I remember Dan and I coming back to Lusaka in January 2010, after a marvellous Christmas trip to Zanzibar, trying to feel positive about the dead-end placements we were in, determined to find some good in them. This was difficult, and not helped by our first day back at work. We turned up on Monday morning at the office where we both worked, to find no one. Dan called our boss to find out what was going on to be told, “we didn’t think you were coming back till tomorrow.” This about summed it up – it was only our presence that was keeping the place going, and that’s certainly not the VSO way! The following weekend, we tried to restore our spirits in time-honoured fashion – shopping! I vividly remember walking to the craft market in the pouring rain (this was before the days when we owned our trusty car, Merl!) to buy wall hangings to brighten up the blank walls of our flat. If our jobs were a waste of time, at least our home would be bright and cheerful! The craft store holders were beside themselves – we were the only customers daft, or desperate, enough to visit the market in the miserable weather!
As the first few weeks of early 2010 passed by it just got worse – for the organisation where Dan and I both worked, the lack of money and accruing debts made the inevitable happen – they were evicted from their office premises and we had nowhere to work. For my other organisation, it became increasingly evident that – how can I put it – there were some transparency issues, and that my time there was limited. Dan and I were very happy in Zambia, enjoying the diverse experiences, but how we were to pursue our VSO dream and contribute in our own small way to the development of the country was increasingly unclear.
January 2011 could not be more different. True, we returned to Lusaka from another brilliant Christmas holiday – this time in South Luangwa National Park in Eastern Zambia, followed by five days on Lake Malawi, both in the company of Dan’s Mum who was visiting from the UK. But work-wise Dan and I have now two placements each, which keep us extremely busy. Dan works with Our Lady’s Hospice and Nomakanjani Arts whilst I spend half my time with ZARAN, which campaigns for the recognition of the human rights of people living with or affected by HIV and AIDS. The other half of my time I’m helping to establish the NGO WASH Forum (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene), a membership organisation of NGOs (international, national and community-based) which seeks to improve coordination, collaboration and knowledge-sharing in water and sanitation programmes.
At ZARAN my colleagues are busy completing their activity planning process for 2011, using a system we developed together, and which hopefully they’ll continue to use after my departure. But the biggest change is my work for the Forum. I would never have believed that my VSO experience would see me sitting round a table with the Director of Public Health for Lusaka, the Head of Water of Sanitation of UNICEF Zambia, the Head of Medecins sans Frontieres Zambia, other senior people from the likes of Oxfam, as well as people from the Ministry of Health and community representatives, discussing how to reduce the number of people in Lusaka who would contract cholera this rainy season. The Forum is going from strength to strength in other ways too – attendance at meetings has increased since I started supporting it – there was the highest turnout ever yesterday of 31 participants – as has participation in shared activities. Most importantly, commitment from donors has also increased, which means in the next month or so we can hopefully hire a Zambian national to take over from me running the Forum, allowing it finally to deliver on the considerable promise that has gone largely unfulfilled for so many years.
It’s a bit harder to explain how non-work life also feels different; somehow more settled, more routine, but not in a negative way. I think it’s something to do with us no longer being new here, so there are fewer surprises, and we know better how things work. But also we are no longer new to other people – I feel treated more like a ‘normal’ friend, neighbour or colleague than I did in the first few months of my arrival, when I definitely felt like a novelty, even a curiosity to others. This is partly because I now mainly work with people that are ‘more like me’ – they are educated, motivated, and while not necessarily rich, have enough money to be able to rent or own a decent home, get to and from work, and feed their families, rather than scraping around for every kwacha (the local currency) and being under the constant threat of eviction from their homes. High points of my current life often feature sitting round the lunch table with colleagues from my organisations, discussing the latest in Zambian politics – an election is due this year – or discussing what happens in different cultures if a man gets his girlfriend pregnant – my colleagues seemed surprised that in Britain, unlike in Zambia, such an occurrence does not include him paying a significant sum of money to her family. A topic that is always bound to cause heated debate is MSM – God, I hate that expression! – it stands for Men who have Sex with Men – a community of people who like any other have the right to healthcare including HIV prevention support. However in a country where same-sex relationships are both illegal under the law and highly immoral to the vast majority of the conservative Christian population, opinions are strongly held and passionately expressed!
So compared to last year I’m ridiculously busy and feel far more at home. There will always be things about living in Zambia that I find difficult and/or annoying, ‘Zambian time’ which means turning up for meetings up to two hours late, being top of the list! Being asked for money fairly regularly is also something I won’t miss when I go home. But I will miss the openness and friendliness of practically everyone, and I’ve even developed a fondness for my lunchtime meal of ‘nshima’, the Zambian carbohydrate staple, balls of which one therapeutically turns round in one’s hand before eating together with whatever meat and veg is available that day.
Dan and I are hoping to extend our time here until December 2011, so we can see a full year through with our new – functioning – organisations. This means we will return to the UK to the delights of a Christmas with family and long-term friends, which after two albeit wonderful Christmases away, we are certainly ready for. This will also sweeten the pill of leaving a country and people that we have come to love! But it also gets me thinking ahead to what January 2012 might be like…will I be applying for – or already doing – a job that is challenging and significant, or will I once again be addressing my miseries with therapy of a retail nature!
Helen
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