(Baines Motors) (Doubt, Pearl, Bailey, Thiende and me)
After 16 years, I finally reunited with my cousin Pearl. The following day, my cousins Diane and Pearl, their kids, my Granny and I headed to my Auntie Lynn’s farm in Kabwe. Along the roadside women and children sell mangoes, tomatoes and mushrooms (some the size of Frisbees!). I wish I liked mushrooms!
(very large mushroom)
We made a necessary mango-stop in Chisamba, where we purchased 5 basins of mangoes for 25,000 kwacha (that’s about 75 mangoes for $5 CAD!!!)…I’m in heaven. All these mangoes were required for a mango-eating competition my cousin Pearl had challenged me to…who could eat the most mangoes in one sitting. I’m disappointed to say that I lost. Never thought I’d lose at an eating competition, but I had to call it quits at mango number 13. Pearl managed to eat 15, I think. We both live by the philosophy that it’s not worth eating only one mango at a sitting. You’ve got to make the strings in the teeth, mango stains (I swear almost everything I own has a mango stain) and sticky hands and forearms worthwhile. I did, however, pay for my gluttony …system shutdown :) It was all worth it. Mango season doesn’t last forever. So many mangoes here go to waste because there's such an influx, but then the season ends and there's nothing. This would make me sad, but I guess that's why everyone loves mangoes so much...it's like summer in Canada. I don't think we'd appreciate it as much if we didn't have the winter.
(the dam)
Auntie Lynn is starting up a new farm deep in the Kabwe bush. What it lacks in terms of running water and electricity, it more than makes up for in character and charm. It was so nice to escape from the city and spend a week surrounded by nothing but trees; serenaded by the songs of the animals of the bush. We went on numerous walks through the fields of maize, peanuts and paprika as well as fishing at the dam…we even hiked through thick forest in search of mushrooms. I only spotted one since I had my eyes on the lookout for snakes most of the time. The black mamba is one of the deadliest snakes in the world. Apparently, when startled a black mamba stands to face its adversary (often standing as tall as a human). My Aunt warned us that if we spotted one, we should stand very still and wait for the mamba to back down and slither away…hells no! I was sure I couldn’t do that, so I was determined to avoid any such confrontation in the first place. Tip-toeing, I kept my eyes on the ground…suddenly I realized that it was just as likely for snakes to be lurking in the trees above. When I looked up, I saw that I was about a foot away from a spider’s web that was close to a meter tall and wide….shudder. What I hate most in the world (in line with irrational fears, of course) is walking through spiders’ webs, not knowing if the little bugger (teehee) is now crawling on me. My anti-spidey sense was working, thank God.
The farm’s a place that captures the imagination, that rejuvenates, that inspires. It’s so self-sustaining. A few nights, everything we ate for supper we had picked earlier that day from the bush and/or the fields. I also met an 11-year old boy named Doubt who has just the most amazing spirit (he actually looks about 7 because of being mal-nurished as a baby). He was born squint-eyed and because of his condition was abandoned by his father, who believed he was witched. He now lives with his grandmother on my aunt’s farm. He’s such a gentle soul. He plays so well with the other children, always shares the little he has and wears a big smile on his face at all times. He’s stolen all of our hearts and has even become my aunt’s very eager little helper. The farm has a lot more stories, but I’ll spare you all the details for now.
(very large mushroom)We made a necessary mango-stop in Chisamba, where we purchased 5 basins of mangoes for 25,000 kwacha (that’s about 75 mangoes for $5 CAD!!!)…I’m in heaven. All these mangoes were required for a mango-eating competition my cousin Pearl had challenged me to…who could eat the most mangoes in one sitting. I’m disappointed to say that I lost. Never thought I’d lose at an eating competition, but I had to call it quits at mango number 13. Pearl managed to eat 15, I think. We both live by the philosophy that it’s not worth eating only one mango at a sitting. You’ve got to make the strings in the teeth, mango stains (I swear almost everything I own has a mango stain) and sticky hands and forearms worthwhile. I did, however, pay for my gluttony …system shutdown :) It was all worth it. Mango season doesn’t last forever. So many mangoes here go to waste because there's such an influx, but then the season ends and there's nothing. This would make me sad, but I guess that's why everyone loves mangoes so much...it's like summer in Canada. I don't think we'd appreciate it as much if we didn't have the winter.
(the dam)Auntie Lynn is starting up a new farm deep in the Kabwe bush. What it lacks in terms of running water and electricity, it more than makes up for in character and charm. It was so nice to escape from the city and spend a week surrounded by nothing but trees; serenaded by the songs of the animals of the bush. We went on numerous walks through the fields of maize, peanuts and paprika as well as fishing at the dam…we even hiked through thick forest in search of mushrooms. I only spotted one since I had my eyes on the lookout for snakes most of the time. The black mamba is one of the deadliest snakes in the world. Apparently, when startled a black mamba stands to face its adversary (often standing as tall as a human). My Aunt warned us that if we spotted one, we should stand very still and wait for the mamba to back down and slither away…hells no! I was sure I couldn’t do that, so I was determined to avoid any such confrontation in the first place. Tip-toeing, I kept my eyes on the ground…suddenly I realized that it was just as likely for snakes to be lurking in the trees above. When I looked up, I saw that I was about a foot away from a spider’s web that was close to a meter tall and wide….shudder. What I hate most in the world (in line with irrational fears, of course) is walking through spiders’ webs, not knowing if the little bugger (teehee) is now crawling on me. My anti-spidey sense was working, thank God.
The farm’s a place that captures the imagination, that rejuvenates, that inspires. It’s so self-sustaining. A few nights, everything we ate for supper we had picked earlier that day from the bush and/or the fields. I also met an 11-year old boy named Doubt who has just the most amazing spirit (he actually looks about 7 because of being mal-nurished as a baby). He was born squint-eyed and because of his condition was abandoned by his father, who believed he was witched. He now lives with his grandmother on my aunt’s farm. He’s such a gentle soul. He plays so well with the other children, always shares the little he has and wears a big smile on his face at all times. He’s stolen all of our hearts and has even become my aunt’s very eager little helper. The farm has a lot more stories, but I’ll spare you all the details for now.
Images of the Farm:
(Paula and Doubt) (worker pulling cow)
(cow pulling trailer made out of the back of a truck)
(mushrooms) (Sokos the dog in the field)
(Granny Baines in her Paradise)
