Polo, the sport of ....er....Farmers - by John

A few days ago we went to see our first Polo game. A friend of ours from church belongs to a local team and we thought it would be fun to get out to the country and see the horses run. My preconceptions around Polo have been formed by media coverage of the British royal family and the people who wear a certain brand of golf shirt, so frankly I didn’t have any clue about what we were going to see.

It turns out that because of the economics of horse ownership in Zambia (as it was explained to me), you don’t have to be a zillionaire to play Polo, you just have to be farmer. So, instead of the mink and manure set of people with very refined English accents and more pedigrees than the horses they were riding, we watched a bunch of rough and ready white Zambian and ex-Zimbabwean farmers, with a couple of South Africans thrown in for good measure, riding local ponies and whooping it up.

Going over the boards, Polo style

What a game! The action was fast and furious, the horses were aggressive and amazingly fast, and the players were not averse to some serious jostling, often at full gallop and while swinging a very long mallet. It was pretty thrilling to watch all eight players and two referees galloping past amid the thunder of hoofbeats. Half the fun was the fans, screaming support and offering scathing and hilarious criticism of the on-field action, often at the expense of their spouses. Everyone was very friendly, a player on one team asked if we were “horse people”. I said “I can recognize a horse at a fair distance” and he said “Great, come out to practice next week”. I think I will spare the horses that kind of suffering. In the end, “our” team, the Lilay Lodge beat the team from Mazabuka by 13-12, hurrah.

Everyone after the ball!

I just had to throw in this next picture. I went for a bike ride and luckily I had my camera along. I just don’t know what to think and can come up with no reasonable explanation, other than to think that western history isn’t a subject that gets a lot of attention here.

And they serve what?

Observed along the way

After a very active early July with Vince, Stacey, Madison and Carter things have settled down into a bit of lethargy. The weather is warming up a bit, it now regularly hits the low thirties in the afternoon, but the mornings are still cool and comfortable. Small details of life in Lusaka are getting our attention, here are some examples:

1) I was recently driving through Kabanana compound with our friend Mr. Mpundu when I noticed a very nice house among the very much less nice houses. This house was very large, had a very nice painted wall around it, a big electric gate and most incongruously, a nice patch of golf course quality green grass outside the wall. When I expressed my wonder to Mr Mpundu, he explained that it belonged to a certain rich lawyer. I was still a little curious and so asked “Why would a rich lawyer build a fancy house in the middle of a compound (i.e.slum). “Ah”, Mr. Mpundu explained “the lawyer lives in town, this is for one of his wives”. All has now become clear! I guess if you are juggling multiple wives it’s good to be a lawyer.

2) I have been fortunate to inherit Stefan’s mountain bike until the next SALTers come, and I have been taking every opportunity to bike around Lusaka. With the crazy traffic, you have to ride both defensively (everyone is going to cut you off) and offensively (darting between mini-buses before they cut you off). One of the great parts of biking around is discovering new places, I found a lovely little valley filled with market gardens, only about two kilometers from our place, an oasis of green during our dry season. Another fun experience is greeting all the little kids. When they see a white guy riding by they all shout “Muzungu” and point, and then say “HOWAREYOU?” (pretty much as one word). The correct reply is “I AM FINE, HOW ARE YOU?” to which they are supposed to say “FINE”. When you are biking along and about a hundred kids a minute are greeting you, it ends up being a non stop travelling greetings festival, sort of like “HOW ARE YOU FINE HOW ARE YOU FINE, FINE, FINE, HOW ARE YOU…”, you get the idea. I used the bike to ride over to Chimwemwe where Stefan worked, and not only got the standard greeting but also lots of “HELLO STEFAN” and “MR. EEEEP”. I guess a white guy riding Stefan’s bike and wearing Stefan’s helmet looks a lot like Stefan.

3) Yoga has entered our lives in a big way. Before anyone gets worried that I will start wearing a loin cloth and a little red dot on my forehead, I should tell you that I am doing Yoga to increase my flexibility because I have a sore back, and I figure a little stretching wouldn’t hurt. Vince and Stacey brought us a couple of Yoga DVDs and Charlene and I have been doing the exercises very regularly. The DVDs feature some very attractive and flexible people doing Yoga in a park like setting (somewhere in BC I think), all to a super relaxing soundtrack somewhere between nature sounds and anesthesia. The teacher is incredibly buff and speaks with a blissed out voice peppered with phrases like “This should feel like someone is licking Ice Cream off your body” and “This should be shiver sweet”. Hmmm... you would think all of this would be very relaxing, eh? Meanwhile we are trying to do exercises in which we are told to touch our left ear with our right thigh and so on, and the soothing soundtrack doesn’t muffle our grunts, groans and the giggles of the girls watching our struggles. I think it’s making a difference, now I don’t notice the pain in my back because of the pain in my hips, thighs and abdomen.

4) Our IVEPers are on their way to North America. IVEP (International Volunteers Exchange Program) is a program of MCC where young adults from developing countries like Zambia spend a year in Canada or the U.S. This year MCC Zambia is sending two people, Alex and Ginah. We were going to send three, but for some mysterious reason the American visa process rejected Beverly, the other applicant. No rhyme or reason, just a form letter explaining that they have the right to reject applicants and you can’t really re-apply. We put Alex and Ginah on the plane on Thursday morning. Neither of them had ever been on an airplane before so they were nervous and to tell you the truth so were we, since they were routed through Jo’burg and London, two very big and busy airports. We are still waiting to find out that they have arrived at their orientation in Akron PA safe and sound. If you want a great experience, think about hosting an IVEPer for a year, you will get to know some great people and learn about another culture.

That's it for now, in a couple of weeks our new SALTers are coming and a new family (the Smiths, who are vaguely related to us in a fourth cousin by marriage kind of way) and who will be working in Kitwe. When everyone shows up, it will be busy and fun!

Back to Work - by Charlene

Our vacation time is over and it’s time to get back to work. We had a great time with Vince and Stacey and Stacey’s luggage finally arrived on the last flight into Lusaka before the one that was to take them home (Day 16!). At that point we were just really glad that it arrived at all and Danica was especially happy since her birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa was in there.

Before they left we spent a day at Chaminuka Lodge where we went on a safari drive and saw lions, a hyena, zebras, sables, giraffes, many impala and came eye to eye with an elephant who tried to confiscate my camera. We went horseback riding, had a fabulous buffet lunch and the kids got to go swimming in the first heated pool we have seen on this continent. We also got to tour a cheese factory and especially enjoyed the “cheese cave” where we got to sample their products and they made deep fried mozza sticks as well as a Swiss cheese fondue for us – yum, yum.

How close have YOU ever been to an elephant?

Ready to ride - Carter had to concentrate really hard on giving his "thumbs up".

Danica and Madi started off riding together but by the end Madi was on her own.

This week’s focus is delivering text books to community schools in Lusaka. These books arrived in the container that was sent from the U.S. a few months ago and the text books are in brand new condition. They were obtained for free since they were about to be shredded due to curriculum changes. Because Danica and Erin are on their school break they helped with the sorting of the thousands of books and within the next couple of days we will finish the distribution. We have a new volunteer arriving next month who will be spending some time with the teachers to instruct them on how to teach with textbooks since most of these schools have never had any school books before.Danica and Erin helping to sort the new school books

The students of Chimwemwe School helped to unload their boxes of new books.

Zambia, Day 14 ....still no luggage for Stacey - by Special Guest Correspondent Vince Boschman

It is hard to believe we are nearing the end of our time in Lusaka. The roads, street vendors and lack of other Muzungus (white people) that seemed so bizarre when we first arrived are now a part of our normal life.

One of the highlights was our road trip to Lake Kariba, Livingstone and our time spent at Victoria Falls. We spent 3 nights at Lake Kariba, where we took a sunset cruise, toured a crocodile farm and spent a morning fishing for Tiger fish.

Not a Tiger Fish, just a little Bream
The kids caught more fish than the Dads

Once we made it to Livingstone we enjoyed seeing the falls up close and getting drenched was breathtaking and only outmatched by the views from the air.

Vic Falls from a normal perspective

John and I took a Microlight flight over the falls and Erin and I took the zipline off a cliff and out to the middle of the gorge.

Vic Falls from a different perspective
highly recommended

Fearless Erin on the zip line over the gorge

We've also had the opportunity to do some non-touristy things like visit Chimwemwe, a local school in one of the compounds and see the excitement and energy kids have at the opportunity to learn. We also visited Chisomo a local drop in center for street kids where we met Aaron and discussed his vision for the facility and how he'd like to make a bigger impact in the lives of these kids. Coming from Canada it is a real eye opener to see how people live with so much less, both in terms of material wealth but also in terms of opportunity. In Lusaka, more than 70% of the population lives on less than a dollar a day....try that for a day or two.

Last night we headed over to the weekly hockey game at the Swedish embassy and today John and I spent the morning golfing on the finest course in Zambia, the Lusaka Golf Club. It was one of the most unique golf experiences I've had. It's not often you have the chance to step back in time and use clubs and balls from the early 70s. It was definitely an experience I will not soon forget.

We would highly recommend a trip out here to everyone. The accommodations are great, we have built in babysitters and our chef is spoiling us.

p.s. Stacey's luggage hasn't arrived and we just aren't talking about it.

Happy Canada Day!

There were no official Canada Day celebrations going on in Lusaka today (imagine!) so we had to plan our own. We went out for lunch to a nice garden centre/cafe and then went to Munda Wanga - a place with a beautiful botanical garden as well as an environmental education centre with lions, a tiger, an elephant, zebras and a few of the other "regular" African animals.
Here are our guests of honor: Vince, Stacey, Madison and Carter Boschman. They are still recovering from the jet lag but the kids seem to have enough energy to keep us on our toes.
What's for lunch? Chicken!
Yesterday we went to Kalimba reptile park and saw lots of snakes and crocodiles. Danica and Erin were quite keen to have a boa constrictor wrapped around their neck. Madison and Carter didn't want to give it a try but they did touch the snake.

Who is visiting Zambia?

“I’ll take International Visitors for $100 please, Alex.”

“The answer is : Visitors to Lusaka in June, 2007”

“Who are: Alex Trebek, Laura Bush, Chris and Katrina Shore and Vince, Stacey, Madison and Carter Boschman.”

"That is correct!"

What a busy week for Lusaka! Our first guests were John’s cousin Chris and his daughter Katrina from California. We enjoyed having dinner with them at our house on Monday night and then at their hotel on Wednesday night. Chris is with World Vision and brought Katrina along to see some of the projects in the area and they will also be visiting Tanzania. We saw plenty of security at their hotel because Laura Bush (first lady of the U.S.A.) is also in town because of her involvement with malaria and HIV/AIDS prevention.

While waiting and waiting for Vince (Charlene’s brother) and Stacey and Madison and Carter, who should come walking out but Alex Trebek (host of TV’s Jeopardy and spokesperson for World Vision)!

It was great to see everyone but only 80% of Vince and Stacey’s luggage arrived. 80% might sound like a lot unless it is your suitcase that didn’t make it. Fortunately for us, all of our goodies arrived from home and we’ve had fun going through it all. We'll have to post a picture of their family soon but Stacey is out shopping for some new clothes.



Speaking of percentages, we are very proud of Danica for achieving an award for academic excellence in her studies in Year 7 at the International School of Lusaka.

My School Trip - by Danica

On Monday morning I left on a trip to Wild Tracks in the Lower Zambezi with 11 other classmates. We left at 8 a.m. on the new school bus. Unfortunately, the bus broke down about 2 minutes into the ride and we ended up having to wait for 2 hours while the bus got fixed. Once the bus got fixed it was a four hour drive including when we had to cross a river on a pontoon.

The accommodations were called tree houses, but they were actually cabins on tall stilts. This is because there are lots of animals there and we even had elephants walk through our camp at night! Other animals we saw were: kudu, duiker, hippo, crocodile and monitor lizard.

During the day we did activities such as fishing, climbing the giant baobab tree and abseiling down, an obstacle course and a walk using a GPS to find geocash – a hidden treasure. We also did lots of teambuilding activities, we watched the sunset from a boat and we had a night of stargazing – did you know that there is no big dipper in this part of the world?

The food was good (surprisingly), although they gave us way too much. Thankfully they didn’t serve any Nshima - the local maize product that’s really gross.

Overall, it was a really fun trip and we wished we could stay longer but I was really tired when I got home.