A typical day in Zambia in 20078:

"Yesterday I was to take one of my friends Chipasha to see her sister Mulenga who was said to be ill in Mpongwe.....or at least this was what I thought we were doing.....first of all another sister Gloria and a brother Mpondu "from this side" turned up to go on this trip as well.....off we set for Luanshya the first town on the way to Mpongwe....police road blocks are always easier if you have a truck full of locals so no delays there...then we had to stop at Shoprite in Luanshya so presents could be bought for the people "on the other side"...this turned out to be soap so I started wondering where we actually might be going....the usual hordes of vegetable/fruit/roses etc etc sellers were hanging around shoprite as well and it is orange season at the moment....so extended negotiations took place about a bag of oranges for the musungu ( me ).....after a short while the truck could be extricated from this rabble and off we went again.....

Mpongwe turned out to be a collection of
tiny shops selling basic goods in the front of a huge market selling everything known to man off the main road somewhere near the Kafue River and seemingly in the middle of nowhere....now what !

So I said do any of you know exactly where we will find your sister.....well she could be here and she could be there and Eddie her brother said to so and so when he bumped into Gloria the other day in Kitwe that Mulenga was in hospital in Mpongwe....I see so where are we going now ?.....the best thing would be to find Lucky or Eddie or Marjorie or Chluba ( other brothers and sisters )...one of them might know !

Now put all this in the context of no phones....so off we go out of Mpongwe to a village that no-one seems sure how to get to....a few km's down the road I am instructed to turn right onto a track....fine it looked like there could be a village somewhere....no wrong track after lots of questions in Bemba....go right and then somewhere else....eventually we found the village which consisted of a series of thatched mud brick houses and what appeared to be a communal cooking area and a sitting area....like magic Lucky appeared and I was given a block of wood to sit on while extensive greetings were made and the word sent out to see where Eddie ,Chluba and Marjorie might be...a while later all of them turned up...don't ask me how because apparently Eddie had been at the Mpongwe market.

The soap in the Shoprite bags was ceremoniously handed over.....after a while it transpired that no-one knew where Mulenga actually was....she certainly was not in hospital in Mpongwe because there isn't one and it was thought that the Chief had organised for her to go to a "healing" house....so we had better all go and see the chief for instructions....this was another trip into another small community on the other side of the main road....no difficulties finding the way this time because now we had another four brothers and sisters plus a cousin to help with directions....on arrival at the chief's house two officials in GRZ uniforms told me where precisely I could park the truck...it turned out the chief was a lady and we were ushered in....she was sitting on a mat under a shelter with a couple of assistants at her side...all of us made the traditional greetings by kneeling on the mat in front of the lady and clapping hands a few times while she said her greetings in Bemba.

....then we were all offered blocks of wood to sit on in a radius around the lady and then she very politely asked how she could help....yes it turned out that Mulenga was in a "healing" house near Maiseti which was some 30 km's back towards Luanshya.....it would not be a problem to find it.....all we had to do was ask just before the settlement on the main road....now came the question of what "compensation" the lady chief must have....10 pin was agreed on ( US$2 ).....goodbyes were said and off goes the total crew towards Maisiti....this time the back of the truck is full of people as well.....at the outskirts of Maiseti questions are asked about how to find the "healing" house...lo and behold a "professional" guide complete with a bicycle carrying a rear mud flap with 62 on it appears....he will guide us to the house...the road into the village was very narrow and I would doubt if a Toyota FWD had been in there for a while....children appeared from everywhere so by the time we eventually found the "healing" house we had quite a collection!....then the guide wanted 500 kwacha so a collection of all the miscellaneous change around the place was taken up...so off he went.

The "healing" house had it's own cooking place and an outside area for sitting....Mulenga was there and there was great jubilation between all the sisters and brothers....I tried to stay out of things at this stage....not possible...a chair was extracted out of the house and bought for the musungu to sit on....trying to take everything in the youngest female was the one doing the cooking...nshima plus fish as it turned out....the "healing lady" was busy braiding the hair of another lady who just happened to be there and every now and again with great ceremony she instructed one of the boys standing around to light a cigarette for her from the cooking fire....she would take a few puffs and then put it in a safe place for next time....then Chipasha decided that it might be a good time to take out her braids while there was assistance so Chluba and her cousin who happened to come along as well got stuck into that....during the hour or so we were there various people dropped in including a photographer who was supposed to take some photos of the "healing" lady but she wasn't ready so he disppeared again....

Suddenly it was time to go so everybody got back in the truck and off we went into Maiseti to the bus station so the sisters and brothers "on that side" could go back to Mpongwe.....

And so back to Kitwe and a cold white wine.
This is the first time I have got into what I call "proper" Africa and I just wanted to share it with you.....it is a totally different perspective to my copper smelting life....we had a near riot last week following the contract negotiations but that is another story....for later !!"