Trucks, brakes and accidents

Mazabuka, sadly, never seems far from the news at the moment and for all the wrong reasons. Ever since I have arrived here, and friends have reliably informed me for many years before that, the main high street that drops down through the town has been a scene of what feels like monthly traffic accidents. This week was no exception with the worse one so far taking place. A overloaded, open light truck crashed into the iron railings at the bottom of the high street, opposite our main supermarket, resulting in the death of at least 12 people.  The death toll expected to rise due to the serious nature of the injuries sustained by a further 10 people. The passengers were fishmongers travelling for a fishing expenditure. The truck had already experienced two mechanical faults since starting off in Lusaka, the Police advised the driver that the vehicle was overloaded but it was allowed to proceed, and then the driver asked the passengers to get out of the truck as it reached Mazabuka fearing problems in negotiating the hill; a few fortunate ones heeded this advice.

Since the accident there has been much public criticism, often politically motivated, about the lack of a by-pass road for Mazabuka, which is an ongoing debate due to the large number of trucks that pass through the town. The road into is admittedly steep (with speed bumps inserted to slow traffic down) and at the bottom of the hill it curves sharply to the left which causes a problem for heavily laden trucks. A by-pass along whatever route selected would certainly solve some of the problems and dangers. However, it would ignore the obvious issue that the blame for most of accidents is the poorly maintained and serviced vehicles, which combined with heavy goods and journeys on poor quality roads leads to the all too regular destruction in Mazabuka.

Time in and out of Lusaka

An interesting and enjoyable few days in Lusaka, which is something I had not experienced much in the past as Lusaka cannot really be described as a pleasant city; more functional instead. On the work front I was there to help support the VSO Zambia programme office carry out reviews of some of its HIV and AIDS partner organisations. It was interesting to sit on the other side of the fence and to question partners about their work, the support that VSO has provided, what changes and impacts this support has had, and understand how VSO can help in the future. From a Mazabuka perspective the most important meeting was the session with people at the national office of NZP+ (the Network of Zambian People living with HIV and AIDS). There is a district level NZP+ in Mazabuka, yet for a variety of reasons the organisation is struggling to operate and therefore support the people most in need of help. It should be leading the fight against HIV yet at the moment the office is closed and staff hard to reach. I hope that through working with the national organisation we can sort out our local problems and restart the office here.

It was happily a very sociable week in Lusaka. I went to the cinema with some friends for the first time in a year and saw some crazy, silly animated film called Rango; very enjoyable and we laughed non-stop. The rest of the time was spent catching up with the Lusaka volunteers and hearing about others’ ups and downs. Being the last day of the month I was also able to visit the Dutch market – a touristy, pretty up market, market held at the Dutch Reformed Church in Lusaka. Aside from selling lots of tourist items (rugs, paintings, wooden objects, jewellery etc.), the food to buy and take away there is very tasty. Sadly we got there too late to pick up some of the quiches but in time to buy some millionaire shortbread to feed my sweet tooth.  It is also very much a place to bump into lots of familiar faces and then it was back on the bus to Maz.

Back to normal in Maz

I can happily report that Mazabuka now seems back to its hot, sleepy self. The riots are yesterday’s news with conversations being dominated instead by the latest truck disaster (brakes failing as an overloaded lorry travels down the steep main street of the town, loses control and crashes into some shops and passersby) and infidelity gossip (love triangle in the local Council revealed after the husband and mistress were involved in a car accident late one night). Back to the riots, all of Mazabuka’s top police officers have been transferred with immediate effect as a result of their mishandling of the situation. A number of police officers have been charged (not clear with what yet) for throwing the tear gas into the crowded bar. And the rioters and thieves have returned back to their communities; without trace for now. At work, we are still waiting for our funding from Government for this quarter to materialise which means the office move remains on hold; as I said things are happily back to normal.

Food glorious food

The trip around the Western Cape was a culinary delight though probably not so great for my wallet and waistline. Here is how I enjoyed my foodie evenings:

1. Sat @ Cafe Paradiso, Cape Town: Vegetable anti-pasta; 6hr slow roast pork belly, stuffed with pancetta alongside balsamic potato wedges; and crème brulee
2. Sun @ Simply Asia, Cape Town: Chicken, chilly, cashew nut and vegetable stir fry with rice noodles; and chocolate and hazelnut brownie
3. Mon @ the Codfather, Cape Town: Chunks of grilled tuna and monkfish with sauté vegetables and a choice of four dips (the chilli, and apricot chutney were my two favourite)
4. Tues @ Tokara, Stellenbosch: Kingklip fish with a pesto crust on a bed of pea mash potato, tomato gravy and sauté vegetables; white chocolate ice cream, raspberry sorbet, crushed biscuits and small cubes of mint jelly
5. Weds @ the Blue Olive, Wilderness: Tapas of jalapeno peppers, feta cheese, olive tapenade, black olives and garlic ciabatta; West Coast sole with roasted vegetables, rice and tarta sauce
6. Thurs @ Pomodoro, Wilderness: Four cheese pizza (brie, mozzarella, feta and goat cheese) with an Italian salad
7. Fri @ Caveau, Cape Town: Homemade vegetable soup; Beef fillet with green vegetables, cumin and red onion sauce and sliced crispy potatoes
8. Sat @ Sotoro, Cape Town: Baked flat bread with four dips (hummus, tzatziki, taramasalata, and chilli); mushroom and pea risotto with a baby green salad
9. Sun on Zambezi Airlines, somewhere up in the air over Zim: Back to reality with a soggy chicken sandwich and warm orange juice.

Naturally, all the good food was enjoyed with some tasty South African wines.

Wilderness

Long sandy beaches on one side and then forest, rivers and waterfalls on the other is a difficult combination to beat; welcome to Wilderness which is around 400km to the east of Cape Town along the Garden route. We found a sort of converted farmhouse tucked away within the forest to stay in with owners who were permanently high on life (or something else). We went off to explore the forest by hiring a kayak for a brief paddle upstream before walking the remainder of the journey on foot up to a couple of small waterfalls. The swim was certainly refreshing along with the pounding back massage from the waterfall. If we had another week we would have continued eastwards to explore exotic sounding places such as Kynsna and Tsitsikamma ; instead it was a road trip back to Cape Town for more of the good life there.

Tasty grapes of Stellenbosch

To escape (or sadly leave) Cape Town we hired a little Chevrolet Spark (a toy like car) and travelled to Stellenbosch which is less than an hour's drive away in a spectacular setting surrounded by vineyards and mountains. By 11am we were signed up to a tour of four vineyards and enjoying our first swirling, sniffing and slurping of wine. It was not just reds, whites, rose and something sparkling but olive oil, olives, tapenade and cheese that we got to try too. I resisted buying any wine despite being much better value than Zambia but was tempted by some of the cheese. For the record we went to the vineyards of Tokara, Dieu Donne, Solms Delta and Fairview, and they were a wide variety from upmarket to pretentious to simply good fun. The views were of olive trees, grapes on the vines and mountains all basked in warm sunshine. In the evening Marco and I returned to Tokara for a wonderful meal (my sweet tooth loved the white chocolate ice cream and raspberry sorbet) and more great views (the lights of Cape Town shone in the distance).

Luxury in Cape Town

After a few days in Cape Town I easily understood why many others rate this city so highly with its coastline, beaches, history, food, shopping and a mountain than looms over you every way you turn. Admittedly, on this trip I did see some of the best bits and only caught a glimpse of the townships and rundown neighbourhoods. On the first touristy day there I caught the ferry to Robben Island to visit the maximum security prison that has since become a museum. It was fascinating to first learn about the broad history of the island (leper colony to World War II outpost to prison during apartheid) which has involved numerous different nations. And then to be given a tour around the prison itself by a former inmate – revealing the cells, conditions, and the segregation between different types and colours of prisoner. I longed for more time to explore the island and talk to the inmate; instead of being rushed back to the ferry. In complete contrast Marco and I spent the evening in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens listening to a South African dance/jazz duo called Goldfish. The concert was held on a slope with Table Mountain behind us and the centre of Cape Town in front, surrounded by mainly white Cape Townians enjoying a picnic and drinks, and swaying to the music.

The following day I puffed and panted, (and rested) climbing over large slabs of rock as we took a couple of hours to walk up Table Mountain. The effort certainly demonstrated the point that more exercise is needed when I get back to Maz. The scenery during the walk was wonderful and the panoramic views of Cape Town were even better at the top – Robben Island in the distance, the city centre and harbour, other parts of the mountain and the long, tempting coastline. We took the easy route down, a few minutes in the cable car.

The rest of the time in Cape Town was a magical blur of great food (see a later blog entry), drinking good wine and making new friends. On leaving the city it felt like I had barely touched the surface of what can be seen here. I need to come back for Cape Point, the District 6 museum, a different route up the Mountain and more time to enjoy some good food.

 

Worrying times in Mazabuka

Honestly, until now Mazabuka has been a quiet and friendly place. This all changed when the local police decided to halt the watching on TV of a football match. Around 500 fans were watching the big footy game between Chelsea and Manchester United on Tuesday night in a local pub and whilst this may have been illegal they do not appear to have been causing much trouble. But the police (over) acted, threw tear gas into the building and this resulted in a stampede which led to two tragic deaths. The reaction to the deaths was rioting for much of yesterday by large numbers of residents with the constant echo of guns being fired into the air. I was safely tucked up in workshop for most of Wednesday and around 1700 came out to find a deserted town centre with evidence of rioting in the form of rubbish and rocks strewn over the place, and some burnt out bins. During the day increasing numbers of Police (coming from different parts of the Province) had fought with the rioters after buildings (the Police station, a school, a clinic and some shops) had been attacked. The police continued to use tear gas and pepper spray; tragically leading to a death of a young baby when tear gas was thrown into a home. Later on that evening a truck that had been attacked and ransacked of its goods (fertilizer) earlier in the day was burnt by the rioters. A curfew was put in place and we were all told to stay indoors for the evening.

On to today and the onset of heavy rain during the night seemed to have calmed down the situation with the town being busier and almost back to normal. However, in the morning the riot police headed off into some of the compounds in an attempt to catch the previous day's rioters and thieves. This backfired and only made the situation worse. The battles restarted with the police using live ammunition (and not plastic bullets) which led to at least two more deaths. My office at the Council is next to the Police station and we watched as the bodies were brought to the station. The victims’ relatives soon followed and the wailing and screaming that is commonplace here when someone passes away soon began. The rioters also turned their anger on local businessmen, mainly the Indian owners and attacked some of their shops and homes. By the afternoon, and with the situation not improving, a number of us volunteers in Maz packed our bags and headed to the safety of Lusaka rather than locking ourselves in our homes and waiting for things to calm down. Fortunately for me I am off on holiday to Cape Town at the weekend.