Week 12- Personal 20/4/12

Week 12- Personal 20/4/12

Before writing our final blogs, Harriet and I spent some time reading our previous blogs and we found ourselves reminding each other of the experiences we’ve had and the people we’ve met. It’s strange how quickly you forget some of the random things that happen and it was really nice to go back and remember them. We have so many stories from our time here in Livingstone and I hope we will both still be telling them in many years to come. Blogging has been a brilliant way of sharing some of our experiences, and there are many more funny, happy, sad, emotional and amazing stories to be told, and also some which are best kept until I am safely back in Northern Ireland and my parents have stopped worrying about me being away!

When it actually came to saying goodbye to Livingstone this week, I expressed quite a lot of emotions. I went from feeling sad about saying goodbye to people, to stressed out about getting everything to fit in my rucksack, to being a little in denial and deciding that I was actually not going to leave, but also feeling excited for the next part of our journey.

On first arrival in Jollyboys I remember thinking back to how much the girls from last year had loved staying there, and for about the first week I just kept thinking there was no way I would reach that point with Jollyboys. But once we got to know our way around properly, got into a routine and started getting to know the staff better, it really did become like home. The staff at Jollyboys became like our family out here and we built up brilliant relationships throughout our stay, with the barman handing me my lunchtime Sprite before I even needed to ask, the cleaning ladies leaving empty toilet rolls outside our hut to use at school and the orphanage to make things with the children, buying a birthday cake for the daughter of one of the staff, going to yoga with one of the owners, and the other owner even proof-reading my dissertation for me. Jollyboys was such a major part of my enjoyment of Livingstone and I think the fact that we crept out at 6am on our day of leaving, to catch the bus to Lusaka was a good thing. At this time of morning none of the staff had started work and I think having a big send-off would definitely have caused some tears.

Leaving our 'family' at Jollyboys

I was quite impressed with how well I dealt with my emotions of leaving; as I am known for being a very emotional person, it was quite surprising that I managed not to cry. Time spent here has helped me to ‘toughen-up’ a bit and apart from one very emotional day of tears (started by watching a sad film), nearly crying during a phone call with my little sister, getting a bit emotional after a farewell song from a girl at school, and being on the verge of tears when trying to pack on our final night in Livingstone, my mood has general been very happy throughout my time here. This may be the good influence of Harriet who admitted to being called a ‘cold fish’ before. She has also been very good at dealing with her emotions, apart from a difficult day when the internet not working nearly drove her to tears (but I think this may have really been due to a stressful week of dissertation writing).

When I thought about coming to Zambia I honestly didn’t really know what to expect. Having never been to Africa, my expectations were mainly based on what you see on outreach adverts on TV asking people to donate money to the African people. Time spent here has shown that there is definitely a lot of need in Zambia, but those adverts, showing crying, malnourished children and struggling adults, do not even nearly capture the nature of the people who live here. It is very tempting to write a lot about how little the people here have, and although that may be true in terms of material things, I feel it is unnecessary to refer to this so much since I don’t think this is the attitude that the people themselves have. I rarely heard the local people complaining or feeling sorry for themselves; most always greeted you with a happy smile, and just got on with their lives, working and providing for their families.

Some pictures of the local people who we met in the street and also in one of the villages.

Spending time here has dramatically changed my impressions of Africa, and has shown me the pride, determination, patience, kindness and hope in the people of the Zambian nation. As well as becoming more independent, doing a lot of growing up, and ‘toughening-up’ a bit, I hope that my time here will have helped me to integrate the qualities that I now associate with the Zambian people, into my own life when I return to Northern Ireland.

After leaving Jollyboys, we immediately started a new adventure, making it much easier to get over our initial missing of Livingstone. A sleepy six hour bus ride to Lusaka, funny/unlucky taxi drive to the airport, scary/exciting journey in the first small plane I’ve ever been in, and bumpy but enjoyable Safari truck ride, eventually brought us to South Luangwa. The incident in the taxi was unlucky as it involved us losing $15 but I couldn’t help but laugh, and Harriet did see the funny side after getting over her initial annoyance. Basically it began with me trying to be very prepared and having the money to pay the taxi man ready in advance. One of our Livingstone friends taught us a random, fun thing to do where you put down the window in the car and wave your hand around when it’s travelling really fast, so when I saw Harriet doing it, I decided I would join in. Unfortunately, when I rolled down my window, the wind caught through the car between the two open windows and out went our money. Harriet’s immediate reaction was to leap across the car, put up my window and laugh at the ‘paper’ which had blown out the window; however, she was less impressed when I told her that the paper was actually our money. I assured her this was something we would laugh about later (which we did).

South Luangwa did not disappoint and the four nights we spent there will no doubt be another highlight of the trip. I think my favourite part was being woken up on our first night there by elephants blowing bubbles outside our tent. At 4am we were both standing on the toilet seat stretching to try and catch a glimpse of the herd of elephants that had wandered into the camp during the night. This wasn’t an unusual occurrence and there were even watchmen who walked you to and from your tent in the evenings just in case you came across an elephant or hippo on the way. It is also amazing how quickly things become normal, since on the third day we were walking back from lunch when we saw elephants on the path, and we simply walked on, taking a different route!

The mention of our accommodation being a ‘tent’ is used in the loosest possible meaning of the word, since it was certainly the most luxurious tent I’ve ever seen; being at least twice the size of our Jollyboys hut, having an en suite, and extremely comfortable beds. Having our beds turned down and our mosquito nets put up in the evenings for us was another touch of luxury, alongside the extremely attentive staff and the tasty food.

Chilling by the South Luangwa river with a buffalo skull!

On top of all this, there was of course the actual safari part. We were very lucky on our four game drives; seeing elephants, giraffes, zebra, four types of antelope, hippos, hyenas, wild dogs, warthogs, lions and a leopard (plus lots of random little small animals and some of the most beautiful birds). Our safari group was made up of Harriet and me, our guide Robert who was a fountain of knowledge knowing everything about everything and teaching me a lot, and some honeymooners. When we first met the honeymooners we were a bit worried about how ‘coupley’ they may be and also that we might be intruding on their romantic honeymoon, but over the three days we all became very close, and we are even planning to meet them in Malawi. The bride even told us that if they had have had to choose from a list of a thousand people to spend their honeymoon with, they would still have chosen us!

Just a couple of our MANY safari snaps!

Unfortunately we had to leave the bliss of South Luangwa but again the good experiences continued. After an evening spent in the local village where we ate our last Zambian nshima and chatted with our last Zambian locals, we made our way to Chipata, via what must be the bumpiest road in the world. Luckily, we chose a ‘strong’ bus, which got the whole way to Chipata without any flat tyres; this is apparently very rare and we heard about some girls who had five flat tyres making the six-hour journey last fourteen hours!

Leaving Chipata marked the end of our stay in Zambia and after almost a twelve week stay, I have grown very attached to the country, its culture and its people. I would easily spend more time here (other than the fact that our visas only allow for three months!) but it is time to start a new adventure and hopefully fall in love with another African country. Hello Malawi!

Week 11- Cultural 13/4/12

Unbelievably, this is my penultimate blog. Our time here really is flying by, especially now in our final weeks. This week I decided to reflect on what I have learnt about the Zambian culture whilst being here. Strangely, this took a lot of thought and because we have settled in to life here so well, I almost feel like the cultural differences are difficult to identify now. But something which I have been meaning to write about since the beginning of our time here is the place of religion in the Zambian culture.

Throughout our stay in Livingstone, it has become very clear that religion is a huge part of the Zambian culture. Almost everyone here will ask you about your religious beliefs and are quick to share their own with you. I found this quite surprising as in Northern Ireland religion isn’t such a talked about topic, and it is almost surprising to some people if you attend church on a regular basis, whereas here it is quite the opposite, with the local people being appalled if you say you aren’t a church-goer.

I was excited to get an African experience of church and throughout my stay here I have attended quite a few different denominations. As with churches at home, there are a lot of differences between denominations and some of the churches I visited I felt very much at home in, whereas in others I didn’t really know what was going on most of the time. Most of the churches advertise the fact that all services are in English which makes visitors very welcome, and all of the churches I went to invited ‘visitors’ to the front to tell the congregation where they were from and a little about themselves and their time in Livingstone. Although I tried to avoid these situations, since standing up at the front of the church made me very nervous, it was quite difficult since I usually stuck out as one of the few white people there!

The churches I have visited here in Livingstone. 

The major difference that I found between our churches at home and churches here in Livingstone is the worship. Praise here is just so much more active and you can tell that people just let themselves go and praise in whatever way they feel comfortable, from jumping up and down, to shouting out and making a sound which I can only describe as yodelling. It is amazing to see this; people really enjoying themselves, and I found myself being a lot less reserved than I would be at home.

My favourite church service here was when I attended the local Presbyterian church (my home denomination) on Easter Sunday. The service was brilliant, from the extended worship, to the minister’s witty remarks during the sermon, to the children’s contribution which was a short drama about the life of Jesus; I barely saw two and a half hours pass by! The focus on Easter here seems to be a bit less than it is at home but I think this is just because of the absence of chocolate eggs and the ‘Easter bunny’. There isn’t the commercial side of Easter and the only Easter eggs we had were ones that came from Northern Ireland in preparation for Easter. This is quite nice in some ways as it makes it easier to focus on the true meaning of Easter.

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my experiences of church here in Livingstone. It has opened my eyes to the differences between denominations and also the core values which are integral to the Christian faith. I hope that I’ll have some more positive experiences as we travel on through Africa!

As we near the end of our stay here in Livingstone, we are suddenly trying to pack everything in to too little time. When we arrived here we were overwhelmed by how much there was to do and as time has passed we have gotten to do many of the things we planned and also much, much more. The best thing I think we learnt here was to not try to plan every minute of every day, because it was the spur of the moment decisions and meeting random people that got us the best opportunities (like seeing the cheetahs!). We have been very lucky with the things we have gotten to do and our ‘to-do list’ has been very well ticked off so far and we hope to tick off a few more during our last weeks in Africa.

We didn’t have much of a social life this week as it was taken over by our dissertation, so the highlight of our Friday night was popcorn, and our highlight of Saturday night was a feast of crisps, crackers and cheese and peanuts (we really do enjoy our food over here!). I indulged in a day off from writing on Saturday and had a nice day watching a movie and then doing some shopping at the Curio Markets. The markets are always quite an experience since everyone is trying to draw you into their shop because they are so desperate for the business. It is hard to believe they all do business since everyone basically sells the same items. I was quite impressed with my bargaining skills and anytime you ask how much something is you are told a ridiculously high price, but “prices are negotiable” so it is then up to you to suggest a price and then together come to a compromise. At first I was quite bad at this and you know you’ve failed when the seller agrees to the first price that you suggest. The best bargain of the day was paying $30 for something which had initially been $70.

Harriet and Patrick checking out the
damage caused by the elephants. 

We also visited the college this week and were shown the damage which had been done by the wild elephants at the end of last year. Stranmillis had collected some money for us to take over as a way of hopefully repairing some of the damage done. Patrick showed us where the walls had been broken down and together we made a plan of how the money could be used to repair these walls, since they are currently causing problems with local people having access to the college grounds and trespassing. Through this meeting with Patrick it became clear just how difficult it is to get a job done here. He spoke about the problem of getting people to do the labour- you can’t just look up the yellow pages and find a builder, and even when you do find someone you don’t know how reliable they will be. There seems to be major problems when it comes to money; ensuring the right amount is paid and that the money is deserved, which means that it could be a long time until the walls are actually fixed but Patrick has assured us that he will keep us updated on the situation.

Saying our goodbyes to Patrick!

Aside from still working hard at our dissertations in an effort to get them finished as soon as possible, we are now thinking about saying goodbye to people, shopping for presents from Livingstone for people at home, revisiting our favourite eating places, doing our favourite activities for the ‘last time’, and even packing. It seems ridiculous that it is nearly time to pack everything up again and say goodbye to ‘Giraffe’- our little hut, since in many ways it feels like just yesterday that Amazon delivered my rucksack and I assured my Mum that there was ‘NO WAY’ I was going to fit all of my stuff into it!

Our goodbyes have already started with us saying our final farewells to the children at school, the teachers, and also the children at the orphanage. All of these goodbyes were hard, especially when saying goodbye to the children, but we have both managed to not get too emotional! We left the orphanage with some brilliant news which gave us a happy ending rather than a sad one. One of our ‘favourites’- a little boy called Danny who was from the Congo, has now left the orphanage when his mother came to get him. We were both so pleased to hear this news and very glad to see such a beautiful, intelligent little boy getting home to his family.

 

 Saying goodbye to the children at the orphanage.  

I think it is very clear to anyone I have spoken to, that I have fallen in love with Africa, and have thoroughly enjoyed my time here in Livingstone. This weekend will no doubt be an emotional one as we say our goodbyes but at the same time, we are very excited for the next part of our adventure! Next stop- South Luangwa for safari! 

Week 10- Personal 6/4/12

From a suspected rat in the roof of our hut (which turned out to just be a lizard), to having to deal with my fear of the dark, this week I felt a little bit out of my comfort zone at times and I had a bit of personal development (and growing up) to do!

We took a little ‘time out’ this week and went to Bovu Island; a trip that we’d been meaning to take since we arrived here but just hadn’t gotten around to it. Bovu is an island in the Zambezi River, about an hour and a half from Livingstone and the big selling point of it is its focus on just relaxing and doing absolutely nothing! This meant that the trip came as a nice break from dissertation writing. Bovu has no electricity, internet connection or phone reception and this was actually quite exciting for us and we were looking forward to getting away from everything.

Day time at Bovu wasn’t a problem and I was able to deal very well without my phone or the internet, which I am usually quite addicted to when I have access to them. Although, in saying that, we were only away for three days so given a longer period of time I may not deal with it just as well! I was reminded of how much I rely on people at home, and even though I am coping much better than I thought I would with being away from home, I am still very much in constant contact with home and I think that’s what makes it easier.

Our room at Bovu and our spectacularly put up mosquito nets!

Quite stupidly, the fact that no electricity meant no lights at night didn’t register with me, and I was actually quite shocked when it came to night time and the island was in darkness apart from candles, torches and the moonlight. Being afraid of the dark has never been a huge problem for me, just the odd time I get a little scared by it, but being at Bovu really heightened my fear and along with my overactive imagination, I managed to make myself dread nightfall! In the end, nothing terrible happened (unsurprisingly) and I was forced to face my fear (although I wouldn’t say I’ve overcome it!).

Before coming to Zambia I had been told about Bovu Island and was warned that I shouldn’t go there if Harriet and I weren’t getting on well, since you could end up alone on the island and with very few other people to talk to. I remember wondering/worrying at the time about how good the relationship between the two of us might be, and having only ever had Africa-related conversations before coming, I really didn’t know what to expect. Now, after spending ten weeks with each other, we have become pretty much inseparable. Living and teaching together were a choice beyond our control but it has turned out that we choose to spend pretty much every minute of the day together! Most of our socialising is done together, we dissertation write side by side- if Harriet goes to our room I usually follow closely after, we eat all our meals at the same time, and pretty much everything else too! Activities done separately, like if I go to do the shopping or to church, or Harriet goes out for a run, feel strange and we really have become so dependent on each other- even to point where we always checking with each other before making decisions and always talk about things using the plural terms of ‘we’ or ‘our’.

Spending some time chilling out on our balcony at Bovu.

If I had been sharing this experience with someone who I didn’t get along with I know that it would have been very different and surely not even half as enjoyable. I am so glad that I ended up coming to Zambia with Harriet and I already know that when she leaves Africa two weeks earlier than me at the end of our trip, I am going to feel a bit lost without her!

Before we had our little trip away, we had a very exciting and luxurious weekend. After attending a party on Friday night and then having a relaxed day on Saturday, we then spent Sunday in luxury at the Zambezi Sun and Royal Livingstone (the fancy hotels!). We started off the day with our second complimentary all-you-can-eat breakfast at the Zambezi Sun after being invited by the head chef (again!); we couldn’t quite believe our luck at being invited for a second time. We enjoyed it as much, if not more, than the first one, especially since this time it was just the two of us which meant we could really take advantage of the ‘all-you-can-eat’ and not feel embarrassed, since we both know how ridiculous each other’s appetite can be!

After breakfast we were able to chill out by the pool and pretend we were residents staying at the hotel, although we did feel a bit like we stuck out like sore thumbs with our rucksacks, Northern Irish accents, and shorts and t-shirts, while most of the other guests were wearing designer brands and speaking in very posh accents. The luxury of it all was highlighted when I got up from my lounger to go get a Sprite from the bar and about three waiters and waitresses practically ran at me to take my order, seemingly appalled that I had actually gotten up off my seat to order for myself.

Having a look over the edge of the Falls!

Once we felt like we had outstayed our welcome at the Zambezi Sun, we then moved on to The Royal Livingstone where we chilled out in their gardens for a little while before getting picked up in the boat to be taken for our second visit to Livingstone Island. Our last visit to the island was for breakfast and this time we went for high tea, and the best part was that we managed to get another great bargain, paying a seriously discounted price! Swimming at the top of the Falls was again an amazing experience and the water was much higher and more powerful than it had been on our last visit. We were again reminded of our love of the Falls and although the locals say the novelty does eventually wear off, we both think it would take a very long time for us to get over the amazingness of it! Cocktails and watching the sunset from the deck at The Royal Livingstone finished off our brilliant day.

The African sunset

The other highlight of this week was also Falls-related, and that was seeing the lunar rainbow. The lunar rainbow happens once a month; at the full moon, and this time we finally got around to going to see it. It really is awesome to see a rainbow at night time and the Falls were as beautiful as ever, if not more beautiful, at night time. My only disappointment was that the rainbow didn’t come out in any photos since it was too dark, but it’s a sight I don’t think either of us will forget in a hurry. After some contemplation we decided that we would go to the bridge and have a ‘Falls shower’, even though it was pitch dark and quite a bit colder than it is during the day, but since it is possibly our last visit to the Falls we thought it had to be done. The Falls didn’t disappoint as usual and apart from being absolutely freezing on the journey home, it was absolutely worth it. Ending the night with another little visit to our furry friends at the cheetah and lion enclosure topped off a great night, and we have both also fallen in love with Simba the white lion!

Simba- our favourite guy in Livingstone!

Enjoying the lunar rainbow after our night time shower at the Falls. 

 It feels so strange to be trying to fit everything in to the remainder of our time here, since in some ways it feels like we only just arrived in Livingstone. Ten weeks have flown in and it seems like only yesterday we were beginning our teaching, but now we are finished school and almost nearing the end of our dissertations too. The week ahead will no doubt bring more exciting experiences and it is only when we get home that I think we will truly appreciate all the amazing things we have done here and how good Livingstone has been to us!