We are sharing with you a series of travel log written by ARI staff member Steven, who visited Africa in August.
They will begin a new journey to the east, to the next destination, Malawi!
The daily lives of the people of Zambia that they saw along the way were lively and inspiring.
Let’s get started on our trip to Africa!

【An African journey to visit ARI graduates, Day 12】

The Great East Road across Zambia
Zambia is a wide country and today’s plan was to drive across a big chunk of it, heading east all the way to the border of Malawi. Along the way we would stop and visit two ARI graduates, both of them Sisters in the Catholic Church.
We did well with our start time, especially for Kai who is not a morning guy. Aiming for 4:00 AM we departed at 4:50 AM. I’m extremely grateful to Judy and John driving us all of these hundreds of kilometers. They said they love to travel so they are also enjoying the trip, but honestly, it would have been very difficult to do this without them! Thank you, John and Judy. It has been an awesome trip!

Memorable experiences along the route included seeing a truck in flames on the side of the road (no idea what happened there), chickens running around the gas stations, and a searing red African sun rising directly out of the road in front of us. We stopped for photos at the majestic “Tree of Fortune,” called a Mubuyu tree locally. I think it was a Baobab, but it looked somewhat different from other Baobabs I have seen, maybe because it is super old? Just before we crossed the bridge into the Eastern Province, we stopped to buy some local “Masau” Fruits. This spot was a popular resting point for travelers and there were dozens of bustling roadside stands. The ones selling woven baskets caught my eye, so we made a couple of purchases there as well.

Back in the car, Judy shared another story. Although she has lived in Kanakantapa for more than 20 years, only Yesterday, did she find out the meaning its name. The settlement is christened after a small river that flows through it, and that river used to have crocodiles in it. So, in the local language, Kanakantapa means baby crocodile. There are none there now, but there was a time when mothers had to warn their kids about them, which is how it got its name.

Sister Priscilla at the Nyimba Parish
A short while after crossing the bridge we turned off the main road at the town of Nyimba and made our way to the Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Parish at Nyimba. Here we met Sister Priscilla (2018 ARI Graduate), a nun serving in the order of the Good Shepheard Sisters. The first thing she showed us was her garden, which was completely enclosed in fencing, with a roof and a locked door, to keep the monkeys from devouring everything. The place was packed with tomatoes and other veggies, all planted in bags, to conserve water. The unbelievable thing was that she had started this garden only about five months ago. Around March of this year, she had been transferred from her previous post in Chipata. Chipata was where she was serving when she went to ARI, and she spoke of the livelihood projects she had started with the congregation there. One of these was a gardening group of 20 women and a couple of men. The harvest came to their homes, and that which they sold, they sold to each other to keep their money within the community. That group is still going, even without Priscilla there, which is a great indicator of successful leadership.

As a parish sister she works six days a week, with only Mondays off and an occasional hour here and there to care for her garden. Her other responsibilities include visiting the sick, receiving congregation members for planning weddings and other functions, going to outstations to prepare for Sunday mass, and the ever-present office duties. She works together with two other nuns, and one novice (nun in training), all of them new to this place. Of the three priests stationed here, only one, Fr. Taunge, was around. Under Pricsilla’s tutelage, he also keeps a large garden where no chemicals are used. For fertilizer, he wraps manure from pigs, cows, and goats in a big piece of canvas and soaks it in a drum of water for a week. He then provides the plants with this water. I also saw black village chickens and doves. I was told the doves are here as symbols of peace, but I believe that at some point, they will end up in a cooking pot. The producers of the manure must be around somewhere, but I didn’t see them. They also run a bakery down at the local market. Oh, and I have to mention the cement towel flowerpots which I thought were super cool, but won’t even attempt to describe. Please take a look at the photo!

The drought hit the Nyimba area hard. The rain started and then stopped right after the people had applied fertilizer to the maize, so it all just dried up. Honestly, I haven’t seen any signs of hunger, so I am assuming it is more among the subsistence farmers in the villages. Or maybe I just don’t know where to look, or how to see. The Nyimba Church kitchens seemed to be doing fine. They served us a hearty lunch, which was joined by all the sisters.

Getting transferred every 3-5 years is a matter of course for the sisters and priests and for nearly all clergy and church workers I have encountered through ARI. Rather than feeling sad about leaving her previous post, I got a sense of excitement from Sister Priscilla for the chance to plant something new. In Chipata she left a thriving garden and a thriving group that kept it growing. Immediately when she arrived in Nyimba she got busy planting again – first a garden, to be followed by a new group. I could feel her living faith entwined with her living garden all working together in her unending service to God.

Runaway cattle cart
One thing I forgot to mention is that this road, the Great East Road, is in much better condition than the Great North Road to Kitwe. It has not (yet) been destroyed by heavy trucks and some parts were recently re-paved, so we could really zoom! As we passed by one village, John made a random comment that the chief there refused to wear clothes! In a couple of hours, we reached the Chiwoko substation (not sure what a substation is), which marked the point we turn off onto a dirt road for about 30 kilometers to the Chikungu Mission.

How lovely it was to pass through village after village at sunset, watching people out and about and seeing team after team of kids playing soccer in the grass fields. Mango trees were literally everywhere. God’s mangos, Judy called them, because no one planted them. They just grew of their own accord and in the mango season no one goes hungry. When the mangos are ripe, people eat them the whole day, never getting tired of their sweet juices. I think I would have no problem eating fresh mangos for a couple months! The downside is that the mangos stop before the maize can be harvested, leaving a hunger gap. If only people would preserve their mangos like their forefathers did was a lament I heard often. This made me also wonder why they didn’t do that. Since it was John and Judy’s first time to this place they continually checked with people along the way, asking if they were headed in the right direction. One set of unwary assistants in this navigation strategy were a couple of boys driving a cattle cart. They both hopped off the cart and let it keep going on, driverless, while they came to our aid. I was curious to see how this scenario would go, but it turned out to be uneventful, as the boys just ran back to the still moving cart after providing us with directions, and jumped back on, the cows none the wiser.

The Chikungu mission was a big place, and we were all provided with our own guest rooms and large containers of warm water for bathing. The bucket shower (in the dark, because, you know, load shedding again!) felt great after a long day on the road. Though the shower was in the dark, the rooms weren’t because they are equipped with solar backups and a couple of hours later the electricity returned. Solar panels are high on the wish list of many communities. They can balance out the incessant blackouts. In places that are not even connected to the grid, it would be their only source of power to charge their phones and have a few lights on at night. If you happen to think those things are just small conveniences, try flipping off your breaker switch for a couple of days and see what life is like!!

It was here in Chikungu Mission that we met Sister Esther (2018 ARI Graduate). She and Sister Priscilla are both members of the Good Shepherd Sisters Order and came to ARI the same year. As it was already late, the only evening plans she made for us were for a hot meal with an amazing cream carrot soup and two kinds of chicken – roasted and fried!

Written by Steven Cutting (Graduate Outreach Coordinator)
Travelling with Kai Shinoda (Admissions and Recruitment Coordinator)


Click here to read the series of articles

Vol.0 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Prologue】

Vol.1 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 1-2】 

Vol.2 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 3】

Vol.3 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 4】

Vol.4 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 5】

Vol.5 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 6】

Vol.6 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 7】

Vol.7 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 8】

Vol.8 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 9】

Vol.9 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 10】

Vol.10 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 11】

Vol.11 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 12】<== Now, you’re here

Vol.12 【The African journey to visit ARI graduates Day 13】To Be Continued …