Setting Foot in Petauke, Zambia

11.12.2024

By Tracy Blackmer, PhD

I arrived in Zambia, which in itself takes a great deal of time. Leaving Friday, Nov. 1, I arrived Sunday in Lusaka, the capital city. After a few days in the air and airports, I made the six-hour drive from Lusaka to the Petauke area.

My apartment sits in a compound with a big wall, a large metal gate and 24-hour security guards. It’s very modern, except air conditioning. The daily high temperature climbs to about 90 degrees, and the sunlight seems more intense than what I am used to in Iowa. The evenings are cool and very pleasant, so I am learning how to best cool the apartment during the evening, and block out the heat during the day.

The people here have gone to extreme lengths to make my stay as pleasant as possible. I have started to visit some of the fields so I can better familiarize myself with their soil types and field conditions.

The people are so friendly. Everyone smiles and waves their hands so freely and enthusiastically that it makes me smile as well - and feel like a celebrity who Princess Dianna would have envied.

Traveling to the town of Petauke takes about a 10-minute drive from my apartment and it fascinates me to see the various shops and vendor stands. I forgot to bring a HDMI cable to hook up my laptop to a computer monitor, but I was able to purchase one easily. In the same area, merchants were selling garden hoes with handmade stick handles, as would have been done 100 years ago in America.

I still don’t have a good knowledge of the market layout, but it seems to center on an area similar to what an American farmers’ market would be. With more than 100 stands of various foods, it’s focused mostly on grains, fruits, vegetables and hard cheeses. There, food availability continues.

However, I see many examples of hunger in the rural areas. Mango trees, which are not intentionally planted, are prevalent throughout the area. Even in the fields, farmers frequently allow them to grow as volunteer trees. It’s common to see people walking across the fields looking for mango trees where they pick immature mangos. They want the seeds to prepare a porridge of sorts - just to have something to eat. It’s a complicated process to make the seeds edible, but still, they do it. All the trees are stripped bare at the lower levels where people can reach the immature fruit, but the higher branches are loaded with fruit.

Pastor Moses said it’s evident the security was good in the compound where I am staying, because mangos remain on the lower branches of the trees.

I heard another example of hunger when learning about farming practices. In a field belonging to one of the better growers, I noticed the cornstalks had been burned. Because of negative impacts of this, I tried to politely inquire why a good farmer would do such a thing. I was told, the farmer didn’t want the corn stalks to be burned. But other people, without permission, burned the stalks to chase the mice and rats out of the residue to catch them to eat. The fields are far enough away from the farmers’ homes that they cannot be watched.

My purpose here in Zambia is not to directly teach the gospel, but rather to help minister to the people about how to grow their own food, and to help the leaders become stronger organizational leaders. Although I am the only person from America present at this time, there are five local pastors (we call the Petauke Five) who lead the efforts in five villages around the town of Petauke. These pastors are spiritual leaders, community leaders - and farm themselves in their respective villages.

Our partner organization, Iowa Agricultural Partners – Zambia, which we shorten to ZIAP Zambia, was created for this effort. Part of my time is to help the 10 board members of ZIAP Zambia to operate as an official non-government organization. We held our first board meeting and had a very good discussion about how to manage money, while helping those in need as spiritually directed.