Land, animals, and weather

Before I arrived the Archbishop told me that the land in Zambia looks a lot like Wyoming. I have no idea where he got that idea because it's totally different. Wyoming is all mountains and desert, Zambia is, at the moment, lush green rolling hills. It will remain this green until about May when the rains stop and the rivers dry up. Then everything will turn brown again until January. I'm glad that I arrived in the middle of the rainy season as this is the most beautiful time of year and most impressive to me.

As I've said in a post before there is a ton of wide open space. Unused "empty" space. Some of this is owned by the government but most of it is owned and controlled by the tribal chiefs. It is hard to grasp why there are so many hungry people when there is so much land available for farming. I'm slowly starting to understand the challenges of working the land and cultural nuances that keep people from starting farms and growing food. That's another story for another time...

With my work I have been able to see quite a bit of the Copperbelt and its wide variety of plants and animals. Driving down the road you will see everything from lodge pole pine, to banana trees, to elephant grass (this grass is very very tall, I've seen it 10-15 ft tall but apparently it gets much taller than that). Unless you are passing through a town all you can see is trees and brush in any direction as far as the eye can see. I haven't had a chance to explore outside the Copperbelt but apparently the northern province is really nice with an abundance of waterfalls and game reserves. Hopefully this April when the school is in the term break I will have a chance to go exploring.

Now, I haven't yet seen any big game yet but there are enough creatures around the school to keep me on my toes. On my first week in Zambia the gossip was all about a python that they caught down by the boys hostels. I'm thinking to myself, hmm, pythons are GIANT snakes aren't they? Turns out that yes, they are very large snakes. The one they caught was 3.5 meters long, 5 inches diameter and it was only just a baby. The only way they were able to catch it is that it had just swallowed a puppy, whole. Once a python has eaten something they are very slow moving because of the giant bulge so they usually seek cover and wait out the digestion process. This is when the men at the school were able to kill it, they had to shoot it in the head. Knives and blades don't work on the python because they have such thick muscles the blade will basically bounce off with very little damage to the snake. All this information in my first week was pretty overwhelming, welcome to Africa. A few weeks ago there was another python incident. One day after school I was coaching the swim team and one of the swimmers arrived late. I asked him why he was late and he said that he had seen a python IN the boy's hostel and he had to tell someone about it. OK, of all the excuses I had heard this is the only legitimate one. The following day there were all sorts of stories about how they had killed it in the drainage outside of the hostel. Again it had a big bulge in its stomach, probably from a chicken or cat. They were storing it in the biology lab to possibly dissect it but finally decided just to bury it. Never a dull moment.

With all of the snake incidents, the gossip down at the dingo is all about people's favorite snake stories. One story of interest was of Ms Chilando's good friend and neighbor. Apparently she woke up one morning and as she was getting dressed kicked one of the shoe boxes in the bottom of her closet. She heard a few thumps but didn't think anything of it. A couple days later she heard the same noises so decided to investigate. She opened the lid, saw a cobra in the shoebox and quickly put the lid back on to shield the spit. She called in the authorities and they removed the cobra. She was horrified to imagine how long the cobra had been living there without her knowing. Even worse, to think about what the cobra did and where it went at night while she was sleeping. Don't worry mom, no cobras in my closet. I don't have enough clothes to hide them :)

In order to avoid these creepy creatures I have been instructed exactly what to do and where not to go. For instance, just below the school is a big pond which was made from overflow from the nearby Kafue River. This pond is the breeding ground for the pythons as well as baby crocodiles. Apparently the workmen have seen many babies of both species. Needless to say I don't go anywhere near the ponds. Also, slithering creatures tend to like tall grass and brush. So the workmen at the school have to slash, literally slash with a long machete type blade, the grass of the school grounds regularly. This is a very slow and laborious process so by the time they finish slashing they have to start over at the other end of the school again. Kind of like painting the Golden Gate bridge. Other tips, when you are walking along the road always stay to the inside of the road to avoid the bushes at the side. They say that snakes can tell when someone is alone so if you have to enter long grass, don't do so alone. When I first moved into my flat the grass was quite tall, almost as tall as I am which struck fear into the hearts of all those that passed. Fortunately the school loaned me a workboy to come up and slash the grass. He said even he was afraid to cut the grass because it had gotten so out of control. It took him a whole week to slash a small yard but thankfully I can now go out to hang clothes on the line without taking all the neighbors with me.

Lucky all of the scary animals stay outside the house (for the most part), however I always find other "nonscary" creepy crawlies inside. There is always a lizard, giant spider, etc crawling around the walls. At night I used to hear this loud rattle sound which kind of scared me so I immediately asked the neighbor about it. Oh no dont' worry, she said, it's just a gecko. OK good. Who knew that geckos made a rattling noise?

Of course there are swarms of insects. Mosquitoes, flying ants, red ants, giant spiders. A year ago I would freak out when I saw a spider on the wall and kill it immediately. Now I don't even get up. I would never be able to kill them all so you just clean the cobwebs occasionally and learn to live in harmony. Dealing with the other insects is a bit more difficult. As soon as the sun goes down you have to close all the windows to keep both insects and small animals out. One of the windows in my bathroom doesn't close entirely so the window sill and bathtub are always sprinkled with gnats and mosquitoes. Of course mosquitoes are the most annoying of all the insects, not because of the bites but because of sleeping under a net. Let me tell you how much I dislike this. It's really hot, stuffy, smells of chemicals, clausterphobic. I really look forward to winter so I can sleep peacefully once again.

The weather is almost exactly what I expected. Hot and humid. It reminds me of summer in North Carolina but 10 times more miserable. Why more miserable? Because there are no air conditioned buildings. In North Carolina you survived by jumping from an air conditioned house, to an air conditioned car, to an air conditioned office, you get the picture. Here there is no AC so no way to escape the heat. I am always covered in sweat. My hair is a big frizzball. They must think that I'm a complete mess. I would buy some hair product to calm the 'do, but guess what, there is no hair product available for muzungu hair. HA Definitely stocking up next time I am home.

Right now it is the rainy season so it rains nearly every day. Other than the inconvenience of walking through mud, this is great because the rain cools the earth and makes things considerably more comfortable. Yes getting from point to point is wet and messy but at least I'm more comfortable. The best is when it starts to rain at about 5am on the weekends so it is cool enough that you can actually sleep in. Otherwise it's so hot by 7am that you might as well get up because you won't sleep anyway.

Now, the amount of rain that falls is astounding. The clouds accumulate a ton of water and if it decides to just drizzle it will drizzle for 12 hours. If it decides to dump, we can easily get several inches in just a few minutes. It is amazing, I've never seen so much water fall from the sky. I've tried to take a few videos of the dumping rain but the video doesn't do it justice. Luckily I've only been caught outside without cover for one of these storms. I wouldn't have been more wet had I jumped in the pool. On these "cold" rainy days I'm finally comfortable temperature wise and make it through the day without breaking a sweat in a T-Shirt. I find the Zambians on these same days with thermals and coats on. They wouldn't survive a Wyoming winter I'm afraid.

The storms also come with some amazing lightning and thunder. I don' know what it is about the land or the air, but there is much more lightning than I'm accustomed to. I have always loved sitting outside listening to thunder, especially in Wyoming where it rolls through the mountains. Here, its on a whole other level so when a storm starts I usually make a cup of tea and sit outside to watch the show. The neighbors think I'm nuts. One evening about 11pm, it was a Sunday, we had all just gone to bed and a thunderstorm started. It kept getting louder and louder and by midnight no one was asleep yet. At one point there was lightning so close that lit up the room even through the curtains. You could hear the electricity very clearly followed immediately by an incredibly loud thunder crack. Car alarms were going off everywhere and you could hear people moaning in the next room. I had so much adrenaline pumping that I couldn't sleep for a few hours. The next day we woke to find that the tree two houses down had been hit and was laying across the road. This was 6 weeks ago and the tree is still laying across the road if that gives you any idea of the priorities and laid back work ethic of the people. Never a dull moment.

Starting in about April it will start to cool down for winter. I'm told that it gets quite cold but I'm not sure what that means exactly. Will have to report back on that one. It will stay cool and dry through August then in September will start to get hot. October and November are extremely hot, 40C+ or 105F+ every day with no rains to cool. I may try to make an exit before then. Wyojeno loves an adventure but that might just be too much.