Update from Zambia: August 21st

Sunday aug 21. Had a great day today. Studied most of the morning, got some Frisbee in, had time to think, ate about 125 grams of soya pieces, biked. Pretty awesome. Then came back to my homestay, honed my knife, worked on some house projects: a different kind of rock stove made of just low heat fired brick and sand mortar. I want to test the locally available materials to see how resilient they are or if i need to procure anthill clay to properly mix a heat resistant mortar.

After the stove I drew diagrams of brick ovens, and pit ovens that would be more fuel efficient for my host family. I then drew and described solar dryer tech and mechanical advantage. Very difficult but using lever and wedge, pulley, ie my bike and block and tackle managed to get the concept across. On a health note I drew and explained a tippy-tap and the health principles behind it. We talked about hand washing and i described bacteria and germ theory. Pretty successfully :). An awesome Sunday to be sure.

On Saturday our language class did some cultural exploration. We interviewed some Zambians about cultural conceptions and beliefs regarding food, like why men should eat raw ground nuts, or the idea that pregnant women shouldn’t eat eggs or their children will be born bald. We had a great chance to break down these cultural beliefs, look at why they were actually put into practice, and then translate that information back to our hosts! Amazing!


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