Hi everyone!!!
My sister Audrey has graciously posted my previous e-mails on a blog at http://summerinzambia.blogspot.com - feel free to leave comments there! Hopefully within a day or two she'll post this e-mail as well.
TRAVELING TO ZAMBIA
I've been here awhile now, and I'm really starting to wonder why on earth more people are not visiting Zambia. This place is beautiful, safe, authentically African, English-speaking, with amazing weather, and unspeakably cheap. Even flights here aren't that expensive - you can get tickets from New York to Lusaka for about $1,500. Even though there are really few whites, people try hard to be polite and I get harassed less than I do walking around New York! (Admittedly, my no-nonsense New York-style walk does help with this.) For short trips, you just need to bring sunscreen (Coppertone oil-free is the best), Malarone (a no-side-effect daily malaria prophylactic that any doctor can prescribe), $100 for a tourist visa, a Visa card, the Bradt guidebook to Zambia, and that's it. Seriously, consider visiting at some point, you will love it here.
WHAT I'M UP TO
I'm teaching sex ed to 1,400 students, grades 5-12, each week. Imagine talking about private parts to a classroom of up to 90 tiny, giggly little 10-year-olds! Fortunately, talking about sex never gets old. Consider this gem: I was talking with the 11th grade boarding students, and I asked them, given the extremely limited space and privacy available, where exactly do Zambians have sex? They laughed, looked at each other, and then all agreed: Zambians have sex in trees!! =>
WHY IS ZAMBIA POOR?
Of course part of the reason I'm here is to develop my own opinion about why exactly Zambia is poor. The problem is a complicated one, but I think I've discovered a major contributing factor: pervasive bad management. Zambians tend to rely on exhortation: "Now really, I really want you to be here on time tomorrow" rather than the far more effective management tools of setting clear expectations, monitoring, and following up: "Tomorrow we will be taking attendance at 8 AM, please be on time, thank you!" I've seen this pattern repeated in a lot of contexts. The problem is not just within leadership at the top, but throughout management at all levels. It is, however, a mistake to think that bad management is somehow "cultural" and can't be changed: Zambians are rational people who know good ideas when they hear them - they do, however, need to learn better management skills on a large scale.
MORE ABOUT AIDS
Deborah and I have met a best friend! Her name is Chibeka, and we met her because she found out she was HIV positive the day we arrived in Nampundwe. We met her and talked with her - it's an understatement to say she was pretty down - what unbelievably bad news. Amazingly, though, she snapped back in a remarkably short time - maybe four days - and turns out to be a charming, funny, outgoing girl - and our new best friend, as I've said, plus an excellent baker who sometimes gives us buns and scones. The kicker: Chibeka got HIV because she was raped when she was about 10. She hasn't had sex since.
Chibeka's story illustrates the basic AIDS juxtaposition I keep noticing: (1) people are unbelievably resilient and (2) AIDS is horrible.
CONGRATULATIONS TO WINSTON!!
And finally, a big congratulations to Winston Hotels, which announced its going-private transaction yesterday! I worked on the transaction while at JF Capital Advisors and I'm thrilled to hear that things have been progressing successfully!!!
Love to all,
Summer
Friday, 23 February 2007
Friday, 9 February 2007
Email from Feb. 3
Hi, everyone!
I can't believe I've been here for a month already! Training ended last week and my partner, Deborah, and I said goodbye to our 58 other new friends and headed off to Nampundwe High School in Mumbwa district, where we will be teaching classes, organizing extracurriculars, and putting together events to educate the school and community about HIV/AIDS.
ARRIVAL IN NAMPUNDWE
We live in a hut that is round, with metal walls and a thatched roof, and about 12 feet in diameter. That is really unbelievably small. So small that Deborah and I have decided that we don't even have room for both our mattresses! We stacked them on top of each other and just sleep on one mattress - smaller than twin size - together. There is no furniture or shelving at all, so everything - our 50 kg bag of charcoal, our brazier (which you use to cook with charcoal), our basins for dishwashing, bathing, and clean water, all of our food, all of our luggage containing clothes, everything - is arranged on the floor around the perimeter of our tiny room.
The hut has "electricity." Brace yourself: this means there is exactly one light bulb - no plug or anything - with exposed wires that have clearly been electrical taped together to make room for other appliances several times before. There is no light switch. Our light bulb is on all the time, even at night.
These things are thankfully more amusing than annoying. On the plus side, everyone at the school has been very welcoming and Deborah and I already know most of the teachers and have been introduced to most of the classes of students. Also, Deborah is a terrific cook and all of this living in a rural area has really increased my appetite so everything tastes even better.
REALLY IN AFRICA
SPW has done a great job of giving us a gradual introduction to the rigors of rural Zambian life. My first day or two here were spent in hostels and strip malls not unlike those at home. Training was in a smaller town in Zambia, with a more realistically Zambian market, but our hotel was very comfortable. And now, we're in Nampundwe, and the things that everyone writes home about from Africa are starting to happen.
Such as: riding on the back of a pickup truck. As the final leg of our journey to placement, fourteen volunteers, all of our luggage, and ten bikes were piled on the back of a pickup truck and driven, in the dark, along a main-ish paved road at 100kph+, stopping along the way to drop off pairs of volunteers at our assigned schools. Our school was the last. At first, it was scary but exhilarating - I'm really in Africa! About halfway through the ride, though, it started raining, and we huddled together in our luggage and were miserable. (Although I wasn't that miserable, because of course I knew the experience would make a great story.)
Also such as: walks in the bush. Our extension school, which we visit once a week, is an hour's walk away through the bush - grasses as tall as your head dotted with little trees - along a little pathway. Little villages with a few round mud huts spring up every 10 or 20 minutes or so. Chickens and cows and goats and dogs occasionally cross the path, or watch you from a little bit away.
Also such as: being the only white person. I'm definitely the only white person in my town, and probably the only white person who has ever been in my town. People are curious but by and large very polite, and they try not to stare, and they try to greet me normally. The other night, I was trying to find cell phone coverage (my cell phone doesn't work in our hut) and walked on to the athletic fields in search of it. Pretty soon a crowd of curious kids gathered around, watching me - probably about a hundred, all in their cute blue school uniforms, looking up at me. I gathered my wits and taught them a "mosquito clap" - where you slap your arms and legs all over then say "Kill it!" and everyone claps in unison. Then I quickly made my exit. =>
HIV/AIDS
Everyone here has people they call "mom" and "dad". I have only actually asked two friends if the people they call "mom" and "dad" were really their moms and dads. Of those two friends, three out of four parents were not their real parents - their real parents had died of AIDS. Deborah's mom died of AIDS when she was 12 and her sister was 10, and Chimbwe's mom and dad died within a year of each other when he was 15. Deborah and Chimbwe have both lived with a succession of relatives, all of whom are caring for many dependents that are not their own children (about 7-8 in each case). Still, Deborah and Chimbwe are the lucky ones: fewer than 5% of students graduate from high school in Zambia, which both Deborah and Chimbwe managed to do.
I find it impressive and remarkably generous that Zambians are able to care for their extended families so well. Nevertheless, it's obvious that everyone's life would be a lot better if it weren't for AIDS: there was both more money and more love when Deborah's real mom was still alive.
Everyone knows how AIDS is transmitted, but there are still an AMAZING number of dangerous misconceptions around. A few:
- We visited two clinics and asked about HIV prevalence. In one clinic, of the 280-ish people who had been tested in 2006, 130-ish had been HIV-positive - almost half! (Virtually everyone who gets tested voluntarily is pregnant, and this clinic treats a lot of moms.) Down the street, at the mine clinic, we asked about HIV prevalence, and the nurse said she didn't know but estimated 5%!! Quiz: are you more likely to have unprotected sex if you think the prevalence rate is 5%, or 50%?
- "You can't eat a sweet without a wrapper." Everyone in Zambia knows this saying. Abstinence-only education has taught Zambians that condoms are not 100% effective -- so Zambians by and large don't think condoms protect them very much, and they just go ahead and have unprotected sex. This is crazy - condoms are terrific protection, particularly when you consider the alternative - and this belief kills people around here.
- Absence of decent alternatives to sex. People think that if you're in a relationship either you have to have sex, or you have to "abstain" = go to the movies. There is very little awareness of ways to have an intimate, satisfying sexual relationship without having intercourse.
- Denial of AIDS. When asked how her mom died, Deborah says the doctors said it was a fungal infection. When asked how his dad died, Chimbwe says the doctor's said Kaposi's sarcoma. Both are virtually guaranteed to be AIDS - so why not just say what it really is? One reason is definitely that Zambian is a Christian nation - everyone is Christian, everyone goes to church, everyone prays in the morning, when they eat, and at night - and so sex is typically considered a sin and something that you shouldn't be doing.
CONTACT
- Calling me around 10AM Eastern may possibly work. My number is 011 260 xx xxxxxx. But I don't have coverage in my hut and most of the time my phone is turned off because I have to conserve power since it's a pain to charge. Sorry!
- I will likely check e-mail in the next two weeks, but even if I get your message I may not respond because time is short and connections are extremely slow. Sorry!
- Grandma, I got your nice letter and picture! I have not yet received a care package I mailed myself on December 27th. Until I get it, I wouldn't recommend anyone send me anything. Sorry!
In conclusion, I'm very comfortable and happy overall, and I'm convinced of the importance and the impact of the work I'm doing. I would recommend a stint at development work for many more people than are currently considering it, and I certainly can recommend Zambia, which is a lovely place, and SPW, which is an exceptional organization.
Much love to all,
Summer
I can't believe I've been here for a month already! Training ended last week and my partner, Deborah, and I said goodbye to our 58 other new friends and headed off to Nampundwe High School in Mumbwa district, where we will be teaching classes, organizing extracurriculars, and putting together events to educate the school and community about HIV/AIDS.
ARRIVAL IN NAMPUNDWE
We live in a hut that is round, with metal walls and a thatched roof, and about 12 feet in diameter. That is really unbelievably small. So small that Deborah and I have decided that we don't even have room for both our mattresses! We stacked them on top of each other and just sleep on one mattress - smaller than twin size - together. There is no furniture or shelving at all, so everything - our 50 kg bag of charcoal, our brazier (which you use to cook with charcoal), our basins for dishwashing, bathing, and clean water, all of our food, all of our luggage containing clothes, everything - is arranged on the floor around the perimeter of our tiny room.
The hut has "electricity." Brace yourself: this means there is exactly one light bulb - no plug or anything - with exposed wires that have clearly been electrical taped together to make room for other appliances several times before. There is no light switch. Our light bulb is on all the time, even at night.
These things are thankfully more amusing than annoying. On the plus side, everyone at the school has been very welcoming and Deborah and I already know most of the teachers and have been introduced to most of the classes of students. Also, Deborah is a terrific cook and all of this living in a rural area has really increased my appetite so everything tastes even better.
REALLY IN AFRICA
SPW has done a great job of giving us a gradual introduction to the rigors of rural Zambian life. My first day or two here were spent in hostels and strip malls not unlike those at home. Training was in a smaller town in Zambia, with a more realistically Zambian market, but our hotel was very comfortable. And now, we're in Nampundwe, and the things that everyone writes home about from Africa are starting to happen.
Such as: riding on the back of a pickup truck. As the final leg of our journey to placement, fourteen volunteers, all of our luggage, and ten bikes were piled on the back of a pickup truck and driven, in the dark, along a main-ish paved road at 100kph+, stopping along the way to drop off pairs of volunteers at our assigned schools. Our school was the last. At first, it was scary but exhilarating - I'm really in Africa! About halfway through the ride, though, it started raining, and we huddled together in our luggage and were miserable. (Although I wasn't that miserable, because of course I knew the experience would make a great story.)
Also such as: walks in the bush. Our extension school, which we visit once a week, is an hour's walk away through the bush - grasses as tall as your head dotted with little trees - along a little pathway. Little villages with a few round mud huts spring up every 10 or 20 minutes or so. Chickens and cows and goats and dogs occasionally cross the path, or watch you from a little bit away.
Also such as: being the only white person. I'm definitely the only white person in my town, and probably the only white person who has ever been in my town. People are curious but by and large very polite, and they try not to stare, and they try to greet me normally. The other night, I was trying to find cell phone coverage (my cell phone doesn't work in our hut) and walked on to the athletic fields in search of it. Pretty soon a crowd of curious kids gathered around, watching me - probably about a hundred, all in their cute blue school uniforms, looking up at me. I gathered my wits and taught them a "mosquito clap" - where you slap your arms and legs all over then say "Kill it!" and everyone claps in unison. Then I quickly made my exit. =>
HIV/AIDS
Everyone here has people they call "mom" and "dad". I have only actually asked two friends if the people they call "mom" and "dad" were really their moms and dads. Of those two friends, three out of four parents were not their real parents - their real parents had died of AIDS. Deborah's mom died of AIDS when she was 12 and her sister was 10, and Chimbwe's mom and dad died within a year of each other when he was 15. Deborah and Chimbwe have both lived with a succession of relatives, all of whom are caring for many dependents that are not their own children (about 7-8 in each case). Still, Deborah and Chimbwe are the lucky ones: fewer than 5% of students graduate from high school in Zambia, which both Deborah and Chimbwe managed to do.
I find it impressive and remarkably generous that Zambians are able to care for their extended families so well. Nevertheless, it's obvious that everyone's life would be a lot better if it weren't for AIDS: there was both more money and more love when Deborah's real mom was still alive.
Everyone knows how AIDS is transmitted, but there are still an AMAZING number of dangerous misconceptions around. A few:
- We visited two clinics and asked about HIV prevalence. In one clinic, of the 280-ish people who had been tested in 2006, 130-ish had been HIV-positive - almost half! (Virtually everyone who gets tested voluntarily is pregnant, and this clinic treats a lot of moms.) Down the street, at the mine clinic, we asked about HIV prevalence, and the nurse said she didn't know but estimated 5%!! Quiz: are you more likely to have unprotected sex if you think the prevalence rate is 5%, or 50%?
- "You can't eat a sweet without a wrapper." Everyone in Zambia knows this saying. Abstinence-only education has taught Zambians that condoms are not 100% effective -- so Zambians by and large don't think condoms protect them very much, and they just go ahead and have unprotected sex. This is crazy - condoms are terrific protection, particularly when you consider the alternative - and this belief kills people around here.
- Absence of decent alternatives to sex. People think that if you're in a relationship either you have to have sex, or you have to "abstain" = go to the movies. There is very little awareness of ways to have an intimate, satisfying sexual relationship without having intercourse.
- Denial of AIDS. When asked how her mom died, Deborah says the doctors said it was a fungal infection. When asked how his dad died, Chimbwe says the doctor's said Kaposi's sarcoma. Both are virtually guaranteed to be AIDS - so why not just say what it really is? One reason is definitely that Zambian is a Christian nation - everyone is Christian, everyone goes to church, everyone prays in the morning, when they eat, and at night - and so sex is typically considered a sin and something that you shouldn't be doing.
CONTACT
- Calling me around 10AM Eastern may possibly work. My number is 011 260 xx xxxxxx. But I don't have coverage in my hut and most of the time my phone is turned off because I have to conserve power since it's a pain to charge. Sorry!
- I will likely check e-mail in the next two weeks, but even if I get your message I may not respond because time is short and connections are extremely slow. Sorry!
- Grandma, I got your nice letter and picture! I have not yet received a care package I mailed myself on December 27th. Until I get it, I wouldn't recommend anyone send me anything. Sorry!
In conclusion, I'm very comfortable and happy overall, and I'm convinced of the importance and the impact of the work I'm doing. I would recommend a stint at development work for many more people than are currently considering it, and I certainly can recommend Zambia, which is a lovely place, and SPW, which is an exceptional organization.
Much love to all,
Summer
Email from Jan. 14
Hello all -
I'm in Zambia, and it is GREAT!!!
Pleasant surprises:
For those of you who weren't previously aware of my plans: I'm currently in Zambia with a British charity called SPW and planning to stay here until July/August doing HIV/AIDS and development work. When I return in the fall, I will be going to business school. Eugene and I are getting married May 25, 2008 in Toronto - I miss him terribly but at least I get to talk to him every other day or so and text him every day. Truly, I can't believe my good luck in finding such a wonderful man who is letting me do this and providing a ton of practical support besides. (Thanks for unlocking the SIM card! and making the visa card work! and for the headlamp! and the Sudoku puzzles!)
Everyone I've addressed this e-mail to is welcome to get in touch with me. The preferred method is calling or texting. You can get international phone cards with rates to Zambia of $0.05 to $0.08 per minute, and you can set up international texts for about $0.30. My number (from the US) is 011 260 xx xxxxxx. If I don't pick up, sorry! I haven't been able to set up voicemail yet but I'm going to try to get it working soon. Zambia is 7 hours ahead of New York time. E-mail and snail mail are both really not very good in comparison, but may be worth a shot if you don't mind me getting your message about a month later. This is my e-mail address, my snail mail address is: [removed].
I apologize for the mass e-mail intended for many different audiences - it's really the best way with such a slow connection and not much time. Also, if you're scanning the list and notice that I missed someone (I guarantee it's happened), please, please forward along. => Anyone daring to "reply all" will be summarily executed.
Love,
Summer
I'm in Zambia, and it is GREAT!!!
Pleasant surprises:
- Beautiful landscape, grassy dotted with trees, big blue sky
- Cool people who are thinking about how to get educated and get ahead, and are informed about the issues
- Ability of Zambians to break into perfect four-part harmony in less than a minute
- Food is not just cornmeal (as I had thought) but cornmeal, vegetables, and meat - with tea and coffee and bread and jam for breakfast
- If you call me or text me, *it doesn't cost me anything* and it can be cheap for you too - more on this later. I will text you back.
For those of you who weren't previously aware of my plans: I'm currently in Zambia with a British charity called SPW and planning to stay here until July/August doing HIV/AIDS and development work. When I return in the fall, I will be going to business school. Eugene and I are getting married May 25, 2008 in Toronto - I miss him terribly but at least I get to talk to him every other day or so and text him every day. Truly, I can't believe my good luck in finding such a wonderful man who is letting me do this and providing a ton of practical support besides. (Thanks for unlocking the SIM card! and making the visa card work! and for the headlamp! and the Sudoku puzzles!)
Everyone I've addressed this e-mail to is welcome to get in touch with me. The preferred method is calling or texting. You can get international phone cards with rates to Zambia of $0.05 to $0.08 per minute, and you can set up international texts for about $0.30. My number (from the US) is 011 260 xx xxxxxx. If I don't pick up, sorry! I haven't been able to set up voicemail yet but I'm going to try to get it working soon. Zambia is 7 hours ahead of New York time. E-mail and snail mail are both really not very good in comparison, but may be worth a shot if you don't mind me getting your message about a month later. This is my e-mail address, my snail mail address is: [removed].
I apologize for the mass e-mail intended for many different audiences - it's really the best way with such a slow connection and not much time. Also, if you're scanning the list and notice that I missed someone (I guarantee it's happened), please, please forward along. => Anyone daring to "reply all" will be summarily executed.
Love,
Summer
Email from Jan. 2
Hello all!
I have safely arrived in Zambia! The flights were uneventful, I met the rest of my fellow volunteers who are a very well-traveled group, and we've been looking around Lusaka today before heading to Kabwe tomorrow for training. The country is beautiful, very green, and our itinerary is relaxing to say the least, so I've been enjoying myself.
This is the fastest internet connection in the country, apparently, and it takes each page a minute or two to load - so please don't e-mail me unless what you have to say is really very important. => Also, while I had flirted with the idea of keeping a blog, it won't be possible because blogger.com pages take about a year to load.
Cell phones, on the other hand, seem to be universal - so if you need to get in touch with me, you can call Eugene or Mom and they will be able to get messages to me.
Love to all,
Summer
I have safely arrived in Zambia! The flights were uneventful, I met the rest of my fellow volunteers who are a very well-traveled group, and we've been looking around Lusaka today before heading to Kabwe tomorrow for training. The country is beautiful, very green, and our itinerary is relaxing to say the least, so I've been enjoying myself.
This is the fastest internet connection in the country, apparently, and it takes each page a minute or two to load - so please don't e-mail me unless what you have to say is really very important. => Also, while I had flirted with the idea of keeping a blog, it won't be possible because blogger.com pages take about a year to load.
Cell phones, on the other hand, seem to be universal - so if you need to get in touch with me, you can call Eugene or Mom and they will be able to get messages to me.
Love to all,
Summer
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