Sunday, December 6, 2009

Sundays in Zambia


This will be my last Sunday in Zambia until the new year. Starting on Tuesday I'm posting all the poems Dr. M & I have sent out for last 17 years - plus the one for this year which is has yet to be written. Ideas anyone?

I think I mentioned before that I would probably skip around some with these posts. I always think of my mother a LOT at Christmas, so I decided to skip to the visit that she & Mamaw (my dad's mother) made to Zambia while I was there. Most of the text of this post was written for the photo album - I'm just cutting & pasting. Although I'm going to add a couple of bits that I left out the first go round.

Mom and Mamaw came to visit for two weeks in January 1988. We had a wonderful time—even though finding food for them to eat was a challenge (well, it was a challenge when the missionaries didn’t feed us). I took them to Kitwe to meet a missionary couple from NC. I also took them to Victoria Falls. We had great adventures on that trip:

  • Let’s see, first on the way there I had to give a soldier from one of the checkpoints a lift…I sang the national anthem while I was driving: “Stand & sing of Zambia, proud & free.” I think he thought I was a little strange. 
  • Hoof and Mouth disease was prevalent in the country at that time, so along the way we had to stop to place our naked feet into a tub of grimy looking water that supposedly had disinfectant in it. Eww!
  • Then when we were almost there I started feeling really sleepy. This made me want to drive very fast (reportedly 170 kpm, but that can’t be right!) to get there quicker. I thought Mom & Mamaw exercised great restraint when all they did was ask if I wanted to stop & rest awhile. Oh yes, I wanted to stop on a deserted road in Africa when night was approaching…  Note: Mom wrote this on a postcard to Daddy: Can't believe it, not one fuss - even about her driving. I close my eyes a lot...
  • Then we went through a little drive-through game park where there were reportedly lions lurking. We didn’t see any--& it was a good thing since we got stuck in the mud. We had to get out & put rocks under the tires to make the Kombi budge… 
  • Then when I took them to the market in Victoria Falls Mom pulled out U.S. $ & the little ladies there went crazy—“Come here amai—I have some beautiful goods here!” I told Mom that it was illegal to spend American money here & the ladies just laughed and laughed. They enjoyed seeing me scold my mother.
  • We stayed in a nice cottage while we were at Vic Falls. Mom & I sat on the porch and talked late into the night. The next morning I counted 30 mosquito bites on one leg! I stopped counting at that point.

    The infamous "mosquito porch"
    The top of the smoke that thunders - with the ever present rainbow...
    Mom & Mamaw climbing to the platform on the Lookout Tree - you could see the falls from there
    Pretty impressive!
    Me!
Back in Lusaka, we went to a local zoo (a very sad speciman of a zoo) and I took a couple of pictures.


Mom at the zoo

Mamaw watching one of the missionary kids pet a deer.

One of the missionaries took us all to a local church & then on a tour of the city. She found a place where Mom could (illegally - cameras were NOT allowed downtown!) take a picture of the skyline.


After church - Mamaw, my housemate & me to the right of the picture



I loved having them there--& not just because they cleaned the oven & refrigerator while they visited. I was glad to have someone back home who had seen and would understand…

Mom writing postcards with my housemate's cat Mpingo.

8 comments:

  1. Illegal to take a picture of the skyline? Why?

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  2. I didn't realize you had visitors while you were there. What a lot of rules!!

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  3. Lusaka was the headquarters of the ANC (African National Congress) while I was there. This was the group trying to get apartheid overthrown in South Africa - they were in exile during my time in Africa. I was told that the Zambian president didn't want pictures taken of the airport & the city because of the fear of reprisals for harboring this group.

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  4. A visit from home - how precious when you're so far away. A three generation american women in Africa, how cool!

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  5. A whole other world! Thanks for sharing it.

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  6. I love this series of stories. You know, every story about east Africa includes at least one tale of getting stuck in the mud. It's just part of the feng shui there.

    "infamous" mosquito porch. Oh dear.

    As for you weight, my advice is: take the scale and throw it out the window.

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  7. The climbing in the tree lookout looked scary but adventurous. How cool that your Mom and Grandma came there!
    Our church still sponsors young adults to go to Africa where they are needed. I think I would have been a little scared...I am a big baby...ha. Looks like you did great there!

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