End of Training

Free time teaching some national vols to swim

My partner Eunice

This week has been good, we have found where we are going, I am off to Mumbwa in the south of Central Province, about 4 hours drive from Kabwe. Other than that I know very little about where I am going, but I'll find out soon as I'm off on Monday.

Hilight of the week has been the Mr and Mrs competition, where we all had to cross dress and then compete in a dancing competition. And guess what - I came second! Everyone keeps asking me to teach them to dance - hilarious!

Today I am off shopping, trying to buy everything me and my partner need to set up house with just over 7 pounds - which is proving tricky. I thing I will try and pack some emergency jam and crackers supplies into my pack....

Week of the Shits

Not that my week has been truely awful, just that it has been marked by a stomach bug hitting all of the SPW camp and taking a good 20% of volunteers from training each day. After 4 days of lying in bed, several 'Zambian' remedies shoved in my face, which mainly included nishima and chicken bones, a trip to a stern Indian doctor and 12 pills a day later, full recovery has been made. Everyone assures me once you have been ill you won't get it again, so fingers crossed.

I missed most of this week due to lying in bed, but fortunatly managed to recover in time for two days of sport with the Sport in Action team. They were all dressed in Durham bailey stash from Durham volunteers, which was crazy to see all the way out there. They were so excited when I told them it was where I went to uni. After some quite heavy rainfall we spend the two days chasing balls (and each other) round a muddy field, much which is proving quite difficult to wash out. The day also proved to be embarassing for me during a discussion on 'appropriate' women's clothing. I was wearing shorts for 'sportts day', and someone asked what the boys felt about me wearing shorts. After a long discussion, during which I was standing at the front, it was decided that it was ok because I was white, and white people are not attractive.
Team Durham in Zambia

The other entertainment of the week was my solo dancing in front of the other 95 volunteers. Dancing is HUGE in Zambia, and so every night there is some kind of complusory singing and dancing. Although I try just to follow what everyone else is doing I always seem to be dragged up to the front by one person or another, while everyone is shouting "Asula", and forced to throw some moves. Nobody here seems to get embarrassed, even if they are really rubbish. We had a 'talent' show, which demonstrated a few average rappers, an awful singer, and a lot of people miming along to Zambian pop. That my talent was dancing says it all.

Yesturday we got paired up and told which school we are going to. I have been paired with Eunice, who has uncontrollable amounts of energy, speaks like a gangster and dances like Beyonce. I think we will get on just fine. We are going to Mumbwa district, about 5 hours drive from Kabwe, where I am now to a basic school, teaching grades 5 to 9. I just can't wait til Sunday when we'll be off.

I'm also starting to notice some very strange things which are entirely normal in Zambia.
Even the most fashion conscious person sees nothing wrong with wearing socks and flip-flops (or jandals as my NZ friend would say).
Its also acceptable to wear a shower cap in the rain, its almost impossible to keep a straight face when talking to someone in a shower cap in the dinner line.
Wigs and weaves are also freaking me out, people's hair is always at a strange angle, or too far back, which also makes it difficult not to stare.
Its not rude to play your ring tone on repeat at midnight or 5am, even if someone is obviously trying to sleep
Personal space is also a foreign concept, girls seem to find it normal to pull down your top to check what colour breasts I have, and then make some comment that I have basically non-existent
boobs. Talk about a self-confidence boost!
Electrics are not handled with care. If you want to switch the lights off, just take out the light bulb. While in the middle of a session we were told not to raise our hands too high as there were live wires hanging above our heads. And a bucket of water is perfect for securing the wires to the projector.
Everything stops for the rain
The name Ursula is an impossible concept, so I will arrive home believing my name begins with an A.

Visiting Nora's family

Well, first two weeks in Zambia, and I have survived so far. The weather is hot hot hot, and the rain that is supposed to come every afternoon to cool us down is rare. Global warming....

After a long flight, where the guy next to me told me his life story from Heathrow to Kenya we were met at Lusaka by the SPW team and the dog bus. This absolutly made the journey. All the way through Lusaka we were greeted, with people running alongside the bus and jumping up. What a welcome.

After we met with the other international volunteers from New Zealand, we headed (once again in the dog) to Kabwe, in Central Zambia. Here we were treated to hours of Bemba lessons (muli shani - bwino - how are you?) and time to settle in. By the end of the first week we moved to the other side of town to join with the other 91 Zambian volunteers. The prospect was quite daunting as being a white person here is pretty rare and we get noticed wherever we go. No being able to sneak out of training sessions....

I have to admit this week has been difficult. Most people seem to have a list of questions they want to ask a white person, or msungo, which range from my favourite colour, to if my hair is real. Once these have been answered the conversation seems to be pretty much over. But at the same time everyone is friendly, and I have got on really well with some of the ex-vols who are slightly older. I think the main problem is that they just see me as a scary white person who they can't talk to. Zambian's main activities seem to consist of singing, dancing and praying, and as I'm not proficient at any of these, I must seem to them to be very strange. Dancing is a daily activity, and the volunteers love forcing me up onto the stage to dance in front of everyone, which is quite embarassing. I have to work on the African hip shake!

This morning two friends, Cleophas and Nora, took me to their house to meet their family and feed us, which was lovely. The parents and sisters where so excited to have us and so welcoming, which seems to embrace the spirit of Zambia.