Sleepless in Livingstone

Let me start with explaining the title ;)

Listen to this:

Well, now you maybe understand why it has been difficult to get enough sleep :D I’ve taken this video in the night to Tuesday at 3:40 a.m. I was fast asleep, when I suddenly was woken up by heavy rain combined with crazy loud thunders. Even though we still are enjoying around 35-40 degrees and a lot of sun down here, rain has started to make the weather more interesting :D Well, I still prefer the sun though, since everybody keeps on telling me that this rain is nothing compared to the rain we are going to have in the rain season. I’m not sure how much I look forward to the rain season :D

Another bit disturbing factor during the nights is all the noise my neighbours make, to scare of the elephants when they come to close ;) However, I have to admit that I kind of like the factor having elephants in the garden :D “It’s just the elephants” :) After considering going out and see the elephants, I always just smile and try to fall a sleep again. However, it’s actually quite dangerous. Last week someone just got killed from an elephant in one of the compounds…So yeah, I should probably stay in bed and just try to go back to sleep instead of going out :D

 Right, back to where I stopped in my last post, the Kicking Aids Out workshop :) The Kicking Aids Out workshop was a great success and the sport captains loved it! It was a huge pleasure for me, seeing the girls/women participating with high motivation and having so much fun, while learning :) The biggest satisfaction was though, to work together with a facilitator who really was driven and good :) However, this meant less work for me. 

So what was my job? Well, basically I just participated in the workshop and did some energizers. Even though it wasn’t that much work for me, it has been a good week :) I really enjoyed spending so much time together with the girls/women and getting to know them better. Especially, when they slowly started open up towards me. They shared some of their stories with me, showed me pictures of their children or just wanted to dance with me :) However, it wasn’t just enjoyment all the time. Their stories are quite tough and even the youngest sport captain (19 years old) has already a three years old child. And you don’t want to know why…I was even more shocked about, what kind of believes they had about HIV and STI’s (sexual transmitted infections) in terms of curing, treatment and symptoms. No wonder that HIV is such a big issue here in Zambia, when they for instance believe that you can go from HIV positive to HIV negative just with taking a shower after having had sex with a HIV positive person. However, the even worse believe is that many men think that sex with a virgin can cure them from HIV. It’s really sad and horrible… So yeah, it was a very needed workshop for the sport captains and also the communities they are going to share their new knowledge with.

Here some pictures from the workshop:

Sandra and Martha playing netball

playing "Mee me"

Mercy cooking lunch

Lunch

Untie the knot

Doreen bringing the scones

Mukendwa (my colleague) eating the scone

Untie the knot

Playing fruit salad

P.S. Fruit salad, untie the knot and "Mee me" are energizer games :)

Thursday I attended two meetings instead of being at the workshop. The first one was together with many other representatives from sport NGO´s (non-governmental organization) in Livingstone. We are all part of the Livingstone Sport and Development Network. Meetings like that are always very interesting but also a bit exhausting, and this is not just because of the "not on time" aspect (I'm quite used to that now :D). No, I just don’t think they have been told that mobile phones actually can be switched of or just be on silence, or even that you actually can wait with replying to a call or message :D T.I.A ;)

The second meeting was in one of the compounds, Mwandi. Right now only children are showing up to the trainings in all the different compounds, so we have to find out, why the women don’t participate in sports anymore. During the next weeks, we (Doreen and me) are going to visit and having meetings with all the women to see what we can change. It was a good meeting :) However, issues like lack of food and the factor that the women in the African culture have to take care of the household, children, food etc., are difficult to change. We’ll see how we can adjust the trainings, so they are able to participate again :)

Here some pictures from the club competition, when Bela was here. 

Climbing up at me

Nice sunglasses :D

I always wanted to try carrying a baby like African women do :)

The weekend was quite calm for me :) Saturday I stayed at home in the compound all the day and spent some time with my family. 

How does that look like?

Look:

Playing with my brothers

Watching Miriam doing the fake hair

Cooking 

Relaxing in the evening

Sleeping in this position, because of the heat

Sunday I just relaxed at the backpackers and visited Mukuni village with the Norwegians in the afternoon. Mukuni Village is a village with 7000 habitants placed a bit out of Livingstone. It was quite interesting to see how the live. However, it was a bit too touristic for me. I prefer seeing the authentic way of living and don’t be bothered with all the souvenir sellers. 

Some pictures of the village:

One community

One of the family houses

The prison

Monday it was back to the office :) It’s always a pleasure sitting in the staff meeting Monday morning, discussing what to do with the sick chicken from the chicken run in Mwandi :D Okay, we are talking about other things as well ;)
Here a taste of, what I have to listen to, when I'm working at the office :D

What is going on this week?

Well, today it’s Independence Day! This means, no work, enjoying how they celebrate it here and having fun with friends :) Juhhuuuu, in few minutes I’m going to see Lina, Johanne, Arnt and Vegard :) They have taken some days off and are playing tourists until Sunday here in Livingstone :) I really look forward to see them again :)

So yeah, the rest of the week is going to be a good combination of work, fun and nice people :)

I’m still alive :)

First of all, I’m very sorry for taking so long time with this update. I’ve been so busy in the last days that I even barely managed to get a good night sleep.

However, it has been a positive bustle :) As you maybe remember, Bela has been visiting me in Livingstone from the 5^th of October to the 14^th of October. We had a fantastic time together and you can’t imagine how nice it was, to have a piece from home down here :) I really enjoyed her company, showing her my African life (we stayed both at my place in the compound and at the backpackers) and doing all the crazy activities. Yep, we kind of lived on the edge to death almost every day :D Okay, the club competition Friday the 5^th of October and the boat regatta on the 6^th of October were quite calm and just great fun.

Here some impressions from the regatta:

Bela, Ben, Lockard and Anna

the other teams

4 teams competing against each other

Bela and me

The more risky activities started on the following Sunday with the full day rafting tour on the Zambezi River :) It started at the boiling pot underneath the Victoria Falls Bridge and continued with 25 rapids, which all were in the range of level 2-5 (6 is the worst level). Even though it was great fun and just amazing, I have to admit that I in some moments were a bit afraid :D For instance for hurting my teeth while we were crashing into some rocks :D (I think most of you know how much I care about my teeth :))

Here some pictures:

Before we walked down to the boiling pot

Right before tipped over

Enjoying the calm water

Us trying not to tip over

Monday afternoon after work, it was time for the most life threatening activity. Yep, we did the bungee jump!!!! Let me say it like that, it was CRAZY both in a positive and negative way. It was great fun but at the same time also the most scariest thing I’ve ever done! I’m not sure if I would do it again :D (hmmm…I’m actually going to Cape Town in December and there you can do the highest bungee jump in the world, 216 meters…well that is just a thought :D we’ll see!)

Here some pictures (I’m still working on the video):

Me before the jump

Bela was a good support :)

Can I really do this?

Okay, I can!

Me jumping

Me bouncing up and down

Tuesday and Wednesday it was time for us going on a safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana. Now you maybe think that this is not life threatening at all! In some way you are right but on the other hand, when the lions and elephants were less than a meter away from us and Zinka our guide said: “Don’t move! Just stay…” (he didn’t finish the sentence because of the lions’ unexpected movements), you felt a bit like playing with your life :D

However, it was AMAZING seeing all the animals!!! And I just went crazy with my camera :D you should have seen me :D

Here some of the best pictures (it took me ages to decide which to chose :D):

A crocodile

Hippos with a bird on the back

a nice bird :)

Elephants

A baby elephant. Isn't it sweet :)

Elephants on their way to Namibia

Elephants kissing

Another nice bird

Another nice bird

Impalas

Another nice bird

A dead buffalo

Funny hair :)

More elephants

Female lions

A giraffe, wild hogs (mum and child) and an elephant

Giraffes

Another

Another nice bird

Wild dogs

Monkeys

A buffalo

A wild hog

Fantastic sunset

Zebras

Female and male lion

male lion

female lion

Okay, he is awake

Nice teeth :)

An eagle

A leopard

A leopard eating a baby elephant

Another nice bird

"Zazu" from the Lion King

Male impala

hmmm...I can't remember

Giraffe drinking :)

Me taking pictures

The party bus

Thursday afternoon after work, it was time for us to visit the Victoria Falls and the famous Devil’s pool :) and yep, now I know why it has this name :D It is quite crazy and a bit scary, jumping in to the water and being so close to the edge. I think I’ll just let the pictures tell:

Bela and me at the Victoria Falls

Ready for Devil's pool

On the way to the pool

Titanic :) On the way to the pool

Still on the way to the pool

Still on the way to the pool

Finally arrived :)

Me jumping into the pool

The landing :)

Bela and me in the pool

Lying on the edge

Lying on the edge

So yeah, Bela and I were having a great time together :) However, to make the time perfect, we also needed some crazy dancing :) So, we went out both Thursday and Friday night and had a lot of fun :) However, on the following mornings when I was on my way to work, I kind of regretted one or two Mosis (the Zambian beer) :D But believe it or not, I managed to get some work done :)

Saturday it was time for me to let the touristic life behind and say “hi” to the African life again. We were having another sports day :) I really looked forward to it, however I should kind of have known that it wouldn’t be the best experience :D

When the sports captains and Doreen met for planning the sports day last Thursday, I had to represent Kwenuha at another meeting in town. Hence, I didn’t know what was planned or not. Well, Friday I was told that everything was ready for the sports day and I only had to show up at the sports field Saturday morning at 9 hours. Okay, when I arrived at the sports field at 9 hours, the field was full of children. My first thought was “what??! They are all on time? Nice :)”. After a more exact look at the children I saw that they didn’t belong to Kwenuha. So what was going on? Did we actually book the sports field? Hmmm…since Doreen was in town collecting the food, I didn’t know. And since the power had gone the whole night and morning all over in Livingstone, the food wasn’t ready and Doreen arrived at 12:30 hours (we finished at 14 hours). So yeah, what was happening? Did the sport captains know which activities they were responsible for? Not really…citation: “we didn’t plan anything. We just waited 3 hours for the other sport captains to arrive”. And why did only 4 out of 12 teams show up? Well, no one knew!

 So yeah, after swallowing some frustrations, I tried to find a solution for this situation. After two hours waiting, we finally got the sports field and we started our athletics day (which I quickly had planned in these two hours) :) I can only repeat myself. I really learn to be flexible and think quickly :)

Here some pictures:

Some of the boys

The relays

Saturday evening was Bela and my last evening together here in Livingstone. So the perfect ending of theses lovely days, was of course a sunset cruise :) We enjoyed it a lot and had great fun, thinking of all the activities we had done that week :)

Sunday it was time for me to say goodbye to Bela…I have to admit that I was a bit sad. We just had such a good time :)

But yeah, with cleaning my room and baking dark rye bread, I managed to distract myself :)

What is going this week?

Compared to last week, this week is quite calm. We are having a workshop on “Kicking Aids Out” the whole week and right now, I don’t have any plans for the weekend. However, the workshop is really good :) The facilitator is doing a great job and the girls are really motivated, so that’s nice :)

That was all from me! Have a lovely week :)