An Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my first Zambian blog. It's been 20 days since pre-departure training started but the amount of activity that has taken place since May 7th seems like it fills a much larger time frame. I will try to condense it here for those interested in knowing what I've been up to, but it's tough to summarize. If anyone has more specific questions on any of the details of what I'm doing, Zambia, or me I can certainly try to answer those in my next blog- just post them below!

**my apologies on the lack of photos. I planned poorly and don’t have them on the same flash drive as I had my blog entry saved. I’ll double up next time, so for now use your imagination. :)

After the whirl of seven days of 'pre-departure training', which got renamed 'pre-departure learning', but should really be called 'pre-departure giving you lots of things to contemplate overseas and questions to try and answer about development, EWB and yourself-ing' we set off from Toronto for Lusaka. I never did the math but heard it was 32 hours of travel time – all I can remember is two red eye flights, two layovers, lots of airplane food, and an amazing sunrise over eastern Africa as we landed in Johannesburg, then one hop, skip and another two hour flight and we'd made it to Lusaka, 2:00pm local time.

Since we arrived I've spent most of my time in Lusaka but got to venture out into rural Zambia for a business/road trip as well. The first few days were spent getting to know Zambia a little better, learning from the long term volunteers and trying out our basic Nyanja (language used mostly in Lusaka, Eastern Province and Malawi). The first trip to one of the markets of Lusaka proved to be more of an experience rather than actually obtaining things on the list, but it was quite the experience. It's difficult to describe the market but it's something like an outdoor flea market however, much more organic in nature with hundreds of people, piles of food, flip flops and fabrics, minibuses, cabs, wheelbarrows, and lots of yelling. Overcome by the friendly nature of people it was a little intimidating at first, but several trips later it's the place to go for almost anything you need. One woman we spoke to outside of the market even said we were brave to go to there, haha, but I found it to be a pretty amazing mix of things in one place and it's WAY cheaper than buying food anywhere else!

After our basic Zambia intro it was time for Mary (from York) and I to meet with our partner organisation, the Africa 2000 Network (A2N) - the same organization Mama Adisa from the Conference was the head of in Ghana but the Zambian version. A2N is quite new to Zambia and has been working on their pilot project for almost a year now. They are working to 'localise the millennium development goals' through mobilizing communities to develop there own actions plans that they can then submit to the government and donors for funding - pretty neat stuff if you value participation in development!

Mary and I will be working in two different communities where A2N has worked to organize and train a group of Volunteer Community Facilitators (VCFs) that are currently in the process of profiling their communities through questionnaires. They are also creating maps of their villages for better record keeping and to complement the profiling. Once a sample of information has been collected it can be analyzed and potential areas for projects can be selected. From here the community can put together a Community Action Plan (CAP) for how they will address the areas they identified. From our meeting with A2N, my placement will involve working with the VCFs to help compile the information, provide some computer training so they can continuously update their information, assist with mapping and putting together an action plan. It all sounds very interesting and I'm curious to see what the VCFs and I can get out of the next three months together.


The Monday following our meeting with A2N we set out on a five-day trip to both of the communities that A2N is working with – Mazabuka and Chibombo. I will be working from Mazabuka in the Southern Province of Zambia (and trying to learn Tonga) while Mary will be in Central Province with the Chibombo folks. The community in Mazabuka is made up of twelve smaller villages, each with their own facilitator whom I got to meet on Monday. The welcomed me to the community by naming me Mutinta, which I'm told means something like the only child/special in some way/different from the group, so I think it's a compliment, haha, but am not sure yet. The VCFs erupted in laughter when it was suggested which I'm hoping was a good sign. :)

The rest of the time in Mazabuka was spent getting an update on how the team is doing with the mapping and the profiling of communities, meeting with all sorts of important people in town from the police to the District Commissioner to other NGOs in the area. A forum organized by A2N has also been set up on June 14th for NGOs working in that district to come together and identify common goals and eliminate overlap that may be taking place.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to meet Lindah, the VCF that I will be living with for the duration of my placement. Her family, totaling 11 people, live in a small clearing in three clay brick houses with a few pens for their pigs, goats and chickens. I will be living with her 13 year old sister and Lindah one of the small houses which really just has space for sleeping (and hopefully unpacking my backpack!) There are some small plants framing her doorway and a larger tree in the open space between the houses, as well as fields of cotton growing all around that makes for a very nice view and very big skies!

Early the next morning we set out for Chibombo – about an hour north of Lusaka, but about 2.5 hours from Mazabuka. The ride was long but I've never seen so many watermelons in all my life. It was really impressive the way the women selling them managed to make such sturdy piles five watermelons high on top of a table at the side of the road. Anyway, our trip to Chibombo was very similar to Mazabuka – meeting with the VCFs and community stakeolders as well as getting an update on where the project was.

The challenge for the coming weeks for Mary and I is to locate where we fit into all that's happened thus far and what needs to happen in the next three months. We will be working with our Zambian counterparts, Dr. Joseph Temba and Happy Mbulo to put together workplans for the summer as well as get as much information about what's come before us as we can this week in Lusaka before we're left to our own devices in our respective communities. So wish us luck! :)

Hopefully that gives you an idea what I will be up to for the summer – although I'm sure it will be altered and revised and altered again as I learn more about A2N, my community and where I fit into it all.

I’m hoping to share stories about the people I work with, the community where I’m living and the experiences I have in the next few months over this blog, but comments and questions about what you’d like to know are always welcome.

I can also be reached at katebowers@ewb.ca, or by cell at 260 978 117 206 (text messages most welcome). I can even receive some letter mail at the Africa 2000 office in Lusaka, although I might not get it for months. The address is:

Kate Bowers c/o Africa 2000PO Box 310201, NRDC Campus
Off Great East Road, ChelstoneLusaka, Zambia

Thanks for reading!
~Kate~

And now for the things you’ve really been dying to know:

Three things you never knew about Zambia and wouldn't think to ask about:
1) the currency (Kwacha) contains no coins and the smaller bill I've seen so far is a 50 – if your change is something other than this, they round but since tax is always included in prices most things work nicely

2) cars always get the right of way, and they’re on the opposite side of the road, which makes for a lot of triple and quadruple checking before you dash across the street

3) toilet paper comes in lots of colours like purple, pink, green and blue (all pastel)