A Day in the Life

A Day in the Life

with the African bees of
Rhoda Museta

Wednesday, May 19th
It’s hard to believe our time is coming to an end here in this amazing country; I only wish our flight days had not been included in our visit time, the few extra days would have been so nice! Today we again broke into 2 groups to do ‘A Day in the Life’. Our group got the easy end of the bargain today, as we headed out to visit Rhoda, as she lived very close to Kalomo proper, in an area called Namwianga. The other group had to go to the Munkolo area again, over the much loved ‘Rutted Road’.
Rhoda has 7 children and 2 grandchildren; she is also the treasurer for the Project Management Committee, and she began partnering in World Vision projects in 2005. She told us that before World Vision came into the picture, the people had many problems, especially sending children to school because of the poverty. They had no knowledge of how to help themselves. World Vision has provided training in various sectors, motivating the people to learn new technology. She said she has benefited tremendously through the training; she started with bee keeping and caring for small animals, like goats, and since receiving her training her animals are much healthier, and there is now very little of what they term ‘corridor disease’. Prevention is better than a cure, and so they vaccinate the animals at certain times of the year to help alleviate this disease, and we were informed that goats are more resistant to disease than sheep. They have received cows, which help in the ploughing of the acres of fields they sow and harvest every year, goats provide food and some are sold to help supplement their income, so the children can be sent to school, other types of help from the sale of animals and produce income for such things such as blankets, uniforms and books for the children. Last year each of her children received 2 goats from WV, with the understanding that the offspring would be passed on to other members of the community. This is what we call ‘the ripple effect’, where one good thing goes on to produce many good things within the communities. Another project she is involved in through WV, comes from corporate or large donations, not the sponsorship program. She has been trained in beekeeping, has 4 bark hives at this time, and will be receiving soon, 10 of the new box hives. There are quite a number of bee-keepers we were finding out, and so we asked about the special equipment needed to harvest the honey. We learned that most of the people will harvest at different times and so a full compliment of equipment has been provided, that is shared amongst the community. With the old hives, thy would wait for evening when the bees were less active, they would use burning cow dung to smoke the bees, but were stung many times.. Did I tell you about the BIG snakes she said could get into the bark hives and eat the bees, yup, BIG SNAKES! They must also take water to the bees, so that the bees do not come near their homes, looking for water. Things I didn’t know (and didn’t want to know about the BIG SNAKES). At present they sell their honey locally (infact some of the team bought local honey) but the World Vision ADP staff are looking into building a processing plant for the honey produced from ALL the bee-keepers. Processed honey earn a higher dollar, plus they would then be able to find more markets, even out of country, so that when WV phases out the ADP, the people will still have their markets for the honey.
We discussed about different markets for honey here in Canada, telling them about bee-pollen usage and how good imported honey can be worth a small fortune. They are always interested in learning any new ideas, especially about marketing. When I asked if they made goat cheese from the goat milk, they had never heard of it, and when I explained how popular it is in Canada, you could see the wheels starting to turn and eyes light up, as yet another avenue to explore was discovered.
We were going to take a look at the hives, but as it was starting to get warm, the bees were becoming active and we thought discretion was the better part of valour and decided to leave the bee visit out of the schedule. Instead we accompanied Rhoda to the bore hole, where she collects water, which was a goodly distance, especially when you consider she may have to go there 8 - 10 times a day. Colin became the pump man and we each carried back a container of water (some of our containers were smaller than others). On the way back we stopped at the garden, which I think must have been a community garden, as I had seen other women there [picking veggies, while we were collecting the water. I tried to help pick the rape leaves, but I think I was picking the wrong stuff as I heard many giggles as I bent to pick certain leaves and was then told not those ones, look for these ones, which was confusing as the rape leaves, at least to me, look just like pumpkin leaves, except not quite as prickly. When we reached the ‘compound’ we were given some peanuts to shell. These were certainly not like the ones from the goat project, most were empty or shrivelled. Masauso explained that this was not a good area for peanuts and so that is one reason they have trained Rhoda in other things; then she will be ale to purchase GOOD peanuts, while growing a more suitable crop instead. Kathy was given the chance to pound the peanuts in the large wooden pestle as we watched one of Rhoda’s daughters get the rape ready for steaming. They peel the stock of the leaf, just like pulling the strings from a piece of celery or skinning the stock on Broccoli. The rape is steamed with a small amount of water and oil and the ground peanuts are added just as it finishes cooking. As we were starting to run late again, we were presented with the vegetable to take home with us for lunch.
From Rhoda’s we walked a short distance down another sandy path to visit Shepherd Chilaza, a master carpenter, at his ’shop’. His shop turned out to be a shady spot under a large tree. Shepherd had studied for 2 years in Livingstone and since 2007 he has been taking in apprentices from local secondary schools. On display were a beautiful bed frame, table chairs, as well as chairs that I assume were to have padding and covers for a living room, and a gorgeous wood door. Shepherd’ dream is to one day generate enough income to build a small shop where they can keep their tools and equipment safely under lock and key, with an adjacent home for a caretaker. He is not yet working with World Vision, but has put in applications to become one of their suppliers.
Our final part of the day was to have our last photo workshop. The children were told to take pictures of things that inspire them. There were pictures of a bank (one wants to work there) of a school, by a want to be teacher, vehicles by someone who would like to drive. You could see the progression they had all made with their new skills from the first day till present. There was quite the difference in quality and form. As they returned from the photo taking they were asked to sit down and told to pick their 3 very favourites for the next days presentation. We helped to make invitations for them to take home to friends and family, inviting them to the next days showing of their work. The idea was to print off these pictures and hang them around the room for everyone to view, but so far, the first printer that was purchased, did not work and the new re-placement was only printing in green ink! Much like the fiascoes with the kettles. Even had we not been travelling with World Vision (and so inspired, to date with what WV is doing all over the globe), we would have learned a valuable lessons just by being in Zambia (Africa in total, I think) and that is patience and flexibility! It seemed daily that we were having to go to a different plan of action, thinking up new ways to handle things. Chris, Colin & Christy came up with the solution of showing the pictures on the lap-tops. The children would be able to take their cameras around and show their friends their own pictures and then Christy put together a slide show to be shown on a big screen. It would all work out!