Movies party night

Another party and for no particular reason we dressed up as characters from films. There was the usual great food, lovely people, amusement, drinking and dancing. Life can often be very good here.

Day of the Disabled

To cut a long story short, re-read my comments about Gender Day in late November but then picture this as day as being much worse . . . little organisation, few people and plenty of confusion. Shame.

World AIDS Day 2011

For me this was the big one – World AIDS Day 2011. Judy and I had spent a good few weeks planning, organising, and worrying about funding, and in the end it all went pretty well. Most commemoration events take place in town so this year we wanted to go into a rural area and the community of Lubombo around 30mins by car from Mazabuka was chosen for the event. This was very much the right idea so we could engage with people who often don’t participate in these commemoration days but did create various logistical problems in terms of checking that the community was doing its tasks, and also in getting people from town to and from the event. The second major issue was funding – both what the Government should have been giving us and when, and what we could raise locally. Judy did a great job locally, bringing in around £1,500 from farmers, businesses and our HIV and AIDS partners. The money from the National AIDS Council did not arrive until a few days before the event which meant that decisions on what to buy and in what quantity were all very last minute.

But as I said the event went well, it attracted around 1,000 people who were mainly from the local community which is what we wanted, and not only people working in HIV and AIDS already. There were a good number of information stands by our stakeholders, and the dance, drama and music were all enjoyed; even the speeches did not last too long (I had written most of them!). However, this being the rainy season the weather was kind up to a point as around 1300 the thunder and lightning started, followed by heavy, heavy rain. This brought the day to a slightly premature end. I was the last to leave a few hours later, making sure that everyone had found transport home. And aside from a few complaints about not getting a World AIDS Day t-shirt (50 available t-shirts into 1,000 people does not go!), the Lubombo community seemed happy and honoured to have hosted the event this year.

Malaikha

An Austrian friend here is impressively and passionately trying to establish and build a school for local blind children in Mazabuka. So far progress has been slow, particularly frustrations with local bureaucracy which gobbles up what limited funding she has allocated to the school. Therefore, on Saturday her organisation held a fundraising event for the school. In the afternoon there was dancing and singing (plenty of miming too), and a fairly well know singer in these parts – Slap D – performed; the girls seemed to know and enjoy his songs. But the main event was the Miss Malaikha (beauty) contest. Lucia, an Italian volunteer here in Maz, gamely agreed to take part along with 9 other local girls who took the contest very seriously indeed; apparently they had been rehearsing for weeks whilst Lucia was a lot less serious. It was all very entertaining, especially as some of the contestants were very attractive.

Gender Day

This will sound all very cynical but . . . another week and along comes another commemoration day. I agree with the message and the need for policies, action and education and so on but I am unsure whether a poorly organised, small event, preaching to people who already work in this area (and not the general community), is the right way to go about addressing the issue. Anyway, here are some photos of the usual banner, t-shorts, dancing and drama.

Back to the Falls

I had not been to Livingstone for months and the contrast from my previous visit to the mighty Victoria Falls could not have been greater; much less of the might now. There was barely a trickle (I exaggerate slightly) of water flowing over the Falls, which meant that it was now possible to walk over the top of the Falls. There was little more that a few puddles of water where once was, and soon will be again, a torrent of water. The Falls still remains impressive because of the size of it but being soaked by the spray is much more enjoyable.

DATF Executive Team on tour

The Mazabuka DATF where I work is often quoted as being one of the best of its kind in Zambia but we can still learn from others. A while ago a team from Chongwe (about 45mins to the east of Lusaka) visited Mazabuka as part of a learning tour so this was the return leg. In passing through Lusaka we visited the National AIDS Council (NAC) – basically our HQ – and met with and questioned the Director General of NAC. For me, little was answered in terms of when our funding would start again (almost five months and counting), and also what further support would be devolved to the district level (decentralisation is the buzz word). Then it was onwards to Chongwe and a meeting with their DATF team. It was interesting hear about: the high level of political support that they enjoy (for example, the District Commissioner would just get up and lead all the other senior officials at an event off for testing); the mapping work that they have done of their HIV and AIDS stakeholders (we will shortly copy this); and also how they have managed to get land which will eventually lead on to their own DATF office (Bishop, Judy and I are cramped into one room). A few things we want to bring to Maz.