Not Enough Time in Lusaka

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.