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.
Zambia
Zambia: Watercolors from the bush
We visited the village where our nephew Travis worked as a Peace Corps volunteer. It was a fabulous visit despite the primitive conditions- the people were just so loving and friendly. These are the only ones I still have and I am offering them for the next week at special prices. See blog on Zambia for further accounts of this special journey.
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
The Zambia Series
A few of these are still available. Please contact me for information.
From our safari to Zambia, June 2014.
These paintings are mostly from my journal, which I did while we were there. Some of the very small ones I later did on larger paper, also in water color.
We traveled by train for 1500 kilometers from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania to Zambia, and spent several days in a small village where our nephew works as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was an uplifting experience.
It started with an hour long walk in the dark (see the painting “Heart of Lightness”). As we approached the village we heard shouts of joy, hugs and kisses soon following. Then they sang for an hour, choral harmony in which the whole village joined. We were perfect strangers yet they welcomed us as if we were long lost relatives. We lived in a small hut and watched the people work on the dam, harvest cassava and do other chores. What loads the women can carry on their heads! We ate with them, partied with them. They are sweet and innocent, these people of Lunda land.
I hope you will enjoy my portrayal of the experience, the colors, the scenes, the sense of innocence.
Heart of Lightness We walked on the path towards the village under the glow of the yellow moon. After almost an hour we saw the glow of campfires on the hill. Soon we were welcomed with shrieks and smothered with hugs and kisses on the cheeks.
The Chorus After we arrived they sang in harmony for an hour. Children in the front row would sometimes bang the rhythm on the ground. The second row was for the teens, and the adults were in the last.
They sang beautifully.
Women Dance At night the young women danced around a campfire, for which they used a brazier. The wood fire cast an orange glow. My original was just 2″x 4″. The rhythms were mesmerizing. Even some of the older women (by older I mean over 25, as the life span here is just 45) joined in. I wanted to also.
Women Collect Sand The Peace Corps project is a small dam for filling fish ponds. They need the protein and the income. They do not have much of either. They have goats but they do not eat them, they are for dowries, and they are lactose intolerant so nary a piece of cheese in the country. In this painting they collect sand for the dam.
Walking the Bush We explored the area around the village. Here are friends walk through the bush.
What I experienced gave me a new perspective, different colors, the elongated limbs, the redness of the soil.
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/
