"Welcome to Zambia, Africa's number 1 country!" Is the sign that greeted me as I walked down the stairs of the plane onto the tiny air strip that led me into what is basically a one roomed airport. Arrival into Lusaka was extremely smooth, got through customs easily, baggage was all there... All the while I kept thinking, "I cannot believe I am in Africa", and after one full day here, I still can't really believe it. Apparently my body cannot either, hence the reason I am updating this blog so late at night, got to love jet lag...
After settling in and getting a pretty good sleep last night, we went into Bauleni (the area where I will be teaching) to deliver a wheel chair to a woman who lives there. The first impression of Bauleni is pretty overwhelming, with the poverty being so incredibly apparent. The roads are dirt and lined with what seem to be mostly one room shacks and huts, with many people to a tiny house. Piles of trash line the streets and kids dig through this trash to make toys. Seeing a white person in this compound is like the equivalency of seeing an elephant walking through San Francisco, so we were attracting a lot of attention. The attention, however, was not bad. Just from being here one day it is extremely clear how friendly and welcoming Zambians on a whole are. We got lots of shouts of, "Mulibwanji!" (how are you?) or "Mzungu, mzungu!" which is their word for a white person. The kids were fascinated with us, and a group of them congregated to watch the wheel chair delivery, one of the little girls came over and started touching my hair, she proceeded to play with it for about ten minutes, looking so delighted at seeing a somewhat blonde person come say hi to her. My favorite part of the visit was a make shift soccer game that I played with some of the kids, as I said, most of their toys come from trash, so the ball we were using was made our of plastic bags, but still worked surprisingly well.
Actual teaching at the school starts on Monday, so I have a couple days to settle in and get to know the area a bit more. If you want to contact me with any questions please go ahead and email me, and I am going to end this with a few photos of life here so far...
Welcome to Lusaka!
This is basically the extent of the airport
A very popular mode of transportation here
Beginning of Bauleni
After settling in and getting a pretty good sleep last night, we went into Bauleni (the area where I will be teaching) to deliver a wheel chair to a woman who lives there. The first impression of Bauleni is pretty overwhelming, with the poverty being so incredibly apparent. The roads are dirt and lined with what seem to be mostly one room shacks and huts, with many people to a tiny house. Piles of trash line the streets and kids dig through this trash to make toys. Seeing a white person in this compound is like the equivalency of seeing an elephant walking through San Francisco, so we were attracting a lot of attention. The attention, however, was not bad. Just from being here one day it is extremely clear how friendly and welcoming Zambians on a whole are. We got lots of shouts of, "Mulibwanji!" (how are you?) or "Mzungu, mzungu!" which is their word for a white person. The kids were fascinated with us, and a group of them congregated to watch the wheel chair delivery, one of the little girls came over and started touching my hair, she proceeded to play with it for about ten minutes, looking so delighted at seeing a somewhat blonde person come say hi to her. My favorite part of the visit was a make shift soccer game that I played with some of the kids, as I said, most of their toys come from trash, so the ball we were using was made our of plastic bags, but still worked surprisingly well.
Actual teaching at the school starts on Monday, so I have a couple days to settle in and get to know the area a bit more. If you want to contact me with any questions please go ahead and email me, and I am going to end this with a few photos of life here so far...
New friends: this girl was fascinated by my hair.
Emma Shandy, UC Davis undergraduate student, Human Development
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