Ed Williams is better off than a lot of other people in his temporary home of Mpika, Zambia - he owns a fork and a spoon



“Everyone grows subsistence crops on empty plots of ground and around the home,” he reported. “Maize, peanuts, kale, cabbage, beans, tomato, kasava, and that’s about it, or at least the main choices. These are used at home with the extras sold for small incomes (the only income for some families). Seed is from last year.”

Ed Williams is better off than a lot of other people in his temporary home of Mpika, Zambia - he owns a fork and a spoon

The best-known American in Mpika

Lynchburg News & Advance
February 27, 2006

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Ed Williams is better off than a lot of other people in his temporary home of Mpika, Zambia - he owns a fork and a spoon. Just about everyone else eats with their hands.

Or so Williams said in a recent letter from Zambia, where he was sent last year by the Peace Corps.

“Everyone grows subsistence crops on empty plots of ground and around the home,” he reported. “Maize, peanuts, kale, cabbage, beans, tomato, kasava, and that’s about it, or at least the main choices. These are used at home with the extras sold for small incomes (the only income for some families). Seed is from last year.”

Then there’s the matter of indoor plumbing (none), water (it has to be boiled) and electricity (sporadic).

Not that he’s complaining. For one thing, Williams wanted to be there. For another, he still feels fortunate just to be alive.

We’ve documented his story several times in our paper. The owner of a construction company in Appomattox County, Williams was badly injured and left comatose by a one-car, middle-of-the-day vehicle accident he doesn’t remember. It was more than a month before he returned to consciousness, and he struggled for years with the lingering effects of a massive head injury.

Nevertheless, Williams managed to retrain himself to perform basic tasks, and gradually his ability to concentrate returned. After a stint as head of the Center for Independent Living in Lynchburg, he joined the Peace Corps. His first port of call was St. Lucia in the Caribbean, where he not only made friends with just about everyone on the island, but established a partnership between St. Lucia and Lynchburg College.

Now, he’s in Africa, home of armed militias and AIDs epidemics. So far, so good.

As any good Peace Corps volunteer should, he’s even sampled some of the more unconventional local cuisine. He didn’t like caterpillars, field mice or the pounded and boiled leaves of the dome tree (“Slimy, slimy, slimy”), but found termites and flying ants pleasantly crunchy.

The thing about Ed Williams is that he just likes people, wherever he finds them, especially children. And it shows.

“The Peace Corps project that I am with improves access to education for orphaned and vulnerable children,” he said. “In Zambia, many children are orphans, and about a million children of school age are not enrolled in school.”

Indeed, children under 15 make up half of Zambia’s population, making it a country teetering between tragedy and enormous promise. Unlike some of its neighbors, this country of 11 million is a relatively placid democracy, but a yawning gulf still exists between rich and poor.

That’s why Ed Williams sent a mass e-mail to some of his friends back in Central Virginia last Christmas, asking for a donation to buy bicycles for some of the children in his village. More than $300 came back to him - a pittance by U.S. standards - but he used it to buy not only the bicycles, but clothes, bread, sugar, meat and cooking oil for several families.

We hear that millions of people around the globe have grown to dislike the United States, for reasons both legitimate and envious. But in Mpika, Zambia, they only know one American - and they hope he sticks around.

When this story was posted in February 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

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Top Stories: February 2, 2006 Al Kamen writes: Rice to redeploy diplomats 20 Jan Peace Corps mourns the Loss of Volunteer Tessa Horan 1 Feb RPCV pursues dreams in America's Heartland 1 Feb Sargent Shriver documentary to be shown in LA 30 Jan W. Frank Fountain is new board chairman of Africare 27 Jan Abbey Brown writes about acid attacks in Bangladesh 26 Jan Christopher Hill Sees Ray of Hope in N.Korea Standoff 26 Jan Jeffrey Smit writes on one man diplomatic outposts 25 Jan Joe Blatchford's ACCION and microfinance 24 Jan James Rupert writes: A calculated risk in Pakistan 23 Jan Sam Farr rips conservative immigration bill 21 Jan Americans campaign for PC to return to Sierra Leone 20 Jan Kinky Friedman supports Gay Marriage 20 Jan Margaret Krome writes on Women leaders 18 Jan James Walsh leads bipartisan US delegation to Ireland 17 Jan Mark Schneider writes on Elections and Beyond in Haiti 16 Jan Robert Blackwill on a "serious setback" in US-India relations 13 Jan Kevin Quigley writes on PC and U.S. Image Abroad 13 Jan Emily Metzloff rides bicycle 3,100 miles from Honduras 9 Jan Charles Brennick starts operation InterConnection 9 Jan Lee Fisher tells story of Pablo Morillo 7 Jan Nancy Wallace writes: Was PC a CIA front after all? 4 Jan

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Military Option sparks concerns The U.S. military, struggling to fill its voluntary ranks, is allowing recruits to meet part of their reserve military obligations after active duty by serving in the Peace Corps. Read why there is opposition to the program among RPCVs. Director Vasquez says the agency has a long history of accepting qualified applicants who are in inactive military status. John Coyne says "Not only no, but hell no!" and RPCV Chris Matthews leads the debate on "Hardball." Avi Spiegel says Peace Corps is not the place for soldiers while Coleman McCarthy says to Welcome Soldiers to the Peace Corps. Read our poll results. Latest: Congress passed a bill on December 22 including language to remove Peace Corps from the National Call to Service (NCS) military recruitment program

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PC establishes awards for top Volunteers Gaddi H. Vasquez has established the Kennedy Service Awards to honor the hard work and service of two current Peace Corps Volunteers, two returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and two Peace Corps staff members. The award to currently serving volunteers will be based on a demonstration of impact, sustainability, creativity, and catalytic effect. Submit your nominations by December 9.

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Robert F. Kennedy - 80th anniversary of his birth "Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change the world which yields most painfully to change."

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