#kalingalinga

[aghiggins]

Making bricks in the midday Sun #lusaka #zambia #kalingalinga #travelblog #blackandwhite #canon5dmarkiv #70200f28 #mastinlabs #brick #block #construction #labour #work #workforce

[monozambia]

Heaven's Gates

[bexeyeview]

Just some images from today! Kalingalinga is featured, as is Chawama. Very amazing place Chawama. So much to see and be a part of!

[bexeyeview]

Day 7 - Busy

Hey folks,

Well today has seriously been busy! Lets hope I can remember everything that we did today! We were visiting libraries this morning, looking at the shipments that Umutima had sent over and seeing how they were being used in school libraries. We started off heading up to Libala which seems like my home ground just now, totally getting used to where things are! Went into the basic school, which is like primary school 1-7, but it also continues up to grade 9. The children were on break when we arrived, but we got to see the library and speak to the librarian while we were there. From there we went up the the High school and go introduced to the head teacher there. His office was mental! He had a big wooden desk, with a smaller glass desk in front. There was an LCD massive TV sitting in the corner as well as a CD player, fridge and photocopier! This easily has been the most advanced space I've been in! The head was really nice and took time to talk to us about the school. Libala High School has 2620 pupils enrolled and only 62 teachers! The headteacher introduced us to the librarian for the school. He showed us the library and spoke about the way the books are being used. Here children get to take the books away for 2 weeks, and can access the library during the school days. The librarian told us that the girls like to read the novels about romance, and that Harry Potter is a popular book. We got to speak to a couple of girls from the school who use the library. They talked about what books they liked and also answered our "What does education mean to you?!" question. Their repsonses were dazzling and one girl said her education will be "the key to my future and my dreams." Such profound thoughts from such young people out here. It never ceases to amaze me!!

We were travelling over to Kalingalinga after this to see a few more libraries; Kalingalinga basic school- which goes from grade 1-9 and Mama Stella's Education Centre- which is grade 1-7. At the basic school we got to see the library and also got some really nice photos of the children playing in the courtyard and crowding round the netball posts. Over at Mama Stella's the school had closed for the day, so there was no children about.

It was soon time to jump on a bus from Kalingalinga and work our way over to Chawama compound. We were on 2 different buses to get over to Chawama, where the day really kicked off. On arrival we met with Tox, who is a fully qualified Fifa coach, a Go Sister and generally a really awesome person. She invited us to meet her family before we got started in Chawama which was lovely. We got to visit another 3 libraries within the schools; Little Woods, Aunt Ollie's and Kobet. Little Woods was completely closed for the school break so there was no access to the books although got to see the building where the library was. We next went to Aunt Ollie's and got to have a look around to see the books there. We got to see the library there and when speaking to the head teacher he told us that the books are great but he felt the school was lacking in dictionaries. He said the children liked to read, but didn't understand the definition of the words sometimes.From here we went to Kobet, where we met more awesome people. We met Justin who runs programs out in Chawama as well as the school head teacher who explained the school's capacity at 1500 pupils with plans to have a primary and secondary school within the one facility. I spoke to one peer leader called Brian, who has been involved as a peer leader for 7 years with EduSport. Seriously inspiring young man, so much dedication and work ethic shon out of him when we talked about his role as a peer leader. Justin introduced us to his family, which was very exciting for Fiona as Justin named his 5th child after her! Baby Fiona is just 3 months old and slept the duration of our visit.

Down at Chawama compound I got to be involved in 2 movement games. Justin started them off by getting all the children to clap along with him, then similar to Simon Says he calls out "Adjuba" and does an action. Everyone repeats and does the actions too. We also played another one, where again Justin started by leading the clapping and singing. Justin then chooses someone to move into the middle; he picked me!! I then chose another and so on the game went. From here the training started with the different teams playing on different areas of the compound. I got to see some girls playing netball too. They are really good players and have a great understanding of the sport. All the children at Chawama, especially the smaller ones, were obsessed with my tattoos and touching my arms to see what they felt like. It's still a really surreal experience, because to me the tattoos are just there now. I forget sometimes!! We got a good few interviews in Chawama with Tox, Justin and some peer leaders again asking "What does education mean to you?" The responses for these were so varied all day, but all equally outstanding.

It was soon time for us to head back to the backpackers, so we headed off for our bus. In the city centre there is a massive bus depot; Fiona and I both got hit by buses today. Obviously not extremely bad or I wouldn't be blogging; but still we got hit my a bus each! The buses are actually okay once you are on... and know where you are going. I'm glad to say we made it home safely and with plenty of time for a shower and dinner. Unfortunately I had to share my shower with a cricket and a moth tonight. Seriously breached my comfort zone here... and it was possibly the fastest shower of my life!

I'm sure tomorrow will hold some more amazing, un-describable experiences & I just can't wait! I will post some photos from today's action now!

That's all folks!

:) x

[bexeyeview]

My interview with Irene, an original Go Sister product, this morning and my afternoon in Kalingalinga. The movement game, some chimpombwa and my little fans! :) Check the little girl posing. So cute :)

[bexeyeview]

Day 6 - Placement

Hey folks,

Today was my first day of placement with Godfridah. We started off at the EduSport office and once again got to meet more people. Interviewed an original Go Sister from Livingstone who was over in Lusaka. Got the chance to speak to her about what being part of EduSport meant to her and how Go Sisters changed her life. Possibly the best way and most inspiring way to start a morning!

Godfridah and I headed up to Libala High School again to meet with the girls I had met on Friday. The point of the visit was to collect parental consent forms and decide days during the school break when the Go Girls would meet. During this visit I spoke to the older girls again about Go Girls and about school. One of the girls was happy to say a little bit on camera, so I recorded her talking about the Go Girls program and what it means to her.

Our next stop of the day was over at Ngombe, although unfortunately this fell through. Greg one of the EduSport guys came to the rescue and suggested a visit out to Kalingalinga again. I was really excited to be back out here and maybe see some of my buddies from Saturday's tournament. Although it was to be my first blue bus experience so I can't deny that I was a little scared! The buses are like mini-buses back home but they have no seatbelts. They have 2 seats and a fold down chair on one end, but each row seats 4 people. The buses will take alternative/illegal routes to avoid the police or to avoid traffic. When they go this way the ground is really bumpy!

The schools at kalingalinga were finishing for the day when we arrived, so we waiting on the boys for football training to arrive. Started off by having a "movement game" which Godfridah told me aims to do 2 things; teach a life skill and teach a physical skill. So for this game the boys had to form a circle holding hands that kept their chimpombwa safe from the person on the outside. The chimpombwa represented a human, the boys represented the immune system and the person on the outside represented HIV+ or malaria. The object of the game was to project the chimpombwa from being infected, so the boys were to keep a strong wall around the ball. It was really good and the boys were having fun, while learning through a really cool way. We continued the session with a 7 a side chimpombwa game. Me and Godfridah had seperate teams, and I am extremely pleased to say I scored the first goal of the game! My team were so supportive and the teamwork was awesome. I started flagging after about 20 minutes with the extreme heat though so had to leave my boys to it. A while later there were some girls on the far side of the field at Kalingalinga playing netball, so we went over to talk to them. In Zambia the girls have to do any house chores before they can go out, so for the first part of the session at Kalingalinga there were very few girls outside. A couple of them were happy to talk to me about what netball meant to them and why they enjoyed the sport. It was really nice to hear young people so enthusiastic about the sport they play! There was a few small children who were trying to teach my Nyanji, but I'm seriously struggling to pick up the language. They wanted their photograph taken after seeing the bigger girls get their video for netball.

Godfridah took me over to her house tonight when we had finished, so we walked through Kalingalinga, but like through the proper streets with houses. When I say streets I mean pathways carved in the red sand. It was so authentic, I was struggling to take it all in. We got on a bus out to Kablonga, which is where Godfridah lives. She told me this area has quite a lot of white people in it so I probably wouldn't get looked at so often out here. She was right! The people didn't bat an eyelid, whereas in the communities such as Kalingalinga I was like a novelty to them. Godfridah's house was beautiful and she even had a dog called Sasha. I have missed my dogs a lot so it was nice to see one that's a pet! I got to meet Godfridah's uncle, older brother and also her mum. They were all so friendly and invited me back for dinner & whiskey (her older bro's suggestion) before I go home. The hospitality and amazingly kind human nature's of Zambians can't be compared with any other people I have ever met! Everyone is so nice!!

Godfridah brought me back over town to Lusaka Backpackers around 6pm, so it was a long day in the sun for me but I loved every minute of it.

That's all folks,

:) x

[bexeyeview]

Chimpombwa tournament at Kalingalinga. The lauching of Umutima in Zambia. Amazing experience and brilliant day. Was so inspiring to see the kids sitting down reading the books and encouraging each other playing chimpombwa.

[bexeyeview]

Day 4 - Football

Hey folks,

Had an amazing morning watching the local Zambian kids play football. Firstly we started in a community called Bauleni, which is home to BUSA. (Bauleni United Sports Academy) We got to watch the opening of their Saturday football tournament. There were 4 different categories; U10 boys, U12 boys & girls, U14 boys and U14 girls. The atmosphere here was amazing. The discipline of the children as well was quite surprising. The young people got the goals out by themselves, they organised themselves into their teams and sat in lines in front of Coach Tobias & they were responsible for conducting their own team warm-ups. This discipline continued into their games; as they played in formation properly the whole time and they really understood the sport. All the age groups had a real passion for the sport and played with great enthusiasm. The crowd at Bauleni was awesome too. The little ones who weren't playing watched the games and got involved cheering on the teams. A group of boys were sitting right down the sideline of the girls pitch cheering the girls on during their game. It was really awesome to see! While at Bauleni the children were so fascinated by us, they kept playing with my hair and touching my tattoos to see what they were. Some of the really little ones were shy, but generally all the children wanted to speak to us. I met one little guy who must have been around 2 or 3, he wanted cuddles and held my hand like almost the whole time we were there. For being so young he was awesome at football and managed to strike the ball past Fiona a few times. His passion for football was incredible & his wee face just lit up whenever he got the ball. Our visit to Bauleni was a short one, because we were going over to Kalingalinga to have a chimpombwa tournament for boys.Chimpombwa is proper Zambian football, played with a ball made from burnt plastics. To me it looked a bit like futsal in the UK; the players are fast, show amazing skills and the ball is smaller than a usual football. For this tournament we had taken along some Friend of EduSport wristbands, some reading books for the children and some strips donated to us from the UK. Two sets of the strips were used during the tournament, one for each pitch. One of the strips was an old Jeanfield Swifts kit donated to us by Karen. It looked amazing to see Jeanfield being represented on the other side of the world! The atmosphere here at Kalingalinga was undescribable. There was at least 140 boys U14 there to play, with loads of supporters around; both girls and boys. The reading books proved to be really popular after one young person, Bernard, sat down with me to read. This snowballed and we ended up with around 30 young people sitting round listening to stories being read, or reading themselves. It was getting really hot at this point so all along the wall was children sitting in the shade reading their books. It was such a cool experience to listen to these young people reading to us. Their level on English tended to be really good and they had a genuine interest in reading. The chimpombwa tournament was still underway during this time and we were heading for the final. Semi-final just before and Jeanfield got a penalty- everyone went crazy and created a horseshoe shaped enclosure around the player and the goal. Jeanfield number 4 stepped up for his penatly and got the goal! The cheering was amazing from the crowd with everyone congratulating the player who scored. The final saw the Jeanfield boys taking on their rivals in yellow strips. It was a really tough final with the two teams being equally as fast and skills. The game ended 0-0, and went into extra time. Again this ended 0-0 which left the game going to penalties. This time around penalties were taken without the surrounding of the crowd. The yellow team got 2, but Jeanfield fired home 3. This made them champions of the chimpombwa tournament!! Everyone that had been playing or watching through the morning swarmed the player to score the essential penalty. The crowd were going wild for the Jeanfield boys. It was nice for the little children to see potentially what they can achieve through chimpombwa, as they all got involved celebrating too. Time came for the prize giving, where every team an exercise book, pen and wristband each, followed by the team trophies for runners-up and champions. We also had 2 St Johnstone jerseys that we gave away to the most disciplined player and the most skilled player. The young people who won these were super proud and put their jerseys on straight away. Finally came the prize for the most disciplined team. This prize was the set of Jeanfield strips, which went to a reletively new team from the other side of Kalingalinga. Their coach had travelled with them and really was a positive role model for all coaches. His boys did well in the tournament and thoroughly deserved their prizes.

Both at Bauleni and Kalingalinga the majority of the children played in bare feet, and the surface of the group was insane. Some areas had bits of grass, while others had pot holes in the group. The children's ability to play; in bare feet and on such a surface was totally inspiring. While in Kalingalinga there were cars occasionally driving through the football pitches. This didn't really distrupt play too much, the young people just played at the safest part of the pitch.

This all happened in the space of a morning, and I'm pretty sure there are things I have forgotten to say. It's really hard to sum up these experiences, so check the pictures as they do it more justice.

That's all folks!

:) x