Catharsis

My most profuse apologies for the hiatus ... I've been on kind of a tear at work that's gone on for, well, five months. I work and work and work and move and move and move, but lately, particularly in the weeks bracketing my 36th birthday, I've felt pretty emptied out mentally and worn out physically.

Stepping back and looking at that time, it figures things were/are that way. Work is my life, simply because there is precious little else to do in Mongu. Similar to Senanga, there are a lot of bars, churches, and children.  You can derive the according pastimes (wink, wink). However much I might integrate into Zambian society, there is a limit to those activities which provide the sort of mental diversion that helps one be ... how do I say it? ... content? Relaxed? At peace? As I often sardonically say to people at work when they ask me if I have time for a task, "Well, the Mongu opera house is closed, so my weekend's free." (Looks of puzzlement abound whenever I say these things, remember non-Western audiences are not good at sarcasm).

Anyway, the recent heat that is symptomatic of this time of year, moving as we are through the middle of the hot, dry season, and the avalanche of work finally caused an physiological breaking point of sorts. I'd gotten so numb and unblinking with the amount of fire-fighting inherent in our line of work (development is all about reaction) that I didn't realize that stress manifests itself in strange ways. Early last week whilst in Lusaka, I had a particularly bad day of online conference calls with HQ; they use some means of web conferencing (WebEx) that is broadband intensive (though not as bad as AdobeConnect) and therefore hard for our VSAT connection to handle ... I ended up using my own laptop and the mobile [Airtel] internet using a dongle. This kept me in the office until 19:00 or so, and I went back to the guest house and turned in early after reading a bit of Vonnegut [Breakfast of Champions, great book].

The following morning, I awoke around 4:30 from sheer pain in the right ... I wasn't able to lift my head off my pillow and had to roll off the bed, stand up, and move from there. The pain emanated throughout my upper back, and would carry on unabated until I made it to the clinic around 14:00. The doc, a middle-aged Irish lady, informed me I had something called wry-neck. Hearing it phonetically, I asked if it had anything to do with Canadian whiskey, which I haven't even smelled in almost a decade. She blinked at that one, and then smiled ... finally, somebody gets a joke. Anyway, the weeks and months of being crouched over a desk like a vulture on a perch, and likely my involuntary tendency to clench my jaw whenever I'm stressed, had lead to some facet joint or another to let go.

It's subsiding now after a week, but I realized I need to bleed off some of the stress in healthy ways. Exercise is one ... I've been walking at least an hour each day and found a local gym in Mongu from which to work out. Keeping a schedule is another; I'm trying hard not to work past 18:00 anymore. More rice and beans. And writing. Write, write, write. When I was in the village, I remember writing a few pages (in the form of letters home, work journals, or my own journal) that was somehow cathartic. This was further evidenced in the lone week (in two years) in which I ran short of candles ... I nearly flipped for lack of this catharsis (in an inspired bid to wear myself out, I dug basins for six hours and earned myself a case of heat exhaustion).

Blogging. Writing. Scooping out the accumulated crud and flinging it on the wall, so to speak. Here it is. And lots of shoulder clenches and neck lifts. And lifting. And sweating.

Spirit of '76

The sky is rather brooding this morning, low-slung grey clouds rumbling over the Zambezi Floodplains. We had been dry for the previous two weeks, but the past few days has seen a return of clouds and intermittent rain. The farmers in the Conservation Agriculture (CA) project curse this weather, as their maize has largely matured and is drying down on the stalks; any rain at this stage adds to rot. However, it doesn't hurt those within and without who planted late (after Christmas), or planted those tough old African standbys, sorghum, pearl [bulrush] millet, and bambara nuts.

The weather is ominous for more than its implications on the farmers; they seem to reflect the times. The Barotse National Council (BNC) has been meeting just north of Mongu in Limilunga [the traditional seat of the Litungu] the past two days; last night at 18:00 hrs., they finally stepped up to the plate and swung for the proverbial fences when they released what amounts to a Declaration of Independence.

The mood on the street was uncommonly quiet, even for a normal evening in Mongu (they never even unrolled the sidewalks here). No beeping, no shouting; however, that seems in line with how the BNC wants it. They seem enormously wary of repeating the violence of 14 January, 2011; from what I've heard, quiet is what the patriots want, i.e. they intend for a non-violent struggle for the nonce so they have time to negotiate a transitional government, put their case forward to the United Nations, etc.  I overheard this from a couple of Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) members at the Country Lodge while nursing a pair of Mosi's and watching Chelsea stumble through the early stages of the UEFA tournament. The also claim to want no more than what is now Western province.

I am in one of the most confused moods of my life. I finally started my dream job in the country and with the people I love almost as I do my own; that love is in no small part due to the graciousness, courtesy, and love of peace exhibited by the rural people I've met throughout Zambia. However, last night, this part of the country decided that the same country be split in twain. The dream of a peaceful plural (multi-tribal) nation may come to crashing halt.

Whatever comes of it, there will still be poor farmers scratching in the dirt with the specter of hunger lurking over them; fundamentally, my work doesn't change. It just might get harder ...

oh to be the Conservation Agriculture (CA) Coordinator

From a recent email ... have been to busy or tired to type lately.

********************************************************

Hi [           ] –

This is a lot of data, so let me summarize a bit.

The Mechanics

Conservation Agriculture is based on three pillars:

1)      Retention of crop residues (maize stalks, chopped weeds, etc. are left on the field to rot, be eaten by termites, etc.) … so, *no burning or grazing* during the dry season.

2)      Minimum tillage – only the places where crops are to be planted are dug, i.e., small basins that are dug in rows at a predetermined spacing. The rest of the soil surface is only tilled superficially to chop weeds. *No ploughing or digging of the entire surface*

3)      Crop rotation with legumes … at least 33% of the crops planted on a farmer’s cultivated should be legumes … *no monocropping of maize*

Why?

1.       Leaving the dry matter on the soil serves a number of purposes:

a.       Dry season:

                                                               i.      Shields topsoil from sun, lower relative soil temps (making a more condusive environment for beneficial soil bacteria and other micro/mesofauna)

                                                             ii.      Termites consume dry matter slowly. This creates micropores in the soils (allowing for improved water infiltration and retention), plus the termites bring up soils from depth that contain vital soil nutrients.

b.      Wet season:

                                                               i.      Residues prevent water erosion during acute rainfall events;

                                                             ii.      Prevents excessive soil moisture evaporation, mitigating dry spells,

                                                            iii.      Hinders the growth of competitive weeds.

                                                           iv.      Slows percolation of water into the soil, mitigating against nutrient loss during acute rainfall events.

2.       Min. tillage … Essentially, inversion of the topsoil (ie. Ploughing) results in oxidation of soil organic matter. This wrecks the soil’s ability to hold nutrients, moisture, etc., etc. Soils under conventional tillage eventually become “massive” in structure, not size-wise, but meaning they become enormously hard when dry. Not tilling allows SOM to build up, more ability to hold nutrients, etc.

3.       Crop rotation with legumes … not a hard one; provides biological fixation of atmospheric nitrogen (i.e., nitrogen-fixing) that benefit subsequent grain crops, plus valuable sources of household protein. Monocropping with hybrid maize essentially zaps even the best soil of all its inherent fertility in about three to four years.  

Other Mechanics:

1.       Timely application of fertilizers and seeds:                                           Apply inputs at the right time; have fields prepared so crops can utilize the first rains.

2.       Continuous weeding (or many instances of weeding):                    Weeds compete for water and nutrients; also, we want to cut back on the weed seed load in a farmer’s field to eventually reduce

weeding labour.

How we’re doing it:

The project was modeled after a project in Zimbabwe about five years ago, along with existing CA projects under the Conservation Farming Unit (CFU) of Zambia Natl. Farmers’ Union (ZNFU).

We have 1,400 beneficiary farmers in 3 districts (Kaoma, Mongu, Senanga). These beneficiary farmers are led by 170-odd lead farmers (8-10 ben. Farmers per lead farmer), organized under various Area Farmers’s Associations (AFA) in the three districts (4 AFAs in Kaoma, 3 in Mongu, and 6 in Senanga). Each AFA’s CA activities are lead by a single Field Extension Worker (FEW), so we have 13 of those, who receive a monthly salary of K300,000 and are largely responsible for the monitoring of all the CA farmers in their AFA.

Beneficiaries receive 25kg of fertilizer (half/half D compound and Urea), seeds for maize / groundnuts / cowpeas (and/or) sunflower (Kaoma gets sunflower). Lead farmers get double fertilizer and maize seed, with the intention of them making a “control plot” where they are supposed to plant maize conventionally to contrast the difference between CA and conventional ag. Currently, we recommend to beneficiary farmers that they have 50% maize, 25% cowpeas, and 25% groundnuts on a 40x40m “practice” plot.

By end of May 2012, we intend to increase the number of beneficiaries to 3,000.

I won’t go into the challenges and innovations, because that would make the email into a e-book. We’ll discuss those offline.

One document to note is the short discussion paper (uncirculated) that I drafted regarding the ripper; though this isn’t official, we aren’t seeing much use of that particular implement for the reasons mentioned within.

Let me know if you have any questions,

Carl

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

Carl T. Wahl - Conservation Agriculture (CA) Coordinator

Concern Worldwide, Zambia

Plot 41A, Lyambai Rd., Mongu, Zambia

011-260-979-045004

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

Back to the Zambia, Part IV

Short one today ... utilizing my internet hotspot at the local bar/grill, so I don't spend a lot of time typing if I can help it.

The fix is in ... taking a redeye to Heathrow (from Detroit), and another redeye from Heathrow to Lusaka. Wondering whether missing out an overflight of Central Africa is a good or bad thing ... at least if it's clear, I'll see if anyone's got their lights switched on. That's alright; I'll be arriving at dawn Friday.

As the UNIP guys used to say:

KWACHA GOOD MORNING ZAMBIA

Hopefully, this installment will be like the fourth Star Wars movie "A New Hope" (from 1978) and not like that one with Jar-jar (shudder).

Hating waiting, but GOGO CHIPOLOPOLO

So I've officially started as the CA coordinator for Zambia; however, I'm still in Upper Michigan. Waiting on a work permit; sort of the usual, frustrating as we started the process in early December and now it's early February. Doubly frustrating due to the fact that Zambia National Football team, the Chipolopolo Boys, is playing in the Africa Cup of Nations finale on Sunday. In my mind's eye I can picture the groundswell of support for the team in-country; I'm sure everything is effectively at a standstill due to the anticipation, doubly so given that this game is the culmination of a 17 year comeback.

The only personal point of reference I have with Zambia prior to January 2004 was from when I was a senior in high school, and I can distinctly remember hearing on the news about the entire Zambian national football team (sans their captain and now-president, Kalusha Bwalya) crashing into the Bight of Biafra. At the time, I thought, "Huh. That's too bad ... where the heck is Zambia?" and then, like all 17-year-olds, I forgot about it and resumed thinking about girls, food, American football, etc.

Little did I or most Americans grasp the sort of zeitgeist embodied in the national team. Sort of a no-brainer ... in a nation where nearly every little boy manufactures a ball out of worn-out plastic bags tied together with strings or condoms, and the most common scene in any village, any compound, any school, is an intense pick-up game of football [soccer]. There is not a plethora of affordable alternative sports in such a poor nation; football [soccer] requires a bare minimum of equipment, essentially something to kick and something to mark the goals. At the national level, football [soccer] provides Zambia and Zambians with their largest and likely most common medium of exchange on the regional and global stage, something that they can point at with pride and say, "that's us! That's what we are!". Not oil, not war, not poverty (that's something to be acknowledged but not to boast about) ... not all of those other things; football!

So, to the diminutive 11 who in their copper-colored jerseys represent 13 millions (and about 1,000 nutty Peace Corps/Zambia alumni back here in the States) ... TULEYA CHIPOLOPOLO!!

GPS Struggles ...

Sometimes, posts are just for my use later. This might help someone else, though:

http://www.cooldrives.com/lib/cooldrives/vista-prolific-chip-driver-for-serial-adapters.zip

Why this link? I'm utilizing a GPS unit for my upcoming job so we can start mapping CA plots, villages, distances, areas, etc., etc. The simplest unit from Garmin is the eTrex for about $90-99 retail ... it tells me plenty and I'm not one for maps, graphics, etc., on the unit itself ... just want the data points, lat./long., and in a pinch, how far is it back to someplace that you know where you are. Durable unit, low battery use, great signal acquistion, etc.

Anyway, the eTrex lacks a USB connection (join the early 2000s, friends at Garmin), and sports instead a 9-pin serial connection ... whoo-hoo we're hooking up to the mainframe! You need to buy the serial cable (~$20) and a 9-pin serial-to-USB connector (it goes by the handle PL2303, $7-10). And then, as the fishermen bound for Newfoundland say, your troubles have just begun.

I purchased my cable from Prolific, which has something like a billion drivers out there for all manners of OS (I just got a new laptop running Windows 7-64 bit). Well, there is no plug-and-play; I downloaded the driver for WIN7-64, got nothing; went to various discussion boards ... nothing. Eventually (about 4.5 hours over two days) I managed to find a fix ... you download a driver for Vista from a non-Prolific website.

The end justifies the means though ... the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has a piece of freeware (DNR Garmin) that downloads/uploads data to/from your GPS, puts it into a spreadsheet, makes .kmz, shapefiles, GPSformat, etc. We are going to put it through the paces in Western Province.

Blah-blah-blah ... I'll look this up when we're installing it remotely on the extension officers' laptops.

All for today! Off to Dublin next Saturday!

Resolutions 2012

Happy New Year!

I'm going to try to keep the blog and the dream alive. Simple resolutions / goals this year:

1. Get my siLozi to a level higher than my kiKaonde was a few years ago (it's pretty sloppy right now).
2. Pull up my statistics. It is also really rusty from unintentional neglect.
3. Read the Bible (aka Bibele ya Kinele) all the way through. If you want to track our [US] involvement in Israel, read Genesis, Chapter 13. Then the questions get really deep ...  
4. Exercise more regularly.
5. Eat simply.
6. Live simply. Less is more. 
7. Write, write, write.

I'll be honest; 4-6 will be far easier in Zambia. Even the communication-deprived Upper Peninsula is comparatively full of stuff. America is collectively drowning in stuff, but I won't go into that here. 

Well, all for now ... I have to squeeze in all my Internet time into two hours I spend at our local bar which has WiFi. The way we are up here, all the bandwidth tends to be mine. Then I go home and grind rust off cast iron pans (everyone has their quirks to kill time).

Here's a blog I'm following that is far more honest than I'd care to be about expat development workers:

http://stuffexpataidworkerslike.com. To quote Homer Simpson, "It's funny because it's true."