Visit to Nemfwe

It is the dry season now and I am determined to get out on my bike and visit some of the neighboring villages. One Saturday a couple weeks ago I went out to Nemfwe, a village where my co-worker Cliff lives with his family. It took me about 40 minutes each way. Cliff had told me more or less how to get there, and I asked along the way and didn't have too much of a problem finding it. However, when I arrived, no one was home. A neighbor boy named Joseph told me they were probably out working in the field (it is harvest time) and he was able to find two young girls to escort me out there. I was only able to get the girls' names and that they were in 4th and 2nd grade. I offered (in sign language and English) for them to sit on my bike and I would push them, but I don't think either of them could ride and I couldn't get them to understand that I would hold onto them. So we just walked and I pushed my bike. When we eventually arrived at the field Cliff and his family were taking a break from harvesting the maize. I was given a glass of chibwantu (a fermented maize drink with maize chunks in the bottom) and a sweet potato. I was introduced to Cliff's wife Chinyama and we chatted briefly before I joined them for a bit removing the husks from the maize which was drying in an upright pyramid shaped stack.  Soon we headed back home with Chinyama and I biking and the others walking. We arrived back at their home and I met young Mary who is in 2nd grade. Chinyama stoked up the fire in the kitchen, an area with a half wall and a grass roof. She put water to boil (for the upcoming prep of the chicken they would kill on my behalf) and set off to clean the outhouse. As I sat waiting with Mary staring at me, Girl, another daughter of Cliff's also in 2nd grade, came along carrying a bucket with 2 or 3 gallons of water on her head. Her eyes wide at the visitor, she called Mary to come help her lift the water from her head and place it on the ground.  Quite something to see these two spindly girls who couldn't weigh more than 40 pounds each struggling with this bucket of water, but you could tell they were used to it. Girl came and sat briefly with Mary and stared at me while discussing amongst themselves. Soon Girl remembered her task at hand and went back to get another container of water waiting at the nearby pump.  Mary and I sat and fed the baby ducks. We would chew up pieces of maize and then spit them back out for the 1 month old ducks who had been abandoned by their mother. She was still around, but not caring for them. At night they put them to sleep with the baby chickens. During the day the two run around together.



Cliff has a whole collection of animals and enjoys calling them and feeding them. Before he returned, Chinyama had fed the fowl just enough so that Astridah, Cliff's younger sister could grab the chicken we would have for lunch (she succeeded on her first try, I was impressed by her technique). When Cliff arrived, however, the whole brood was fed. Chickens, pigeons, guineafowl (including an albino), ducks, and pigs. They also have dogs and a few cows.

I had brought some papaya (pawpaw) to share and Chinyama pulled out some ground nuts for all of us to shell for me to take home. So I sat with Cliff and the girls and shelled groundnuts while Chinyama and Astridah worked on lunch in between shelling groundnuts. At one point we took a break to eat the pawpaw. Cliff brought out a radio and hooked it up to a small solar battery so we could have some music. A big feast of nshima, chicken with tomatoes, and greens was made. I ate inside the house with Cliff in front of the solar powered TV which was showing a soccer match.



Both Cliff and Chinyama have  12th grade educations. This is rare in rural Zambia. Only around 40% of students continue after grade 7 and of those only another 40% continue on after grade 9. There simply are not enough schools, and so at each of these grade levels, there is a national exam to select those with the highest scores to continue on. Yet, with grade 12 educations, Cliff is working as a general worker/cleaner at the hospital and Chinyama is working as a cleaner at the nursing school. They bike 40 minutes each way to work each day.  The other night Cliff, who works in Maternal Child Health didn't get home till after 8:30pm as they had gone for outreach to another village and returned late. He says he biked home by moonlight.



All and all it was a lovely day in the village. I need to make such trips more often. The hospital compound where I live can become like a college campus, a bit secluded from the outside world.

Just the other day I got a brief glimpse of Mizinga, another nearby village when I helped an older woman haul some water to her house. She walked with a major limp, scoliosis or a short leg would be my guess, and she was struggling with a five gallon bucket on her head which, although it had a lid, was still spilling down her back due to her limp and one of her hands being otherwise occupied carrying another jug of water. I just happened upon her on my way home, and offered to help. She readily accepted. I merely took the smaller jug, but this freed up her other hand to help with the load on her head. We were walking on a slight incline and the ground along the path was not even. I could hear her breathing hard, so slowed my pace to a near crawl. Slowly we made our way with frustratingly minimal conversation as my tonga is just not coming along. I could not believe how far she walked to haul this water. After a good kilometer or so, we came to her village as night was falling. All the neighbors were shouting at her about her “beenzu” or guest. As it was quickly getting dark, I carried her water into her house and then she escorted me back to the road where I could more easily find my way back rather than on the paths we had taken. The next day I asked some co-workers who live in this village about water supply there. I was told there is one bore hole for 1000 people and you have to wait in line 2 or 3 hours for water. One of my co-workers said she has to pay someone to wait in line for her. This rather large village, with no electricity and only one water source for 1000 people, where people still cook over open fires and use pit latrines is located just just a few minute walk from the hospital compound. Granted, we aren't living as one does in the first world, but we have electricity 90% of the time and water about 50% of the time which allows us to fill up water storage containers for bathing, washing dishes and clothes and flushing the toilet when the water is off. Next door to our compound is the Macha Research Trust compound where they have electricity all the time (they have a generator when there is a power outage) and running water all the time (including hot water!) I guess we are a little microcosm of the world with our differing economic levels living side by side. Many of the people who work at the hospital come from the villages nearby. They bring their phones to work to charge them (as do the patients for that matter!).