LearnServe Zambia 2017: From Lusaka to Livingstone (7/1 - 7/3)
Saturday, July 1
Yesterday was one of the more chill days in the sense that we could sleep a little longer and wake up later because we had finished teaching at Daughters Vision. We left the Guesthouse around 9:30-10am to go and paint a mural on the front wall of Daughter’s Vision where we had been teaching. The mural turned out to be amazing. Everyone who was around, including the local children, had a chance to pitch in. We decided to paint our hands and put our handprints on the wall for decoration and as a way for us to leave our mark. After we completed the majority of the mural, we said our goodbyes to the kids and teens and exchanged contact info, social media, gifts and tears. Gaby stayed to finish the final touches on the mural while we all took one more trip to Chikumbuso to do a little more shopping and support the widows and single moms who make bags and crafts there.
The afternoon part of the day consisted of going to the market, bargaining prices with the vendors and visiting a nearby boarding high school called David Kaunda or ‘DK’. At DK, each LearnServe student was partnered up with a DK student to get a tour of their school, have tea, talk, and learn what it’s like to be a teenager in Zambia. My partner, Christy, and I compared lifestyles in our countries and found similarities in how much freedom we are allowed to have from our parents. After being a guest at the DK boarding school, we invited the DK students to our place for dinner, games and more conversation. On our way to our guesthouse, we had to pick up food and while waiting for the food there was a conversation about singing. One girl, Tintiwe, had a very beautiful voice. She sang ‘Only Girl’ by Rihanna and we were all really impressed. At Juls, we taught the DK students a card game we’d been playing on the trip called, Kemps, and by the end of the night, they were all getting just as competitive as we were. By the end of the night, it was like we had all been friends for much longer than a few hours… everyone was laughing and having a really good time.
Monday, July 3
Geez. Waking up at 6 o’clock is hard especially after falling asleep at 2am. Its not like I was up just letting time pass. I was trying to pack for GreenPop but I was inconvenienced when our side of the guesthouse lost power and our lights went out. We learned that this is pretty common in parts of Lusaka, to lose light or electricity, and it made me grateful that this is not an issue where I live in DC. But it all got done with the help of friends.
We had to be seated on the bus by 7 a.m. for our 6-hour drive to Livingstone. While driving to Livingstone, we made two stops, one for restrooms/stretching and the other for lunch. What I didn’t know was that we had to pay 2 kwacha to use the bathroom. But from Ms. Malikkah’s explanation, it was because it was one of the nicer restrooms along the highway. At least there was toilet paper.
We finally arrived at GreenPop at 4pm< and were welcomed by those who had arrived earlier. They clapped and played the drums to welcome us to camp as we marched into a big circle. Everyone at GreenPop has to get in a circle and welcome the new groups that arrive by allowing each person to bang the drum. They asked for someone from our group to volunteer first so, of course, I did. We later went on a 45 minute hike through fields and along a river to see the Baobab Tree on the top of a hill to learn its history and watch the sunset. As the sun went down, it got much colder than I expected, considering we’re in Africa. We had a warm dinner and played another intense game of Kemps with our new South African friends that helped keep us a little warmer. It was hard to crawl into a tent when it was that cold out. Although we were two to a tent, we fit three into ours to snuggle up and try to keep warm. It was my first time camping and I can’t say that I enjoyed it. But, I can say that it was an interesting experience.
Zikomo (thank you),
Lily A., E. L. Haynes Public Charter School
