You're not going to believe this....

....I'M HOME!!!

After the drama of the previous day and completely out of the blue, I got a call from BA at 1am yesterday (Tuesday) morning advising me that I was on standby for the first flight out of Lusaka at 11:45am that day...!   Excitement was matched by concern; I wanted to be home but didn't fancy being one of the first passengers flying through the ash cloud! 

Luckily the prospect of being home outweighed the fear element and I reported to Lusaka Airport at 9:30am - I was allowed to check-in, my luggage was weighed and labelled but at that point, along with about 50 others, I was still on standby,

There was a real sense of camaraderie amongst the standby people and when, ten minutes before the scheduled departure, I was given the go-ahead to board, I was sad to leave about 20 passengers who had not been lucky enough.

True to form, once all the passengers were onboard, the Captain announced that there was a problem....!  

Something to do with tail winds on the runway meant that NONE of our luggage was coming with us!  At that point, I was quite philosophical about it all... who cares about luggage, being home safely is the important thing.  Any who did not to wish to fly without their luggage were given the option to leave the flight.  12 people did leave although curiously, the gentleman who had the ashes of his deceased father in his luggage, decided to stay onboard. 

As some had left the flight and me having a letter stating that I was suffering from 'acute spider-bite-itis', I was given three seats to spread across and keep my leg elevated!!  

And we were off.... 

The Captain told us that at that point he was heading for Heathrow but as the airport was still closed, there was a very real possibility that we would be re-routed.  This became a reality when our flight, after circling in the skies over Europe waiting for Heathrow to open, got low on fuel.  We were diverted to Barcelona to re-fuel after which, finally were allowed to fly on to Heathrow.  There was a slight air of concern in the aircraft as we flew on to Heathrow but, if we did fly through the ash cloud, we passengers did not experience anything other than the normal lumps and bumps. We finally landed safely sometime after 1am this morning.

As Mr Shakespeare would put it, "All's well that ends well"

Grateful thanks for getting me home, go to:  

British Airways
Southern Sun Hotel, Lusaka
Friends & Colleagues at WAG 
Friends, Volunteers and Staff of VSO, Zambia. 
Geraint xx



.

Travel Update .....Still no idea when I can come home!!!

What a few days this has been! It’s been a real rollercoaster of emotions!

After an amazing couple of days at Victoria Falls (will do a proper blog on that soon, with lush pics), Saturday morning found me in agony with the spider bite. Having completed the antibiotics the previous Wednesday, it seemed wrong that I was still in so much pain ....so yet another trip to the clinic.
The 'kind' doctor said he would need to cut out the dead tissue and remove the poison that was still there - eek! He told me he would not use anaesthetic and suggested I hold onto the side of the bed - double eek!! He then did the cutting and removing of poison bit. Being squeamish I didn't look but will describe what I think he did from then on... First, he rubbed the injury with some type of brillo pad, then he poured acid over it! Blimey O'Reilly, did it hurt?!!! Anyway, the good news is that, and I quote my dear friend Emily, "every spider bite has a silver lining" because he said he would give me a letter advising British Airways that due to my medical condition (which, for dramatic purposes, I have named Acute Spider Bite-itis) I should be given priority boarding. Yay, yay, yay, I thought!

Off I trundled to BA to claim this special concession. BA confirmed that I could have priority boarding (more yays!)

I spent the weekend with the, getting lovlier and kinder by the minute, Dan & Helen.
Today, Monday, saw me moving out of Dan & Helen's and into the 5 star Southern Sun Hotel in Lusaka, courtesy of BA. I was beginning to relax and think how much worse it could be when all BA guests were called to a briefing in the hotel.  They told me that the earliest flight I can get, (and that is if flights start-up immediately), is Thursday of next week!!!!

I am totally stunned and will of course, pursue as many options as possible but it's not looking good.

I'm not suffering in any way, shape or form and realise that I'm very lucky to be in this hotel but to be honest, after being in Chipata and seeing the suffering there, I feel quite uncomfortable staying here. On the plus side, I have a TV so can watch the news and have internet access.

But, all I want to do is come home....

It's official, I'm NOT coming home tomorrow

Not hearing or seeing any news for weeks, a text message from Sophie yesterday asking if the 'ash cloud' would impact on my flight, had me very confused.  I thought predictive text was at work and tried and tried to figure out what words she had been meaning to text. Not being able to get any sensible anagrams out of 'ash cloud', I gave up and asked her what she meant.

So, there I was, sitting down, recovering from a long, hard walk up from the bottom of Victoria Falls, where I had been quietly been saying my emotional goodbyes to Zambia, when a further text from Sophie clarified the situation and sent me into panic mode! 

To say I'm devastated is an understatement.

I have visited the BA office in Lusaka where the very helpful staff advised me that they are not able to advise me....!!!  All they are prepared to say at present is that my flight tomorrow is definitely cancelled.  They are not able to tell me when I can fly but somebody in the waiting room at their office told me that I'm probably looking at Thursday!

PAM FI DUW?!!!

More drama.....

Not wanting to alarm my nearest and dearest, I didn’t blog about this yesterday. But as its all turned out fine and I know there are certain friends (Johnnie) that enjoy hearing about my misfortunes, here is the latest…..


Thursday evening, the young YDF volunteers threw me a going away party at my house which included playing nice singing, clapping, jumping in my garden. It would appear that YET AGAIN, I was bitten by a spider!

So, Friday saw the little bite on my leg which was annoyingly itchy but nothing more, develop into a rather large, painful blister....

Saturday morning, feeling quite ill, I went along to Chipata Health Centre to seek medical advice. The nice doctor said I had been bitten by “dangerous spider”. He popped the blister and giggled as the yukky liquid spilled all over his practice floor, gave me a course of anti-biotics and said I’d be fine in a few days. He also advised AGAINST covering the now popped blister. I’m afraid I felt quite poorly all afternoon, leaving Francis and Alan to do all the work for our party that night. During the party, despite feeling less than 100%, I joined in the merriment as much as possible – I’m nothing if not a martyr to the cause of partying!

Sunday morning with the prospect of an 8 hour drive to Lusaka ahead of me, I wanted to curl up and die! I don’t travel well at the best of times and with the nausea and vomiting before even left the house, I was dreading the journey…. Luckily for me, the lovely man who was driving the car had a medical background and seeing the now puss-filled lump on my leg, put me in the front seat with my foot elevated as much as possible and fussed over me throughout. He wanted to take me straight to a clinic on arrival in Lusaka but relented when I promised I would go first thing in the morning.

Dan & Helen who are accommodating me here is Lusaka were great. Dan took me to the clinic first thing Monday morning where the doctor confirmed it as a spider bite. He said the blister should never have been burst and it should have been kept covered to prevent infection, which is what I now have and why I was feeling so sick! A nurse cleaned and dressed it and I was sent on my way after being told to report back to the clinic at 4pm for the surgeon to decide if it needed operating on…!!!! At that point I did not want to be in stupid Africa, I wanted to be home, with my Mam feeding me 'googies' to make me all better!!
But I was a very brave little soldier and duly reported back as instructed.



I am delighted to report that the surgeon said it was okay and did not need to be cut out! I was sent on my way with a tube of antibiotic cream and a large bag of saline solution to clean it with. When I arrived back at Dan & Helens, they could only see my top half through the window and seeing me carrying this bag, they thought I was hooked up to a drip!!!

So…. sorry to disappoint you Mr Evans but the good news is I have been to the clinic again this morning for another dressing change and I am allowed to travel to Livingstone this afternoon!!!!

I believe and I very much hope that all who kindly donated to my fundraising page http://original.justgiving.com/tinawilliams6  will agree that although I did not manage to honour my pledge to hold a live spider whilst here, the fact that I have suffered at the teeth of these cruel arachnids, will suffice. 

Please say yes.....

Back in Lusaka.....

Awwww, it was a sad farewell to Chipata for me yesterday - I really will miss the place and the lovely friends that I made there. Obviously, I'll miss Frances and Alan most but we'll stay in touch and when their 2 years is up, we'll have a great reunion party.  Unless, that is,  I decide to come back to visit them while they're still out here!

Fortunately (for me but not for blog readers) , there are no crazy travel stories as I didn't have to get the post bus after all - I was given a lift to Lusaka by Achim, a German guy, a development worker in Chipata who needed to travel to Lusaka on business.

Am being put up in Lusaka by a lovely couple from Buckinghamshire (both VSO volunteers). I'll say this for being a VSO community of volunteers, you make some great friends, very quickly.  I've only met Dan & Helen once before and yet they are more than welcoming and have put themselves out no end picking me up and dropping me off.  As they are so lovely, theirs is definitely the accommodation of choice for any volunteers who are travelling through Lusaka.  They have 'guests' staying over at least 3 days a week!!!  Last night they had Ros (from Livingstone) and me, tonight they have Rob (From Mazabuka) and me ...and probably some others later in the week!

Attended the Global Exchange meeting this morning, welcomed the returning Zambian youngsters and their British counterparts ...they were a great group!

Off to Livingstone tomorrow to stay with another VSO volunteer, Emily.  Using public transport to get there so may have a more interesting blog soon...!   Wanted to leave on the 9am 'Luxury' coach in the morning but other commitments mean I must travel on the 1.30pm 'standard' service - ooh-er!!  Will hopefully arrive Livingstone by 8pm and, even more hopefully, be met off the bus by Emily.

Last of the Chipata Days....

Today (Friday) is my last day working for YDF in the Chipata office.  Its gone so quickly!!
The young volunters gave me a wonderful farewell party yesterday with lots of singing, dancing and speeches ...I'll never forget it.

Tomorrow we are hosting a party at our house.  It's a double celebration; Alan's birthday and give me a send-off!    In such a short while, I have met very many lovely people ....it should be a good party!  I'll have to practice moderation in alcohol intake as, 7am Sunday morning, I shall be accompanying the mail on the Post Bus to Lusaka.  Monday, I will be representing YDF and greeting 10 UK students who are arriving to take part in a 2 month Global Exchange visit - their Zambian counterparts, who been staying in Swansea for the past two months, will be arriving back with them.

Then, THAT IS THE END OF MY VSO PLACEMENT!!!!

Just enough time for me to travel down to Livingstone for a few days to see the famous Victoria Falls before travelling back to Lusaka to fly HOME on Saturday!

Very mixed emotions.... as much as I am looking forward to being home with my loved ones, I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to beautiful Zambia.

This is Brendah

I deliberately keep my blogs light hearted, fully appreciating that it would make very uncomfortable reading if I were to constantly recount all of the poverty, squalor and deprivation that I see on a daily basis. That said, it has occurred to me that, by telling only the amusing stories, I am painting a very one-sided picture of life here.


It would be a long and painful blog if I were tod detail everything that I have experienced but to redress the balance a little, I would like to tell you about one lady – I think her story sums up the situation here quite well.



Brendah is 32 years old, married, with two children; a twelve year old daughter and seven year old son. Her husband is sick so cannot work therefore Brendah is the only bread winner. She works five days a week as a cleaning lady – two of those days are at my home, the other three are spread over other VSO volunteers. Brendah is actually very lucky, with unemployment running at 84%, she is one of the few in Zambia that has a job. She is also lucky to be working for westerners which means she is given lunch every day – probably the only meal she eats.

She lives in Sido Compound, a collection of 100 or so houses on the outskirts of Chipata. Home for Brendah is in a shared building and consists of one living room and one bedroom. At night, the living room doubles up as a bedroom for the children. Brendah’s bedroom is not in a part of the building with an outside wall and therefore has no window; she has to light a candle to see, even during the day. The bedroom has no wardrobe or drawers so when she has washed and dried the family’s clothes, they are wrapped up in a chitenga (a piece of material) and stored on the floor. Brendah asked me if she could have an empty cardboard box that was in our spare room explaining that she wanted it to store clothes in! All meals are cooked outdoors on a charcoal brazier (a bucket with holes). There is no running water. Brendah walks 500 meters to a small building with a tap owned by the Water & Sewerage Company where she buys her water. It costs 50 kwacha for 20 litres. With no hot water and the cost of buying it, water is a precious commodity so she washes her clothes in a stream. The toilet is a communal pit latrine.

Brendah is a highly intelligent woman with a brilliant sense of humour – she has been a great friend and adviser to me during my stay. Don’t know how I would have managed without her! In another country where there are opportunities for talented people, she would be a high flying executive but alas in Zambia she will remain a domestic help for as long as she is able to work. She walks one hour to get to work daily. I look forward to her arrival, we usually have a chat over a bowl of cornflakes then she gets down to washing, which she does in a back-breaking bend over the bath!

Normally, she doesn’t complain but yesterday she was very upset and relayed the following to me: 2am the night before, she had been struggling to carry her husband to the outside toilet when he fell. He has probably broken his hip. All she was able to do, was get him back to bed where he remains, in agony. Without the money to pay for health care, he has no access to a doctor or hospital. Brendah must continue working but with him bed-ridden, she wakes at 4.30am, prepares the family meals and cleans her house before setting off for an eight hour shift cleaning for us. She is terrified of the future. She can’t simply leave him to suffer but equally, cannot pay even for a check-up to establish what is wrong.

Brendah’s total monthly income is 365,000 kwacha, which when you take out her rent of 60,000 per month, she is left with around 10,000 per day to feed and family of four. To put this into context, a loaf of bread costs 3,380 kwacha so she earns the cost equivalent of less than three loaves a day!!!
She has to buy water plus feed and clothe a family of four on this meagre wage. She is struggling but determined to educate her two children; schools here charge pupils to attend and parents are required to buy the specified uniform along with all books, pencils etc. Health care has to be paid for too.



It would be easy for Brendah to loose hope but she feels lucky ….the saddest fact of her story is that she genuinely is one of the lucky ones.

Roaring time...!

When my fairies were younger, given the choice of what to do on a bank holiday, they would always choose Cwmbran Community Farm so, following in the family tradition, I too went to my local community farm!!!

Left home at 7.30am for the three and half hour journey to Flat Dogs Camp. I had been warned that the road is bad. It is bad!


Flat Dogs is in the budget range of camps at South Luangwa but as I am now used to a fairly humble home life, it felt like 7 star luxury – I even had my own shower!

Myself, Francis & Alan stayed in a chalet at the camp – I wasn’t brave enough for the tents. Of most interest is each and every time you want to leave your chalet to move around the camp, to the restaurant for example, you are accompanied by a guard. The reason being that hippos, elephants and baboons roam freely amongst the accommodation. Its okay during the day but at night, the "heepo" is very much in evidence - they were quite daunting to walk past. Needless to say, UK health & safety rules would shut the place down in a nano-second!
Over the two nights we were there, I went out on four safari drives. Two morning drives which have you up at 5am but were so worth it and two evening drives. Evening drives are 4pm to 8pm – after 6pm it is dark so the guides shine huge torches to pick out the animals. It was amazing, when they spot something worth a look, they get the vehicles in VERY close. It is quite scary at times; a notable occasion was when they got us within ten feet of a lion feasting on impala!!
Won’t dwell too much on the details, it was just too fabulous for words… A couple of pics:

Easter will NEVER be the same for me.... !!!!

A special message for a SPECIAL girl

Sending you all my love for a very Happy Birthday, Natalie.

Love you today ...and everyday!

Mammy xxx

Easter Weekend.....

Zambia has, without a doubt, been a rollercoaster of emotions.  One day ecstatically happy, the next bereft..!  Tomorrow was always going to be the toughest, being the birthday of Natalie. 

So, to console myself (!!), I am spending Easter weekend in the splendour of South Luangwa National Park.

The experience of a lifetime lies ahead, I'm sure!!!

Check out the Safari Park   http://www.zambiatourism.com/travel/nationalparks/sluangwa.htm

I'll be staying at Flat Dogs (the African term for Crocodile)  - http://www.flatdogscamp.com/

Will keep you posted.....

Oh what a night!

I am beginning to wonder if I’m cut out for life in the tropics! As time passes, I seem less and less able to cope - physically or emotionally!!


Everyone is being bitten, Francis has around twenty bites per leg, bless her however, she is coping well and has tiny dots to mark out where she has been bitten. I have, thankfully, very few bites but those I have start off with a little spot which progressively spreads …and spreads. The one today takes the form of a circle on the inside of my lower arm and measures 4” in diameter. I am also suffering with bad headaches, dizziness and nausea.

None of that though, compares with last nights little episode…..

It is very, VERY quiet here at night. After bedtime, all there is to listen to is the sound of guard dogs barking in the distance, the sound of the house creaking, insect or snake noises outside the window ….and my heart pounding in fear! Occasionally, I hear Alan snoring in his room which I find extremely reassuring.

Last night, I went to bed to read. Francis and Alan had also turned in so I was, as ever, deafened by silence! With the light still on, I began to doze off. Suddenly I heard, what sounded like a spider wearing stiletto heels scuttle under my bedroom door and run across the floor to the corner of the room, under my clothes rack. I sat bolt upright in bed and even though I was terrified to look, I began adjusting my vision to see what creature was causing this noise. As suddenly as it started, the noise stopped! I was incredibly scared and imagining all manner of beast lurking at the foot of my bed. As the seconds passed, I started to wonder if I had in fact dreamt the noise – I have a habit of dreaming all sorts of nonsense. As my pounding heart began to return to a normal beat, I saw it…..

I have seen many cockroaches in my time here but by far THE BIGGEST cockroach I have ever seen was crawling up the outside of my mosquito net ....not six inches from my face!!!
....I panicked!!!!
....I screamed!!!!
....I picked up my torch,( which I always sleep with) and whacked it off the net!!!

It landed with a thud on the floor under my bed (that’s how big it was!). I had no idea what to do so did the only thing I could think of and screamed for Alan as loud as I could.

Alan & Francis burst into the room, clearly thinking I was being attacked by a lion…! I could barely speak, I was so terrified but through my gibberish, they realised I was telling them about it being under the bed.

Just like Superman, Alan sprang into action with his trusted can of Doom!  A long squirt but still the horrible bug lived on..! It staggered out from under the bed and zig-zagged across the floor, all the while pursued by Alan who, after one final squirt, despatched it to the afterlife!

When it was properly dead, Alan removed it and they left me to recover.

Sleep did not have the decency to take me…! Hours passed with me conjuring up images which were only marginally better than imagining I could feel it crawling on me!!!

It was, without doubt, a most dreadful night.

If only I could have yelled out the words I’M A CIVIL SERVANT, GET ME OUT OF HEEEEEEEEEEERE!!!!!

In the groove (at last!)

My placement here comes at a cost… personal sacrifice by me and financial considerations to WAG. A few weeks into the job, I was feeling quite disheartened at not being utilising fully. Hence, the beginning of last week saw me having a ‘frank and open’ discussion with my employer.


I turned up for the meeting wearing my VSO t-shirt, a symbolic gesture as it states across the front “Sharing Skills – Saving Lives”. I delicately explained my ideas on how best we could utilise all of our time better and share skills. I was careful in my choice of words and of course, kept everything in the Zambian context. Little use comparing worklife here with that at home but, that said, I am here for a short period and want to make the best of my time. Notwithstanding the resource and financial constraints, there is a great deal of time wasting.

My boss, to his credit, was very receptive to my ideas…so much so that I now have full responsibility for planning and delivering an improvements programme that will easily take twice as long as I have left here! I embarked on the programme with great gusto last week and am delighted at how enthusiastically it is being received by my colleagues. I’ve also managed to squeeze in a few IT training sessions for the young volunteers, which been extremely rewarding, they devour every single piece of information with huge fervour.

Apart from work, my Zambianisation is coming along nicely. I have twice managed to cook nshima, and am a dab hand at it (if I say so myself!). When I tell the locals that I served it with a concoction of tomatoes, onions and pumpkins, they all howl with laughter – to them, the combination is like us eating carrots & peas with custard!!

I have also invested in a made to measure traditional outfit. I used all of my western bargaining skills and paid exactly the asking price! My local colleagues tell me off, saying I pay too much, but the cost of 100,000 kwacha, inclusive of material and making, works out around £21..! Look out for me wearing it out on special occasions…Mother of the Bride outfit, maybe?

The honesty that a half-shared language brings is amusing. When the skinny young girl at the dressmakers was checking how the skirt fitted, I quipped that I am a little heavy around the midriff….”yes, you are fat” she replied very matter-of factly. I like to think it was not intentionally that she destroyed my self esteem in one fell swoop!

Will finish now but MUST acknowledge the work of colleagues at WAG for incredibly restoring my laptop to full use. Work here is difficult enough but when the laptop failed, I was really up the Swanee and worried that I’d not get anything meaningful done until my departure. I was staggered to receive a call from a guy in ICT! He told me to take the laptop to an internet café and he would fix it remotely. To be honest, I thought he was nuts, how could he be in Wales and fix a laptop in Zambia?! But he did just that!! Other than our call today, I don’t know him… but thanks very much Rob!

The REAL Zambia...

What a weekend I have had....   I had wanted to get out of Chipata to see the real Zambia so asked the young volunteers at my work if anybody could take me. They said they would think about it and let me know.  So there I am at 8am on Sunday, sitting in my pyjamas, eating an orange picked from the tree in our garden when Jacob rang me to say he was on his way to collect me, he arrived 3 minutes later!   A Toyota pick-up truck was our mode of transport.  Jacob's mother and elder brother were in the cab with Jacob, his younger brother and me standing in the back looking out over the cab.  What a drive....!  It took about an hour in the blazing sun - I had no hat or sunglasses as I had not expected to be exposed to the elements but it was awesome!  The beautiful, bumpy red roads of Africa surrounded by lush greenery were a joy to travel along.   I was clinging on for dear life as we sped along - it was a like a bucking broncho ride at times as we would suddenly veer to avoid a pot hole!!!  I kept thinking if only Nat & Soph could see their mother...!

Amazingly, miles from anywhere, we encountered easily 100 people who were holding a procession to celebrate Palm Sunday.  It was a brilliant spectacle, all were dressed in their best clothes, carrying crosses or  reeds to represent the palms.  We stopped to allow them to pass by, the singing almost made me cry with how wonderful it was

When near the village, we left the red road and drove off-road for about a mile - through all manner of bush and grassland ...it was fabulous!   Finally, we arrived at the village, which is called Msubazi.  A traditional community of small scale farmers.  I have brilliant pictures but sadly as my laptop is still out of action, can't post any.  The homes are traditional round structures with lovely thatched roofs, there are corals made of branches of trees containing cows.  Pigs, goats and chickens roam freely...as do lots of children!  The villagers were very welcoming ...making a huge fuss of me. Everybody came to shake my hand - there is a special 3-stage handshake here which I have finally mastered!  After all the introductions, we all sat under a tree to chat.  I had brought along my little photo album which they all loved looking at.  They were stunned at the pictures of my parents.  It was all so lovely.  Village life is hard, none of the trappings of modern life we have come to expect like running water and electricity.  The farmers work very hard to make enough to feed their families but life there seems idylic.  There is a bore hole nearby from which to collect water, the children walk 2km to school every day ...and community spirts is palpable.

At the end of my visit, I was presented with a LIVE CHICKEN to take home!!! 

Best weekend ever :-)

Technology...aarrgghhh!!!

Having MAJOR IT problems!  My laptop has stopped working ...as has my Hotmail a/c.  I did manage to read a few recent emails but don't think I can access it any longer!

Sorry to use the blog as a messaging portal but needs must I'm afraid....

Hope & Aid Direct :

Best wishes to all the Easter Convoy team!  Wishing you all a safe & successful trip.

John Desty : When you deliver the welding equipment to Branka, please give her and her son ALL MY LOVE and take lots of pics!!  Thanks xx

Graham Crame: Arrive back at Heathrow on 17th April at 17:30 - More than happy to hand over Albert Edward for what seems like the trip of his life!!!  Please give your mobile number to Maggie Beecher so that I can get in touch when I land. 
Maggie, can you get Grahams mobile number to Geraint please?  Johnnie has his number if you don't.

Johnnie Evans:  CONGRATULATIONS on becoming a grandad!!!  Please give my love and best wishes to Jonathan & Louise (and baby Dylan of course).  As you are my 'convoy husband', I wonder if this makes me a Granny?  Hope my other 'grandchildren' Tilly & Roo are not too put out at the new addition!!! 

WAG :

Judith : Thanks for trying to sort out my laptop problems ....no doubt you thought you could take a well earned break from sorting out my issues?  As the saying goes, just when you thought it was safe to pick up the phone....!!!  

Merthyr Office : Can't believe I'm writing this but I'm missing you and am ready to come back to work now please!

Thats it for now.  Hopefully I can get my laptop up and running soon.

Be it ever so humble.....

Ours is one of three houses in a walled compound with 6ft steel gates.  It sits at the foot of the most beautiful hills:

The area we live in is called Moth, not sure why, somebody said it was an acronym for Men of Steel Hats but I’ve not been able to find out why. Moth is in the most prestigious area of Chipata; our neighbours are all wealthy business people, mostly Zambians of Asian origin. Sadly, I have yet to meet any and probably never will. They live behind high walls, only venture out in large 4x4’s and most have big signs on their gates warning of guard dogs or armed security!

By UK standards, our Chipata home is very basic however, in comparison to the large majority of Zambians, we live in total opulence! We have a lady, Brenda, who comes in twice a week to clean and do our washing. Myself, Francis and Alan thought long and hard about doing our own washing but decided that with unemployment running at over 80%, we would be far better employing somebody. As it turns out, Brenda’s husband is too sick to work so without her job, they would be unable to pay the rent or buy food. She is wonderful and has quickly become a friend. She tells us so much about local life and has an almost insatiable thirst for knowledge about our lives. I was telling her that my daughter is marrying in Aug 2011 – she finds it incomprehensible that it takes that long to plan a wedding! It takes two weeks here! There are no taboo subjects with her, she takes delight in asking me all sorts of questions!! When discussing the wedding, she wanted to know much I had been paid for my daughter. When I come home, looks like I need to have a word with Stephen! ‘Bridal Money’ is a fee negotiated for girls and is to compensate the parents for any money they have invested in her education etc.
The homes in our compound share the services of a night security guard, Mr Lunghi. He is a man of few words who doesn’t seem to want to become a friend. When I offered him a cup of tea he replied simply, “Madame, let me work”. We didn’t have to think too long about employing him, we were told it is a real necessity as burglary is rife. I certainly sleep better knowing he is outside, keeping watch!

The house itself is great although the plumbing and electrics would be condemned at home. An electrician came to repair a broken wall socket. When finished, he mixed up some mud from the yard and used it to stick the socket in, no screws here!!

For the budding plumbers (and one in particular), here is the outside of our bathroom – this is how to plumb a bath in, Zambian style:

When I think how afraid of spiders I used to be.  Until very recently, I used to plug the bath overflow holes with cotton wool. Now I sit in the bath and can see straight outside where there are hundreds of spiders and snakes lurking!!!
My Dad would love our garden.  We have the neighbour’s guinea fowl and chickens running around.  They come onto our veranda to poop!  We have trees offering up all manner of wonderful fare. Some we have not yet identified but of those we have, there are oranges, avocado, paw-paw & cashew nuts. Picking an orange off the tree to have with breakfast is definably one element of Zambia that I will sorely miss!

One step forward, two steps back!

The more observant may have noticed that I rarely talk about work on this blog. It’s not because there is nothing to discuss, believe me there is. I have to respect my colleagues, who are working in the most difficult of circumstances, and for me to recount amusing stories at their expense would be unfair. However, worklife trials and tribulations encountered this week cannot go unmentioned….


Monday morning: I set off for work, cycling happily in the direction of my office. I was feeling particularly pleased with myself as, despite a few set-backs on progress last week, I had decided on a strategy that would bring improvements to the normal snail-pace progress. So, there I was on this beautiful morning, feeling good and fully integrated with the many people walking along the roads. (Another great thing about Chipata is the entire community commutes to work on foot or bicycle).     What could possibly go wrong?
 
I was brought to an abrupt halt when, out of nowhere, my colleague Sam called out to me. He wondered where I was going. Since he knew full well that I was on my way to work, I wondered why he wondered where I was going. He casually informed me that today, we were moving to a new office. A new office?!! A new office?!! Nobody told me about a move to a new office!! Considering that we are a small team of five at the most, to say I was surprised is an understatement! After finding out more of the move, I believed the story that the opportunity to move had only come about late on Friday and accepted the office move with relish. It did, after all, mean we were to leave our humble premises and move to a new building that is fifty thousand times better! (No, that’s not an exaggeration!)

The new office is a 12ft x 12ft room on the second floor of a four storey building. It’s a kind of managed office block. There are many and varied other business tenants within, each with a room roughly the same size as ours.
When I arrived at this, our ‘new office’, it was still an empty room. My colleagues assured me they would be moving the furniture over that day and said I should come back tomorrow to begin work afresh. I did manage to squeeze in a meeting with a funding organisation and visit to the internet café before returning home …frustrated that my efforts to actually do some work were thwarted, yet again! Still, onwards and upwards I thought ….tomorrow is another day and with the office move complete, it should be a good day. I had several training activities lined up for Tuesday.    What could possibly go wrong?
Tuesday morning: Up early and ready to leave home when I received a text from my boss advising me to “come at 11.30, we are still shifting”. Grrr, more delays! Still, at least they are “shifting”, that’s a good sign. I arrived at the new office at the designated time only to find the office door locked. Grrr, more delays! Finally, after 1pm my boss turned up to tell me that the vehicle that they had hired to do the shifting had been impounded by the Police for having no insurance.   You couldn’t make it up!!!!

We did manage to get some chairs transported in my boss’s car but the rest of furniture was too big. In desperation, I called upon another local VSO volunteer who has a pick-up but unfortunately, he was busy. The only solution left was for me to lend my boss some money to hire another vehicle to move the furniture. In this context, ‘hire’ means paying somebody with a big enough vehicle to do it. At 4pm, I was sent home and told to await a text message in the morning advising me when to come in…!!

Wednesday morning: I am at home, writing this blog. It is a little after 10:30am and, so far, no text…! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr………!!!!

To be continued……

Special personal message...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHNNIE ONE TAFF!!!!
Thinking of you xxxx

Introducing Albert Edward......

Hello everybody, my name is Albert Edward. I am a knitted Lifeboatman from Clacton-on-Sea with a fondness for world travel.


My escapades began a few years ago when I turned up in a box of aid in Kosovo with the volunteers of Hope & Aid Direct. Knowing that one their regulars does a great deal of RNLI fundraising, I was ordered to report for duty to a certain Mr Graham Crame.

Graham and I shared a happy journey back to his home Harwich …where we got to know each other very well indeed.

Since then, amongst other adventures, I have voyaged aboard the MV Discovery to the Arctic Circle and have abseiled down Southwold Lighthouse.
Now I am accompanying Tina in Zambia. I am both proud and delighted that she has made me an honorary VSO volunteer:

I must admit, it has been something of a culture shock for me to be in such a hot, and land-locked, country. There is barely a light breeze here most days and I find myself yearning for a decent Force-9 gale!! Oh well, there are some great tropical rain storms for me to splash about in.

Tina has introduced me to the delights of Zambia’s own local brew, Mosi Beer. Of course I don’t normally touch alcohol while on duty but as there don’t seem to be any ‘in peril on the sea’, I indulge in a bottle of the golden throat-charmer at the end of a long hot day. It tastes just like my other favourite, Peja Bier!

There are other delights on this trip too, but I’m far too much of a gentleman to go into detail ….suffice to say, Sleepie-Buns is not as quiet as she looks!!

I am always trying to raise funds for RNLI and have a few adventures lined up for when I return from Zambia. If you are interested in taking me on an unusual expedition, please get in touch with Graham at gjcrame@btinternet.com – For a small donation of £25 (and a picture for my album), I will happily consider most things… a climb up Everest, a Polar exploration or, for the real adrenalin junkies, a trip around Liverpool!

Thanks for reading about me, hope we meet up soon,

Albert Edward

* Interested in finding more out about the convoys to Kosovo:  www.hopeandaiddirect.org.uk

Responding.....

Just a quickie to say thanks very much for all the brilliant comments.  I'm not able to respond to each, sorry but want to say please keep the comments coming, I love them! 

PS.  Fi, book your flight!!!!

Wha's Occurrin....

Chipata life continues slowly but steadily. The temperature is easily in the mid 30’s, with no breeze and there has been no rain for four days. The heat combined with being at an altitude of 3,600 metres makes the slightest exertion very tiring. Walking slowly has become second nature to me ..as has sitting out on the veranda for breakfast each morning :-)

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Friday saw ANOTHER public holiday, this time for Youth Day. Ordinarily, I would be delighted with so much time off work but with so little time here to make an impact in my job, I found the three day week more frustrating than anything. There was not as much fuss about Youth Day as International Women’s Day either so the day passed without too much excitement.

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It has surprised me quite how quickly I have become accustomed to the sights and sounds of Chipata but I did stop to take the following photo for Carys…

These little girls were walking along, chatting happily amongst themselves as, all the while, they were swinging live hens ...they were, I was informed, taking them home for dinner!

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As my journey to work is quite a distance, VSO have funded a bicycle for me which I bought Thursday. It’s a second-hand jobby but seems to be in good working order. I certainly hope so as I have noticed that there are absolutely no consumer rights here.

One of the internet cafes I use also sells new and reconditioned electrical items; TV’s, radios etc. There are large signs advising customers:

“Check all items are in working order before leaving the shop as afterwards,

NO Refunds
NO Guarantee
NO Warranty”

When you consider the extremly high cost of goods and the very low earnings, this seems particularly harsh!!

I went out for my maiden cycle ride on Saturday …after less than 30 minutes, I almost fainted with heat exhaustion. Fingers crossed, my fitness and acclimatisation will see improvements soon!!

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For me and most of Chipata, the water supply is turned off around 6pm daily. Am quite used to it now and part of the daily routine is to make sure there are filled buckets of water in the loo for flushing! Friday though (and maybe it was because it was a public holiday) saw us without water for half the day too. My delight at having the water back on late afternoon was tempered slightly by the fact that the electricity went off! About three hours was spent with the whole area in darkness. Apart from the fact I couldn’t cook our dinner, it was not without merit; the stars in the sky were absolutely amazing and while myself, Alan & Francis were gazing up in wonder, we saw a shooting star!!! Also, the darkness in our yard meant we could sit out on our veranda, sipping a beer, watching fireflies… Africa is awesome!

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AND FINALLY….

Those unfortunate enough to have holidayed with me previously will know how much I suffer with mosquito bites which often become infected. Therefore I have been very proud of the fact that my strict regime of applying DEET spray before putting a foot outside was paying dividends and, two weeks in, despite there being a veritable swarm of mozzies around me most of the time, not one mosquito bite had I encountered. That was until Thursday when I seem to have suddenly become dish of the day! I was bitten quite badly around my calves which surprised me a little as it happened during the day, while I was wearing trousers. Anyway, the bites quickly became inflamed and my legs swelled up nicely. After two days of applying afterbite cream the pain was lessening and it now looks more like blood clots and bruising (mmm, nice!). I showed the bites to some veteran VSO’s who informed me that they are not mosquito bites (hoorah) but are in fact spider bites (ew!!!) No permanent damage I’m sure but when I get home, if I suddenly start swinging across buildings on fine thread …you’ll know why.

The Feast, The Festival and The Fall

The days here begin very early, hence Saturday morning, instead of a nice lie-in, I was up at 6.30 getting ready to go to watch a Youth Debating Competition being held in the council chambers. Thoroughly enjoyed it too, the motions being debated were serious issues and the standard of those taking part was very high.

Afternoon/evening was spent waiting for a delivery…Earlier in the week, Francis & Alan had ordered two tables (a small kitchen table and a full size dining table) to be made by a local carpenter and they were to be delivered that evening. Two hours after the delivery was due, the guy finally phoned to say he was close by with the delivery. Alan and I went down to open the gates ready for the delivery vehicle. We waited patiently for about 10 minutes wondering what could have been taking so long when we saw, coming up a steep dirt track ahead, two men carrying one table each above their heads!! Fair play to them, practicalities such as not owning a delivery truck doesn’t deter them..!

Sunday morning I was once again up at stupid o’clock! This time to accompany Sampson, one of my YDF colleagues, to church..! There are many and varied churches here, this one was St Pauls. It is a traditional Anglican church building which would be far more suited to an English village and looks ridiculously out of place in Chipata! However, the service was fun – apart from the fact I had to stand up and introduce myself to the congregation! The whole event was filled with wonderful, vibrant, enthusiastic singing and clapping …one of the hymns was Bread of Heaven so I felt very much at home.
The Feast
Sunday afternoon, Rosie, a Chipata based VSO of one year, held a tea-party in honour of us newbies where we all feasted on biscuits & cake ….My gosh, she’s got some contacts. It was like the United Nations there with people from Italy, Germany, Finland, Holland, Brazil & India. Most if not all are working as volunteers in some capacity. One guy, Marco from Italy, was amazing. He has set up a school for orphans out in a remote part of Chipata. He was here about 7 years ago, saw that there was no schooling provision for orphans…so he established a school. What a hero!
The Festival
8th March is International Women’s Day, it’s a public holiday here so we went along to the Women’s Day March in town. There were hundreds of women marching and signing, all in colourful traditional dress ….a fabulous sight to behold. The march ended up at the Golf Course where a festival of singing and dancing ensued. Great stuff..!!

The Fall
Being totally engrossed in the Women’s Day March and trying to get good photos, I thought it was a good idea to walk backwards while looking at the picture viewer on my camera. Next thing I know, my feet are flying up in the air while the rest of my body is hurling itself to the ground!! The pain of cutting my leg on one of the randomly placed rocks at the side of the road (!!) was nothing compared to my embarrassment as a group of concerned locals flocked to my aid. I immediately jumped up (as you do), insisting to all that I was fine. In reality, the cut hurt, the blood trickling down my leg was making me feel queasy ….and I wanted to cry!

Oh well, that’ll teach me!!

Blog for Carys (All please read)

Hello Carys, its Aunty Peanut sending you a message all the way from Africa – I’m sure your Mammy will read it to you…. I know that your school is teaching you about Africa at the moment so I thought you would like to know all about my visit to a school in Zambia yesterday.


Nearly 600 children go to the school called Nadalisika Community School; the youngest children are a little bit older than you at 7 years and the oldest is 19 years. The school is in a part of Chipata away from the town centre, the surrounding area looks very much like where you live in Wales; there are beautiful green mountains all around. There is a big ‘play yard’ which has lots of room for the children to run around, because it is the rainy season, there are lots of muddy paths running through patches of grass. There are only three classrooms in the whole school so the Head Teacher has to split the school-day into three sessions; the oldest children go to school 7am - 10am, the middle children go 10am - 1pm and the youngest go at 1pm - 4pm. This means that each child has only three hours of schooling each day and there are over 50 children in every class.

The classrooms are much too small for the number of pupils and don’t have enough desks for every child and the teachers work very hard to give the children a good education but without any equipment it is very difficult for them. The only learning aids are on the walls of the classroom. The teacher had made signs and posters which he had put up on the walls to help the children. I made a note of these for you…

Literacy Corner:  The alphabet was listed

Numeracy Corner: Roman numerals were listed

English Corner: Punctuation marks were described on a sheet of paper

Integrated Science Corner: Hand drawing detailing the structure of skin

SOS Corner: List of Human Rights and a hand drawn map of Africa
Many of the children at the school are orphans, which means they don’t have a Mammy or Daddy to look after them, instead they are looked after by their grand parents or aunties. Some of the children don’t have any grown up relatives to look after them so the oldest child in their family has to look after the younger ones. This is very difficult because they don’t have any money. Also the grown-up relatives of the children are very poor so the children do not have any toys or other nice things …in many cases they don’t have shoes on their feet. Lots of the children are poorly, they have a disease called HIV/Aids which is a very big problem in this part of Africa. The saddest part is that most of the children don’t know that they have this nasty disease so they are not taking medicine to help keep them healthy.
The nice people that I am working with in Africa are called YDF (Youth Development Foundation), we were at the school to deliver their ‘Taking Power’ programme to the children. YDF is made up of young people, most are volunteers, who think that by telling the children about the nasty disease and teaching the little boys that they should treat the girls fairly (gender based violence), when the children grow up, they will have a much better life. You would have loved it Carys, all the children were singing African songs and playing games at the beginning, then they spent some time learning before ending with more singing. The children enjoyed the session very much and took part in the games and the discussions very enthusiastically – I think they enjoyed it so much because it was being taught by young people in a friendly way. I was very impressed by YDF …they are amazing!

I was thinking of you Carys while I was at the school and it made me feel very sad to think that these little children, who are every bit as precious as you are, have to live such poor lives.

Settling into Chipata life...

Not much excitement to report today …I guess the N’cwala Festival at the weekend will take some out beating!

My journey to work is a 30 minute walk and for my first day, to help me learn the route, I was accompanied on the journey by my new colleague Sampson …AND TORRENTIAL RAIN! I was wearing my wellies and a waterproof poncho (with grateful thanks to Gaynor and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo!) but still got absolutely soaked. It’s the wet season here and though it’s hot and humid, we get LOTS of rain which, when it falls, makes the Merthyr ‘sideways’ rain look like gently drizzle.  Also, as I have to be prepared for every eventuality, rain, sun, thunderstorm (!), I have to carry a full rucksack everywhere.  That plus the laptop makes for gruelling walks in this heat.  I tell you, the SAS don't train this hard!!!!  I am one of the lucky ones though as by far the largest majority of Chipata folk do not have raincoats or umbrellas; they continue their day-to-day activities in the rain ….drenched through to the skin!!

My new employers are great people to work with and they are managing to do some amazing work with their VERY limited resources. Coming from such a resource-rich working environment, it IS a huge challenge for me but I am slowly adapting to new ways of working. A good example is that yesterday, I needed to see an advertisement for some EU funding that we potentially could apply for – simple enough you may think. In reality, it meant me walking nearly a mile through mud and over makeshift bridges to another organisation who, being slightly better off than us, had a photocopy of the add that they kindly gave me…!
That type of occurrence, coupled with the lack of internet and no office paper to print on makes me have to consider every action carefully and devise other ways of achieving it. One thing I know for sure is that at the end of this placement, I will not take for granted how fortunate we are in our workplace. (Look out WAG colleagues, the sermons will no doubt start as soon as I’m back!)

On a personal level, all is very well. ‘TAF’ have settled well into a daily routine where we go off to work, come home, cook supper (we take it in turns) and then sit in our little home chatting about our respective days activities before turning in. Its early days I know, but so far, have not missed the TV or radio one iota…!!!

We don't really have any alcohol to speak of at home but I have introduced Francis & Alan to the concept of 'Wine Night' so we are all very much looking forward to tomorrow!!!

Two for the price of one...

Just realised I didn't give my last post a title, sorry!

Life in Chapata is VERY different to Lusaka.  I have no internet connection in my new job (which I will tell more about in the next post).  There are internet cafes but they close for two hours at lunchtime and again at 5.30pm - as these are the only times I would be able to come use them, not very much use at all...!!!

I queried why they close at the exact times that they are needed most and was told that only businesses can afford to use them so they operate during business times only.

Oh well, will overcome somehow I'm sure.

Thanks for all the comments being posted, really does help knowing there are some back home who are interested in my endeavours.

Johnnie - Some of your posts are not very polite!  I wouldn't expect anything different from you but do you realise that everybody can see them?!!!   Be nice!!!!

Missing everybody.... Tina xx

I discovered that the public transport system in Zambia runs on economical lines rather than schedule timetables. Therefore the 10am bus sits at the bus terminus until it is full and I mean full..! Every available space is filled, the seats are filled with the travellers, the overhead storage is crammed full of anything from suitcases to vegetables and the aisles by carpets, giant fans, sacks of grain …basically anything that the travellers are transporting to Chipata. So the 10am bus finally pulled out of the station a little after 2pm! The eight hour journey to Chipata was, at long last, underway. My immediate travelling companions were Franklin, my new colleague at YDF and Jackson who is a volunteer at YDF when his studies allow. The driver, who to my knowledge, had been sitting at the wheel for four hours then drives for a further 8 without a break and, in an obvious attempt to lessen his own journey time, he drove like a maniac! Out of respect for my hosts in Zambia, I won’t discuss the ‘toilet’ break en-route, nor the unwelcome crawling ‘guests’ that accompanied us..! About halfway into the journey we passed an upside down articulated lorry that had clearly just gone off the road and was lying in a ditch …its wheels were still spinning as we sped past. Many locals seemed to be rushing to the accident on foot which will probably explain why our bus didn’t stop (!!)


Finally at 10pm we pulled into Chipata where I was warmly greeted by my new boss, Chinoya. Arriving at my new home in the dead of night, I was a little apprehensive. It’s a very basis three bedroom house and has, by way of furniture, only two beds, two small sofas and two lounge chairs. Nothing and nowhere to empty my cases into so I’m still not able to unpack  There is a sink in the kitchen and that’s it. I immediately discovered that VSO has supplied a mosquito net but nothing to hang it with. Franklin was a star and using an old sack we found outside, managed to make string and an improvised hanging device was implemented!! I hung curtains in my bedroom; two towels held in place by bottles of water on top of the pelmet …who says this is not a learning experience!! My first night in Chipata was me, a bit scared, in an empty house …but at least I was under a net. Being very tired, I wasn’t too terrified about it, especially as I knew that fellow new VSO’s Francis and Alan (a married couple from Oxford) would be joining me the next day - we are to house share.

Saturday morning I got my first daylight glimpse of Chipata and my home. Its in a walled compound, we are one of three houses – the other two are occupied by Zambian families. The ‘friendly’ cockerel from next door tried to wake me a 5am but I was having none of it! Franklin came by to show me around and help me buy some essentials from the shops. The shops have pretty much everything anyone would need, however, as I am living on a volunteer’s salary, other than basics, luxury’s such as shampoo is way too expensive.

N,Cwala Festival

My arrival in Chipata coincided with N’cwala, an annual thanksgiving festival which is an important part of Zambian culture. It is attended by many tribal Chiefs, and Politicians…. Franklin and Jackson insisted that I go and although I was thinking it would be better if I stayed home and got settled in, I am so glad that I went. It was incredible! There were easily 50,000 in attendance. Many are dressed in traditional tribal dress, most as warriors in animal skins. Central to the event is an arena which although jam packed, we were lucky enough to get into. The public are seated and standing around the arena, the tribal Chiefs are seated in special areas. VIP’s, one of whom was Zambia’s First President, Kenneth Kaunda, were all there to watch the events unfold. Speeches from dignitaries were followed by amazing tribal dancing – many different groups treated us to wonderful sessions of dancing and singing …these ritual dances are 100’s of years old and I am privileged to have been there to watch it.

The next bit is not for the faint hearted ....

(Natalie, Sophie & Caitlin : skip to next highlighted section,  please)

While the anticipation and excitement of the crowd grows, a traditional Warrior takes centre stage in the arena and kills a bull by twisting its horns until its neck breaks. Accompanied by much cheering, the bull is stabbed with a spear and his blood collected in a large wooden bowl which is ceremoniously carried to the seated King who drinks it. After drinking the blood, the King gives thanks for past and future harvests. Because I was there, I almost forced myself to watch but must admit that when it came to the actual ritual killing of the Bull, I didn’t look – it was quite easy not to as all around me was a frenzied with everyone jostling for a decent view. On reflection, I liken the whole event as being similar to our Harvest Festival with the addition of tribal dancing and a ritual killing!!

Natalie, Sophie & Caitlin can join back in now...

Saturday evening was, by contrast, a much quieter affair… Francis and Alan had by now arrived at our house (yay!!) and we were invited out by five other VSO’s who live and work in Chipata. A pleasant evening was spent at a local restaurant where myself, Francis & Alan quizzed the experienced volunteers to within an inch of their lives!
Loving acronyms as we do, we have decided that Tina, Alan & Francis shall be known as ‘TAF’ (I believe there is a nod toward my Welshness there too, but could be wrong!). Anyway, Sunday morning saw TAF learning how to turn ordinary tap water into drinking water. After our struggles with a five minute rolling boil followed by the ceramic candles of the filtration system, I shall forever-more grateful for the luxury of the simple action of turning on a tap and being able to drink the water! There are many and varied challenges in my new environment. For instance, as we don’t have a washing machine, sorting out the dirty clothes is a task and a half. After taking a bath, I used the water to hand wash my clothes (bonus points for our sustainability though, eh Brendan?!). The heat (around 30˚) makes these simple tasks totally exhausting so we treated ourselves to a slap-up lunch of boiled egg butties – well, we are still getting used to cooking on our two ring/grill/oven combo!
TAF spent the rest of Sunday relaxing, showing our respective family photos to each other, recalling happy home memories and crying…big ahhhh please!!!

Quick Update...

Sitting in the VSO Programme Office in Lusaka, waiting to be given my bits & bobs to go off to my placement proper.  Slightly frustrating as I should have got the 10am bus to Chipata (which is an 8 hour journey) and yet I'm still hanging around waiting ... Hey-ho, thought I'd log on and give a quick update:

So Wednesday and Thursday were full-on learning days.  We were given workshops on the Culture, History and another on HIV/Aids.  The culture and history ones were brilliant, giving a real insight into Zambia.  The family structure is interesting and different to ours.  For example your Fathers brothers are also your father, and your fathers brothers children are your brothers and sisters.  You reverse it so that your Mothers sisters are your mother and so on.  So one person can have 12 fathers and 12 mothers and if those 'parents' have lots of kids, you could potentially have 100 brothers and sisters.  Cool huh?  The History is fascinating too but too little time to go into it here ...will bore everybody to death with it when I get home.  One-in-four in Zambia have HIV/Aids which takes some getting used to.  Of course, with the great availability of ART's it is not immediately apparent so it was good to have the training and we were priviledged to have two HIV positive people come and give their personal perspectives ...a sobering time, I can tell you!

Met my new employers yesterday, a great young man called Franlin and lovely young lady called Fatness ...we spent a good couple of hours putting together our work-plan and I have much more confidence now that I will be able to do a fairly good job while I'm here.

Last night we were treated to a drinks reception at the British High Commission - each was personally greeted by the High Commissioner, a lady called Carolyn something (sorry, just too many names to rememeb).  Anyway, she was most gracious and very welcoming.  The official residence was something to behold but not a Ferrero Rochet in sight...! 

Must go now, or the bus to Chipata will be leaving without me..... xxxxx

Tuesday...

Nothing exciting to report on today ...so far!  Food wise, its been pretty normal although I am getting addicted to Nshima which is a cornmeal product and a staple food in Zambia. It's made from ground maize corn flour known locally as mielie-meal.  It looks exactly like solid (yet squishy) semolina pudding - its served with every meal and I'm liking it more each day.  Of course the great thing about being here on training is that I am provided with three meals a day ...it will be a different story when I am in Chipata cooking my own meals.  VSO provide a recipe book so I'll try making Nshima but will give the 'Inswa' (flying ants) a miss! 

For anybody interested, here are the instructions (honestly):

1. Switch on the lights outside to which the ants are attracted
2. Catch the insects as they flock to the light with your whole hand and plunge into the water so they can't escape.
3. Fry the ants dry (they have fat in them) and pick over carefully to remove stones and wings
4. Fry again with a little salt.
5. Serve as relish or snack

Good luck everybody!!!!

Became a millionnaire and ate a caterpillar...!

‘Tis true! In only one day I have both become a Millionnaire and a Caterpillar eater!!! But before my daughters get too excited, I am a millionaire in Zambian Kwacha. VSO gave my monthly allowance which is an incredible 2.2 million Kwacha. This is the monthly amount that all VSO volunteers in Zambia receive and from speaking to existing volunteers, its fine to live on short term but those who are here for up to two years find it quite difficult to live on it because invariably, they need more than just food.


So, the training began in earnest; we will spend every day this week learning how to cope in our new environment. We were treated to a visit to the VSO programme office which broke up the day but the rest of the time it was education, education …education!!! My head is spinning from it.
So what about the caterpillar I hear you ask…. The visit to the VSO office included lunch which had lots of Zambian dishes for us to try. All were lovely EXCEPT the caterpillars; they were exactly as you’d imagine deep fried caterpillars to look, legs and everything! My thinking was if I’m to fully embrace the culture, I should try everything offered. BIG MISTAKE! They tasted like ….well, deep fried caterpillars!! It was a real ‘I’m a Celebrity’ moment – but unlike Katie Price, I’m afraid I had to spit mine out …dis-gus-ting!!!
Hey-ho! Tomorrow is another day and at least I am getting more accustomed to the creepies that I don’t have to eat!!!

Getting to know Zambia

We're staying in rooms at the Commonwealth Centre which is part of the University of Zambia which is a mile or two from Lusaka town centre.  VSO have arranged for us to be fed and watered daily so it was a bit of a surprise when we all gathered at the dining room at 7pm last night only to be advised that there had been a mix-up and actually there was no dinner arranged for us..!  There was a bbq where we could buy food but I had noticed earlier that they were grilling fish on it so daren't have anything! 
My room-mate Judith is lovely; being a very experienced volunteer who has spent a good few years in Africa, she is struggling to get used to me shrieking at everything that moves!  I opened the fridge in our room and a little cockroach scuttled out ....!  A few more instances like that and she was starting the get the measure of me but when we got into our room and I screamed at seeing a lizard running up the bathroom doors she said, a tad exasperated, Oh, don't you like ghekko's either!!!  I decided to hide my fears in future and fell asleep to the beautiful sound of insects outside in the grass and a rather loud group of singers who were belting out in the Church which backs onto our room.  When I awoke and commented on the singing, Judith said she had not been able to hear it over my snoring!!  I was mortified.  I have come up to do my blog now so that she can catch up on her sleep!!  Am considering gaffa tape over my mouth tonight in an attempt to stem the snoring and let Judith get a decent night sleep! Fingers crossed everybody..!

Today, VSO took us on a bus tour of Lusaka.  We saw the National Assembly building which is covered in copper, as Zambia's biggest export.  We saw where the President lives which has the very unglamorous address of 'Plot One' and we went to the National Museum.  Up until then I had been thinking that Lusaka was a wealthy city as we had seen lots of shopping malls etc however, we then visited what our VSO host called a 'High Density Area' ...it was what I would call a shanty town.  The level of poverty was palpable.  I didn't take any pictures, it seemed inappropriate to do so.

Later we were taken to the home of a VSO volunteer called Alber who lives in Lusaka ....what a warm welcome we received.  A wonderful bbq and lots of lovely people - VSO volunteers from across Zambia had come to welcome us.  I met two ladies who are based in Chipata, they said it is a great place - I just want to get there now as I still geel very much like I am in transit.

Here at last...!

Its Saturday lunchtime which is day one of my Zambian experience:
After many fond and some tearful farewells, I finally boarded the aeroplane at 6.30pm yesterday.  The flight was awful..!   I have never liked flying and yesterdays was no exception.  10 hours hurtling through the sky is not my idea of heaven - it was very bumpy too!  Still, needs must and I'm here now :-) 
There were 13 VSO's on the plane but I only managed to find 3 before departure.  Arrived very promptly at 6.30am after a flight where I got to know a lovely Zambia lady called Doris who told me a little about what I could expect.  As predicted by Doris, it was raining when we arrived ....its the wet season for the whole time I am here ...but the rain is warm!  The 13 new volunteers were welcomed by Glenda a Lusaka based VSO officer - she took our passports and arranged a swift passage through customs.  Onto a waiting coach and we were off to, what is to be our home for the next 6 days, The University of Zambia.  A lush green sprawling campus; we are based in the Commonwealth department.  We were given a brief introduction to the training we will receive, some cornflakes with nice hot milk and then it was off to our rooms to sleep.  I am sharing with Judith a media expert from Leeds - she was a VSO volunteer in Lusaka for over two years around 5 years ago so is able to give me loads of advice (yay!)  Not really going to unpack as I'll be moving onto to my placement proper on Thursday but was pleased and delightedwhen I did open my bags to get my special packages from Natalie - an amazing arrary of envelopes, all with messages telling me when to open them ...there is one to open every Friday and a few more for good measure ....what a fabulous girl...!!
Its just after 1pm now, the rain has stopped and I am in sandals and tee-shirt ...its a lovely, fresh, warm day -hope it has stopped snowing at home?!!!!

Ready for the off.....

Well, what a frantic couple of weeks getting ready to go.  Tying up all the loose ends in work has been challenging but seeing all my friends and having an endless round of 'farewell' parties has been exhausting!  Not that I'm complaining!!!

My work colleagues gave me the MOST amazing send off last Friday ..the office was decked out in banners, balloons & posters - there was beautiful African music playing and everybody was just so kind.  .    Even though this picture looks like there were 12 of us, I assure you there were 13 (which I hope isn't ominous), the delightful Howard Jones decided to hide behind Gunther for this pic - naughty Howard! 

The lunch was lovely but was nothing compared to the wonderful gifts that I was given - a great big, huge thank you to all for them.  A special thank-you to Jude and Caitlin who must have worked for weeks planning and preparing the gifts ...I've still not 'recoved' from feeling so happy - thank you both!!!  There were other gifts too ...a special delivery from The Reception Girlies ...and, I was even sent my very own Africa Cake ....absolutely awesome!!!

The weekend followed in pretty much the same vein ....Partying with Gaynor & Colin on Friday night and then lots of friends around to mine on Saturday for the final party.  Buoyed on by the amazing rugby in the afternoon, we all partied into the wee small hours.  Big thanks to :  Geraint (of course), Natty & Steps, Gaynor & Colin (again), The Bridgend Massive, My Johnnie and the funniest of all, Maggie & Mike ...what a pair of stars!!!  Thanks all, once again!!!

Now onto packing of the essentials ..... does anybody realise how much shampoo and conditioner I will need to last me two months???!!!!!