Week of goodbyes...

My time in Livingstone is going to an end and last week I had my last week at work, or at least at the office. Happily, the charity organisation Happy Africa has chosen Kwenuha to donate 92 jerseys to! It’s sooo amazing and I’m very happy that I can have another tournament with all the girls and women, before going home. I can’t wait for Wednesday :)

Last week went way to fast and I’ve already had too many goodbyes. However, it was a nice week :) I’ve spent a lot of time with friends and just having a great time :) Nice dinners, drinks and a lot of dancing! Besides the social activities, I also had to spend a lot of time with writing my exam paper. Thursday I finally got all my interviews done, so now I can finally finish it.

Wednesday Kwenuha organised a farewell lunch for me at the office. It was so nice and I enjoyed it a lot :)

Mukendwa, Doreen and Sister Perpetua preparing the lunch

Me thanking Doreen for my farewell present

Doreen and me with my farewell present

Thursday it was time for my last monthly sports captains meeting. Uhhh, I’m going to miss them…We had a very good day with some Kicking Aids Out games, a LOT of dancing and fun :)

The beginning of the meeting

Playing the Kicking Aids Out game "where is the stone?"

Promise and me

I'm going to miss this boy...

Playing the Kicking Aids Out game "Packman"

Playing the game

Dancing :) 

Since I’m going to be busy with the end of term meeting next weekend, I had to do my farewell party this weekend. Believe it or not but in 11 days I’m on my way home :) So Saturday it was time to have a party!!! It was AMAZING :) I had so much fun and it was just perfect! Nice food, a lot of dancing and just lovely people :)

I’ll let the pictures talk:

Let's make sangria :)

Iris, Winnie, Ragnhild and Gry Katrin enjoying the party

Patrick, William and Rebeca playing pool

Some of my sports captains enjoying the drinks

Some of the sports captains and me :)

Doreen and Angela having fun

Doreen, Precious and me

The sports captains enjoying the dancing

The muzungus are enjoying the braai

Toto, Brian, Marco, Zigzag, Iris and Lois enjoying the party

Angela dancing

Mercy just danced for me 

and gave me the farewell present from all the sports captains

Yeahhh!!! Thanks :)

Me thanking Mercy

Busy dancing

Having fun :)

Of course we also had to watch the Champions League match

Borussia Dortmund vs. Bayern Munich

Sunday it was time for relaxing and enjoying life at the Zambezi Sun Hotel. Uhhh, that is the most perfect way to spend a Sunday and I’m definitely going to miss it :D

Me enjoying a mango smoothie

Relaxing at the Zambezi Sun Hotel

Apart from the tournament we are going to have on Wednesday, I’m going to spend a lot of time with my friends and finishing my exam paper. Friday all the YSEP volunteers based in Zambia are coming to Livingstone and we are going to have our end of term meeting. It’s going to be good to see them all again and enjoy the last weekend in Livingstone 

Norwegian for one day!

As the Norwegian readers of this blog know, the big highlight of last week was the celebration of the Norwegian National Day on the 17th of May. Right, now some of you might think “but you are Danish/German Vivian! So why celebrate the Norwegian national day?” Hehe :D 

Well, since I’m working in a Norwegian program, I actually was invited :) In addition to that I wanted to make myself a picture of, how Norwegians celebrate their national day. I’ve been told a lot about their crazy way of celebrating it :D Hence, I took the night bus to Lusaka Thursday night. After not getting too much sleep at the bus and only two hours sleep at the backpackers, I was ready for the big celebrations :) I know, this ceremony was just a light version of the celebrations compared to those in Oslo but it was still great fun and I enjoyed it a LOT :) 

What did we do?

It was a good combination of speeches, marching, singing, playing games, dancing, eating and drinking :D

Here are some pictures

The band playing

Singing "kongesangen"

Getting ready for the march

Place for the speeches

Marching and singing

Me enjoying the day

Nice hot dog

Lina and me :)

children playing

Lina and Johanne getting ready to compete

Lina and me marching

Food is ready :) 

(it was amazing to have Norwegian salmon :) hmm...I miss fish)

All the YSEP volunteers in Zambia

(Hanne, Johanne, Lina, Frank and me. We missed you Terese)

Cake time :)

After the ceremony at the ambassador’s place, we all went home to Mariannes place (she is an intern at the Norwegian Embassy), where the party continued. We all had an AMAZING day and night, and enjoyed it a lot!!!

Frank preparing the meat

Noora and me helping Frank

Getting ready for the dancing

Norwegian buns and home made mojitos :)

Saturday it was time for me to take the bus back to Livingstone and get a lot of rest :) Hence, I spent the rest of the weekend with relaxing and having a good time with friends.

What was going on before I went to Lusaka?

Well, work wise not that much. Only writing reports, doing field visits and planning my workshop I'm having on Thursday. Besides this, I’ve spent time with going to the gym, yoga and enjoying life together with friends :)

Thursday it was time for Terese to go back to Norway; hence we had a farewell dinner for her Wednesday evening. I’m looking forward to seeing you in Oslo :)

Nyarai and Precious cutting the chicken

Waiting for the food to get ready :)

Nyarai, Terese, Anita and me :)

Thanks for a nice evening 

What is going on this week?

Hmmm…believe it or not but this week is my last week at work (next week we, all the YSEP volunteers, are having our end of term meeting). I know, I’ve already said it before but it’s crazy how fast these 10 months have gone. Even though I’ve had some challenges and frustrating times, I’m really going to miss my African life, my friends, work and colleagues. However, I’m also looking forward to going home :) 

So yeah, work wise I’ve only one monthly sports captain meeting and Kicking Aids Out workshop left. After that I’m having the end of term meeting, I’m going to say goodbye to everyone, will have my farewell party, have to finish my exam paper and want to enjoy every free minute with enjoying life with my friends :)

Happy times

Before I’ll tell you about the fantastic week I just spent with my mum, I want to start with telling you about the club competition we had last Friday. You might remember that the attendance of the teams has been an issue throughout the year. However, this club competition turned out to be completely different, in a positive way though :) 

Believe it or not, but when I arrived at 15 hours (exact on time. In the beginning I used to arrive 10 minutes before time, like I do at home. However, I quickly figured out that I just have to wait even longer, when I do that :D Hence, I’ve changed my habits, so I’m now on time :)), ALL the teams had already arrived! Wow, I was sooo impressed and happy :) In that moment I really felt that I’m actually having an impact :) It was our best club competition and everybody enjoyed it a LOT, especially me :)

Here are some pictures

Girls playing netball

Boys playing football

Just a cute little girl

The boys love the camera

Well, the girls do it as well :)

Girls in action

Happy spectators :)

Saturday it was time for me to go to the airport to pick up my mum :) juhhuuu!!!! I was so excited to seeing her again! We had such an amazing time :) Besides a little bit of work, which I had to do, we just enjoyed life! I think I’ll just let the pictures tell:

Thanks mum! I think, now I can survive the last month :D

And even a bigger thanks!!! I really miss rye bread

So what did we do?

Sunset drinks at the Royal Livingstone Hotel

Watching the zebras grassing at the Royal Livingstone Hotel

Visiting the Victoria Falls :) 

Walking down to the boiling pot

At the boiling pot

Nice blue sky

The bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia

Nice view

Amazing falls

Lunch at the Zambezi Sun Hotel

We spent two nights on a little island called Bovu Island
(http://www.junglejunction.info)

Sitting in the back of a truck on the way to the island

the back of the truck

our view the whole way

The bar at the lodge

Our canoes

The bar and relaxing area

Sunset canoe tour

Lovely sunset

The showers

The nice and very hot shower

We visited a local village close to the island. It was really nice to see everything and get a traditional lunch :) Especially for my mum, since she hasn't seen any village before, not eaten the traditional food and not tried to eat with the fingers :D (I get the traditional food every day and eat with the fingers all the time at home :D)

The storage room

the chicken house

a family and their house

a church

That's how they cut vegetables (they don't use cutting boards :D)

A child keeping us company

My mum trying to cook nsima :D

It ALWAYS cooks over :D

(it's nsima - the traditional stable food in Zambia)

My mum enjoying eating with the fingers :D

Saturday it was time for the first fun day this year :) I was quite excited about it and really looking forward to it, with some mixed feelings though :D The reason for my mixed feelings was the fact that we had had the planning meeting for this fun day 1 ½ weeks ago. My experiences throughout this year have shown me that it’s best to have the planning meetings 1-3 three days before the event. However, due to some organisational things at Kwenuha, we had to do it in this way. In addition to that, I was quite excited about that my mum got the chance to experience a bit of the fun day :)

We arrived at 9 hours (when the fun day was supposed to start) but yeah, my mum obviously had to experience the African time :D At 10:15 hours still not all teams had arrived but we started anyway. And we had an AMAZING day!!! The sports captains did a very good job and everybody enjoyed the fun games and the foot- and netball matches :)

Here are some pictures

Boys doing the relay

Wheelbarrow relay

Traditiona game

"catching the bird" game

piggyback relay

Tuck the rope

The winners

Boys having fun

The sports captains skipping

Boy dancing

Girls playing

The food and drinks for the 240 children

Football team 1

Football team 2

Football team 3

Stella with her child

Muzala and  me enjoying the day

Children watching their mum playing netball

Doreen and Prisca in action playing netball

Trying to distribute the food

The rest of the weekend has been quite nice as well :) Saturday evening it was time for another sunset cruise and yesterday evening we had a braai at rapid no. 7 :) 

The plan for this week is still not 100% set. Either this or next week, I’m going to do a workshop in Kicking Aids Out for the sports captains. I’m really excited about facilitating a workshop on my own and I’m really looking forward to it :) In addition to that I’m going to do field visits in the different sport clubs and writing reports about the fun day, club competition and the trainings in the clubs. Besides this, I really have to get started with my exam paper…the deadline is the 2^nd of June and yeah, I’m not that far yet…:D T.I.A :) On Thursday night I'm going to Lusaka for celebrating the Norwegian Constitution Day at the Norwegian embassy in Lusaka :) I'm REALLY excited and looking forward to seeing my fellow volunteers again!!! yeah :)

Right, and do you know what? In 26 days I’m already home!!! It’s crazy how time is flying!! Both in a good and bad way…it’s just now, where I have started seeing and feeling that I’m actually having an impact and influence on people. It’s a really nice feeling but it also makes it more difficult to leave…I like it a lot and I’ve had an amazing time :) On the other hand, I’m looking forward to seeing and being a bit closer to family and friends again :) 

To say it in short, this has been both the best and most challenging year in my life so far :) in a good way though…If you ever get the chance to work in Africa for a year, then do it!!! It’s definitely all the challenges worth it :)