My favorite place in Zambia...

 This is the bridge that connects Central Province to Luapula. It is the longest bridge in sub-Saharan Africa reaching over two kilometers to stretch across the Luapula floodplains. The floodplains are different every time you pass over them, but one things stays the same: you are in the middle of nowhere.

Makin' Cheese

 Milk is really cheap in Southern Province because the Tonga tribe traditionally own cattle. So what better to do with cheap milk than make cheese?! Plus, we buy our milk from the dairy coop so it's super fresh. So far we've done mozarella, paneer, and Gouda...although our first batch of gouda tasted more like parmesan--but in a country where good cheese is scarce, we'll take anything!

Curdling milk for some queso blanco (aka paneer)

Pressing our queso blanco the day before Cinco de Mayo

Queso Blanco

Finished!

Stirring some milk

Water bath method

Putting the curds in cheese cloth to press it into....

GOUDA! yes please!

AT Workshops

While my primary position with Peace Corps is PCVL, I also spend a lot of my time working on my secondary project: Appropriate Technology. As logistics coordinator, I help coordinate the AT workshops as well as facilitate them. Here are some pictures of some of the workshops we've done so far. Enjoy!

Cutting an oil drum for a technology demo in Luapula Province

Participants uilding a fuel efficient stove in North Western Province

Participants making bug repellant lotions and soaps in Luapula Province

Getting my hands dirty with a maize cob charcoal demonstration in Luapula Province

Tony facilitating in Northern Province

A few of the participants at the Northern Province workshop

Some of the facilitators of the Northern workshop discussing logistics

Here's a brain buster: You must create a device using ONLY 2 pieces of paper, to stack as many maize cobs (with the maize) off the ground at least ten cm high. No tape, no scissors, only your brain and two peices of paper. We call it the "Maize Raise" and challenge our participants to start using their brains creatively.

 

 

 

AT in the village

Appropriate Technology was started by MIT and brought to Zambia in 2009. I had the opportunity to attend the first AT workshop in 2010 in Central Province and brought along one of my counterparts Ignatius. The 5 day workshop is aimed to create designers and innovators. During the 5 days, we learn about different technologies and try to modify those technologies so they can be re-created in the village, where resources and money are scarce. Ignatius and I brought back what we had learned at the workshop and hosted one of our own in Fimpulu. Below are some pictures of things we worked on

Community members building free line-levels, soemthing they always thought they have to buy in town

A hand maize sheller created by the oldest workshop attendee

Pressing our fuel from the fields: we made charcoal (which is too expensive for some to afford) from maize cobs. Here there are pressing it into small briquettes.

Our students and inventions!

Lather Up!!

Sevren and I are constantly looking for new things to enhance the Appropriate Technologies (AT) Program. Sevren works closely with Southern Biofuels which grows Jatropha trees to use the seeds as clean energy source. But, there are many uses for jatropha and the oil that comes from the seeds, including using it to make soap. Here are a few snaps from our jatropha soap making experiment:

Jatropha oil pressed from the seeds

Caustic soda found at a local agriculture supply store

Add caustic soda to water using a plastic or glass bowl. Metal bowls will only add funky-ness to the chemical reaction happening

Add the jatropha oil and stir

Blending the mixture. The chemical reation should take your water oil and oil mixture and turn it into a solution with a mayonnaise consistency

Pour solution into a lined mold and wait. After two weeks it will have hardened and be ready to be cut into soap bars

We had to change our measurements around a bit, but it worked! The advantage to using jatropha oil is that it is a natural bug repellant. This helps us in two ways: cheap soap and a malaria combatant. BUT, going with the theme of Appropriate Technology, how can we make this cheaper and easy to make in the village? So we brought this idea to the Northern Province AT workshop where a team of designers made caustic soda by boiling down wood ash. Success!

The Art of Batiik

 It's been a while since I've last posted. And by "a while" I mean over a year... Anyways, I've been up to a lot of things since I left my village in Luapula Province after two years to become the Peace Corps Volunteer Leader (PCVL) in Southern Province. My main job as PCVL is to handle the US Government funds allocated to Southern Province. I'm also responsible for coordinating the programs in the Province, giving volunteer support to our volunteers in Southern, being the first point of contact for the Emergency Action Plan, and managing the Southern Province Resource Centre and office. Add onto that my secondary project as the Appropriate Technology logistics coordinator (which I'll talk more about on a later post). It's hard to find time to do things outside of the realm of Peace Corps, but recently I met a woman that does traditional batiiking. Batiik (pronounced "bah-teek") is a way of using wax to resist dies on fabric. Chimunya was taught how to batiik from her mother and now teaches other women the art. She agreed to take some time out of her busy schedule to give me a lesson:

Powdered Dies

Wooden stamps designed by Chimunya and hand-made by her father

These fabrics have been stamped with hot wax and will soon be dyed with other colors.

A tie & die  being worked on. This is after the wax stamping process has been done. When completely dyed, this will sit in the sun to dry.

After drying, the fabric is rinsed to removed excess dye.

Then comes the fun part: removing the wax! The fabric is dunked into the boiling water to remove the wax.

Ta-da! The finished product hanging in the sun to dry.

I've done some battiking sinced I learned, but found that it takes practice, practice, practice to get it right. I haven't used stamps but I've painted and used other methods of applying the wax. This is something that I will definitely continue once I get back to America.

Art in Mansa

A friend of mine in Mansa, Victor Mwakalombe is one of the only local artists in the area. I had him paint a photo of Sevren's village for Christmas and gave him a bunch of my photos so he could practice. He found this one and wanted to paint it so I said "sure!" As you can see, he made me look better than the actual photo...I credit his amazing skills. If you want to check out his other work, you can find him on Facebook, although I think you need to 'friend' him to see his paintings. Check him out!

Belated Holiday Cheer

I know I know I know...I am terrible at updating my blog. BUT, better late than never! What am I grateful for this (last) holiday season? Iwes (children) that will sit in one place for long enough on my porch for my to take this photo!

Happy Holidays from all of us!

Keeping Cool

I've been trying to introduce some village appropriate technology ideas to the village. This is clay pot refrigeration, where you put sand and water between two pots and it insulates the inside keeping it cold. Due to the fact that no one in my village makes or wants to make clay pots, it's mainly used as a demo and helps me keep my cheese from going bad!

Vitameatavegamin

My friend Ashley gets Flinstone Gummy Vitamins sent to her and she had a surplus so she gave some to me. Take your vitamins!

Birthday Fun!

It's hard to believe I've been here for long enough to celebrate two birthdays. This year I decided to ring in my 25th year in the village and was accompanied by Sevren. We woke up and made omeletes and when I went to fetch water I was given a nice birthday surprise: a very important meeting at my clinic! When I told them it was my birthday and that my plans for the day were to make cake (cake on a brazure is an all-day affair) they told me, "it's okay, you can bring us cake!" As I was walking to my meeting, my two Peace Corps neighbors, Kristen and Maddy, arrived. I went to my meeting, as my job as a Peace Corps Volunteer is 24-7, and came back in enough time to make cake and celebrate with what has become my Peace Corps family here. Sevren was able to distract the children for a while and I was able to relax and reflect on my 24th year.

My neighbors have a baby, David, whom I like to call "bandume bandi" or "my brother." He turned 1 year on November 26th so Sevren and I went over and made an attempt at a duel-birthday celebration. Now, having a young brother in America, I knew that a 1 year old cannot blow out birthday candles, but we tried anyways. Needless to say, it was funny...and made me feel happy and blessed to be here at this moment in life.

Independence Day

October ended nicely with a trip to Lake Tanganyika for Zambia's Independence Day. The weather is hotter than ever and it was a relief to be able to swim in the crystal clear water while catching some of the last sun rays we'll see as rainy season is rapidly approaching.

We took a three hour hike to Kalambo Falls and although I think I sweat more than my body weight in salty liquid, it was an amazing feeling to stand in the valley and look back on what we had accomplished...and this as only half-way through our hike.

We made it to the falls and sat in awe. With a 221m of vertical drop, Kalambo Falls is the second highest waterfall on the entire continent of Africa, and the 12th highest in the world.

We finished our hike at the mouth of the waterfall, ate lunch and took a swim in the liquid that was about to plummet 221m to the ground.

Although the scenery was breathtaking, I was eager to leave the Northern heat and make my way back to Luapula. I made a quick stop in Central Province to visit my friend, Sevren, and nurse a foot injury. I was beautifully welcomed back to Mansa with a heavy rain shower which assisted in my massive need for a body temperature change. Ahhh, the beauties of season change!

I head back to the village soon, eager to work on my garden and spend time with the children. We'll soon start planning for World AIDS Day and a village-appropriate technology workshop. I'm also hoping to build an in-ground table and chairs in my front yard with a checker board painted on for the children to play with.

Love and miss you all,

b

Dad and Tammy Came to Visit!

Last month I was visited by my Dad and Tammy and took them around what my dad likes to call "Brittany World." It was an amazing chance to show family my life here in Zambia, and give them a chance to understand the culture and beauty of my home.

They arrived in Lusaka and we headed up to my village. Most parents are known for visiting their childrens' huts, seeing it, and then leaving, as it is nothing compared to life in America and a bit hard to embrace. Dad and Tammy were the opposite...they didn't want to leave my village, and begged to stay another day so they could get more time to play with the children and meet other villagers.

As I dragged them away from the village, tears built up in their eyes...it was similar to how Frank acted when we left Disney Land (and World) when we were children. I then took them to Samfya, the beach I frequent when I want to get away, and I think this was the moment where my Dad and Tammy stopped thinking I was struggling in Zambia. The food we cooked in the village was American-style (make-your-own-pizza, chinese, omelets, chocolate chip pancakes) and I'm pretty sure they were wondering why they had wasted hundreds of dollars on packages to their 'poor daughter in Africa.'

After Samfya, we headed down to Victoria Falls in Livingstone. I had yet to visit so it was nice to spend time together in a place we had never been before. Bungee jumping and white water rafting were activities high on our list and we had an amazing time...although the Zambian "sickness" came to visit some of us.

After our tour of Zambia we flew off to Nairobi to visit family friends. With our friends we went to The Massai Mara (where the Lion King comes from). Thousands upon thousands of wildebeest surrounded us at all times, due to the wildebeest migration, and the smell of wild mint filled the air making the experience unforgettable. I had the one goal of seeing the "life cyle." Sure enough we saw two lions mating and also a lion killing and feasting on a wildebeest. It was the experience of a lifetime.