Hello From Italy

First of all Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. That said, I have to admit that Thanksgiving is not one of the holidays that I find to be very important. I agree with the sentiment - being thankful for everything one has, but I have to admit that I tend to focus more on the turkey and potatoes. This year, more than ever, I realize how much I have to be thankful for, but if not reminded by others, I probably would have completely forgotten about this holiday.

Sorry no pictures for now. Perhaps later on - perhaps in November (I only have access to dial-up internet for now).

So, back to my ramblings from before. I, once again have limited time, but I will provide a brief look at a few of the cities and towns I visited in Zambia.

Pashane Village - Pashane village is where Paul has made his home for about 9 months. His home is a simple hut with hard mud walls and a thatch roof. It has no electricity, nor running water, but I did cheat and use a flashlight occasionally. Paul refuses to do this.

The village itself is a collection of these huts. The size of the hut depends on the size of the family, their wealth, and their status within the village (or so I gather). Paul and I were lucky to have a two room hut - one room big enough for a double mattress, and the other as space for cooking, entertaining, and everything else. Paul also has a few other ammentities. A storage place outside the hut - to store grain, grounnuts (evil peanuts), and maize; a grass enclosure behind which to have luxurious bucket showers; and a latrine - hole in the ground for . . .

One of my greatest pleasures is that most of the people in the village do not use latrines, but at least one the kids has used Paul's shower area as a a urinal. It was quite funny to watch.

Chipata Town:
Chipata is a mid-size town and will likely officially be a city within a few years. It has grown a lot in recent years, but being far from the capital and in support of the political opposition - has received little attention. The city itself has two tarmac roads - one leading to Malawi and the other just recently paved. This is a vast improvement over the bright red dirt that typically makes up most of the roads. Within the city, there are several small markets, many bicycle repair stands, and plenty of restaurants. Most of the restaurants are unpainted concrete structures, that have a few bare wooden tables and serve lunch to the people who work in the city. Chipata has all the essential services - a police station - a hospital - internet - a ministry of agriculture. Each of these is not the same as in Europe or Canada but generally is called the same and strives towards the same goals (peace, health, connectivity, and food).

Lusaka:
Lusaka is a large city with a great potential to be a beautiful city. However, it is ruined by crime, walls, and fear. Raizerwire, broken glass, and concrete serves to separate most homes and offices from those people that don't belong to those areas. The natural beauty is seen with these gorgeous trees lining many of the avenues. They are giant majestic trees with bright purple flowers. The flowers are small, but seen at distance they give the impression that the tree's leaves are gentle purple. This combined with blue sky and read roads really is quite striking. And then there's the walls again.

Lusaka is interesting because it has the bustle of a European city, and is full of advertising, but it is still very different. The people there are dressed very well - the vast majority of men are wearing suits of some sort and women are dressed equally fashionable. That said, it's too bad that Zambia has very few examples of traditional African dress.

Lusaka is also interesting because you see the presence of all the international organizations - offices for NGOs, AIDS awareness signs, embassies, the UN, etc. You also see advertising that you would never find anywhere else - "A roof without Harvey tiles puts your mind at ease like having sex with a baby cures HIV/AIDS". The pure shock value of this is enough to knock over - but it is because so many organizations are disseminating information about HIV etc. that its only natural for private companies to adopt this in their advertising.

Livingstone
Livingstone is not a normal Zambian town. It caters to tourists and survives on tourism. This gives a very pleasant town, but loses some authenticity. You see tourists everywhere and the vehicles, homes, accommodation, and everything is greared towards attracting foreign money.

OK OUT OF TIME - SORRY