Zambian Weather Watch

Many people from home have asked me what the weather is like here in Zambia. There are three seasons here; the wet season from December to April, the cold season from May to August, and the hot season from September to November. Now that I've experienced all three seasons, I feel I can tell you a bit more accurately what it's like.

The sun shines all year round

The general height of the land gives Zambia a more pleasant climate than most tropical countries. My favourite thing about the weather is that it's sunny here every day. I absolutely love the sunshine and also the beautiful sunsets that can be seen each evening.

Colourful sunsets

The wet season

The wet season is really important here, because as a country agriculture is so significant. Little or late rain leads to poor harvests and many people going hungry. Apart from the increase in mosquitoes, I quite enjoyed the rainy season. The days are warm and then in the afternoon, frequent heavy rain showers help to cool things down. However, when it rains here, it really pours! There's no such thing as drizzle.

When it rains, it pours!

It's still warm enough to wear flip flops in the rain in January!

The rain even came down the chimney!

Whilst those of us from the UK are rather used to being out in the rain, it seems that some Zambians are not as keen. I often see lots of people crowded under a shelter waiting for a long time while the rain subsides. However, I suppose this is because of the intensity of the rain and the fact that few people in the surrounding communities own raincoats or umbrellas.

The cold season

The cold season in Zambia is different to what we would describe as cold at home! The mornings and the evenings do get pretty chilly but it's more because the buildings aren't insulated like they are in the UK. I continued wearing flip flops throughout the cold season but was also told that this year didn't get as cold as previous years. I found it quite funny to see some of the Bible College students wearing gloves despite the fact that on most days it had usually warmed up to about 20 degrees by midday.

The cold season does require a jumper in the evening!

The hot season

Now we are approaching November, we are well into the hot season. It has certainly begun to get more sweaty! It would be more enjoyable if we didn't have as many power cuts so we could shower and use fans at any time of the day or night, or if we had air conditioning in our car. But I am surviving! The swimming pool at the compound we live in is wonderful and helps me to feel like I'm on holiday sometimes. The temperature is usually in the late 30s, although the heat is not particularly humid so it is more bearable than in some other countries I've been to. I'm amazed how even though it's so hot and dry here, the grass still grows and leaves still appear on the trees.

Checking out the view on a sunny day...

Another great thing about the consistent sunshine is that it means we spend more time outside. There is hardly ever a day of 'wet play' at school! Events can also be planned to run outside, like the annual Bible College graduation ceremony and a cinema evening we had with friends in the garden.

Playing outside in the sunshine at school

2015 Graduation Ceremony at KBUC

It is a bit strange not enduring all the changes in the seasons that we have at home, although I am pretty happy being in what feels like permanent sunshine.  I think it's going to be quite a shock to return to the UK in December for winter!

There's always a need for ice cream...

...and sunglasses!

Learning through play

At school in the UK, one of the different learning techniques we use is role play. Many educators, myself included, believe that children learn to think through doing and talking. It helps develop their social, emotional, physical and intellectual skills as well as promoting self-confidence.

Home Corner Role Play

This view is very different to what I have so far experienced of Zambian schools, where children largely learn 'by rote' and through copying. I have worked with some of the children who attend the local primary school and are supported by Arise, and I've been shocked at their lack of understanding and thinking skills.

Learning through play is something we at Kapumpe Christian Primary School have been keen to develop in the first few years that a child joins us. Opportunities to develop language have been particularly important as most of the children who entered Grade 1 this year spoke no English at all.

Farm Shop Role Play

This new approach has been quite a learning curve for our Zambian school staff. I think they probably thought we were a bit crazy at first! However, they have seen learning through play have a positive impact on the children's language, as well as their interest and understanding of what they are learning. The staff are beginning to ask the children some good questions and maybe even think we're slightly less crazy...

Kapumpe Newsroom Role Play

One of the key features of our classrooms is our role play area. Rosie and I have spent many evenings cutting and laminating displays in preparation! With some help from Gemma, who oversees the school, we've also found some props and resources in town that we can use to bring things to life for the children. It has been important to us that we choose themes that the children have some experience of, or can relate to in some way because it makes it easier for them to imagine and play.

Hairdressers Role Play

So far the role play areas we've set up for the children include a hairdressers, a farm shop, a home, a safari, a chef's kitchen, a newsroom, a carpenter's workshop and a hospital.

Carpenter's Workshop - inside and outside!

The difference in how the children in Grade 1 use the role play area now, compared to when they started school, is quite amazing. At the beginning of the year, their role play area was set up like a simple Zambian home with a few props like a brazier (a coal stove) and a brush for sweeping. They really struggled to use imagination and play. Rosie has done a fantastic job and has persevered in teaching the children and staff in how to use them. If anyone had visited the recent Grade 1 'hospital' that she set up, they would have been welcomed by the receptionist, shown to the waiting room and questioned by the little doctors and nurses! As they got into the swing of things the children even decided they wanted a wheelchair, so they created one by adding pretend wheels to one of the plastic chairs.

Grade 1 Hospital Role Play

This has been a great example of how Rosie and I have been able to use our teaching experience from back home to help the children at Kapumpe learn in a different way. The children have thoroughly embraced all of the role plays we have set up so far. We want to establish this way of learning as early as possible and so we are now in the process of opening a brand new pre-school for 3-5 year olds at Kapumpe.

Chef's Kitchen Role Play

Learning the language

Fortunately for me, the official language in Zambia is actually English. Whilst I did well in languages at GCSE level (an A* in French and an A in Italian), I failed my French 'A' level! I haven't studied any languages since then, and have only really learned basic phrases to use abroad on holiday.

The waitress and waiters who taught us some Swahili in Zanzibar

There are over 70 different languages spoken across Zambia, although some of them are more like local dialects than official languages. The main languages spoken here are Bemba, Nyanja, Tonga and Lozi. Bemba is the language most widely spoken in and around Ndola where I live.

In some languages, including Bemba, Zambians distinguish between a 'deep' form of the language, associated with older and more traditional speakers in rural areas, and a more urban form that includes some words borrowed from English and other adaptations.

English is now the major language of Zambian business and education so staff in shops and restaurants speak English well enough for me to effectively communicate with them. However, I still think it's good to make an effort to learn the local language. And I am trying! I have learned some Bemba greetings and basic words. I’m not sure that I have a very good accent though, as there have been some occasions when someone has had to translate even my Bemba!

Lister who teaches me Bemba words on Arise visits, with one of our guardians

In the communities where we work around Kaniki, it's more important to show that we’re making an effort to fit in with the local culture. Most people who live in these areas speak little or no English. I’m currently trying to learn a couple of new words each week when I’m out on visits, to use with the children at school. I use a few key words in the classroom because it’s often easier to get the children's attention that way. I think it’s because they find me speaking in their language quite funny. They often laugh when Rosie or I attempt to pronounce things in Bemba. However, I’ve decided that it’s good to be able to laugh at yourself! Language and culture are bigger barriers than I anticipated but I am certainly enjoying learning lots about them.

Some of the children teaching me Bemba words whilst styling my hair!

Here are a few Bemba words for you…

Greetings:

Mula shani? - How are you?

Bwino (Bweeno) - I'm fine/good

Emukwai (M-quai) - With respect

Lesa mipale (Laisa miparlai) - God bless you

Isakuno (Isacoono) - Come

Na totela - Thank you

Naunfois? - Do you understand?

Tukamonana mailo - See you tomorrow

A Zambian Hen Party!

I recently had the pleasure of being invited to a ‘kitchen party’, which is a type of Zambian hen party. Although I didn’t actually know the engaged couple, my friend Holly works with the groom and had been encouraged to bring a friend. It was a very interesting and fun experience.

Apparently kitchen parties are usually held before the wedding, like hen parties are in the UK. However, sometimes they are held during the actual wedding day. On this occasion, there was a church service in the morning followed by a kitchen party in the afternoon and then a ceremony in the evening. I was told that the church service and evening ceremony are more similar to wedding celebrations in the UK, whereas the kitchen party is quite different.

This type of event is called a Kitchen Party because guests are expected to bring a gift for the bride and groom’s new kitchen. Guests are informed of the colour scheme beforehand (black, white and apple green in this case) but not which particular item to buy. I think the bride at the party I went to received at least five kettles and four crockery sets! Bringing and presenting a present is a big part of the event. People are very generous, and spend a large amount when you consider local salaries. Some guests at the party gave the bride kitchen units, tables and chairs. At a kitchen party there are usually several opportunities to give money. We had been advised to empty our purses of all but small notes before we went!

Gifts to stock the couple's kitchen

We arrived at the party two hours after it was due to start, to find that the location had changed from the original details on the invitation. As the only white people at the party, we were ushered to seats in the front row, which I felt was rather crazy considering I didn’t know the bride! We then waited another hour before the party started. The bride had a particular dress which was especially for the kitchen party, and it matched the green and orange colour scheme of the party. Ladies played the drums whilst other guests stood and clapped as the bride entered. In fact, her entrance involved her crawling in on her hands and knees with two members of her family, concealed under a large piece of fabric!

The bride's entrance!

There were at least 200 ladies gathered at the party. Imagine having all your female friends and family together dancing, eating and generally having a good time, yet not being allowed to smile! That’s what is expected of the bride here in Zambia. Someone told me it is a tradition that shows she is taking it seriously. It must be quite a challenge. I struggled not to smile when I was part of a group photo!

Lots of guests gathered

Large helpings of meat, rice, potato and salad for lunch

Presenting the gifts took a long time. When a present is held up, the person who brought it takes it to the bride and explains what it is (whilst she continues to keep a serious, straight face!). It is unwrapped by the lady leading the proceedings, rather than the bride. After handing over the present, the person giving it then has to dance in front of everyone! Zambians of all ages seem to be natural dancers, so Holly and I must have looked pretty ridiculous attempting to dance like them. There was a lot of laughter. We noticed that following the dancing, the person who had given the gift would then lie on the floor and turn over to lie on the other side. Apparently this is a sign of respect, so we joined in when it was our turn, which all the ladies found hilarious.

Dancing after giving a gift

Holly and me

Unlike traditional hen parties in the UK, the groom has a role to play in the kitchen party. Towards the end of the party, he proceeds in to meet the bride with a group of friends or family gathered closely around him. Holly and I were also persuaded to join in with this bit, even though we had no idea of what was going on or what would happen next. Fortunately it meant just walking in as part of the group and then a bit more dancing at the front.

The groom meeting the bride

The groom then meets the bride (still not smiling) and their mothers are invited to sit at the front. The bride and groom greet the mothers, and this is followed by respectfully lying on the floor in front of them and then more dancing all together. 

As well as being lots of fun, the kitchen party was a completely different experience to anything I've been to before. It was a great introduction to some of the cultural traditions that form part of a Zambian wedding.

Mothers of the bride and groom

The bride caught smiling!

Power cuts here, there and everywhere

Power cuts in Zambia - I imagined them to be just an occasional inconvenience, and probably standard for a real African experience.

Well that’s how it first seemed. We would randomly lose power, normally for a few hours at a time and only every couple of weeks. Because no power also means no water for us living here in Kaniki, we soon learned to keep large containers of water around the house. We made sure that torches, candles and matches were left somewhere easy to find. We even begrudgingly accepted that the toilet could only be flushed if it really had to be! And other than that, we carried on with life as normal. After all, this is Africa!

Walking round the house with a candle during a power cut made me feel like I was in the Victorian times and the first time I cooked dinner on a gas stove using a head torch was quite an entertaining experience. One particular night, I was eating at a restaurant in town when the power suddenly went down. The restaurant reduced the menu to food options that could be cooked in a gas or pizza oven, and we ate by candlelight. Many businesses, including Baluba Farm which is just across the road from where we live, were forced to use generators so that they could continue to function whilst the power was off.

Dinner by candlelight

  

Unfortunately these occasional power cuts have become a much more regular, and now prolonged, daily experience. Zesco, the company which generates and supplies electricity to Zambia, is a public utility which means it is owned by the Zambian government. Zesco’s slogan ‘Powering the nation’ now seems a little ironic! Zambian energy is largely hydroelectric, and produced by Kariba Dam which is a hydroelectric dam in the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Zambezi River at the Zimbabwe/Zambia border

In June we heard that there was a problem with the dam, because of the low rainfall this year. We then heard that the problem was that the dam was in fact damaged. At one point we even heard that Zesco were still exporting electricity to other countries, although they claim that they weren’t. It’s quite hard to know what is true.

‘Load shedding’ was introduced in June. This means that country-wide power cuts are scheduled to reduce electricity and shed the load on a wider scale, in order to prevent a collapse of the power system. Load shedding began to be scheduled several times a week and this was quickly increased to five hours a day, either 5-10pm, 10am-3pm or 3-9pm. Although these power cuts were inconvenient, they became a lot more manageable because we knew when they would occur.

It is easy to moan but I haven’t actually found the recent load shedding as bad as I expected. Having advanced warning means that I can charge my phone and laptop in preparation, and work out the best time in the day to have a shower. A gas oven solved the problem of how to cook, until the gas ran out too! After a couple of trips into town, I was finally able to get a small canister refilled with gas, although there was not enough to fill anything larger.

Evenings in candlelight

I suppose that I have experienced just a few ill effects of the power problem. However Zambia is the second biggest copper producer in Africa, so load shedding is having a very negative impact on the mines. They have had to cut jobs and reduce their power usage and try to make up for the deficit by buying imports which are more expensive. Businesses and farms have to rely on generators, which puts their costs up and this means that the price of food is rising. The kwacha (the Zambian currency) has plunged against the dollar, which suggests that an economic crisis may be looming.

Over the last couple of weeks our load shedding has been increased to eight hours of power cuts a day (5am-1pm or 1pm-9pm) and we have heard that it may increase to 12 hours at a time! As the sun sets at 6pm every evening, we are spending many more evenings in darkness. It reminds me that I am having an authentic third world experience but I also wonder what longer term impact this situation is going to have on the country. Excuse the pun but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of light at the end of the tunnel!

Life and Death

One Thursday afternoon, I went with one of our Zambian Arise volunteers to visit a grandmother who is a guardian for four Arise orphans. She used to work as a secretary so she had a good understanding of English, even though she spoke in Bemba. When we arrived at her home, I noticed several cars parked near the house - quite unusual as the people we support through Arise are unable to afford cars.

Sadly, the reason the cars were there was because the lady’s family and friends were gathering for a funeral. She explained that one of her own children had died just the day before. He was just 32 years old, the same age as me. As he had only been ill for a couple of weeks, it was quite a shock when he passed away.  I found out that the lady originally had 8 of her own children but only two of them are still alive.

Since I moved to Zambia, a number of people I know here have had to deal with death and attend family funerals. My teaching assistant's niece, who was only in her twenties, died recently.  Another colleague's sister died earlier in the year. One of the pastors we know here led a funeral for his 11 year old nephew who died from malaria, and another friend’s relative died in childbirth. Then last month one of the Arise boys in Grade 12 died from tuberculosis. These were all children or adults under forty.

Kansenshi Cemetery, Ndola

I’ve found that people here deal with death in a more matter-of-fact way than I am used to. This isn’t because they're not sad, because when I talk to them I know that they are. People still grieve and sometimes this is actually shown in a more extreme way than what we might expect. For example, you can spot women at the airport who have flown in for a funeral - they often wail loudly when they greet the people who have come to collect them and sometimes they collapse on the ground.

I guess the matter-of-fact manner that I’ve seen here probably comes from having to face the tragedy of death more often than many people do in more developed countries like the UK . I've learned that in Zambia it's polite to ask someone what happened when you hear that someone has died. It's more acceptable to ask after them even if you don't know what to say in response.

Large numbers of family and friends gather for funerals here. They all eat together at the home of the deceased, so it can put a considerable financial burden on the immediate family. Women wear traditional chitenges (bright fabric wrapped around the waist) and often an open coffin means people can view the body. The gathering at the home is referred to as the funeral and then the burial happens afterwards. Most people here don't approve of cremation.

We drive past a large cemetery on our way in to Ndola town. One day the traffic was really slow going past, and it turned out to be because a huge crowd of people were gathering for a burial. I wondered if it was someone well known in the area as there were so many people there. Music that sounded like a brass band was playing loudly. 

Sometimes life seems very short, and this is even more apparent in Zambia. I believe we feel like this because God designed us to live for eternity and what we see around us now is not all there is. There are so many unanswered questions and things that don't make sense to us as humans but I am encouraged to 'live by faith and not by sight' (2 Corinthians 5:7). We should also remember my sister Rachel's favourite saying… 'We're here for a good time, not a long time!'

Birthdays in Zambia

Some of my Zambian friends celebrate their birthdays with friends and family like we would in England. However, this is not representative of most Zambian people. A lot of the children we teach don’t even know when their birthday is, and not because they are too young to remember. Sometimes their parents or guardians don’t know the child's date of birth! If the child was born at home rather than at the clinic or hospital, then they don't have a birth certificate. In fact, it’s interesting how many children at school were born on the 1st January, according to their application forms!

I suppose that because birthdays aren’t such ‘a thing’ here, the children don’t know any different so they’re not really missing out. However, I think birthdays are a great reason to celebrate a person, and a good excuse to have fun. Yesterday I turned 33 and had a really lovely day celebrating. In true Zambian style, my day started with a power cut and boiling water on the gas stove so I could wash in a bucket (I can assure you that this was not the lovely part!). In the morning, I Skyped my parents and then one of my friends from home. A friend here then took me out for brunch. In the afternoon I spent some time being pampered, as my auntie kindly treated me to a massage, manicure and pedicure for my birthday! I have discovered a very nice salon in the centre of Ndola,quite similar to ones at home – not the mud hut my sister Rach said she imagined when I was telling her about it. In the evening, I went out with some friends for a meal in town, and then I Skyped my sisters and my parents again when I got home.

A big thank you to everyone who sent me cards, presents and messages for my birthday. I very much appreciated hearing from lots of people at home and am thankful for all the birthday love!

A full English breakfast!

Birthday pampering

Michaelangelo's Restaurant, Ndola

Me, Rosie & Holly