Heidi's Newsy News

I have now been back in Lusaka for about two and a half weeks, and I realized that I have given some bits of news to some family and friends, but I know that not all news has made it to all people. So, I thought I would take this opportunity to “even the score”. Here goes the laundry list.

First, I am back in the same flat I had in the spring. I had given it up when I left because it was expensive and I wasn’t sure when I would be returning. However, the landlady had not yet found a tenant, and I bargained her down a bit. I also found two young men to share the flat with. One is Canadian, the other American, and they are both NGO workers. One has been out of town most of the time since we moved in. The other fellow and I have had a good time getting to know each other through sharing our experiences working on development projects (and watching TV together). We also have discovered that a few lizards really like to hang out under our living room couches. I’m ok with this because another flat mate and I learned in the spring that lizards eat cockroaches, but let’s hope they don’t make a bunch of baby lizards down there.

Second, I am pleased to report that I am still Auntie Heidi to the neighbor kids, and I have been teaching them the card game Set, which my aunt gave me for Christmas. When I left in December I gave the UNO cards to a couple of the neighbor kids, and the cards were (for reasons unknown to me) loaned out a few at a time to various cousins, never to be seen again.

Third, I appear to be acting a bit more like a Zambian resident these days. Not only do I have a work permit, I have rented a postal box. Send me an email if you want the address, but be warned that mail is slow and spendy. I also will be getting a used car soon. I’ll report more on this later.

Fourth, I have discovered that there are some lessons in cross-cultural relations that I am still learning, or re-learning, or maybe will wrestle with all my life. Effective communication remains a challenge due to differences in language and infrastructure (few people use email regularly, and cell phone talk time is costly), as well as the cultural “filters” we all listen with. I also am continuing to find that many people appear to look at me and see dollar signs. This means that I have to work hard to convince people that I am not their cash cow, but instead would like to work with them towards developing financially reasonable and sustainable computer projects

Finally, while life does move slower over here, I can report that I am making some progress on my work. I have been sharing and on working on some of my ideas for improving the school computer programs, and plans are underway for an intensive teacher computer training program during the April school holidays. I also am building some enthusiasm for the community computer education center idea among others working in IT education and access in Lusaka.