Get the party started!

Last week was one of the more quiet ones, at least work wise. As I mentioned in the last post, Kwenuha is still waiting for some funds to arrive. Hence, there are no activities going on at the moment. We are running the trainings in all our clubs but we can’t do any workshops, sport days or –tournaments. One of the main problems and causes for my frustrations is that almost no one does anything without getting money or food! They are used to get sitting allowances and food, when they attend workshops, meetings and tournaments, so it’s a big challenge to get them motivated, now where we don’t have anything. It’s really a reversed world. At home we pay a lot of money for attending seminars. If you ask me, this might be a problem caused by all the Western countries doing development work and aid in Africa for several decades.…they are so used to just get things…but yeah, this might just be my experience.

Besides spending time with field visits and working on my exam paper, where I’m doing research on why the women in Kwenuha aren't participating in the trainings, I’ve been representing Kwenuha at a meeting with the Netball Association in Livingstone. Of course, it again was in a very Zambian spirit :D The meeting was supposed to start at 14 hours. I didn’t expect the meeting to get started on time (I’ve now been in Africa for more than 8 months, so I’ve learned always to be prepared to wait :D). Hence, I enjoyed the sun while reading my book. I have to admit that the always-shining sun makes it a lot easier to take the waiting with a smile and just make the best out it :) After 1½ hours the meeting finally started. Well, not really. The following two hours we spend on discussing, if we should have the meeting or not, since only 4 out of 19 clubs had shown up :D So at the end, we agreed on postponing the meeting and plan a tournament instead, because then people will show up and we can have the meeting either before or after the matches. T.I.A. I guess :D 

Even though, this might sound a bit annoying and just a waste of time to you, I wasn’t annoyed at all :) Do you know why?

A huge welcome party for my host dad was waiting for me at home in the compound :) My host mum and me had planned it, so I was pretty excited and really looking forward to it! And it was AMAZING!!! You would have loved it :) When I reached home at 17 hours, the party was already going on. The stereo was set up on the terrace and the kids were busy dancing. And to my big surprise, all the food was already made. No African time at all :D Crazy, I thought :) However, of course I had to get remembered that I’m still in Africa. We had a 21/2 hours power cut :D Luckily I had managed to bake the cakes in time. While waiting for the power to come back, all the guests arrived and I was doing traditional games with all the kids :). This year in Africa has really taught me to relax and make the best out of every situation :D At 21 hours the power was back and the party started :)

Okay, now I think it’s time to show you the pictures. It has been a fantastic evening, with a lot of dancing, laughing and enjoying life :)

The boys "helping" with baking the cakes :D 

The kids in front of the house

Patrick ready for the party

Nice ladies braaiing the chicken

Kids dancing

Nice food and drinks

Alef dancing :)

Dancing :)

Patrick showing his performance

My host parents and me :)

Libes and Given on the dance floor

Miriam and me doing the welcome speech in English and Nyanja

Jonathan enjoying the food

Libes and me

All the guests busy eating and watching the performances

The special guest dancing

(it was just a friend who was disguised :))

Miriam and Justina dancing with the special guest

Patrick making his special performance :D

Miriam, all my female guests and me

My host dad John and his friends, Miriam, my friends and me

A girl from the neighborhood. She was amazing!! It's crazy how they can move their bodies :D

Me taking care of some of the children late in the evening

The girls doing their performances

Yep, this is in the compound :D 

Even tough a lot of people don't have any money, they all own TV's and stereos :D

(this is ours and one of the neighbors) 

Happy family :)

Saturday and Sunday it was time for Terese and me to work on our exam papers. Of course it wasn’t too nice to spend the whole weekend on that but we made the best out of it and enjoyed each other’s company :)

Just look

Saturday morning ready to get started

Sunday morning - we need energy and to treat ourselves :D

You really need to have a motivation, when you are working on a Sunday (especially after only few hours of sleep:D). When we had finished the work for the day, we were allowed to jump in the pool :) yeahhh!!!

Well, I have to say, we never made it into the pool :D But that is kind of Febby's fault. Febby is a YSEP volunteer in Norway. She is Zambian and is volunteering in Norway. Suddenly she was just standing next to us :D Of course we had to talk to and spend time with her, and weren't able to finish our work :D But it was nice seeing her!

Febby and me

What is going on this week?

Tomorrow and on Wednesday, I’m going to facilitate my first Kicking Aids Out Peer Leader workshop together with Terese. I’m pretty excited and am really looking forward to the next two days :) In addition to that, I’m going to represent Kwenuha at the Livingstone Sport and Development meetings and hopefully, Kwenuha is going to have a tournament on Saturday; it depends on the funds though. We will see :)

Just two nice things before I'm leaving

Finally, they have started to put up dustbins in Livingstone

And a lovely sunset on my way home :) 

I can't get enough of the sun :D