Goodbye Livingstone – Hello Cape Town :)

Wow, 4 months have gone and I’m about going to Cape Town. It has always been so far away but

somehow I’m already leaving on this Saturday (1^st of December – DECEMBER! It’s crazy; it doesn’t feel like December at all! I still think I’m in July or August :D). But yeah, I have already taken the first step and am now in Lusaka, where we are having our mid term meeting the next two days. It’s going to be good to see all the other volunteers, who are based in Zambia and hear about their experiences and time so far. 

Since I have to prepare a 20 min. presentation about my work and social life in Livingstone for the meeting, I just had a look through all my pictures. Puuha, it’s first now that I’m realizing, how many months I’ve actually been away from home. The time has just gone so fast. It’s good though but also a bit scary... 

Whatever :) let me start telling you about my last 1 ½ weeks in Livingstone. That’s way more exciting :) By the way, I’m sorry that I’m a bit late with this post…Maybe I’m slowly adopting to the African culture :D

Right, when I left you last time, I didn’t know what the weekend would bring along with. Well, my Saturday morning started with being at Muvi TV presenting about Kwenuha and our Fundraising Sports Tournament. That was quite an experience being on Zambian TV :D 

After starting the day with being on TV, I was ready for some more action and adrenaline :) (Even though I have to admit that I had quite a lot of adrenaline/nervousness, when I presented live on TV :D). 

However, it was time for some more, so I went abseiling/rappelling down the cliff close to rapid 7 together with Ingrid and Anna. It was AMAZING! Too short though. I would have loved to do it at least a second time but the walk up from the Gorge took us some time :D

Here some impressions:

Ingrid and me ready

I'm ready!

Smile :)

Me in action

After the abseiling

Half way up the Gorge

The rest of the day, I relaxed and enjoyed the sun at the pool at Fawlty Towers together with Ingrid and Anna. Why a new pool? Well, the free pancakes at 15 hours were quite tempting (they have free pancakes every day at 15 hours – we didn’t know it before :D) :)

Sunday it was time for even more action and adrenaline!!! Ingrid and I went on a duckie trip with some kayakers. Those who don’t know what a duckie is (I didn’t know either before :D), it’s an inflatable kayak. Well, again it was really AMAZING!!!! Even though Ingrid hated me after the first two rapids (hehe, I kind of had to convince her joining me on that trip) and we both were a bit scared, when we were sitting alone in our inflatable kayaks and had to paddle directly towards the big wave :D However, after having tried to flip several times and swallow a lot of water, we figured out how things work and enjoyed the trip a lot :) Ingrid loved it as well! After this incredible and a bit tiring day on the river, we all enjoyed a nice dinner at the Golden Leaf (it’s a very good Indian restaurant) :)

Me in action on the river :)

Monday it was back to work and believe me or not, there was actually a LOT of work waiting for me this week :) On Saturday the 24^th of November we were holding our Fundraising Sports Tournament, hence I had to do the rest of the planning, coordination and asking for even more donations. But I’ll come back to the tournament in a minute. 

But do you know what?!! I finally got my bike!!! Juhhuuuuuu!!!! I’m soooo happy :) It only took Kwenuha 4 months to buy me one :D

Me and my bike :)

Tuesday Kwenuha got a visit from the Norwegian organization Judo For Fred, who wanted to have a workshop with our girls. After a slow beginning (the girls arrived 2 hours late), we had an amazing workshop and a lot of fun :)

The girls in action:

Anna and Ingrid happy for taking a day of from their work and joining my work

Since it was Ingrid’s birthday, we went to the high tea at the Royal Livingstone Hotel. The high tea means that you can eat as much cake as you are able to (you have to pay K 105 000) :) Of course I had to try all of them :D

A sunset drink on the deck, followed by playing cards at the backpackers, made the day just perfect :)

Look at the cakes:

Nice music

The rest of the week I have been very busy with running up and down in town, having meetings with different people, asking for donations and organizing the rest for the tournament. After the normal Friday evening programme (the happy hour tour and dancing;)), I was ready for the tournament. Or at least I thought so :D Somehow, it’s just impossible to be 100% prepared for all the unexpected challenges you face during such a day :D 

Even though, I had planned everything and had tried to be prepared for the typical African delayings, I was a bit shocked, when I Saturday morning saw that none of the fields were ready and prepared (as I had agreed the day before). T.I.A. I guess! You just fix things during the day :D 

Luckily, I found some boys, who were eager to help with making the fields and drawing the lines. After two hours waiting, all the teams finally had shown up and we were ready to start the tournaments  at 11 hours (instead of 9 hours) :) We had one tournament for the 6 "veterans" teams (older than 15), one tournament for the two female football teams, one tournament for the 6 under 15 teams and one tournament for the 6 netball teams. It was really nice that so many teams participated :) I had a good overview and tried to coordinate everything. Even though I think I did a good job, I of course had to face some challenges, which I couldn't have avoided with more planning :D

African people just LOVE to discuss! And especially older Zambian men think that they know everything better than a white, young woman. In addition to that, the African weather wasn’t on my side (the rain season chose to start during our tournament - the fields got so bad that I had to consider calling off the tournament because it got too dangerous to play on the fields) and the confusions about a double booking (I had booked the whole day but a guy called Sydney insisted to get two of our fields because he meant he had booked...well, he hadn't! but since he went behind my back and asked some teams to leave the fields, he caused some troubles...T.I.A. I guess :D), made the day just more interesting and varied :D 

All in all, the tournament was a big success, everyone had a lot of fun and I have learned a LOT during the organization process!

Here some pictures from the day:

Prisca, Susan and Angela waiting the tournament to start

Sandras' netball team

Team Zambezi (the winners of the netball tournament)

Some of the sport captains and me

Susan and Angela

the Linda boys

The Linda boys and me

Kelvin (my taxi driver), his friend and me

The awards

The awards

Faagros A - winner team under 15

Highlands - winner team veterans

The player of the day

A nice treatment for myself after this good but quite exhausting day, was a mango party in the evening, lovely brunch Sunday morning, followed by a massage and pedicure at Fawlty Towers and a good dinner in the evening :)

Monday it was time for another day at the office, consisting of writing reports, evaluating the tournament and a staff meeting. After a nice work out at the gym, I was ready for going home and packing my bags. Well, the weather was kind of against my plans :D

While I was running, I enjoyed the rain. However, when I wanted to go home and the rain had got really horrible and no taxi wanted to drive me home to the compound (the roads are just too bad!!!), I wasn’t a big fan of it anymore :D Seriously, it was CRAZY!!! I have never seen so much water and have experienced so much rain!!!

I wanted to give you an impression of it with a video but somehow it doesn't want to work...I'll try later again ;)

Well, when I finally reached home and wanted to pack my bags, we had no power and everything was wet (it rained into my room…). One thing I can tell: I’m not a fan of the rain season :D

Here just some funny pictures from Livingstone:

A huge beetle - almost as big as Ingrid's little finger

Another dead snake

Well, which grass are they talking about?

Hmm...that truck looks quite heavy, doesn't t? :D

So yeah, now I’m sitting here in Lusaka, ready for the mid term meeting tomorrow and on Friday, and even more important, ready for going to Cape Town on Saturday!!!! Juhhuuuuu!!!! I’m so excited :) the first week I’m going to have an exchange at the University of Western Cape with exams on the 8^th of December. After that, I’m definitely ready for my HOLIDAYS!!! Uhhh, I’m so excited for traveling with the Norwegians and even more excited to meet my mum, Pascal and Patrick :) And my birthday, Christmas, New Years Eve and just spending a lovely time with my family :) Yeahhh!!!

Zim vs. Zam

Last time I promised you to take it a bit easier and believe it or not, I have :) So what have I done this week? 

Well, it has been a good combination of some meetings, office work, field training, Nyanja lessons, some dancing, travelling and a little bit of studying for my exam. The highlight of last week has been my trip to Vic Falls Town in Zimbabwe, where I met Karl-Fredrik and his friends. But let me start with Wednesday :)

Wednesday afternoon I went to one of the sport clubs in Kwenuha for doing the net- and football training with the kids. It was really nice getting out in the field again, instead of being stuck at the office ;) I enjoyed it a lot!

After that I was invited to a birthday braai at rapid 7! My first thought when I arrived…WOW!!! Look at the view :)

This is rapid 7

And the sunset 

 And then try to imagine the sky with millions of stars after the sunset! It was just the most perfect spot for at braai :) And dancing afterwards just made the evening perfect!

Thursday it was time for another meeting with the Livingstone Sport and Development Network. The aim with this network is to bring together all NGO sporting organisations in Livingstone, where we share and benefit from each other’s knowledge and experience. It's a quite new network but I think it's a really good chance for developing sport in Livingstone and Kwenuha can gain a lot of being part of  it :) After my Nyanja lesson and a good workout at the gym later that day, I was ready to go to Zimbabwe Friday morning ;)

I was really looking forward to see Karl-Fredrik and his friends, and even to get a small break from Livingstone. So I started my trip with crossing the bridge and going to Zimbabwe :) Well, I should probably have known that my plans would change a bit, since I'm in Africa :D Just before I reached the emigration office in Zimbabwe, I surprisingly bumped into Karl-Fredrik and his friends, Trond and Christina. They had  just decided that they wanted to do the Devil’s pool, which is on the Zambian side ;) So yeah, I walked back with them and while they were bathing in the pool, I waited for them at the Zambezi Sun Hotel for relaxing and treating myself :)

Enjoying life

When they were done with the swimming, I showed them my home in the compound and Livingstone town. After enjoying a Mosi at Jollyboys, we finally headed to Zimbabwe :)

Enjoying a Mosi at Jollyboys

So, where we staying in Vic Falls Town and what were we doing? 

Well, basically we just treated ourselves and enjoyed life :) I thought we were staying at a backpackers but I quickly found out that had to rethink :D Well, since Trond is working for the Norwegian embassy in Harare and is going to stay in Zimbabwe for the next three years, he and his wife wanted to check out different hotels and Friday night is was time to check out the Victoria Falls Hotel! Which by the way has a quite good reputation :) 

Just have a look at the pictures:

The entrance

The view at the hotel from the bridge

The view at the hotel from the garden

How far is it to Cape Town?

Some pets in the garden

Trond and Karl-Fredrik in the pool

Karl-Fredrik

Me ready for the dinner

The menu card

The cheese :)

(This was one of the best courses :D I'm really on withdrawal right now, since I don't have a fridge or freezer at home, so I can't keep the cheese at home. And those who know me, I LOVE cheese :D)

At the casino after the dinner

The hotel was amazing and the 7-course dinner and champagne breakfast, made my stay to an even better experience. A nice diversion to the African life :D

After the lovely breakfast Saturday morning, Karl-Fredrik, Trond and Christina were driving back to Harare. For me it was time to finally see the Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwean side and to actually being able to make my own judgement of, which side you get the best view at the Victoria Falls from ;) 

Well, I have to admit that the view you get from the Zim side is MUCH better than the view from the Zam side :) And now there is even not that much water!

Just look:

The entrance

I really enjoyed my short trip to Zimbabwe :) Thus in the afternoon I crossed the bridge with new energy for the exam, work and the last two weeks in Livingstone, before I’m heading to Cape Town on the 1st of December ;)

Saturday night we were celebrating Tereses (one of my Norwegian volunteer group, who is living two hours away from Livingstone) birthday with a lovely Indian dinner at the Golden Leaf and some dancing afterwards ;)

Well, my stay here is not just about travelling and enjoying life ;) Hence, I got up early Sunday morning, for cleaning my room, washing my clothes and start working on my exam paper. Believe it or not, but I actually managed to work the whole day on my exam paper, with some breaks though :D

Me working :)

This week started calm with a meeting, writing reports and learning more Nyanja. On the 24^th of November we are holding a fundraising sports tournament, so my job Tuesday and Wednesday has  basically been about heading up and down in town, inviting people, asking for giveaways and donations, and having meetings with the Sports minister and coordinator in Livingstone. Thus, this Saturday either Doreen or me is going to advertise our tournament on TV and during next week on the radio ;) Besides organizing the tournament, I have been working on my exam paper, have had some good workouts at the gym and some nice evenings with my family :)

The charm of Africa

Now we are in the middle of November and the weather is slowly changing. Instead of the sunshine and almost 40 degrees every day, we are now having about 36 degrees, a bit sun, rain, thunderstorms and lightnings. Even though the compound is completely flooded after the showers and the heavy rain on the tin roof is keeping me awake during the nights, it somehow has its charm :) A really nice side effect of the rain, are the mangos :) They are delicious and just everywhere!!! However, the rain also brings along some more visitors at home. Just see, what I found last evening ;)

Yep, it's a snake :)

But it's dead ;)

The compound after the showers

One thing, which also is really charming here in Zambia, is how everybody is supporting the national football team, when they are playing. Yesterday Zambia was playing a friendly game against South Africa and you should have seen and heard, how the compound went crazy with vuvuzelas and celebrations :) I’m really looking forward to the Africa Cup of Nations 2013 in January/February!

What is going on in the next days?

Well, tomorrow I have another day at the office and some more meetings, which are related to the fundraising tournament. And for the weekend I haven’t decided yet;) Maybe going rafting, doing a trip on the river with inflatable kayaks, a cheetah/lion walk, an elephant back safari or just relax at a pool:) Well, I should probably also spend some time on my exam paper…We’ll see :)