After wrapping up the workshop, we all headed back to Lusaka. We packed into the back of the Peace Corps vehicle and set off on our way. David was driving and Kofi was riding up front while I was sitting with Alex, Amy, Bernard, Eric, Henry and Mindy. Amy can always be counted on to bring games for long car rides. There were word games (kinda like Taboo) and Charades (but we used an action figure named Bendy Bob since we couldn't really act things out in the vehicle). Anyway, it was a lot of fun and we even had time to debrief a whole lot of the workshop and talk about things like IDDS.
When we got back to Lusaka we went straight to the Country Director's house for dinner. He has a lovely family and was really welcoming. He wanted to hear all about the workshop and was asking lots of questions about IDDS. Amy and I were sitting next to him during dinner, so I was talking to him for a while. It got me thinking a lot about the contrasts between the Peace Corps Zambia program and the Peace Corps Kenya program and wondering if I would have stayed the full two years with the team in Zambia. In any case, I have to say that the volunteers in Peace Corps Zambia are really lucky to be in a beautiful country with such a supportive staff. On the other hand, I noticed that a lot of the volunteers drink a healthy amount and smoke like I used to when I was in Peace Corps. The volunteers were definitely a lot more positive about everything than I was during most of my service, but there was still something familiar in their outlook that I was glad to have put behind me. As a side note, I emailed the Peace Corps Kenya team since I thought that the workshop was so great and that there were some ideas that they could apply to the program there, and the Country Director for Kenya wrote back a curt response saying that he had seen everything already at a Peace Corps conference where the Zambia team won an award for most innovative post.
After the dinner, we went back to the hotel where we were staying. The promised wireless never materialized, but Eric and I took advantage of the time to have a late night meeting about IDDS and some important steps to take moving forward with Amy and Kofi chiming in sporadically as they worked on a grant proposal. It was really nice to meet face-to-face with the IDDS team and to really discuss the direction moving forward.
The next day we were at the Peace Corps office all morning. I used their internet to catch up on all sorts of things and got to meet a bunch of other volunteers as they set off for different destinations for Christmas. Amy, Kofi and Eric were meeting with some Peace Corps staff for an official debrief and then they brought in some old IDDS Zambia participants. Kenny, the director at DISACARE wheelchairs, was one of my friends at the summit in 2008, but I didn't even recognize him when I first saw him since he looked especially distinguished in his suit and glasses (he was also walking with a cane as opposed to 2008 when he was confined to his wheelchair). I also saw John, the director at Light of Hope (a community health program right outside Lusaka), who was on my team at IDDS in 2008 and we immediately started talking shop about Interlocking Stabilized Soil Block Makers (that's normal, right?) and about all our mutual friends. I was disappointed that I didn't have a chance to see more of my Zambian friends from IDDS, but it was nice to talk with them and to discuss the possibility of what IDDS 2012 in Zambia might look like. Then we took a photo of the IDDS family (Amy, Bernard, Eric, Henry, John, Kenny, Kofi and me), and it was great to have everyone in one place (I need that picture). Then I said good-bye to Amy, Eric and Kofi as they headed to the airport.
After that, I went to the Lusaka Showgrounds where they have an annual agricultural fair in August and is a space with low-rent offices the rest of the year. I was meeting with our Zambian distributor for GCS to sign some paperwork and talk about how to work together moving forward. I was really impressed with his exuberance and wanted to do everything that I could to support him, not as a member of GCS, but just because I could see how excited he was to help people and help the environment.
On my way back to the Peace Corps office, I visited Manda Hill Shopping Centre (a huge mall). It was kinda crazy how fancy it was there (I saw a Subway restaurant), and I strolled through the aisles of a store called Game in awe of how much it felt like being in a Target. But I wasn't there to shop (though I did grab a vuvuzela for my roommate Mic), I just wanted to see the other side of Zambia, so I grabbed a quick burger and headed back to the Peace Corps office to finish everything before I left. It was really hard saying good-bye to Nancy (she's the number two in Peace Corps Zambia) since she was so helpful and kind. I knew that I needed to come back to Zambia and see a lot more of the country.
The Peace Corps driver dropped Bernard and I off at the bus station and helped us find where the buses to Tanzania were parked. John came back to find us before the bus left and gave Bernard and me each a scarf from Light of Hope and we made donations to support the new football program that they're starting over there. But soon, the clock read 4:00, so it was time to begin our interminable journey home.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Appropriate Technology Workshop Part 5
On the third day of the workshop, we were doing a lot of work on finishing up projects. But, the workshop wouldn't be complete without a charcoal demonstration, so in the morning, we did side-by-side charcoal burns. We tested out the kiln that they had assembled a few days before as well as an oil drum. As Kofi talked a bit about the kilns, I was running back and forth to the kitchen to make sure that we had materials to demonstrate charcoal binding (the ones I had collected the previous day had been thrown out--understandably so, as few people would assume that someone would want to save those concoctions). Fortunately, that was all set, so as we talked about the process, Amy and I went back and forth explaining. It was slightly difficult, since I hadn't conducted a burn with her in over two years and the process had evolved, but we still had a good time presenting. At one point, I was trying to explain what was going on while I was completely engulfed in smoke as the water vapor burned off. However, all in all, the process went well and people were pretty excited about everything. We had some issues sealing the brick kiln, which led to a good discussion on how to improve the design, but people were excited to be asked for their input on improving the process. And we closed the demo with David and I talking about briquetting, which was a really fun conversation.
Most of the rest of the day was project work. It was nice to see the designs taking shape. One of my favorite contrasts was a Zambian designed hand-washing station that was about the simplest design I've ever seen next to an American designed one with rope following a crazy path and four pulleys that still didn't seem to work quite as well. I was really impressed with the mango picker (and even tried it out a few times to help some of the other teams get mangoes for slicing, peeling and pressing). I enjoyed watching the evaporative cooling team think about the possible uses for their unit. I was blown away by the seed planter (Bernard couldn't conceal his amazement, and it takes a lot to wow him). I enjoyed looking at the corn shelling designs and lots and lots more projects taking shape. Even Bernard was working on a valve for the well-digging tool so that we wouldn't have to get as muddy (after we all took our first crack at laundry, we were definitely grateful for that).
The volunteers cooked for us again, which was wonderful again and after a peaceful night, we were trying to get everything ready to show visitors from the community. Unfortunately, the worst of the rain came that morning, so we decided to cancel the showcase. But as we were canceling it, the weather cleared up significantly and we decided to un-cancel it. I was most excited to redeem myself with the oil presses (we didn't have enough peanuts to fill the screw press, so we were using it as a mango press, which was interesting in its own right). Everyone had a final burst of energy to get things as close to ready as possible.
As people started arriving, we talked a bit with them about what they would be seeing and then let them wander through. I couldn't resist sharing my thoughts on charcoal making and peanut shelling, but I was mostly talking about oil presses. People were impressed this time by how easy it was to use and enjoyed trying it for themselves (I made sure to explain that there are plenty of difficulties with the design as well). There was one visitor who felt compelled to tell all of us that none of these machines would be useful in the villages. All the villagers loudly disagreed with him (he was clearly urban and had spent little or no time in his life in villages) as he went from place to place, but that didn't stop him from offering his "expert" opinion every time. I saw it as a good example that if you just listen to one person who is happy to pretend they know everything, you can get a lot of incorrect information.
Anyway, the showcase was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. After that, we went back to the hotel for the closing ceremony and when we got to the room that we had reserved for it, we found a church group had also reserved the room. Ummmmm, yeah. The hotel was nice enough to let us take over their dining room and we had a fun time in there. Everyone stood up and said a few words and we all received certificates and none of us could believe everything that we had accomplished over those 4 short days. It was really sad knowing that we were leaving after such a short time, but we were glad that we were able to become close friends so quickly.
The trainers' all went out for a celebratory dinner and final discussion (Amy and Kofi treated us, which was even more amazing). It was a lot of fun and we joked a lot (well, that happened at every meeting) and even found humor in the food that we were eating. My favorite part was learning that some people call traffic lights "robots". I'm not entirely sure what part of the world that comes from, but it was really fun to discuss that and other examples where we're all speaking the same language, but the words are so different. In the morning we had a few housekeeping tasks as we cleaned everything up and packed up the vehicle to head back to Lusaka. My luggage was nearly left behind, but Eric heroically grabbed it and saved the day.
Most of the rest of the day was project work. It was nice to see the designs taking shape. One of my favorite contrasts was a Zambian designed hand-washing station that was about the simplest design I've ever seen next to an American designed one with rope following a crazy path and four pulleys that still didn't seem to work quite as well. I was really impressed with the mango picker (and even tried it out a few times to help some of the other teams get mangoes for slicing, peeling and pressing). I enjoyed watching the evaporative cooling team think about the possible uses for their unit. I was blown away by the seed planter (Bernard couldn't conceal his amazement, and it takes a lot to wow him). I enjoyed looking at the corn shelling designs and lots and lots more projects taking shape. Even Bernard was working on a valve for the well-digging tool so that we wouldn't have to get as muddy (after we all took our first crack at laundry, we were definitely grateful for that).
The volunteers cooked for us again, which was wonderful again and after a peaceful night, we were trying to get everything ready to show visitors from the community. Unfortunately, the worst of the rain came that morning, so we decided to cancel the showcase. But as we were canceling it, the weather cleared up significantly and we decided to un-cancel it. I was most excited to redeem myself with the oil presses (we didn't have enough peanuts to fill the screw press, so we were using it as a mango press, which was interesting in its own right). Everyone had a final burst of energy to get things as close to ready as possible.
As people started arriving, we talked a bit with them about what they would be seeing and then let them wander through. I couldn't resist sharing my thoughts on charcoal making and peanut shelling, but I was mostly talking about oil presses. People were impressed this time by how easy it was to use and enjoyed trying it for themselves (I made sure to explain that there are plenty of difficulties with the design as well). There was one visitor who felt compelled to tell all of us that none of these machines would be useful in the villages. All the villagers loudly disagreed with him (he was clearly urban and had spent little or no time in his life in villages) as he went from place to place, but that didn't stop him from offering his "expert" opinion every time. I saw it as a good example that if you just listen to one person who is happy to pretend they know everything, you can get a lot of incorrect information.
Anyway, the showcase was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. After that, we went back to the hotel for the closing ceremony and when we got to the room that we had reserved for it, we found a church group had also reserved the room. Ummmmm, yeah. The hotel was nice enough to let us take over their dining room and we had a fun time in there. Everyone stood up and said a few words and we all received certificates and none of us could believe everything that we had accomplished over those 4 short days. It was really sad knowing that we were leaving after such a short time, but we were glad that we were able to become close friends so quickly.
The trainers' all went out for a celebratory dinner and final discussion (Amy and Kofi treated us, which was even more amazing). It was a lot of fun and we joked a lot (well, that happened at every meeting) and even found humor in the food that we were eating. My favorite part was learning that some people call traffic lights "robots". I'm not entirely sure what part of the world that comes from, but it was really fun to discuss that and other examples where we're all speaking the same language, but the words are so different. In the morning we had a few housekeeping tasks as we cleaned everything up and packed up the vehicle to head back to Lusaka. My luggage was nearly left behind, but Eric heroically grabbed it and saved the day.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Appropriate Technology Workshop Part 4
Well, I just want to say that there are fantastic pictures related to this post, but I don't have them. I'm hoping to get some copies of them in the coming weeks, so I'll be sure to share them as soon as I do. Also, I want to apologize for the fact that I'm still posting stories from December. I have a few more before I move on to my adventures from January (I've got a bunch of those as well). Hopefully I can start telling stories as they happen again soon-ish.
Anyway, the weather had been mostly co-operative during our time in Zambia, but we knew that we were there at the start of the rainy season (which was fortunate in that it provided us with an ample bounty of mangoes) and had to be ready in case the skies opened up and deluged the town as they are wont to do in that part of Zambia. Sure enough, starting with the second day, we had a lot of moving around as we tried to work in spite of the rain. It was mostly successful, but definitely complicated things a bit.
Day 2 had one of my favorite presentations where Amy was showing how a design for a honey press might evolve and Bernard just put together a few cardboard contraptions to show people how to do very simple designs to evaluate concepts. We were having more discussions on the second day and although half the participants were Peace Corps Volunteers while the other half were counterparts from the villages where the volunteers were stationed, much more than half of the substance was coming from the volunteers. I even led a session that went much better than my previous one (still with a few fits and starts, but barely noticeable to the audience) and felt a lot better about that.
The really interesting part of day 2 was during the end of the lunch break when Amy wanted to test out a well-digging method that only uses metal pipes and water. Kofi suggested that we should probably wait, but Amy went ahead with it. Step 1 was learning how to draw water up a pipe using your hand using a basin (you bring the pipe up and down with your hand over the top with a suction grip allowing air out slowly, which draws water in from the basin). We all really enjoyed this and set up two adjacent basins so that people could have water fights as the water sprayed all over once it reached the top. After that, we moved on to step 2, which consisted of doing the process in the same way, but instead of a basin filled with water, it was a small hole. In this sense, we were using a lot more force to draw water up the pipe and bring mud with it. However, we were all taking turns and spraying and the mud was flying everywhere. In order to create enough force on the pipe, we needed to have 3 people helping lift it and the person whose hand was acting as a seal got some pretty nasty blisters on their palm. As we got deeper, we attached more pipes (the pipes were threaded so that we could put more on) and had more people helping with it. At the 7 meter depth, we had 5 people working on the pipe and with all the mud spraying, we were all indistinguishable mud monsters. Everyone took lots of pictures. I offered hugs to several people who opted to stand a safe distance away and watch, but they all declined. I felt bad for some of the Zambians who had coated some of their best clothes in mud, but they didn't seem to regret it at all. Everyone who had participated just had the biggest smiles on their faces and probably would have dug all afternoon if we didn't have several other projects to work on. One man named Martin showed particular enthusiasm for the method and we were all predicting that if we visited his village after one month, we would find dozens of new wells dug everywhere. (I promise to post the pictures up here as soon as I get them.)
We also had some technology demonstrations in the afternoon. I was showing the oil presses, so the wonderful housekeeper Esther roasted some peanuts and sunflower seeds for me (I had gone to the market with David and gotten much better prices the 2nd time around) so that we could extract peanut and sunflower oil. One of the people who was hosting us had assured us that he could get all the supplies we needed like peanuts and sunflower seeds and kept assuring us that it would be just one more day. When it came down to the wire we finally just bought our supplies, but it meant that we hadn't tested the machines before using them. I had used similar ones three years before, so I was hoping it was like riding a bicycle. Turns out that it wasn't. Neither press really worked (the yenga press and screw press from this post) and were pretty underwhelming for the participants. It was nice that everyone started trying to tinker with it to make it work, which really drove home to me the importance of a good oil press, but mostly it served to highlight some of the flaws in the design and to chastise me again for not practicing before presenting.
Still, it was nice to see all the technologies coming along nicely. After we cleaned up for the day, the volunteers cooked vegetarian stir-fry for us, which was delicious, and it was fun to hang out and talk about experiences in Peace Corps and life in general. It was also nice to be eating multiple complete meals in a day again. Sadly, it also made me realize how much I miss cooking as a way to unwind.
Anyway, the weather had been mostly co-operative during our time in Zambia, but we knew that we were there at the start of the rainy season (which was fortunate in that it provided us with an ample bounty of mangoes) and had to be ready in case the skies opened up and deluged the town as they are wont to do in that part of Zambia. Sure enough, starting with the second day, we had a lot of moving around as we tried to work in spite of the rain. It was mostly successful, but definitely complicated things a bit.
Day 2 had one of my favorite presentations where Amy was showing how a design for a honey press might evolve and Bernard just put together a few cardboard contraptions to show people how to do very simple designs to evaluate concepts. We were having more discussions on the second day and although half the participants were Peace Corps Volunteers while the other half were counterparts from the villages where the volunteers were stationed, much more than half of the substance was coming from the volunteers. I even led a session that went much better than my previous one (still with a few fits and starts, but barely noticeable to the audience) and felt a lot better about that.
The really interesting part of day 2 was during the end of the lunch break when Amy wanted to test out a well-digging method that only uses metal pipes and water. Kofi suggested that we should probably wait, but Amy went ahead with it. Step 1 was learning how to draw water up a pipe using your hand using a basin (you bring the pipe up and down with your hand over the top with a suction grip allowing air out slowly, which draws water in from the basin). We all really enjoyed this and set up two adjacent basins so that people could have water fights as the water sprayed all over once it reached the top. After that, we moved on to step 2, which consisted of doing the process in the same way, but instead of a basin filled with water, it was a small hole. In this sense, we were using a lot more force to draw water up the pipe and bring mud with it. However, we were all taking turns and spraying and the mud was flying everywhere. In order to create enough force on the pipe, we needed to have 3 people helping lift it and the person whose hand was acting as a seal got some pretty nasty blisters on their palm. As we got deeper, we attached more pipes (the pipes were threaded so that we could put more on) and had more people helping with it. At the 7 meter depth, we had 5 people working on the pipe and with all the mud spraying, we were all indistinguishable mud monsters. Everyone took lots of pictures. I offered hugs to several people who opted to stand a safe distance away and watch, but they all declined. I felt bad for some of the Zambians who had coated some of their best clothes in mud, but they didn't seem to regret it at all. Everyone who had participated just had the biggest smiles on their faces and probably would have dug all afternoon if we didn't have several other projects to work on. One man named Martin showed particular enthusiasm for the method and we were all predicting that if we visited his village after one month, we would find dozens of new wells dug everywhere. (I promise to post the pictures up here as soon as I get them.)
We also had some technology demonstrations in the afternoon. I was showing the oil presses, so the wonderful housekeeper Esther roasted some peanuts and sunflower seeds for me (I had gone to the market with David and gotten much better prices the 2nd time around) so that we could extract peanut and sunflower oil. One of the people who was hosting us had assured us that he could get all the supplies we needed like peanuts and sunflower seeds and kept assuring us that it would be just one more day. When it came down to the wire we finally just bought our supplies, but it meant that we hadn't tested the machines before using them. I had used similar ones three years before, so I was hoping it was like riding a bicycle. Turns out that it wasn't. Neither press really worked (the yenga press and screw press from this post) and were pretty underwhelming for the participants. It was nice that everyone started trying to tinker with it to make it work, which really drove home to me the importance of a good oil press, but mostly it served to highlight some of the flaws in the design and to chastise me again for not practicing before presenting.
Still, it was nice to see all the technologies coming along nicely. After we cleaned up for the day, the volunteers cooked vegetarian stir-fry for us, which was delicious, and it was fun to hang out and talk about experiences in Peace Corps and life in general. It was also nice to be eating multiple complete meals in a day again. Sadly, it also made me realize how much I miss cooking as a way to unwind.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Appropriate Technology Workshop Part 3
The start of the workshop was delayed by a day because of a scheduling miscommunication. This meant that our already intense five-day curriculum needed to be packed into four days. But then, we wouldn't all be there if we didn't like a challenge. In theory, having an extra day should have made the organizers feel less rushed, but somehow, it seemed to make us all feel like we needed to get more done, so even though it was like gaining a day, we still had a lot to do.
I ran to the market and tried to find some supplies for the event. I bought some peanuts in the shell, which were really hard to find (and which I was actually severely overcharged for since there was only one person in the market who hadn't already taken them out of the shell) and when I got home, I discovered that they were actually immature peanuts and wouldn't work for the sheller we were using. Oh well. It was also at this point that I discovered that they had drinking yogurt (a thin dairy product that tastes like yogurt, but is only slightly thicker than milk) in the supermarket and started trying to down one a day (it was much healthier than my soda habit and much cheaper than living off of juice). I don't know why Tanzania doesn't have much drinking yogurt, but it was big in Kenya and I was thrilled to discover that Zambia had banana flavored yogurt.
I was also avoiding the hotel's kitchen and living mostly off of peanut butter and bread. I decided to try to change things up by buying some potatoes and cooking them (remember, the room had a hotpot). It didn't go so well. I boiled some water. Put some potatoes in a cup and poured the boiling water onto them. Let them sit for five minutes and dumped out the water and poured more boiling water onto them. I repeated this about 4 times before adding a bunch of salt and trying to eat them. Turns out that potatoes prepared this way are borderline edible. I was pretty hungry too, so I'm guessing that under almost any other circumstances, they would have been completely inedible.
In the evening, the participants started to arrive, and I was torn between trying to meet them and trying to plan for the next day. Since I was presenting a session on problem framing and didn't have a whole lot of sense how to do it, I wanted to really work the lesson over in my head since I didn't have a whole lot of time to talk with Amy about what she had in mind. We also needed to do some final prep work to get the spaces ready for the next day, so I was disappointed that I didn't get to spend more time getting to know people before the workshop started.
The next morning we did our welcomes and introductions and everything was going really smoothly (the extra day pretty much guaranteed that). We told everyone how much we planned to accomplish and it sounded pretty daunting, but everyone was really energized about the whole program. During the tea break, Amy came up to me to show me the lesson plan that she had put together for my session so that it would have some continuity. It was a lot better than what I had, so I decided to base my lesson mostly around her idea. She also gave me the assignment to set up some bowls of mangoes with a towel over them (one part of the workshop was to have them work in teams to design mango-processing technologies since they were so abundant during that part of the year, so we wanted to have a dramatic reveal of the theme). Although I never watched cooking shows much, I was trying to use Iron Chef for inspiration. A nice big stack of mangoes (including a few strategically stacked around the bowls) that could be shown with adequate intrigue. In hindsight, I should have spent more time nailing down how I was going to do my session.
The mango reveal went really well and people were definitely entertained. My session did not go well at all. I was jumping back and forth between Amy's lesson plan and my own and presenting it like a high school teacher by providing way too many examples and constantly checking if there were any questions (in some ways that's my natural way of presenting, but it didn't do much to help me connect with my audience). The content did not come across clearly, the follow-up activity was explained poorly and I definitely did not seem like a confident presenter (I kept doubting myself as I tried to pull the bullet points from the lesson plan). The audience was very nice about humoring me and we got through the lesson, but I was mortified by how badly I had botched it. I have to say that Amy did a good job of coaching me through it without shaking me further or letting me get discouraged and without letting the rest of the room know how much I needed coaching.
I felt like I regained some face while I was walking around and talking with teams on a one-on-one basis (well, at least in a small group setting) and I was able to redeem myself by the time everyone was working on their projects in the afternoon. As soon as we had our trainers' meeting, I announced that I wanted to try leading another session because I definitely needed practice. Everyone was supportive and reassuring about how my session had gone, which was a little disappointing since I wanted really blunt feedback, but I was grateful for their kindness. Amy signed me up for another session and I knew I needed to spend a lot of time and really figure out what I needed to do to get it right.
But in the mean time, there were a lot of projects going on. I was talking to one team about what it would take to design a centrifuge for honey extraction (and the possibility of making it pedal-powered), and then another team about the principles of an evaporative cooling system (I wish my physics degree had given me a more practical background in thermodynamics), and then another team about building smokers and solar dryers and then another team about oil extraction and then back to the second team to talk about shelling peanuts and so on. It was a lot of fun and a really great way to get to know everyone. By the end of the first day, we had definitely accomplished a lot, but we could see that we had our work cut out for us.
I ran to the market and tried to find some supplies for the event. I bought some peanuts in the shell, which were really hard to find (and which I was actually severely overcharged for since there was only one person in the market who hadn't already taken them out of the shell) and when I got home, I discovered that they were actually immature peanuts and wouldn't work for the sheller we were using. Oh well. It was also at this point that I discovered that they had drinking yogurt (a thin dairy product that tastes like yogurt, but is only slightly thicker than milk) in the supermarket and started trying to down one a day (it was much healthier than my soda habit and much cheaper than living off of juice). I don't know why Tanzania doesn't have much drinking yogurt, but it was big in Kenya and I was thrilled to discover that Zambia had banana flavored yogurt.
I was also avoiding the hotel's kitchen and living mostly off of peanut butter and bread. I decided to try to change things up by buying some potatoes and cooking them (remember, the room had a hotpot). It didn't go so well. I boiled some water. Put some potatoes in a cup and poured the boiling water onto them. Let them sit for five minutes and dumped out the water and poured more boiling water onto them. I repeated this about 4 times before adding a bunch of salt and trying to eat them. Turns out that potatoes prepared this way are borderline edible. I was pretty hungry too, so I'm guessing that under almost any other circumstances, they would have been completely inedible.
In the evening, the participants started to arrive, and I was torn between trying to meet them and trying to plan for the next day. Since I was presenting a session on problem framing and didn't have a whole lot of sense how to do it, I wanted to really work the lesson over in my head since I didn't have a whole lot of time to talk with Amy about what she had in mind. We also needed to do some final prep work to get the spaces ready for the next day, so I was disappointed that I didn't get to spend more time getting to know people before the workshop started.
The next morning we did our welcomes and introductions and everything was going really smoothly (the extra day pretty much guaranteed that). We told everyone how much we planned to accomplish and it sounded pretty daunting, but everyone was really energized about the whole program. During the tea break, Amy came up to me to show me the lesson plan that she had put together for my session so that it would have some continuity. It was a lot better than what I had, so I decided to base my lesson mostly around her idea. She also gave me the assignment to set up some bowls of mangoes with a towel over them (one part of the workshop was to have them work in teams to design mango-processing technologies since they were so abundant during that part of the year, so we wanted to have a dramatic reveal of the theme). Although I never watched cooking shows much, I was trying to use Iron Chef for inspiration. A nice big stack of mangoes (including a few strategically stacked around the bowls) that could be shown with adequate intrigue. In hindsight, I should have spent more time nailing down how I was going to do my session.
The mango reveal went really well and people were definitely entertained. My session did not go well at all. I was jumping back and forth between Amy's lesson plan and my own and presenting it like a high school teacher by providing way too many examples and constantly checking if there were any questions (in some ways that's my natural way of presenting, but it didn't do much to help me connect with my audience). The content did not come across clearly, the follow-up activity was explained poorly and I definitely did not seem like a confident presenter (I kept doubting myself as I tried to pull the bullet points from the lesson plan). The audience was very nice about humoring me and we got through the lesson, but I was mortified by how badly I had botched it. I have to say that Amy did a good job of coaching me through it without shaking me further or letting me get discouraged and without letting the rest of the room know how much I needed coaching.
I felt like I regained some face while I was walking around and talking with teams on a one-on-one basis (well, at least in a small group setting) and I was able to redeem myself by the time everyone was working on their projects in the afternoon. As soon as we had our trainers' meeting, I announced that I wanted to try leading another session because I definitely needed practice. Everyone was supportive and reassuring about how my session had gone, which was a little disappointing since I wanted really blunt feedback, but I was grateful for their kindness. Amy signed me up for another session and I knew I needed to spend a lot of time and really figure out what I needed to do to get it right.
But in the mean time, there were a lot of projects going on. I was talking to one team about what it would take to design a centrifuge for honey extraction (and the possibility of making it pedal-powered), and then another team about the principles of an evaporative cooling system (I wish my physics degree had given me a more practical background in thermodynamics), and then another team about building smokers and solar dryers and then another team about oil extraction and then back to the second team to talk about shelling peanuts and so on. It was a lot of fun and a really great way to get to know everyone. By the end of the first day, we had definitely accomplished a lot, but we could see that we had our work cut out for us.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Appropriate Technology Workshop Part 2 (New Charcoal Project)
As we were getting everything ready for when all the participants were arriving, we had the opportunity to work a bit on our own projects. I wanted to spend some time doing charcoal work.
One of the big struggles with the charcoal from agricultural waste project is that in order to make the charcoal into briquettes, you need a sticky binding material. Typically, we use a bit of porridge made from cassava (I've also used wheat flour), which is nice and sticky. Many communities, however, have issues with food scarcity, so asking them to divert this precious resource into cooking fuel is rarely worthwhile (the exception being in peri-urban areas, where charcoal usually fetches a rather high price and is a good way to increase income). Items like dung or plant extracts may be sticky, but they often produce some harmful chemicals when burned.
So, during the workshop set-up, while other people were building all sorts of technologies, I was off in the kitchen experimenting. The first day we had some oranges, mangoes and bananas. I made a few different recipes for the experiments: boiled banana with and without peel, mashed uncooked banana, mashed rotten mango, mashed mango peel, orange juice, and orange juice concentrate (as well as cassava porridge as a control). Then, I used the charcoal briquetter and some charcoal powder and made a briquette with each binder and left them out in the sun to dry. Unfortunately, most of the best results were from using valuable products like boiled banana without peel or mango juice (technically, there are surplus mangoes in this area, but that's not common in many of the areas I've tried charcoal projects) or the orange juice.
But I was not about to give up. When I boiled the banana peel, I saw that it had made a somewhat sticky liquid, but by adding the stringy pieces of the peel it had become much weaker. So, in the interests of finding a method that also doesn't require boiling, I used a large mortar and pestle to crush the banana peel and poured water slowly to collect the residue that was coming out. (The process took some practice and there were a few times where I splashed banana peel juice in my face.) When I got rid of the solid part, I found that it was actually a fairly sticky liquid. I tried the same process with mango peel and discovered that it also looked pretty good.
My colleague David (a member of the Peace Corps Zambia staff) helped me out by diligently making lots of briquettes. We were not entirely thrilled by how popular the charcoal was with the flies, but once it dried, we found that it held together really well. We also started joking about charging a higher price for fish grilled over "fruit-infused charcoal". Maybe half-joking. I'm curious about whether the same would work for things like potato peels, but I feel like this is the start to a much more workable solution.
One of the big struggles with the charcoal from agricultural waste project is that in order to make the charcoal into briquettes, you need a sticky binding material. Typically, we use a bit of porridge made from cassava (I've also used wheat flour), which is nice and sticky. Many communities, however, have issues with food scarcity, so asking them to divert this precious resource into cooking fuel is rarely worthwhile (the exception being in peri-urban areas, where charcoal usually fetches a rather high price and is a good way to increase income). Items like dung or plant extracts may be sticky, but they often produce some harmful chemicals when burned.
So, during the workshop set-up, while other people were building all sorts of technologies, I was off in the kitchen experimenting. The first day we had some oranges, mangoes and bananas. I made a few different recipes for the experiments: boiled banana with and without peel, mashed uncooked banana, mashed rotten mango, mashed mango peel, orange juice, and orange juice concentrate (as well as cassava porridge as a control). Then, I used the charcoal briquetter and some charcoal powder and made a briquette with each binder and left them out in the sun to dry. Unfortunately, most of the best results were from using valuable products like boiled banana without peel or mango juice (technically, there are surplus mangoes in this area, but that's not common in many of the areas I've tried charcoal projects) or the orange juice.
But I was not about to give up. When I boiled the banana peel, I saw that it had made a somewhat sticky liquid, but by adding the stringy pieces of the peel it had become much weaker. So, in the interests of finding a method that also doesn't require boiling, I used a large mortar and pestle to crush the banana peel and poured water slowly to collect the residue that was coming out. (The process took some practice and there were a few times where I splashed banana peel juice in my face.) When I got rid of the solid part, I found that it was actually a fairly sticky liquid. I tried the same process with mango peel and discovered that it also looked pretty good.
My colleague David (a member of the Peace Corps Zambia staff) helped me out by diligently making lots of briquettes. We were not entirely thrilled by how popular the charcoal was with the flies, but once it dried, we found that it held together really well. We also started joking about charging a higher price for fish grilled over "fruit-infused charcoal". Maybe half-joking. I'm curious about whether the same would work for things like potato peels, but I feel like this is the start to a much more workable solution.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Appropriate Technology Workshop Part 1
After we arrived in Chipata (December 12th), I met everyone who was working on the workshop. Eric was in the car with me riding up, I met him at IDDS this summer and really enjoy working with him, he's a quiet guy, but everything that he says is incredibly insightful. Then I met Henry, a Peace Corps Zambia staff member who was at IDDS in 2009 and is a hard worker, strong leader and all-around great guy. When I went in, I met Kofi, a grad student at MIT whom I had exchanged lots of emails with and heard great things about, but never actually worked with. I saw my friend Bernard had already arrived and was seated with a man named David. David is another Peace Corps staffer, who is really funny and great to work with. After that, I saw Amy Smith, who is a major inspiration to me and who I am always thrilled to work with.
I was definitely impressed with the quality of the hotel. The room had a king sized bed (it might have been queen, but either way, it was enormous and soft), a TV, a refrigerator (which I immediately unplugged and never used), a fan, a really nice shower and even a coat rack. It was nice to be in a place that was very conducive to sleep.
The first morning we started our Training of Trainers (TOT) at the Peace Corps regional office. I met Mindy and Alex (short for Alexandra) who had been through a previous training that Amy and Kofi had done with Peace Corps Zambia and were helping to lead this program as well as Simon, another Peace Corps staff member who was based in Chipata and was incredibly helpful with everything that we were working on. We started with goals and expectations for the program and then went over our schedule and went over the details of the technologies that we would be working on and the sessions that we were running.
After lunch, we set to work putting together some technologies and setting up some demonstrations. Half the group started working on building a small brick kiln for making charcoal.
I was with the group that was setting up an IDE treadle pump, a TDAU diaphragm pump and an IDE drip irrigation kit. There was a nice deep well on the compound and we were worried that it was too deep, but the treadle pump managed to lift the water (approx 10 meters, though they're typically rated for about 7 meters), but the diaphragm pump couldn't bring it up that far, so we just used a basin of water for that one. It took a while to get the pumps working and to run the hose, but by the end of the day, we felt pretty accomplished.
I was not impressed with the food at the hotel, and I was a bit anxious about the cost, so I ran out and invested in some bread and peanut butter. I still wanted to be social, so I would go to the dining hall during the meal times and talk with people, but I think they were worried about me and I appreciated their concern. I was also a bit sun-burned, so I was rather low-energy as well.
The next day was more planning and a lot of effort trying to track down the necessary supplies. I worked to set up the Universal Nut Sheller and I found myself defending it to some skeptics who rejected everything about it outright as well as assembling a ram press and a screw press (for oil extraction). Bernard showed off a design that he had made for producing low-cost tubing for drip irrigation kits by sealing small strips of plastic. This provided a nice segway to an activity where we had to design a machine for cutting the plastic into strips of the appropriate size.
We paired off for the activity and I found myself with David. He seemed perplexed at first by the challenge, but as we started working, I could hear his brain firing on all cylinders. We put a groove into a block of wood with a blade at the end so that we could run the plastic through. We didn't have a terribly outside-the-box design, but we were pretty happy with our result and David spent a lot of time talking about how excited he was to be designing a new technology. He spent a lot of time bantering with Henry since they're from rival tribes, and we all jokingly joined in the fun.
After that, we set up the drip irrigation kit and admired the garden out back. It was clear that the whole yard had been a trash heap and one of the Peace Corps Volunteers in the area had led a program to turn it into a demonstration plot for raising crops and controlling erosion. Then we did a bit of show-and-tell. We were impressed by the mud and brick kiln that they had built and were really excited to see it in action.
Photo Credit: All pictures taken by Alexandra Chen using Amy Smith's camera
I was definitely impressed with the quality of the hotel. The room had a king sized bed (it might have been queen, but either way, it was enormous and soft), a TV, a refrigerator (which I immediately unplugged and never used), a fan, a really nice shower and even a coat rack. It was nice to be in a place that was very conducive to sleep.
The first morning we started our Training of Trainers (TOT) at the Peace Corps regional office. I met Mindy and Alex (short for Alexandra) who had been through a previous training that Amy and Kofi had done with Peace Corps Zambia and were helping to lead this program as well as Simon, another Peace Corps staff member who was based in Chipata and was incredibly helpful with everything that we were working on. We started with goals and expectations for the program and then went over our schedule and went over the details of the technologies that we would be working on and the sessions that we were running.
After lunch, we set to work putting together some technologies and setting up some demonstrations. Half the group started working on building a small brick kiln for making charcoal.
David showing off the kiln
I was with the group that was setting up an IDE treadle pump, a TDAU diaphragm pump and an IDE drip irrigation kit. There was a nice deep well on the compound and we were worried that it was too deep, but the treadle pump managed to lift the water (approx 10 meters, though they're typically rated for about 7 meters), but the diaphragm pump couldn't bring it up that far, so we just used a basin of water for that one. It took a while to get the pumps working and to run the hose, but by the end of the day, we felt pretty accomplished.
IDE Treadle Pump
TDAU Diaphragm Pump
IDE Drip Irrigation Kit in Peace Corps garden
I was not impressed with the food at the hotel, and I was a bit anxious about the cost, so I ran out and invested in some bread and peanut butter. I still wanted to be social, so I would go to the dining hall during the meal times and talk with people, but I think they were worried about me and I appreciated their concern. I was also a bit sun-burned, so I was rather low-energy as well.
The next day was more planning and a lot of effort trying to track down the necessary supplies. I worked to set up the Universal Nut Sheller and I found myself defending it to some skeptics who rejected everything about it outright as well as assembling a ram press and a screw press (for oil extraction). Bernard showed off a design that he had made for producing low-cost tubing for drip irrigation kits by sealing small strips of plastic. This provided a nice segway to an activity where we had to design a machine for cutting the plastic into strips of the appropriate size.
Screw Press
Ram Press (also called Yenga Press in Zambia)
We paired off for the activity and I found myself with David. He seemed perplexed at first by the challenge, but as we started working, I could hear his brain firing on all cylinders. We put a groove into a block of wood with a blade at the end so that we could run the plastic through. We didn't have a terribly outside-the-box design, but we were pretty happy with our result and David spent a lot of time talking about how excited he was to be designing a new technology. He spent a lot of time bantering with Henry since they're from rival tribes, and we all jokingly joined in the fun.
After that, we set up the drip irrigation kit and admired the garden out back. It was clear that the whole yard had been a trash heap and one of the Peace Corps Volunteers in the area had led a program to turn it into a demonstration plot for raising crops and controlling erosion. Then we did a bit of show-and-tell. We were impressed by the mud and brick kiln that they had built and were really excited to see it in action.
Photo Credit: All pictures taken by Alexandra Chen using Amy Smith's camera
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
My Exhausting Christmas
Sorry to be skipping around a lot with content. I'm hoping to put up most of my Zambia posts later this week. And there's a lot going on right now, so hopefully I can put that up soon too!
Anyway, when I got home at 5:30 in the morning on Christmas, I found the front door locked. The gate was open, so I sat on the front porch and played with my puppy (I need to write a post about him too!) for a while. He's in that biting phase, so after I got tired of being a chew-toy, I plugged in my computer to our outlet on the porch so that I could watch a movie. At about 7:30, Jodie woke up and saw me through the window and told me that I was ridiculous for not knocking. I told her a bit about my journey and then decided that I smelled so terrible that I should just jump straight in the shower.
When I was out of the shower, I realized that I was actually pretty alert in spite of the fact that I was coming off of three straight nights of very little sleep. I saw that there was already quite a bit of food that was ready and I hadn't done anything. Most of the food was prepared by my new housemate Joanna and her sister Becky (Joanna moved in to our extra room while I was in Zambia and her sister Becky apparently stays over sometimes). I had met them both a few times before, but we took some time to get to know each other (I was not exactly in my best form in my sleep-deprived state) and bond over pop culture.
I headed to the fruit stand near our house and was surprised that most of the shops and businesses were open. I bought some unripe mangoes (the seller thought my request was a bit weird, but he was happy to help out). Back home, as I started peeling the mangoes, our first guests arrived (guys from Mic's dance crew and their girlfriends, who are mostly white volunteers). They were excited for breakfast, so they helped me peel and slice the mangoes. Once they were ready, I boiled them and made some mangosauce (it's like applesauce with a substitution) to go with the pancakes that Joanna and Becky were making. The mangosauce had to be hurried, but we were happy with the result and we had a gorgeous breakfast spread of fruit salad, pancakes, yogurt and mangosauce.
After filling up a bit, we cleaned everything. Actually, the cooks skipped the clean-up, so it was mostly Tanzanians taking care of that (though I should be clear that Mic probably makes the best pancakes of anyone there, but he was busy hosting). After that we got everything ready to lay out some snacks for the afternoon. We put some episodes of Glee on the TV and most people seemed to enjoy watching it. After that we switched to Lion King, which was really popular and all of us were shouting out lines and singing along. We also had some veggies and hummus and cheese and crackers for snacking.
I asked how I could help and was offered the job of making the stuffing. I've never actually made stuffing before, but since none of the other people had used our "oven" (pot inside pots) I got the job. They handed me the recipe and it was a nice guide, but I added a few creative touches and set it in the oven. I was a bit skeptical, but my track record of beginner's luck with recipes seemed to carry over, and aside from being slightly burnt, it was pretty delicious. I was also sharing the kitchen with people making chicken (deep-fried), mashed potatoes, candied carrots and green beans, so it was pretty busy. I had to drink plenty of Pepsi just to keep up with everything. After the stuffing was finished, we went outside and played monkey-in-the-middle and keep-away. It was actually a lot of fun, but after that I decided that I needed a break, so I grabbed an hour and a half nap in my room.
I was still exhausted after waking up, but the house was buzzing, so I went and ate dinner, which was delicious. I tried the sangria, but realized that I was going to crash if I had any more alcohol, so I stuck with my Pepsi. After that, we had dessert, which was amazing. There was cheesecake with a caramel sauce (some people also opted to put mangosauce on theirs) and an apple-mango crisp. I thought I would go into a food coma, but with a heroic regimen of Pepsi and some scintillating conversation, I wound up staying up until 2 AM. I didn't break my personal record, but 7 sodas (at 350 mL apiece) is probably not terribly healthy. At that point, I crashed and had a phenomenally restful night of sleep :)
Anyway, when I got home at 5:30 in the morning on Christmas, I found the front door locked. The gate was open, so I sat on the front porch and played with my puppy (I need to write a post about him too!) for a while. He's in that biting phase, so after I got tired of being a chew-toy, I plugged in my computer to our outlet on the porch so that I could watch a movie. At about 7:30, Jodie woke up and saw me through the window and told me that I was ridiculous for not knocking. I told her a bit about my journey and then decided that I smelled so terrible that I should just jump straight in the shower.
When I was out of the shower, I realized that I was actually pretty alert in spite of the fact that I was coming off of three straight nights of very little sleep. I saw that there was already quite a bit of food that was ready and I hadn't done anything. Most of the food was prepared by my new housemate Joanna and her sister Becky (Joanna moved in to our extra room while I was in Zambia and her sister Becky apparently stays over sometimes). I had met them both a few times before, but we took some time to get to know each other (I was not exactly in my best form in my sleep-deprived state) and bond over pop culture.
I headed to the fruit stand near our house and was surprised that most of the shops and businesses were open. I bought some unripe mangoes (the seller thought my request was a bit weird, but he was happy to help out). Back home, as I started peeling the mangoes, our first guests arrived (guys from Mic's dance crew and their girlfriends, who are mostly white volunteers). They were excited for breakfast, so they helped me peel and slice the mangoes. Once they were ready, I boiled them and made some mangosauce (it's like applesauce with a substitution) to go with the pancakes that Joanna and Becky were making. The mangosauce had to be hurried, but we were happy with the result and we had a gorgeous breakfast spread of fruit salad, pancakes, yogurt and mangosauce.
After filling up a bit, we cleaned everything. Actually, the cooks skipped the clean-up, so it was mostly Tanzanians taking care of that (though I should be clear that Mic probably makes the best pancakes of anyone there, but he was busy hosting). After that we got everything ready to lay out some snacks for the afternoon. We put some episodes of Glee on the TV and most people seemed to enjoy watching it. After that we switched to Lion King, which was really popular and all of us were shouting out lines and singing along. We also had some veggies and hummus and cheese and crackers for snacking.
I asked how I could help and was offered the job of making the stuffing. I've never actually made stuffing before, but since none of the other people had used our "oven" (pot inside pots) I got the job. They handed me the recipe and it was a nice guide, but I added a few creative touches and set it in the oven. I was a bit skeptical, but my track record of beginner's luck with recipes seemed to carry over, and aside from being slightly burnt, it was pretty delicious. I was also sharing the kitchen with people making chicken (deep-fried), mashed potatoes, candied carrots and green beans, so it was pretty busy. I had to drink plenty of Pepsi just to keep up with everything. After the stuffing was finished, we went outside and played monkey-in-the-middle and keep-away. It was actually a lot of fun, but after that I decided that I needed a break, so I grabbed an hour and a half nap in my room.
I was still exhausted after waking up, but the house was buzzing, so I went and ate dinner, which was delicious. I tried the sangria, but realized that I was going to crash if I had any more alcohol, so I stuck with my Pepsi. After that, we had dessert, which was amazing. There was cheesecake with a caramel sauce (some people also opted to put mangosauce on theirs) and an apple-mango crisp. I thought I would go into a food coma, but with a heroic regimen of Pepsi and some scintillating conversation, I wound up staying up until 2 AM. I didn't break my personal record, but 7 sodas (at 350 mL apiece) is probably not terribly healthy. At that point, I crashed and had a phenomenally restful night of sleep :)
Sunday, January 2, 2011
2010 in Hindsight
2010 was a big improvement on 2009. I was a lot happier and I felt like I recovered from some of the stresses I experienced during my Peace Corps service. I completely gave up cigarettes (I wasn't smoking heavily in Peace Corps, but there were some days where one or two cigarettes was the only thing that would help me maintain balance) and I cut back significantly on alcohol (a few drinks every few months, as opposed to several drinks a couple times every few months). On the other hand, I read a small fraction of the number of books that I read in 2009 (though that was a pretty high baseline). I also had more positive interactions when I would meet up with people.
I got lots of stamps in my passport in 2009 as I spent time in 5 countries (including the US, where I spent time in 5 states). I made lots of new friends and started work on a few new exciting projects (and I was really happy to rejoin the IDDS team). My work at GCS has been really rewarding and its nice to be part of a team where people communicate with one another and change can happen. Don't get me wrong, I missed the network that I left when I ended my Peace Corps service, but there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was the right decision for me to leave and I'm glad that I was able to work with the program after leaving.
2010 put me on a really positive track and I'm hoping to carry that over into 2011. Still trying to figure out my resolutions for 2011 (I succeeded in my goal of giving up cigarettes last year), and I'm open to suggestions...
I got lots of stamps in my passport in 2009 as I spent time in 5 countries (including the US, where I spent time in 5 states). I made lots of new friends and started work on a few new exciting projects (and I was really happy to rejoin the IDDS team). My work at GCS has been really rewarding and its nice to be part of a team where people communicate with one another and change can happen. Don't get me wrong, I missed the network that I left when I ended my Peace Corps service, but there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was the right decision for me to leave and I'm glad that I was able to work with the program after leaving.
2010 put me on a really positive track and I'm hoping to carry that over into 2011. Still trying to figure out my resolutions for 2011 (I succeeded in my goal of giving up cigarettes last year), and I'm open to suggestions...
Saturday, January 1, 2011
The Interminable Journey Home
Well, I wanted to hold off on posting this until I had all my Zambia posts up (I'm waiting on some pictures so that I can put them up in the posts), but I am going to fall way behind, so I might as well put this one up since it's ready.
On December 22nd, Bernard and I bought tickets from a bus company called Germins Motorways. I sincerely hope that I never have the misfortune to ride with them again.
Our bus was supposed to leave Lusaka at 4 PM, which puts us in line for a 7 AM arrival at the border. The bus hung around until 5, and then we began our journey. Then we drove for about an hour and a half. There was some commotion and some of the passengers forced the bus to stop at a police checkpoint. It turns out that there were some concerns about whether the bus was fit for the journey. We all climbed off the bus and they looked at the bus and decided that it wouldn't be able to make it to the border (the roads get much worse as we go on). At first, the driver told us that he was arranging for another bus from the company to come and collect us for the rest of the journey. Then after half an hour, he told us that we needed to go back to Lusaka.
We filed back into the bus and some of the passengers were getting ready to demand refunds and file complaints. One passenger became our leader and assured us that we would get to the border in a timely fashion or else we could take them to court. It seemed drastic, but it settled people down. When we got back to Lusaka, the bus left us at a gas station (presumably to prevent us from demanding refunds and buying tickets on other bus lines) and we waited for the replacement bus. There were a few seats, but most of us spread out on the concrete pavement to try to get a bit of sleep. It was more than 3 hours before the replacement bus arrived. I think most people were too exhausted to be belligerent at that point (it was midnight at that point, 8 hours after we were originally supposed to leave Lusaka).
The bus ride was pretty uneventful from that point on. I had some orange juice and then bought some bananas and a packet of lemon cookies and grabbed a Sprite at our first stop (10:30 AM). I read a lot and fired off a few emails from my phone, but I couldn't sleep much on the journey. I was starting to get anxious as we approached the border, since I wasn't sure what time they closed the crossing point. Bernard and I arrived at 5:15 PM on the Zambian side and hurried through the border (10 hours later than we should have arrived). There's a one hour time difference, so it was 6:30 when we reached the Tanzania counter. The official told us that they closed at 7 PM, so we heaved a sigh of relief.
From there, we grabbed a bus to Mbeya. It was a little rainy, but we covered the 120 km in 2 hours, which is about average. The bus left us near the market, but we wanted to be at the bus stand, so we walked to a taxi stand (it was the first time I realized how heavy my bag was with all the equipment in there) and grabbed a tuk-tuk to the bus stand. We confirmed that we were all set for the 5:45 AM bus the next morning and went to find the closest guest house. They wound up having a room with a king-sized bed, so we decided to share the bed, but before we could crash, we needed to grab some dinner. I was supposed to meet someone in Mbeya, but that was out the window by that hour.
It was already 10 PM at this point, but I usually arrive in Mbeya later than that, so I knew where to look for food. We found a nearby bar and grabbed some sodas and some chicken. As we walked in a drunk came up to me and hugged me and then while Bernard and I were sitting at our table talking, the drunk came and started talking to us (though I think there was more saliva coming out of his mouth than words) and Bernard was very helpful in sending him off. As we ate our dinner, Bernard and I carried on talking and the gentleman at the next table (also drunk, but much less of a spitter) was impressed by my Kiswahili and wanted to know my whole story. I wound up giving him my phone number so that we could talk some time and then Bernard and I headed back to wash up and get some sleep. It was just after midnight when we climbed into bed.
We were up at 5 AM and arrived at the bus stop by 5:30. Our bus left at 6:20, but we knew it was Christmas Eve, so we were just hoping to get home quickly (Bernard has a wife and daughter who hadn't seen him for two weeks). At about 9 AM, we had to stop for about 40 minutes because the bus had run out of gas. After that, the ride was pretty smooth, though a bit behind schedule. I grabbed some crackers and orange juice at the first rest stop. Then, at the second rest stop, I ran to the toilet and in the time that it took for most of what I'd eaten over the past two days to escape my system, the bus left without me. Fortunately, there was a bus stop just one kilometer down the road, so I had one of the staff call the bus and had it wait there while I grabbed a lift on a motorcycle. My phone wasn't working, so Bernard had been unable to reach me, but he did grab my luggage to make sure no one looted my things. When I got back on the bus, everyone cheered for me. I sunk into my seat to avoid further attention.
An hour later, we came to a dead stop. There was a long row of cars as far as the eye could see (and the road was winding at this point, so that was quite a distance). Every 20 minutes we were moving about two car lengths. I asked Bernard and he said it was probably an accident ahead. It was super-humid in that area, so we kept hopping off the bus and walking around to cool off. A German guy on the bus told me not to wander too far. Yep, I was basically a celebrity at that point.
The big problem is that there are a lot of free-riders on the road in Tanzania (I've noticed it much more than I saw it anywhere else I've traveled), people who will drive in the lane for oncoming traffic while cars aren't moving and then cut people off to get back into the correct lane. In this case, they turned a small patch of dirt into a shoulder and were driving on that as well. Unfortunately, the path cleared for oncoming traffic to pass first, so we spent quite a while clearing a path for them to pass through so that we could move (there was only one lane to pass the accident, so we couldn't move both lanes at the same time). I was particularly impressed by the fact that I saw fewer than ten police officers helping to direct the traffic, but there were dozens of passengers and truckers who had hopped out of their vehicles and were helping the cars move along safely. Fortunately, from there, the ride was pretty smooth.
We rolled into Arusha at 5 in the morning and I grabbed a taxi back to the house. I got in at 5:30, which means that after 60.5 hours (50 hours on buses) I was finally home for Christmas morning.
On December 22nd, Bernard and I bought tickets from a bus company called Germins Motorways. I sincerely hope that I never have the misfortune to ride with them again.
Our bus was supposed to leave Lusaka at 4 PM, which puts us in line for a 7 AM arrival at the border. The bus hung around until 5, and then we began our journey. Then we drove for about an hour and a half. There was some commotion and some of the passengers forced the bus to stop at a police checkpoint. It turns out that there were some concerns about whether the bus was fit for the journey. We all climbed off the bus and they looked at the bus and decided that it wouldn't be able to make it to the border (the roads get much worse as we go on). At first, the driver told us that he was arranging for another bus from the company to come and collect us for the rest of the journey. Then after half an hour, he told us that we needed to go back to Lusaka.
We filed back into the bus and some of the passengers were getting ready to demand refunds and file complaints. One passenger became our leader and assured us that we would get to the border in a timely fashion or else we could take them to court. It seemed drastic, but it settled people down. When we got back to Lusaka, the bus left us at a gas station (presumably to prevent us from demanding refunds and buying tickets on other bus lines) and we waited for the replacement bus. There were a few seats, but most of us spread out on the concrete pavement to try to get a bit of sleep. It was more than 3 hours before the replacement bus arrived. I think most people were too exhausted to be belligerent at that point (it was midnight at that point, 8 hours after we were originally supposed to leave Lusaka).
The bus ride was pretty uneventful from that point on. I had some orange juice and then bought some bananas and a packet of lemon cookies and grabbed a Sprite at our first stop (10:30 AM). I read a lot and fired off a few emails from my phone, but I couldn't sleep much on the journey. I was starting to get anxious as we approached the border, since I wasn't sure what time they closed the crossing point. Bernard and I arrived at 5:15 PM on the Zambian side and hurried through the border (10 hours later than we should have arrived). There's a one hour time difference, so it was 6:30 when we reached the Tanzania counter. The official told us that they closed at 7 PM, so we heaved a sigh of relief.
From there, we grabbed a bus to Mbeya. It was a little rainy, but we covered the 120 km in 2 hours, which is about average. The bus left us near the market, but we wanted to be at the bus stand, so we walked to a taxi stand (it was the first time I realized how heavy my bag was with all the equipment in there) and grabbed a tuk-tuk to the bus stand. We confirmed that we were all set for the 5:45 AM bus the next morning and went to find the closest guest house. They wound up having a room with a king-sized bed, so we decided to share the bed, but before we could crash, we needed to grab some dinner. I was supposed to meet someone in Mbeya, but that was out the window by that hour.
It was already 10 PM at this point, but I usually arrive in Mbeya later than that, so I knew where to look for food. We found a nearby bar and grabbed some sodas and some chicken. As we walked in a drunk came up to me and hugged me and then while Bernard and I were sitting at our table talking, the drunk came and started talking to us (though I think there was more saliva coming out of his mouth than words) and Bernard was very helpful in sending him off. As we ate our dinner, Bernard and I carried on talking and the gentleman at the next table (also drunk, but much less of a spitter) was impressed by my Kiswahili and wanted to know my whole story. I wound up giving him my phone number so that we could talk some time and then Bernard and I headed back to wash up and get some sleep. It was just after midnight when we climbed into bed.
We were up at 5 AM and arrived at the bus stop by 5:30. Our bus left at 6:20, but we knew it was Christmas Eve, so we were just hoping to get home quickly (Bernard has a wife and daughter who hadn't seen him for two weeks). At about 9 AM, we had to stop for about 40 minutes because the bus had run out of gas. After that, the ride was pretty smooth, though a bit behind schedule. I grabbed some crackers and orange juice at the first rest stop. Then, at the second rest stop, I ran to the toilet and in the time that it took for most of what I'd eaten over the past two days to escape my system, the bus left without me. Fortunately, there was a bus stop just one kilometer down the road, so I had one of the staff call the bus and had it wait there while I grabbed a lift on a motorcycle. My phone wasn't working, so Bernard had been unable to reach me, but he did grab my luggage to make sure no one looted my things. When I got back on the bus, everyone cheered for me. I sunk into my seat to avoid further attention.
An hour later, we came to a dead stop. There was a long row of cars as far as the eye could see (and the road was winding at this point, so that was quite a distance). Every 20 minutes we were moving about two car lengths. I asked Bernard and he said it was probably an accident ahead. It was super-humid in that area, so we kept hopping off the bus and walking around to cool off. A German guy on the bus told me not to wander too far. Yep, I was basically a celebrity at that point.
The big problem is that there are a lot of free-riders on the road in Tanzania (I've noticed it much more than I saw it anywhere else I've traveled), people who will drive in the lane for oncoming traffic while cars aren't moving and then cut people off to get back into the correct lane. In this case, they turned a small patch of dirt into a shoulder and were driving on that as well. Unfortunately, the path cleared for oncoming traffic to pass first, so we spent quite a while clearing a path for them to pass through so that we could move (there was only one lane to pass the accident, so we couldn't move both lanes at the same time). I was particularly impressed by the fact that I saw fewer than ten police officers helping to direct the traffic, but there were dozens of passengers and truckers who had hopped out of their vehicles and were helping the cars move along safely. Fortunately, from there, the ride was pretty smooth.
We rolled into Arusha at 5 in the morning and I grabbed a taxi back to the house. I got in at 5:30, which means that after 60.5 hours (50 hours on buses) I was finally home for Christmas morning.
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