Work

A large part of my time here has been creating a home life, getting to know my community and host family, learn the language and local dialect, and adapting to the culture. But I have also been working. I apologize for this entry not being as exotic or interesting as others, but it describes what I do with most of my time, and the reason I'm here in the first place, why these two countries decided to unite to construct an imaginary pipeline funneling recently graduated left wingers across the globe to live in huts, unsuccessfully start fires, and fumble with shortwave dials to pick up the slightest taste of home.

A Typical Zambian Lunch (How to Cook and Enjoy Nshima)

Community, Entered

"Each nation has many customs and practices which are not only unknown to another nation but barbarous and a cause of wonder." - Montaigne (in this context, he is referring to the differences in German and French house-warming stoves. If he only were to come to Africa.)

Serenje Boma, Zambia

I have been living in the village of Chimupati, in Serenje District, in the middle of Zambia, in the center of Sub-Saharan Africa, for three months. I am finished with Community Entry, an artificial period of 90 days to orient myself to my community and them to me. From everyone's vantage point the world orbits them; in my case everything is moving faster around me, the train speeds by nearby and traffic follows a swift parallel path, while I spend the entire afternoon sitting on my porch.Here's a few notes, observations, and rants from my time here so far.

From the Economist, January 2011:

The emerging new country of South Sudan, which has voted overwhelmingly for secession from the north, has already become a leading nation of "the workshop": not a place where hard work gets done under duress but where the language of aid is taking hold even among the natives. 'I feel like a stakeholder now,' exclaimed a woman of the Dinka tribe, the region's most prolific.

All the favourite words of NGO-speak are now aired in the makeshift corridors and canteens of Juba, the fledgling capital. Top of the list are 'empowerment', 'capacity-building' and 'stakeholder' (not someone actually carrying a stake). 'Governance', 'civil society', 'facilitators' and 'disadvantaged' follow fast behind. British NGOs have a fondness for 'focal groups'. Americans like anything that leads to 'inclusion', especially of the 'excluded'.

All words I have become incredibly familiar with, then inured, whereafter sick of. Thanks, Economist, now I'll start delousing my vocabulary.