Side excursions and radio silence

Last week, the EWB WatSan team evacuated from Malawi to Zambia. That sounds kind of serious, and it was – a second round of anti-government protests were planned. The first round had us house-bound for 3 days, about 20 people were killed, and there was a lot of tense radio-listening. That round was described as a warm-up for the protests that were planned for August 17th. With little media information (a lot of filters on news stories), we were instead relying on rumours for information on which to plan for safety, which is far from ideal. In the days leading up to the 17th, I saw warm-up parades in the streets, and a politicians speaking beside burnt-out buildings. There were rumours of military protests about a shuffle in their leadership. There were also rumours that the military would be out in plain-clothes, armed, during the protests “in case things got out of hand,” a pretty scary idea. Based on that, we opted to cross the border into Zambia for the days around the planned protests, and take advantage of the time for team meetings, a mini-retreat, and following up with the JFs (our summer staff) who are heading back to school in Canada next week.

The protests ended up being cancelled the day before by the organizers after the President agreed to meet with them to discuss their concerns. Somehow, word did get around, and as far as I know, the streets of Malawi were errily quiet on the 17th (since many people still shut down businesses just in case). Apparently talks are happening, with a deadline of September 17th set as a new day of protest if things don’t go well. Over the weekend, the President disolved his cabinet, and so the government now has no Ministers. (I’m still trying to figure out what this means – it’s either a response to criticism that his cabinet was bloated and ineffective, or a massive power grab by the President’s office.)

On the other hand, Zambia was great! There were 23 of us taking over a guest house on top of a hill in Chipata, just across the Malawi-Zambia border, and aside from the obvious issues of coordinating food (cheaply) for such a massive group, a bit of cabin fever and overwhelmingly intense interaction space, and the less obvious issues of a cold making it’s rounds through the group, trying to buy flipchart paper, and such weak electricity that we often gave up on the stove and opted for fire-top cooking instead, it was a lot of fun. Highlights included:

• A fairly intense chunk of time trying to understand our group culture, what we like, what we don’t, and how we might shape it
• S’mores and slacklining!
• Milkshakes from Spar, the local supermarket
• A nice medium-sized market, with fun stuff like beautiful chitenges (fabric) and watermelons, but very friendly vendors who didn’t shout or pressure (a nice contrast to the Lilongwe market).
• Cool stories about work on area mechanics, sanitation promotion, and borehole siting tools
• Even more awesome people than usual – the WatSan team, the WatSan JFs plus some of the AVC (Agriculture Value Chains, another EWB program area) JFs, plus Brian Magee, plus new friends who were tenting at the guest-house (and very kindly put up with our near-monopolizing of the kitchen, bathrooms, and work-space/bar).
• Mustard! (Also a great alternative after an unfortunate incident with a probable case of mayonaise food poisoning – sorry about that!)
• Getting a haircut by committee, with giant scissors, no mirror, and “Is that straight?” There was also a conversation that went “Can I give you layers?” “No, last time I had layers it looked like a mullet.” “I won’t give you a mullet, but I think you do want layers.” “Fine, whatever, cut layers.” And then a five minute debate on how to actually cut layers, during which scissors were in use. It did work out though – Tessa and Lisa were nervous but did a lovely job (which means it looks the same except the ends are neater).
• A break from internet and phone. I love communication, but it was nice to switch off for a couple days.
• Spending money by the thousands – a couple days worth of groceries for 23 people quickly added up to millions, in Zambian Kwatcha. Millions!

… And, making exciting plans for moving forward with work. Which I will now get back to implementing Hope all is well in your corners of the world.

Minibus back from Chipata - Jolly Ann and Tessa all grins, Jordan being cool, Imran keeping an eye out, Lisa smiling, me being awkward, Ashley peeking around Jordan, the conductor, Owen having fun, Kevin calm despite the mountain of luggage, Mike ready for a nap. JF and Sydney were up front as photographers.