Melba Finch on Melba Toast?

Bird Report:
Another near bird visitation ocurred last week. I was sitting in my classroom and heard that sickening 'thud' of a bird hitting a window. I checked to see, on the sidewalk a dead male Green-winged Pytilia (also known as a Melba Finch) not an uncommon caged bird and personally known to me from my charges at the Smithsonian Nat. Zoo. It had given its life trying to make a visit, but missed the open window. I think the watering of the grass between the wings of the school had attracted it and a sudden fright sent it on its last flight path through, not over, the school. It is beautiful and improbably colored (by No. American standards). Bright red face and bill, grey head, olive back, red tail and a stripped breast of pale orange and black. That's a lot of color for a bird about the size of your thumb.

I took it around to show the students who seemed intent on getting a look at it. Some asked to touch it and carressed its feathers. Others asked in an off-hnad way what was I going to do with it and pinched its breast. Melba Finch on Melba Toast?

Then in some ornithological semetry, the next bird I got a good clear, unobstructed look at out the school window on the wild side was a male Eastern Paradise-Whydah hopping around on open ground. No binocs needed. Nothing to compare it to in No. America. Sparrow-sized bird with black head, orange bib, yellow back of the head, black back and yellow breast. But its hard to get these details because what you are looking at is his TAIL, which is three times longer than the bird, all black slightly down curved, except for a couple of feather are 'twisted' at right angle to the others and arch upward. Having an appendage like this has got to be a 'drag'. The birds seem to fly well but often with an upward pitch in a head wind to stay airborn. Finally (we come full circle) the females of this species parasitize nests of the Green-winged Pytilia. Perhaps he was looking for his 'adopted' father, now deceased.

The resident of the week: John Makunda

John is 17 and a mature, capable and easy going fellow, not difficult to converse with and with a good sense of humor. He is one you turn to when things go wrong: he knows where things are and how to get them and how things work, esp. compouters and he is as calm as he is capable.

Yes, a sense of humor: Near the end of my last visit, John and Wisedom came to my room with somber faces and presented my with a large sum of money. "Whats this and where did you get it?" I asked.
"its for you Uncle Sam," they answered, ignoring my questions. For abaout 10 minutes we went round and round without any clarification other than "its for you Uncle Sam," in the most sincere manor. I protested that I couldn't figure out where they had gotten it and that I could not accept it under any circumstances. I couldn't get them to take it back.

Finally as they turned to leave, John tossed off over is shoulder that it was the egg money from Phillip that I would need on my next errand. How nicely done, I was still sputtering in protest-mode when the message sank in.

John came to Chishawasha at age 10 (2001) at its original location in Lusaka and has spent 7 years with this very much 'extended family'.

He likes computers, basketball and soccer; is a good athlete and must be 6 ft. tall. In school he likes geometry especially as relating to engineering. He would like to take his high school A-levels, do a 'year of Cambridge' here, then look into other schools pursuing either engineering or accounting.

His happiest memory is when he got his first laptop (no, he corrected) his first working laptop.

When asked about his saddest time he quickly says when I got dumped by my girl friend (joke, laughter). "Which of the many?" I ask. Likely saddest times are not easily shared.

He has seen many changes in his time here. "We started with one house, now more buildings, more children, more fun, more friends to hang out with and play sports with." Then he adds thoughtfully, "more children, more problems."

He has friends outside Chishawasha, they are school mates.

What he likes best about this place is the education it provides. What he likes least is doing dishes. He does like to cook, I have enjoyed food he has prepared.

Things he might change? He would build a youth hostel where teenagers could live together and it would be set up so they would have their own budget and could buy some of the their own things and learn to handle money.

He has relatives: Grandparents and cousins at some distance whom he can visit. He considers himself a city boy, not of, or from the village. He stuts around the room to demonstrate his sophistication, asking incredulously "Do I look like a country boy?"

What might your life have been like without Chishawasha? "I think I would have been a very irresponsible citizen and ignorant.

What was life like before you came here? "Miserable and hopeless?"

Imagine what you might most like to find in the next container: "Computers, including Apples, musical instruments, esp. electronic keyboard, guitar, sources of music such as ipods, etc. Maybe a video game such as play station.

If you had the money, what would you buy? Lots of thought.... "maybe a motor bike."

Vacation School Schedule

How can you have a school schedule during vacation? Well we just do, for those that need it and for some it includes Saturdays and Sundays and it sure includes this teacher, 8 - 4, M - F and a couple of weekend afternoons. I can't complain about the schedule since I made it up from the components Ms Mwanza gave me. I sort of know when I was doing it, that Zambians don't have the concept of 12 - 1 lunch break which is a part of the routine for me and some of the students. The mothers seem to be adjusting and my lunches have been good if not as timely as I would like. (Notice how every topic in this blog eventually gets back to food?) To save time while watching one mother cutting up raw cabbage, I offerred that it didn't have to be cooked for me. Got a skekptical look. As a matter of fact, I continued, I might even like it better that way. I as handed a bowl full to which I added some vinegar, mayo and salt (there is no pepper in kitchens here). I was observed (maybe heard) enjoying myself so much that I got a bigger bowl the next day. Oh yes, it's these little things in life that matter!

I should mention that the Vacation School Schedule includes an Easter Holiday which I do get. What is a holiday during a vacation?

Perimeter Fence.

Take this item off the 'badly needed list'. The boundaries are being cleared as I write. This is a double joy. First that it is being done at all and second, that it is financed by they Zambian Board's efforts. The Board Chair, Mrs. Jenny Liva, Manager of the Protea Lodge, is a go-getter and great fan of what we do. Besides heading up the board and fundraising, she is always offering things like bags of starter grass for the school grounds, books for the craft market booksale, and you have to be careful about mentioning refreshment needs for special functions because she is apt to say, "Oh, let me take care of that."

I happened to meet the contractor who is doing the fence as he was working on our contract. He has done and maintains the enclosure for Protea Lodge which in their case must keep in wild animals such as African antelopes. So I inquired if he gaurentees his fences to keep in things like Kudus. "Oh yes." he responded quickly. "Good," I said, "would that also cover teenagers?" He grinned and said he thought not. No "teenage clause" in our contract. But the fence is not to keep anyone in but others out.

Whats out of place here?

Sometimes the sight of something triggers thoughts and feelings from the past and other places, as did the homemade soap a while back. While in Africa, frequently these stimuli seem often to include something jarringly 'oout of place' as regards your memory's image. The sight for instance, or our maize stalks being gathered in and stacked in large shocks and sure enough there were the pumpkins, not bright orange yet, but large ehough to make jack-o-lanterns. Here were the very symbols of Thanksgiving and Halloween. The eye sometimes sees what it want to see. I ran to get my camera to shoot this picture so reminiscent of past holidays and now seldom seen at home. While trying to compose the pictures in that soft afternnoon light, something was not right. Something was shocking by its innocent presence but I could not get an angle that would eleminate it. No, those large, bright green banana trees in the background did not lend the effect I was after. I had not seen them earlier.

This is Sam blog pressing out of Africa and still waiting to pick his first banana from a tree.