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.
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