A Typical Day in Milenge District

Since I’ve been moving around a lot, I haven’t had a typical day. So this is a typical day when I was living in Kapalala Ward with a hygiene promoter and his family.

4am-6am Sometime early in the morning, I am woken up by the chickens, the children talking in the room next to mine, the ridiculously cold temperature, and/or an unbelievable need to use the latrine! Eventually, all of them combined motivate me to get out of bed and start my day.

6am-8am Go for a run around the soccer field at Kapalala school. It's so cold in the mornings that I wear pants, a long sleeve shirt, and a sweater! If the children that live around the soccer field have woken up they join me on my fifth lap (when I'm exhausted) and urge me to run as fast as they can (and they can run pretty fast!).

I return to the Mumba's house and find the mother sweeping, preparing breakfast, and already heating water for me to bath with. I have tried helping with chores but I am still seen as a guest. The bath shelter is ten meters away from the house, is made of straw and has a "floor" made of flat rocks.

Bath Shelter

After bathing I sit with Mrs. Mumba and the children in the "insaka" (where all the cooking is done - the Zambian "kitchen"). We sit around the fire as it cooks sweet potatoes. My breakfast is always boiled sweet potatoes, and I have to say they are mighty good!

Insaka

8am-12pm Mr. Mumba and I ride our bicycles to a village where the other hygiene promoter in Kapalala (Mr. Maybin Chishimbe) joins us. The village headman greets us and we go to sit in another insaka (this one is a meeting place for the village). The hygiene promoters and village headman insist that I sit on a chair or log as they are but I say that I am at the meeting to learn. As an observer I want to sit with the villagers. Everyone settles for me sitting on a bamboo mat. Being female and white, it is difficult to fit into the village and household dynamics! I think I am treated like a male visitor because I am both a guest and a white person - and therefore I should sit on a chair.

We wait for maybe 30 minutes for the villagers to gather. Time is very relaxed! Throughout the meeting, the hygiene promoters discuss "Risky Behaviors" such as not washing your hands before eating. I am learning Bemba and understand some of it brokenly and the hygiene promoters also translate for me.

12pm-2pm Return to Mr. Mumba's home. I sit outside and talk with him about the meeting, how it went, and more general things like his role as a hygiene promoter. The purpose of my visit in Kapalala is to learn about how the locals work and what their responsibilities are. Mr. Mumba and I eat lunch in the sitting room inside his house while Mrs. Mumba and the children eat outside in the insaka.

2pm - 4:30pm Mr.Chishimbe joins us at the Mumba's house. We sit outside while they complete their monthly reports. There have been some problems with the reporting process and one of my projects this summer may be to determine what exactly the problems are (ie. a question is misunderstood or the format of the form is confusing) to improve the reporting process.

4:30pm-6:30pm I sit with Mrs. Mumba and the children and help prepare dinner. It took a few days of only watching them prepare the meals before they let me help! Usually I peel sweet potatoes or help stir nshima until my arm is tired.

6:30pm - 7pm I eat dinner with Mr. Mumba inside the house. The meal is nshima and fried fish. I take a long time eating because a) I'm not good at separating fish bones and b) I'm trying to disguise that I'm not eating a lot of food. Mr. Mumba wants me to eat a lot of food! So every meal is like a complicated dance, but I stop eating when I'm full and say "Nayakuta" with a sigh. It means "I am satisfied".

7pm - 8:30pm I sit with Mr. and Mrs. Mumba in the sitting room. We talk about the differences between Canada and Zambia while I knit with Mrs. Mumba. I think she thinks I'm funny when I try to knit because I don't understand the pattern she wants me to knit (she speaks broken English, and I speak broken Bemba, so it's difficult to get the instructions straight!!). Mrs. Mumba brings a big bowl of boiled sweet potatoes. This is why I save some room after dinner! i drink lots of water to wash them down, explaining my "unbelievable need to use the latrine" in the mornings!!

8:30pm - 9:30pm I sit in bed, read, and write in my journal, or write letters to send home. I fall asleep to the sounds of one of the kids snoring and crickets outside. A neighbor's radio blares music in the distance.