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
