A busy week for PZ...

I hope everyone’s well and that Wimbledon is gracing lots of television screens (hoping that there hasn’t been too much rain yet!?) Everything is going really well over here in sunny Zambia, and Britain definitely feels like a million miles away; the Zambian culture is really sinking in! Last Friday saw the intrepid PZ group (along with new additions Ailsa and ‘VIP’ Mel Marshall) venture out of the securities of Lusaka into the second rural placement Chungwe. After an arduous off roading expedition (the site is situated half an hour drive off the main road along a very rough and tumble road!) we arrived at Chungwe school. Whilst the sporting team got to grips with Chungwe’s Sports Day and the Zambian High Jump, the counselling four gave a workshop to the Sport in Action Peer Leaders based in the Village. Definitely more challenging than Litete due to difficult language barriers, we focused on listening skills that would help the peer leaders in one to one situations with children. With the help of Lusaka based peer leaders, the language difficulties were overcome and it was definitely a hard, but rewarding day. However, Saturday was no day of rest for the PZ group, Tom had his weekly football match with the team he coaches (they won one lost one) and the counsellors held an intense workshop to the site coordinators and peer leaders based in Lusaka, which was really beneficial in highlighting the issues and difficulties peer leaders on site are dealing with on a daily basis. After a tiring day, the PZ group had a quiet Saturday evening, and a relaxing Sunday morning before watching Kyle’s football team (Wembley Delta t FC ) secure two successful victories in the afternoon. Another relaxing evening meant that everyone was well prepared for their busy Monday mornings. Katie and I spend our Monday morning at Chainama Special School leading a PE session, then on to Tionge Community School for a Grade 6 PE Lesson, where our focus was on HIV/Aids knowledge, which we incorporated into the lesson via a relay competition. Safe to say, we’re working hard, (in bed by 9 most nights no joke!) having fun and missing you all.
Love Lynds and PZ xx

PZTV

PZ does MTV Cribs. We'll be living here in Liteta for 10 days in a few weeks time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1o5C6EraL4

Liteta Village

Here's some footage of us in Liteta Village, we spent a day there last week and will be back here soon to take sports and counselling sessions for the local community. This time we'll be living in the village as well!

PZ Goes Rural

Since our last blog update there have been some revolutionary occurrences in the PZ house. (Mummy) Chris and (embarrassing uncle) Stephen have left us to return to sunny St Andrews, and Ian Gaunt and his new structured regime have arrived. All the teachers in our government schools are on strike over pay, so some of our classes have been entertainingly chaotic, as we turn up at our placements not knowing whether we’ll have 40 or 140 children to teach.

The highlight of our week came on Friday when we went to visit the rural village of Liteta. As we left the big smoke of Lusaka, shanty market shacks began to be replaced by rustic mud huts and the green expanses of banana and coffee plantations. Upon our arrival it seemed as if we had been greeted by the entire village, all of them so welcoming and friendly. We split up into two groups, with Katie and the boys leading football and netball sessions with the children, whilst Sheila, Lyndsay, Siena and I led a counselling workshop for the village peer leaders. Later on we travelled down the lane to the village chieftain’s collection of houses where his wife had provided lunch for all of us outside under the trees. This gave us a second opportunity to try out traditional Zambian cuisine.

Liteta is one of the two rural villages where we shall be spending two weeks at the end of our project. The chieftain took us to see where we would be living which was idyllically peaceful and guarded by two enormous turkeys, which were quickly named Paul and Ringo. Sheila rather unenthusiastically attempted to conquer her terror of birds, but the menacing turkeys proved too much for her.

As I write this the power has suddenly gone out all over our area and we have been plunged into darkness. So in the interests of saving power, its over and out from the PZ house.

Lots of love,

Harriet and PZ x x x

End of week 1...

Hello everyone,

Things are continuing to go well here in Zambia! We are well settled in now and began projects on Wednesday. We are grouped in pairs working at schools throughout Lusaka so everyone is having very different experiences. Zambian time (adding on at least two hours) and long days in the sunshine, with some of us starting our placements at 7.30 a.m. (unheard of for students) have become the norm! The sporting members have begun their coaching, and Tom’s football teams have already won two matches! Meanwhile, the counselling students have perfected our knowledge of traditional games and songs, whilst integrating messages about issues such as drugs, alcohol and HIV/AIDS. We are becoming increasingly aware of the challenges that communities here are facing. This has been shocking in parts, but has given us the motivation to work hard to try and help in any way that we can.

On Thursday, we celebrated Chris’ birthday with a highly successful top secret surprise party. Entertainment came in the form of a musical group formed by street children with home-made drums and kazoos and a traditional Zambian dance group which involved audience participation, much to our embarrassment! The weekend brought some welcome rest and a chance to visit a water park and cool off!

We are now looking forward to our first full week of projects!

Thanks for all your ongoing support!

Lots of love to you all!

Sheila & PZ

Xx x

Training Day

Hey Guys *in typical Lyndsay high-pitched voice!*

Well here we are after almost 5 days in Lusaka, and it already feels like we’ve lived here for months! We’ve just finished our two days training, and what a few days it’s been! After a slight change of plan due to a power cut (yes we didn’t have power for two days) we spent the first day having a tour of the placements on the back of a truck, which was amazing...and we met some incredible people that work for Sport in Action. We were made to feel like celebrities after being interviewed for ZNBC (Zambia’s National television station) and several Radio stations. The media coverage has been outstanding since arrival! After a tiring day, we all retired to our humbled abode to be greeted by another power cut, so ambience was found through candle light and takeaway pizza! Refreshed and ready for action, the second day of training was based on site at the Sport in Action office, where the morning was kicked off inspirationally by Pearson, one of the site co-ordinators who was found by chance by Sport in Action when they were short staffed...he was tiling the roof at the time. After teaching us many traditional games and chants, we’re definitely getting to grips with the Zambian passion for singing and clapping! The day continued with other Sport in Action members taking the lead and training us in various sections of their work and teaching us about Zambian culture, what to expect and a few basic Bemba and Nywagee phrases. The training was finished by Kizito, an incredible teacher who spoke excellently on HIV/Aids, helping us understand the Zambian mentality behind the virus.  In the evening we were treated to a traditional Zambian meal, cooked by the Sport in Action Crew. Caterpillars and chicken feet were all sampled (along with more stable potatoes, rice and nshima)! So, after two days of intense training, we are all feeling very excited for the weeks to come.  From tomorrow we will be working in our student pairs in our placement sites along with our Site co-ordinators and peer leaders. We can’t wait to see what the next few days will bring, and hopefully we will get to share our thoughts and experiences with you very soon.

Lots of Love,

Lyndsay and PZ

 

p.s. Katie sends good luck to all the Cricket girls in their BUCS Knockout game...x 

Muzugu arrive in Zambia....

Hey everyone, writing this from our very own house in Lusaka!! The lowdown is – weather hot and sunny, no malaria or sunstroke as of yet (score), house is nice but quite basic (had the first power cut this evening – the first of many I’m sure!), people are lovely and really friendly.  We arrived stupidly early yesterday and have done so much over the past couple of days I think we’re really starting to get a feel for the country. We’d only just put our backpacks down before an impromptu football game with some local children on their way home from school took place outside our house so it was great to get stuck in straight away. Training begins tomorrow at the Sport in Action HQ and we’re all looking forward to seeing where we will be working.

Yesterday we went to visit one of the sites we will be working at which was a great insight into the type of things we will be doing – we saw a local teacher giving a lesson on child rights in between football matches which was truly inspirational. We’ve had a look around a few of the western arcades which are surprisingly modernised with western supermarkets, cafes and even a subway and the local cultural market to suss the souvenir situation. First impression of Lusaka is bizarre – it’s clearly a massive city with a population of millions yet it has a great community feel to each area. We’re in ‘Kablonga’. First impressions of the people is that they are so friendly and have great energy about them – a random Zambian who we met insisted on showing a few of us around the area, then his house and baby son (cuteness). Internet situation is a bit limited so will write a much more detailed blog at a later date to tell everyone about our training. We’re all very positive and excited about starting and so happy to be here!! Hope it’s not raining at home, ‘cos it sure ain’t here!!

Love to all,

Siena & PZ xx