The end game

For now office move number 4 is a dull space with a couple of desks but imagine . . . in a month’s time (or probably two) it will be an HIV and AIDS Resource Centre with computers, books, magazines, IEC materials, and meeting and reading space. Well that is the plan! I was admittedly a bit grumpy to pack up and shift again but bit by bit (pole pole - slowly, slowly - as they say on Zanzibar) we are heading in the right direction. Another to be continued . . .

Kitchen party

Little by little I am slowing experiencing different bits of Zambia culture, though one thing that I did not expect to see or attend is a kitchen party which normally is a female only event. Luckily for me a friend asked if I would take some photos at her sister’s kitchen party so I was let in. We don’t really have an equivalent to the kitchen party back home and comparing it to a hen party would be misleading. The party I attended was women only but included friends, family, future family for the bride to be and children; all dressed in colourful outfits, some with matching headgear and many with new hairstyles. The guests bring presents to furnish the bride’s kitchen to get her ready for married life, which on this occasion included pots, pans, plates, cutlery, electrical items and a kitchen dresser for storing everything. Some parties where the friends and family have more money include giving cookers and fridges as presents.

Aside from the presents, culturally the kitchen party was fascinating to me because of how the bride has to behave. She cannot show any emotions, nor speak, during the party and spends the whole time staring, stony faced at her own feet. Her demeanour resembled that of a naughty school girl sent to wait outside the headmaster’s office. The bride was led into the party under cover of a chitenge, which only the groom is permitted to remove. Therefore, she had to sit covered, awaiting his arrival and on Saturday this waiting lasted around 45 minutes. He came, flowers in hand, to unveil his bride to be. They both then proceeded to hand out a few thank you presents to some of guests before the groom departed. After this came the food, speeches, readings and dancing. Each of the guests took their turn to hand over their presents and whisper some advice to the bride. During this process the bride barely moved and then only got up to be taken to inspect the larger presents like the kitchen dresser. Finally at the end of the party with the guests clustering around her for photos was the bride allowed to smile.

Let's make some noise

It did not take long for the noise to start. Mazabuka, probably like every other town across Zambia, now has campaign vehicles being driven around daily blaring out loud music and party messages with supporters singing, dancing and chanting their own particular slogans. The parties compete with each other to see who can make the most noise, get out the largest number of supporters and also cause the most amount of disruption on the roads by slowing down or often stopping traffic. The two banners in the picture have been part of a game of cat and mouse pitched on the roundabout. At one point the red banner (one of the opposition parties) was positioned above the blue banner (depicting the President and the party in government). This was deemed to be offensive and undermining to the President so the blue one had to move – side by side being the diplomatic alternative. Otherwise Mazabuka has been fairly quiet so far and has not experienced any of small scale fighting and bickering that has occurred in some other towns. The weather is hotting up and so too are the politicians and their parties.

Lazying around in Siavonga

After a busy week it felt good to escape Maz and do very little over the weekend. We barely moved from a friend’s house in Siavonga, enjoying the warm weather and her garden that has a lovely view looking out over Lake Kariba. There was plenty of cooking, eating, drinking, reading, watching movies and playing silly but amusing board games; all very relaxing. On the way home we became tourists briefly by visiting an impressive Baobab tree. It is called the Ngombe Illede which translates from Tonga as 'the cow that is lying down'. Despite falling down the tree continued to grow, hence its name, though with all its branches it looked more like a huge stag to me. The tree has a long history of acting as a trading centre for items like beads, clay pots, copper, ivory and salt, as well as supposedly slaves.

Plans, plans, plans

To be honest I am somewhat circumspect about the value of strategic planning. Whilst there is definitely a need to think and plan strategically my doubts are in our apparent requirement to produce an ‘all singing, all dancing’ Strategic Plan, to be quickly followed by an Operational Plan and then by an M&E Plan; lots of plans! All the efforts and resources for the Mazabuka DATF (or any other DATF in Zambia for that matter) needed to do this planning are considerable, yet what will happen at the end of the process? Will the documents sit on a shelf and only be casually referred to over the next few years or when a funder passes by? Will the plans be so complex and detailed that they bear little relation to the resources available i.e. human = 1 person (my boss) and money = little and inconsistent? Will stakeholders buy into the plans given that they act and are funded independently of the DATF?

These were some of the questions buzzing around in my head as we began a two day strategic planning workshop where we had brought together a group of 30 of our stakeholders to discuss the HIV and AIDS issues affecting the district, and then to prioritise them (the tough bit). Once we got going (after the usual couple of hours late start) the debates, contributions and discussions were healthy and valuable. We went through the DATF vision and mission, the HIV and AIDS problems faced by the district, the responses so far by stakeholders, the weaknesses and gaps, and therefore the key issues that the district should focus on. We ran out of time at the end of the two days but got through most of the things that we had planned for. For now the task is to turn all of the notes and contributions into a draft Strategic Plan. So I wonder who will be doing that and when? To be continued . . .

More on the mini sports tournament

Here are some photos of the footy and netball games being played between Nega Nega and Manyonyo schools. The girls in the photo top right are opposing fans from the netball team, dancing in the penalty area trying to distract the goalkeeper as much as possible. They carried on dancing and singing for most of the match. The photo to the bottom right shows a photo of a penalty about to be taken and because the crowd wanted to get close to the action most of them ran onto the pitch and stood at the end of the penalty area to watch. For me it was all very entertaining.

A little bit of Watford in Zambia

Today I headed off to Nega Nega – a rural area around an hour from Maz - where I handed out all the Watford footy shirts that my brother in law had managed to get for me from the Club. To back track a bit, I had written to the Club a few months ago requesting any football kit that they could spare and when Mum and Dad came out for their visit they brought with them a number of red, and white, training tops. I then spoke with one of our HIV and AIDS stakeholders, a local NGO called Peoples’ Action Forum (PAF - http://www.paf.org.zm/), and through their friendly Mazabuka project coordinator Janet, who I get on with very well, we organised a mini sports tournament in Nega Nega.

The tournament was between two schools from the villages called Nega Nega and Manyonyo and involved games of football for the boys and netball for the girls - with some fierce local rivalry thrown in, especially from the boys. The ages of the boys and girls were approximately between 13 and 17 years. Sport, and tournaments like the one that we organised, are important because sport is often used to bring youths together which is not always easy to do and to then discuss issues and problems related to topics such as HIV and AIDS. So after the boys and girls had finished playing we ran a number of sensitisation sessions talking about HIV and AIDS, STIs, teenage pregnancies and sexual relationships. 109 youths (61 boys and 49 girls) took part in these sessions. We also handed out some literature for further reading on the same topics. Some drinks and snacks were given out and lastly the winning boys and girls teams were presented with the Watford shirts; and they seemed pretty happy with them too.

So now a little part of Zambia has some youths proudly running around in WFC shirts. Even if only a small number of the youths present act on the messages given out on HIV and AIDS then the event will have been a success. Many thanks to the Club for the shirts and I am hoping to get some more to organise another tournament soon.

Smelling and slurping coffee

There are some weeks that I make endless lists of things to do and on one of them I have resolved to ensure that by the time I leave Mazabuka I have ticked off all of the local ‘attractions’. This includes visiting the Zambia Sugar factory, seeing Nakambala Leopards play a premiership football game in Maz, taking the local train at least one stop along the railway line and visiting the local coffee farm. So today 13 of us headed off to Munali coffee (www.munalicoffee.com – a farm around 30mins from Mazabuka. For a while I thought that there had been no communication about us coming (all my responsibility) but then a safari vehicle appeared and off we went around the coffee estate to see the growing, washing, fermenting and drying of the beans. We went into the factory and then did lots of loud slurping with our coffee tasting, trying to work out which flavour of bean – from cheap to expensive – we preferred. There is also a flour mill on the farm as they grow wheat, so we went around the mill, seeing some large object shaking away which looked like a 3 double wardrobes fitted together but turned out to be a giant sieve for the flour. We left with some goodies – coffee at factory prices and some freshly baked bread for free.

Stella's birthday

Stella celebrated her 40th birthday this week and we (Kristin, Alice and I) organised a little party with her family to mark the big event. She came over with all her children (even Syden from Lusaka who I met for the first time) and Abi and Ingrid joined in too. We had ordered a cake from Bethlehem Bakery and put together a food hamper as one present for her and the family. However, the present that she got most excited about was a new Bible that we had bought for her. She shrieked with happiness and did a little dance when she opened it.

New flatmate

With Andrew gone a five bedroom house can seem pretty big and empty sometimes but not for the next month as I have a new flatmate. The number of Italians in Mazabuka has increased by one as Alice has come over as a volunteer from Milan to work with Marco and Lucia, among others, on various agriculture projects run by Celim in Mazabuka. Luckily for me Alice is very chatty and friendly, and attractive too. As per our tradition Alice received a nshima making session from some Zambia friends (Abi and Ingrid) and the food ended up being rather tasty, so much so that Alice wants to eat more of the maize, mash potato like substance. Not sure if I approve and may have to convince her that pasta or rice are still better alternatives.