Ants in your pants and other Zambian creepy crawlies...

Yes ants everywhere, not just in my pants (fortunatly not the ones I was wearing though), bedding, shoes, food, buckets. Overnight we somehow had a red ant invasion of our little house. While this caused a minor freak out from both Eunice and me, she knew a Zambian trick if using parafin to get rif them. The place stank, and I feared to light the brazier anywhere in the vicinity, but at least we are now ant free. Worse was to come though. Sitting filtering some water one evening last week I felt something cold on my foot. Not thinking much of it I just glanced down to see... a SNAKE. The bucket of water was thrown across the yard, with me jumping up and down and shaking my foot in the air, shreaking for Eunice to come to the rescue. The boys from nextdoor heard the commotion and came to kill it with some stones. It was pretty scary to think that it had been slithering around just outside our house, and I feel lucky as afterwards one of the boys told me it is quite poisonous, so if it had bitten me I would have had to be rushed to Lusaka. However, apart from snakes, the only scary animals here are chickens, who seem to like living in the strangest of places, including my youth resource bag. I was pretty shocked to fish inside for some leaflets on HIV and to instead find a chicken.

Life in Mumbwa, Zambia is going well and I am quickly settling in to daily routine. Lessons are going well at the two schools I work in. Both are basic schools going up to grade 9, located in rural areas outside the main town. Shimbizhi, the furthest away (about 14km) is right in the middle of the bush, with no apparent village around it, just trees and savannah. The teachers there are lovely though, and always prepare a big meal for us before we treck back home, a good two and a half hours walk if we have to go by foot. In my placement school, Makasa, things are slowly getting underway, although there is a lot of resistance to being involved in programmes on the behalf of teachers. They are mainly friendly (a bit too friendly on some counts, both me and Eunice are being chased by male teachers which is extreemely funny, but slightly annoying), but they don't want to give their time for other clubs and activities, and always expect to recieve something for taking part, which is rather frustrating.

So far this month we have had an event in school, with the theme of child rights and child abuse. Despite being highly stressful for me, having to organize 400 odd pupils, the day went really well. We had each class preparing something on the theme, from drama, poems, stories, dances and cultural performances, which were amazing. The lower grades love dancing, and some of the little ones can really move!

This weekend I went to Kalunda, a village about 45km from Mumbwa, deep in the bush, with a group from the Catholic church here. The Catholic community here is very strong, and I have made lots of friends this way, including being adopted by a Zambian family who invite me to eat frequently and let me chill out on their couch, which is a good break from the concrete floor at home. The village has no electricity, but they are amazingly organized with a kitchen packed with braziers, and even an oven they have built themselves from mud bricks, meaning we were kept well supplied with Zambian scones (which are more like fairy cakes). Everyone was so excited to have me to stay and made me feel very welcome. On Saturday we held some sessions with the youths of the surrounding area, some on the Bible and some on health and HIV, while on Sunday we had mass with a priest from Mumbwa. They only have mass once a year, so it was quite an event.

Other than that I am making connections in the community and finding other areas in which I cab help. At the moment I am involved with a youth group at the hospital and trying to set up a youth friendly corner for young people to come and access information, advice and condoms. I am also starting working for NZP+, a support group for people living with HIV, so that should be really interesting.

So I'm always busy - I thought life in Zambia would be chilled out and at African pace, but I seem to take my busy lifestyle with me everywhere! Next month is a tribal festival close by and then school closes for a month, so I am anxiously waiting the arrival of April to rest a bit and travel more of Zambia - Vic Falls here I come!