How to kill time.

It's 8:20 and I'm sitting in the conference room at Moto-Moto Villa, waiting for our third and final day of our Zonal Executive Committee of the Senanga District Agriculture and Commercial Show Society (SDACSS) to begin.

Two points of note in that sentence:

1. Waiting: Development work in Zambia consists of a lot of waiting. Waiting for someone important to show up; waiting for a vehicle to be available; waiting for a meeting to start; waiting for food at a restaurant. I reckon that I spend around 35% of the average day in an unwanted stasis mode; hence my jumping around from task-to-task in order to feel busy. It used to make me impatient; now I don't get too bent out of shape. Maybe its because no one has a watch, or if they do, they don't really look at it; maybe it's because no one of an official status does anything before 8:00 (other than show up and get things going); maybe it's simply because they realize (more than Westerners) that trying to cage time is a foolish endeavor. To paraphrase Tommy Chong, they're just not that into time [,man]. Oh well ... boredom and waiting around got me started in agriculture.
   

2. Lots of titles. It seems that import can be imparted simply through sheer weight of letters; in fact, if you were totally unaware of anything else, you would know that you were in the developing world according to the length of peoples' titles. Especially if that person is held in esteem or is of ascendant political office. Mubutu Sese Seko (the former President of Zaire [Democratic Republic of Congo]), for example, had a full title that went something like Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga or "The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake." Wow! He did leave fire in his wake, considering Congo DR's present state, but at least he was a good anti-communist. Anyway, the point is that to gain status, you need to add titles, roles, etc. It's somewhat amazing; in order be considered legit as a group in Zambia, you need to establish a bureaucracy before you get started.
   

Anyway, it's closing in on 9:00 and people are trickling in ... guess we'll be starting, any time from now.