From Livingstone to Lusaka

Our return from South Africa brought us back to complete craziness in Zambia. For the last couple of months of 2011 there was talk of Mike and I moving to Lusaka so that Mike could work on the implementation of a national database for the National AIDS Council. Momentum gathered in December and we thought that by the time we returned from South Africa we would have some clarity around this. But Zambia being Zambia, of course this was not the case.

So the remainder of January was spent sorting our move out, only to have everything happen in the space of literally two weeks. A frantic two weeks! The car needed repairs, Selina (our cleaner) needed new work, Rambo needed a home, I had to work out a forward plan with my organisation and that was on top of packing and two trips to Lusaka (500km away) to move our stuff. Glad that’s all over!

Leaving Livingstone has been difficult. Although it is a small town, sometimes a bit too small, we had met lots of great people and made some wonderful friends. Fortunately we had the opportunity to see most of them before we left at a small gathering at the Royal Livingstone Hotel where we had sundowner drinks followed by a lovely meal at Olga’s. Very Livingstone!

Mike and I with beautiful Victoria Falls behind us

Livingstone Farewell Drinks:
The people who have made our time there so much more
enjoyable than it might otherwise have been

We also made one last quick trip to Victoria Falls, definitely a highlight from our time in Livingstone. Super wet and now a tad cold, it was great to see them one last time.

Pretty Victoria Falls- I will miss you!

On the edge of the falls

Trying not to get wet

I did manage to find a home for Rambo; he is staying with his dog friends and our landlord in Livingstone who will make sure he is fed. I felt particularly lucky that our house was receiving two new volunteers, two lovely girls, one who reported she loves dogs. They were also able to take on Selina as their cleaner, which gave us some piece of mind.

Late January and early February were also filled with football fever as the Africa Cup of Nations took place. Think World Cup but on a slightly smaller scale, but nonetheless exciting. Zambia did make it to the final against Ivory Coast and against all the odds won! The atmosphere was amazing with people dancing in the streets, car horns, whistles and vuvuzela’s everywhere.

Taken during the Zambia v Ghana semi-final at VJs in Livingstone.
Obviously Zambia won

Happy, happy Zambians

And now we are in Lusaka. Our new apartment is located in an area called Kabulonga, a nice area with a great coffee/ cake shop, handy supermarket, a few nice restaurants and bars. 

Am I still in Zambia????

The Tuesday Market: A highlight of being in Lusaka with lovely
fresh vegetables, fruit, herbs and even tofu!

One of Mike's favourite road rules, the four way stop sign
intersections; a case of first in, best dressed- SERIOUSLY, that is
the rule!

Our apartment hasn't been quite as nice; it probably could be if we were going to be here longer than April and willing to put money into it, but we’re not, so it’s ok for now. Our biggest beef has been the bath/ shower. We don’t have a shower as the water pressure is so lousy so a bath/ bucket bath it is! And to top it off, the bath tub had been painted just before we moved in, but with the wrong paint, so sometimes we come out worse off than when we got in. Not the ideal set up especially with long hair but I’m managing (just).

Our new apartment in Luaska, top floor

Our new lounge. Not super homely but loving our giraffe "mummies"
in the background

Dining area/ study

Our awesome bathtub.....

.....and the even more awesome paint job they did!

Mike’s project has finally taken off with funding and location issues sorted. When he is finished, Zambia will have a national online database of all organisations working in HIV/AIDS throughout the country, as well as a way of capturing data to monitor progress against the AIDS Council’s national targets in prevention, impact mitigation, etc.

My situation has taken a bit longer to sort out. I still continue to support my Livingstone organisation who seem to have finally gotten things together. Just before moving we’d received $5k of office equipment and had two donor field assessments, having passed the desk assessments, each for $100k (Still awaiting the result of these). In addition to supporting my Livingstone organisation I’m also supposed to be working with another VSO partner in Lusaka, the terms of this still being sorted as I write. I also managed to get the opportunity to work with a large NGO here in Lusaka that I’d had previous contact with in Australia. They work in the area of education, especially for girls, something I’m quite passionate about and looking forward to helping them with when I start next week.

The second of the two field assessments conducted at my
Livingstone organisation before I left. Only 6 representatives at this
one; the first had 8 people assessing us

My Livingstone colleagues; hopefully they've learnt something
during my time there!

And so the days to leaving Zambia are going down slowly. The planning for our East Africa trip is now in full swing along with the realisation that we need to get super fit pretty quick if we want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in June.

Hurry up April!

Prelude to South Africa Trip: Rambo’s Great Escape

So, day one of our trip, we had a friend kindly drive us to the airport in “Ruth”, prior to her return home to Choma, two hours north of Livingstone.

After dropping us off she came back to our house filled up her water bottle and prepared to leave. During this time Rambo (who has worked out how to open the door with his paw), snuck in, however luckily he was noticed and forcibly removed back outside. Our friend then went outside to quickly chat with someone, this time not noticing Rambo’s stealthy return back inside. She locked up the house and hid the key as instructed and made her way to the bus stop for her ride back to Choma.

Hours later our landlord noticed quite distressed noises coming from within our house and went to investigate knowing that we had just left for two weeks. Through the barred window they discovered a frantic puppy dog, who by then had managed to pull down two sets of brand new curtains and destroyed a mosquito net.

Brand new curtains provided to us from our landlord

Pulled out of the wall!!

This curtain actually came out better than our other ones

Mosquito net no longer good at preventing mosquitoes in bed

We’re still not quite sure how, but they managed to help Rambo escape through one of the back windows, despite it being locked shut and a 20kg dog needing to squeeze through bars! A bit scary on how easy it was to get him out, but so very grateful they did. 

The window which Rambo apparently was rescued through

A miracle?! No idea how he got through those bars!

A very lucky little dog!

I think he was happy to have us back from our trip :-)

Zambia and the roller-coaster ride it is

I have to say that I’ve never been a big fan of the roller-coaster. When visiting theme parks, the show, etc. I’ve never been one of those people who rush for a ride on the rollercoaster, mostly because I don’t really like the whizzing around, up and down. So I have to say that it will be nice to eventually get off the rollercoaster that is being a volunteer in Zambia. However until then, I continue to ride the ups and downs, with this entry being a bit of a summary of my ride over the last few months.

To work first.

This has undoubtedly taken me on the down, down part of the rollercoaster ride. In a post prior to our big Southern Africa trip I mentioned that I had worked with the team to put together a plan of things that needed (urgently) to get done. I even went to the effort of enlarging it and printing it in colour so that it was a visible daily reminder! However as anticipated little got done in my absence. In fact, I wouldn’t be exaggerating when I say NOTHING got done the entire time I was away. So much for organisational plans!

So, my return to work was frustrating. Donor funded projects had been left wayside and my first 6 weeks back were spent trying to get things back on track (more for the donors than my organisation). I have dealt with complete selfishness as work that was supposed to be done on behalf of our beneficiaries just didn’t get done, so the beneficiaries just miss out (and the donors get the blame!). I’ve also dealt with foreign donors who fly in to Zambia, spend maybe 4 or 5 days here, spend 2-3 hours with my colleagues and then tell them how wonderful they are and to keep up the good work. They completely undo all of the hard work of me and my Japanese colleague, reinforcing bad behaviours based on their 5 minute observations! Argh, aid! It feels so completely dysfunctional sometimes!

Partner's Forum Meeting for a Sports Advocacy project being
run by my organisation

Public Forum on Sport's grounds in Livingstone

I also became aware that through a partnership with a USAID funded organisation, my colleagues had been completing training and being put up in 5 star hotels in Lusaka. Why I don’t expect that they need to “slum it”, I find this to go completely against the objectives of aid money, when you think about how much it is costing to put up approximately 30 people per training for usually 5 days, food, transport refunds and daily allowances! How much impact could the same amount of money have in a poor community in Zambia as opposed to putting up middle income “aid workers”, who I might add, in the case of my organisation, have done absolutely nothing with the training they have received. Completely crazy and I doubt that US taxpayers would be especially pleased about this. 

Workshop with our Board Members to define their roles and
responsibilities

One win that I appear to have is in setting up a partnership between my organisation and the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA). The ZDA offer some great services to Small and Medium Enterprises and have agreed to run Business Management training for free for some of our Self Help Group women. The training will be only very basic, teaching them simple business concepts such as costing inputs, calculating profit, etc. Simple, but concepts that I’ve discovered many of our SHG women don’t understand and as a result are making losses on their Income Generating Activities. ZDA also provide links to microfinance and larger businesses who may be interested in sourcing their products from the women.

Discussion with some of our SHG women to better understand what
 they need to improve their economic security

Another up on the work front is that it is looking extremely likely that Mike and I will be relocating to Lusaka. Mike has been working hard to gain support for a stakeholders system he has built on behalf of the National AIDS Council in Zambia, and has managed to obtain funds for its implementation. A huge win and very much deserved! So it seems we will both have new jobs, as Mike goes to work on his system implementation and I find a new organisation to work with in Lusaka. More to come on this……

Away from work

A little bit more up on that roller-coaster ride, although feeling the effect of living in a small town with not much to do and a struggle through the hot, hot, hot October heat.

We have managed to keep ourselves relatively occupied, with yet another trip to Chobe NP a month or so ago, a trip to Siavonga (on Lake Kariba) to visit other VSO volunteers, braai’s and dinners with friends and Mike also gave white water rafting a go. We have also started the monumental task of researching our east Africa road trip. So much to read about and plan, but at least it is fun, even if it still seems like forever until we go!

On the road back from Siavonga: This is a very common sight 

Siavonga was lovely, very pretty and it was great to catch up with Joibelle and Vinod, fellow VSOs who were in the same intake as Mike and I. There’s not a lot to do there, but that didn’t matter too much as it was roasting! I thought Livingstone got hot, but it has nothing on Siavonga. I’ve decided that I’m glad I didn’t get placed there! Anyway, we checked out the Dam, which was quite low on water, had a bit of a look around town and spent a bit of time at the various lodges eating and drinking. It was a bit strange being in the lodges who charge crazy prices and then to look out and see the rest of the town on a hill side and their shanty little houses. The divide between the haves and have nots pretty much stares you in the face. Nonetheless, definitely a place worth visiting.

The Kariba Dam: Low on water

Looking out at beautiful Lake Kariba

Lake Kariba in town

It seems there are many uses for the lake, including clothes washing!

Roadside village

Lodge in Siavionga: Hard to see, but the hill behind it
houses many  of the people in Siavonga

The hill of houses

More houses......

Chobe NP, which never disappoints, brought us wild dogs this time. Amazing and super exciting as they were one animal on my list that I can now tick off. A bonus too was seeing a smallish elephant chase the dogs away. Who would have thought that wild dogs in a pack could be so timid?

Wild dog: How cute is he?

Wild dog being chased away by a "huge" elephant :-)

Wild Dog

We also had our dog Rambo castrated, an interesting and slightly discomforting procedure to be taking place when handled by a Zambian veterinarian, but it seems to have gone well (from our point of view anyway, not so sure about Rambo’s). I don’t think that Rambo particularly appreciated the blue bucket on his head either, but it did work in preventing him from biting at his stiches.

My doggy "Rambo" with his bucket head. At least he doesn't look
too unhappy

Lots of braai’s and dinners with friends! Looking forward to the coming Christmas weekend as we spend a “German” Christmas with our friends Marion and George and their son Leonard on the 24^th, and then an afternoon of yummy Christmas food on the 25^th with our friends Brett and Claire at their beautiful lodge on the Zambezi River.

And to all of my wonderful family and friends at home, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy start to 2012. xx  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in 2012!!!

The Downs and Downs of being in Zambia

It’s become apparent to me that my blog entries are getting further and further apart. I guess that was to be a little bit expected, although I probably need to a little more vigilant.

Anyway, as the title of my post indicates, things haven’t been running as smoothly as they could be. Everyday new challenges present themselves.

Work has definitely been an area of challenge for me. On one hand things have been going quite well. My organisation has been awarded a grant for a new over-locker machine to assist with our Sewing IGA and training, good timing considering our other machine has just about given up. We have nearly secured funding for an advocacy project to lobby for improved maintenance of sporting grounds in Livingstone (in support of the link between sport and HIV prevalence amongst youth). And we had a big win with a partnership being announced between ourselves and a USAID funded capacity building organisation here in Zambia. The new partnership will provide assistance in some much needed areas of the organisation and hopefully open the doors to other funding sources. All good right?!  Not really.

Sewing room used for training local women and producing curios to
sell to the local tourist market

More and more I am starting question the sustainability of the work I am doing here. Unfortunately I don’t think that VSO Zambia has explained the meaning of the title “Advisor” to its partners and so I am finding myself doing more and more of the work at my organisation. To my colleagues it seems I am just another pair of hands, but worse, the only ones prepared to do the hard work! I have had the obvious discussions of concern and made attempts to hand things over, however we are now starting to miss deadlines and opportunities. It’s increasingly frustrating and causing me to question if a two year tenure here is realistic (for my own sanity!).

Action items to be "shared" amongst the team; worked for a while but
the novelty seems to have worn off

Another issue I seem to be encountering on a more regular basis is that of the role of religion. In Zambia, as in most African and poorer countries, religion plays a key role in providing hope. I do think this is a good thing. However, being here in Zambia I worry about the way in which people here are taught to take the bible as “black and white”. People here are not taught to question, well, anything really, but especially their religious leaders. This is especially disheartening in the face of the HIV pandemic Zambia is facing and difficult for me working for an “interfaith” organisation.

And then there is the area of aid and development. I have touched on this briefly before and made reference to an “allowance culture” in Zambia. I think the two are without doubt linked, in that, people here are hesitant to do anything unless there is something to line their pocket first. I mean, I don’t blame them; why would you go to work if you can go to a workshop and be given a free meal, transport refund (regardless if the venue is next door to your office or not) and a “sitting allowance”, given just for being present. It is difficult, because in some cases these allowances are the only source of income for some individuals. However, this allowance goes right to the top and the wealthiest people, who not only get their regular salary, but these allowances as well. 

Development at work? Livingstone's first traffic lights!
Is the fact that it's an election year just a coincidence?

Take for instance the partnership launch that I attended in Lusaka last week for the capacity building organisation I mentioned earlier. I received a transport refund, meals and accommodation, which was all fair enough, as most of the attendees were from outside town. But then I received on top of that 100,000zmk per day for three days, just for my presence! In dollar terms it isn’t much, but here that is a lot of money and when given out to each attendee, really starts to add up. The nice hotel and meals should have been enough. I sat in my room and wondered if US tax payers were aware of how their taxes were really being spent, whether good intentioned or not?!

My hotel room while on a workshop in Lusaka

Outside of work things have been a little better, but again not without the odd hiccup.

Last month Mike and I set out on a safari trip in Chobe National Park in Botswana, only to discover in the middle of the park that our 4WD wasn’t actually 4WD at all! We got stuck twice in some very deep sand (unfortunately I didn’t get any photos), and I had to keep an eye out for elephants and lions while Mike attended to the car. Fortunately we both saw the humour in our situation a bit later on :-)

Getting stuck in the sand wasn't all that bad; we wouldn't have come
across this lioness on the way out of the park!

Mike enjoying a well earned Windoek and dessert

Further issues with sick puppies, with one of the puppies from the neighbouring property ending up on our door step as sick as, well, a dog! We were convinced he would die as he wouldn't eat, but then miraculously a few days later he started to get better. Then he went missing for nearly a week and we thought maybe he had died. But no, his owners had him chained up (again). After an escape attempt and seeing wire around his neck we decided to buy him. So now we have a new puppy, “Rambo” who will hopefully become the new property dog after Simba! Just need to toughen him up a bit, hence the name :-)

Wire that was tired around the puppy's neck.
Fortunately the rope wasn't particularly strong!

Rambo: Now a happy puppy with changed luck!

On a brighter note, the month ahead has a couple of trips; one to the capital Lusaka and the second, more exciting one, to Zimbabwe. Looking forward to both trips and a change of scenery!

If all else fails, there's always dessert :-)