Sunday, April 27, 2008

Day Two

Yay for a good night's sleep! We woke up having slept really well...or at least most of us did.

We took the opportunity this morning to go for a bit of a wander through the neighbourhood. Kate has been unwell for a few days, so while she went off to a local clinic we escaped the compound!! This was our first opportunity really to meet the local Zambians not involved with Childfund - and it really brought home some of the realities of life in Zambia.
The most obvious feature was the division of wealth in the country, and I think Lusaka is a prime example of this. The distinction between those that have and those that have nothing is huge. We passed small roadside stalls selling tiny packets of sugar, mealie-meal, kapenta, peanuts and sweets. This seems to be the livelihood for many. Handing over K100 or K200 for a bag of peanuts and knowing how worthless that money is, yet seeing it so gratefully received by the stallholders was heart wrenching. (The exchange rate at the moment is 3,500 kwacha for US$1) A bag of peanuts is less than 10c!!
For all of us, I'm sure, the most heartbreaking aspect was the number of small children "manning" the stalls and depending on them for their existence.
The highlight of our meander through the streets was Helen playing the Zambian version of draughts with the man on the corner, and Karlene getting her first taste of sugar cane.

The welcome news that all was well with Kate meant that we could head off to the local curios market. The cry of "Please Madam, buy from me, let me show you what I have...I want to eat lunch today" sucked us all in from the start, and we bought a wide range of gifts and mementoes. The Women's Collective was particularly impressive, and their stalls of chitenge and jewellery were ransacked by us all!
Ness bought the children in the vicinity an icecream-the number swelled to 25 in the matter of one minute, with children scaling walls and coming from all corners of the market at the first sniff of icecream!

We arrived at Mundawanga (meaning "my garden") in time for the feeding of the animals. In the heat of the day we wandered through the park seeig the mongoose, bushpigs, lions and cheetahs being fed. My personal highlight was seeing the African Wild Dogs up close and personal. Even better though, was taking refuge in the cool and peace of the Botanical Gardens; lots of water and huge shady trees was a welcome relief frmo the heat.

The overwhelming feature for me today was the memories that came back from my previous time in Zambia. The dichotomy of rich and poor here is really obvious even to the casual observer. And of course I can't sign off without reiterating the friendliness and welcoming nature of the local Zambians, despite the hardships they face.

Helen Chileshe
Christ's College

2 comments:

Zatk said...

It sounds like a full-on two days already. Are the children manning the stalls usually in school during the week - or is that their full time job? How small were the children - I mean how old were they?
- Kiri

PFB said...

Sounds like an amazing experience meeting people with such passion for helping children reach their dreams through better education.

It's hard to comprehend the numbers described earlier - recruiting 10,000 teachers. Imagine NZers or our government tackling problems with such vigour.

Good luck for the next few days
Paul