Here's the latest from one of our former Futbol para la Vida volunteers, now in Zambia with Grassroot Soccer. Thanks for the update Lena!
Hello everyone!
It has been a while since I last wrote and a lot has happened since I arrived in Lusaka, Zambia just over 2 weeks ago. I don't know if all of you read it but I posted a blog on the Grassroot Soccer website after my first day in Lusaka with some of my first impressions.
So since I arrived we have been very very busy with learning about the different programs that are running in Zambia, meeting my new co-workers and friends, seeing Grassroot Soccer on its many different levels out in the field, moving houses, and attending a funeral.
First off, the money is called "kwacha" and the exchange is about 3500 kwacha = $1. There are no coins, just bills. Gas is called petrol. When you move (as in where you live) it's called "shifting". Cookies are biscuits. You drive on the left side of the road. Power can go off randomly. White people are "muzungus".
The GRS office in Zambia is a small one compared to the one in South Africa. There are 3 Americas (me, Stuart, and Elise) and 5 Zambians. Currently only 3 of them are in the office because 2 of them are actually working on some GRS projects in the country of Malawi but will be back later this year. The 3 in the office now who I have come to be very close with in just these couple of weeks are Gesh, Fridah, and Peter. Not only are they my co-workers but they are also my closest friends and amazing people. I've learned so much from them in this short time and am continually impressed by the work they are doing. They are the main master trainers (along with the 2 in Malawi) who train the people who will be the ones delivering the curriculum to the kids. For example, at the end of last week we ran a 3-day development course for 30 teachers (mostly phys ed) who are teaching the GRS curriculum to their kids at their respective schools. These were teachers who were trained back in 2005 in GRS but this course acted as a refresher course for them to review the activities and how best to teach them as well as be updated on changes to the curriculum. We were also able to provide them with a new set of the materials they need to play the activities (a soccer ball, tennis balls, cones, Fact/Nonsense cards, etc). They were a really fun group to get to know and a good way to jump right GRS business. Since I'm not yet qualified to teach the activities I helped more with making sure things were running smoothly during the day by timekeeping, checking on the food for our breaks/lunch, participating in some activities, and teaching some new energizers/ice breakers. (If anyone has any good energizers/ice breakers please please email them to me because we are looking for some new ones!) A new food that I got to try during this session was a staple in Zambia called nshima which is pounded maize/corn. It's a lump of food eaten with your fingers along with beans, meat, and rape (a greens dish with an unfortunate name). I think it's good but it definitely fills you up because you essentially end up with this dough ball in your stomach. Each day after we ate this for lunch we couldn't even eat a real dinner because we still weren't hungry even later at night.
We have started to sort out who will be working on what projects for us interns. These are still tentative because we just found out about a few new grants that we have been awarded that will change this structure a bit. As of right now I will be working with the peer educators from another organization called Africa Directions (AD). AD runs all different kinds of activities for youth from sports to drama and more. Young adults (mainly 19-25 +/-) run these activities and GRS has teamed up with them and trained many of them in the GRS curriculum to become peer educators. Currently the AD peer educators are finishing up working with a group of young boys between 9-12 years old who participate in a program called Zambia Street Football Network (ZSFN). These boys play on teams within this league which meets every Sunday morning and what happens is that each week teams run through a GRS activity with the AD peer educators and then after play with their respective teams in the soccer league. I got to see this in full action for the first time this past Sunday and it was really fun, especially to see the young boys learning while having fun and running around.
I will also be taking over the finances for the GRS Zambia office (something I need to get trained in!) as well as helping assist with the teacher's program that I mentioned above. This would include going on site visits to see the teachers running the programs in their classrooms and checking in on them. Just so you have a sense of where GRS and these programs get some of their funding this program is being sponsored by MAC, the cosmetics company, which has a fund called MAC AIDS.
Other big news is that we have "shifted" to our new house. When I first got here we were living in a cottage on the property of another person in an area of Lusaka called Kabulonga. The property had 2 full houses and a cottage, a pool, a pool house, 3-4 gardeners, and a guard at the gate with an electric fence. All the nicer properties in Lusaka have big gates. Our new house that we have shifted to is really nice as well (but no pool haha). We have moved to an area called Ibex Hill and we have the whole property to ourselves which consists of our house and a smaller cottage in the back which is actually going to become the new GRS office in the next month or so (significantly cutting down on our transport to work!). The house also has a nice garden in the back and a really nice yard. There is currently a gardener hired by our landlady who has been helping to get the house ready for us to move in but I don't think we are planning on keeping him on because we're here to put our resources into fighting HIV/AIDS, not keep our lawn manicured. However, then we are also taking a job away from someone. We have also struggled because we have hired a guard named Thomas who stays from 6pm-6am. The three of us living here feel so strange having a guard who has to sit by our gate for 12 hours through the night just to watch over us and our house. It has nothing to do with him because he couldn't be a nicer person but it's just something that none of us have really experienced on such a personal level before. However, it's more than normal/expected to have a guard, especially as muzungus, and it is for safety reasons it just feels strange.
The funeral. Since I arrived, the uncle of one of my co-workers as well as the uncle and the brother of another co-worker have passed away. This past Monday I attended the funeral of the brother of my friend and co-worker Gesh. We had known that his brother was sick because Gesh had been going to visit him often after work at the hospital so it wasn't completely unexpected but still very very sad. Gesh was 1 of 10, and now 9, siblings who have already lost both of their parents. However, as Gesh explained to us, uncles, aunts, cousins are all mothers, fathers, and siblings to each other. The funeral was almost a full-day event starting with a service and then a burial. The service was at an outdoor church/structure in his compound (community) and when we got there we found out that it was actually a combined service for both Gesh's brother and another man. There had to have been over 300 people there with women sitting on one side in their chitenge (traditional fabric), a big choir in the middle, and the men on the other side. There was so much singing (mostly in Nyanja, the local language) and we tried to join from the booklets that were distributed. Unfortunately I couldn't understand what I was saying but the songs were very beautiful. The part that hit me the most during the service was part way through when the related women came in wailing follow by the caskets of the deceased men and also when Gesh's eldest brother read a brief bio about their brother and said that he was born in 1980 (which made him 28 years old when he died). We think that his brother may have died of AIDS because we knew that one of Gesh's brother had HIV and this brother had been sick for a while but it's not something that you can just straight out ask about. That really hit hard and made me realize why I'm really here. After the service we drove to the cemetery for the burial and watched as the casket was lowered in to the ground and the friends and family continued to pile the dirt in, passing the shovel and sharing the labor. The cemetery was so big and as we drove by I couldn't help but notice the dates on the tombstones…1986, 1982, 1973, 1987…everyone seemed so young and it made me wonder why all these people had died at such a young age. It was a very real experience sitting there in the hot dusty Zambian sun in the middle of a huge cemetery as I watched one of my closest friends bury his not yet 30 year old brother. I can only hope that the work that we are doing with Grassroot Soccer is lessening these cases. I can see why Gesh is so passionate about his work and good at what he does.
I know that there is much more I could share but I think this post has reached its limit. I hope I didn't lose you part way through. Thank you for those who responded to my previous emails. It is always nice to hear the updates in your lives. Also be sure to check out the video Lusaka Sunrise on YouTube to see where I am currently living (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyplef2Hi6Y). (I know the guy Ebby who is interviewed during it.)
Until next time…
Lena
(next time I write I will have a Zambian name also…it is still being debated by my friends... :-)
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