All in The [extended] Family ...

I've been trying to figure out a way to make this post more relevant and readable, but I've utterly failed. It's maybe because life gets to so mundane, to the extent that it approaches banality. If you haven't spent significant time in Zambia (or much of sub-Saharan Africa), you may wonder how I can legitimately posit that statement.

To whit, upon returning home you get a lot of really interesting quips about whatever you're doing or have done. One common response is "What a wonderful adventure you've had!" ... it brings to [my] mind paladins sallying forth to meet an irascible dragon to rescue a vapid princess, or wandering about the Serengeti amongst the lions and zebras with a tall, wiry, quietly intelligent Masai who teaches you African proverbs in the shadow of Kilimanjaro while Toto plays in the background. That is quite possibly all the way around the world from the truth; it is not a magical adventure, there is rarely the picture-perfect scenery, and some days you feel like you'd rather be anywhere else where you didn't stick out and the fresh water wasn't rife with crocs, hippos, and schisto.

Therefore, to fulfill this weBlog's dual purpose of Peace Corps Goal #3 and keep a daily record of my life, I've decided to post my daily work log (yes, as a PC Response Volunteer, I work 9-12 hours a day). I'll attach any notes for clarity immediately afterward.

Enjoy!

August 23, 2011 (Tuesday)

1. Typed up the transport request to get the seedlings from Concern to SDACSS.
2. Updated the budget from yesterday’s memo according to the new estimates.
3. Met with Brian to discuss the work we need to do for this week; typed up a to-do list for both him and the PB team.
4. Worked out what we are going to purchase for the rice production with Patrick so we can get the signatures to withdraw 8.5 million.
5. Wrote up a relish menu for the week … I think Lingela, Patrick, and I will be splitting the cost three ways, roughly K30,000/week and the production team will be taking care of the nshima.
6. Went to town to get Mrs. Mubita’s signature for withdrawing the operations funding for the end of this week, then sent Aka off to Kaeya to get Mrs. Makina’s signature. Mrs. Mubita entertained us with the issues resulting from having 19 family members over at once.
7. Talked to Aka about how to write up memos, specifically about the issues surrounding pay increments for the CA-FEWs. Will work with him on the options and recommendations; hopefully, we can set up a uniform, incentive-based system.
8. Continued penciling in he CEEC form; call Elias Lungu (MDFA) to send his CEEC proposal to us so we can paraphrase it.
9. Made up a spreadsheet to calculate maximum costs of trips (up to 3 trips to the same bulking centres), assuming use of the Concern 4x4 carrying 7 tons.
10. Completed the float form to receive K8,500,000 (yes, that’s eight-point-five million kwacha).
11.  Revised the float form so we could fill it out online; would have Patrick do it, but he’s just about going nuts with stuff today as he’s travelling to Sitangamanyanga for FRA certification.   
12. Lingela came back today from their field visit to Eastern Province; after handing him his gift from the U.S. (a dictionary and a thesaurus), he gave me good news … they brought back Gliricidia sepium seeds from Mwsekara in Chipata. Good thing as the one tree here is just starting to produce seeds, albeit very slowly.
13. Got back into town around 18:00; went into the market to check on the tinsmiths who are working on the exhaust pipe for the rice mill. It wasn’t nearly right; they hadn’t used a measuring tape, the ingress of the pipe wasn’t squared, and they claimed to have used all two square meters the sheet metal … a blatant lie, as what they had made was about half the metal they were given. I need to go back with Munalula tomorrow morning and figure out what went wrong.

Notes:
#6 - Mrs. Mubita's husband is Mr. Mooto's uncle, who's elder sister (Mr. Mooto's mother) arrived from Lusaka to go to the hospital. Why did she come here? Well, you go to where your family is so they can take care of you. Conveniently enough, whenever a matriarch figure rolls into town, everyone else in the family comes to be with her, parking with the lucky host. Currently, Mrs. Mubita has 19 people around her household; I've had dinner there before and I know that 8 are more or less permanent residents, so she has 11 extras to feed. They aren't expected, nor do they seem to do very much, and their departure date is not confirmed. Nor can she complain to them. Culturally, it is verboten to ask your relatives to leave, much less for them to carry their own weight, or to complain about them within the family. Needless to say, she complained to us in her own inimical way, describing in detail the money her relatives had but wouldn't part with to purchase "only a little relish or mealie-meal." Mr. Munalula kept nodding and generalizing, "Ahh, we Africans have problems."

#10 I'm carrying a lot of money into and around Lusaka this weekend. Not as worrying as you would assume (I ride around with taxi-drivers I know well when carrying), but not entirely comforting. Also, the 8,500,000 came in mostly 20,000 pin notes ... you do the math, but my briefcase looks likes I'm pulling off a heroin deal rather than buying rice bags.

#11 Sitangamanyanga qualifies as having one of the longest names and longest distances (140km) from the Boma of any of our satellite FRA depots. Patrick is notoriously unlucky when traveling into the bush; the last time they went into the deep sand a month ago, their car got stuck, then blew a tire; he didn't get back home until 1:00 AM. Needless to say, he's a tad gunshy heading out to Senanga's equivalent of Siberia.

#12 This is a common theme here nearly every day. If you want something done right ...