Out of Africa

Out of Africa Julia Davies sends news from Africa.

25.10.04

Dear all

Well I have been here for 2 weeks now and I’m not sure if it feels like I’ve been here for a long time or no time at all… It’s so timeless here and days don’t really matter.

It’s utterly beautiful here. The landscape is incredible, the animals, the river, the views, the sunsets, the birds… and then in contrast there are the men drinking and womanising and the women dealing with that with their 4 or more children. Life is very simple. People are poor but there is food and water and crops grow very easily.

People are also very friendly but white skin is something of a fascination to many, especially the children. Sometimes they reach out to touch my skin in a fit of giggles. The other day I was bending over and I felt a little boy touching a few strands of hair. Wherever we go they shout ‘Mkuwa’(which means white person). Or say in high pitched little voices ‘how are you?’ When you reply you are fine and how are you?, they say ? am fine and how are you?…’and so it goes on. They laugh at us a lot wherever we go and beg a lot. They come up and say ‘give me money’. They just see money when they see us. There is a real expectation of the white man providing whatever they want. In many ways aid really stops people helping themselves because they have come to expect the white man to help them – so they sit around waiting for us to buy them their hammer mill or plough. There is also a horrible pecking order where the white man is at the top — a remnant of colonial times.

The theatre festival just happened. It was held in a little village about 40km from here so Pierre and I packed all our stuff onto a quad bike, took the pontoon across the river and headed off into the park. It’s very flat and sometimes very sparse, with villages along the dirt track. It was a bumpy ride to say the least and there is a real technique to surviving the journey – like riding a horse you just have to go with the movement except there is no rhythm to the bumps!. It was a lot of fun. We arrived in Michulundu covered in dirt from head to toe, particularly me sitting on the back!

We visited a village called Nang?le on the way, where Pierre has been doing some work with a women’s group (all over the park actually – supporting the women so that they can earn money through projects that they create together; whether it be growing a crop or selling hand woven baskets. It is necessary to work with the women because they are the workers and reliable). While we spoke with the teacher for about half an hour the whole school sat under a tree in almost silence, all clumped close together. This is a common thing in the schools here. The children are so quiet and well behaved. As we left, a group appeared from behind a hut singing to us. It was amazing.

The festival went very well. We spent a day setting everything up, a day rehearsing and then for 2 days I was a judge in the competition! The Zambian way is to make everything very formal; meetings and the festival involved a lot of addresses and speeches, followed by a lot of singing a dancing as a prelude and finale to everything.

We set up our tent in the school playground (!), near the water pump and became the local entertainment for those few days. People just sat and watched us the whole time which was highly embarrassing as we struggled to light our fires or pump water. Little kids insisted on doing everything for us, even carrying heavy water cans! They would just appear out of nowhere to help us whenever we need a little assistance in finding the right kind of grass to get the fire started or deal with a bit of wind etc. (We have now become very good at lighting fires).

There was music, drumming and singing from 5am to 10pm at night — clumps of children from each school singing different songs in every corner. It didn’t bother us, although it was very loud. We just got used to it.

It was a lot of fun camping and cooking on a fire.

The children are absolutely filthy and actually so am I. You get sooooo dirty wherever you go. The dusty sand leaves you black. However, you see some people who are absolutely impeccable and clean – I have no idea how they do it!

We took a detour into the park on the way back in search of some animals and it was relatively deserted although I did see my first wildebeest and impala who are really cute. We also saw some huge vultures. The lack of animals was a bit disappointing but the vast expanse of unrelenting flat plains was incredible in the heat of the equally unrelenting sun. It’s very beautiful but it felt as if we were heading off into the Sahara — an absolute wilderness. It’s grassy with the odd tree or bush dotted about. Just like the African plains you see in documentaries- you really couldn’t get more African than that landscape. You could expect to see lions sitting well hidden under some of the trees but we didn’t see any. On Wednesday we will stay near the lion area. You can often hear them roar at night.

We live in a sizeable hut overlooking the river. It’s beautiful and we have everything we need. It is nowhere near as primitive as I expected. I have no trouble with the food either. It’s simple but I like simple food anyway.

My back has been pretty good although it’s been sore the last couple of days. I am starting to feel rested and am well and happy.

There’s so much to tell but I need to sign off as we have a very early start tomorrow and we have a 4 hour journey on a tractor to the nearest town (Mongu) to sort out some bits and pieces – and then 4 hours back!

I trust that all is well with y’all.

All my love

J xx

30.10.04

Well as you have probably gathered by now, it is not easy to send e-mails. I can send them infrequently from the house here but I cannot collect my mail. Whenever we have been into Mongu the internet has been down or the machines broken…. Hence my silence.

We just spent a couple of days in the Park. Pierre had some work to finish off with some women’s groups so we combined his visits with some game drives.

We travelled up the west of the park and visited a village called Lukoko. This group was atypical in that many of the men were also involved, including the Induna (headman). He was an extraordinary, tall, white haired man of about 73. Bright eyes and well respected in the village. His wife was the club chairman; a short woman with a wise, round face, dignified and looking nowhere near her 73 years either.

As we arrived, everyone came out to greet us amidst much giggling and hand shaking. They say ?ncha, clap their hands, shake yours and then clap again. This is the normal greeting in Lozi (the tribe in these parts). The school stopped and the children ousted from their school room. The head teacher and his wife run the school in two dark, small classrooms in a mud and stick hut with a thatched roof. We were ushered into the larger of the two classrooms and people gathered for the meeting; Pierre and I were placed at the front at a desk with the head teacher translating for us. Pierre had a few things to tell them – most importantly, an issue concerning the Ministry of Community Development…All clubs must be registered with the ministry and pay 250,000 kwacha (about 43 pounds – more than many of them earn in a month) in order to be officially instated. This particular group registered in 1997 but were being told that their registration had expired. Pierre had done some digging and sent someone to Lusaka to find out if this was indeed the case – it was not, so Pierre had it out with the Ministry here in Kalabo amidst much protestation and lies. Some dodgy integrity…. Finally the official conceded and a new era for the women’s groups in Liuwa Plains was forged; great news for them.

The purpose of African Park’s (A.P) involvement is to get these groups started on a project that will generate income for these women. Pierre has been asking each member of groups around the park various demographic questions – many do not know their age. Many of them are unmarried but have between 3 and 12 dependants with no income. They are subsistence farmers and occasionally take a little money from baskets or mats that they make (these parts are known for their excellent basket work). It is unimaginable what that must be like but they do not seem too bothered by it as it is quite normal!

So we suggested various projects that they might wish to take on; selling craftwork, chicken farming, growing a crop, trade etc. We went through each idea and they were very unwilling to take on anything. It transpired that they had started trading in soap some time ago but on one of their trips to the town they were robbed and didn’t want to risk that happening again. It also transpired that they had 300,000 kwacha that they could use to invest in something but they didn’t want to part with any of the money as they were again afraid to risk having it stolen. We asked where it was and after a lot of muttering it became clear that a man in the group had buried it in the ground (it later transpired that he was the treasurer! .... Well it makes sense!) Everyone seemed very happy to keep the money in the ground – no risk, no loss and obviously no potential to earn. We also asked them about keeping chickens but were greeted with an uneasy muttering. Several of them had kept chickens and again had them stolen in the middle of the night. We tried several tacks – all to no avail. Finally I suggested a crop and they thought they could manage a rice field. We found that a bag of rice seed would cost 60,000 kw and we calculated that the yield from this could earn them about a million kw. Finally there was a sense of excitement and possibility. It also transpired that a man in a neighbouring village had 2 bags of seeds to sell and the planting season was in a couple of weeks time! They all seemed very happy with this idea and suddenly a gift of 3 bunches of bananas and a beautiful basket appeared! It was very touching – as if we had given them a lifeline. It is a real shame that we cannot be here to support them in the completion of their project. I hope they will… who knows. We left the village as heroes and I have to say, we did feel very proud at what we had achieved.

We set off across the plains into the centre of the park. We came into a vast plain that went on for many, many miles. It was coming to sunset and the grass looked orange in the evening light. Many animals were grazing, including wildebeest, oribi (little antelopes), mongoose and zebra. There was also an abundance of extraordinary birds; eagles of every sort, storks, vultures and many that Pierre knows the name of that I have no clue about. It was gorgeous but we had to head to the camp and set up the tent and build a fire before nightfall, so there was not much time to animal watch. The camp is called Matamanene and is in the heart of lion country….the next morning as we got up (5am) we heard them roaring not too far away – very exciting! We set off for an early game drive and saw many animals and birds including a few rare ones that Pierre was delighted to see. We were lucky to see some secretary birds that are basically eagles on long legs and their rare feature is that they kick snakes to death! At some point we came into lion country but decided to turn back as lion watching is not advisable on a quad bike!

We are leaving Kalabo early on Tuesday morning as Pierre has had a problem with his visa (another story!). We will head to Livingstone and then hopefully to a National Park in the west before heading over the border to Malawi. We will travel from there to Mozambique and spend about a month there with friends of Pierre who live there.

Hopefully I will be able to get to my email to at some point after Tuesday.

All love

J xx