To date - the weekend with Mike (CARE's agricultural worker) is among my best adventures in Zambia. We took his fun little Honda bike out on Friday morning - drove 2 hours to the milk cooperative in Kazungula (at the Botswana border) and met with the farmers to discuss harvesting sorghum and a bird scaring contest that is happening next week. Mike is the big man with all the farmers - Mr. Mike - and people bring him stories of pest problems, and have him come to their villages to sleep over and eat with them under the milky way. After 7 months of Lusaka - the trip to the village was what I needed! I was loving every moment.
The big adventure on Friday was travelling 8 km into the bush (dirt path) after an hour of rain. The "road" had turned into a mud bog and we struggled - really struggled to get the bike through. The trek took 2 hours - during which a man walking his bicycle passed us 4 times - and by the time we arrived at Mr. Kawa's house - Mike was soaked with sweat and exhausted. The highlight for me - I must say - was in the last 2 kms when I just climbed off the bike altogether (two people makes the struggle even harder) and walked through the sludge. All the village children - about 15 - came running out of their homes and started cheering that the muzungus (white people) had arrived. I gave the oldest girl my helmet to wear (which resulted in cheers all around) and then with three children holding on to each of my hands - we plowed through the muck to the finish line. Mike told me later - "Jess - I turn and see you and a million kids coming and you are totally in your element!" Oh man - it was great.
We pitched our tent in the storage room at Mr. Kawa's place - sleeping on a cement floor is something I have yet to enjoy - and between the hard surface and the rats running around us - I didn't sleep so well. Saturday began at dawn with the village chief - Mr. Samukondo coming to collect us for a 2 hour trek (again - trek is a mild term compared to what we survived) through mud and flooded fields that had become rivers - to get to his village to see his crops. At first I took my shoes off, rolled up the pants and waded through - but after 40 minutes - I was a muddy mess anyway and just put the shoes on and ploughed through. (I impressed the men with the white girl can suck it up routine!) We visited a variety of sorghum fields and were taught the various methods of bird scaring... throwing mud, catapults, whips... that are necessary to protect the sorghum crops from swarms of birds. (Mike is a star with the catapult - but I definitely starred on the mud off the stick routine.) We arrived back in Lusaka sweaty and filthy and with numb bums - but such a great adventure. Feven (the other university student) joined us for dinner (after a nap and showers) and we shared the adventure stories and laughs about rats. Yesterday morning we went to Victoria Falls and got completely soaked - and then I hopped on the bus for the 6 hour ride back to Lusaka.
A great weekend!
Love from Jessica