SCENES OF CHIPATA

I spent a good part of Saturday (May 29th) taking photos of different life images of Chipata. The images I selected are a constant in Chipata and give readers an idea of my daily life here.



Young tailor sewing bags

The first set of photographs is of downtown, or what locals call the "down shoppes". The tailor you see to the right is someone I met on Saturday (May 28th), who sews wonderful Zambian bags. They're great for shopping bags and other uses. This particular tailor has a unique style that is different from the other designs I have seen.

 

A busy Saturday in the down shoppes


The down shoppes is extremely busy on Saturdays right before closing down at 12:00 hours. Before then, the streets are teeming with cars and cars coming around corners block traffic. But it's not unbearable. I love the down shoppes during this time - people hurried, Saturday classes for the Muslim students in the Chingolo School. 

Then, once 12:00 hours strikes, the

Knock off time

streets go empty. The entire vernacular looks like a ghost town; not one person can be found among the shoppes except around the Jami Mosque, where the Muslims come and get ready for the evening prayer at 17:00 hours.

The Jami Mosque was built in 1963, paid for by the Muslim community. Many of the Muslims are Indians, who were brought to Zambia during the time of British Colonialism to work in the mines and in agriculture. Today, they make up a large percentage of the entrepreneurs in the down shoppes and in the center of town, owning restaurants, tailor shoppes, electronic stores, stationery shoppes, etc. Those who have succeeded live in the middle income to upper middle income community, called Little Bombay.

Jami Mosque

The Eastside Mall, diagonal to the building where I work, Old Chipata Municipal Council, is shopping central for Chipata. People come from all over to do their weekly shopping here, even as far away as Nyimba, Katete, and Mambwe. A bus comes once or twice a week and shuttles people from these more rural areas into Chipata center and back. SPAR is located in this mall and ShopRite is only another ten minute walk down Umozi Highway towards Malawi. Public transportation serving towns in the Eastern Province is truly lacking. At best, buses make return trips to far away places, Like Lusaka, Botswana, and some not so far away, like Malawi.

Eastside Mall

Other developments occurring around Chipata are roads paving projects and a new gas station in the process of being erected.

Newly paved Road

Tourism is also a growing industry in the area, although there doesn't appear to be a written plan about how and to what extent the Chipata Council wants to grow tourism. Most of the accomodations are small-scale motels. There is a youth hostel, named Deans, and a 5-Star hotel, Protea, is within walking distance of Chipata Motel and Chipembele Lodge. Expensive, though. A pot of coffee costs a whopping ZK20,000.

Maize is a staple crop and Chipata is home to many mills manufacturing factories in the vicinity. One, Rainbow Milling, sits on Lundazi Road, just across from the Chipata Motel, where I live.

Also on Lundazi are numerous street vendors, which pose a problem to some local residents, who grumble over vendors blocking the sidewalks. Understandable, but the population growth is happening much too quickly for the Council to respond adequately. Mainly, vendors are forced to sit on bamboo mats along major highways in order to make a living because they cannot afford to pay the rental prices for retail space. On Umozi Highway in Luwangwa, a basket village (I name I gave it) just explodes with baskets. It seems to be a pit stop for tourists on buses. Basket village is just one example of how difficult it is to accomodate street vendors with appropriate retail space. 

The uploading of these photos has taken me quite some time. The harddrive capacity on my netbook isn't really made for uploading large files. Thus, I've compiled some of them on the Kodak Slide Show, which can be accessed through this URL:

 http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?facebook=true&sourceId=984136008703

CLOSING THE CHAPTER ON MAY AND TRANSITIONING INTO JUNE

Sunday (22 May) was such a lovely day that I felt inspired to broadcast it. My friend, Richard, asked me to accompany him and his “family” on a brief hike up Kanjala Hill to get a hillside view of Chipata town. The view was breathtaking. I could see clear across along the mountain chain across to the Malawi side of Chipata. Malawi is just twenty minutes away from Chipata; the easiest way to get there is by taking Malawi Road, which leads directly to Mchinji, another squatter community (I think), inside Malawi.

On the other side of the part of Kanjala Hill that we were standing on is the Lutembwe Dam, a central drinking water source for the town. Surrounding Lutembwe Dam are acres and acres of forests, which not surprisingly are being cut down to make way for residential development, which seems to grow at a rate as fast as Amherst.

The director of the planning department in Chipata still has not sat down with me to talk about the extent and magnitude of development of Chipata into a city. There is clearly a need to complete the visioning process, as the city continues to grow outward in a way that spells potential environmental problems for the town. The lack of response to my review of the current planning document – over one month, now – implies futuristic, responsible planning might not be a priority for the Council. Instead, planning goes on as usual, which normally consists of identifying land spaces for parceling into plots, which are later sold to interested homeowners.

I have a desire to get into Malawi, but for now I have to be content with discovering Chipata. I haven't seen much of it, yet. I don't have a bike – so, I am on foot. The most I have seen of it so far is the Lundazi Road area and the town center. At best, I have gotten a bird's eye view of the area. I keep saying I'll walk to Malawi, but probably not this week. Perhaps this weekend . . .

The day was just stunning. The temperature was perfectly breezy; the afternoon sun hot on my shoulders and Richard, I, and his adopted family engaging in easy, conversations that were both focused and scattered. Richard and I, of course, tended to dominate the air with our complaints about the lethargy of Zambia, while the members of his family talked amongst themselves. The road was unpaved, which made walking downhill a little tricky. But, in a peculiar way, I liked periodically losing my footing as the iron-red gravel rolled around loosely beneath the soles of my Keen sandals.

Richard had thought far ahead, loading the trunk of his car with fruits, candy, and water. After snacking on them atop Kanjala, we all stopped at the fancy Protea Hotel for lunch, where his family met up with the children's mother, an employee at the hotel. Protea, an international 5-Star hotel, boasts a pool, probably the only one in Chipata. They all went swimming except for a handful of us. I languished on one of the plastic recliner chairs at pool side. I saw two sister's flapping about in the water, whose joyous, teasing laughter reminded me of Phoebe Prince and her sister, Lauren.

I have finally polished off my quarterly report for the VSO program office in Lusaka. Once I filled in all the boxes, I realized I had done more work than I realized. Perhaps doing all that work in a matter of three months is the reason my emotions continue to wax and wane: on most days, I feel I am having the time of my life and am having the best experience, while on the occasional nadir, I feel Zambia is the worst international experience I have ever had. I hope to stabilize my roller coaster heart in the second quarter by focusing more on the small things that I am accomplishing and less on the large, more difficult projects that are planned. Oh, and staying away from the evening news might help, as the news has endless reports about corruption, with the elections so near.

During the last two weeks of May, I learned how to use the total station. Well, “learned to use” is a bit of an exaggeration. I learned how to align the total station to a 90 degree angle, measured by the perfect positioning of a tiny infrared light on the head of a metal beacon, and learned which buttons I would have to adjust in order to make sure that the elevation and balance of the machine matched that of the land. I haven't been taught how to read the important symbols, but at least for now Mr. Total Station is no longer a mystery to me, thanks to my colleague, Paul. I still prefer the thinking part of planning, but the quick lesson on the total station gave me a general overview of its utility, which are distance, spatial depth, and plane coordinates.

I have finally bought a basic Kodak camera. I am still trying to work out why the camera is not charging my inserted battery. The model is an M550. I followed the instructions, but nothing. The light doesn't even flash. Once the camera begins functioning, I promise to get those photos posted onto this blog. In the meantime, please visit “My Fundraising Page” to the left of today's blog.

Thanks!

Labor Day Celebrations

Labor Day holiday today, which means no work. Yesterday, some of the Council staff and invited participants marched in the streets in support of workers. Back at the motel, where Council staff and others arrived to eat, there was a huge celebration. I gathered this from the hooting, laughing, and clapping. Too bad I missed it; I was busy preparing my chiwawa leaves for drying.

Like in the United States, workers are given due thanks and appreciation for running the government, the economy, public services, etc. So, we should all give ourselves a big pat on the back for being commemmorated in such an important holiday celebration.

The motel is hosting another conference, which I think is part of K-International. The organization is doing some work with HIV/AIDS education in Chipata District and have been lodging at the motel over the weekend. The restaurant was crowded and it was hard to tell if I was supposed to eat from the buffet or not. I got up early to eat breakfast, believing all of the participants had departed for their homes, but it turned out that the buffet had not yet been served. I hate getting worked up over food, but even when I ask the kitchen staff about my meal, I often don't get the answers. This has happened on a few occasions with large conference participants in the motel. I also hate feeling aggravated when I don't know how I am supposed to eat because when I feel that way, I often sound that way. At the same time, if I don't push, the motel staff do not accommodate. It would be nice to live in a house, either shared or my own. At least I would not be regularly sharing it with 60 other people and I would be able to cook as soon as I got home from work. I would also be able to prepare my own meals without having to rely on the kindness of strangers.

Last Friday, I sent off the comprehensive proposal plan for the squatter community to the Commissioner of Lands. I believe I had mentioned this project in a previous blog. I anticipate hearing from him in two weeks. I hope the three plans related to land valuation and upgrading are approved. That way, I can start working on discussing the details with other Council planners and finalizing the logistics. Grants, too, can subsequently be written to fund those projects.

The rest of my work is flowing along smoothly. I also just finished the first draft of the Excel training handbook, which was requested by one of the socio-economic planners. These trainings, so far, are aimed at sharing skills for studies of urban and peri-urban problems, as mandated under the Urban Planning Act. This Act replaces the Town and Country Planning Act and the Zambian government is seeking to implement this new Act at the district level. To that end, I am attempting to develop another training that orients the planning department at the Council of the legislative changes in planning approaches. I am having some problems with the structure of the training, as I don't want the contents to be redundant. Otherwise, I'll put people to sleep. My goal is to facilitate the transition of the way planning staff think about planning, shifting their thinking away from viewing planning as strictly a process about parceling and selling land and building regulations and towards thinking about it in terms of an integrated and comprehensive process. More about that in another blog.

I continue to fundraise for this placement. USD$2,000.00 is my minimum benchmark. If you so feel inclined, please send in your donations via the “My Fundraising Page”. Thank you.