My first week in Zambia

Well, where to start. There are so many things I want to share with you :)

Let me start with giving you an impression of what I’m seeing right now and every other evening

Isn’t it nice? I’m already in love with the sunsets and sunrises, however I think everybody would fall in love with them right away :)

Okay, right now I’m sitting in front of the Commonwealth Youth Programme Centre in Lusaka, watching the sunset and looking back on the last week. It has been a really good and interesting but also quite exhausting and busy week :) We have many hours lectures every day and there are just so many new impressions and things to learn and experience.

But let me start from the beginning :)

The journey

Before the first flight

Monday the 6^th of August at 1:20 p.m. o’clock the airplane left Oslo Gardermoen heading Frankfurt Airport in Germany. With some tears in my eyes I found my seat in the plane…happy that I was together with the other Norwegians :) and actually not noticing that I was sitting next to two Norwegian celebrities :D We arrived safely in Frankfurt and were ready for 5 hours waiting time for the next flight. At 8:45 p.m. we were ready for the 10.30 hours flight towards Johannesburg. With a lot of movies and some hours sleep, the flight didn’t feel that long. In J.B. we got our first impressions of Africa, except of the temperatures. We had -2 degrees!!! Yep, we were freezing ;)

At 12:30 p.m. we finally arrived in Lusaka. Unexpectedly, everyone got their bags and the whole journey went according to the schedule :) Nice!

The rest of the Tuesday we met the other volunteers from East and South Africa, got our rooms and were welcomed of a lovely Zambian dancing group. It was great fun seeing them dance and especially when we, the Norwegians, joined them :D

Here some impressions of the dancing

Where are we staying, who are “we” and what are we doing?

 Right, as written in my last post, I’m on a general orientation for all volunteers until the 17^th of August in Lusaka. We are staying at the Commonwealth Youth Programme Centre on the campus of the University of Zambia in Lusaka. We are 10 volunteers from Norway who will be placed in Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Then there are 8 Africans who are going to Norway (they are for instance from Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia) and 7 Africans who are going to work in another African country. I’m for instance sharing a room with Becky from Kenya, who is going to work in an organization in Zimbabwe after these 10 days.

Becky and me in the dining room

So what are we actually doing?

Well, we are having lectures, workshops, dialogues, discussions and group work about topics as for instance sport and development, the different countries and their cultures, and culture and development. Furthermore, we have been on community visits in different parts of Lusaka.

The community visit has been really interesting and exciting, since it was the first time we had the opportunity to see something else than the campus area. However, it also was quite touching to see under which circumstances they live…you really appreciate your life at home. On the other hand, it was so nice and warming seeing a little girl’s smile, when I throw a ball to her and we played :)

The next days we are going to have a focus on Kicking Aids Out, health and cross-cultural understanding, before we all are heading to our host families in different cities and countries this weekend. In my case, Livingstone in Zambia :)

Besides all this, we spend our time with many social and some physical activities in the evenings :) 

Here are some impressions

Playing netball

Meeting Petronellas family

Class activity

All in all, I’m having a good time here! However, I’m also really looking forward meeting my host family and start working in Kwenuha Women Association (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kwenuha-Women-Association/198640513507162) :)

Why am I in Zambia?

For those who don’t know why I am in Zambia :)

I finished my Bachelor of Science at the University of Copenhagen in June 2012 and wanted to get some practical experiences, before starting with my master degree. After a lot of searching, I found the really nice exchange programme “Idretts Fredskoprs”, which the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports offers in cooperation with Fredskorpset. I applied and was one of the lucky ones to be chosen to be part of the team :) See the following web pages for more information:

www.idrett.no

www.fredskorpset.no

http://www.idrett.no/tema/internasjonalt/utviklingssamarbeid/Sider/idrettensfredskorps.aspx

Besides this, I’m taking the study ” Sport, Culture and Development Cooperation” at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences.

The next 10 months, I’ll stay in a host family in Livingstone in Zambia and work in Kwenuha Women association.