Darkest Africa

It started four days after school had finished, time enough for most of the expats to have left for their long holidays in the developed world.  Then, out of the blue, one morning the power stopped.  No warning, no preparation, just no power, just like that, for 8 hours at a time.  Expat Zambia (the Facebook group for, obviously, expats) went crazy with questions and cursing ZESCO, the state owned power company.

First Facebook post:

"Wanted: generator to power family home.

Need to power my house (lights, telly, fridge... you know, the normal shit we rely on in the 21st century) has arisen due to those useless, cretinous, incompetent, corrupt, oxygen thieves, carpetbaggers, Ostrogoth, heathen, moneygrabbing, parasitic, blood sucking, toxic waste, inept, greedy, power selling, excuse mongering, disappointing, child scaring, Visigoth, philistine, cable chewing mynock, hangings-too-good-for-them, waste of spaces at ZESCO informing me that I can expect no power from 4pm until 8pm every day until further notice."

ZESCO is the largest power company in Zambia producing about 80% of the electricity consumed in the country.  Each day, the power would go out at a different time, the cut would last for a different amount of time and it became obvious that this wasn’t a short term thing.  But still no word from ZESCO on what or why this was happening. We devoured each new FB post with the requisite hunger, and critiqued with equal vigour; rumours abounded.  Then slowly, little bit at a time, real information began to emerge from ZESCO and other sources.  There is so much now, and the factors behind why we’re having power cuts are worthy of a table.  But I’ll resist and try and put it in prose…and put the table at the end for my own benefit.

We have some very big rivers in Zambia, in fact the hydropower created from this water provides 99.6% of Zambia’s power.  The big rivers include the Zambezi, the river that flows south from the north west of Zambia, out to Angola, back to Zambia and south to the border (although I suppose the river was there before the border). This vast river crashes over the Victoria Falls and on into Lake Kariba, the largest manmade lake in the world by volume.  The power generated from the Kariba dam provides around 40% alone of Zambia’s power.

Showing Zambia and the mighty Zambezi 

Power demand currently stands at around 2,200MW (for comparison the UK’s is around 40,000MW) and has been growing at about 200MW a year (I understand the UK’s is actually falling year on year) for at least the last five years.  Since the Zambian power plants were built, they have had little to no investment, and barely even routine maintenance, owing principally to the fact that the cost of electricity to the consumer is below the cost of recovery.  Little planning was done to see when demand would outstrip supply, and to prepare for that eventuality.  Add to that the somewhat dry wet season we had last year.  So here we are with daily power cuts.

As I said, it was a good three weeks before ZESCO explained anything, a huge difference between developed and developing countries in general.  Why did it take them so long to tell their customers what was going on?  Why could they not create a timetable to begin with, and why can they still not stick to it?  How did they not know about this months before?  Why wasn’t there, and indeed, isn’t there, any sort of public education programme on preserving power?  I suppose ZESCO could be said to have attempted it, in so much as they have one advert encouraging customers to turn off all unnecessary electronic equipment.  It was displayed on one of three electronic billboards in Lusaka - oh the irony.

Disbelief expressed by ZESCO Senior Manager for Marketing and Public Relations Bessie Phiri that customers aren’t knuckling down and helping, never mind that ZESCO haven’t told them how, or what is expected of them: “Regrettably, it has been noted that when power is restored to our customers after load shedding, the demand for power is very high, as customers are trying to maximise the usage of electricity when it is available.  This pattern of consumption is not helping the situation, as the energy that ZESCO needs to save is not being saved, hence defeating the purpose of power rationing”.

The daily reality of living without a commodity one assumed was here to stay, is far reaching.  It is worse than having not had it to begin with. Having power is so normal; certainly there was the odd power cut last year but not this.  There are knock on effects.  The first of which was a run on LP gas as everyone rushed out to the three outlets to fill up their camping gas cylinders.  Then there was no diesel because anyone who had a generator was needing vast amounts of diesel.  And absolutely, without a doubt, the worst repercussion is when the water stops because just like everything else the water treatment works gets switched off.  Poor urban planning means that industrial, residential, retail and to some extent agricultural areas are all mixed up and fed by the same power supply lines.  On top of all that we watch in despair as the Kwacha drops against the £ and the $ (nearly 50% to date, the worst performing currency of the 155 tracked by Bloomberg) as the price of copper falls globally added to the fact the copper mines, agriculture and any industry suffer from the lack of power too.

So when Mum and Dad Powell arrived it only seemed natural that their first evening should be spent communing with us in darkness.  This really is deepest darkest Africa.

The first teatime with Mum and Dad - by candlelight

It was so lovely having Mum and Dad here, to have them see what we see, experience day-to-day life with us, meet our friends and have our life understood.  When we talk to them now, they know Ron and Miriam, they know that you have to cross the basketball courts to get to Steve’s classroom and they’ve seen the funny quirks of staying at Tabonina in Livingstone.  We explored the over-hyped Tiffany’s Canyon together, we drove together to and from Lower Zambezi and Siavonga and we thrilled at seeing elephants, hippos and crocodiles, and all us of tried to allay Callum’s (very real) fears of hippos and elephants in the lodge area, whilst not being completely convinced by our own arguments.  And we together experienced the power cuts.  You just can’t get better than that.

Power cut humour

More power cut humour

24 hours power?

On the evening of Tuesday 8^th September President Lungu and 59,999 fans sat down to watch a national football friendly, Zambia (aka Chipolopolos) against Gabon at Heroes' stadium in Lusaka. Here it is important to know that in 1993 on their way to play a FIFA world cup qualifier against Senegal the aircraft carrying most of the Zambian football team tragically crashed into the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Gabon killing all 25 passengers and five crew members. It is still thought to have been an attack carried out by Gabon rather than an accident.  So back to the story…about half way through the game the flood lights went out, with ZESCO instituting their power cuts. Someone must have sorted things out because the lights came back on after a few minutes, only to go out again not long after, this time for over 15 minutes. The Gabon team were allegedly fearing this could be a reprisal lynching for the perceived attack 30 years ago.  But from the turn of events it became clear the focus of the crowd’s frustration was the president not the opposing team; they started singing “substitute Lungu, substitute Lungu!” He was not amused and has ordered ZESCO to issue an apology disassociating him with power cuts. Must be the first time he's experienced a power cut.  On a upbeat note, although I’m sure there were repercussions for some poor ZESCO employee, I am very thankful to be living in a country where expression of that sort of dissatisfaction is acceptable.

It seems that the rest of Southern Africa is also suffering from the same power cuts for the same reason as here – poor planning, incompetence, mismanagement and demand outstripping supply.  I’m supposing that it’ll be at least 5 years, if one accounts for the usual political hold ups and other nonsense, before this is sorted out.  It certainly isn’t going to change any time soon and we must learn to get round the daily lack of power.  We’ve invested in some super lamps that are solar charged for the occasional evening power cut.  We’ll look at installing a very simple, semi-permanent 3 solar light system with the solar panel fixed to the roof too if it looks like we’re going to start having regular after-dark outages.  I think we must live on a block with some minor ZESCO employee because we are rarely without power after 6.

So, it’s tricky living through this because our way of life is not adjusted to deal with no power.  But as time goes people find ways around the problems, gas ovens are making a serious entry into the market, solar powered inverters, generators, solar powered lighting and charging.  People get ingenious.  Let’s hope that the situation births something beneficial – you know, like the Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894, debated at the first international urban planning conference (something Zambia has clearly never been represented at), found there was no solution, but within 15 years the advent of the car had made a seemingly insurmountable problem completely disappear.  The ultimate in the “something will turn up” philosophy.

A bit of Botswana

Can't believe it is September already and I'm still trying to publish something I wrote in June.  A little because I lack motivation and a lot because of the power outages the whole country has been suffering (the subject of a whole other post, probably more).  Finally, here you are.  

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Zambia has two bank holidays in May.  The first one, always the 1st of May, Labour Day celebrates the achievements of workers. The second is 25th May, African Freedom Day, the anniversary of the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union. Our little family, friends Leah and Fiona and Fiona’s housemate-for-the-summer Katy, made use of the second long weekend to trot down to Livingstone and safari in Chobe National Park, Botswana.

Actually I am more interested in anthropology than big animals, and there was plenty, even on safari, for me to observe.  Coming up to the border we saw the two-mile line of lorries parked at the side of the road waiting to cross the river into Botswana.  They wait for two weeks or maybe more to pass from one country to the other to take all manner of goods. It is the same at most borders across Africa for commercial goods and certainly explains the exceptionally high cost of imported goods within Zambia (which is pretty much everything since there is little industry).  How different it is in the European Union, borders being mere inconveniences to goods being transported around the continent.

Lorries waiting to cross the border at Kasangula, Zambia

Our taxi making its way past the waiting lorries to the border post

Botswana touches Zambia at one narrow point of the Zambezi with Namibia and Zim lying to the west and east. 

Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Zim border point

The border crossing is quite a heavily trafficked exit and entry point for goods vehicles. To any efficiency driven, right minded person the most sensible option would be a bridge but instead there is a ferry crossing.  I'm not sure what I was expecting at the border but for sure it wasn't this one vehicle ferry that we were met with.  I asked our taxi driver Obey (we've got to know him very well over 3 visits now) why there was no bridge and he muttered darkly about Mugabe not wanting a connection to Zambia so close to Zim.

Zambia Botswana border crossing Kasangula Ferry, one lorry at a time

Foot passengers take a small outboard motorboat crossing in no time at all.  There’s no particular reception point for foot passengers on either side, just a couple of muddy steps.  Luggage that you arrive with is thrown from the boat to the waiting guides.

The difference between Botswana and Zambia is immediately obvious as you start to drive from the ferry point towards Chobe National Park.  The roads feel better quality (better surface, if I remember from my transport lectures, the layers are thicker and the tarmac is better quality), they have road markings down the middle and the edge, cats eyes and road signs just like in the UK, weirdly enough.  I wonder if the AA make signs for Botswana too…do they still make them?  And there’s visibly less clutter in terms of signs, no advertising hoardings, just useful signs.

We had lunch at the safari cafe and discovered we couldn't pay for the trip in Kwacha, it had to be Pula or USD, neither of which we had.  The situation was resolved by a lengthy discussion with the young lady taking payments. We persuaded her to try the credit card machine.  She was convinced it didn't work but found that if she switched it on, it did.  How about that!

The first part of the safari was a cruise west along the Namibia-Botswana border.  There were the usual fish eagles, crocs, hippos, zebras and joy of joys elephants in huge numbers.  They are quite something when they wade through the water all holding the tail in front and using their trunks to snorkel once they start swimming.

Elephants know no borders, crossing the Zambezi from
Botswana to the Namibian Caprivi Strip

The Matriarch leading the crossing

Buffalo resting with his egret friend

Zebra and waterbuck

We went on a safari drive, to see even more animals, giraffes, warthogs, zebra, impala, a family of very contented lions having feasted on a dead elephant and over 50 different sorts of birds including lilac-breasted rollers.  The dead elephant we were told had died of old age.  Coming from the windward side we couldn’t smell a thing, it wasn’t until we got to the leeward side that we really knew this beast had been dead for a couple of weeks – goodness me, the hum! Like an exceedingly over-ripe Camembert cheese. Another interesting point was that the whole of the head had been burned away as soon as it was found to make sure poachers did not get the ivory from its tusks. So the lions were gorging themselves on roast elephant.  On the drive back to camp we spotted a black mamba, my first snake in the wild.  I couldn't believe how long and fast it was.  It came alongside the vehicle for a short while with its head held about a metre from the ground, then it disappeared into a tree.  Very glad the vehicle was high up and we could have driven off fast if the need arose.

Roast elephant feast

Bloodied faces and big bellies

Giraffe posing for the shot

Then back to camp, and really it was the most luxury camp I’ve been on (I suppose Duke of Edinburgh and cadet camping were never about to be luxury, my reference point is low).  The beds were comfortable, the fire hot and bright, the food second-to-none and the ablutions fun (shower in the sun – who wouldn’t want that!), and long drop loos.

Camp with ablutions basin

Callum making good use of the hot water

The shower!

Chairs around the campfire - I forgot to get the campfire in the pic

We got talking to some super interesting people on the breaks from safari at camp.  One girl is doing a PhD in food security to try and understand why some many poor African women are fat but in the same family the children and the man will be thin.  It is a question I have wanted to understand and it seems no-one does, yet.  All they know at the moment is it’s something to do with the way women store fat.

On our return from Chobe we stayed in Livingstone again (as we did in March and have done since in July) at the Tabonina Inn.  The baboons were the same (give them a wide berth, yukky creatures digging through their own and other animals’ poo, pretty aggressive too), but the falls were even fuller than in March just at the end of the rainy season. All the rivers from western Zambia and quite a lot from central and eastern Zambia including the Kafue and the Luangwa feed into the Zambezi so it takes a while for the rain from the catchment to flow into the Zambezi.  The spray was quite spectacular, even from close to the railway bridge into Zimbabwe some 500m away we were getting wet.

Victoria Falls in full flow

[If the different mixture of different text fonts and styles disturb you as much as they do me, then know that I have spent at least an hour trying to correct it with no success.  Mindful of Freakonomics advice "know when to quit", I have just let it go.  Almost right will have to be enough!]

Stop Press!

Finally, after 36 working days, for a process that should have taken 10 working days, my work permit has been approved.  In that time, immigration lost my paperwork once and shortly after installing their big, new, electronic system, couldn't sit to review my case because the system was down.

Anyway, I am proud to say my esteemed employer, Mr Andrew Chitembo has me very busy:
1. Context review for the WaterAid Zambia 5 year strategy (summarise all the relevant national legislation, policy, strategy and actors)
2. Nkana Water water supply and sanitation project economic and financial appraisal
3. National Rural Water and Sanitation Programme review
...and myriad other papers.

I have yet to find a way of succinctly describing either the consultancy or Andrew but AnChiCon (Andrew Chitembo Consultancy) is an entity that various ministries and other local bodies trust to do a thorough, accurate and helpful job.  Andrew has many sons and daughters, about 10 I think, ranging in age from four to mid 40s.  One of them, Mwenda, is the Managing Director of AnChiCon.  

Andrew is very engaging and interesting.  I passed a happy two hours on Saturday listening to him talk about his parents, grandparents and great-grand parents.  There are no written records before his generation so everything is handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, and usually involves a camp fire.  I have pictures of hunters in animal skins, processions through the jungle to claim chiefs' daughters, marriages that were negotiated between families sometimes before children were born, non-existent borders and lands that are now Congo and Angola but were then just their land to the people who lived there.  I'm beginning to build a picture of the history of this area during and before colonisation. 

Presidents and Politics

It's the end of the rainy season and long overdue for another post.  I have been thinking and learning about many things since the beginning of December but the most dominant has been politics.

Ill

Since I started receiving Google alerts in December 2013 about Zambia and the President, The Zambia Watchdog has referred to President Michael Sata as "the ailing dictator".  On many occasions anti-government media outlets have reported that he was sick, or even dead on a couple of occasions.  State run and pro-government media have always tried to present a very healthy active president. In September he trotted off to New York for the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly.  He didn't deliver his scheduled address to the 193 member world body.  In October he disappeared from public life, from Zambia, apparently to be found in Israel receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness. Then he was back and addressing the people, then he disappeared again to be found in London.

Death

On 28 October the BBC announced, (bizarrely, rather than Zambia's State House), that the President had died at the age of 77 in London's King Edward VII hospital after treatment for a still undisclosed illness.  He had served 3 years and 35 days of his 5 year term and is the second of the five presidents to die in office (a third died shortly after he left office).  So began a three week period of mourning for the dead president during which time one had to remain somber and respectful so all public events of any sort were postponed (like school sports days and kitchen parties and weddings).  It became miraculously quiet.  The noise and music that had filled the air, invaded it even, until 3am at the weekend and some days during the week, just stopped.  We could hear birds sing and people talking, rather relaxing really.

The Post's front page 4th November showing
 the mourning friends and family and the
challenge to the interim presidency

In government this left a curious power vacuum whilst both politicians and the public, debated the legitimacy of Vice-President Guy Scott's position.  Actually there isn't much evidence that it was politically debated, on the floor of the house so to speak; it just played out in the news.  You see, generally if the president is unable to fulfil his duties (which given that he was dead would have been tricky) the vice president becomes acting president under the current Zambian constitution.  However, the constitution also requires both parents of presidential candidates to be "Zambian by birth or descent".  Scott’s parents were both born in the UK and emigrated to the then Northern Rhodesia in 1927 and 1940. Thus Scott could have been considered ineligible to take up acting president.  The provision was put in place by President Frederick Chiluba to prevent the first president, Kenneth Kaunda – whose father was born in what became Malawi – from becoming president again (after his 27 year term).

Guy Scott himself was born in Livingstone in the south of Zambia, educated in what is now Zimbabwe and then Cambridge University, Sussex University, Oxford University and back to Sussex.  He is a well educated man for sure, economics, cognitive science, robotics and finally a doctorate in artificial intelligence.  Having worked with his father on an anti-colonialist newspaper he joined the government just after independence as a planner in the Ministry of Finance and so far as I can work out has been in politics ever since.  It is pertinent to note that President George W. Bush referred to him as “a scaly old dude”.

The "Scaly Old Dude" - Acting President Guy Scott

Finally, it was agreed that he would become Acting President for what remained of the 90 day period before the election of the new president.  He was the first white president in Africa since the last apartheid-era President of South Africa, F. W. de Klerk.

Funeral

The funeral was pretty well organized apparently (this accusation does depend on your benchmark to begin with).  It only started 3 hours late.  We were personally invited via text, 3 minutes before it was due to begin.

Canvassing and Campaigning

Canvassing and campaigning started on 19 November but really began in earnest in January on our return from the UK, and lasted until 19 January, the day before the election.  Buses and lorries full of cadres from all political parties could be seen everywhere, with the assigned coloured beret, singing and shouting at the tops of their voices, no doubt peddling the relevant opinions (couldn’t tell because they were in local languages).  Quite how they earned money during this time isn’t clear but they were very busy hustling people into a frenzy.  It was on the whole a peaceful affair although there were a couple of reported ‘incidents’ in Ndola.  Our maid referred to the incidents as "cadres causing confusion".

UPND party cadres going slow and holding up
 traffic 

Election Day

Voting officially ran from 06.00 – 18.00, everything else was shut down.  No shopping, no school, no work, no restaurants, so everyone had the opportunity to vote.  Wherever you registered you must return there to vote.  So for instance, our gardener Benson had to return to the Copperbelt in order to cast his vote. Since the 20 January is in the middle of the rainy season, there was severe rain pretty much everywhere and where there would usually be continuous queuing outside polling stations people stayed home.  Such was the effect that the electoral commission allowed certain of the worst affected polling stations to re-open the next day too.  In order to make sure people only voted once when they had voted their right thumb nail was painted black.  I only found this out in discussion with our guards, when I commented on the unlikely misfortune of so many of them having bruised thumbs.

At 22.00 hours on 24 January 2015, exactly 100 hours after the official polls closed, Edgar Lungu of the PF (Patriotic Front) was declared sixth president of the Republic of Zambia. He polled 807,925 votes beating his closest rival Hakainde Hichilema of UPND (United Party for National Development) who polled 780,168. An enormous cheer was heard across the city and apparently spontaneous partying began.

We had several friends who were involved in election observation and they all commented that it seemed free and fair, and with just a 1.6% difference that would seem true (my reasoning being that whoever was controlling an unfair election would not allow it to get so close – logical?).  Only 32% of registered voters actually turned out to vote.

Civil society monitor signing party seal
 on empty ballot box prior to opening voting

Sealing the ballot box to send to counting centre

Presiding Officer posting election results at polling station - Lukashya constituency

Presidency

After a nice two week break the new president took up office.  Although each presidential candidate was required to undergo medical screening, on 8 March President Lungu collapsed whilst giving a speech to commemorate International Women’s day and was immediately sent off to South Africa for treatment.  The president’s office said he was suffering from a narrowing of the oesophagus which needed a high-tech medical procedure currently unavailable in Zambia.  Rumours abounded that he had oesophageal cancer, related to his alcoholism.  Who knows?  But as one blogger said “Does evidence of a disease of the lung affect a person’s ability to rule? This is why our constitution only states that one should not lead when [one is] sick, for such a requirement would be impossible to meet by mere mortals.”  Much as I don’t hold with the President’s policies and method of governing, I have to agree with that logic.

President Edgar Lungu

Fuel Crisis
Barely had Mr. Lungu recovered consciousness when the country was paralysed by a fuel crisis.  The first sign was one Sunday afternoon in March when we had decided to drive out to Munda Wanga, Lusaka’s answer to a zoo.  We thought that since the gauge was on red we’d better stop for some petrol, but had to try three or four stations before we found one with any petrol.  Didn’t really think anything of it then; Lusaka is always running out of stuff.  Since we don’t drive anywhere during the week we didn’t notice anything untoward.  It was only the next weekend, when we were down in Livingstone, that we saw long, long queues of traffic outside a solitary petrol station, and no cars at all at the others.  On questioning our taxi driver we learned of the fuel crisis.

Chaos at the pump

Zambian news is not clear at the best of times but little by little we were able to build up a picture.  At first the Minister of Mines, Energy and Water Development, Christopher Yaluma denied there was a crisis. Then when it became clear that even he could no longer deny it, he demanded people should stop panic buying and that was contributing to the shortage.  Finally, after we started to see abandoned cars at the side of the road, he blamed the shortage on the oil marketing companies.

So I thought I’d investigate what really happened.  It’s rather interesting, and of course, not as simple as the media had portrayed.  As with most other commodities, Zambia imports fuel, and there are three ways they do this.  Firstly, there is the Tanzania Zambia Mafuta Pipeline (usually called TAZAMA pipeline).  The company is jointly owned by the Zambian and Tanzanian governments. TAZAMA pumps fuel from the terminal at Dar-es-Salaam to the refinery in Dar, then on to the refinery in Ndola (Copperbelt part of Zambia).  It is supposed to pump the majority of the nation’s fuel but because of pipeline breakages and issues either end it only processes about 60% of the requirement.  The shortfall is covered by the second method, through international petroleum dealers who import the finished products into the country.  Two companies, Trafigura and Dalbit Petroleum have specific contracts with the government to import.  Lastly there are the Oil Marketing Companies like PUMA, Egen and Total.  These companies can import the finished product and sell on the open market but the government has imposed a 25% tax on them.  So none of them import to sell because they don’t make any profit.

For reasons that have yet to be determined, no deliveries of any sort were made for over a month, so Zambia was forced to take from its month’s reserve and started to run short.  The crunch point coincided with the president falling ill and there was a distinct lack of direction.  Then payments from the ministry of energy were not forthcoming to suppliers.  So you have a shortage, or a crisis depending on how you’re affected.

Anyway, it seemed to resolve itself after a week or two.  Things returned to normal, and the petrol pump attendants once again had something to do other than merely wave motorists straight through the forecourt!

Culture Shock?

I suppose I expected this to happen; an inevitable part of starting a new life far from what is safe and known.  And, in so much as I knew it would happen, I had done my best to prepare, but preparation and experience are not synonymous.  Nothing really prepares you for it.
It started shortly after I was stopped by the police, twice on the same day.  I have never been stopped by the police in my 24 years of driving in the UK.  I know the rules of the road, and I pretty much uphold them (well alright, maybe a little speeding here and there).  And I have to say that both times it felt like the only reason I had been stopped was because I am white and therefore a better source of money.  This maybe a wrong perception but there it is.  The second time, apparently I had turned right at traffic lights without waiting for the filter.  I still can't see the filter.  I was taken to Lusaka Central Police Station and the police officer and my friend Tamenji, who I was with at the time, discussed what should be done about me.  Finally he agreed to let me off this time, since it was my first offence.
There were many other small frustrations that assumed larger proportion that they should have, the bed we'd bought had deformed, school maintenance had still not installed a shower curtain rail, or fixed the tap, or put up fly screens and the drawers in the kitchen fell apart.  Far, far worse than that was realisation that child protection systems are pretty much ineffective.  If a case of abuse were to be reported at school, there is no-one to report it to externally, no-one to protect, no-one to take up a child's cause.  All that can be done is to try to help them learn how to protect themselves.  You can be sure that no part of society is free from the abuses.
Later that week, the Friday before half term, Steve and I were talking to Fiona, one of the other Brits.  She was going back to Scotland the next day for half term.  As we discussed things she could bring back for us, I just could not stop crying.  I realised that if I were to go home there and then, I would not come back.  It was shocking to discover I felt like this.  Since I was 16 I have been working towards living and working in Sub-Saharan Africa.  How could I want to leave before I had even started?  Fiona suggested this might be culture shock.
As I pondered this, one of the hymns we often sing at church came to mind "All I once held dear, built my life upon..." and I began to piece together what I found unsettling.  Here is what I've come up with so far - my foundations:

It wasn't a bad case of culture shock and I'm learning to deal with the new situations.  But there are so many things I've never had to think about before that I have no box for in my mind.  I guess it takes time to process these.

Not Complaining; Just Saying - 3

And another thing...
Roads
I can't say it better or more non-judgmentally than Chris McIntyre does in the Bradt guide to Zambia "Driving around Zambia isn't for the novice, or the unprepared...The standard of driving is generally poor, matched only by the quality of the roads.  Most roads in the cities, and the major arteries connecting these, are tar.  These vary from silky-smooth recently laid roads, to potholed routes that test the driver's skill at negotiating a 'slalom course' of deep holes, whilst avoiding the oncoming traffic that's doing the same.  Inconveniently, the smooth kind of road often changes into the holed variety without warning, so speeding on even the good tar is a dangerous occupation...As an additional hazard, even the tar roads are narrow by Western standards, often with steep sides designed to drain off water during the rains.  As a result, it's all too easy, faced with a sharp bend or an oncoming lorry, to veer off the road, a fact borne out by the regular sight of a truck lying on its side in the ditch, or to damage the sump of the vehicle.  Watch out for the speed humps that may occur without warning, even on major roads.  You often find these at the entrance and exit of a town...
...Police (and immigration) roadblocks are an occupational hazard of driving, and you can expect to be stopped regularly.  They are usually indicated in advance by oil drums or traffic cones placed in the middle of the road, but some are very poorly marked."

Main road Chipata to Lusaka over-taking a lorry
(directions are - leave Chipata and go west for 560km)

The main roads in Lusaka generally have a good surface, though somewhat lacking in informative road markings and warning signs.  You just have to know you need to be in the inside lane to go straight on at a cross-roads.  As Chris McIntyre says, there are many surprising road humps throughout town and when we first got here they were always taking us by surprise.  There is so much distraction along the road, advertisements and hoardings of one sort or another, even huge electronic television screens, that's it's hard to pick out useful information.  But we've learned to look out for the bollards either side of the hump, sometimes faded yellow hatching and other times just other cars slowing.  The humps are intended to slow traffic to under 5mph, if you don't you'll certainly scrape and deform the front bumper.  And knowing that they really do save lives by slowing the traffic, we mostly see them as a good thing.
We'd only been at school a week when one of the year 4 teaching assistants was killed in a road accident less than a mile from the school.  He left behind four daughters, his wife having died last year.  Death is horribly common here.  Road safety is, as other safety related concepts, a thing of the future.  People frequently don't wear seat belts, babies and children sit completely unrestrained in cars, vehicles despite having to pass a fitness test (MOT) are often not road worthy.  And lorries passing through the country are often in a terrible state, not road worthy, over packed and over tired drivers.  I understand from UN reports that after malaria and HIV/AIDS, road traffic accidents are the biggest killer in Zambia.  I wanted to verify (BBC Radio 4 More or Less has taught me something!) these stats at Zambia's Central Statistical Office but for some reason I haven't been able to access the website.

Guy standing up in the back of a truck,
situation normal.

A very common mode of transport 

Disappointing photo trying to show road outside our
compound and how bumpy it is - looks just fine here
 but it really isn't

Cyclists travel at the side of the road in both directions.  Between villages, out in the bush, cycling is the mode of transport for long distances and it isn't uncommon to see bikes with one, two or even a breath-taking three passengers.  Many transport the most enormous heavy, wide loads.  On the way to Chipata at half-term we spotted a guy with what we presumed/hoped was a dead, pig on the back of his bike.  But they also more commonly carry sacks of charcoal standing 1.5m high 0.5m diameter precariously strapped to both the back and the front.

Charcoal dromedary

And of course, you have to travel during daylight hours only.  At night, firstly there is no street lighting, even in town.  Secondly because of other vehicles, possibly without headlights, or with only one headlight, poorly maintained trucks, and illegal truckers who come out because the police knock off at 17.00.  Not to mention the animals that roam the road and roadsides at night.  Our 750km drive to Chipata and on to South Luangwa National Park this half term was extremely tense.  We had to leave early in the morning and arrived about 10 minutes after dark, a total of 11 hours driving.  There were kilometres of road diversions onto unmade road, many animals (particularly goats) that seemed to be drawn to the sound of our car, slow heavily laden trucks, narrow single lanes, steep drops either side of the road and well...it was, as I said, tense.

Luangwa river suspension bridge spanning
 400m of river  - the only bridge across the lower
 Luangwa and the only access to the Eastern
Province (cross one vehicle at a time)

So here endeth the observations...for now.

Not Complaining; Just Saying - 2

Further observations
The shiny, shiny floor

No self-respecting cleaner at a mall would leave a floor they couldn't see their face in.  This is of course relentless work because people keep walking on it but you can reduce the number of pedestrians by killing off a few as they slip on your shiny, shiny floor.
The Internet

Let me show you about the internet around Africa and it will give you an idea about why it is so alarmingly expensive and unreliable.

Submarine cables across the world - take a look:
 http://submarine-cable-map-2014.telegeography.com

I don't fully understand it but it can't help only having this small number of cables coming into Namibia or Tanzania, and Zambia being in the middle of the continent therefore being at the end of every line.  The information super-highway is more like a misinformation dirt-track here.

And the suppliers of internet services will make up all manner of nonsense about why the service is poor or non-existent on a particular day.  Of one thing you can be certain though - it isn't their fault!

If you have wireless in your home then likelihood is that you are on a package which includes a designated amount during the daytime for that month and a greater amount 18.00 to 08.00 hours and at the weekend.  Should you go over your amount then the internet will just be cut off until the first of next month.  You can only have packages that run from the beginning to the end of a calendar month.

Health & Safety

Truly a thing of the future - see for yourself!

Steve's classroom entrance, break time

Drainage channels in between buildings at school

Raised drain covers in main play area at school

Working off scaffolding at one of the malls
- note also the shiny, shiny floor

Hole dug by Lusaka Water & Sewage Company
right in the middle of the thoroughfare (one
hesitates to call it a footpath for obvious reasons)

Buildings

It is not apparent that buildings are designed or built with any particular regards for building codes or regulations.  Levels change throughout a building to suit the lie of the land, and the steps might be any height from trip-over-small to surprisingly-and-inconveniently-high.  There are asbestos materials in abundance and any manner of unfinished work left as part of the finished look – bits of rebar still poking through, beams that stick out, columns that only support half the roof they were supposed to.  Nothing built after the colonial powers left is level or vertical and anything built during that time is probably falling down.

Friends' year old rental property, see
column there on the left?

I'm not done yet!