Lunch– A Look at Cultural Minutiae

A quick “blog-let” (def: n: meaning small blog post)

Let me highlight culture norms through the example of lunch.  Culture norms greatly dictate lunchtime protocol.    Your job status and gender and marital status all play a part in where you eat. It is logistically necessary as we’re all eating nshima from communal bowls.  Only so many people can fit around a bowl of nshima and relish, but their are unspoken rules as for who can share with whom.  It’s highly amusing sometimes, and feels like high school again, where there are cliques and under no circumstances can one move from one to another. 

 Take where I work for example.   The sawmill men eat as a unit and separate from the sawmill women.   They’re kinda like the Varsity jocks.   The machinists  eat from their workshop. They’re like the rival Varsity team, and  allow the tinsmiths to join them but shun the sawmill men. Then there is a very intricate hierarchy within the tree nursery workers. The general laborers eat in two groups, the younger guys and the older men.  Let’s liken them to the band geeks. They definitely never eat with the jocks.  I have more status so I join the nursery supervisor and women who declare their elevated status (separate clique) by eating separately as well.  The one older woman in this department is paid respect and eats at her own table.   As most of my readers know, I was a band geek myself, but in actuality my job is more closely linked to the nursery than sawmill, so in both respects it makes sense where I fit. Then there’s the two Zambian managers who show off their elevated status by eating their own relish which is usually higher quality to the rest.  They can maybe be likened to the popular kids.   The boss and his wife eat separately as well. 

I am able to move more as a foreign person and thus regarded as outside the established order. It’s highly amusing sometimes, but I find it important to follow such things in order to be successful in my job as a Volunteer in a foreign culture.

Crocs, Hippos, and Singing on Bumpy Roads.

A happy party of 14.5 started off for West Lunga National Park on a sunny Friday morning.  Everything was packed and strapped to the top of our full vehicle.  The road is BUMPY! Not quite like the hippo highway, but BUMPY!  We reached safely and began setting up our campsite.  Next was lunchtime—yum delicious nshima with vegetables and soya pieces (a protein-rich food the pupils don’t get often so I treated them).  I greatly admire the respect and discipline inherent in Zambian culture; the pupils automatically worked together to make a fire and cook.  Let me not forget a detail, the cooking was done by the girls and the boys put up the tents.  I do not greatly admire the very ingrained gender roles in Zambian culture. 

Friday late afternoon we took rides on the speedboat to the confluence of the Lunga and Kabompo rivers to begin our learning.  Confluence is the official term for the place where two rivers meet, and was the first lesson learned!  This cruise was such fun, and so much enjoyed by the pupils.  Joseph hadn’t ever seen a live crocodile and was scared when it suddenly slid back into the river. ‘ Did you see that?!’  Next we found a very active family of hippos. Me, the eternally poor photographer didn’t catch their open mouths too well.  The female didn’t appreciate our proximity and tried to jump and threaten the boat.  The pupils loved seeing all this activity and observing the natural protective instinct (next lesson!) and would hardly stop talking and laughing about it as the boat cruised back to camp.  I doubt I’ve ever seen such happier people, and just that made the trip (and all its logistical troubles, worthwhile.  

With our remaining sunlight, the pupils wrote thank you letters.  All are very grateful and appreciative for the individual sponsorship.  Letters will be mailed this week!  Dinner was delicious – whew, the boys sure could eat! The evening finished around the fire pit where we discussed what pupils had seen, learned and enjoyed so far.  We had an early bedtime to rest for our early morning walk.  We saw the sunrise Saturday morning from our campsite while eating the before-unknown American classic: the PB&J sandwich.  Apparently the boys didn’t think just one breakfast was enough so bought cookies as we walked to meet the ZAWA (Zambian Wildlife Authority) guide to take us on a walking safari.  After this Great Cookie Debacle, we faced the Great Pontoon Debacle.  The engine almost refused to start due to cold, almost making us unable to cross to walk through the wild portion of the park. 

We enjoyed a great long walk where many of our early evidence of animals was of an excretory variety.  Puku and impala had definitely been active overnight! Poachers had also been active overnight; we found their footprints too.  The pupils learned a lot from the fact poachers were still active.  Almost all the antelope we saw was skittish and fearful and ran before we got too near.   Late in the walk we came very close to some impala.  We saw a lot of baboons and a beautiful variety of birds and even learned a few things about the woodland type found throughout the park.  After riding the pontoon back across the river, we walked back to camp, disassembled the tents, and worked some magic loading all of us into the only vehicle available to us but better suited to a group half our size.  The pupils loved every minute of the trip and sang as a group during the whole drive back. 

Thanks again to everyone for assisting in making this trip possible.  This is a great opportunity  for the pupils to see wildlife near where they live, learn the importance of conservation,  and to be exposed to other careers such as ZAWA. Many thanks also go out to ZAWA for including our group under their reduced rates and for lending tents!  Thank you also to the district level agriculture ministry for the use of the vehicle. 

Lasly, I’ll answer what you’re all wondering about.  How did we become a party of 14.5?  The club matron’s baby boy joined the trip too. He’s a little cutie.

1. And we’re off!

2. The boat trip gets a thumbs up by the girls!

3. The crocodile who scared Joseph

4. Angry hippos! Sorry, a better photographer would’ve gotten both jaws…

5. The whole group crossing on the pontoon

6. Yep, I will trust my safety to any man wearing such a snazzy fur collar

7. The pupils enjoying a walking safari. Candid is hard- they always catch me!

8. Impala group we found.