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 :-)

The 7 Month Mark!

Time is finally moving a bit faster and we have made it to 7 months in Zambia. It feels like quite an achievement as there have been days when I have started to think that I wasn’t going to make it even this far.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hating Zambia or my placement, but it is challenging on a day to day basis and sometimes does get me down.

Life has become somewhat routine, pretty much one of the things that I had hoped to get away from when I left Australia. It’s been very much work from Monday to Friday and fit in what we can on the weekends, on a very meagre budget.

Weekend treat: Homemade burger with a refreshing cider to
accompany it!

Work has been ok, quite busy actually. I finally completed one of my most important tasks, writing a Resource Mobilisation Strategy for my organisation, which I had never done before, and have had it accepted by the management and staff of the organisation. From there it has been full steam ahead as we refine some of our programme plans and ramp up the daunting task of fundraising for them. At work we were also successful in securing a donated vehicle (I did have misgivings about this, given the cost of fuel and maintenance, but it has already come in very useful) and have started a couple of smaller IGAs for our office. Baby steps, but we have to start somewhere!

One of our office IGAs: The first of our vegetable gardens. 

The Toyota Hilux that was donated to ZINGO South from Pact Zambia

Our main programme which is currently running is Self Help Groups (SHG) for women, a programme that I feel quite passionately about and more so every time we do a site visit. The programme so far has 21 groups of women (approximately 15 per group), with our goal to reach up to 50 by end of this year. The programme focuses on group savings and loans, is a proven concept and is sort of based on the Grameen model, with less of a microfinance component. I love the focus on women and the concept of “Self Help”, something that Zambia often lacks. But I think I will write more on this programme in a later post.

One of our women's groups at their weekly meeting

Self Help Group training at the ZINGO South office. The training
covered the SHG concept, book keeping and data collection

The area of development and its place in Zambia has proven extremely challenging for me and from discussions with other VSO volunteers and expats, I’m not alone. At the moment I cannot see how Zambia’s aid dependency will ever be removed unless something changes significantly. It is a shame as Zambia as a country has a lot going for it; beautiful parks and wildlife and therefore great tourism opportunities; lots of minerals, predominately copper; it has a relatively cheap, oversupply of labour which if tapped properly could be used to attract foreign investment. Unfortunately, Zambia suffers from many of the same “governance” issues as a number of other African countries (albeit not all). It also has poor infrastructure which it needs to improve significantly being a land-locked country, a lack of incentives for foreign investment and an allowance culture where very little gets done without a personal incentive being offered first. Currently there are a number of countries pulling their aid money out of Zambia, which I hope acts as a signal to the people and government here that things need to change. However I fear that I am being a little optimistic.

Anyway, to break routine, Mike and I are endeavouring to plan more short trips and activities; after all, we shouldn't waste the opportunities that we have in the location where we are based with 3 borders at our doorstep. We are especially looking forward to our planned trip in September which will be nearly a month long road trip through Botswana and Namibia (which Mike has deemed as “Top Gear Bostwana 2”). I’m excited too because my Mum and her friend Reegena will be joining us.

Before shot: This is Mike before I gave him a very much needed hair cut

After shot: Mike exclaiming how much lighter and cooler his head feels

Last weekend we re-visited Victoria Falls, which are too amazing to try and describe. They have to be one of the coolest, if not the coolest, thing I have ever seen. Sooooo much water and power!

Victoria Falls in May

The mighty Mosi-o-Tunya (the smoke that thunders) 

The town of Livingstone over Easter was the busiest I have ever seen it, with “Mzungu’s” (white person) everywhere, great for the local tourism industry.

Mike in front of Victoria Falls

And at home we have had a puppy invasion, with puppies appearing from everywhere, much to the disgust of our resident dog, Simba (although we suspect that some of the puppies may be his). Mike has also been quite unhappy, with some of the puppies attacking his herbs and plants. 

Simba being followed around by the puppies

Could this be Simba Junior?

So life continues here in Zambia, with its ups and downs, encouragements and disappointments, a real eye opener!

Me at the top of Victoria Falls

Arrival in Livingstone

After a very long car ride of approximately 7 hours from Lusaka to Livingstone, we finally made it to our final destination and home for the next two years. It had felt for sometime like the day would never come!

Our house in Livingstone is pretty comfortable with 3 large bedrooms (so plenty of room for visitors) and a basic kitchen and living area.

Our house comes with a few other features including a dog Simba (he actually belongs to our landlord but spends a lot of time lounging on our front porch), countless geckos and “flat spiders”, all harmless and incredibly fast and red dust absolutely everywhere. I don’t think I am going to have proper clean feet now for the next two years.



We have only been here a few days and have found electricity and water to be a tad “sporadic” however the water issue should disappear once the wet season begins in about another month. In the meantime good preparation for unscheduled events will hopefully get us through.

Mike and I were both very fortunate to get up some time off from our employers to settle in and take care of a few logistics. Our first couple of days were mostly spent cleaning our house and buying some of the basics. Then we had some time to sort out internet, phone, a local bank account, etc. Some of the logistics have been a little frustrating to complete, some are still in progress, but I guess we’ll get there! However I am going to have to work on my patience a little more.

We have also been incredibly fortunate to have the hospitality of another Australian couple also volunteering here in Livingstone. They have so far cooked up a couple of great dinners and given us further advice on work, local life as well as travel.

So far, I think I am going to like Livingstone.