|
|
|
|
In the fourth complete month of his project Alex realises that he is actually going to have to write a pretty good book to justify this entire exercise . . .and he has managed to give us a couple of photos of his new base. . . Friday, 1 July 2005 "Yesterday I received an email from Jessica Chombo at the Investment Centre advising me that my licence application has been approved and I can collect my licence on payment of a mere K7,670,000 – a bargain which is not far off a thousand pounds! Still, it is a little step on the path towards permission to stay in this place and write my book. I am going to have to sell a lot of copies if I want to make this money back somehow. "The weather recently has been rather odd, with cloud coming up in the morning and even the odd tiny spot of rain. It seems to have had an effect on the locals bringing with it a kind of malaise that is difficult to define but obvious in the lack of energy that the guys have been showing. I am not good with sickness and will not put up with it in my staff so anyone who is sick is taken out of camp at the first sign. Last week Kelvin complained of a headache that would not go away and I took him straight back to his house in Chiawa and left him there for over a week to recover. The strange thing was that he insisted that the only cure was some traditional medicine that his mother would apply involving making a cut in his temple and rubbing some plant extracts into the wound... "We have had a few discussions on the belief systems here and the belief in magic is still incredibly strong amongst local people. Kelvin does not even question whether or not magic works or that some possess strong magic while others are victims or beneficiaries of it. Illness and suffering is also generally attributed to magic without much question. Bad luck does not simply happen but is brought on by the malice of neighbours or relatives often inspired by petty jealousies or rivalries. Good luck is also frowned upon in the community where it seems prosperity comes with position rather than through the merit of hard work. These things conspire together to maintain the status quo at a low level where much more than a subsistence lifestyle is regarded as lavish. Thursday, 14 July 2005
"I am very excited today because my camp is now pretty much up and running, even down to the linen on the bed. I am almost ready to move in once a few finishing touches are completed... "I must get some teaspoons – I just stirred my tea with the file on my Leatherman and it tastes of metal shavings and oil. "Nothing can spoil this particular moment however, sitting at my desk looking out on the Zambezi River with the Commodores playing Easy – life is good sometimes.
Thursday, 21 July 2005 I moved in last night, the night before the full moon and this camp does have a good vibe about it for sure. "It is good to be in camp at last almost properly. I am living here and finding out the things that need to be changed as I go along. My first shower was great and I thoroughly enjoyed standing in the bush with hot water streaming down my dirt caked torso. It was very “Out of Africa”... The guys are too around for my liking but that is something else that I shall have to get used to as no-one seems to be able to live like a hermit here. Sunday, 31 July 2005 "And so time ticks away inexorably and my book is not much nearer being started than when I first arrived here well over four months ago. I have just returned from a very expensive week in Lusaka. The reason that it turned out so expensive this time was that Zambia’s one and only oil refinery has broken down and is undergoing repair. When I heard about this I wasn’t particularly worried because I assumed that there would be enough fuel reserves to cover the few days that I was to be in town at least. Of course, I was completely wrong and anyone with an ounce of brain had taken their vehicles, jerry cans and any other containers available to every garage in town to stock up on every litre in the city. "One of the main reasons for my trip to Lusaka this week was to meet with Tom Mushinge, the commercial director of ZAWA. After a number of conversations with his secretary I thought I had a meeting fixed but right at the last minute she called me at the hotel and cancelled. I was a little peeved but not wholly surprised. I had already been disappointed to hear that my self-employment permit was still in process and I am now on a report order which at least is not costing me anything more.
"I walked out with two small maps, one of Zambia’s political regions and another showing the elevation and riverine distribution. The latter will actually work quite well as the National Parks are marked on my road map and are not actually critical to the project itself – for example the Banguwelu swamps, an important area for the interaction of communities and exotic wildlife are not actually in a designated National Park and so not indicated anyway. So the best map I have is still the one on my GIS and that has some pretty serious shortcomings particularly in the naming of populated points. I am now highly suspicious of the source of this basic data that I could have to rely on and could really do with some help on verification. |
|
© Afrikeye 1999 - 2007 (certain items under permission of original copyright owner) |
"Decision
decided, I have decided to take on Crispin as a permanent camp assistant as well
giving me three staff in total. It will still be necessary to clear all this
through Isiah and Jones but hopefully they will be co-operative and allow the
partnership to act as a direct employer with me taking on the administration and
payment of wages. With any luck I shall find one of them on my through Chiawa
tomorrow so we can set up our meeting and thrash all this through.
"I
did successfully source most of the supplies that I wanted including enough
quarry stone to pave the kitchen area and enough polypipe to get a water feed
out to the staff quarters. I had hoped to get a decent map of Zambia to stick up
on the wall as a project resource and went to the Ministry of Lands to find such
a thing. All their decent maps were out of stock and had been for many years.
The most interesting was a map of pre-colonial tribal movements in Zambia which
the girl serving said had been out of stock for at least seven years. I got the
feeling that she had to apologise a lot to her potential customers walking in
with high hopes to this dusty archive in the basement of the shabby Ministry
building. We discussed the possibility of me taking the display copy but she
dared not risk the wrath of her employers and remove it from the stack. We
compromised and agreed that I could come in with my camera and photograph it at
some point, which could work if I can get sharp enough resolution. It would be
worth a shot anyway.