The Zambezi River rises in the Kalene Hills in north-west Zambia and flows north through Angola for about 280km and then re-enters Zambia, flowing south through the Barotse plain. In south west Zambia the river becomes the border between Zambia and Namibia for about 130km. Mwandi is about half way along this border.
The water level on the Zambezi continues to rise past its highest levels ever. The National Milling Shop at Mwandi looks like Noah’s Ark with a sandbag causeway to reach it. Houses in the lower lying parts of the village have been flooded.The flooding is destroying crops and blocking roads and threatening food security for the coming year. There are likely to be low food stocks with shortages of maize and mealie meal on local markets for some time.
Heavy rain has also caused smaller rivers like the Kasaya and Loantja to flood, cutting off access to settlements, destroying homes and schools and displacing people in Namibia, Zambia and Angola. With floods come also the danger of diseases like malaria and cholera. Shang'ombo, the District to the East of us is completely cut off and has been for over a week. Yesterday the Zambezi crossed the second highest level ever recorded since 1969. Heavy rains are continuing to fall upstream
Across the river in Namibia the Zambezi has risen above its highest recorded level because the rains have persisted longer than usual. It is reported we have received more than 200% of our normal rainfall in February. The floods have so far claimed 92 lives and will affect the food security of Namibian subsistence farmers too. Our part of the border between Zambia and Namibia is a colonial invention. There are Lozis on both sides of the river. During the floods, people who die across the water are usually buried in Mwandi as their cemetery is under water for three months of the year.
Finally to give you an idea of what we could expect, God forbid: in 2007 an estimated 285,000 people were affected and 29 were killed in the Zambezi River basin during the worst floods to hit the country in six years.
Monday 30 March 2009
Tuesday 17 March 2009
Flooding and fishing
The rains have been good this year, the maize tasseled and the cobs are growing. White-thorn branches have been cut and placed round the maize fields to keep out marauding cattle and a constant battle is being waged at the moment against the monkeys who keep coming to raid the fields as well. Green cobs are being plucked and boiled or roasted and enjoyed at the moment. The ground nuts too are beginning to form in their shells and will be ready in a month or so.
In the country behind Mwandi, March is the month when the flood waters begin to spread and Magumwi and Mushakula, our two furthest outposts are cut off. Today’s rains flooded the fields and roads surrounding Situlu 25km away.This means vehicles cannot reach patients at these places. People on regular medications have been given a three month supply and pregnant mothers nearing their time are urged to come to the Mothers Shelter at the hospital at least 2 weeks before their due date. Clinics will be held at the tar road in a tent and people will travel by dug-out.
The Zambezi at Mwandi is rising and with us is now only a metre below lawn level. The fish - mainly bream, catfish and tiger - have all spawned and the fishing ban is now over. This should help the food situation. Most people in the area are subsistence farmers but those near a river turn their hand to a bit of fishing as well. Catfish are harvested a good bit inland from the river because of the flooding. So the men are now preparing their nets and fishing spears as they return in their dug-outs (mukolo sing. / makolo pl.) to the fishing.
Thanks for keeping in touch through this blog. We thank you too for the letters and the e-mails we receive that from you all. We are sorry that we are not able to answer you all individually!
In the country behind Mwandi, March is the month when the flood waters begin to spread and Magumwi and Mushakula, our two furthest outposts are cut off. Today’s rains flooded the fields and roads surrounding Situlu 25km away.This means vehicles cannot reach patients at these places. People on regular medications have been given a three month supply and pregnant mothers nearing their time are urged to come to the Mothers Shelter at the hospital at least 2 weeks before their due date. Clinics will be held at the tar road in a tent and people will travel by dug-out.
The Zambezi at Mwandi is rising and with us is now only a metre below lawn level. The fish - mainly bream, catfish and tiger - have all spawned and the fishing ban is now over. This should help the food situation. Most people in the area are subsistence farmers but those near a river turn their hand to a bit of fishing as well. Catfish are harvested a good bit inland from the river because of the flooding. So the men are now preparing their nets and fishing spears as they return in their dug-outs (mukolo sing. / makolo pl.) to the fishing.
Thanks for keeping in touch through this blog. We thank you too for the letters and the e-mails we receive that from you all. We are sorry that we are not able to answer you all individually!
Friday 13 March 2009
Take-home pay
This is what God requires of you: only this, to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
Below is a table that you might like to look at. It’s some recent comparative ‘Take-home pay’ from the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection. The Zambian Kwacha (K) is approx 8,000 to the GBP and K 5,500 to US Dollar.
TEACHER: Max K1,485,000
NURSE RG: Max K 2,624,000
RURAL PIECE WORKER: Max K 15,000 per day
SECURITY GUARD: Max K 750,000
SECRETARY (CIVIL SERVICE): Max K 1,480,000
AVERAGE MONTHLY INCOME: K 645,326
The Centre also monitors a monthly basic needs basket for a family of six in Lusaka comprising of food items and other essential non-food items. A total of K 1,914,450 was required to meet these costs (around GBP 250).
In April the tax threshold goes up to K 700,000 (GBP100) before you pay 25% basic level tax, which is good as that will help most of our lower paid workers.
For those of us enjoying fairly secure and affluent life-styles it is not always easy to understand the degree of poverty and deprivation endured by the overwhelming majority of the Zambian population. We are saturated by statistics and inured to the impact of once-shocking photographs portraying various aspects of the bare existence of suffering people.
Despite so-called ‘donor fatigue’ ( 2 Thess.3:13 should put an end to that anyway!) the Church needs to be concerned continually with social justice and morality, the relief of hunger, economic development and the equitable use and distribution of the resources of this earth entrusted to humankind by God. The Church here to highlight and deal with the sinfulness of the greed and self-interest of a few at the expense of the many.
Accusations of playing politics are often levelled when you speak about such things but these matters are part of Ida’s and my personal experience of living here. The arguments we hear from Europe and the US about the credit crunch, that ‘we have troubles of our own’ does not relieve us of the responsibilities to other brothers and sisters whose human rights and dignity are being denied.
So it was good to learn in the the Church of Scotland’s World Mission magazine of the response to Fairtrade Fortnight. The activities and events taking place are a beginning to rectify the situation where the unjust world trading systems still work for the benefit of the rich and powerful.
Below is a table that you might like to look at. It’s some recent comparative ‘Take-home pay’ from the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection. The Zambian Kwacha (K) is approx 8,000 to the GBP and K 5,500 to US Dollar.
TEACHER: Max K1,485,000
NURSE RG: Max K 2,624,000
RURAL PIECE WORKER: Max K 15,000 per day
SECURITY GUARD: Max K 750,000
SECRETARY (CIVIL SERVICE): Max K 1,480,000
AVERAGE MONTHLY INCOME: K 645,326
The Centre also monitors a monthly basic needs basket for a family of six in Lusaka comprising of food items and other essential non-food items. A total of K 1,914,450 was required to meet these costs (around GBP 250).
In April the tax threshold goes up to K 700,000 (GBP100) before you pay 25% basic level tax, which is good as that will help most of our lower paid workers.
For those of us enjoying fairly secure and affluent life-styles it is not always easy to understand the degree of poverty and deprivation endured by the overwhelming majority of the Zambian population. We are saturated by statistics and inured to the impact of once-shocking photographs portraying various aspects of the bare existence of suffering people.
Despite so-called ‘donor fatigue’ ( 2 Thess.3:13 should put an end to that anyway!) the Church needs to be concerned continually with social justice and morality, the relief of hunger, economic development and the equitable use and distribution of the resources of this earth entrusted to humankind by God. The Church here to highlight and deal with the sinfulness of the greed and self-interest of a few at the expense of the many.
Accusations of playing politics are often levelled when you speak about such things but these matters are part of Ida’s and my personal experience of living here. The arguments we hear from Europe and the US about the credit crunch, that ‘we have troubles of our own’ does not relieve us of the responsibilities to other brothers and sisters whose human rights and dignity are being denied.
So it was good to learn in the the Church of Scotland’s World Mission magazine of the response to Fairtrade Fortnight. The activities and events taking place are a beginning to rectify the situation where the unjust world trading systems still work for the benefit of the rich and powerful.
Thursday 5 March 2009
A Modern Tower of Babel
It has been said that the English and Americans are peoples divided by a common language. I think that can be said of any of the English-speaking peoples. Here at Mwandi there are various varieties of English in everyday use, the most common being naturally Zambian-English.
Other common dialects heard are Australian, Scots, English-English and U.S. English (Yankee & Southern).
It is not just pronunciation that presents difficulties as you would expect but vocabulary is problematic too…. In Zambian English there are many words that have come from the 7 major indigenous languages. These are common everyday words used by everyone. The most common being chitenge (a cotton wrap) and inshima (maize-meal thick porridge). Another lovely onomatopoetic word is patapatas (flip-flops). The names of trees, plants, birds and animals are another source of these. Dambo is a geographical expression. From South African English come takkies (sandshoes) and robots (traffic lights). Zambian neologisms include to foot (walk) and moveous (elusive and up to no good). And from the mines come malegeni (inner-tube rubber used to repair all manner of things) and b*ggered. The last term for many English speakers causes your jaw to drop on first hearing it, but is used by many Zambians in fairly formal contexts.
So what has brought us to musing over language this week? Well, two amusing misunderstandings really. Fiona, our Australian daughter-in-law living in Zambia, had borrowed some cake-tins to bake a cake for a farewell tea for an Australian colleague. She forgot to bring the tins over to wash them, and return them, so she asked Beauty, her PA, if she would please go to her kitchen and bring the cake-tins over to be washed. Fiona did say that Beauty had looked at her in a puzzled fashion, but said nothing and had apparently gone to do as she was asked. Fiona arrived home in the evening to find bare windows in the kitchen and sitting-room and the still unwashed cake-tins! The Australian pronunciation of cake-tins to the Zambian ear sounds like curtains! The neatly-laundered items were delivered the next day.
At sundown on Monday, Kelvin came in and asked us if we wanted him to lock up our beds. We were unsure which beds he meant, our own or the hospitals, and why did they need to be locked up? After further questions and answers that clouded the matter more, the penny finally dropped. Ah, our birds - the geese and ducks were what Kelvin meant! There is a rather large variation between the Scottish and Zambian English pronunciations of birds, but thankfully the written form of Standard English is fairly homogeneous and stable. (See below.)
GLOSSARY
Chitenge: a cotton wrap
Takkies: sandshoes (cf. Scots gutties)
Inshima: maize-meal thick porridge
To foot: to walk
Patapatas: flipflops
Moveous: elusive & up to no good (cf. Scots sleekit)
Dambo: a wet marsh area
B*ggered: in need of repair
Malegeni: inner-tube rubber used to repair all manner of things.
Robots: traffic lights
Other common dialects heard are Australian, Scots, English-English and U.S. English (Yankee & Southern).
It is not just pronunciation that presents difficulties as you would expect but vocabulary is problematic too…. In Zambian English there are many words that have come from the 7 major indigenous languages. These are common everyday words used by everyone. The most common being chitenge (a cotton wrap) and inshima (maize-meal thick porridge). Another lovely onomatopoetic word is patapatas (flip-flops). The names of trees, plants, birds and animals are another source of these. Dambo is a geographical expression. From South African English come takkies (sandshoes) and robots (traffic lights). Zambian neologisms include to foot (walk) and moveous (elusive and up to no good). And from the mines come malegeni (inner-tube rubber used to repair all manner of things) and b*ggered. The last term for many English speakers causes your jaw to drop on first hearing it, but is used by many Zambians in fairly formal contexts.
So what has brought us to musing over language this week? Well, two amusing misunderstandings really. Fiona, our Australian daughter-in-law living in Zambia, had borrowed some cake-tins to bake a cake for a farewell tea for an Australian colleague. She forgot to bring the tins over to wash them, and return them, so she asked Beauty, her PA, if she would please go to her kitchen and bring the cake-tins over to be washed. Fiona did say that Beauty had looked at her in a puzzled fashion, but said nothing and had apparently gone to do as she was asked. Fiona arrived home in the evening to find bare windows in the kitchen and sitting-room and the still unwashed cake-tins! The Australian pronunciation of cake-tins to the Zambian ear sounds like curtains! The neatly-laundered items were delivered the next day.
At sundown on Monday, Kelvin came in and asked us if we wanted him to lock up our beds. We were unsure which beds he meant, our own or the hospitals, and why did they need to be locked up? After further questions and answers that clouded the matter more, the penny finally dropped. Ah, our birds - the geese and ducks were what Kelvin meant! There is a rather large variation between the Scottish and Zambian English pronunciations of birds, but thankfully the written form of Standard English is fairly homogeneous and stable. (See below.)
GLOSSARY
Chitenge: a cotton wrap
Takkies: sandshoes (cf. Scots gutties)
Inshima: maize-meal thick porridge
To foot: to walk
Patapatas: flipflops
Moveous: elusive & up to no good (cf. Scots sleekit)
Dambo: a wet marsh area
B*ggered: in need of repair
Malegeni: inner-tube rubber used to repair all manner of things.
Robots: traffic lights
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