Catching up: Two Busy Weeks in Lusaka

Two weeks ago I moved into my new place, and I feel like life has been in fast forward since then. This post may be a bit disjointed, but I want to write a little about what I’ve been up to before I lose any more time.

The end of the first week of August was the deadline for short listing our best applicants for the scholarship this year. This meant scrambling all week to make sure I had read and graded all one hundred and thirty or so applications from our partner basic schools. As most of our applicants come from very vulnerable backgrounds, this frequently proved to be a difficult task.  Judging on financial need alone, it would be impossible to pick only a handful from this pool. Because we are looking for exceptional academic achievement as well, it is possible to identify a group of students who fit both criteria. As in any case where you are using a narrow tool to address a wide need, it is difficult to put aside those who do not fit the criteria as well. However, after a long staff meeting to compare our picks, I have a really good feeling about the forty Grade 7’s we have selected to sit our exams. We’ll have to await the exam results to know for sure, but I’m confident there are some brilliant, driven students in that group who will make good use of this scholarship.

This past week was the beginning of KF’s Work Experience program, one of the programs I'm responsible for. Each year we find work placements for our Grade 10 students for a week during their August holiday. We try to place them at businesses or organisations in their field of interest where they can also get an idea of what working in an office is like, discover some of their talents and strengths and gain useful skills for the future. During this past week we had students at Nkanza Labs, a pathology laboratory; CIDRZ, a health organisation which is fighting HIV/AIDS through treatment, research and training; and Afri-Connect, one of the big internet providers in Zambia. 

(Martinho gets a lesson in blood clotting at Nkanza Labs)

(Ngosa attends a puppet show put on by CIDRZ in order to sensitize children about HIV/AIDS)

(Edson keeps an eye on the grid at Afri-Connect)

Ensuring everything went well meant a lot of driving around to visit students at their placements and getting up at 5:30 every morning. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this; it’s nice to see the sunrise and to feel like you’ve accomplished a lot by 9 in the morning. We’ll have to wait and see if I can manage to continue getting up early after the program ends. This week our other three Grade 10’s are going to Multi-Choice, one of Lusaka’s main TV providers; a cancer clinic at the University Teaching Hospital; and the WorldWide Fund for Nature. I am hoping these students will enjoy their placements as much as the first three seemed to.

Outside of work, things have been almost as busy. We’ve hosted some fun get-togethers at my new place already. We had an especially nice dinner last Tuesday where we cooked about 14 pounds of fresh crayfish from the farmers market and served that up alongside sautéed bok choy, delicious garlic mashed potatoes and capped off with Johanne’s now famous homemade chocolate cake rolls. 

(Lots of crayfish to be shelled)

Last week was also my first time playing rugby. Two of my roommates, former members of the national Zambian rugby team, are avid players. Luckily they are also patient teachers as I was starting from very close to zero knowledge about the sport. After gauging the size of some of our fellow players, I was pretty thankful we were playing touch rugby. The strategy is completely different from anything I’ve played before, especially the idea of only being able to pass backwards, but I think with some time and practice it could be pretty fun. The weekends have been a great combination of fun and relaxation. Two weekends ago we spent a lazy day enjoying a botanical garden just outside the city which also houses a wildlife reserves (pictures are up on Flickr). This past Saturday was another languid morning full of coffee and books before attending a marathon wedding anniversary for one of our mentors (and coincidentally, my friend’s landlord).

Other events from the past weeks include finally finishing the newsletter we send out to our mentors each term which is written and edited by the students (I can email you a copy if you’d like to see), meeting up with Erin, the other PiAf Fellow in Zambia during her twelve hour visit from Livingstone to Lusaka, and saying more goodbyes. Lusaka is losing one of the closest friends I've made here as she returns to Denmark to finish her masters, as well as our awesome intern Julian who heads back to school in Switzerland.

(Zambia PiAf Fellows!)

One story from last week; I’ve been meaning to buy a desk for my new room, but after doing some scoping on the roads where carpenters sell their goods, I was having trouble finding time to actually go make a purchase. I happened to be driving down that road one morning and, upon seeing a good choice, decided to just pull over and buy it on the spot. I negotiated a fair price (I think) but there was a catch; the desk wasn’t quite finished. Peter the carpenter offered to come finish it at my house, but I was actually on my way to work from a café. Not wanting to come back to this side of town later, I loaded the desk, Peter and all his tools into my car and drove to the café where he finished it up in the parking lot. We then brought it to my house before I dropped him off at home. It was just one of those moments that make you smile, made possible by so many elements that just wouldn’t happen at home. It was nice to buy something from the person who actually made it, and so far it’s been a great desk and good first step in my room-improvement plan.

In closing, I’d like to wish a late happy 34^th wedding anniversary to my parents, and an early happy 14^th birthday to my little sister Sophie; just because I’m not there doesn’t mean I’m not celebrating with you.