My Lusaka Barber - by John

Well, it was time for me to get a haircut and so I decided to go to the neighborhood barber shop. I could have gone to the local mall to the “salon” where other Muzungus (white folks) go, but I thought I would go for a bit of local experience, so I went to “Smart Barber Shop”. I’m not sure if that means that the Barber is smart, or if you come out looking smart, or what.

It’s a pretty small place, enough room for one chair, a small bench where you sit and wait your turn, and the barber.

Here’s a picture of me getting comfortable. The basic question is not “how would you like your hair styled?”, but rather “short or short short?”. I chose “short”. Zip zip zip go the clippers, there were no combs, scissors or other fancy-shmancy beauty salon accoutrements in evidence, just the clippers and a mysterious bottle of stuff they called “spirits” which got spritzed on my hair after the cut.

Here I am forking over the cash. The haircut cost me 5000 Kwatcha, which is about $1.25. Nice look, eh? It may not be the absolutely best cut in the world, but I’ve had worse for twenty times the price. It was worth it for the experience.

I learned to sew today! by Erin

Today my dad was making buns, my sister was studying and my mom was sewing so I decided to sew too. I made two pillows in an afternoon. (my mom taught me how.) I made the design out of newspaper. Then I cut out the fabric, pinned it, sewed it, and ironed it. When that was finished I made the back and stuffed it. I enjoyed doing it and now I am very proud. Maybe I will take after my Aunt Shari!

This is me with my two new pillows.

This is my mom's project for today. The pillows are actually a dark purply colour but you can't tell.

Two Zambian Experiences

It’s time for an update, so we thought we should tell you about a couple of different experiences we’ve had in Zambia on a short trip we recently completed to Choma, Macha and Livingstone.

Choma and Macha are both small towns in southern Zambia, Choma is on the main highway(the comment was made, "It's like Steinbach, only dirtier!"), and is much bigger than Macha. Macha is way out in the bush, about 70km down a bad dirt road from Choma. People get back and forth by foot, bicycle, on the backs of trucks or on small buses. It takes about 2 hours to drive between Choma and Macha. It’s interesting that while population density is relatively low, there are people living everywhere, so that it’s difficult to go more than a kilometer without seeing some kind of dwelling, farm or person walking down the road. Despite its relative remoteness, Macha is well known for its hospital. Macha is the place where the Brethren in Christ mission was founded in 1906 and is also the home to a couple of BIC schools and a nurses training institute. We toured the hospital, it was very interesting in a way that hospitals in North America aren’t. Families of the patients camp just outside the hospital, and cook meals for the patients, because the hospital food isn’t so great. They are doing a lot of good work with some relatively simple equipment and a few dedicated staff. Outside of the hospital and the schools, there is a world class Malaria research station in Macha, sponsored in part by Johns Hopkins, a big medical center in the States. It’s sort of jarring to see the relatively simple hospital, with wood fired cooking facilities and then see a whole bunch of satellite dishes next door at the Malaria place.

Just miles of bad road between you and Macha

There are MCCers working in both Choma and Macha, and we had a good time visiting with them. Here's a picture of Mark and Amanda, doing their best "Zambian" poses.

"From here, you can see the future"

Grade One in Macha - this really is the future

Livingstone is the “Tourist Capital of Zambia”, and one of the main border points for goods coming up from South Africa. Of course the big attraction is Victoria Falls, which are truly spectacular. This time of year the falls are at the high water mark, which means there is a LOT of water going over, so much so that when you take the trail to see the falls, you get absolutely soaked.

Never before seen sights:

• A truly full rainbow making a complete circle, visible from the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
  
• A man going down the highway on his bicycle with an adult-sized coffin attached sideways on his bike rack
• Men holding out live chickens and dead fish at arm's length as we go down the highway at 120 km/hour. I guess the thought is that it will be so tempting that we'll slam on the brakes (on the 2 lane highway with no shoulder) and buy some supper.

Unlike Macha, there is a lot to see and do in Livingstone, including a lot of “adventure sports”, like bungee jumping, microlight flights over the falls, rafting and so on. These are great if you are a rich tourist, but cost about three months wages if you are an average Zambian. It’s easy to get cynical about rich white folks here, there is a lot to get cynical about. However, the falls are still an unbelievable experience, and if you ever get a chance, get to see them.

Here are the falls, only one tiny part, they actually stretch out almost 2 Km.
We all got very wet because of the spray, it's like standing in a shower on full blast

Here is the upside down part of the rainbow, it actually made a full circle