Technical Support - Western Province

An interesting week, my first time to go west and see parts of Western Province and Barotseland, which by all accounts did appear to be under developed. Mongu, the provincial capital, and around 8 hours from Lusaka, came across as smaller than Maz with much less going on. The reasons for all this, if enquired about, will generate hours of discussion and debate about who is to blame for this apparent backwardness. 

As for the work, there is not a huge amount to say really. I moved from one district to another, meeting with some familiar faces who attended the original training done. I probably sounded like a parrot, repeating the same mantra and words of wisdom again and again. The proof of whether it was all worthwhile will be in how people react and if they as a result of the additional training they do the work. 

 

 

The travel was probably the most entertaining / interesting / frustrating (insert depending on the trip during the week) as I moved from bus to boat to car, got soaked with water one day, and on another covered head to toe in red dust. One place, Kalabo, could only be reached via a 3 hour boat trip with the boats being seen as an one the water version of Zambia’s blue minibuses, meaning that as many people and items are squeezed in as much as possible, and then only when some more squeezing has taken place do we finally leave. On the return boat journey we ran out of fuel – the frustrating bit – within sight of the harbour but being so heavy we could barely move. The crew of course did nothing, the passengers used mobiles to call for help and eventually an hour or so later another boat turned up to tow us in. Being honest, some of the places felt so remote, 3-4 hours from a main road and in the dry (i.e. the good) season, that I was only to be an overnight visitor and not stuck there for the long term

All on my own

Technical IT genius Mike has left the building, or he would probably say escaped. With a huge amount of jealousy on my part Mike, and his girlfriend Lauren, have embarked on a great adventure – driving overland from Zambia to Ethiopia with a few countries, potholes, borders and amazing experiences in-between. Lucky buggers! Selfishly, the E-Mapping website better not crash, be attacked by some virus or hacker (again!), or anything else happen to it, as without Mike there could be a few problems. For now we are ticking along nicely though I will miss them both.

If you want to find out more about their adventure then click on their blogs Mike and Lauren, or if you fancy copying them and buying their car at the end of the trip then go here.

Technical Support - Southern Province

Time to get out and about, and push a little to get some of the people that we trained to move along a little bit quicker with the E-Mapping work. First stop was taking to task some familiar faces in Southern Province, starting with the districts of Mazabuka, Monze and Gwembe, who are all perfectly capable but easily distracted (if I am being polite!). So we spent a few hours together, running through the key bits of the work again, checking what they have been doing and how they are using the website, making mistakes and trying again, and generally pushing them to do more. The small group work was – from my perspective – quite enjoyable as I could provide more intensive, tailored help and support, and I think they appreciated it too. 

The last bit of trouble shooting for this week involved a trip to Siavonga. A friend had kindly lent me his car for the other visits, whereas for Siavonga I had to rely on the local minibuses. The journey there was bearable, only three hours tightly squeezed into a minibus. However, on the return leg, and barely 30mins after leaving Siavonga, we suffered a puncture. The good news was that they had a spare tyre in reasonable condition. The bad news that they did not have the right tools to remove the wheel nuts. And so we waited by the roadside, numerous cars and minibuses came and went, none of them also had the right tools, before eventually we got lucky some 80mins later. 

Two things for me stand out from this little episode, which at least reflect some of my experiences of Zambian culture and behaviour. Neither the minibus driver, nor the ticket boy, said anything to the passengers; no apologies or explanation. The passengers were also (annoyingly) accepting of the situation, a few whispered moans, but little real anger or unhappiness was shown. Instead, it was patience and a belief that all will be well in the end; other nationalities would not have been so quiet and kind.

Testimonies

In case you are interested here are a few quotes from replies that I received from the DACAs. It is nice when people say nice things, particularly when you least expect it. 

"Thanks for the documents and most importantly for your much needed support that could not have come at a better time than now! The workshop was so enriching to me and will ever appreciate you people"

"Thanks a million for the documents and support"

"Thanks we have started to collect the stakeholder information.  It is very interesting and stakeholders have appreciated the SARF" 

"Thank you for the information, we had a stakeholders meeting yesterday and the response was good. Stakeholders were very happy with this new development. 27 stakeholders attended and we had a fruitful discussion. Each stakeholder was interviewed and was happy. We wish to thank you and your team. If anything, we shall keep in touch"

Looking back at the training – highlights and low points

The positives . . .

• The enthusiasm and interest of the DACAs for taking on, testing and using the E-Mapping tool – generally showing appreciation of what we are trying to do 
• Our preparation was good, the IT stuff worked well and we had left little out 
• As a training team Mike and I rock! Ok we did quite well 
• The DACAs listened, very few mobiles went off and newspapers were put away – basically people paid attention 

The negatives . . .

• Zambian food and having to eat the same meals (bland and overcooked) again and again. Given the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables available along the roadside and at markets the lack of both at all the workshop venues was disappointing
• And don’t get me started on the quality of the service. The starting principles seem to be the customer is generally wrong and just smile nicely if the customer complains but don’t do anything 
• The attention and involvement of some of the staff from NAC (best say no more).

Last but not least Lusaka

We returned to base for the last leg of the training, involving the provinces of Eastern, Southern and Western. By this point it did feel like déjà vu for Mike and I, having to repeat the same things again whilst trying to sound as enthusiastic and energised as the first time. We managed of course and were helped by it being a new group of participants who tended to ask the same question as the other groups but in a completely different way. For our part is done. We can sit back and wait to see what happens. Will the participants follow our advice and instructions? Will the system crash? Will the districts and stakeholders buy into this new process? Will we actually get any data? Fingers crossed.

     

Part two in Kabwe

To be honest there was nothing particularly memorable – good or bad – about the Kabwe workshop. Mike and I went through the same pitter-patter, more perfected now and hopefully it did not sound too tired and formulaic already. There were four different provinces – Central, Lusaka, Muchinga and Northern – at this training and the participants were similar in profile to the first workshop. Some participants grasped the concepts, methods and IT side of things quickly, and were running ahead of some of their colleagues by the end of day one, whilst others needed much more time and attention. Such a variance in the skills and capabilities is to be expected with 120+ people, though the people at the low end of the range who displayed fairly weak IT skills and understanding was worrying. 

      

First stop on the E-Mapping tour - Kitwe

All in all the first of the three E-Mapping workshops went well, though both Mike and I did find the talking, standing and non-stop questions pretty tiring. The week and training all began in Kitwe, the second largest of the mining towns in the Copperbelt and certainly not an attractive one as a huge slag heap of coal greets visitors as you enter the town. What was the training all about? So we had brought together the HIV and AIDS coordinators at the district and provincial levels from three provinces – the Copperbelt, Luapula and North Western – so that they could learn how to use our all singing, all dancing E-Mapping tool (www.zambianacmisonline.org). In simple language, the tool is a way of monitoring and coordinating HIV and AIDS organisations in Zambia. 

Mike and I chopped and changed, dovetailed, swapped roles, answered questions, got the participants to test and try and learn, all with the aim that after the two days they would be able to go back to their districts and provinces and start using and sharing the tool with their HIV and AIDS organisations and stakeholders. For a first attempt the training was pleasing and the feedback was positive; they were almost relieved that something like this tool had come along to help them in their work. Crucially, the new Director General for the National AIDS Council (NAC) was able to open the workshop and stay for the first session, which allowed the participants just enough time to share some of their grievances and what should be done to improve their jobs. Then, like a circus, we packed everything up and moved on to the next training venue. Well we tried to but first there was a four hour delay before we could go anywhere as our NAC vehicle refused to move.

7,000+ sheets equals . . . a lot of reams of paper

As we finally began preparing for the E-Mapping training there was sadly no time to save any trees and instead I experienced what seemed like endless hours of printing and photocopying. It had felt like that we had had weeks of waiting and then all of sudden the workshops were only days away. Mike and I did not quite reach panic or crisis mode but there was certainly too much running around due to little fault of our own. The main worry was discovering that the person responsible (to remain anonymous for now) for booking the accommodation had failed to do so, which meant the 120+ people were about to arrive with no beds or training venue booked. Of course we got around this though it should not have gone that far in the first place. 

My other memory of this week was the paper, which we would have handed over to the same anonymous individual but needless to say we did not trust him. This meant I spent all of today spread-eagled between a printer and the photocopier in the VSO office. As for all the training participants the list of documents was endless covering questionnaires, presentations, timelines, manuals and so on. Maybe Mike and I went a bit too far with the handouts but we wanted to make sure that the participants got everything that they would need. So now the training can be begin and for the record it was around 14 reams of paper that we used up.