Napwisha (aka I'm Finished)
(Note: wrote this on the 6th of April on my final bike trip)
The Zambian chapter of my life is closing. The two years flew by! Sitting on top of Mosi/Mozzie Hill. Absolutely beautiful up here. 360 degree view of the world. You can see the phone towers by the exploration camp, and just a bit past that would be the market, my hut, the school. You can see the open pit at the mine 30 km away, the Congo's out there somewhere north, and far, far, out there to the west is the Atlantic and farther still Michigan and my family.
I biked here from the village, about 30 km around trip on the dirt road that leads to the Chiefs Palace from my hut. It's great once you get here because the way home's all downhill. It's the perfect final bike in Zambia.
I leave the village in four days. Its awful making people sad and now I'm doing that to people again (reverse of when I first came to Zambia with the American side) And this goodbye is harder, when you know you'll probably never see the people again, likely won't return to Zambia, so this time goodbyes are forever. (Potentially, would like to end up traveling through Africa at some point so lightens the last statement slightly)
I have experienced so much in the last two years
* Learned a language
* Integrated into a Zambian Family
* Cooked Nshima, eaten countless local meals, pupils even made how to videos
* Visited many places throughout Zambia and Southern Africa
* Experienced a Zambian election year and the changeover of ruling parties
* Chipolopolo WIN!!! of the Africa Cup!!!
* Taught countless lessons in the schools
* Climbed Kilimanjaro with my sisters!!!
* My parents came to Zambia and stayed in my hut in the village!!!
* Ran two Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Camps
* Started Girls Clubs
* First time home owner
* Invented squazel (game with similar principles to raquetball but with a seed and my thatch roof)
* Lived without running water or electricity
* Biked who knows how many kilometers
* Biked to the source of the Zambezi to look at a mud puddle and then visited Victoria Falls (especially amazing comparison during rainy season, like a water park looking at the falls)
* Created meals like nachos, pizza, indian, and crepes all on a brazier
* Read SOOO many books
* Spent days upon days hitching (if you add all the time up)
* experienced the best (proflights) and the worse (minibuses) of transport Africa has to offer
* Taught myself to enjoy cold bucket baths (yes too lazy to heat the water)
* Survived mpashi ant attacks, malaria, close encounters with snakes, the incessessant 'how are you?" 'how are you?" "how are yous?" from children
* And made lifelong friends
(Wrote this bit sometime end of March)
I've been thinking and reflecting a fair bit lately so here's a list of things I've learned and experienced in the past two years:
1. How to simply be - sit alone and just enjoy quiet time; sit with others and just enjoy each others company without talking (or them talking in local language)
2. Laughters the best universal language. You can also communicate a lot through non-verbal expressions. Prime example my grandmother is deep lunda we have never communicated past our daily greetings but she is one of my host family members I am closest to.
3. Flexibility - you can't survive here without it, being prepared for programs but also expecting constant changes and potential cancelations and bonus unknown programs that pop up.
4. Appreciation of the small things (and sometimes big) - electricity, running water, hot showers, air conditioning, good food, beauty of the outdoors, honest people, cup of hot coffee, music, books, phone calls and letters from friends and family, children's laughter
5. Vegetarian no more - was one for about five years before coming to Zambia, killed a chicken on first site visit and never looked back. I think if you can kill what you're going to eat and they had a good life then I don't have a problem with it. In Zambia that's a lot easier the chicken you eat is the one that's been running around your family compound for the last year. In America I plan to eat meat but seek out healthly raised animals and avoid factory farms. So omnivore life here I come!
6. Learned to be more trusting of people
7. Realized the world is not always safe; bad things happen to good people; there are things in the world that could break me. Scary thought but overall good to be conscious of.
8. Capable of learning a new language with cultural immersion, but use it or lose it just as easily
9. Sustainable development is far more difficult than I ever imagined. Large change must come from local government, elimination of corruption, and need accountability in jobs and duties. Too much aide goes to overhead and to programs that are good in theory but unsustainable on the ground. Health aide is essential but the rest needs to come from investment and programs implemented and controled by the locals. You give hand outs and you will create people reliant and expectant of someone to come and help them instead of finding a way to help themselves.
10. Experienced being the minority. Being noticed everywhere you go is exhausting. Muzungu, Chindele, aka white person are names I could live happily with never hearing again. The constant reminder that I am white and a foreigner when biking, walking, traveling, moving anywhere outside of the village. But also being treated in Zambia as Bwana (aka rich) because I'm white and foriegn. I want to have earned it when I'm recognized in life and not have it based on the physical especially not skin color.
11. Experienced being female in a male dominated society. But moreso seen what Zambian women experience living in a male dominated society (they treat foreign women better). In the village women do all the work. They cook, clean, take care of the children, sell vegetables, farm, get water, you name it it's probably the women.
12. Experienced communal living where family and friends all take care of each other no matter how little they have. You stop by someones house around mealtime you'll be invited and expected to eat with them, you need something that someone else has they will gladly share. Overall wonderful. Hard for families to save for the future because anyone in the family that has is expected to share with anyone in the extended to family when they need help.
13. Seen extreme poverty. Children stunted from lack of nutrition, swollen bellies, kids losing hair from lack of protein. Large families all living in a one room thatch roofed hut, clinics that run out of medicines and people who suffer or die because of it.
Zambia is a harsh, beautiful, and wonderful place all at the same time.
Remembering back to when I first arrived in Zambia, it seemed so different than anything I knew. But now after two years this is what I know and returning to America is going to be the strange part, and stranger still that returning home can seem strange. My world is about to be rocked by accessibility, commercialism technology, customer service, hot showers, etc... and by the absence of the people here in Zambia that I love and will forever miss. I hope our paths cross again.
The Next Chapter: Wandering Nomad
What's next?
The question I've been getting from everyone these days.
The answer: Traveling for the next two months. First over to Malawi to relax and get PADI certified. Then down to South Africa to meet up with Heather, my sister, who is holding a conference in Joburg in May. Then over to the land down under (aka Australia) to meet some kangaroos and James. Then back on American soil June 18th. Enjoy the summer, family reunion in Yosemite, and work on finding an elementary teaching job somewhere in the states.
