Reflections and Action at Home

Here is a post about my time back in the UK and my progress toward my Action at Home for my ICS programme.

Arriving back from Zambia, it was a very short stay at home before i whisked back off to University in Bristol. I only got back yesterday from a very busy first term; second year is definitely a step up! Now back for the Christmas Holidays, i am taking this opportunity to eat a few mince pies and help raise awareness of ICS and the pressing global issues we face in our developing world today.

My experience in Zambia inspired me to become involved with some new volunteering experiences within my local community at university. Firstly, i have become a part of my University’s Enactus Scheme. Its aim is to apply business concepts to develop community outreach projects that improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need. I have become part of a project called ‘Hope Crafts’. Here we work with vulnerable women at a women’s shelter (‘Spring of Hope’). This term we have conducted an 8-week scheme making Christmas cards with the women, providing skills and confidence to support them for the working world. Our money raised from selling the cards is being put back into the charity in a sustainable way with the aspiration to use our funds to support the women through our projects and with job related needs such as transport to interviews.

Selling the Christmas Cards at a local church Christmas fair

Secondly, i have been accepted to become a St John Ambulance volunteer which i am really exited about. Over in Zambia, it definitely put things in to perspective and made me realise how precious life can be. As a consequence i wanted to get involved with some first aid back at home so that i am trained to assist people when in a situation of need.

Over in Zambia along with many other developing countries, it became apparent that gender inequality was evident in my community. For a lot of women, they marry their husbands knowing they will cheat on them, domestically abuse them and be treated at a lower status. This was hard-hitting for me, especially when i heard stories of this happening to people within my community, and I felt empowered to help change this norm. From this, i am hoping to raise awareness of women speaking up and having a voice in society and politics as a new voice for change. Campaigns are already running such as VSOs ‘Women in Power’ campaign. It states over 1.4 billion women globally whom are in poverty are unable to voice their decision making that can have a serious effect on themselves and their families lives. VSO are helping to tackle this issue by empowering women to become involved in decision making to help improve gender equality in a variety of ways. One action you can do is through signing an online petition that will help demand action from the UN to drive forward this vital issue and increase the number of women in power. To sign this petition you can follow this link here.

http://www.vso.org.uk/get-involved/campaign/women-in-power/take-action-for-women-in-power

It is really simple and quick. By doing it you are helping plans move forward to give women a voice so please click the link!

The whole experience has encouraged me to continue supporting my local community through volunteering and to continue raising awareness of global issues that face our world today.

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Bittersweet Farewells

I cant believe i am back in the UK! The time in Zambia went so fast and England almost feels slightly foreign to me now! The last few days in Zambia where very emotional saying by to our loved ones there and i wanted to stay with them all.

Farewells

The first goodbyes was to my family. They have done so much for me over the past three months and i definitely struck gold with the family i got. I couldn’t ask more from my host mum, she was such a strong role model and taught me many lessons in life as well as giving me friendship, care, support and love among-st many things.

My sisters. Lisa and Diana both had very different personalities which i both loved. Lisa was 13 going on 30 and very grown up for her age. She was a confident and funny girl who loved to sing and dance. Diana was slightly quieter but very kind and had a big heart who also loved to sing and dance. I will miss them both so much as it was lovely to live with girls of a similar age and witness their funny teenage antics.

Tiesha. I can’t even express how much i will miss this little baby. Over the past three months i have grown so close to her and it was so difficult to depart from her. She is such a happy and adorable baby with the best affro going around. There are so many memories i will cherish from her; playing with her, laughing with her, the funny things she would do and say the list could go on. When i spoke to my host mum in Lusaka she said Tiesha was missing me as she saying my name and going in to my room saying Anna Anna.

My host home counterpart, Faustina. Faustina was there for me the whole time and helped me integrate into the new culture and taught me about Zambian life as well as being a supportive friend. We got on very well and were there for each other. She has a great personality and came out with the funniest things. She won most unintentionally funny person for the awards which is so so true!

After leaving Choma we went to Lusaka where we stayed a night with the Nyimba team and had a night out. Monday morning was heartbreaking for us all. In the morning as a team we danced, played energisers, sang songs and said our goodbyes. We were all in floods of tears hugging each other and our counterparts. It made me realise how close and integrated we were as a team and i will miss the Zambians dearly.

Arriving in Gatwick it was time to say goodbye to the UKs. As 9 of us, we have grown so close and I have definitely made true friends for a long time. Spending nearly every day with each other for three months we have shared so many memorable experiences with each other that people at home wont be able to relate to. We have already planned uni visits to each other and will be seeing each other as much as we can.

After over 18 hours of travelling i finally arrived home yesterday. It was a bit surreal but it is lovely to be back. I am certainly having a slight culture shock but i suspect this will die down in a few weeks.

The unpacking was underway!

Its impossible to express all my feelings about the time i have had in Zambia but i can say it was the best experience of my life and totally unforgettable. I have learnt endless amounts of things about myself, life, people, culture, international development. The list goes on and on. If anyone is thinking of applying for ICS or wants to do something worth wile and life changing for three months i would 100% recommend it. I wish i could go back do it all over again. I hope one day i can visit Choma again and see how it has changed and to visit my second family again.

This is the last post for a muzunguinzambia. I hope those who have followed and read my post have enjoyed reading about my time and have gained a slight insight in to what i got up to.

Twalumba!

Malaria Struck

There is not much to report on unfortunately over the last few days as i have caught malaria. Anyone who has had this knows that you have virtually no energy to do anything along with other horrid symptoms which i wont get in to. I have followed doctors orders and stayed in bed for three days whilst taking my medicine. I can’t believe it has happened to me the week before i go!

Had i been malaria free i would be talking about the debrief that ran from Wednesday to Friday. Since i was at home i cant really report much but i heard it was a success which is a relief to hear as i was on the committee and a lot f time and organising went in to it. One of the things we organised for the team was silly individual awards. Mine was best goat carrier. One day we went round to one of our houses to pick up a frozen goat and well i was the only one who could face carrying half a dead animal on a plate!

Last night i managed to attend a bit of the team BBQ we organised. It was nice to have some of our favourite foods; goat and chicken and potato salad. It was one of our volunteers birthday so we also had a big cake decorated with biscuits which went down very well. 

It’s our last day in Choma today and i am trying not to think about it too much as i know i will start to get teary. I am going to miss everyone so much. The past three months all of us in the team have been each others lives and it will be a very emotional day on Monday when we fly home. Saying goodbye to my mum here will be particularly hard as she has been so supportive and kind to me over here and her generosity is overwhelming. 

We have our community farewell this afternoon where we give thanks to Choma for having us and for kind words to be exchanged. It will also be a chance to say our final farewells to our friends ad work colleagues. 

I don’t really have much more to say as my last three days have been rather boring and bed ridden with malaria.

I will add that i managed to say a few goodbyes to people including a friend from work who has an adorable two month old baby. here she is:

 

 

I am going to miss Zambian baby’s so much – especially Tiesha!

The next time i post will be back in the UK where i will give a reflection of my whole time here in Zambia. 

Coming to an end

We are in our final week here in Choma and I am trying to make the most of my time with the people I have made friendships with and my family. Last week was our final full week at placements and I managed to fill in a lot of things during my few days there.

Firstly I went out on home visits for the last time into Mwapona and Zambia compound on our bicycles to talk to the parents of the vulnerable/orphaned children on their behaviour and work ethic now they are on their school break. Like I have said before it is such an eye opening experience and you really get to see the hardships and struggles that people face here in Zambia. Nonetheless it was a fun visit as the children where entertaining posing for photos on my camera and me replying to the never ending “hello how are you”? from the small children.

Taking to the children Mmabana support at home

Strike a pose!

 

Me, my placement supervisor and Louisa

Houses in the compound

 

The following two days I focused on my SRH manual I have been creating for the volunteers at Mmabana. It includes sessions and information on HIV/AIDS, STIs, contraception, female and male condom advice, puberty and Substance abuse. It is important for me to leave a mark at Mmabana so I can feel confident that they will give useful SRH advice to outreaching to the youths in the community.

On Thursday i went along with Louisa and Emmanuel to do condom distribution to the footballers at show grounds. This was successful and i enjoyed once again talking to the teams about condoms, STIs and other sexual health related information.

Friday we had our facilitation to the youth club on Alcohol Abuse. The facilitation before us from a bank over ran by an hour and a half (typical Zambian time) so we had to cut down our session. Despite this we covered all of the topics we wished to talk about and the feedback was positive.

Discussing the causes and effects of alcohol abuse

I am really going to miss Mmabana. Despite the challenges we have faced in terms of them supporting us with SRH, i have loved my experience with them. Being able to work with people in the community of different ages from small children to the youths, i have gained valuable knowledge in working with an NGO and helping the community in Shah compound. One of my highlights from the whole ICS programme is spending time with the people at Mmabana. I can confidently call them my friends and they have become my second family here in Choma. I will definitely be keeping in contact with them!

 

 

Weekend
On Saturday we had our Community Action Day on road safety. Here in Zambia the driving is pretty horrendous, even worse than white van men! Due to this issue we have seen we got in contact with Choma police and the local council to organise a day where we re paint a zebra crossing and a speed bump as the drivers very rarely abide by the rules of stopping for pedestrians. Despite a few hiccups in the morning it was a very successful day. We held a stall where we had road safety information, walked around with our home made posters and spoke to drivers on the importance of road safety.

Talking to taxi drivers

 

Marching on Livingstone road

Getting stuck in!

Leaving our mark (our team name for ICS)

The team!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday i spent time with my family ticking off something i had on my Zambian bucket list…..killing a live chicken. The experience was pretty nerve racking but i did it! I then plucked the chicken and cut it up to be put in the freezer for eating later. I’m really glad i did it as it has made me appreciate what is put on our plate so much more. I even tried the liver for lunch which was not particulary to my liking. This also adds on to my weird and wacky list of foods i have tasted including fried Caterpillar and cow intestine! I also pounded groundnuts which was fun. Groundnuts are used extensively here, in porridge, samp, Nshima, Visachi pretty much anything! I hope to bring some back to the UK.

Sieving the ground nuts

Pounding the ground nuts

Doing the deed

 

Plucking away

 

Meanwhile Tiesha enjoying a ride!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday i took a brave decision and got my hair braided…all of it. After 5 and a half hours it was complete and i have to say i look like a green peace Rastafarian. I’m not sure how long i will keep it in for but i wanted the novelty of doing it.

I am now spending my time writing personal and placement case studies a swell as organising debrief for the team. I am also having some more clothes made by the tailor which my mother wont be happy about as apparently i already have far too many clothes as it is! (a girl can never have enough though right?)
Hopefully i can squeeze a few more blogs in before my time here is up. To think this time next week i will be landing at Gatwick is scary!

Placement Achievements!

I haven’t written much about what i have actually achieved so far on my programme so thought i would write a post on this. Part of VSOs aim is to break the vicious circle of ill health that occurs in developing countries. Our programme is linked to this aim focusing on teaching youths about safe sexual reproductive health practices.

My placement at Mmabana works mainly with children on educational support meaning me and my counterpart at the start found it a struggle to think of how we can achieve our this aim. Therefore a lot of our work has been done through ourselves independently. At the start we sat down with our placement supervisor and arranged that we were going to hold facilitations at Mmabana to the youths every other week and that we will go to schools to teach the elder students on SRH. Mmabana also does football and netball for the youths that attend the free computer course and the youth club meaning we have been getting involved with condom distributions every week to the teams.

Work at Mmabana

The work we have been doing at Mmabana on sexual reproductive health has been predominantly through condom distributions and a few sessions at the youth club. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we usually go to Mwagalli grounds. Here we speak to football teams about safe sex, the correct use and storage of condoms, reasons why we use them and other SRH related issues. We then open the floor for any questions they have. 

     

I really enjoy this as you can often speak to the youths one to one and have a productive conversation with them on SRH. They often have many questions that startle me as in my eyes the answer is simple but for them they have been drilled in to using condoms but very few have been told about the facts on contraception and how to use them correctly. So far me and my counterpart have successfully distributed over 2600 condoms. 

One of our most productive condom distributions was during a football tournament at Mwagalli grounds where we distributed over 1700 condoms along with other volunteers on our team working for PPAZ and Railway clinic. Here we spoke to many youths and they had lots of questions which we could happily and confidently answer. 

Other SRH work we have been involved with at Mmabana is holding our own SRH sessions to the youths. Due to youth club being on a Friday, this has clashed with our ACD and team meetings meaning we have only managed to run a couple of these facilitations. Nonetheless they have been very successful and the participants have gained important information on HIV and Sexually transmitted infections. The first session was on HIV. Here we covered basic aspects on the virus, no/low and high risk sexual activities that may lead you to contracting HIV and sexual networking. We did these all through interactive activities so that they stayed engaged and learned visually as well as kinaesthetically. Feedback from our placment supervisor was that it was very good and he liked our techniques of teaching. The youths were not bored as we included them and felt they had enjoyed and learnt from it. 

The STI session was also a success. We covered the background information on STIs, examples of infections with photos, a quiz, question and answer session and other topics. The youth coordinator Emmanuel said he particularity enjoyed the causes, symptoms and effects game which involved participants putting pieces of information in different piles; causes of STIs, symptoms of STIs etc. I really enjoyed this sitting as they asked lots of questions indicating their engagement and with my knowledge on SRH i have gained whilst being here i could answer them correctly. 

We will be holding another facilitation on substance abuse with the youth club again on Friday which i am looking forward to.

 

School sessions

I had the idea that delivering to schools would definitely be worthwhile.To get permission you have to go to DEBS (Department Education Board Secretary) where they will stamp and approve a letter which will allow you to teach in schools. Here in Zambia schools broke up for holidays at the beginning of August which has been a shame as we could have done a lot more sessions to the students had they still been at school. We managed to go to three schools in which we taught to grades 8 and 9 on Puberty and STIs. Working in the schools was often more challenging as there were a larger number of participants who were also slightly more misbehaving! Despite these challenges we got some important information across to them and they all seemed to enjoy the activities we organised for them. 

 

Other facilitations

There have been other occasions where we have managed to outreach SRH. One of these has been through our CAD (community action day) where our team organised a sports day and promoted the issues of gender based violence. I held  a session with the younger children which was great fun and managed to get some basic messages across to them.

Other sessions have been at Gerald Healey Day Care centre. This is a centre where orphaned children go after school each day to have fun, feel safe and receive therapy. The centre also pays for their school fees like Mmabana. We conducted three sessions to the youths there on contraception and STIs. These were some of my favourite youths to work with as they were so interested and keen to learn about the knowledge we were teaching them. Unfortunately they have finished for the holidays which means we cannot facilitate any more to them. 

Summary

Overall i feel i have managed to outreach to a good number of youths and held a sound number of sessions. I am in the process of writing an SRH manual which i will be passing on to my placement where current and future volunteers at Mmabana can use. It will include all the information and sessions we have done so far here that they can use when facilitating and outreaching to the community. 

My calculations have worked out that me and my counterpart at my placement have managed to distribute over 2600 condoms and outreached to over 550 youths!

Lusaka, Golf and farewell party

Medical update

One thing i haven’t mentioned yet is that i have had to take two trips to Lusaka to seek medical treatment. Me and a few other girls in the first few weeks of being in Choma noticed what seemed like bad sun burn on our hands. However this progressively turned in to a rather horrible site where my hands were covered in sore rashes and blisters. At one point i think i had about 20 blisters on one hand! It also came with endless itching and burning that was unbearable and so we were sent off to the capital. After being put on numerous amounts of medication  nothing seemed to work so we were back again to Lusaka. This time we had a final answer. We were told previously that it could’ve been worms, a bacterial infection, allergy to the dogs etc etc. No no i’m afraid the answer is quite pathetic – we are allergic to the sun. After all the hassle we were hoping the answer would be slightly more exotic  but it is a relief to know we haven’t caught some tropical disease! Luckily the antihistamines prescribed to us have worked and apart from pigmentation on my skin the allergy has virtually gone away. Hurrah!  There were a few perks to these trips however…. Staying in Lusaka hotel did mean accessing free wifi, showers and unlimited half chickens for dinner!

Golfing!

I have heard that my Zambian Mum is a pretty good golfer. This can be proved as one day she told me that basically all the kitchen appliances in the house she had won from golf tournaments. This includes the fridge, toaster, mini oven, ice cream maker and blender! I used to play golf a while back but hadn’t picked up a golf club in about 9 years. I thought now was the time to test my ability…. and my ability is not that great. With my mum shouting “Eyes on the ball Anna!” it took about 10 swings before i actually got round to hitting the ball. It was great fun though as Faustina, my sisters and the baby also came a long. Watching the sunset go down was also a bonus! 

The Lombe family golf team:

Robs farewell

On a sadder note Rob, one of our personal supervisors is leaving this week as his contract is up. We are all going to miss him greatly as he has been a fantastic supervisor and supported us through everything through work and on a personal level. We organised a surprise party for him at a lodge where placement staff, host families and friends were invited. We cooked lots of goat and chicken and danced to some classic Zambian beats! Some of the highlights were the heart warming speeches from the parents and people who work with Rob. Seeing our host parents dance as they past around the cake knife was also very amusing. The Zambians have such uplifting and vibrant spirits and you could definitely see this from their moves! We were also aloud out to the DC’s (the most well known club in Choma) and apart from the weird mirror situation again I had a great night!

Faustina cookin up the chicken!

Faustina, Me, Lisa and Diana – Sisterly love

I thought i should also had a few more pictures of the Victoria falls…

 In my next blog i will talk about what i have achieved so far on my placement and the SRH sessions i have facilitated.

LIVINGSTONE

When we reach our half way point on our ICS programme we have an MPR weekend (mid phase review) where we have the chance to reflect on our time so far on the programme. This includes how our placements, home, moral etc is going and what we need to do to in the next 5 weeks to reach our targets. We are also aloud to have a bit of fun…..

Our team luckily got the opportunity to go to Livingstone of which our MPR committee planned. They did a fantastic job! The time made me reflect on how much we have come and developed since the beginning and how we still have a lot to do by the end of it.

The part of Livingstone we saw was fantastic. It is much more westernised than Choma and it made me realise how rural it is where we live. Seeing tarmac and traffic lights was a surprise for us! There were also a lot of whites which we were not used to as back in Choma we take up the majority of that population.

Spare time…

During our spare time during the day we visited Mukuni market which had the most amazing clothes, wall art, crafts you could ever wish for as a tourist. I used this opportunity to by lots and lots of gifts for my friends and family at home….and for myself. I could have spent all my money there! In Choma the markets mainly consist of selling groceries, second hand clothes and chitengas so i definitely used this opportunity wisely!

 

Spare time in the evenings…

In Choma we have a curfew of 20 hrs and with MPR we were allowed to be let loose so to speak. The first night was a bar where ‘all the whites go’ apparently. This included the other volunteers on another organisation also staying at the same hostel as us. The night was good although us ICS volunteers were yearning for some Zambian music as the UK charts are not to our liking any more. It made us realise we really are turning Zambian!

So Saturday night was spent in the local Zambian club/bars which was much more to our liking with the music. The clubs in Zambia are a bit surreal in that there are mirrors everywhere….of which people dance in front of…..to themselves. It was very strange. The extra rice cooked from the night before came in handy on our return to the hostel….

Sunday night was spent dressing each other up in hilarious and hideous outfits where we had to cat walk and guess who had chosen our ridiculous pieces for us. May i add i won best catwalk! (Thank you, Thank you). The highlight was definitely seeing Duncan (one of our personal supervisors) rock up in a red satin dress and back flipping into the pool. He pulled it off beautifully. Unfortunately i did not get any photos but i think i would be killed if any were to be published!

The falls of course!

It would be plain rude not to visit one of the seven wonders of the world whilst in Livingstone and i have to say it was one of the most beautiful places i have visited. You are advised before you get off the bus to not keep food, phones or cameras out as the baboons will snatch them for their own pleasure. They were fine and did not cause any problems until later on in the day when we came to eat our lunch and ran up the rocks fearing for our lives…..and our sandwiches.

Enjoying someones dinner clearly!

We dipped our feet in the water at the top of the falls which was nice and refreshing. Its amazing to think that during the hot season there is no water and the falls are dry. We apparently came at a good time of the year as the water was not too much for the visibility to be poor or not enough for there to be no waterfalls!

Quick dip in Zambian waters

Crossing the bridge walking alongside the falls was very wet but amazing as the quantity of water is so vast and powerful and you are so close to it. We also walked down to boiling point which is the bottom of the falls where the river runs. It is very hot down there but beautiful as you can imagine. We had to walk through a jungle almost to get there and i felt a bit like lara croft!

Quick selfie is always needed

 

Protecting their locks with shoprite and spar bags – practical thinking

The green green Jungle

Overall the weekend was brilliant and it has made me realise i am so grateful to be on this programme and that i am motivated to accomplish the goals we have set. It also made me realise there is a lot more of the world i want to see and has definitely confirmed i will be doing much more traveling in the future.

The world is my Oyster as they say…