Lollipops

Right, so here we go then, these are bubblegum lollipops and are particularly nice, apart from the disappointing middle. A lot of people like them, especially if they're yours and you offer them out. One of them, bought from Bhalya's little shop down the dirt track, lasts for the duration of the walk from home, through the local primary school playground and the maize fields, with the outcrops of rock waiting to be quarried and hammered into little pieces, through the houses of the compound, to the football pitch. You can find them in all the village shops. You can take your pick of colours and flavours because they all taste the same and the tongue changes to the colour of the one you have got. Slightly more bitter than the average English equivalent, there is more to them then meets the eye, or the tongue. The bubblegum in the middle of the hard boiled outer is more annoying than anything else. Kids tend to like it in a slightly rebellious way and mothers don't like it that the kids do. They are a way to meet people and if you head down to the pitch with a load of these in a bag it's best to keep them pretty well concealed. They cost half a kwacha, a tad over 5 pence each, but in real terms, handing one to somebody is like handing out a can of coke, a little beer, a friendly gesture.

Bhalya's  big bag of lollipops

 I first tried one when Fernando handed me one watching the semi-final of the Christmas tournament. It was his way of introducing himself and since then they, both the lollipops and Fernando, have played a significant part in my life in southern Africa. Fernando is a friend of mine and embarrasses me at Scrabble over and over again. He thinks I must let him win and sometimes I think I should have gone along with him. He plays football for the Chainda Bombers and pronounces the team name phonetically. So do I now. The Bombers (pronounced Bombers) are affiliated to the Dynamic Stars.

Things happen between Bantu people differently. Communication is not the same as here and I certainly don't understand it. There are cultural and tribal references, semantics and subtle cultural idiosyncrasies that leave me bewildered and it's in this area, more than any other, that the more I see the less I get it. It's sort of fantastic and makes the day fun packed and intriguing. Being alive, like the lollipops, is not quite the same in Zambia, meanings can change, although some things, like the bubble gum, remain the same. This is something I want to illustrate on this blog as it progresses because cultural differences and what remain when they are all stripped away cannot be over emphasised in the work we are trying to do together. I don't know how I am going to show that or if I am going to show it very well but I will give it a try and see what happens. At the moment I have a feeling that it has something to do with fun.