Thanks
09:45 am
I would like to thank Ryan's Well Foundation for the funds to rehabilite four community wells in my Clean Water Project in Zambia. They are featured on their web site at www.ryanswell.ca along with other water projects around the world.
Greetings Everyone
09:43 am
I am heading into my fifth year of going to Zambia as a volunteer Community Developer. It
just seems like yesterday that I got a call from VSO Canada to go to Ottawa and than to England to train as a Community Developer. My assignment lasted 15 months and I returned to Canada. My stay home did not last long; I was back in Zambia visiting my old projects and adding more. That was 2002-3 and I am starting to plan my next visit. This will be my fifth visit.
I received a letter from Zambia today dated December 19th it is from a newly formed team, they don’t want to be called a club. They have called themselves ‘Nkhonzi Aforestation Team’ and they are from a deforested area around Mumbi Village. I had talked to them last visit about this problem when I was there doing water wells and had left them seeds and plastics
to grow the seedlings in. In the letter I received they were happy to tell me the seeds had germinated and were doing well, and could you please bring more seeds when you come back
to visit us.
This news makes me feel very happy and proud of Felix and his team. Not only will the reforestation be an asset for their children and the environment but also they are moving
ahead on their own.
All my adventures in Zambia would not be possible without the support I have received from
my dear wife, Maria and so many others. This support, both financial and moral has made it possible for me to do what I have found a passion for.
Zikomo kwambiri
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
09:42 am
People ask me when are you going back?
I just got home!
But yes
I am going back!
November 22/2005
10:47 am
Soon the rains will start here in Zambia. We have had some showers but not enough to start planting but some farmers remembering that last year the rains before the harvest did not come. They planted too early this year and have lost their seeds to drought. They will plant again if they have seeds. I have just returned from Petauke where I visited my well rehabilitation work. My crew is doing a fantastic job; I get scared just going down the well let alone work at the bottom. Everyday more headmen come to ask for help with their water problems, my facilitator records their names and village, perhaps I can help. In Mumbi village, the well that we cleaned and dug deeper now has 4 meters of clean water in it, not just mud. They are now busy with a water trough for their animals and I have given them instructions in tree planting and have started a tree nursery beside the well with over 2,500 trees in it. I will take them more seeds and plastic pots when I go back next week. In Minga, the group of door and furniture makers is getting ready to register their Association. Here in Lusaka my first solar dry kiln has been commissioned at the Kabwata Culture Village and I will go to Kafue tomorrow and do a workshop with the over 400 carvers there. Even the carvers here in Lusaka want to start a tree nursery; I will give them instructions and supply the seeds and plastic pots. Well, its 3:40 am and it has just started to rain and getting cooler, perhaps this is the start of the rainy season and new hope for these great people in Zambia, surely they will have used up all their bad luck soon. "If you are not good looking you better be a good dancer"
November 5, 2005
09:39 am
Today was my 46th day away from home, well my Canadian home. It is Monday, the day I take my Lariam for Malaria, the number one killer in Africa. The one that takes the life of an innocent eleven-month-old baby girl in a village; down a washed out road not far from the pot holed Great East Road. The last journey from her home is in a reed mat slung across the handlebars of her father’s bike. The whole village follows to the well-used graveyard a short distance from the last hut. Somewhere soon there will be the cry of a new borne, life goes on in rural Africa. And than there is HIV/Aids. Millions of dollars are being spent each month here in Southern Africa on this disease, workshop after workshop, money to burn, a NGO’s dream. But, the disease is still being spread. The cost of buying medicines for the year to combat its affects are more than the average person makes here in a year, that is if they are employed. Remember they still have to eat; these drugs do not work unless they do! Everyone here knows how to put a condom on: in the dark, behind their back, while on their back. What is needed is to give them a reason to put it on! Give them a job! But, in order for us to stay rich; we must have the poor. Oh, and remember that little innocent girl, she was sound asleep in her bed, when she was bitten by a mosquito.
I have had little time to sit at this computer and chat. I have covered ground from Kapasseni in Mozambique to western Zambia. Wells are being rebuilt and dug in Petauke District. Chief Sandwe wants the old refugee camp in his Chiefdom turned into a village for grandmothers and orphans. I must find funding for a roof on a new small community school. As fast as I can find seeds, more trees are being planted at tree nurseries that I have the communities running. With the EU, I am building four solar dry kilns for the carvers across in Lusaka, Kafue, Livingstone and Mongu. The Woodworking Association in Minga will hold their first meeting on the weekend, yes, I will be there. Kapasseni in Mozambique only 1100 kilometers from my projects in Eastern Province will get another visit soon to make sure the hammer mill building is complete and install the hammer mill (perhaps a quick dip in the Indian Ocean). Therefore, I have had little time to sit at a computer and there are no places out there so I can push ‘send’.
I am a little tired but I am where I am supposed to be life.
Greetings Everyone!
09:30 am
I am sorry I have not sent anything in a while. When I arrived in on September the 24th I had spent three very long days traveling to get here. From Vancouver to London, than to Rome, into Addis Ababa, and finally Lusaka. I could hardly wait to get off the plane. In Lusaka I was here only long enough to see the people I needed to see and off I went. Once I leave Lusaka , I have no way of communications. I have just arrived back in Lusaka , spending time at meetings and getting supplies and I will leave again in the morning, if I can get enough gas. There is a shortage of gas here in , so I am trying to find enough to fill my gas tanks and leave for Petauke were I am rebuilding water wells and other things. My days go by very quickly; besides the many faces of community development, other things like flat tires, wrong directions, too many people wanting a ride, a broken fan belt on a lonely stretch of road, salty water in a well, trying to find a wet and dry thermometer, an angry Spitting Cobra, running out of toilet paper, all makes life interesting. I hope you understand. (Thanks Maria, I will be home for Christmas).
Garry
I remember those eyes!
11:13 am
I will be returning to build this women, her baby and her village a well! I will leave for Zambia before the end of the month. This well will be dug before the community starts their planting season, along with other new wells and the restoring of some of the many hand dug wells that need repair.
Going Back!
11:10 am
I will be leaving Victoria on September 22, arriving in Zambia on the 24th. I fly to London, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a few other short stops and than Lusaka. I return to Canada on November 28th (or later). I have a very busy schedule, and I am very excited to return. I would like to thank those who have contributed to my projects and to my darling wife, Maria, for allowing me to continue helping, (besides I was starting to get fat! ) Also I want to thank Ivan for doing my web site. I will try to keep this upgraded as best I can while I am there.
Lunch Time!
11:32 am
While I was out looking at a well that I will be rebuilding in June 2005, my friend and guide, Pinas took me to his village to meet his family, these are some of his family.
In this one pot is their lunch, possible their only meal of the day.
Late one night
11:30 am
THE GHOST DANCE
In July, I was invited to attend some special dances in a village situated on the south side of the Great East Road towards Mozambique. We were taken there in the back of a rickety old ox cart, pulled by an even older pair of oxen. It was very late afternoon just as the sun was starting to turn into a bright red ball and disappearing into the west sky. Our arrival in the village happened just as my body told me that it had enough of this rough jerky ride. After greetings all around, we were escorted by the women of the village, into a large round hut. Candles lit the stuffy room. The flickering light showed older women and later; the girls who would perform their ‘coming of age' dances. The two young male drummers sat with their backs to the room, making the mud walls echo with the rhythmic beating of their drums. Than the girls appeared!
When we finally left the hut, the only light was from the millions of southern stars that would guide us further down into the valley to witness the ghost dance. After leaving the village and stumbling along for some time, excusing myself many times as I continually stepped on someone else's feet or almost tripping on the many roots that crisscrossed the path; we made it to a clearing under a very large tree. Here again we were seated at the edge of the light made by a small fire burning on the opposite side of the clearing. There was just enough light to see the line of drummers starting to tune their drums. Going over to the fire one at a time and heating the head of the drum in the flames. Eventually they were all happy with the tone that echoed into the darkness. Than together they started to drum a loud continual beat. My guide told me that this was a call to the dead. “Can you hear them?” she asked. And after a while I could hear moaning coming from the forest beyond the fire. Slowly, in the shadows thrown across the trees by the fire I could make out a lone figure, creeping painfully towards the firelight and pulsating drums. A line of women and children had now formed behind the drummers, and they started singing. The looks on their faces showed excitement and even terror on the faces of the younger ones. I was told the song was to coach the ghosts to come closer into the firelight. Slowly they came. One at a time. And all this time they wailed in a voice that could only come from someone possessed and surely from a different world. Another ghost appeared in the shadows and than another. They came dancing; one at a time whirling and twirling to the beat of the drums. Than they came forward dancing in a row, stopping in front of the drummers, dancing and taunting the choir of women and children. Than slowly drifting back into the shadows and returned again, wailing and dancing. As they danced they kicked dust into the air, giving an even more eerie look to their appearance. The fire, every once and a while would come to life in a burst of sparks when more brush was added by the sole figure standing in the smoke. The children would run out and taunt the ghosts, only to run back in terror and hide behind the women when the ghost made an effort to catch them. This went on for almost three hours until in the end the women and children had completely encircled the ghosts. As the dance ended, the ghosts plainly showing defeat, danced mournfully back into the shadows and disappeared. The drums ceased. Leaving us in a dark silence. After our good-byes to the village and even the ghosts appeared to bid farewells, showing dripping streaks of sweat on their dusty bodies. We too, disappeared into the darkness. It took us over an hour to stumble back and our lodgings, to bed and to dream of ghosts........