Hello one more time before my leaving Zambia,
We had a whirlwind week so far and here are some of the highlights: On Saturday we visited a small fishing village way down a dirt road along the river. We bought 60 kg of farmed fish, fetched alive from the pond by a standby crew of fishermen who pull a long net in a wide arc through the pond, and then narrow it down until all the fish are pooled, picked out by size and then put into buckets by the handful. We then rented a longboat with two men paddling our rather giddy party across the vast river, along some very idyllic sceneries, past a river island village with tall palm trees and a tiny mission church supposedly run by an Italian priest. Kids were waving at us from the distance, probably thinking I must be a personal friend of the priest approaching (… talking about missionary cliches - I guess they still exist in a few places). On the same day in the afternoon, we visited a close-by game reserve on a fancy hotel’s vast grounds. The manager there is on the Chishawasha local board of directors so the kids get a deal coming here every now and then. We took a short but fun game drive on an open multi-seat range rover, saw Zebras and Gazelles from fairly close, and a tamed Elephant . They all can only have so much privacy due to a high voltage fence circling the property… one that on the upside also protects them from their one remaining area predator (i.e. humans). Again the kids got a mayor kick out of being in a fancier setting; they hung out at the Hotel pool side and pretended to sip tea from safari-looking cups that weren’t bussed as of yet by the staff. We returned after sunset and I was pretty wiped by all the travel following my somewhat restless previous coughing night.
On Sunday I just had to take it a little easier, still trying to recover from my cold and so I decided to skip the 7.30 am church run and rather be rested for an afternoon of tying up loose ends. I had a couple more student portraits and interviews to do, a calendar photo to take, things to organize, digital files to process etc.
Early on Monday I revisited the sad market - this time by myself and with a Polaroid camera and my rather slow Rolleiflex. This time around I had a good time and people were not sad at all, really getting into the free Polaroid kind of thing. Unfortunately it quickly came to a point where I found it very hard to ever make it to the subjects I really wanted… Polaroid is very great in a mellow environment but can become counter-productive in a high density situation. Oh well. I tried and if I had time to go again everyone would be happy to see me by now.
Later on Monday we had a very well-conceived students-turn-teachers session, and on Tuesday a workshop student assignment to document a day in the life of Chishawasha, results still pending. Today it’s just getting ready for the exhibition on Thursday. I’ll have to write you more in detail thereafter.
So busy now that it’s hard to believe I’m leaving already on Friday. I’ll definitely miss the kids and the place a lot!
Greetings,
Klaus