Since I’ve now been in Zambia for almost 7
months, I think it’s time for a proper post about the culture I experience
every day. As you may have noticed in my former posts, late coming is a quite
common thing here but there is still a LOT to mention ;)
Right, where to start. Let me start with the staff
meetings I participate in every Monday morning. During the staff meeting, every
department reports about the challenges and successes they have experienced in
the week before and what they are going to do in the following week. Since Kwenuha
has projects like a farm and a chicken run (for their self-sustainability) a lot
of meetings are about chickens. Yep, we can sit and discuss 2-3 hours about
what to do with sick and crazy chickens, how to feed them, the quality of the
eggs, who is taking care of them etc. You can see, it’s very important for the
sports department :D NOT! However, it’s quite entertaining sometimes :D
A sick chicken in my office
And this Monday’s staff meeting was definitely
one of the most entertaining and interesting meetings!!! As usual we were
talking about the farm. My colleague Mukendwa was reporting about his visit to
the farm and that the people at the farm had experienced some problems with the
disappearance of money. No one had seen or taking the money. Somehow it just had
disappeared. My colleagues started to discuss this issue half in English, half
in Nyanja (one of 72 languages in Zambia. I learn Nyanja). I tried my best to
follow the discussion. However, Sister Perpetua must have noticed my confused
face. “Do you understand Vivian?”
Well, it’s not that I didn’t understand what
they where saying. No, I just was quite confused about their opinions about the
disappearance of the money. I said, “yes, I understand. For me it’s obvious
that someone is lying and stealing the money!” “No Vivian, it’s magic”, Sister corrected
me. What???? My confusion became bigger. “Yes, it’s not the first time we are
experiencing such a situation. The money just disappears and never shows up
again. That’s why we have to dip it in holy water and apply faith to it”. Well,
this is the believe/myth in the Zambian culture. T.I.A. I guess :)
Now to a more frustrating and really not funny
experience here in Livingstone. Yep, you might have guessed it already; it’s
the situation about my host dad. Well, all I can say is that he is still in
prison (since the 15th of September already) and that they keep adjourning his appearance in court. It’s the most frustrating thing ever and
it’s unbelievable how much corruption there is here!!! Either the judge is out
of town, not prepared or yeah, I have no idea. But if we would pay more money,
they might speed up the process. The situation is really not easy for the
family. However, I admire their positive way of thinking and am really happy
with my decision to continue staying with them.
Here just some pictutes from my life:
Jonathan and Gift (my host brother and cousin)
The bad road
Believe it or not...They fixed the road!!!! It only took them 2 months :D
Juhhuuu, we got a tap :)
(before it was just a water hose, which we "closed" with a branch)
On the 1st of February it was time
for me to experience the Zambian way of celebrating a 30th birthday of an
unmarried woman. It was the birthday of my friend Anita. Where you at home
“punish” the birthday person with pepper (in Denmark) and cleaning handles, if
it’s a lady (in Germany), in Zambia the birthday person get soaked in water or
in Anita’s case it was water, Coca Cola, Fanta, beer and you name it. Just have look:
Steven giving Anita a shower with a Coke
Nyarai, Terese and me
After the shower the party continued, she changed dress and we spend the whole night dancing under the starry sky.
Anita, Terese, Stanlee, C.J., Nyarai and me
Handover of the present
Another interesting thing in the culture is the
female toilet. Have a look at the picture below:
Well, at home you would think “uhh, why can men
not put the seat down!” right? I don’t know why but somehow Zambian women don’t
use the seats :D
In addition to that privacy is not a big thing
here, or at least they don’t show respect towards each other at work. We are
three persons sharing one office, two Zambians and me. My two colleagues they
LOVE their Zambian gospel music. Hence they both play their favourite songs
very loudly, while singing to them. On a bad day, it can be quite exhausting
and challenging to try to concentrate in that office and it just becomes worse,
when they leave the office but don’t switch the music of :D At home people
would at least asked, if it’s okay with the music and agree on one person’s
music. However, more likely I think it would be that people listen to their
music with earphones. T.I.A :)
Have a look at this video:
I think we can really appreciate that we have
lawnmowers at home and don’t have to cut our grass like this :) Think of this video the next time your parents ask you to lawn the grass ;)
Besides these little challenges, Zambia is a
beautiful country with very friendly and helpful people. Furthermore, you can
just love all the nice fruits in the garden (we have mango, guava and lemon
trees at home), the huge avocados, lovely chilli plants, the beautiful lightning
and of course the sun :) Their positive way of thinking and passion for dancing
are also two things I just LOVE about Zambians. The youngest girl and boy already
know how to shake their body and feel the music! It’s amazing :)
The Lemon tree
The Chili plant in the garden
Of course things are also more complicated here
sometimes, e.g. right now you can’t go running at the golf course. The grass is
too high and therefore it’s too risky. You might get bitten of the snakes.
Furthermore, the aggressive dogs make it more complicated to go for a run in
the mornings and evenings (during the day it’s almost always too hot and I’m at work). The dogs have already attacked me twice. Luckily I only got a scratch :)
But yeah, you learn to take everything with a smile, make new routines and be
flexible :)
Right, this was a bit about the culture I’ve
been experiencing for 7 months now. I hope you enjoyed reading it :)
So what have I been doing last week?
Besides having meetings with the Livingstone
Sport and Development Network and African Impact (we want to do a tournament
together), I have planned the next tournament and club competitions, interviewed
those girls who have applied for the YSEP program and helped them writing their
CV’s. In addition to that, I have had language lessons, danced salsa, good workouts at the gym, enjoyed
the visit of Lina and her boyfriend, and have had fun at the braai at a farm next to the Zambezi
River :)
Sunset drink with Lina and her boyfriend at Rapid 7
Having a good time
Amit, Xana, Jaymin, Chichi and Perrin
Gabriel relaxing
Joel and Perrin
Perrin and me
Nice food
Nice sunset
Amit fishing
What is happening in the weekend and next week?
Today we are having the first club competition
of the year and I’m really looking forward to get out in the field again :) For
the weekend I don’t have any specific plans yet but I think there will be time
for another braai and some relaxing with friends. The next week, I’m going to
have another meeting with the Livingstone Sport and Development Network and with
my sport captains, I’ll do some field visits and plan the tournament Kwenuha
wants to do together with African Impact.
Have a lovely weekend!
