November 2011; Due South

Southern Province, my new home with Peace Corps in Zambia, the land of the Tonga tribe, cattle, sour milk, open plains, and drought. For the past several decades, Southern Province has suffered from minimal rainfall coupled with a lack of naturally occurring water bodies. Sanitation, water management, and conservation farming projects rule the day, making this an ideal environment for the Southern Bio Power nucleus estate at Kapapa Farm. The site functions as a field office, resource center, and demonstration farm for Southern Bio Power to demonstrate fair trade practices and renewable energy sources on a working commercial farm. It is also my new home base and I spent several weeks this month learning about and working with bio-digesters in the agricultural context. I assisted with connecting a methane producing bio-digester to farm hand housing to provide renewable cooking gas for workers and their families.

The digester, named Elvis in honor of the household patriarch at this location, turns agricultural waste like cattle manure and vegetative compost into valuable natural gas. This particular digester is also connected to a bio-toilet, a pit latrine that feeds human waste into the digestion tank, for improved sanitation on site. Inputs from the latrine and sludge trough enter ansubterranean dome through an underwater connection. The water inside the dome provides an anaerobic environment for fermentation and pressurizes the gas that is produced (rising to the top of the dome) up to ten kilo-pascals. The digester is made of all local materials: bricks, mud, and cement, so that the primary installation expense comes from the pipes and stove unit used to harvest the gas. Southern Province suffers from massive deforestation, a result of cattle farming and tobacco drying practices in the area, and local farmers stand to benefit from adopting renewable energy sources that integrate easily with the prevailing agricultural paradigm. These digesters can supply more than enough gas for household cooking and heating needs (especially when composting glycerin heavy plant materials like Jatropha seeds) and can be used to produce electricity when employed on a large scale. Working in a partnership with Southern Bio Power over the next year, I will be expanding the outreach capacity of the organization to improve their ability to educate and train rural Zambians to work with technologies like bio-digesters.

Peace Corps Zambia held the semi-annual provincial meetings at the end of the month to coincide with Thanksgiving. This gave all the volunteers in each province the opportunity to gather as a family and share good food and drink over this American holiday institution. At the Southern Province office in Choma, we had the pleasure of a visit from our Country Director, Tom Kennedy, who came to represent Lusaka Headquarters at our meeting and enjoy the holiday with a few of his volunteers. Peace Corps pulled out of Southern Province in 2009 and only reopened the province a few months ago. Having the Country Director present at the first provincial meeting of the new Southern Province was a welcome recognition of the challenges faced by we the volunteers who have been charged with restoring operations here. We also took the occasion to hold a 50th Anniversary Celebration so that NGO and government counterparts could come to the office and network with volunteers. This was the fourth 50th anniversary I have participated in this year and quite possible the most fulfilling as most of our counterparts in Choma were unaware that Peace Corps was resuming operation in Southern Province. Letting folks know that we were back in town piqued interest in our programs and got everyone excited about establishing a legacy in the South.

B and I traveled to Lusaka after Provincials for a few days in Zambia's capitol before heading back down South. We took a brief detour on our way back to Choma and decided to go exploring for B's birthday. We traveled down a road that claimed to go to Lake Kariba, the largest man-made lake in the world, and ended up in the forgotten town of Sinazongwe. The area suffered during the Zimbabwean Civil War in the 1970s and the once vibrant fishing harbor has never fully recovered. We discovered a ghost town on the banks of a beautiful lake with a couple of lodges capitalizing on the peaceful surroundings. Tourism may indeed be the key to a revival of Sinazongwe in the coming years as the town provides easy access to this beautiful and resource rich area. Nearby Chete Island definitely held some allure for B and I after we heard the story of "Operation Noah," an irrational effort to populate the island with African wildlife including: elephants, lions, zebra, etc. Hopefully we'll get the chance to make our way to the island to see for ourselves before our time in Southern Province comes to a close.

Exploring new parts of Zambia is always fun, especially when you hitchhike student drivers
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Sinazongwe Harbor was once a major fishing port, this rusting bow was most likely a casualty of the economic ramifications of Civil War in Zimbabwe. The harbor stands largely abandoned today.
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These watchtowers were constructed during the Zimbabwean Civil War to prevent unexpected invasion by Rhodesian troops
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Locations featured in this month's post

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This brief walking tour of my new digs shows off the amenities now afforded me by my generous extension partner, Southern Bio Power. The apartment on Kapapa farm is used by office staff during visits from Lusaka and includes a beautiful porch, electricity, running water, and a bio-gas cooking range
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