Hungry Months

Hungry Months

 

As the rain was coming down again this morning, Christine shared with me that January and especially February are referred to in Zambia as the "Hungry Months."   The maize and mealy meal (corn meal) from the last harvest are in short supply so the prices on the mealy meal, oil, sugar, and salt all go up.  She said as a child she remembers her mother going out and looking for food and having only one meal a day.  So there are 2 big problems, not enough to buy, and too much money being charged for what is available.   The price of charcoal used in cooking is also going up, and when you are poor you don't have the means to pay the cost.

 

Yesterday I decided to walk from our house to the road where Kimberly would pick me up.  The road is so slippery with so much mud that I didn't want her to have to drive to our house. Although, my attire wouldn't look funny here, I would have certainly stood out in America.   If you can picture; wearing a rain jacket, backpack on my back, red skirt down to my calves and rubber boots to about where the skirt ended.  In places it was a challenge not to slip in the mud in the road.

 

As I approached the road, the Green Village is there.  Children came running when they saw me yelling "Che, Che Koolay."   By the time Kimberly arrived, there were about 40 children singing and doing motions with me.  People driving by on the North Road were looking at us as they drove by!   Great Fun!