Winding down

So, having finished all our hard work it was time for a little holiday. This meant a 6 (or more?) hour drive south to Livingstone - I was sooooo fortunate because I was one of a few in the group who were offered a place on a comfortable public coach - when I say "comfortable" it was relative to the agony suffered by others in the minibus where neither the seats or the suspension were as well sprung as they could have been. The coach was a regular size, with 3 narrow seats on one side of the aisle and 2 on the other. This was OK when neighbours were slender, but most of them were "Tradtionally Built" and so it was a tight squeeze in some rows! My first travelling companion was a young trainee doctor off to visit his sister at school on the way to Livingstone.

Our time in Livingstone was as hectic as it had been in Lusaka - we stayed at Limbo Lodge in comfortable thatched roundhouses with hot showers (oh bliss!!). I've put photos of my time in Livingstone here - "slideshow" is a nice way to look at them.

On our return we dropped into Fountain of Hope to see if the Internet Cafe was up & running -  it wasn't because they discovered that they needed a business licence in order to operate it. Oh the lessons we've been learning on this trip!!! Arthur was able to show it off though, and he told us he had a full class booked in the IT classroom.

We were also able to see the renovated kitchen - the building team had done a fantastic job of cleaning it and removing old units (and the cockroaches that had made their home there) and raising the funds for a new cooker, for wiring that, some new lighting and a work surface that is far far better than what it replaced. Vasco was absolutely delighted with their new-to-them cooker and was looking forward to the evening meal being cooked on it.

This visit was such a good way to begin the end of this project - that evening we were joined at dinner by some of the project partners, and early the next day we began our journey home.

If you are interested in taking part in a similar project then you might like to look at Mission Direct who are already taking bookings for next year. It is so rewarding working with local people on locally led projects to support some of the poorest people in the world. We might not be able to solve world poverty, but for the individuals who we helped it made a difference to them.

Our last working day - Thursday 5th Oct

Today was upside down - instead of working in the morning & visiting other projects in the afternoon we took 49 children from Fountain of Hope to Adventure City which is a waterpark with extras. After a night of rain it was a cold day, but it didn't stop the children from racing into the water and having fun.

Reluctantly we left the children and went off to our projects for the afternoon - Rewired went to Garden Hill where the building team had painted the IT room ready to be used as the IT room - this time we were leaving laptops that we had already prepared, so all we needed to do was power them up.

They were then ready for the staff to have their introduction to them by Martyn. Which meant that I was free to get to know the locals!

Some of the children were playing on an abandoned truck lying at an angle - a novel climbing frame, including the cab which they were lifting & dropping. Scary.

Afterwards we went on to Fountain of Hope to carry on sorting out the Internet Cafe (the internet connections had been reconfigured). 3 of the boys came up to me and gave me a baby bird that had somehow (!) made it's way into a trouser pocket of one of them at Adventure City. I'm not sure if they were disappointed when they asked me if I was going to eat it and I said no! It was injured and was too young to survive anyway, so when the coast was clear I dropped it through a window into the vegetable garden to let nature complete its job.

On the way back to Chamba Valley we passed through the sets of traffic lights offering retail therapy - this time we turned down the opportunity to become owners of toy machine guns and Ben 10 (well, something trying to look like Ben 10) figures.

This was our last full day of work before our long journey south to Livingstone for our mini-holiday.

Another Wednesday

On our commute to work today we stopped to admire an avenue of jackaranda trees which not only looked wonderful bt the scent was like nectar:

After the Rewired team left the building team at the new Kumbyah school buildings Chika took us on to Fountain of Hope where the idea was for Roger, Chris & Jon to finish off getting the internet cafe ready while Martyn & I went off with a driver to shop for a vacuum cleaner, an ethernet hub/switch, a couple of keyboards and some mousemats, and to look at the prices of fridges for the clinic that some of the team visited yesterday. Soon after we started up a few PCs it became clear that the internet connection was dire, even when compared to the speed of response with my netbook and the 3G dongle.

In addition to this, when I visited Arthur in his classroom cabin he showed me how the rain had been driven by the wind through the shutters and got into the keyboards and onto the base units (hopefully not into them though) and onto the back of the screens. These are both real wake-up calls to the reality of what we are doing in this developing country and the possible limitations of the infrastructure.

At least Martyn and I had a successful trip, and we came back with a lovely blue vacuum cleaner for Arthur to use in the classroom and Internet Cafe, as well as all the other bits and pieces.

During the traffic light stops on our drive we weren't offered any more ducks, but instead a couple of chest expanders, some sink plungers, lampshades, trousers as well as the usual mobile top-ups, newspapers and Zambia flags, football shirts & caps. Do Zambians make shopping lists knowing that they'll find these items, or are these impulse buys? In among the sellers there were a few beggars, including some that were pitifully disfigured.

We also saw an informal market strung along a railway track that ran alongside a track that is in regular (but thankfully not too frequent) use.

A removal van from Norwich interested us – I wonder who was moving here.

When Martyn & I got back to Fountain of Hope things hadn't got much better – Roger had started to download a new security package only to be told it would take 19 hours to complete! Chris & Jon were also struggling with various aspects. This installation is certainly going to be a learning exercise! However, in the afternoon Chris, Jon & Martyn replaced the Internet Cafe software with a different package (Cyber Cafe Pro) and found that not only did the response times improve drastically but the software also provides more functionality that will be a real help to Arthur.

Roger and I left the others at the Internet Cafe and went by taxi to the current Kumbyah school where the rest of the team were entertaining the children (around 250 to 300 of them!) before distributing the food. 

 I took a lot of photographs of the people there – looking at the photographs now it really strkes me that each of the faces has such a story to tell.

I played a vague variation of the hokey kokey with the children – they especially liked the “Woah” bit with holding hands in a circle and rushing into the middle.

We could see that rain was imminent and so walked quickly through the shanty town back to the new school where Chika was due to collect us. We were each escorted by so many children – I had at least 2 holding on to each hand, as well as the babies some of them were carrying on their backs.

Just as we got to the new school the rain started – it was really heavy and confirms that the rainy season has begun. It's a month early and is worrying people who need to plant maize – the seeds need rain to germinate, but haven't arrived yet. Chika eventually arrived with 2 smaller buses instead of the one he drives – he'd been out trying to get the clutch fixed (reverse and most of the other gears don't exist at the moment).

For us the rain had been slightly entertaining, but as we drove out of the area it was obvious how it had impacted the people in the area with huge puddles outside the houses and the ditches already full to overflowing – I saw a child wallowing in one of them.

Sponsor a vacuum cleaner?

The Rewired team has been so aware of the dust and grit flying around, concerned about what it will do to the kit we are installing - it's the one thing we didn't think about when preparing for the trip!

So today I'm going shopping for a vacuum cleaner that we can leave at Fountain of Hope where there are 2 rooms with PCs in - the classroom and the Internet Cafe.

I'm hoping to find a cylinder bagless one something like one of these but the prices here in Zambia are likely to be three times the price of the ones in the UK - eek!! I'll be looking first at reconditioned ones, which will be a little bit less expensive, but still a big chunk out of our budget.

So if you'd like to help pay for this we'd really appreciate it and you can help make a big difference out here - the easiest way is to go to my justgiving page.

Tuesday again

Back to Fountain of Hope today, hoping that the Internet connection would be done in the morning, but actually it became the afternoon. Meanwhile the Rewired team got 9 laptops ready for a couple of schools that we will be visiting later this week. The Internet Cafe was being gloss painted around us, so it was rather smelly. Back in the classroom a teacher put a memory stick into a desktop and completely infected it, so we decided to reduce the risk of this happening to all the other PCs it would be best to disable the USB ports (apart from the mouse & keyboard, of course).

The drive back to Chamba Valley for lunch was punctuated by stops at traffic lights where we were offered all sorts of things: the usual mobile top-ups and football caps/tops, but also a couple of mallard ducks, one under each arm of the seller – he offered them to us at 350,000 kwacha - £50 each, most definitely mizungu (white man) price!

This afternoon we visited a Vocational Training Centre (run by the Evangelical Church in Zambia) where they provide training for young people in carpentry, tailoring and knitting (with machines). 

 I was touched by the desperation of the young women who start the Tailoring course but then find it hard to find the fees for the 3 or 6 month courses, or even for the exam fees at the end. The Centre allows such women to complete the course and repay their fees when they begin to earn, and this is something that I'd like to support somehow.

As I'm writing, we're seeing the end of a thunder storm and heavy rain – it is hard to think what the conditions will be like for those in the shanty towns or even the boys on the streets.

Monday

Today we headed off to Soweto Market (the one in Lusaka, not the South African one!) where we met Vasko, Kennie and Vinnnie from Fountain of Hope so they could take us around the market and bus station to meet boys who live on the street.

To get into the market area we drove through an area where bales of second-hand clothes were being sold to people who would then split the bale and either sell on to specialist traders (jeans for example, or belts, or bags, or...) or sell them on themselves. It was good to see what happens to the left-overs from the charity shops, or what goes into the bags that come through the letter box.

The walk to meet the boys was more eye opening than I thought it would be – the first by we came across was flat out and oblivious in the shell of a car, obviously knocked out by the effect of stikka (a by product of benzene) which numbs them to their hunger and to the cold and to the general desperation of their situation. Gradually we met more and more boys – it really made me wonder how often I've wandered around similar markets and simply not noticed these boys – they were invisible to me. But nott this time: The place was teeming with them – many (most?) were sniffing the stikka from rags, rolled up hats or empty soda bottles. The idea of us visiting the area in the morning was that they wouldn't be too high and out of it, but many of them were already out of reason. The team had an opportunity to chat with the boys and remind them of Fountain of Hope and the food, shelter and accommodation it has to offer. I spent most of my time keeping an eye on those in the team who wandered off away from the group that they'd been put into. Vasko accepted the offer of some sheema that a group of boys were cooking, but immediately regretted it because it was off, and the tomatoes in it were rancid, and it took him straight back to when he too was on the streets. No wonder he is so well respected by the boys and by the gangs there. I was privileged to be in Geoff's group, led by Abe, because both of them were able to provide a much deeper insight into the whole situation. Eventually we made our way into the bus station where Geoff was confident we'd probably find Jubilee who had lost a leg in an incident with a car a couple of years ago. His wooden crutches were falling to pieces and I was very glad to be able to give him the ones that I had used when I had my ankle operated on – they are a different design so hopefully he'll be able to get used to them. It was not possible to be sure I'd set them at the correct length because he was so high that he was shaking. The camaraderie of his companions really struck me – they were making sure he was being looked after.

Fountain of Hope felt like an absolute refuge when we arrived there – all the space and the calm of the place, and the contentedness of the children. After a debriefing and lunch we began work: Rewired on finishing setting up the PCs in the cabin/shipping container that has been declared the IT classroom

Some of the rest of the team to de-cockroaching the kitchen and scrubbing it clean before putting an initial coat of paint on it. Others went to investigate cookers, and yet more carried on decorating the Internet Cafe.

I revisited Fydes (pronounced Feedez) in the clinic to let her know about the donation from two ladies at Romsey Abbey – she was so delighted because this is a step close to her vision of a neonatal clinic as well as what she is able to provide the boys and the local community.

During the evening we were visited by Amos and Katie who introduced us to the work they have set up with Kumbyah – this is a school for around 350 children in a tiny building and a feeding programme that provides a basic meal to around 400 children every day, some from the school but others who are just around; we visit them on Wednesday to help them when they distribute the food.

Sunday

At last! I can post on the day it's supposed to be for!

Today I discovered that the sound of crickets that I thought I was hearing during the day was actually being caused by the electric wires that cross between a pole in the centre of the cottages to each one – as the power usage rises and falls so does the sound of the crickets.

However, all the other wildlife is real – the giant cricket and the toad/frog that joined us at dinner a couple of nights ago, the beautifully coloured butterflies on the verbena hedge outside each cottage, and today some pretty little steely-blue butterflies.

This morning we joined the local church for their morning worship – we were there for the last 3 hours of their service – I don't know when it began, but it was in full swing when we arrived. Their singing was lovely – harmonies and at full volume, quite a contrast to when the team sang some songs for them. I was struck at how smart and clean everyone was, considering the conditions in which they live; I didn't recognise some people who I had met before. At the end of the service, as each person left and shook hands with a row of people they joined the end of that row to greet the people leaving after them, which meant that we shook hands with everyone (about 170 people).

This afternoon we had free time, and I had a very welcome time at the swimming pool, cooling off and getting a little bit of exercise too.

The following photos give an idea of where I am staying and what the team looks like – if you look at Google Earth you can find Chamba Valley and also Kaunda Square community.

This evening we had a very generous bbq, followed by a showing of “Africa United” - a film about a group of children who make their way from Rwanda to South Africa for the World Cup.

Back to work tomorrow at Fountain of Hope.