Homemade Pasta and Hugo the Hippo

The one month mark has come and gone. The fact that it slipped by unnoticed is a good sign; between a full work load and an eventful after work scene life has been pretty busy, but it’s been time well spent. Today is a new marker in my life here, one that’s a bit more noticeable. This will be the first night I spend away from my host family and in my new home. If you’re looking at a map of Lusaka, I’ve moved from way down in the bottom right corner up to the center-middle to an area called Kalundu. I’ll be living in a four bedroom house with two Zambians guys and an Australian girl. Having been able to spend time with them since arriving in June I know they are all great, hard-working people who are also a lot of fun. I actually got to know the two guys more while working as a photographer at a concert their production company, R&G Events, put on last weekend. I’m really looking forward to spending at least the next six months at this house. Most of all I’m excited to put down some roots, to finally unpack my suitcases, and to start cooking in my own kitchen.

(Working at the concert)

Before moving out of the Mwenye household, I cooked them a farewell dinner. I decided to go with an old standby; my interpretation of my Dad’s interpretation of my Grandmother’s unbelievable pasta sauce. I picked up fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic and parsley from the farmer’s market and was able to find most of the other ingredients at the grocery store. With some help from Aunt Paulina and Gertrude we managed to cook a pretty authentic version of the dish which was eyed warily at first as it bubbled in the pot, but was eventually enjoyed thoroughly by all.

(Gertrude enjoying her pasta)

This long weekend (today was Farmer’s Day) also contained another exciting event. It was my first time since getting here that I left the boundaries of Lusaka. A casual suggestion on Saturday morning came together quickly, and impressively, into a full blown overnight trip to Lake Kariba in the southeast of the country on the border with Zimbabwe. It’s hard to explain the full benefit of escaping from the dry crowded city into the rolling green hills and being close to a body of water for the first time in this land-locked country. While the road required some attentive driving, between overloaded trucks and sporadic potholes, the ride was only about two and a half hours and the scenery was captivating. The lake itself was massive; at 5,580 square kilometers it is the largest artificial lake in the world. It is the product of a dam that filled in a massive river valley along the Zambezi and which now supplies power to both Zambia and Zimbabwe. Unfortunately we were unable to swim due to the triple threat of bacteria, Nile crocodiles and the ever dangerous hippopotamus which call the lake home. We did, however, take a beautiful sunset cruise at night, and in the morning were able to go fishing. While as a team we failed to catch anything larger than my thumb, we did come very close to a troop of island baboons, and our guide managed to snag himself a tiger fish, which lives up to its namesake in the tooth department I must say.

(Sunset over Lake Kariba)

While the trip was on a whole extremely relaxing, we did find ourselves in a uniquely stressful situation after our sunset cruise. As we pulled up to shore we suddenly realized we had a rather large visitor in our campsite. Grazing his way toward our tents was the 5,000 lb resident of the area, Hugo the Hippo. It was very cool to see one outside of water and to really get a sense of their sheer mass; it’s much bigger than a cow and probably as tall as a horse. On the other hand, this bulk combined with their high aggression and territorial nature makes them one of the most dangerous animals in Africa. So it was with some trepidation that we approached to within thirty feet of Hugo to make our campfire and cook dinner. Having to walk past him to the bathroom sent my heart racing- every time he would raise his massive head from grazing and fix me with that unnerving stare it was all I could do not to sprint for the nearest building. We all breathed a little easier once he wandered off into the night, but I wasn’t the only one who later dreamed in his flimsy canvas tent of that massive beast meandering back through our site. Ultimately we survived our hippo encounter, and I came back to Lusaka today refreshed and ready for an important and busy week at work where we begin to narrow down this year’s applicant pool for the scholarships.