internet are Yellow Mongooses that have been wrongly identified.  The black feet of the Selous' Mongoose are characteristic, as is the grizzly grey fur and white-tipped tail (which I think has been broken off in the accident in your photo).

So, you see, your photo, even though of a dead animal, is quite a treasure (at least to biologists like me).  I would like to ask your permission to use this photo to send to the management of Chaminuka and ask if they have ever seen live Selous' Mongooses on the reserve (they may not if they do not do night drives, as it is a nocturnal animal), and also to send to some colleagues of mine to help confirm its identity and for records purposes.  I would also be interested to know the exact date that you saw it (I am guessing it was at the end of August).

Out of interest, you mention that you showed the photo to your driver and he thought it was a bush baby.  Was this a driver for Chaminuka - the guide on your game tour, perhaps?  If it was on the main road to the lodge hopefully one of the staff would have eventually found it and tried to identify it - if they got there before the vultures!

A very interesting blog by the way!

Regards,

Clare

___________________

Clare Mateke

Keeper of Mammalogy

Livingstone Museum

PS. I notice from reading more of your blog that you are, among other things, an artist (painter).  So am I!  You can look me up at clarematekeart.blogspot.com if you are interested.

Treasure!

  Did you get that, a treasure.  

I have looked all my life for hidden treasures and here I had one and didn't even know it.  

Do you think that has happened to me or anyone else before?  

I must look carefully at all the smelly dead things in my life and re-evaluate.  

I am certain there are more treasures out there, we just need someone else to point them out for us sometimes.

Finding Culture in Zambia

Elephants have a culture.  There are patriarchs and matriarchs and long term relationships.

They have a leader and spend most of their time looking for food and looking out for each other.

It takes many years to train a young elephant so that it can go off on its own.

Sometimes, that timing is not agreed upon by parent and child.

Elephants spend their time when not looking for food, just enjoying each other.  If you watch for a while you can detect their mood and current distractions.

That trunk can nimbly pick up very small items, or whack a youngster back in line.  It can reach twenty plus feet off the ground, even before they decide the item is important enough to get back on their hind legs and reach even higher.  They do not breathe through their mouths so in-between tasks they must keep their lungs going.  They use them as snorkels while crossing rivers.   They hold up to seven and half liters of water for a good squirt down their throat.  Or they can suck up mud over and over to spray on their thick skin, as he is doing below.

Sometimes they just need a good butt scratch and you feel like maybe you shouldn't be watching so closely.

Lion culture also has the males showing up just at certain times.  Most of the time the females stick together with their cubs.  These two females were on the lookout.  The one further back in had two cubs with her.  I couldn't see them.  We were told they were still pretty young so she kept them well hidden.

Here is the newest mom.

One option for our time was to visit a "cultural village" on the Zambezi River.

We hesitated as there were only four of us and the guides would call ahead and the local people would prepare for our visit.

I didn't want to put people out.  I really didn't know how much money they expected to earn from our visit.  I wasn't certain if we should pay more, and I wondered if it would be sort of phony Disneyland type of experience.  But  ---  who knows until you try it.  The basic entrance fee was subtle -  at the end when we signed the guest book, our guides took care of that as it was included in our stay.  There was a tip jar in the dance area and we were happy to contribute but I am never certain what is satisfactory without over tipping and messing up the "tourist culture".  No matter how hard I try, there will always be a difference between the "haves and have nots."  I am slowly realizing I am in the "have" category of this bigger world culture.  With that label comes some responsibility.

We arrived by boat and were greeted by the young fair maidens of town.

We were taught how to greet the "headman" of a village and then individually introduced to him in his hut.  Afterwards they asked us if we wanted to take a photo.  It is always a "yes" for me.

Next, we were treated to more singing and the village spiritual leader blessed us.

Then he went through a ceremony showing how the dead were honored. 

Petronella was our escort and she showed us the grass clothing the women used to wear….

The weapons used in hunting and where they came from.

The spear was the most potent and feared weapon, and depending on how it was held indicated friend or foe.

These are plates they used.  On the left is one woven with reeds, the middle is wood and the right is pottery. 

This village was a little too tidy but not unlike many in use today.

Today you would find many modern items in the homes but their living is still quite simple by North American standards.

Here is where a family would sleep, the father on the right with a wood head rest and the rest of the family on the left with the mother.  One major responsibility for the wife was to always see that the husband had clean water in a vessel in the bedroom.

A village would have a lookout for lions and elephants and hippos and they would try to discourage them from entering a village.  If a large animal did enter they would usually just leave until the animal moved on.  There is a limit on the amount of elephant you can eat.  It is a long walk to a freezer or snow bank.

Kristi is learning to pound maize.

This lady was not impressed with her technique.

Once it is broken down and the chaff separated, it was time to grind it.

First the grinding stones needed to be prepared by roughing them up with even harder stones.

This is done usually about once a week.  The grinding is done every day.

Then the grinding of the fine flour took place.  Kristi did OK at this but I wouldn't be hiring her by the hour.  It would have been a little wait for the pancakes to be ready.

Kristi then had to celebrate that I was not leaving her behind to live that kind of life.

Her dancing skills seemed to improve with time.

I got to try spinning the top with a whip for my part of the program.  It wasn't as difficult as it looked.

Kristi still stood out, even after her frenzied participation.  We are working to be more Zambian.

Some people just weren't impressed with our sincerity.

I think these kids just couldn't wait for us to leave, so they could get back to video games and their mothers could microwave lunch and take them to soccer practice.

We were off again, past the elephants...

Boaters or fishermen in their dugout canoes….

People washing dishes, clothes and themselves.

We saw our last pod of hippos.

Said goodbye to the good life...

Our truck was still in good shape and we headed home past boys playing checkers.

  Culture can be found anywhere.

I think it only takes two to set a standard, then it is a matter of how many will join in.

I suppose the more you have join in the way you live and think, it will result in a dominant culture.

I would join the checker culture above, as it is clear they have no worries whatsoever.

This was the road north and back to our culture.

Let us all be good citizens in whatever culture we belong, and perhaps there will be more peace.