Posting.. from Zambia!!

8-14
Zambiaaah! At long last, we have arrived. We’ll be making Bauleni Street Kids, on the outskirts of Lusaka, our home for the next week. It’s an incredible place that offers education to children both with and without disabilities, many of whom are orphans and live here full time. There is a garden (more like a farm) that has several crops, chickens, and a lot of pigs, which are the only source of noise after the sun goes down. During the day, however, quiet has not been an issue. We saw a special dance, song, and drumming show by the kids today in honor of volunteers from Barclays who had been working here for the day and dropping off some donations. At one point, I was invited on stage to dance with one of the kids. For those of you who know of my legendary booty shaking you can probably guess that I was the star of the show. I was just happy not to drop any gauze. Derek also got dragged onstage, but I’m pretty confident that I could take him in a dance-off. I’ve got mad moves!! Somehow Kristin escaped the opportunity for showmanship, but we’ll be sure that another opportunity will be available later, and that will be captured on camera! We also spent a good deal of time taking pictures of the kids, who can’t get enough of seeing themselves on camera.
I’m grappling with some awkward feelings about my the sense of duty here. We have this entire guesthouse to ourselves, a man comes to cook every meal for us, and then a woman comes to do all the dishes. On the one hand, I feel honored to be a guest here, and know that people are doing their assigned jobs and doing them well. On the other hand, it does feel inappropriate that I don’t even wash my own plate. It’s an obvious example of the power of class that comes with you whether you want it to or not, and I don’t feel I can do anything about it except for thank the people who are doing everything for me over and over again. Tonight, the dishes are in the kitchen left undone, but we can’t find any dish detergent because the dishwasher apparrently brings it herself. Certainly this will be an enduring lesson about my own self-awareness that will follow me long after I leave Zambia.
After months of wondering, we also saw an itinerary for the first time today!! My organized and planned mind has trouble with uncertainty at times, so this was a very welcome addition to the day. We’ll be in Lusaka for the first week, meeting with officials at the Ministry of Education, the University of Zambia, and the ZAMISE special education school, along with some trainings with advocates. After all of this, we’ll have a busy schedule split between the Copperbelt Region (mostly Ndola with a stop in Kapiri Mposhi) and Livingstone, with three days for play scheduled for the end of the trip in the Livingstone area.
It’s getting late and our first advocacy training is early tomorrow, so I’ll close for now and post when internet is available.
August 15 Update:
We tried to get an internet card today, but the shop had closed early, so I’ll have to stick to adding to this post until we can find internet… not sure when that will be, but hopefully soon.
Today was our first training day, with a group of what turned out to be about 70 parents and self advocates who came on two different busses from Chawama all the way to Bauleni, on the other side of the Lusaka. We were only expecting about 40 people, so this was a huge turnout. I’d like to believe it’s because my reputation precedes me, but in reality it is because about three quarters of the attendees were attending their first advocacy meeting… a very promising sign. The training went well and the discussion at the end, which was quite impassioned, had some good end results, the many members agreeing to meet again next week to work on really focusing their methods on raising the money to register the group as an official charity group in Zambia. All in all, it was a very successful first day of work in Zambia.
After the training, we went to the shopping center to try to rent an internet card for the duration of the trip but the shop had closed early. So, we went to get some of the local beer, called Mosi, which we have been drinking tonight. The cook tells us that we got the cheap version, made in Zimbabwe, instead of the better version made in Zambia that comes in larger bottles. Although the Zim version tastes fine to me, I’ll make an effort to find the Zam edition next time. Who knew a beer run could turn so complex.
Mikela’s daughter, Moka arrived home from university in Ndola late last night. It sounds like a pretty ugly scene, in which the shooting of a man led to student protests at the university, leading to a road blockade to cut off traffic to the area of the university. Somebody (by the students’ view) arrived at the blockade and tried to drive around, crashing his which burst into flames, which the driver claims destroyed 200,000,000 kwacha inside the car. The police closed the university and forced all students to go home for two weeks in order to disperse the protests. As things now stand, students may return to class on Aug. 30, but they must each bring 200,000 kwacha in order to repay the man who crashed his car, who has sued the school for being unable to control the student protesters.
This most unfortunate and ridiculous turn of events gave us a tour guide for the night, as Moka walked us around outside of Bauleni for the first time to see a church next door, the local soccer field, and a colorful open air market.
Tomorrow we will go to the church service over in Chawama, which I have been told is amazing, with energetic participation from about seven different choirs who all take turns during the ceremony. After then, Mikela and Nama will take us to several markets around Lusaka for some local flavor and shopping. Sunday afternoon is a big market time, so it sounds like it will be a really interesting day, and a nice break before we go for meetings at the Ministry of Education on Monday.
I’m hoping that we will also make a quick internet stop as well so I can get this posted. As for tonight, the jet lag is hitting me hard, so I will sleep… hopefully not with too many of the small lizards that also inhabit our cottage.
-Matt