Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Marching On

Greetings everyone!

So, since my last blog I've been really enjoying my time in the village, and taking advantage of time spent with Claire until she finishes her service in April. She and I have really grown close, and its great to hang out with someone who is able to relate so exceptionally with the people of Zambia. She has helped me improve my Bemba a lot - enough that I now realize how often people are talking about the 'Misungu'. Luckily, most of the remarks are made about superficial things, and are not negative or insulting... The best part is the look on the faces of people when I respond in Bemba and let them know I understand what they are saying. Being with her has definitely changed my service. We are received very differently traveling together rather than separately. Of course, her and my Zambian families responded in disbelief when we broke the news that we weren't planning to get married. The culture is just so different, and its difficult for many here to grasp a relationship which will end in any way other than marriage - its just unheard of, especially in the village.

As far as work, things are moving a bit slowly since its the heart of rainy season now. This is the last month of real rains, so I'll definitely be ready for that to finish. Getting soaked and having work canceled at least once a week is wearing thin. The biggest pond of Ba Kasonde has been completely fixed, and now most of the farmer groups I work with are implementing more intensive management of their fish ponds, which I see as a success in terms of my service. However, the major issue of inbreeding has come to light. Much like any other animal (cows, pigs, etc.), new stock must be introduced to prevent the gene-pool becoming inbred. Such inbreeding can lead to reduced reproduction and stunted growth. I am just now learning what a serious problem this is for rural fish farmers. It is very difficult for them to travel to the government research station to get fresh stock, and even more difficult and unrealistic for farmers to then transport fingerlings successfully using bicycles for the long distances back to their farms. Unfortunately, funding limitations within the Department of Fisheries limits the Government's ability to use trucks to transport these fingerlings, and the heat and jostling the fingerlings receive on bike transport (most farmers' only remaining option) causes very high mortality (for the fingerlings of course).

If I have learned anything in my service, its that problems have to be solved bit-by-bit, on a local level. I can't help all the fish farmers in Zambia, let alone Northern Province, or even Kasama. Its a realization I've come to slowly - I mean at first I think all Peace Corps Volunteers get posted expecting to save the World. Of course, simple logic could have told me that smarter people than me have tried for years to solve the problems facing countries like Zambia and not succeeded, but it took more than a year of experience for this truth to really hit home. So, I have become satisfied with small scale goals and solutions...

The first, and main goal for the remaining six months of my service, is to get Ba Kasonde (My host father) new stock. This could be accomplished by buying them from the government research station, but at 300 Kwatcha per fingerling, it would cost approximately 3 million kwatcha (700 USD) to fill all of the ponds. Given the loss of fingerlings and costs incurred repairing the broken fish pond, this option is unrealistic. A recent harvest made evident first-hand the problems inbreeding can cause, as none of the fish in Ba Kasonde's fish ponds were bigger than about 4 inches, meaning we can't even use the adult fish as breeders to make new stock - so that option is out also. Therefore, the solution is to go to Chambeshi River and catch large Mpende (Tilapia Rendali) to bring back to a specially prepared breeding pond. Without getting too specific about breeding techniques, the basic idea is to place 50% males and 50% females into one fish pond, and allow them to breed. Immediately upon creating fry (small fingerlings), we will remove the babies and place them in an uninhabited fish pond to grow. Since the parents then no longer have to worry about caring for the fingerlings, they will begin to reproduce again. In this way, we will be able to sequentially stock each fish pond, after first completely emptying each of its current inbred stock.

If this system is successful, I hope to also encourage the other farmer groups who are raising fish at a relatively large scale to adopt a similar strategy. Mostly, my focus will be on Ba Kasonde. Since there will be at least one more volunteer replacing my site, I just need to get the ball rolling and make sure my post is replaced by someone knowledgeable about fish genetics and reproduction (something which I'm in the process of teaching myself through literature).

I feel that regardless of everything else in my service, I owe it to the Kasonde family, who has welcomed me and given me a home in a country where I knew no one, to make sure their fish farming efforts are successful.

All my best to everyone in the states, and feel free to email me if you want to connect, or want more specific details about the fish breeding programs. I find it fascinating, my I realize that most people reading this probably don't share my absurd obsession with fish, so I tried to keep it pretty basic.

Shalenipo,

- Justin