It's magic!!!

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 15^th 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 1^st 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!