Thoughts on Zambia.

Zambia is an interesting place. (Duh.) 2 really intriguing things about it:

1. It has 78 official languages. We are learning to speak a bit of Bemba, which is what is spoken most in the Chingola area. When people don't know each others' languages, they speak in English, which is handy for us.

2. Obviously from 78 official languages, it has at least that many tribes living together, plus refugees from surrounding war-torn countries like the Congo. And the fascinating thing is that unlike places like Kenya, everyone gets along just fine, and people are particularly friendly to whites. There's no tribal conflict, and marriages of people from different tribes are very common. It is a really peaceful country, and though very poor, a pretty impressive example to the rest of Africa.


We've had an interesting past few days. On Thursday, the Health Department came to check up on the farm and kids. During their visit, someone discovered a cobra outside and the House Mum came out and killed it with a rock. Apparently the HD workers were quite entertained by all this and left very impressed.

Yesterday we went to find some relatives of some ex-street boys who now live on the farm. One boy has only one surviving sister, and after trying to track her down much of the morning, she was eventually located in a very small village an hour away, near the Congolese border. She was quite sweet and seeing the reunion with her little brother was really emotional for all of us. The other boy is from a township closer to Chingola. His parents have more than 10 children and are really unable to care for any of them. We had to go pick up his birth certificate and get permission from his father that he live at the farm. His grandmother told us we should just take all of the kids to the farm while we're at it. Sad circumstances.

The last week we've been free of car troubles, but yesterday the Land Rover broke way out in the middle of no where, and today we got a flat coming down the 8km road to town. We've nicknamed various parts of it "Devil's Kettle" or "Hell's Ravine". Once we get to the main road and our teeth stop rattling, everyone is very happy.