Peer Educator Training Course

Last Friday I heaved a long sigh of relief as a training course that I’d organised for the peer educators came to an end. Looking back it was pretty successful but first I’ll have a little rant…

We kicked off on Tuesday morning behind schedule as expected but by 10am fifty peer educators were crammed into a hall no bigger than the average British classroom. My first task was to explain that there wouldn’t be any ‘sitting allowances’, lunch or handouts provided. Kwacha Kum’mawa had asked if I would arrange a refresher course a couple of weeks ago and asked if it could start within the following two weeks. I made it clear from the beginning that there’s no money whatsoever for such an event therefore we’d do it over five mornings so that the participants could go home for lunch. I repeated a number of times that there would be no handouts, no t-shirts or caps and they would have to provide their own pens and paper. Through gritted teeth they agreed that they wanted the training anyway.

So, you can imagine my disappointment when, on the first morning, I ask the participants to write down their expectations of the course and at least 75% of them write ‘t-shirts’ ‘sitting allowance’ ‘lunch’ or something to that effect.

It seems that lots of money is spent on workshops in Zambia. In fact, more time and energy is spent going to training courses than actually putting into practice whatever it is that is learnt. And the norm seems to be to provide all the above and more. I told the peer educators that if they had come along to the course to get lunch or money then they were in the wrong place and should leave …unsurprisingly no one moved a muscle.

Day one got off to a good start but descended into a fairly heated debate when I asked them whether they agreed or disagreed with a few controversial statements such as ‘you should not have sex before marriage’ and ‘HIV positive people should not be allowed to use public swimming baths’. My heart sank when a majority of the participants agreed with the statement ‘women who carry condoms are cheap and easy’. It sank further when I asked if they agreed that ‘men who carried condoms are cheap and easy’ and most shifted to the other corner of the room to signify their disagreement. Holding back my disapproval, I asked them to justify their opinions, to which they began their answers, ‘well, you have to understand here in Zambia…’ followed by statements such as ‘men make the decisions’ and ‘contraception is a man’s responsibility’.

It didn’t take long to realise that my assumption that peer educators would automatically challenge such beliefs was completely naïve and that if I voiced my disagreement it would be met with cries of ‘but things are different in Britain.’ So after the first day I went home feeling pretty disillusioned; many of the so-called peer educators were not the shining role models I’d assumed.

At this point I should add that many of them are brilliant, intelligent, enthusiastic and motivated young people who believe truly in challenging gender stereotypes, shout loudly about the benefits of condom use and work their socks off for little or no reward. And I think after four days of thrashing out their ideas with each other more and more can be included in this category.

The Programme Manager from Tikondane, who’s a nurse by profession, facilitated most of day two on the subject of STIs. And if the pictures of horrendous STI symptoms don’t put the peers off of having unprotected sex nothing will!

I’d dedicated much of day three to what is slowly becoming my favourite topic of conversation – condoms. During feedback on what are the advantages, disadvantages and myths about using both a male or female condom I took the chance to challenge their beliefs about those who carry condoms. I asked if we could add ‘all women who carry condoms are cheap and easy’ to the myths list, to which there were no objections. Now, I’m utterly baffled, have they all changed their minds in under 48hours and the training course is having a real impact? Or perhaps I’d scared them into submission or maybe they were all playing devil’s advocate on day one? Either way, I got my statement up on the myths board and told them that I thought women who carry condoms are intelligent, sensible and strong individuals. That’s got to be a good start. I’ve just finished reading all the evaluation forms and ‘knowing how to use a condom’ came top of the things that they had learnt during the workshop…result!

On the final day I handed the floor over to the coordinators from Kwacha and Tikondane who got all the boys drawing the female reproductive organs and the girls doing the opposite. Thank God I was allowed to sit out of this one; the boys could name parts of my own body that I never knew existed – utter shame!

And just in case any of you need a brilliant energiser to kick start a boring office meeting try this with your colleagues.
- Ask everyone to think of a company motto such as ‘Sainsbury’s….making life taste better’ or ‘Nike…just do it!’
- Now ask someone stand in the centre of the group and replace the company name with ‘under my pants…’
- The sentences should go something like this ‘under my pants…making life taste better’ or ‘Bostik…the wonder product with 101 uses’.

It’s a great way to break down barriers!

Giant swimming pools, sunburn and synchronised sickness!

Last weekend we finally left Chipata and tagged along with some other volunteers who were driving over to Lake Malawi. We pitched a tent literally three metres from the beach and next door to the cocktail bar (think Tom Cruise in ‘Cocktail’). We couldn’t believe our luck – all for £2 a night.

We were awake by 6:30 the first morning and jumped straight into what felt like the biggest swimming pool on earth, the Lake was completely calm, clear and warm even at that time in the morning.

The rest of the weekend went pretty much as you’d expect, more swimming, lots of reading and frisbee and I stupidly managed to turn a lovely shade of pink. We did manage to horrify our companions at the all-you-can-eat breakfast on the last morning. We just couldn’t resist trying the fresh fruit, muesli, omelette (made while you wait), scotch pancakes, Danish pastries…needless to say we didn’t need lunch!

Back in Chipata, it felt like we’d been away for weeks but the feeling quickly subsided when we both ended up at the doctor mid-week. There was no receptionist at the doctor’s surgery, we just took up our place in the queue and waited for our turn. No one called when it was our turn, instead every few minutes or so the ladies at the front of the queue would peak into the ‘Consultant’s Room’ to see if the doctor was finished with the previous patient. Our turn came and we met Dr. Mutali complete with a smoking rolly between his lips, brilliant! He was pretty good despite first impressions and sent us almost immediately into the next room for a blood slide to test for Malaria. Thankfully, despite all the hungry mosquitoes, we’re both still Malaria free but I think we’ll be taking care to wash our hands more carefully before dinner from now on.

On top of being ill my week’s been pretty tough. I’ve been trying to organise a training course for the peer educators from all three organisations. This has proved to be a bit of a challenge – writing 20 hours of participatory workshops (in a participatory way), finding a venue for fifty people, scraping about for spare flipcharts, pens etc. all with a budget of zero and the course was due to start on Monday (its starting on Tuesday!). I’ll let you know how it goes….

However, to end on a positive note, Friday afternoon we got a game of frisbee going with some of the peer educators. Hopefully it’s going to become a weekly fixture – there’s absolutely nothing for young people to do in Chipata. Reminiscent of the trip to Navatika a few weeks back there were more under 10s spectating than there were people playing. It seems to be the case here – that what ever you try and do there will always be a gaggle of children gathering to stare.

My Postal Address

Lots of you have been asking for an address to send things to. I can't really receive post at home in Chipata so if you send things to the VSO office in Lusaka I can pick things up/get them forwarded from there.

Here's the address:

Voluntary Services Overseas
British Council building
4th Floor, Heroes Place,
Cairo Road
Lusaka
PO BOX 32965

Condoms at last!

I was a little apprehensive about starting work with the third organisation I’m supposed to be attached to. There seems to be so much to keep me busy with each of the other two on their own but I was really excited when I turned up to Kwacha Kum’mawa and noticed boxes of condoms strewn across the office. Finally, a youth education project with a realistic grip on the situation.

I was even more excited when I accompanied a group of peer educators to Navatika (literally meaning ‘poverty’), a high density compound just north of town and they brought a wooden penis along for the show. Not a moment too soon I got to witness a much-needed condom demonstration. My only concern was that the guy doing the demo was wearing latex gloves…I’m not sure we got taught that one in sex ed lessons back in the UK? I asked around to find out why he was wearing them and someone mentioned he didn’t want to get the lubricant over his hands, another said people should wear gloves in case of sores on their hands which may make them vulnerable to HIV transmission. I’m yet to find out which it was but I find it hard to believe that young people are having sex whilst wearing gloves!

Still, it was obvious from the amount of children that had turned up to see the educational video we were showing in the middle of the market place that birth control, let alone HIV prevention, is in short supply.

Actually I couldn’t believe the number of children there must have been five or ten for every adult. I’m not sure why I was so surprised, apparently 50% of the population in Chipata are under 20. Unfortunately though, it did mean that the majority of the audience for our hard-hitting video about a family living with HIV, were under five years old. Apparently mothers can’t watch any remotely suggestive videos when their children are present. And in a place where many women are mothers by the time they are twenty, our messages didn’t quite make it to the intended target group. Having said that the peer educators did manage to distribute about 200 condoms and if only ten percent of them get used the trip was worth it.

Around About Chipata

There’s not all that much to do in Chipata in the way of entertainment. So thankfully the weekends seem long here and in contrast working weekdays seem to fly-by. We’ve been exploring the hills that surround the town these past two weekends, Chipata occupies a bowl-like valley overlooked by hills in every direction – plus a scattering of mobile phone masts! Here are a few photos of our mini-adventures and some views of Chipata:

Just in case you thought we were starving...

If you thought we’d be eating Nshima (a hard porridge made from maize eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner here in Zambia and much of Southern and East Africa) and tomato relish everyday for a year you’d be pretty mistaken. I’m definitely surprising myself by my new found fondness of the kitchen. Before coming to Zambia my baking habits just about stretched to carrot cake, banana cake and some pretty poor attempts at veggie lasagne. This past week alone I’ve managed to add pawpaw scones, home baked pita bread, pizza (from scratch i.e. no ready made base), tomato and mushroom stuffed aubergine, home baked chapattis and scotch pancakes to my repertoire. Henry’s become the master of the chip pan since creating some really tasty sweet potato chips and home made curried nut burgers and his banana cake went down a treat at last weekend’s party.

I was so excited last Saturday when I saw avocados in the market for the first time since we arrived. No…that’s not quite right I spotted some one day last week but the lady selling them told me I couldn’t have one until the next day. Some smarty pants later pointed out to me that she was probably saying that they wouldn’t be ripe until tomorrow not that I couldn’t take one home! Note to self – must hurry up and learn chiNyanja!

The market is one of my favourite things about Chipata. Every stall has at least tomatoes, onions and one or another variety of spinach stacked high. But there are so many hidden gems, huge aubergines, piles of bright green chillies, and every kind of bean you can imagine. I tried making hummus with one type the week before last but decided to use peanut butter in place of Tahini – it just didn’t taste the same! Mushrooms are a little scarce at the minute but we’re told that as the rainy season kicks in massive ones, as big as dinner plates, will start appearing at the market. Never thought I’d say this but hurry on the rain!

One month down...eleven to go!

It's hard to believe that we've been here a twelfth of our stay already, this last month really has flown by, which can only mean things are going well. We've been feeling really positive this past week in particular. Here's a 'little' run down of our last week.


Monday night we played host to our first dinner guests; Matthew and Kristin, a young Canadian couple who are here for another volunteering with a missionary. Despite me throwing a little pre-dinner nerves wobbly about not having enough vegetables in the cupboard Henry's curry went down a treat. And we're off hiking up Kanjala (hungry) hill with them this Friday afternoon, they've assured me that its unlikely we'll come across any snakes. We've had enough run-ins with exotic wildlife this week.


A couple of nights ago I heard a high pitched screech coming from the bedroom, a second later a paler than usual Henry comes running into the living room claiming to have seen the biggest spider this side of Timbuktu. Unfortunately he wasn't exaggerating. Mr Hitler (we've been naming the resident bugs in the hope that it makes them less scary), was as big as my hand. We zapped him with DOOM bugspray only to have to stand on the sofa for the next hour whilst he ran around with anger or delirium. We're telling ourselves that he disappeared into a little nook and curled up to die but I'm still taking extra caution when opening any cupboard doors!


The next morning we woke to find Lieutenant Pointy Snout swimming in the toilet. Pointy Snout was the resident mouse that we'd seen a week or so earlier scurrying about the kitchen. We tried flushing the loo and that didn't work, so we left him for the morning thinking he'd tire himself out and drown. Four hours later the little blighter was still treading water but thankfully some of Henry's colleagues were round for a workshop. One of the boys solved the problem, fished Pointy Snout out, popped him in his pocket and told us he'd enjoy spit roasted mouse for dinner! At least there's no chance of him reappearing. My natural vegetarian compassion seems to have gone out the window! I've made it sound as if our house is crawling with creatures but its really not that bad.


My employers were visited by a UK based grant-making trust on Tuesday and were awarded funds for a new programme entitled 'Chipata after Dark.' The project is designed to empower commercial sex workers to protect themselves against HIV, seek health advice and ultimately gain skills in income generating activities which will allow them to earn a living by means other than sex work.


In preparation for the donor's visit I was asked to organise a survey of a sample of local bars, the results were pretty upsetting but unfortunately not unexpected. The peer educators counted over 45 bars in only three small areas of town almost all of which had CSWs present, some as young as 12 years old. The reasons for such high numbers are numerous; poverty, the breakdown of traditional extended family support structures, food insecurity, gender inequalities, the impact of HIV & AIDS, the effect of being a border town on the main route between two capital cities...the list is endless. The need for such a project is obvious so working on it in its first year should be quite exciting. (The photo is of Tikondane peer educators showing the funders a drama sketch they'd prepared.)

Thursday was a bit of a turning point for me with one of the organisations I'm working for. I managed to convince the Zambian I'm working alongside that I'm not able to work miracles and magic money out of thin air, or single handedly design the entire peer education programmes from scratch. I've also started to overcome the problem of getting inaccurate answers to my many questions. It seems people have been telling me what they think I want to hear rather than what the reality actually is. For example, I've been asking if certain documents exist – like do peer educators sign any sort of code of conduct – and for the first week or so everyone kept saying they did even though no one had ever seen them let alone signed one. But Thursday's meeting was great because we sat down and chatted through everything I could think of to do with the peer education programme (or lack of it) and made a LONG list of things to go onto OUR action plan.

Most people work half day on Fridays. Last week my morning was filled by a meeting with a big international NGO (I'll omit their name just in case I upset someone rich and powerful!) The meeting started an hour late as many of the young people attending had walked 10klm to get there. The lady chairing the meeting decided to leave just before everyone eventually arrived to 'nip' to the pharmacy. When the meeting did finally start I proceeded to make my first enemy in Zambian. There's a lot of confusion about how this particular NGO fits into youth activities in Chipata so I thought as an newly arrived outsider I'd have nothing to lose by asking some probing questions like - why won't they promote condom use as part of an HIV prevention strategy? Apparently young people in Zambia don't know how to use condoms properly therefore it's too risky for them to try and use them, the idea of teaching people how to use them properly doesn't seem to have crossed their minds! Ahhhgggg I was fuming especially as I'm yet to hear any more encouraging messages from any HIV prevention projects in the area.. However not all is lost, I took one of the male peer educators aside after the meeting and we agreed that by the end of my time in Zambia every young person in Chipata will know how to use a condom, standing on their heads with their eyes closed.


Despite the mouse and spider fiasco we had a pretty good weekend. We went to a party Saturday night for all Eastern province volunteers. It got off to a great start when the power cut out on our way just at the moment when Roger, another VSO, had put his visa card into an ATM – hard to believe the timing! The party was pretty tame although we did get home after midnight which is an achievement in itself as we've been in bed by 09:30 every night so far.

And now I'm writing this on Sunday evening, we've done all our washing - by hand in the bath tub, ironed all our clothes to avoid the pusey flies (spelling?), played a bit of frisbee with the cute kids that hang around our front gate, had scrambled egg on toast and drunk endless cups of tea. Great!

Funny kind of motorbike!

After all the hullabaloo of carrying a motorbike helmet on the plane over here it’s been most useful in propping the door to our wardrobe open (it’s really scary if we close the door as you never know what creepy crawly will be waiting to jump put at you!). Apparently there’s no money in the kitty to give me a bike with an engine so I’m making do with a engine-less, gear-less, helmet-less pushbike!

I was quite pleased when Maurice from the VSO office told me there was no money in the kitty for a motorbike, what he failed to mention was that the cycle into town is a good half an hour up hill (no gears on the bike remember) on the road equivalent to Briatin's M1! On top of that the three organisations I’m working for are spaced out across town – and some of the target areas where I’m supposed to be doing outreach are a few miles in the opposite direction.

But hey, no one else at work has a motorbike. Some of the volunteer community caregivers are retired professionals and are probably well into their sixties. They walk miles every week to visit their patients at home so a pushbike is a privilege. Anyway at least there’s no chance of me getting too podgy despite the amount of peanut butter and bread I’m eating!

The use of pushbikes here is unbelievable. I went to order a couple of beds for our spare rooms the other day and asked the carpenter if he had means to deliver them. He said he could get them to us for about a quid – I asked how and he said on the back of a bicycle!!! I’ll have to get some photos but people carry charcoal piled at least one storey high, water containers and baskets hang off at all sorts of angles. There are bike taxis that carry up to three passengers on the pannier rack – these bikes have no gears and the drivers look no bigger than Henry at his skinniest I’ve no idea where they get their strength! The funniest but saddest thing I’ve seen is a goat strapped onto the bike rack more than likely on its way to the stew pot. How on earth the rider managed to get it tied on without losing an eye or two I don’t know! There’s also a huge contradiction between rackety old bikes and big shiny, gas guzzling 4 by 4s…you rarely see anything in-between.

Henry

For those of you wondering how Henry’s getting on he’s writing a blog at http://positivelyzambia.wordpress.com. It’s aimed largely at P&P groups as part of his Global Education Project but he’s including diary entries and his own comments on Zambia. We write quite different things so you should find it pretty interesting.

Starting work...

I’ve spent the past week trying to get to grips with what it is I‘ve been employed to do here. My official job title is Peer Education Coordinator, working with behaviour change programmes attached to two home based care organisations – Chisomo and Tikondane (the offices in the picture). In addition, I’m told I’ll be working with Kwacha Ku’mawa another organisation concentrating on peer education but more media focused.

It seems that my role will be to inject some new energy into the peer education projects. Many of the peer educators and staff at these organisations are slowly running out of steam – as dedicated and enthusiastic as they are – many haven’t been paid for months but continue to turn up and work for free.

At the moment the behaviour change programmes use dance, drama, sport and peer-to-peer counselling to get across their messages on HIV prevention, care and treatment, the stigmatisation of people living with HIV, child abuse and the promotion of gender equality. The problem here appears to be that people know about HIV, and how the virus is transmitted but people are slow to change their behaviour.

I’ve been disappointed to learn that the HIV prevention messages in Chipata focus largely, or even solely, on promoting abstinence rather than safe sex. Whenever I tentatively begin to challenge such an approach staff at one of the organisations just repeat ‘but we’re a faith-based organisation.’ There could be a steep hill ahead! Abstinence only programmes just aren’t working. I spent one morning last week at an antenatal clinic in one of the poorest areas in Chipata – the number of young, single mothers-to-be there just helps to prove my point.

It’s not all so bad though, the peer educators seem really open to new ideas, in fact one group in particular seem to think I have all the answers to their problems – they even said I’m here to show them the way forward! I’ve had to repeat a few times that I’m a volunteer and not a funder.

So to sum up it seems that I’ll be wearing a few different hats over the next year, fundraiser, drama coach, peer educator, project development officer, facilitator, boat shaker, trouble maker!….

Our House

Home sweet home

After spending most of the day shifting furniture back and forth on the roof of Richard’s Landrover, we finally moved into our very own house last Thursday. The excitement of our new found independence quickly vanished as we noticed every room came complete with a resident creepy crawly and we’d forgotten to buy bug spray! I think our ethical concerns might temporarily go out the window when we ask the bug exterminators to pay a visit soon. Spiders, cockroaches and giant crickets weren’t the only things making us feel uncomfortable, for the first time since arriving in Zambia we became acutely aware of the priveleges of being white.

In the weeks leading up to our arrival our kitchen has been gutted and re-built. During this time the ‘kitchen fitter’ and his wife and at least five small children had been living in a small crumbling shed in the backyard. As we struggled to get our mossie net up and prepared out first meal in our new home (beans on toast!) the family gathered their belongings, built a new bed from scratch and went off into the night to find somewhere else to stay. It took all our common sense not to offer them a room in our house – after all, we have got two huge spare bedrooms! But I really can't explain how crap iot felt, the two of us sitting in this huge house and seven or eight people staring through the curtain-less windows at the undeservedly priveleged muzungus

We did feel a little better thinking about the gardenee we'd employed earlier in the day. We’d met Mr Zulu a few times when we’d been back and forth to the house and he’d helped transport our fridge and cooker. What we hadn’t realised however was that he’d been employed to work on our garden just for September but had turned up a few days before we arrived and started work (unpaid) again in the hope that we’d employ him. Despite some difficulties in translation (he was insisting on working three days a week even though we’d decided to continue paying him his monthly wage for only two days work a week) we finally agreed. As he left he docked his hat and bowed his way out of the gate looking eternally grateful – which just made us feel even worse as we’d just agreed to pay him the equivalent of £2.50 a day.

The word has obviously got round that new muzungus are in town as we were woken this morning by an incessant tapping on the front gate and found a young man offering to do our laundry. A few hours later a lady stops by also asking for work. We are just reminding ourselves that expats employing everyone that comes knocking is not a sustainable answer to Zambia’s poverty and in any case we can’t afford to support everyone that comes knocking. Our allowance is 1.8million kwacha a month (only time I'm ever going to be a millionairre!) which is the equivalent of about 250pounds.

Since the first night's fiascos we're now settling into our house nicely. Our sofa is still being made so we’re using garden chairs in the meantime. We took a trip to Malawi last Wednesday and picked up a six seater wicker dining set, coffee table and three straw mats for less than a tenner! We’ve no hot water, but the way the weather is at the moment it’s blessing in disguise. Three more VSOs live just round the corner and they’ve got about four mango trees, an avocado tree and an orange tree in their back garden! Today we cycled to town and filled up our rucksacks with fresh fruit and veg and now we're sat in the local internet cafe, possibly off to a BBQ later and Henry can russle up one of his lovely curries. Sounds like a good saturday routine to me!

Photos of the house will follow soon.

Thanks so much all of you who are emailing me - I'll do my best to reply to you all soon. th einternet is quite slow and pretty expensive but I'll do my best.

Moving On...

Mwauke Bwanje... (Good Morning)

The last few days of the In-Country Induction went pretty smoothly. I felt like I was back at uni when we were taken through the political history of Zambia – it’s unbelievable that a country playing host to over 70 different tribes has managed to avoid descending into civil war especially since at least five out of its eight neighbouring countries have experienced violent conflict in the last 30 years. And the Zambian people have done little during our short stay to undermine their slogan ‘One nation One people’ , Henry and I are being stared at wherever we go but we haven’t once been harassed. Morocco, Mum you’ll be pleased to hear, Zambia is not.

Friday night VSO staged a Zambian cultural night for us volunteers and our employers who had arrived from all corners of the country to take us back to our placements. In the dinner queue I bumped into my three employers. I spotted Honester first wearing a blue peer educator’s t-shirt with ‘together we win’ emblazoned on the back, she squealed delightedly when I mentioned who I was and gave me the biggest hug. Meeting Rebecca and Josephine followed a similar pattern. In a crowd full of male employers it was great to have three obviously committed women to meet me. In fact, it became a bit of a joke when the employers were introducing themselves during Saturday’s partners workshop that every new arrival was coming to meet me – although I’m not entirely sure whether having three employers makes me lucky or not we’ll just have to wait and see. I’m not sure if I made a good first impression, especially after attempting to shake my hips like a true African woman!

The Journey to Chipata

Sunday morning our party of nine (Me, Henry, my three employers, Henry’s employer, Denis another VSO based in Chipata, Tom a VSO based near Chipata and Richard, an extremely helpful volunteer who also works for my employers) - set off early for Chipata. Our first stop out of Lusaka was at a hot spring, almost boiling hot water spouting from the ground. Women and children were bathing and doing laundry in the stream although I wonder how far they’d walked as there didn’t seem to be a village or town anywhere nearby. An hour or so down the road one of the women shouted stop and out of nowhere a family appeared. They turned out to be related to one of my employers and we loaded up a basket or two onto the roof to take on to Chipata. Next stop – bag of chips and ketchup from a roadside market stall, strange but true. Descending into the Luwangwa river valley we narrowly missed a few baboons, goats and cows and stocked up on bananas, oranges, ready to eat maize corn and fresh ground nuts (monkey nuts to you, Dad!)

Every now and again along the road there were clusters of small round mud huts with straw roofs like the ones on the picture. You see the large cocoon looking seed in the same photo – apparently young boys are allocated one each and are told to cut them down when they have grown to the size they would like their penises to be. You can imagine there are some old stories about boys who forgot to chop theirs down!

Chipata!

We arrived in Chipata, our home town for the next year or so, early Sunday evening. Workmen are still putting the final touches to our house and furniture (or should I say mansion – it’s ridiculously huge!) so we’re staying with Richard ‘til Thursday. I think Henry described Chipata best when he said it looks like the Wild West. Only the main road through the city is tarmac, the rest are dusty red African soil tracks. It seems you can get basically anything here – including George Forman grills! There are two mosques to cater for the large Indian population and churches on every corner. It doesn’t feel much smaller than Oxford and is surrounded by small mountains. We went out to a small dam this afternoon and we could have been in Scotland if it wasn’t for the 30 degree heat!

Dancing at 8:30am

Monday morning, 8:30am, the peer educators at Chisomo Home Based Care (employer #1) put on a welcome performance of dance and drama. And during the ‘sugar sugar’ dance – a local euphemism for sex – Henry and I were dragged to the floor to shake our booties – if only Monday mornings were always this much fun. Chisomo is based in one of the poorer areas of town. They occupy a house where they have an agreement with the landlord that they can use the premises rent free if they renovate it. Only last week they put in concrete floors. There is no permanent roof, just beams and tin. It may sound ridiculous but I think I’m going to get along just fine, smart offices and air conditioning was never my cup of tea!

I briefly visited the other two organisations I’ll be working with: Tikondane Home Based Care and Kwacha Ku’mawa although their office spaces are slightly better they have hardly any funds.

The peer educators I’ve met so far seem lovely and really committed and enthusiastic. I still don’t really know what my exact job is but my basic brief is to inject some creativity and renewed energy into the peer education programmes, it’s going to be challenging but lots of fun and hopefully really rewarding. I should start work properly next Monday if all goes well with moving into the house this week.

If my family were Zambian...

If my entire family were Zambian I’d have a total of 10 siblings! The nuclear family, inclusive only of parents and children is an alien concept to Zambians. Here, as in much of Africa the extended family including aunts and uncles, cousins and mother-in laws all form part of your immediate family.

My Zambian family looks something like this: Mum, Dad, and brother Matthew. My Mum’s sister, Nadine would also be my Mother. Her children Jessica and Lucy would be called my sisters, and be treated as such. My Dad’s brothers; Stephen, Gary and Chris would all be my fathers, and their children, seven in total, would also be my brothers and sisters. So, if we were a Zambian family I’d have two mothers and four fathers and ten siblings!

If I was to marry Henry (only as an example – don’t be getting too panicked or excited!) I would inherit three mother-in-laws; Henry’s Mum and her two sisters and so on and so on.

Although it sounds complicated, in a country with so many children being orphaned and so many parents being lost to HIV & AIDS it is a small comfort that tradition dictates that the responsibilities of the extended family be taken seriously. Unfortunately, growing western influence, families being broken up by the growing migration to urban centres and extreme levels of poverty are eroding these traditional structures and many orphans are being left with little or no support.

Zambia at last!

I did end up packing everything bar the kitchen sink and somehow managed to get away with being 7 kilos over the limit – and that was after transferring everything I could into Henry’s bags – he’d chosen to take the minimalist traveller route!

After a pretty uneventful flight and stop over in Jo’burg we arrived smelly and shattered in Lusaka International Airport, Zambia. And immediately we were greeted by some of the biggest smiles I’ve ever seen and taken step by step through immigration. I know it’s what everyone says about Africa – which in itself is so huge and diverse – but Zambia so far appears such a friendly place. Maurice, my Programme Manager with VSO Zambia, doesn’t stop smiling and whatever the meaning of his sentence they are almost always followed by a heartfelt giggle.

For this week we are being eased slowly into life in Zambia at the Commonwealth Africa Youth Centre in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city. To minimise risk of homesickness they are offering us a breakfast of eggs and beans every morning. Henry and I are struggling with out first encounter with a mossie net – the safety pins from the travel sewing kit have already come in useful! Neither of us have been food for mosquitoes yet although the skies have just this moment opened and the little critters get vicious in the rain apparently.

So far, in-country induction has been largely stress free. We were introduced to the city of Lusaka from the seats of a safari style mini-bus. Driving through the high-density areas isn’t quite what I’d envisage and I must admit I didn’t feel entirely comfortable. However, we did provide what seemed to be welcome Sunday afternoon entertainment for the local kids who ran alongside the bus laughing hysterically at Henry’s ‘strange’ face whilst shouting ‘muzungu muzungu!’ Muzungu literally means ‘white person’ and translates throughout Africa.

Another activity I wasn’t expecting and again didn’t feel entirely comfortable with was canapés at the British High Commissioner’s house. But when the director of VSO sneaked into her thank you speech something along the lines of ‘I hope Mr Commissioner that you will receive with open arms applications for funds from this new batch of volunteers,’ we quickly realised that hobnobbing has its purpose!

We are now ‘full-time’ Zambians with work permits, lifelong national registration cards and Zambian recipe book! I’ll post some recipes as soon as I’ve tried some out! All these privileges don’t come easy – we were waiting at immigration for nearly four hours. Henry and I got shouted at because Wegberg, our place of birth, is NOT in the UK (yep, we were born in the same place!) Getting our registration cards felt like something out of a Monty Python sketch we ran up and down a long corridor going in and out various doors picking up bits of paper, putting them down, having our photo taken (having it taken again when we blinked or laughed!) and waiting again for our mug shots to be laminated onto a piece of card!

We’ve just finished a day of workshops/lectures on gender and cultural issues in Zambia – I won’t bore you with the details but the quote of the week definitely goes to the trainer:

‘if women were supposed to be the sole carrier of the child and the only one to
do the laundry she would have been born a Kangaroo holding a bathtub!’

And with that thought I think I’ll leave it there.

One week and counting...

This time next week we'll have been in the air for almost an hour - hopefully having avoided any delays or fines for trying to pack everything bar the kitchen sink as they say.

Am I prepared? ummmm I'm getting there. I quit my temp job last Friday and my brain has slowly begun to recover from a summer's worth of numbness. I'm still a little frightened to start packing my bags in fear of finding I can't squeeze in half of what I'm planning to take. I might have to see how many t-shirts, skirts and knickers I can wear at once to free up some room!

On a more positive note, I've received a few emails from Richard, a VSO volunteer, who has been working for my soon-to-be employer since February. He informs me I'll be working for three organisations - Chisomo Home Based Care, Kwacha Kum'mawa and Tikondane Home Based Care alongside over 20 volunteer HIV peer educators. Apparently, I have a blank canvas to refresh the whole peer education programme, which seems like a hell of a challenge but I suppose I asked for it.

It seems Henry and I have been allocated a fairly large house on the outskirts of Chipata although we may have to settled for the minimalist interior look until we find time to furnish the place. Richard describes Chipata as 'a scruffy town' that has changed very little in the last forty years, where everyone is friendly and most importantly the two restaurants in town serve veggie curry - woo hoo!

Oooo I almost forgot I have bought a travel sewing kit - why is it that when you're going abroad you buy things you'd never dream of using in the UK - I can't remember the last time I picked up a needle and thread. Next on the shopping list is Pick-Up-Sticks...

Zambian Elections

Corruption and the well-trodden issue of tax appeared to dominate the airwaves in the run up to Zambia's general election. It will be the fourth election since the return of a multi-party system in 1991 following 18 years of single-party rule under Kenneth Kaunda.

Tomorrow an estimated 4 million Zambians will cast their vote and choose between five presidential candidates. The race is said to be largely between two men; the incumbent President Levy Mwanawasa and Michael Sata, leader of one opposition party: The Patriotic Front. Disappointingly, Sata has been heard praising Zimbabwe's current President Robert Mugabe, he was quoted saying

"Mugabe hasn't done anything wrong. It is the imperialists, the capitalist-roaders who say he is a villain...The people of Zimbabwe are not suffering. They are much happier."

Check out the BBC news website for up to date coverage, to hear from the voters themselves and to view pictures form the candidates' campaigns. The results are expected to be announced on Saturday.

I only wish we were already there to see it all in action for ourselves.

Easy rider!

Challenge #1: Learn to ride a motorbike.

According to my job description I'm going to be riding around on two wheels when in placement. When I first found this out I thought great! - it's all part of the adventure, but as the reality of having to wear heavy duty gear, gloves and big black boots in 35degree heat plus a huge helmet on my usually curly head, the mini-adventure appeared a little less welcome.

Despite my reservations, my Speedway-style helmet arrived promptly in the post and I set off for my five day training course and thankfully came out the otherside unscathed! All thanks to my instructor who came complete with aviators (in the rain), stories of racing other bikers round the Paris périphérique and campaigning against deisel spillages on tight bends! If only I'd managed to get his picture.

So, the challenge now is to figure out how on earth I'm going to get the helmet on the plane! I suppose this is when the bag packing practice runs begin!

One month to go...

Now the count down really can begin. If all goes to plan one month from today we should be boarding a plane to Lusaka.

So, this seems like a pretty good time to explain how exactly I found myself waiting to be shipped off to Southern Africa.

My 12 month (hard-worked filled) adventure has been organised as part of Youth for Development or YfD, a programme run by Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) open to 18-25 year olds. In VSO’s own words: ‘YfD offers young volunteers a chance to use their skills and to make a tangible contribution to fighting poverty.’ Volunteers are matched to a placement with a VSO partner organisation based in the global south and work with that organisation as if they were any other normal employee for up to 12 months.

As part of yfd I have to undertake a Global Education Project the objective of which is to increase international understanding and challenge stereotypes. The majority of my project is going to take place in a primary school in Chipping Norton, a small village outside my home town of Oxford, UK. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some things about how that’s going up here. The other part of the project will be this blog – so if anyone has any thoughts, comments, questions or corrections! please do post them up.