The Orphanage

Lusaka boasts a small but extremely dedicated expatriate community, whose members work for various NGO's that share a common mission: to treat and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. It is estimated that 920,000 in a nation of 12 million are infected, and there are currently over 1 million children orphaned in Zambia as a result of AIDS deaths. Fortunately the global community has taken notice. My friend Menal (who mercifully picked me up from the airport!), whom I know from Columbia has been working in Zambia for two years with the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, an organization currently integrating TB and HIV treatment (the two diseases have destructive synergy). I've also met the national director of the PEPFAR program (President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief), President Bush's multi-billion dollar aid package to sub-Saharan Africa.

On the day I arrived in Lusaka, Menal and some of her friends were scheduled to visit a local AIDS orphanage that they've supported for some time. Despite my intense jet lag, I couldn't help but go along. When we got out of the car, a dozen children ran outside and collectively threw their arms around us. Most were 13 and under, though because of malnourishment and disease it was difficult to tell. We then divided up a pile of children's books and read in small groups for about half an hour. Hickory Dickory Dock was the clear favorite for my set. Afterwards, one of Menal's friends gathered everyone in the living room to hand out home-made gifts that his aunt had custom made: collections of knicknacks contained in painted cigarette boxes (a bad habit put to a good use!). These included glow in the dark stars. The children instinctively came to me (the tallest member of the group) to charge their stars near the overhead lamp. Cheesy symbolism aside, the moment was very, very touching.....

PICS!

I've been having a lot of trouble inserting pics into the blog itself, so I'm going to take the easy way out and post the link to my album here. Enjoy :-)
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=2109660570

Lusaka: A Flavin Lover's Paradise (?)

Lusaka (population 2 million) is one large nexus of gated compounds. The city is known for its high crime, though its not quite as dangerous as Nairobi or Johannesburg. My first night there, I became embarrassingly aware that I was observing the city through a very colored pair of New York lenses. After all, a seedy neighborhood in Lusaka wouldn't have the same bells and whistles as, say, 23rd and 10th Avenue. Or would it? Fluorescent rods hung from trees in several front yards, forming various geometric patterns. 'How marvelously site-specific!' I thought. Perhaps an artist's heroic attempt at urban renewal?

"Installations!" I exclaimed to my friend Menal. "Look at all these Flavin-esque lawn sculptures! We must be near the National Museum, no?"

She looked at me quizzically. "Those are security lamps."

(Here is a link to Dan Flavin's work that might better explain my confusion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Flavin)

Zambia: Some Cliff's Notes

Here are a few illuminating facts:

Population: 12 million

Size: About the same as Texas

Average Life Expectancy: 37 Years.

Languages: English officially, but spoken as a second language by everyone. There are literally dozens of indigenous languages.

Money: Think real-life monopoly. $1 USD = 3400 Kwacha. I am, technically speaking, a millionaire.

Transportation: In Lusaka, there are cabs which cost about $8 USD. Otherwise, you can take hitch a ride in a VW flat-van (Zambia's public transport) for the equivalent of 30 cents. The vans are designed to seat 12 people; in my last ride, we packed 21!

Ethnicities: Zambia has a sizeable Indian minority community with lots of economic clout.

Religions: mainly Christian (both Catholic and Protestant), though traditional beliefs persist. I was told that one of the Peace Corps volunteers had to be relocated because the villagers concluded he was a witch! God is EVERYWHERE- on billboards, buses, television, etc.

Dress: Shorts are only worn by children (sigh). Button down shirts and khakis are the norm.

Food: In Lusaka, Western food is widely accessible if you're willing to pay. A foot-long from Subway (yes, Subway) costs $8 dollars! The local food mainly consists of nshima (a maize and kassava root blend) and capenta (dried minnows. New Yorkers, think Mill Restaurant appetizers). These have been the staples of my diet. A little spice goes a loooong way.

Getting There

January 17th, 2006

While checking in at the airport, my heart skipped a beat when I read "DAKAR" as the destination on my boarding pass. My reservation records made no mention of this little pit stop- so much for my direct flight to Johannesburg! The sun was just beginning to rise as we landed there, revealing a low-lying windswept city, pummeled on both the east and west by the Sahara and the Atlantic, respectively. Very dramatic!

After spending several hours in a complete haze, I took notice of two good omens as the plane flew its final stretch over South Africa. Small rainbows kept appearing and disappearing outside my window (my delirium? perhaps...). I was then served some bottled water from the Cape region that, according to its label, was "blessed with a low dissolved mineral content." How nice, I thought, to come to a country where even unconsecrated airline water is blessed!

A bird's eye view of Johannesburg is very telling of its tainted past. Instead of one contiguous cluster of buildings, the city and its suburbs looked like a patchwork quilt of isolated communities, divided by a thick grid of treeless parks. In academic-speak, I would venture to say that the mechanisms of Apartheid, literally "apart-ness" in Afrikaans, were laid bare before me.

I was greeted in the airport by Kelly Clarkson's "Since You Were Gone"- oh well, there'd be plenty of time for multi-culturalism. My taxi driver more than made up for this initial dose of Americana as he recounted his participation in the Soweto student uprisings of 1976- an event that marked the beginning of the end of the Apartheid regime.

By all accounts, Johannesburg remains a dangerous city. When leaving the airport garage, my driver was required to present his keys to security and turn the car off and on to prove that it wasn't hijacked! His parting words to me were few: "Do NOT go out tonight."

I spent my layover night at the Don International Airport Hotel, which I booked on hotels.com for an unusually low rate. The next morning, the pricing scale became slightly more understandable as I opened my window to a nuclear power plant about a mile away!

On January 19th I made the final leg of my trip to Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia. I can honestly say I would book another round trip ticket from Johannesburg just to land in Lusaka again. It rests on a vast, lush green plain extending interminably in all directions, disappearing like the ocean beneath the horizon.