One of the things I read about life as a volunteer before I came away said that after about 4-6 months, your life starts to seem ridiculous. In the context of facing extreme poverty every day though, your old life will seem ridiculous too, and apparently the thing to do is shrug your shoulders and get on with it.
When the author said that life can sometimes feel ridiculous, I'm fairly sure they didn't have in mind that as a volunteer you'd find yourself sat in a nightclub at 3 in the morning, rating teenage girls on their cat-walking and smiling abilities, in the name of halting the HIV pandemic in Africa.
Livingstone has the highest rate of HIV in Zambia, 31%, and my organisation works with young people to try to reduce the number of new infections. This week saw our 'Miss Voluntary Counseling and Testing' pageant, where a beauty queen is selected as our ambassador for the year to work to influence young people to know their HIV status and to take appropriate care to stay negative or not to infect others. I was one of the judges, and the event was fun in a chaotic sort of way (advertised to start at 7,30, really we were hoping to start at 9, proceedings actually began at 11pm...). The concert went ahead the next day too, despite very limited planning and it was fun to meet some Zambian popstars.
It's very hard to know if any of these projects have a real impact on the prevalence rate of the disease, and it's felt like this weekend has been partying in the name of development. This week I'm hoping to be able to sit down with my boss and make some solid plans for the rest of my year. Now I've been here 4 months it feels like time to really start doing some work but there are big challenges at the organisation and I think it will be hard. Definitely reminding myself what VSO taught me at training all those months ago that no-one said development work is easy.
I also have a meeting with a different HIV organisation this week to see if they can make use of my free time so perhaps that will be another chance to do something useful while I'm here enjoying the sunshine, going to nightclubs and watching England mess up football matches!
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Back to work...
After 3 weeks of tourism it's been back to normal this week, and work is increasingly frustrating. Against my advice my colleagues decided while I was away to plan in 2 weeks the kind of concert the would take a year to organise in the UK. It eventually became obvious that this wouldn't be possibly, (after I'd been sent to announce it at a town meeting), and the decision was taken to postpone it...by 1week! I remain unconvinced that a week will be long enough to pull everything together, but am sincerely hoping to be proved wrong. Watch this space, hopefully they'll be photos of a successful event on next week's blog!
Meanwhile I'm continuing to work on developing a more strategic approach to harnessing support from local businesses, but it's a challenge when it seems to be a particularly bad year for tourism, Livingstone's main industry. We're hoping to develop the youth centre where I work into somewhere that young people will want to spend their time and are trying to raise money to buy some sports equipment, as well as fit out some consultation rooms where young people can be tested for HIV in an environment where they feel comfortable.
One money-raising initiative that my colleagues have started is setting up a cinema where young people can come to watch world cup matches. Football fever has completely taken over here, as there's a lot of pride that the world cup has come to Africa. Even I'm getting into it a little bit and have watched England disappoint in their efforts! Fingers crossed for the last match...
Meanwhile I'm continuing to work on developing a more strategic approach to harnessing support from local businesses, but it's a challenge when it seems to be a particularly bad year for tourism, Livingstone's main industry. We're hoping to develop the youth centre where I work into somewhere that young people will want to spend their time and are trying to raise money to buy some sports equipment, as well as fit out some consultation rooms where young people can be tested for HIV in an environment where they feel comfortable.
One money-raising initiative that my colleagues have started is setting up a cinema where young people can come to watch world cup matches. Football fever has completely taken over here, as there's a lot of pride that the world cup has come to Africa. Even I'm getting into it a little bit and have watched England disappoint in their efforts! Fingers crossed for the last match...
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Guest blogger....
This week I've had my first visitor from home, and this post comes courtesy of the lovely Luxmy!
My challenge is to summarise my experience of Zambia within a few words and even fewer minutes, so here goes...
A highlight was microlighting over Victoria Falls, which was like hang-gliding but with an engine. It was an enjoyable experience, considering the helmet was 3 sizes too big, so the fierce wind kept buffetting it against my head, and my hair almost got tangled up in the engine (the pilot didn't seem too worried), and I got incredibly airsick. My advice to you all: don't go for half an hour of microlighting when 15 minutes will do.
Safariing was amazing, with three leopard sightings and an even rarer sighting of a Luxmy at a campsite. The sounds of the lions and hyenas at night almost made up for the lack of amenities, such as running water. As further consolation, my second night of the Botswana safari trip was at a lodge where elephants come to drink outside your bedroom window. To make up for my lack of actual lion sightings, I went for a walk with lions back in Zambia, and lived to tell the tale and even get my hair braided.
Encountering the lions was less scary than the gorge swing, which Emily and I very sensibly chickened out of. It involves being thrown off a cliff attached to a rope – rather like bungee-jumping, but less controlled and with a higher risk of slamming your body to smithereens against the rock face. Instead, we went for the flying fox (you get to breeze across the gorge a la Peter Pan) and abseiling (Emily even did it backwards a la Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, while I ended up looking like a confused spider dangling in pain).
We enjoyed cocktails at sunset, as well as the most sumptuous high tea we've ever not eaten (we only managed 5 plates of cakes between us, and the plates were the size of buttons). Our walks around the Falls were beautiful, but also reminded me to work on my fitness on my return to the U.K.
I managed to dip a toe into Emily's real Zambian life by hanging out with her VSO colleagues and participating in a march against child labour (it involved a military band, waiting for speeches and a bit of marching).
Whilst I can't do justice to the Livingstone experience in my current state of sleepiness, my lasting impression will be Emily's surreal world of two halves: of an austere VSO existence against an exotic holiday backdrop.
(And, wow, this post avoided a single mention of the World Cup. Except that one.)
Finally, thank you to Emily for admitting some Luxmy chaos into her Livingstone lifestyle.
My challenge is to summarise my experience of Zambia within a few words and even fewer minutes, so here goes...
A highlight was microlighting over Victoria Falls, which was like hang-gliding but with an engine. It was an enjoyable experience, considering the helmet was 3 sizes too big, so the fierce wind kept buffetting it against my head, and my hair almost got tangled up in the engine (the pilot didn't seem too worried), and I got incredibly airsick. My advice to you all: don't go for half an hour of microlighting when 15 minutes will do.
Safariing was amazing, with three leopard sightings and an even rarer sighting of a Luxmy at a campsite. The sounds of the lions and hyenas at night almost made up for the lack of amenities, such as running water. As further consolation, my second night of the Botswana safari trip was at a lodge where elephants come to drink outside your bedroom window. To make up for my lack of actual lion sightings, I went for a walk with lions back in Zambia, and lived to tell the tale and even get my hair braided.
Encountering the lions was less scary than the gorge swing, which Emily and I very sensibly chickened out of. It involves being thrown off a cliff attached to a rope – rather like bungee-jumping, but less controlled and with a higher risk of slamming your body to smithereens against the rock face. Instead, we went for the flying fox (you get to breeze across the gorge a la Peter Pan) and abseiling (Emily even did it backwards a la Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, while I ended up looking like a confused spider dangling in pain).
We enjoyed cocktails at sunset, as well as the most sumptuous high tea we've ever not eaten (we only managed 5 plates of cakes between us, and the plates were the size of buttons). Our walks around the Falls were beautiful, but also reminded me to work on my fitness on my return to the U.K.
I managed to dip a toe into Emily's real Zambian life by hanging out with her VSO colleagues and participating in a march against child labour (it involved a military band, waiting for speeches and a bit of marching).
Whilst I can't do justice to the Livingstone experience in my current state of sleepiness, my lasting impression will be Emily's surreal world of two halves: of an austere VSO existence against an exotic holiday backdrop.
(And, wow, this post avoided a single mention of the World Cup. Except that one.)
Finally, thank you to Emily for admitting some Luxmy chaos into her Livingstone lifestyle.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
An actual holiday
It felt a bit strange going on holiday from such a tourist-y town, but absolutely lovely to get away for a couple of weeks and see some more of Africa. I'm just back from driving round Botswana and Namibia with some British VSO friends. 5,000 miles in 2 weeks and I feel a bit like I've come back to work for a break, but absolutely amazing.
Far too much excitement for one blog post really, but highlights included elephants at Chobe national park in Botswana, rhinos at Otosha national park in Namibia, a flight over the Okavanga Delta, sandboarding down beautiful sand dunes and seeing the sea for the first time in 3 months. We were mostly camping, and African campsites are brilliant - I got to test my Guide skills with proper fires, and when you wake up in the morning nothing's damp!
Far too much excitement for one blog post really, but highlights included elephants at Chobe national park in Botswana, rhinos at Otosha national park in Namibia, a flight over the Okavanga Delta, sandboarding down beautiful sand dunes and seeing the sea for the first time in 3 months. We were mostly camping, and African campsites are brilliant - I got to test my Guide skills with proper fires, and when you wake up in the morning nothing's damp!
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