AK-47, Flash, Fanta, Rain and Mayaya

I have given nicknames to most of the others I am traveling with.

Fatuma is now “Flash”, as she is never without a memory stick around her neck or three in her pocket. Fatuma started off very shy but has really come out of her shell. She has an amazing passion and persistence working with computers and seems to love IT. She laughs and smiles very easily and her laugh is contagious. She sometimes speaks so quietly I have to push my ear straight to her mouth to hear what she is saying. But as her confidence grows, so does the strength of her voice. She is a real pleasure to work with.

Alice is “AK-47” because she looks like Alicia Keys (really she does – lucky me, right?). What’s more, she can eat 47 chicken bones in one sitting without stopping for a breath. Yes, you heard me right – chicken bones. She can then go on to finish the scraps on the plates of the 47 other people sitting in the restaurant we are eating in. If that is not justification enough for the nickname, she can also sleep for 47 hours straight even while we drive 47 miles per hour driving over 47 potholes in the road that are each more than 47 inches deep. She does this while she lovingly hugs her snuggle buddy next to her on the car seat which she uses as a pillow - a large metal cube shaped pillow. It is a computer which is at least 47 years old.

“Mr. Rain” is the name we have given Lazarus, the driver. Actually, his family gave it to him, because his last name is Mvula which means “rain” in Nyanja. He is an incredibly proficient driver and a very responsible person and an incredibly hard worker. He can drive in anything, sheets of rain or hot sunshine. But he is much more than a driver. He is a great assistant for our IT tasks, shopping, eating, picking out guest houses, helping with just about everything. He told me he has never been in a plane before and, hence, he has not ventured far beyond Zambia in his travels. He is a very nice guy and very funny. We laugh a lot together. I don’t know what I’d do without him during my time in Zambia. Mr. Rain is married and has three kids and I am sure he is a very good family man. However, he has only received one very short phone call from his wife after 8 days on the road. I think she is trying to teach him a lesson. You see, Valentine’s Day has just passed and this year, as he does every year, he bought her a single red balloon. But this year she was mad – she said it was not sufficient. So now he plans to bring her back something very nice from his time on the road – he will bring her back a solar panel with some jumper cables - and he’ll be sleeping on the couch for a very long time.

Melody is “Mayaya” (pronounced “my eye”) because that is all she eats…that and Orange Fanta. Mayaya in layman’s terms is basically chips (American thick-cut French fries) in a tomato, pepper and onion egg omelet. It is frankly delicious. But that is all she wants to eat and she is very particular about the way it is prepared. If it is not prepared just so, she will not like it. With her Orange Fanta she is a little more flexible. She is an amazing person. She has an enormous smile which is easily evoked and she has a huge amount of energy. She lights up a room when she walks in and gives a big hug to everyone she sees for a second time. And her laugh…her laugh can be heard 5 kilometers away. It is more of a high-pitched scream than a laugh, and she laughs all the time. We all know Melody’s laugh very well – in fact I am sure most of Zimbabwe (where she comes from) knows it very well – surely all the surrounding villages from her own, at a minimum, know Melody’s laugh. I, for one, really like her laugh and it is definitely contagious. But I must admit I like it a lot less before 9 AM.

Melody calls me Mr. Fanta Nice, because I once bought her a Fanta, and she says I am a nice guy. Just wait until she sees me after 30 days on the road. It might change to Dr. Pepper Mean.