Day 338 - The Real Africa

Madagascar didn't seem like Africa. My house in Tana had a large map of the continent of Africa on the staircase wall that didn't include Madagascar, possible evidence that most Malagasies also did not think of themselves as Africans.  So as much as I enjoyed Madagascar, I looked forward to seeing the real thing.

  by  virtualwayfarer 

After four months in Madagascar, I moved to my next TDY assignment in Lusaka, Zambia.  Zaire was clearly Africa. There were safari parks within an hour's drive from Lusaka with lions, elephants, antelopes and all the other animals I thought of as African. And there were lush gardens reminiscent of jungles throughout the city. Unfortunately, my stay in Lusaka was very short, just three weeks, so I didn't get to see much.

I had just two weekends to explore.

tea bag art

The first weekend, I visited the once-a-month craft market that brought together vendors from Kenya and other neighboring countries as well as Zambians. The range of items on sale was much broader and impressive than I had expected. As I saw in Madagascar, there were many items such as cars, trucks, and even animals, constructed from intricately cut and assembled pieces from discarded aluminum cans, some very detailed. There were many woven items, including clothing, scarves, and purses. But what caught my attention most were note cards with stick-figure drawings drawn in black ink on used, but emptied, tea bags. I was impressed that what we would think nothing of throwing away became raw materials for artists in Africa.

The second weekend, I attended a fund raising event hosted by the Canadian and American Women's Clubs of Lusaka. The event included a barbecue and an auction, billed as a pound auction with every item to be auctioned brought in as the price of admission. The items were to be brought wrapped, and every item was to weigh just one pound. The host had a kitchen scale at the door and weighed items as the guests arrived. A small penalty was charged if the items weighed more or less than one pound with the results going to the same cause as the auction proceeds. Every item was either more or less than one pound. The clever folks who thought they could beat the penalty by buying something that weighed exactly one pound were caught because of the additional weight of the wrapping paper.

tea bag art

As the auction began, I knew that if I didn't win an early bid, the chances were good that the winning bids would be much higher later in the evening. So I bid early on a package that looked to be about the size of three paving bricks. I was curious how it could be so big without weighing more than one pound. I won and everyone watched as I opened the package. Once I got the wrapping paper off, I could see there were three identical green boxes inside, but I still didn't know what they were. A few people sitting near me asked, but I pointed to the writing on the boxes, all in Chinese. I took the three boxes apart to see if there might be English or French or Spanish or even Russian on other faces of the box. After very close examination, I finally found some English in tiny letters at the bottom of one side of the boxes. I had won the bid for three boxes of Chinese green slimming tea.

My assumption about the final price for later items turned out accurate. I know my bid was for much higher than the price of the tea. But others won items including a battery powered fly swatter with bids that would be considered extortion under other circumstances. Watching the winners as they opened their packages was well worth the price of admission.