Travis in Zambia
Zambia: Journey Into the Heart of Lightness
Zambia, a short illustrated book about our visit to a small village
We flew with friends to Dar Es Salaam, the capitol of Tanzania, to go by train to Zambia. The train trip was an adventure of its own. Our destination was a tiny village where our nephew Travis worked as a Peace Corps volunteer, helping the locals build a damn for their fish farm.
Zambian Peace Corp Project Announced- from the village where I did all those paintings
As you may recall we visited Zambia and while there we visited our nephew Travis who is a Peace Corps Volunteer. One of the things they are working on is a dam and they need $3500 for concrete and things. If you have a spare $5-10 or $100, please chip in.
In addition I will donate 50% of the proceeds from the sale of paintings from my Zambia series, all of which so far have come from this village. Go to garyjkirkpatrick.com.
Project description:
“The goal of the Community Dam Project is to complete a 60 meter earthen dam by the beginning of the next rainy season. The community provides the labor necessary, working twice a week. They have already completed 20 meters and are now digging the foundation for the spillway.
The objective is to raise the water lever in order to increase the area of land able to be irrigated. After the dam is completed a total area of more than 30,000 square meters will be available for fish ponds and/or year round irrigation for agriculture. This would allow for the potential of a massive integrated agriculture and agriculture system interconnecting animal husbandry, aquaculture, and agriculture.”
https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=14-611-013
Video slide shows from a small village in Zambia- my favorite part of the journey
These photos are from our June 2014 visit to Zambia. Our nephew is serving in the Peace Corps, following his brother in el Salvador and us in Panama. The drawings in the video are from my journal, which I will publish. This was my favorite part of the journey. As spectacular as the animals were, as great as Victoria Falls was, this was more meaningful, touching me profoundly.
Here’s a people with so little in material goods who are just above subsistence and yet they expressed such joy at our arrival and for the next three days of our time there.
My art: http://www.garyjkirkpatrick.com/
Tanzania to Solwezi, Zambia- a slideshow set to Zambian music
These are photos from the moment we landed in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, across 1500 km of Tanzania to Solwezi, Zambia, where we met up with Travis, who is serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a small village not far from Solwezi. Coming up, our days in his village.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKXpMILbwFU&list=UUl7YKIwsWVvA_jQrQVcxYRg
Update from Lusaka
June 14th
Hello from Lusaka, the capitol of Zambia. 3 fantastic days in our nephew’s village (he is in Peace Corps), what lovely people and what a totally fabulous welcome we received! Rustic conditions, to put it mildly, even the bus rides were arduous and there was a 1 1/2 hour walk in the dark but under a full moon to end the 12 hour day. More to come when I have time on the net.
If you have a Facebook account you can read my hand written journals with illustrations. I have not uploaded to google+ yet. I can not post them here without more work than I can probably manage to do right now.
From Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
Seven hours from Madrid and you are smack dab in the middle of the Islamic world. It hardly looks it from an air traveler’s point of vierw. Dubai is flooded with oil money and the large modern steel and glass buildings strut out from the coastal landscape as you descend. The world’s tallest building seems to zig zag its way into the clouds.
Three hours and a $15 quiche for one lunch later we were on our way. It’s about 5 hours to Dar Es Salaam. Fortunately we slept a bit along the way. In my case, I struggled with much pain in the coccyx. It seems I need a special pillow as not even the ibuprofen worked.
Once at the airport it took an hour to get the visa and $100 each. Quite expensive for a three day visit. Fortunately our ride was still waiting as we emerged and we got into a small van, only slightly beat up. It took another hour to get to the hotel we’d booked.
Along the way people offered a wide variety of goods for sale to the drivers stuck in the traffic. Women wearing brightly colored dresses carried a root vegetable on their heads, their skull cushioned by a round cloth. Men carried sporing goods, traffic warning triangles for when you break down, bright plastic watches, and large bags of cashews. Local buses lumbered in and out of the lanes. These buses have been around a while. It’s hot, about 92f/32c and the bus windows are all open.
Our downtown hotel sits on an unpaved street. We are warmly welcomed, ushered everywhere from the front door to our hotel room. A gorgeous huge bed is also very welcoming, as is the fully tiled bathroom. You have to wait for the hot water tank to warm up, but once that is done, it’s a great shower with room for a pony.
Our traveling companions are in the hotel next door. They have made the trip from Texas, arriving the day before. We had a very spicy curry, a decent pizza, some tomato soup. Nary a fried grasshopper in sight.