Lusaka, the capital city

Our mid-term break brought a most welcome rest and also the chance to explore a new city. I love Kaniki but it is quite intense living and working within a compound, particularly as it feels ‘out in the sticks’ compared to life back home. So Rosie and I decided to visit Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, for a few days.

We arranged to travel with our friend Anna (from church here) who had to go to Lusaka for a work meeting, but we persuaded to stay on with us. Unfortunately Anna’s car broke down the evening before we went! As the car that Rosie and I drive over here is only suitable for shorter journeys, it meant a five hour journey on the bus.

I was actually rather pleasantly surprised, as the bus turned out to be a coach with enough seats for all the passengers - the usual buses around town are more like vans which large numbers of people pile into! I even managed to sleep for half of the bus journey.

We met Anna in Lusaka as she had opted to leave at 5.30am! When Rosie and I arrived, we felt extremely popular! At the bus station there was a huge crowd of men shouting ‘Taxi!’ at us before we'd even got out of our seats. I literally had to push people out of the way to escape!

Another pleasant surprise was the place we stayed. At only 120K (approx. £12) per person a night, our expectations were not very high. However, we had a nice two-bedroom apartment for the three of us. We appreciated the clean tile floors which meant we could walk around in bare feet (I usually keep my flip flops on here!) as well as the power shower.

The Baptist Apartments

The apartment was a walk away from the centre. 

Anna on our walk into the city

Casually strolling along in front of us...

In most capital cities, you would expect there to be lots of historical and cultural things to do. There aren’t many in Lusaka! The only remotely cultural thing we did was go to a big market. It was great fun bartering and chatting to the people who were selling handmade crafts. If you've ever been to Africa or been given a present from here, you would probably recognise a lot of the gifts!

Another treat was actually drinking a cocktail. Yes, just the one…I thought I’d better not go overboard having had no alcohol since I left the UK! We had a tasty meal out on our first evening in the city but later found out that the dinner we'd all eaten didn’t agree with us! Suffice to say, we didn’t eat out much the next day.

Dinner and cocktails!

In Lusaka, there are three shopping centres which each have a cinema, so we were easily able to find entertainment. We enjoyed strolling round the shops, buying things that we can’t get in Ndola, having coffee at Mugg & Bean (an African coffee shop!) and seeing a few films at the cinema...five films, to be exact! We saw American Sniper, Kingsman, Jupiter Ascending, Annie and Taken 3. More movies than I think I saw at the cinema in the whole of last year! Yet it was great because it was cheap (yes, I am my mother’s daughter!) and so different from what we've been doing since we arrived in Zambia…it felt like a small taste of home.

Our bus journey back to Ndola was fairly straightforward, although rather amusingly there was a young boy travelling on the seat next to us with two live rabbits!

New Playground

One of the things I love about the children here is that they get so excited about things. This was certainly the case on Friday, when they got to play on the brand new playground at school!

Tabitha swinging away

Alice: "Miss Cross, look at me!"

A team from Denmark, who were visiting (staying at the farm), set up the playground the previous day. They were delighted to see how well it went down with the children! The playground equipment itself was shipped over from Denmark in a container, as most of the other school furniture has been - desks, chairs, mats and much more.

Angel, Victor and Purity (behind the post!), Grade 2

Bernard, Tumello and Chongo, Grade 1

At the end of the day, the children went straight back to playing on the equipment. It was quite hard to get them to go home!

Half term (mid-term break as it is known here) has arrived…phew!

Not that I have favourites

During a ‘Plan, Do Review’ session where the children were choosing their own learning activities (I am quite getting into this Key Stage 1 malarkey!), one of my pupils called Comfort kept asking for help…

Whilst pulling faces for the camera, he asked “Miss Cross, please can you do this puzzle with me?”

  

“Miss Cross, please can you help me count?”

“Miss Cross, please can you read me a story?”

How could I resist such a cutie? :-) 

Baluba Farm

Mufilira Road
Kaniki on the left, Baluba on the right
(heading into Ndola)

Baluba Valley Farm, named after Baluba River, lies across the road from our base at Kaniki Bible University College. The farm was set up in 1980, a year after the Bible College opened, in order to produce food for the college students and workers here. Today the farm continues to supports the college, financially as well as with food. They also generously donate a huge crate of bananas to the school each week for the children’s snacks.

On Tuesday last week (our day off due for Presidential elections) we invited ourselves to Baluba Farm for a tour…

Team on tour

Maize

Bananas

Each of the workers is responsible for a particular plot of bananas

Bananas galore

Banana plant flowering

Last year the farm produced over 500 tonnes of bananas!

Chicks

Chickens
(We also saw where they are slaughtered but I didn't take a photo of that!)

Cow shed

Milking time

Calves born in the last couple of days

View of the farm from the other side of the lake (where the monitor lizards live!)

Attempting to climb the water tower!

Those that made it to the top!

African Cup of Nations

Well, it was fun whilst it lasted!

Unfortunately Zambia were knocked out of the African Cup of Nations this evening - they failed to win a game or qualify past the group stages. Despite the outcome, I enjoyed watching them play with the Zambian fans. I managed to catch some of the games here in Kaniki. Not at the local pub since this would have been frowned upon – there is quite a different culture and attitude to drinking here (alcohol is associated with people who are permanently drunk).

Most of the students from the college, who we share the site with, set up a projector to watch the action on a huge screen across the wall of one of their lecture rooms. Rosie and I were invited and fed popcorn. There was a great atmosphere. I think anyone else nearby might have thought that Zambia scored numerous goals. Unfortunately the ball only reached the net twice during three matches! The celebrations were hilarious though. Nearly all the students suddenly jumped out of their seats, some darted around the room, and others whistled or screamed. Of course we Brits clapped and cheered too in our own polite way.

Zambian Team

Occasionally when the digital TV signal was lost and the picture blurred, it was switched over to Zambian TV. The commentary was much quieter and harder to hear and it looked a bit like a programme from the 1980s, with a brown tinge over the screen!

The scores on the doors were:

Zambia vs Congo 1 - 1

Zambia vs Tunisia 1 - 2

Zambia vs Cape Verde 0 – 0

By the last game, it looked unlikely that Zambia would qualify but it was still a possibility. Hopes were high and lots of shouting ensued. Watching the game with the students was definitely more enjoyable than the 0-0 result suggested. Clearly the students were disappointed but I was impressed that they kept a positive attitude.

Apparently the students play sports on Wednesday afternoons, which we have been invited to join. Let’s hope their fun and positivity remains, even if we’re not very good, as it will be volleyball or football rather than my usual sport of netball!

Me and Rosie
(Going out for a curry in town - the first time we've both had properly straightened hair!)

Looking Ahead

‘Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus’

Philippians 3: 12-14

In the busyness of life we don’t often prioritise time to stop and reflect. During the last couple of years I’ve learnt to do this a bit more, particularly in my leadership role at school. I expected that I would have lots more time for it here, observing and pondering life in another culture. It turns out that you can even busy yourself up in the land of the laid back, where people don’t feel the need to multi-task. I learnt today that it is frowned upon to eat whilst walking!

Those that know me well, know that I’m a bit of a night owl and true to form I am up past midnight typing this. I am the queen of procrastination and one of my bad habits is staying up late, depriving myself of sleep. I am determined to change this. Where better to do so than whilst living out in the sticks in Africa?! On a positive note however, once everyone else is asleep I find time to check out my photos and type, which forces me to stop and reflect.

Kaniki, Mufilira Road

The whole of Zambia stopped today. The 20^th January 2015 marked an important day here with elections for a new president. Consequently people stopped to vote. In fact, many people must have walked a considerable distance to Kaniki to vote, as the next polling station along from here was in Ndola, 15km away. These elections also meant a random Tuesday off school for me, hooray!

This morning I stopped for just a moment and read the verse above. Coincidentally, the date 20th January also in fact reminds me of the day that my life turned upside down. Three years ago, I was married, living in Winchester, teaching, enjoying holidays and planning a future. Up until that particular evening, when one conversation with my then husband plunged me into utter turmoil. That might sound dramatic but it is how things felt at the time. Many of you know the details as you lived through it with me.

Three years on and much has changed. I am single, living in Africa, teaching in a very different context and pursuing different dreams. However, much more has changed than just the physical differences; I’m a different person now. By the grace of God, not bitter and broken but healed and happy, supported and encouraged by loads of absolutely wonderful people even though they are thousands of miles away.

Missing all these lovely faces as well as many more!

It's time to forget what is behind and look forward to all that is ahead! :-)

Kapumpe School and Arise Project

Enjoying a shawarma en route into town

Braai with the team