IBD in Lundazi, Zambia
by Brian Beard, MBA 2007
(reprinted from Haas Week with permission from the author)
When team BIZOM (Bears in Zambia on a Mission) stepped on the 18 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg, we really did not know what to expect. Our team of second year Haas MBAs Ellie Kelly, Mio Nitta, Wes Selke, and Brian Beard had signed up for an exciting and adventurous IBD experience, but most of the when/what/where/how details for our three weeks in country were still vague. We had prepared as best we could with the little information from our client The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), but most of our work would be hands on. Before the story continues, here is a brief description of our project.
Food insecurity and the degradation of natural resources in Africa go hand-in-hand – as poor farmers are not able to meet the needs of their families through farming, they turn to illegal poaching and unsustainable agricultural practices. Wildlife Conservation Society has developed a model program in Zambia that simultaneously addresses the issues of food security and wildlife conservation. The program is unique in its approach of conserving Africa’s land and wildlife by addressing the underlying cause of the current depletion of these resources – poverty and hunger. The program is called Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) and it is an innovative example of a market-driven approach to create incentives for farmers to develop sustainable agricultural methods. It has resulted in increased food security for 60-80% of the 17,000 participating households and an annual saving of 4,000 wild animals not killed by poachers.
Now back to the story. After spending a day in the capital city Lusaka to meet the WCS staff, we were quickly whisked off to the remote northern village of Lundazi, the center of the WCS field operations. We met our driver Elius at 6am, loaded up our 1990 Toyota LandCruiser, and headed out for the 12 hour ride. Now when I say 12 hours, I don’t mean 12 hours through the Nevada desert in the backseat of your dad’s Cadillac. I mean 12 hours sitting on the hard, sideways bench seats in the back of a “bush” vehicle on the worst dirt roads you have ever seen. The potholes were several feet across at times, and most of the ride was spent driving with two wheels on and two wheels off the road to avoid the potholes. Pedestrians and bicycle riders out in the middle of nowhere would dive out of our way as we screamed towards them. Fortunately, we were rolling thick as our 25-year-experienced driver knew EVERYONE in Zambia, and he was well loved and respected. His 6 foot height, distinctive laugh, funny stories, and constant high fives were a deep reflection of his true charisma. On the road, his stories kept us entertained, and Mio’s portable iPod speaker system was a god-send as we jammed out to Phish and the Dead.
During our week in Lundazi, we accomplished a lot of work on our project. But, we would have been miserable had in not been for our cook Annie. Even without electricity or running water, she cooked us up a mean lunch and dinner with the one rusty knife she had to work with. Every day one of us would go with her to the outdoor market to pick out veggies and a chicken. Yep, a live chicken. Then she would go home, kill the chicken, and cook up dinner for us. Fortunately we ate pretty well considering there were no stores in the village. None of us seemed to mind the local cuisine which consists of the main staple in Zambia, nshima (pronounced “en-shee-muh” – a starchy dish with a consistency similar to overcooked grits) and “relish” (veggies, beans, or meat plus a sauce).
From Lundazi, we proceeded to Mfuwe and other villages continuing our work. There, we were closer to the game parks and got our fill of wildlife: hippos, elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, hippos, zebras, …..did I mention hippos? We stayed at a bush camp run by the WCS, and the girls had an interesting experience. They were awoken at night by what they thought was rain and wind blowing through the trees. The next morning they discovered that monkeys had bombarded their open-air bathroom by hurling fecal matter all over it. I guess the monkeys were not too pleased with us staying in their territory, and were even more upset at the staring contest that ensued with Ellie, which they expressed by directly throwing fecal matter at the girls’ heads. The boys didn’t have it so easy either as frogs would jump up at them every time they had zipped up and flushed the toilet. At the bush camp, we celebrated Wes’s birthday with candles in his nshima, cold Castle beer, and a solid game of Euchre (see picture). We were intrigued by the stories from the locals, but the story of the Python was our favorite. Apparently, after wrapping around a human to strangle it, the Python kills its human victim by asphyxiation. Interesting? Get this…after it wraps its entire body around yours, two “prongs” shoot out of its anus and plug your nostrils! We confirmed this incredible story with several locals, but have yet to confirm it with Wikipedia.
All in all, it was a great experience. We drove over 2000 kilometers and our driver only managed to hit one pig and one goat. A few more highlights were:
-taking bucket showers everyday
-going for morning runs and having 20 or so kids running after us (kind of felt like Forrest Gump)
-getting our LandCruiser stuck in the sand and all getting out to push (see picture)
-nightly games of Euchre (which turned out to be more fun for the unstoppable team of Mio and Ellie)
-having criminals transported in our vehicle (fortunately we were not in it at the time)
-seeing the famous “Blue Monkeys” (yep, their balls are really blue!)
-interviewing a big-game hunter from Dallas (his famous quote was “If leads-a-flyin’, shit’s-a-dyin’ ”)
No one in the team got the slightest bit sick, and as of now, still no signs of malaria. However, Wes’s wife is still awoken at least once per week by his nightmare screams about no nshima left in the house. Mio checks under her bed each night for Pythons. Ellie has decided to start teaching Rumba lessons at the YWCA. And I was late for class on Monday because I was scouring CraigsList for a used LandCruiser. Ohhh, the memories….
More Student Testimonials:
2005 - IBD in Easter Island, Chile
