safety first, arrive alive

that's the slogan of one of the major bus companies around zambia - germin's. i'm not sure if that inspires confidence or fear. most of the time i ride the buses around zambia i, somewhat surprisingly, feel safe. we pass many a flipped over semi where the drivers were either drunk or asleep on their long drives from Dar Es Salaam to various places mostly in South Africa. needless to say, i do not take that bus line.

i've just arrived in lusaka on the night bus (thank you juldan bus company for arriving safely!)and around 5:45 as we were pulling into the edges of Lusaka the sky started to light up with one of the most beautiful sunrises i've ever seen. usually i like sunsets more, probably partly because i don't have to wake up early, but also because they are usually much more colorful, with much more pink and orange in their clouds. this sunrise though made me sit there thinking about Africa - i'm in africa! watching the sun rise!

part of that thought made me think about these repeated thoughts i have about being in africa - "i'm on a bush path in africa! on my bike! by myself!" or "i'm watching an african sunrise!" or smiling at the beautiful "african" patterns on the women's chitenges (skirts/shirts/colorful material). is it just some kind of neo-colonialist romanticism? i don't think so exactly. as much as the thoughts hark back to a kind of "africa house" feeling of the 19th century adventures in Africa, i think (i hope?) that mine is different... is it a different motivation? is it a different kind of appreciation? a knowledge that i'm leaving and am not trying to ignore the people on some level?

i think these feelings probably conincide with definite frustration that PC isn't really the way to do development. increasingly i find myself wanting to work on projects that are looking at systems level change - and my latest is how to finance ideas here. development increasingly doesn't work, i think, because it's outsiders coming in and thinking through the problems and approving (or not) finances. when will zambians be able to start their own projects and try to make them work and let kids learn from them to think similarly? when will the idea of venture capitalists come here? where someone can say "i believe in your idea, try it!"

hmmm, what else? have had some interesting conversations in the last two days about evolution vs. creationism. it's scary to me that kids here are hardly even given the information about evolution. how can they ever consider it if they aren't even taught the history that IS there? fossils, discoveries of ancient peoples etc?

also, had a beautiful moment when earlier this week i heard some women singing and dancing outside my house. they were actually next door and had come bearing song to welcome the baby my neighbor just had. so beautiful.

ok, have to go and do lusaka office stuff.