KAMANGA COMPOUND - COULD YOU LIVE THERE?

If you can, try to imagine living in a mud or cinder block one to two room house (and I use the term house very loosley), just a few feet from neighbours on all sides, in a community of thousands of people who are all poor, and often so poor that hunger is a constant presence. Add to this having to cook outdoors on a small charcoal burner, eat outdoors, and wash dishes outdoors. Your toilet is a hole in the ground surrounded by some sort of privacy screen. If you are lucky this might be a small mud outhouse with a hanging cloth for the entrance. Most likely however the hole-in-the-ground (squat toilet) is shielded only by some posts to which cloth or old cement bags or sheets of cardboard have been precariously attached. There is no roof and the walls are disconcertingly low (about 4 to 5 feet) for those of us who like a little privacy. You have a nearby tap, if you are very lucky. Otherwise you have to buy your water from a vendor and carry it to your home. And washing your laundry is done by hand in a bucket, outdoors. Then the laundry is hung on a rope to dry. Electricity is a luxury for a very small minority. 

Now while you are living in the above residence consider that there is garbage strewn all around in numerous piles because there is no garbage collection. A small tree for shade from the hot Zambian sun is also a luxury. You are always surrounded by children, yours or those of your neighbours. If you are very fortunate and able to pull together the cost of the mandatory school uniform then your children may get to go to school. If not, your children will remain uneducated and spend their days playing barefoot with makeshft toys or with items found in the garbage. There are no store bought toys here. A truck can be made from wide guage wire and copper wire with carved plastic for wheels. A square of old plywood marked with plain and crayoned squares makes a great checker board when accompanied by white and blue bottle caps for the checkers.

Lastly, try to imagine this style of living taking place in the hot African sun with red dust being regularly blown all around. And then see yourself still living in the compound in the very wet rainy season when the red dirt turns to mud, garbage floats around from where it was dropped, and your mud house becomes so waterlogged that it either leaks or actually collapses into you when you are sleeeping.

Can you see yourself living and thriving in these conditions? I can't. I would never survive what these people endure on a daily basis, year in year out. That's where Habitat For Humanity Global Village comes in. The organization sends volunteers out to needy communities all over the world to build homes for families in need. As volunteers we pay our own airfare, lodging, meals, and also make a considerable donation to the local Habitat affiliate. We work long hours in difficult conditions to provide a family a home. My next post will decribe our build in Lusaka, Zambia. But in the meantime you might want to check the website www.habitatglobalvillage.ca/ Maybe you will find a build meant just for you, 

A VISIT TO LILAYA ELEPHANT NURSERY

Lilaya Elephant Nursery is operated by Game Rangers International near Lusaka, Zambia. 

There are many good reasons to visit this baby elephant sanctuary. First, no entrance fee is asked. There is a donation box to help with their work, but you decide on your donation. If you are tired of tourist traps and tourist hordes then you will be pleased. There is no restaurant or souvenier shop. There is just the viewing platform from which you peacefully observe the orphaned elephants feed, bathe and play for an hour and a half.  And there is a friendly guide there to explain all about the nursery and each of the elephants. Finally, this is a wonderful and deserving place to support, with your presence, and hopefully your donation. 

This sanctuary is the home of baby elephants who have become orphaned as a result of the mother being killed by poachers, or being killled when there is unfortunate interaction with people and their crops or their vilage. Some of the babies arrive very young and often injured. But Lilaya will become their home until they are ready to be released into a  protected game park. This process takes several years because an elephant is a baby until about 2 to 3 years. And, being babies, they need to be cared for and also learn about how to be an elephant. That is the job of their keepers who work 12 hour shift rotations and become surrogate mothers to the babies. They even sleep in the roof above where the babies are housed at night. It is the keepers job to nurture the babies but to also create an environment whereby the elephants slowly ease out of that bond and learn to live and forage like wild elephants. For this reason the babies are housed together and are together all the time until they are old and mature enough to either go to a second stage sanctuary or be released into the wild. 

Our visit to Lilaya was a wonderful experience and one I would happily repeat. The viewing platform is open from 11.30am until 1pm. As you wait the guide explains about the elephants, their histories and their habits. And then at 11.30am a procession of little elephants crosses the road from where they live and trots into the viewing area. The viewing area for the elephants means bottles of milk formula each, followed by a drink from a barrel and then playtime in the pond. During the viewing the keepers retreat to allow the babies to just be elephants, and the public watches from a raised platform that keeps human interaction to a minimum. 

The elephants are funny and entertaining as they topple the water barrel, scratch on the trees, drop sideways into the pond for a refreshing mud bath, or just huddle together like friends do. And of course, they repeatedly approach their keepers who represent their mother at this time. Do visit Lilaya if you visit Zambia. These folks do wonderful work rescuing and releasing the elephants, and they provide a great experience for the public. And do leave a nice donation. It is the fault of humans that the elephant population is declining. Donate a few dollars or Kwacha so that this good work can continue. You can learn more by going to  Game Rangers International at www.gamerangersinternational.org/  Please consider donating or adopting a baby elephant. 

THE ROAD TO LILAYA

A visit to Lilaya Elephant Nursery is a wonderful way to introduce yourself to Africa. This animal sactuary is just a 30 minute drive from Lusaka and worth every Kwacha for the taxi. Our driver was Joseph. A lovely man who shared cultural stories with us and helped us to see the sights and the people from a Zambian perspective.

We learned that the groups of families, from young to old, who walked across the fields carrying bags were there to gather food. After the crop has been removed by the farmer these folks walk the fields searching for edibles that have been left behind. We saw small children seated on the dirt picking out individual grain seeds from the ground to help feed the family. 

Every so often we would see small wooden, plywood, iron or cardboard structures that looked like a puff of wind would send them flying. These were kiosks, small businesses that sold everything from fresh produce, to car tires, to clothes, to live chickens, to hot food. Even if the seller only had a few items to show they would stilll be there. Any sale is better than none when hunger is the motivation.

 We even got a front seat view of Joseph's athletic prowess. An unfortunate quail crossed the road in front of us. Joseph hit the brakes and was out of the car in seconds. The quail took off as if his life depended on it, and it did. Joseph zigged and zagged between the grass and bush with awesome skill, and then he disappeared. A moment later our proud driver emerged carrying a very subdued bird by its legs, which were soon tied together when it was placed in the trunk of the car. Fresh quail was now on the menu for dinner for Joseph and his family. 

In Zambia, where 70% of the population is devastatingly poor, a business  can be created by anyone, selling almost anything, in order to feed the family. Putting food on the table is a luxury because, even if there is food, there is often no table to put it on. Cooking outside and sitting on the ground to eat or perform tasks, is commonplace.

The road to Lilaya is crowded with cars, vans and pickup trucks packed with riders in the open back. And there are bicycles everywhere, many of which are loaded scaringly high and wide with firewood, wordly goods, and just about anything else that could be carried on a bike. And there are walkers, many barefoot. Some with children, many children alone, and women expertly balancing impossibly large loads on their heads. 

One travels the road to Lilaya to get to the elephant nursery. But if you are open to experiences, and have a wonderful driver like Joseph, the road to Lilaya is an adventure and education in its own right. 

LANDS OF CONTRAST

I was surprisingly impressed with Dubai as a whole. I thought it would be tacky but it is not. The city is very much money driven but the buildings are architecturally amazing. Dubai airport is - according to my son - like a cathedral. It is all glass, shiny metal, and other materials that gleam and glisten. Dubai is a vast, enormous testimony to wealth. You actually take indoor trains between airport terminals and all the bus stop shelter are fully air conditioned. Today we arrived in Lusaka, Zambia. We waited at passport control in a very hot and crowded room. Got to read an Ebola warning poster on the way from the plane. Baggage claim is one small area full of confusion. The buses stop where ever there is a passenger, causng loud honking and traffic chaos. We went from ultimate wealth in Dubai to ultimate poverty in Lusaka in seven hours. What a world we live in.

WALLS THAT KEEP SOME IN AND OTHERS OUT

So, what is the big similarity that I have noticed so far between Dubai (one of the wealthiest places in the world), and Zambia (one of the poorest places in the world)? No Idea? Well it is the walls - yes the tall, solid, stone walls surrounding where people live. In Dubai there are walls surrounding the Royal Palaces (there are many of them), the villas of the extremely rich, and also many hotels and wealthy homes. Those walls are ornate and often heavily decorated.. In Lusaka there are walls too, The fancier, cleaner walls, with some decoration, surround the homes of the richer citizens. Their walls are frequently topped with broken glass. The poor people live behind walls too. In their case those walls are called compounds. They are very plain and utilitarian. However, in all cases in Dubai and in Lusaka, the walls are there to keep the 'bad guys' out. In Dubai they also have the money for the luxury of being able to build their walls for privacy. There is much more we have seen and learned in just a couple of days. But that is for another post. Right now we are sitting in the dining room of our lodge after dinner and listening to a thrilling tropical storm. After a very hot and humid day we are being treated to lightning, thunder and torrential rains. Now won't that be fun in a few days when we begin to build the house that we came to volunteer to build? Off to bed soon singing "Mud, Glorious Mud, dah da da dah ..."