Nyanje Village - Part 2

After a moving introduction to the village, we all awoke and made our breakfast of cold cereal and tea. We tried to help put with morning chores, which included going to the borehole for water. Some even had modest success carrying the water in the traditional African manner. 

We packed our day packs with cameras, binoculars and water and set off to climb Nyanje mountain. In the group picture below, you can see Nyanje mountain in the background of the Banda compound. The entire village really sits at the foot of the mountain. 

Our original intent was to be guided up the mountain by the resourceful Peter Banda (pictured below helping Holly up and over the boulder section), a nephew of Alice and Nelia. 

Apparently word had spread around the village that the muzungu ("white people") were going to hike the mountain, so as we ascended we slowly collected more and more village children in our party. The day before, at the church, Reverend Andrew Banda gave a sermon in both English and Chinyanja, that had three fundamental messages about requirements for success: 1) Planning, 2) Motivation, and 3) Teamwork. The Zambassadors kept recalling those words on the hike up! 

Once we reached the top we not only had a breathtaking view of Eastern Province and Mozambique, we also could accurately judge the size of our entourage. It was much larger than we anticipated. The more the merrier. 

We lingered over those views for a while, then started our descent. 

Always adventurous, we opted for a new route for descent than we took for our climb, and although it may look treacherous, it really wasn't that bad...and it was not at all a new route to our Zambian guides. 

We all made it down with only minor scrapes and bruises. Upon returning to the Banda compound, we again went to carry water back to the compound (our group was largely responsible for continually emptying their cistern). Everyone (especially the villagers) were entertained by our attempts to carry water on our heads. 

And we then helped Nelia a bit with husking a small portion of her maize crop. Watching us do that was again great fun for the locals. Judging from the blisters we all quickly worked up on our hands, we clearly had a lot to learn. 

The staple food for Zambians is nshima, a thick cornflour-based paste that nearly all Zambians eat twice every day. Historically, nshima was made from cassava and other native root crops, but now most families in villages like Nyanje have small farm plots outside of town where they grow their own maize for nshima. Planted, tended and harvested by hand, this can amount to a lot of work. We helped husk a few bushels of maize, which will now go to the mill for grinding into flour. The local kids helped gather the kernels and dump them into bags. These children were always laughing and having fun, so maybe it wasn't always at our expense.

[Children corn video]

After milling, it gets made into nshima, usually over an open fire.  Nelia demonstrates below. 

Finally we closed the day with our (less-strenuous) hike to the dam just outside of town. A bad photo of the gentle path we hiked, but you can see how all the children wanted to hold hands with all of us. 

Perhaps the highlight of the hike was finding this chameleon on the walk back - we don't know the species, but we are working on it. 

The lake made from the dam on the Kangele river is quite picturesque, and we all had fun doing a bit of botanizing and checking out insects and birds along the shore. 

Our stay in the village came to an end the next morning, as we packed up and said our farewells. Several of the students - and co-leader, Mary - said they just wanted to stay in the village, but not to worry, I got them all onto the bus and on the road to South Luangwa.