Great opportunities!

When I left you last time, I didn’t have any special plans for the week. Hence, I had a plan of starting to work on my last exam paper. Well, as always things changes a lot down here and unexpected situations occur. This time it was in a very good way though :)

Tuesday I was sitting at Response Network (the organisation Terese and Nyarai are working for http://www.responsenetwork.org) studying for my exam paper, while Terese and Nyarai were doing preparations for a peer leader Kicking Aids Out workshop, they were going to do in a village called Siakasipa (about an hour drive away from Livingstone) Thursday and Friday last week.

Before I continue, let me give you an idea of what Kicking Aids Out is about.

Kicking AIDS Out is an international network of organizations working together to use sport and physical activity as a means of raising awareness about HIV and AIDS and motivating positive behavior change in youth. The Kicking AIDS Out network believes that sport and physical activity are effective ways of attracting youth while serving as creative mediums to facilitate and share positive messages about HIV and AIDS and other critical health issues affecting youth. 

http://www.kickingaidsout.net/Pages/default.aspx

Since I didn’t have much to do at Kwenuha that week, Response Network invited me to join Terese, Nyarai and Steven (their sports coordinator) for the workshop. Terese and I were going to be participants, and Nyarai and Steven would be the facilitators. This great opportunity to become a Kicking Aids Out peer leader and stay some days in a village, I definitely didn’t want to miss. Hence, I happily said yes and was on my way to the village Wednesday afternoon, after having represented Kwenuha at a very good and productive meeting with the Livingstone Sport and Development Network :)

The village was definitely an experience, again in a good and very interesting way :) Just the journey to the village was an adventure itself :D Together we all went with the two tents, three madras’s, food (for the workshop and ourselves) and our personal bags to a pick up point slightly out of Livingstone town. From there we had to find a new car. Since we were two muzungus (white people), all the drivers set the prizes way too high. But yeah, we knew the normal prize, so we negotiated. After an hour of negotiating and waiting, we finally found a driver who was willing to take us the whole way to Siakasipa Basic School, which was really good :) (we otherwise had to take a minibus and then walk 7km). After approximately an hour we arrived at the Siakasipa Basic School, where we again waited another hour. We didn't know where they wanted us to put the tents and do the workshop, so we had to wait for the person, who had to show us everything.

Here are some pictures from what we were doing, where we stayed and what we did:

That's how we went from Livingstone town to the "pick up" place

(I'm sitting next to Terese)

Waiting and negotiating...

Waiting in the shade at Siakasipa Basic School

The ladies' tent

The workshop room (it is a church)

The toilet house

The toilet

Terese and Steven preparing food

The surroundings

The three village girls with rape (Terese is holding it) :)

(Nyarai, Terese and me)

Me getting water

Me carrying 20 L :)

Yes, it was heavy :D but I managed!

Steven finding wood for the campfire

Terese and Nyarai preparing for the workshop

Playing a traditional game

Me facilitating about, why it is good/bad to use sport for development

An activity for talking about life skills

Terese facilitating about HIV/Aids myths

Doing a relay

Icebreaker: "I have the ball, hipepeta"

A funny thing happened Thursday late afternoon, when we were having the first workshop day. Around 15:30 hours someone said that we had to finish the programme for that day, even tough we weren’t finished yet. Apparently the reason for that was a lion, which had attacked a person in a village further away. Hence, the participants had to leave our workshop to make it home safe. In the beginning I thought it was just a bad joke, for going home early. But no, they were serious about it. At that point I started thinking, if it would be safe for us to sleep another night in the tents :D Well, we did and survived :)

Friday early evening I was back in Livingstone after a nice experience in the village and ready for enjoying a very nice and relaxing weekend together with friends :)

Braai at rapid nr 7

This week has been really good and actually quite busy as well :) Response Network invited me for another Kicking Aids Out workshop, this time in Livingstone and to do the next level. So now I’m actually certified in leader level 1 :) It has been a really nice week at the workshop with meeting many new people, who are actively involved in sports in Livingstone and learning to become a good facilitator in Kicking Aids Out. In the next post I’m going to explain everything a bit more detailed and will show you some pictures of what we did (I haven't got them yet) :) Right now I have to start packing for my Easter trip, which starts tomorrow early in the morning.

Together with friends I’m going to a music festival at Lake Kariba, where we are staying until Sunday :) Sunday I’m proceeding to Harare (Zimbabwe), where I’ll wait for Lina and Johanne. On the 3^rd of April we are taking the bus down to Gweru, where Vegard is working. He has been helping with organizing some Paralympics games. So we all thought, this is a great opportunity to see each other again and spend some time together :) I’m really looking forward to seeing them all again :)

With these pictures from the Lunar Rainbow Tuesday evening (when it is full moon and high water season, you can see a rainbow in the spray at the Victoria Falls) I want to wish you all some lovely Easter days!!! 

(these were the best shots I managed to get in the dark)

Don’t stop believing!

When I Thursday morning started writing this update, I didn’t know that the day would turn out to become a special one. Yes you are right, the elections were hold on that day and the ruling party even won (so people were celebrating happily) but what I didn’t know and didn’t expect to happen was that my host dad was released from prison!!! Yep, you read correctly. He is free :) He wasn’t even supposed to appear in court on Thursday! But somehow, they must have thought that keeping him in prison for 6 months without having proper evidence, is enough :)

I was so happy, when I came home to the compound, after a good yoga workout and having had a nice dinner at the Golden Leaf with Iris, Marco and Brigitte :) Now my host mum just have to come home (she has been in South Africa since the 7th of March) and then we are going to celebrate the family reunion! I’m really looking forward to that day :)

Celebrations in town

Happy people in the compound :)

(from the left: Patrick, me, my host dad, Iris, Brigitte and Marco)

Iris and me in my garden

You maybe wonder, why I have chosen this headline. Well, it’s not that I want to give you a lecture on faith or on how you have to think or behave. No! I just want to point out for you, how impressed I am of my host family and their way of thinking during the last 6 months! They never stopped believing in that everything is going to be fine again. Together we were strong and made the best out of the situation :)

Now, let me go back to where I stopped last time.

My last update was right before the International Women’s Day and when I still had the hope of participating in the walk through town. Well, since lack of money I’ve the whole time been told that Kwenuha Women’s Association is not going to participate. I thought it would be a shame, if we don't participate and I couldn't understand, what we need the money for...yes I know, we kind of need an uniform and a banner but why can’t we just wear the same colour of skirts and t-shirts and take the regular banner, which doesn’t have a date on it? We can and Thursday at the meeting that was our final decision. Nevertheless, the majority in the last minute decided not to participate…the reason? No money, no food, no energy…

You can’t imagine how frustrated I was…I think it’s a pity that a Women’s Organisation (which by the way deals a lot with HIV/Aids) isn’t capable of participating in the Women’s Day (and also not in the World Aids Day).

Whatever, as mentioned in the last post, Friday the 8^th and the 12^th of March were holidays and since I took the 11^th off, I had 5 days in a row off. Nice :)

So what were my plans? Honestly, I didn’t really have a plan. Since I hadn’t been further up in Zambia than Lusaka, I had an idea of travelling to northern Zambia. However, it turned out to be a bit difficult to plan a trip up north. It was impossible to get information about the bus timetables etc. on the Internet and to figure out how to reach different places, when you don’t have your own car. But yeah, I really wanted to see and experience something new :)

Hence, I was Friday morning on my way to Lusaka, still with no plan though :D

I kind of had the idea that I wanted to travel to a place called Shiwa Ng’andu. Well, while sitting in the 7 hours bus to Lusaka, I started realising that it wasn’t realistic to reach the place and to be back in Livingstone by Tuesday night. In addition to that, it would have cost too much money…Damn, I had to make a new plan or rather get a new idea :D

I opened my Lonely Planet and had a look at what else is an attraction in the northern part of Zambia and which is not too far up north. Hmmm…somehow I ended with Mutinondo Wilderness.

“This is perhaps, the most stunning place in northern Zambia: a beautiful 10,000-hectare wilderness littered with whaleback hills or inselsbergs – huge, sweeping hulks of stone in varying shades of black, purple, green and brown. The landscape here feels unspoilt and somehow ancient."

Didn’t sound too bad and was only another 7 hours bus away from Lusaka :) Right, next questions: How do I get there? Where do I stay? I called the owner of the lodge and what I later found out was that I had been very lucky to actually get hold of him (the reception is REALLY bad) and that there even was a free bed for me :)

After a nice dinner with Johanne and some deliberations about, if I should go on this trip on my own or not (yep, I went on my own – my friends either had to work, were not feeling well or wanted to stay in Livingstone), I bought my bus ticket for the 6 a.m. bus to Mpicka next day. Still a bit doubtful on what I was doing, I tried to get some sleep Friday night. However, at 4:30 a.m. I already had to get up again, to go to the bus station. A bit delayed, the bus left Lusaka and this was the beginning of my adventures :)

5 a.m. = Vivi ready for her trip

Bus journeys in Zambia are always exciting both in a good and negative way :D Besides enjoying the nature and all the funny and weird things you see happening next to the road, while listening to the loud gospel music in the bus, you never know if the bus will be on time, how the person next to you will be like, if the bus is going to break down in the middle of nowhere or when the next toilet break will be (they don’t have toilets in the bus) :D Lucky me, I managed to sleep a bit and after 7 hours the bus even dropped me, where I asked him to drop me. Well, I have to say, that place was in the middle of nowhere :D Just have a look

Kalonje Railway Station

Luckily, the next transport (from the road to the lodge) was already waiting for me. I have to admit that I was a bit impressed and positively surprised of that everything worked out as it was supposed to do :)

What did I do in Mutinondo Wilderness?

I went hiking, enjoyed the swims in the so-called “paradise pools”/in the river (most places in Zambia you are not allowed to do it because of crocodiles or hippos in the water, so I REALLY enjoyed that), relaxed with a good book and a drink, enjoyed a lot of good food, meeting new people, the campfires, playing cards and just enjoying life :)

Here are some pictures from my trip

Enjoying the amazing view of the landscape, while listening to the sounds from the animals

This was what I saw, when I woke up my first morning :D I didn't know that there were horses going round freely

The bathroom

The Myense hill 

(it's the highest one in Mutinondo Wilderness)

The dutch girls and me trying to figure out the way to the top of the Myense Hill

We made it!

Beautiful view

Picknick time :)

Of course I had to take a jump picture :D

This lovely butterfly somehow loved my arm

Nice waterfall

The afternoon hike to the paradise pools

Enjoying the swim in the paradise pools

Luckily, I didn't have to go through these spiderwebs 

Some impressions of the nature

My bed

My house

I’m really happy that I did this trip. I had an amazing time and enjoyed it a lot :)

Monday morning it was time for me to start to head back to Livingstone. I have to admit that I wasn’t too excited about the thought of the two 7 hours bus drives (Mutinondo Wilderness – Lusaka, Lusaka – Livingstone) and the fact that I had to trust the first bus to pick me up in the middle of nowhere. 
At 8 hours I was standing at the main road, waiting for the bus to pick me up (I had been told that the bus would pick my up in the time scheme 8-11). Well, after standing alone in the rain and in the middle of nowhere for an hour, the bus actually showed up! I have never been so happy to see a bus :D 

Yeah, the bus showed up :)

And from there on, my trip went very smoothly ;) I had three seats for myself, enjoyed reading my book and the music wasn’t even too loud :) Late afternoon I finally arrived in Lusaka, had a quick but nice dinner with Lina and I even managed to buy some of the nice things you can’t get in Livingstone, before I was sitting in the bus again. Unfortunately, this bus wasn’t one of the nice ones. The gospel music was way too loud, I was kind of glued to the window (luckily I didn’t had to sit in the middle :)), I couldn’t sleep and the bus was badly delayed. However, I arrived safely :)

Tuesday it was time for relaxing, doing household things at home, recovering and spending time with  friends and my host brothers :)

Jonathan and me making the pizza

Nice purchases in Lusaka :)

The last days have been very quiet. Due do the elections, I had the day off Thursday and otherwise I have just done preparations for the tournament we had on Saturday. This time we only wanted the women (not their children) to participate. I was quite excited about that, since the women are the main target group in Kwenuha but since one year, they have been struggling with participating in the trainings and tournaments. So I was pretty enthusiastic, when I was on my way to work Saturday morning :) We were able to do this tournament and get the women to show up, because the charity organisation "Happy Africa" had chosen Kwenuha to donate some jerseys and shorts to. Hence, we invited 44 women to take part in the football tournament, where each would receive a jersey or a pair of shorts at the end of the tournament. 
After spending the first two hours with sitting and waiting for the women to show up, we were able to form 6 teams and start the games. As soon as we started, the women were very motivated and into the games. I really enjoyed seeing the women having so much fun and lighten up. It's sad though that they are not participating more often and only, when they are getting something...and you should have seen both my sports captain and the women, when we distributed the clothes. One thing I really think is sad and a bit annoying is that they still complain even though they are getting things for free. It's crazy...But yeah, this might be a result of the whole development problematic...whatever, we had a really nice day with a lot of fun :)
Just have a look

Go Stella!

Mavis relaxing in the goal

Tusole vs. Nakatindi

Some of the sports captains, players and me

The sports captains trying to figure out how to distribute the clothes. At some point my patience needed a break, so I let them do it :D 

All the participants

The rest of my weekend I enjoyed with having a nice time with friends :)
What is going on this week?
Well, right now I just know that I have to write a report of the tournament we had, represent Kwenuha at the meeting with the Livingstone Sport and Development Network on Wednesday and that we are having a club competition on Friday. Doesn't sound too bad :) And on Friday Lina is coming to Livingstone with her family. I already look forward to seeing her again :)

Take care and have a lovely week!