Home sweet home

I am settling in to Lusaka and here are few pics of my new place to show it. The maps and chitenge all made it from Maz to Lusaka so a few things will look familiar.

Welcome to the neighbourhood

A week into my stay in Lusaka and a tenants’ meeting for Courtyard 2D was called. Our little courtyard consists of 4 cottages and 2 single room bedsits – all tenants were politely asked to attend. The meeting bore a remarkable resemblance to workplace Zambian meetings, meaning that: we started late (around an hour); it lasted much too long (something close to 2½ hours) because people rarely stick to the point; the discussion was good but few actions or responsibilities were actually agreed in the end (I admittedly kept my head down as much as possible). The main issues were the reporting and duties of the night guard, use and also mis-use (i.e. people sending him on errands that last hours) of the day guard, parking, rubbish collection and paying bills on time. Now these are important things but it was still pretty tedious and I was glad to escape when the meeting concluded. Fortunately no specific date was agreed when to hold the next meeting!

New addresses

In case you want to do a bit of searching around Lusaka on Google maps then my new house can be found here (stick Nsunzu road and Lusaka into Google and you will be able to see where I am now living)

Flat 2D

Courtyard 2

Nsunzu Road

Civic Centre

Lusaka

But please don't send any post there as I would be very very surprised if it actually made it. The best address to use is the one for VSO which is

VSO Zambia Programme Office

Mukuba Pension House

4th Floor

Dedani Kimathi Road

PO Box 32965

Lusaka

Progress at last

All of sudden it is full steam ahead and we need to be working in Lusaka from yesterday, or maybe even before that. The good news is that VSO (many thanks to Jackie) has found me a house. The place seems fine, needs a bit of work and the landlord has promised to get on with it. The house is obviously much smaller than my previous palace in Maz but I will still have plenty of space. There are two bedrooms plus a third smallish room. The kitchen is small but fine for cooking, and then there is a separate dining room and lounge area. In the middle of the house there is a small courtyard and then a nice little garden at the front. I will be in a compound with another 4 other similar cottages and the neighbours so far have been friendly and knocking on my door to welcome me and say hello.

The area seems ok though not a one that I am familiar with. I will be within walking distance of both the VSO office (about 15mins) and the NAC office (around 30mins) which is helpful. The shops are a bit of a walk but not too bad. I just need to find out where I can buy all my fresh fruit and vegetables. I also need to find a gym or at the very least start running again to avoid coming back from Zambia fatter than when I left!

Time in and out of Lusaka

An interesting and enjoyable few days in Lusaka, which is something I had not experienced much in the past as Lusaka cannot really be described as a pleasant city; more functional instead. On the work front I was there to help support the VSO Zambia programme office carry out reviews of some of its HIV and AIDS partner organisations. It was interesting to sit on the other side of the fence and to question partners about their work, the support that VSO has provided, what changes and impacts this support has had, and understand how VSO can help in the future. From a Mazabuka perspective the most important meeting was the session with people at the national office of NZP+ (the Network of Zambian People living with HIV and AIDS). There is a district level NZP+ in Mazabuka, yet for a variety of reasons the organisation is struggling to operate and therefore support the people most in need of help. It should be leading the fight against HIV yet at the moment the office is closed and staff hard to reach. I hope that through working with the national organisation we can sort out our local problems and restart the office here.

It was happily a very sociable week in Lusaka. I went to the cinema with some friends for the first time in a year and saw some crazy, silly animated film called Rango; very enjoyable and we laughed non-stop. The rest of the time was spent catching up with the Lusaka volunteers and hearing about others’ ups and downs. Being the last day of the month I was also able to visit the Dutch market – a touristy, pretty up market, market held at the Dutch Reformed Church in Lusaka. Aside from selling lots of tourist items (rugs, paintings, wooden objects, jewellery etc.), the food to buy and take away there is very tasty. Sadly we got there too late to pick up some of the quiches but in time to buy some millionaire shortbread to feed my sweet tooth.  It is also very much a place to bump into lots of familiar faces and then it was back on the bus to Maz.

Touch down in Zambia

So the first week has felt like the first few days of university. There have been lots of new friends to get to know as over the weekend 19 VSO volunteers arrived in Lusaka from the likes of the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada, US, India, Kenya and Uganda. I met Judy for the first time, a volunteer from Kenya who I will be working alongside in Mazabuka at the District AIDS Task Force. We have all been staying at the Commonwealth Centre next to the University of Zambia and have moved around like a tour group.  There was a bus trip to see the supposed highlights of Lusaka such as the Parliament, National Museum, Embassies and markets! We became millionaires overnight when we changed some money as £1 is equivalent to around 7,000 Kwacha.  There are also no coins in Zambia with the smallest note being only 50 Kwacha which buys virtually nothing.

We went to VSO’s office in the capital and at the reception there were various local dishes to try including caterpillar which was pretty chewy and tasteless so one to avoid if I can.  VSO managed to fast track us through the work permit process so we all now have passport like permit books and are officially allowed to work here for the next two years.  There have been various induction sessions, some about our placements and others on the history, culture and economy of Zambia involving guest speakers.  The most interesting was on the current HIV and AIDS situation in the country which was really given a human face by two activists talking about their experiences of being HIV+ and how this has affected their lives.

The social side of the week has been good. We met most of the current VSO volunteers based in Zambia at a Braii (BBQ) held at a volunteer’s house in Lusaka (if my house is as nice then I will be happy).  The Commonwealth Centre has a bar so we have familiarised ourselves with the local beer with Mosi seeming to be the favourite choice here.  Then we got all dressed up for a reception at the British High Commission where we met the High Commissioner for Zambia, her deputy and a few other staff from DFID.  Without the warm evening air and the odd mosquito flying around, we could have been anywhere as we enjoyed numerous canapés, wine and a few gin and tonics, and just about left before we caused too much embarrassment.