Piknik Biscuits, Cheen and Music

Due to my visitor permit expense I had to withdraw some more kwacha from the bank. Luckily, the exchange rate has gone up even more. It sits close to 12 kwacha to 1 dollar. I plan to spend some of my remaining kwacha on Piknik crackers/cookies to distribute to the village kids. Piknik is a very popular brand of cracker in Africa. I remember having them when I lived in South Africa; very good and quite tasty. Even better is that they are fairly cheap. They are like the African form of an Oreo. Oreo’s are better, but we’ll take what we can get. They call them biscuits here, but they are more of a cracker.

As you know, I enjoy my long walks. Many kids come up to me and greet me while on these walks and so now I have begun to bring a bag of Piknik crackers with me each time. I give each kid a cracker when I pass and by the expression on their face you’d think I had just given them 20 dollars. I am unsure of what their meals consist of but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the best thing they receive all day. It is nice to see how happy they become from such a small offering. I also give them to adults who are walking down the road. They are usually coming home from work or some kind of labor. They tend to say “Thanks, boss” when I hand them one.

The traditional way of saying ‘thank you’ in Bemba is to say nototela (pronounced: not-toe-tay-la). Furthermore, in this area of Africa (I am unsure if it is common in others) it is polite to bow a bit upon receiving a gift. They bend their knees half way and make a small bow and then grab the cracker. It’s something I am not use to seeing, but it’s neat to experience. 

I also feel as if doing this is helps defeat the idea that the ‘white man’ is scary. I am sure to some of the younger kids who have never seen a white person before that the experience can be somewhat frightening. I hope this shows that I am nice and wanting to help. It also allows me to get to know the kids a bit better. It’s still very difficult to communicate because they do not know English, but with the little Bemba I know I can at least get to know their names and ages.

Now, even if I buy a bag of crackers each day I will still have some left over kwacha so I hope I am able to exchange some for dollars. I doubt any American currency exchange accepts this kind of currency, but maybe I can find one here that will help me.

The other day I was taking a walk when I ran into a Chinese man by the name of Cheen (I think that’s what he said his name was). There are a few Chinese men who have moved into Katibunga to start work on the new secondary school and to pave the road which I like to call the “Highway to Hell”. They must think so too because they have finally decided to start working on it.

I think China has agreed to help Zambia out in exchange for some natural resources. At least that’s what the rumors are. I could be wrong, but it wouldn’t surprise me. As I was speaking with Cheen he told me that it will take some time to pave the road and that construction on it won’t happen until sometime next year. Like I have said before, it takes a while for things to get moving here in Africa.

It was nice to meet Cheen and I have seen him around a couple times since then; usually while on my walks. He speaks some broken English so when I asked him if he enjoys exercise he smiled, pointed at his fairly big belly, laughed and said “too much.” Ha so I guess he sees this as an opportunity to lose some weight. He’s a nice guy.

Lately, I have begun to meditate for 15 to 30 minutes each day. I tend to have some time right before midday prayer and lunch so I use it to just relax and meditate. Now, when you think of me meditating you probably are thinking of me sitting in cross-legged position with my arms out the side with my middle finger and thumb touching. I suppose this is one way to meditate, but I enjoy just laying down on the blanket that I still have from my KLM flight. Sometimes I will play some music, but other times I just lay there. I guess this is could be seen as just resting, but meditation focuses on relaxing. I try to find where I am stressed and then relax that part of my body. 

Another beneficial thing to do is muscle relaxation. I learn this in one of my psychology classes. What you want to do is flex a specific muscle as hard as you can for 5-10 seconds and then let it go limp. Do this three times for each muscle. This allows that muscle to become completely relaxed. It feels great.

I guess I just want to use my free time in trying new things. I would never meditate at home, but considering I have some time I might as well try it out.

Recently, some of the younger monks have approached me about getting some American music. I must say, if there is one thing that America has over the rest of the world its music. Man, our music is so much better it’s insane. I don’t mind all the music here, but it’s very repetitive and there is a lot of random screaming. Yes, it’s neat and cool but there isn’t much variety. This is probably why they want me to help them get some American tunes. They really want hip-hop and rap artists like Nicki Minaj, Eminem and Rhianna. I am a fan, but find it funny that they all want the same thing. You can obviously tell what kind of music makes it to this part of the world.

My teaching is going well and I am having a great time teaching biology. My after-school Frisbee study groups on Mondays and Fridays seem to be popular. A good amount of kids show up and some kids who aren’t even in my class come to play. They think that it is the coolest game and always thank me for teaching them (even though it’s not very difficult to do so). I plan to leave the Frisbee with the kids when I move to a new country around Christmas time.

Some of my students playing Frisbee at my study group!

I have created another test for my students which will take place tomorrow. Thursday class periods run a bit longer and this is why I plan for my tests to be on Thursdays. It gives them more time to take the test and to think about the problems. This test will cover what we learned during the month of October which is the health and disease unit. The next unit I will cover is the nervous system and sense organs. This is the unit I have been waiting to teach. Considering I have a degree in psychology I know a good amount about the nervous system and brain. I think it will be a fun unit. Additionally, back in September, my mother was able to send some photos and diagrams of the parts of the brain and sense organs (eye, ear, etc.) through text message which will help the students visualize the working parts of each organ much better.

My work in the clinic has been going well. However, things have slowed down a bit and less people have been stopping in. I will take this as a positive, though. They must be healthy if they aren’t coming to the clinic. Although, the rainy season is approaching quickly and there are multiple days of thunderstorms in next week’s forecast. The reason this may cause some people to become ill is because with more water comes more mosquitos. I am sure I will have to deal with some malaria cases before I leave Zambia.

Personally, I am looking forward to the rain and thunderstorms. It seems as if things are right on schedule. The first thunderstorm appears to be on November 1^st which also marks the first day of rainy season. As much as sunny-with-blue-sky days are nice it will be nice to have some change in weather.

Well, that’s all for now.

Thanks for reading!