Malole

After a week of 'roughing' it in the bush, Ned and I decided to return to Malole. Hoping to avoid a three hour walk, we thought we'd test the local mail system and send the Brothers of the Sacred Heart a message to pick us up. Since there's no postal service beyond Malole, we sent a "bush note." No stamps? No envelopes? No problem! All you do is write your message, walk to the road, stop the next passerby on bicycle, and describe to him/her where you want the letter to go in as much detail as possible. If the cyclist happens to be going in the right direction, he'll customarily agree to deliver the message free of charge. Okay, so maybe there's one small flaw in the system- you'll never know whether the note is actually delivered. Unlike most New Yorkers I know, Zambians will rarely (if ever) say 'no,' and the phrase 'I don't know' seems to be altogether missing throughout the country. Perhaps I shouldn't have been too surprised when the car didn't show. Oh well, a three hour midday walk never killed anyone (I hoped....)

For little children, muzungus (white people) are a constant source of fascination. In fact, they will all chant it in unison when they see one. By the time I had walked half a mile, I had a lemming trail of about 8 children in my wake. After a few idiosyncratic arm movements, I realized that they were all playing copycat with me. Hmmm.....seemed like the perfect setup for an early morning aerobics class. For the next twenty minutes, my new cadets and I skipped, hopped, and slid our way to Malole. I thought the moonwalk might be a bit of a stretch. Don't ask me why, but I kept thinking of the 'Doe, A Deer' scene from The Sound of Music.

For the past ten days I've been living la bonne vie at the brother's residence. With electricity, satellite television, and 1-3 servants on staff at any given time, it's no secret that they live better than the rest of the community. However the lifestyle is chosen conscientiously- one of the brothers mentioned to me that their order would not command the same level of respect if they lived in poverty. Living beneath their means, he argued, would be taken as an insincere attempt to assimilate.

Slowly but surely I've managed to make myself useful at the school. There is a small computer lab equipped with hardware donated from a sister school in the UK. Operating systems range from Windows 3.1 to Windows 98. Only a handful of teachers and students have e-mail. Though I'm not much more than an Excel novice, my knowledge of the SUM formula instantly raised me to the level of guru!

Tomorrow I leave for Tanzania. Kilimanjaro, here I come.....