After hearing about the Trade Fair from dozens of people, we decided we wanted to see it for ourselves. Theresa, Veronica and Carol all wanted to join us. It had been many years since any of them had been able to go, and they were very excited at the prospect. Tom and Troy were eager as well, game to jump in and experience Zambian culture.
We all met at the apartment at 10:00. It became obvious as we got close to the venue that this was indeed THE place to be. There were hundreds of people streaming towards the park, on foot, on bicycle, in cars, taxis and minibuses. Theresa had scored us a special parking pass from Simon, her significant other, who works for one of the local mines.
We parked, paid our 10,000 Kwacha per person entrance fee (about $2.50), and entered the park area. We westerners started to wander aimlessly but Theresa and Veronica quickly straightened us out: "No," they explained. "We want to see everything. We must start at one end and go to each booth one-by-one." We were happy to follow their lead, not really even knowing at this point what this Trade Fair thing was all about.
Entering the Trade Fair.
Before we made it into the first area, we ran into Pauline. As you may remember from previous visits, Pauline is an assistant to Theresa who also works at the Savoy Hotel. She conducts a lot of Living Compassion business that needs to happen in the town center. Pauline was with her two daughters and her sister. We love running into friends around town--makes us feel like locals. We took a group photo to memorialize the moment, then began our Trade Fair tour.
Left to right: Veronica, Carol, Pauline's second daughter, Dave, Tom, Pauline, Pauline's first daughter, Theresa, Pauline's sister, Troy.
The first "booth" was a large room with several stands all representing some part of the Ministry of Education. Theresa and Jen enjoyed talking with the Continuing Education representatives as they were quite helpful with information on how Theresa could get her high school degree as an adult and tips on how to help Annie, one of the girls in the Living Compassion house, who has gone as far as she can go with formal education (she did not pass her 9th grade exams) and is ready to go to trade school. We will follow those leads next week.
We emerged from the Ministry of Education booth and headed next to a Pakistani furniture stand. We could see this was going to be a diverse experience indeed. Next was a huge hall filled with vendors offering various wares. Many of them were from Kenya. It was interesting to chat with them and see some of the differences between countries. We had been asking Theresa earlier if she could hear the difference between our American accent and Tom's (he grew up in England) British accent. She could, and it was fun to see if we could hear the nuances between the Zambian and Kenyan accents. We could, sort of.
Dave found a great pair of sandals made from old tires that we insisted he buy if only to show to an entrepreneur in Kantolomba to see about producing them there. Jen saw beautiful beaded flip-flops that we were sure would be a bestseller back in the U.S. Alas, they were made from leather, and we couldn't bring ourselves to purchase them. We settled for taking a photograph and seeing if we might entice someone to look into making a similar product out of a different material.
Beaded sandals from Kenya.
In the next hall (another huge area filled with dozens of vendors), we came across a booth with an adorable man wearing a Rasta hat. I began talking with him, and Theresa whispered in my ear that he was a very famous Zambian singer! She told me he sings a song about his mother, describing the sacrifices she made to provide a life of opportunity for him. Feeling the same way about her own mother, Theresa said this song inspires her very much. The man overheard our conversation and smiled widely asking us to come back at 3:00 pm and he would give each of us one of his CDs.
In the next hall (another huge area filled with dozens of vendors), we came across a booth with an adorable man wearing a Rasta hat. I began talking with him, and Theresa whispered in my ear that he was a very famous Zambian singer! She told me he sings a song about his mother, describing the sacrifices she made to provide a life of opportunity for him. Feeling the same way about her own mother, Theresa said this song inspires her very much. The man overheard our conversation and smiled widely asking us to come back at 3:00 pm and he would give each of us one of his CDs.
A famous Zambian singer.
Next, we made our way to a building filled with stands representing various investment opportunities in Zambia. As we were strolling through, a camera crew approached us wanting to interview us about our experience at the Trade Fair. We were delighted to realize that the cameraman was our old buddy, Jacob, who filmed our CNN clip for us at Masala Primary School two years ago. We ran into him during our last trip, in April, so he remembered us easily. See, we really are locals! He told us that Mission Press, the company he works for (run by the Franciscan friars), had a booth at the Fair and that we might stop by and see some old friends. We got to know many of the people at Mission Press when we stayed with the Franciscan friars during our first few trips to Zambia.
We gave a brief interview and moved on to the next area. We were beginning to realize that there is a great deal going on in Zambia that we know nothing about. It is a privilege to get to know a culture over time.
As we walked through stand after stand, we could all see our strategy of visiting each booth in a methodical manner was naive. There were hundreds upon hundreds of them, and we could figure no linear way of being sure to see them all. We gave up trying and wandered. We ran into several more people we know, including Jennifer, a woman from our local bank who has helped us open accounts, and Israel, the man who installed some of the electrical equipment at our Kantolomba property.
The booth for Celtel, Zambia's largest cell phone company.
Around 2pm we admitted that we were all exhausted and headed for the car. We decided we would drop everyone at their respective homes, and Dave and Jen would go home to begin catching up on the blog. But, instead, we had our first big "life has another plan" moment of the trip. We dropped Theresa and Veronica to catch a minibus to their homes, and when we attempted to start the car, it would not.
A mechanic angel appeared out of nowhere and helped us assess that our radiator had sprung a giant leak, and there was no water at all in the engine. We filled the water back up and Friday, our angel, led us to a local radiator repair shop.
Friday and Dave
The shop was a typical, fabulous Zambian experience. There were about a dozen men sitting about creating working radiators out of old, broken ones that would have long since headed to the landfill had they been in the U.S. We spent the next hour and a half watching them work their magic on our radiator. Once they had repaired the cracks they reinstalled it, tested it for leaks and declared success. We paid them the 50,000 kwacha ($12) fee, thanked them profusely and left.
Repairing the cracks in the radiator.
By now there was just time to get everyone home before dark. We dropped Tom and Troy off at their guesthouse and stopped by the nearby grocery store to pick up a few items. Much to our dismay, we saw that there was still some leak under the car. Choosing not to let it ruin our night, we quietly acknowledged that tomorrow would likely be a day of car issues and went home to prepare dinner.
After dinner we went up to the roof to send and receive email but were unsuccessful. We got an error code we have not seen before. We decided this was just not one of those days to struggle to make things work. Accept that things are not working and know that tomorrow is a new day.