I Thought I Would Paint A Picture Of Daily Life Here

Emma Chase works for the micro-finance institution MicroLoan Foundation and is currently spending three months volunteering in Zambia, where she is helping to set up the partnership between MicroLoan Foundation and Lendwithcare. She has been writing about her time in Zambia in three previous blog posts ("Home away from home", "Muddy bricks and trainers" and "If it had wheels, I travelled on it!") and here is her fourth installment. This is a re-post from the MicroLoan Foundation.

It’s 17.00 and we’ve had a power cut, and no water, since 9 a.m. It’s a daily occurrence and I thought I would take the opportunity to describe to you all what life here is like; my day-to–day routine.

I wake on average between 5 and 5.30 a.m in time with the sun, to the illusive clanging of metal somewhere nearby; I’ve tried, and failed, to identify its source, and purpose! Once up I pour myself a cup of water, boiled the previous night, and say good morning to my resident spiders – I think they are a family as this past week I’ve seen half a dozen small spiders – and they entertain me with a dance around the room. 

On the way to work – Smog and poverty

I am accustomed to life here - as I navigate my way along the side of roads, jumping out of the way when a car speeds past hooting me to move, I forget that I am many miles away from home, where life is so different. I join men in smart suits (yes, suits when it is 37degrees!) walking to work, children being taken to school by elder siblings, girls and boys with music blaring from their phones walking with the arrogance of youth, men sweeping the leaves and dead flowers away from a government building, cattle on a walk, a man on his bike with a wellington on his left and a flip flop on his right, three cyclists each carrying two dead goats on the backs of their bikes, holding my breath as passing vehicles emit large plumes of dark smoke – oh wait! Not so different after all.

People have asked me if I have found living so close to such poverty difficult and in truth, yes. Each morning on my way to work I see children, without shoes, without proper clothes, put to work. One morning I passed a mother with her son. They were each lifting large bundles of bamboo branches. Mum was wrestling with a load twice the size of her – about the size of a large tree trunk and son, who could not have been older than ten, a slightly smaller bunch… a small tree. The branches were tied up and resting on a wall. They each had a material pad that they held on the tops of their heads and, as though bulls about to charge, bent their heads to meet the branches. They then each negotiated with the weight to hoist it up and get on their way.

The wind and fire in Chipata

Two special features of Chipata are the wind, and the fire.  When I was first told about the wind I thought it a blessing – a relief from the heat – and although a breeze is most welcome during the scoring afternoon heat, I have witnessed some of its more irritating features: Causing papers to fly around the office as though they are birds, taking off at whim, and throwing dust into my eyes. I bought some replacement sunglasses (that cover about half of my face!) but even while I wear them the frequent whooshes of wind, scattering grit and dust everywhere still find my eyes as I walk about town. I’m not hiding my temporary blindness, whilst walking around, and so I’m pretty sure everyone here thinks I’m nuts: “Oh for God’s sake, I can’t see”, mutters the crazy mzungu.

Fire is the second characteristic of Chipata. Small fires are commonplace and mostly used to burn rubbish; men at the sides of roads burn their waste, and I often see children play at poking them with sticks. Sometimes small, sometimes large piles of ash are part of the landscape, and a constant whiff of smoke can be smelt throughout the town. One morning I was welcomed into work by a cloud of white smoke that was steadily covering Chipata town, and the crackle, crackle of burning trees. From every window in the office, all you could see was thick, white smoke. Everyone was pretty unperturbed whereas I was panicking: Would I get to my guesthouse in time to pick up my passport, what would I need to grab in case we needed to evacuate? Everyone laughed at me when I asked whether I should prepare for such an event and they assured me that they would let me know if I needed to worry – I could grab a lift out of town with them! In the meantime I was to get on with work. As the odd bits of ash floated in through the windows I asked why no one was worried. They told me that the fire was to hunt for rats, to be eaten or sold at the market.

Zambian culinary specialties

Work finishes at 17.00. Because the sun sets at 18.15, and it is pitch black by 18.30, everyone promptly leaves the office. When I get home at about 17.15 I begin making dinner. I am now a professional in one-pot meals and have experimented with all the locally grown vegetables I purchase in the market. I have taken recipes from local women and recreated them for myself – one such dish is using ground peanuts to make a spinach and tomato dish. Groundnuts (peanuts) are very popular as, like the dried kapenta fish, they are hassle-free sources of protein. I’m also gorging on anything you can buy from women selling along the roads: Cassava – did you know that if you are not going to eat it fresh, you should dig a hole in the ground and store it there till you are ready to eat it?! – and chinaka. I was introduced to chinaka through my recruit at work; she called in a seller to let me try some. It is similar to pate in texture, but is made from groundnuts, salt and African polony. For those of you, like me, who did not know what African polony is, it comes from brownish tubers of orchids that are the size of small potatoes, grown underground, in the Northern region of Zambia. It used to be restricted to the northern Bemba tribes but is now common across eastern Zambia. It can be spread on bread, or eaten with nshima. Rats are also featured in some peoples’ diet but I’m not that brave! 

At about 20.30 I switch on my kettle for the morning’s water and as I begin to get sleepy, the dogs start barking; barking a lullaby to send me to sleep. I have only seen one dog in the street but come nightfall two dozen or so, make their presence known. It is during this pandemonium; the howling of the wind, banging of the windows, barking of the dogs and rumbling of the kettle that I drift off to sleep, appreciating all the advantages life has given me.

If It Had Wheels, I Travelled On It!

Emma Chase works for the micro-finance institution MicroLoan Foundation and is currently spending three months volunteering in Zambia, where she is helping to set up the partnership between MicroLoan Foundation and Lendwithcare. She has been writing about her time in Zambia in two previous blog posts ("Home away from home" and "Muddy bricks and trainers") and here is her third installment.

A few weeks ago I spent a day traveling to the rest of MicroLoan Zambia’s branches. Initially I was to spend a few days at each branch, but last minute training would see everyone in Chipata the following week. I travelled to Nyimba, Petauke and Katete to meet with each branch manager and brief them on the proposed procedures for Lendwithcare. My day started bright and early and by 4 a.m I was in a taxi, en route to the coach station. Little did I know that come nightfall, I would have travelled on pretty much anything that had wheels.

The coach set off to Nyimba at 5 a.m and in the 3 hours the journey took, the sun woke up and said a very impressive good morning; casting a warm orange glow over the undulating landscape until it reached its peak to settle itself high in the sky, watching over eastern Zambia.

Welcome to Nyimba, the banana district! I arrived and was met by big smiles - John and lots of banana sellers. He took me to the office where we had a very productive meeting, and I successfully used the toilet without losing anything! John was sent to Nyimba to set up the MLF branch all by himself. Two years on and he works tirelessly with a client base of 500 women. We visited Nyimba’s market where lots of these women work. The market is quite large (larger than London’s Borough Market, with about twenty times the number of sellers) and almost all the women there are MicroLoan clients. From bakers (the smell was amazing!), to hairdressers - whatever you could imagine or you would want they sell it, and throw in huge smiles and lots of laughter to go with it.

Now, people drive at two speeds here – fast, and snail’s pace. The former using their car horns to let everyone know they were coming, and would not be slowing down to get out of the way; the calm of the mornings are perforated with honk, honk, honk; the latter when something interesting, like a “mzungu” walking by, is happening. This was how I travelled from Nyimba to Petauke for my second meeting: An hour in a taxi-car, with three men in the back gossiping about the Zimbabwe election. I was given the honoured passengers front seat and within five minutes wished I were squashed between the men in the back. For an hour we drove at lightning speed, catapulting ourselves over giant potholes, listening to loud Christian music that would jump every ten seconds, for company.

I reached Petauke safely. Petauke is smaller than Chipata and I didn’t get such a good vibe from it. I tried to keep my time here brief and after my meeting quickly found a taxi to take me to Katete; an African taxi! Some of you will understand my exclamations. Now when I was visiting Jo-burg years ago I was told never to get in the way of an African taxi… Treasure this advice. A vehicle similar to a serena packed with passengers and their household items – think of the circus trick with clowns fitting into a mini car – driving at faster than light speed, honk, honk, honk, breaking suddenly to pick up travellers on the side of the road, accompanied by Christian music played as though we were in a nightclub. Again, I was given the front seat. Pro: Quick escape. Con: Deafened by the music. I sat in this taxi for 90 minutes before we eventually set off. In the initial bargaining for my business I had told them I needed to leave ASAP, I needed to get to Katete for a meeting. After about 15 minutes of waiting I asked when we were leaving: “Any minute now”.

Arriving in Katete and taking a short motorbike ride to the office I had my meeting and quickly found another taxi to take me home - I traveled in the back this time – sweaty, dusty and greasy. A coach, three cars, van and motorbike later, my bed never looked so good.  

Muddy Bricks and Trainers

Thank God I didn’t buy new shoes!

All the roads in the “centre” of town are paved, and although crumbling at the sides where the pedestrians walk, there is not much drama walking around. The road outside my guesthouse which leads me to one of these wonderfully, albeit crumbling paved roads, is no such vision of convenience. The road outside my guesthouse is a soil track that every day is worked upon to try and turn it into a concrete one. Every day I win/attempt to win small battles with this road. Being soil, it gets everywhere so, there is not much point in hoping I’ll arrive either at work or at home without also carrying one, maybe two coats of terracotta dust with me. 

My challenges lie in whatever task to build the road the day brings; giant heaps of soil piled so high, and so wide it’s like walking around roundabouts; large, deep holes the width of the road so I’ve got to use my spidey fingers to cling onto a wall for fear of falling in; but worst of all, is when they work with water. It averages every other day, usually when I’m on my way home, and sees the road swimming. Water plus soil turns the surface into clay which I get the privilege of walking through. Squelch, squelch, squelch, all the way home. 

Needless to say, I’ll be throwing my trainers away after my time here. Two weeks in, nine to go. I got straight to work which I am really enjoying. I'm not getting any complaints and I’ve even been asked by the finance manager to help him with a private project; setting up a school for very poor children in the area. The job of creating and implementing the procedures for lendwithcare have not taken as long as everyone anticipated which I am happy about, as it means most of my time will be spent monitoring, and training the officer we hire to takeover from me.

Week one I visited some of our clients in Chipata. On the Tuesday morning I was given a motorbike helmet. I stood with a deadpan expression and everyone laughed as I asked them to tell my family and friends that I love them were anything to happen to me. On the back of the bike I went and once we had turned our second corner, driven over our second “speed bump” I relaxed, thighs fully clenched, into the ride. I was expecting a 20 minute journey so 60 minutes later, as we arrived at the client meeting, I clambered down from the bike and stumbled over to meet the Safwa group…my thighs were a little shaky.

What a welcome to their life! First thing I did was use their toilet - a drop hole similar to ones I used as a child in the mountains in Cyprus - and watched as if in slow motion my sunglasses unhooked themselves from my t-shirt and fell down the hole...oops! Everyone thought this was quite funny and a wonderful way to introduce myself. They were all so happy and excited to meet me, and I too with them. They laughed as I repeated their greeting to them: mulibwanji. At first I thought they were laughing at the mzungu trying to speak their language – apparently not! I was not meant to repeat, but instead reply nilibwinomulibwanj. How was I supposed to know!

House construction

After a prayer, the loan officer I had travelled with started the meeting; a repayment and an ‘importance of savings’ meeting. At the end he translated some questions I had for the women; what impact the loans had made, for them and their family; what the consensus was among the community about women becoming the breadwinners. All very positive answers. These loans had clearly changed their lives and they wanted to be sure that I felt their gratitude. They even sang a song about me to which we all clapped and danced to. I felt so honoured by their welcome and kept reiterating that MicroLoan, and already some lendwithcare lenders, may have given them their loans, but they were the ones working each day to see their businesses succeed.

My favourite, if it’s ok to say I had a favourite, was the group’s treasurer; it seemed as though her eyes could tell a thousand stories but still looked young, and hopeful. Throughout my time with them she was smiling at me. She initiated the song they sang and kept engaging with me. She was generating enough profit from her business to allow her to start building a second house for her family; for her son when he grows up. Clearly the proud mother, she took me to see the work in progress and in only a short period of time the foundations had been laid, and the outer walls were being built.

My second visit was not as successful as my first and although I did not meet any clients, I did learn quite a lot. The women had not turned up for the meeting – a common problem as many of them are busy working. My driver/rider this time round was much more talkative – something I was a bit worried about; whenever he spoke to me on the bike we would end up swerving left and right. We passed “briefcase businessmen” traveling the quiet roads to Malawi with sacks and sacks of mealie meal to which he gave me a detailed lesson on the mealie meal market. Mealie meal is white maize flour that is eaten religiously as nshima. Nshima can be eaten like porridge for breakfast or as the highlight at dinner time. When made up it looks a bit like mashed potato but is the consistency of putty. It is eaten with almost every meal, with hands, torn off like bread and dipped into sauces. I’ve made some myself and it is yummy! Mealie meal costs twice as much in Malawi, as it does in Zambia. Being so close to the border, it is quite common to see these trucks, laden with their sacks of mealie meal, travelling the quieter roads to get to Malawi’s markets.

I was also taught how they make bricks. It is a predominantly male job and sees soil wetted, and moulded into a rectangular brick shape and then then lain out to dry (covered with leaves if it get too hot to prevent cracking). Once they are dry, they are arranged into a large pile (so that it looks almost like a small room), covered with mud and a fire is lit inside. This turns the mound into an oven. This sets the bricks and their colour changes…to a lighter terracotta. And voila! Bricks to build your house. It is very common to see these mud covered piles in every small congregation of houses/ mud huts with thatched roofing. They stand next to houses, and are only distinguishable by their dark, mud coating. Otherwise they are the same size as the houses.

So now that you are all experts on the local cuisine and the construction industry I will say bye bye as I'm worried I may have lost some of you to this essay, and I need to go back to cleaning the mud from my shoes!!!

This article was originally posted on the Microloan Foundation blog.

Home Away from Home in Chipata, Zambia

Emma Chase, a Microloan Foundation volunteer, has posted a great snapshot of life in Chipata, Zambia where she is currently helping to set-up the lendwithcare.org partnership.

“We would like to offer you the opportunity to travel to Zambia and help set up our lendwithcare initiative”. I received something to this account a few weeks ago whilst on holiday with my boyfriend. I immediately started grinning like a Cheshire cat, he was a little less enthusiastic. Three months working in Zambia – I was excited!

Emma's 'home away from home'

I’ve been here in Chipata, close to the Zambia/Malawi border for 4 days now and it already feels like a home away from home.

I was picked up by one of the team at MicroLoan Zambia and we drove from the airport in Lilongwe, Malawi for about 3 hours through undulating, terracotta landscape. On our drive we overtook many cyclists that populate the road carrying a variety of objects from bags of cement, bikes for repair, and more loaves of bread than a UK supermarket stores. I was lucky in that as we were approaching Chipata the sun was beginning to set and the light cast a warm glow over the town.  A lovely first impression of where I am to call my home for the next few months.

Work began early the next day. I was introduced to all the staff at the Zambian headquarters and got straight to work with the finance manager to put together a schedule and discuss lendwithcare. Everyone is very excited about the project and keen to make it work. I will begin by spending time in the regional branches, meeting the women entrepreneurs and seeing how the organisation works as a whole. Then will come the task of trying to work lendwithcare into it.

The view from the office

My first weekend was spent getting to know the place – more importantly, where to buy food and figuring out how to cook it! I am pleased to announce that I am the proud owner of a hotplate and kettle and have successfully cooked popcorn! 

Chipata is in the eastern province of Zambia and as you drive from Malawi, it is the first town you get to. It sprawls out from the Great East Road and I am coming to learn that you can get anything off this road; hotels, supermarkets, the hospital. If in doubt, just walk along the road and you will soon reach what you are looking for.  I learned this as I searched for the Saturday market – it’s actually an everyday market but more sellers are there at the weekend. 

Delicious popcorn

Not only did I know I had found it because I saw stalls, but because I saw bucket upon bucket of potatoes, tomatoes, dried beans, and silver, shiny objects that look like jewellery – in fact they are dried kapenta (a type of sardine). They look like pieces of silver until you get up close and see that they are in fact small fish. They are a hugely important staple to the area (Mozambique and Zimbabwe included) as they provide a refrigeration-free protein. I’m yet to try them as I forgot to bring any money out, but I’m looking forward to it!

View from the front door

The compound I am staying in has a little bit of everything; the apartment style rooms I am staying in, a campsite, conference centre where I think I heard a congregation singing and preaching on Saturday, a large bar with pool tables and a covered patio. There is a communal eating room where guests and visitors can sample local food. I am definitely going to ask the chefs if I can watch them cook and get some tips to bring back home. On Sunday evening I joined a group of visitors to watch the football; Zambia vs Zimbabwe - they get almost as excited as the Brits, almost! The only downside I’ve encountered so far are the spiders in my room and bathroom – although my mother says they make very good listeners! – and the way the dust gets everywhere. It’s a very pretty terracotta colour but it is turning me slowly orange.

Back to business;  today has been spent working out the logistics of the role, better understanding the difficulties of the organisation and tomorrow is my first day “in the field.” My mode of transport is a motorbike(!) and I will spend the day with the loan officers; getting to know how they go about their work, and meeting the entrepreneurs. I am quite excited to meet some of the women that MicroLoan work with…who knows, maybe I’ll try my first kapenta.

This article was originally posted on the Microloan Foundation blog.