Josephk

Kwaheri to Zambia! I sit and write this final blog sitting back home in Sydney Australia, and it is a very strange feeling indeed. The past few months in particular have absolutely flown by, with the refugee camp closing, and the land being handed back to the Zambian government. In the end all members of the office worked extremely hard to meet the deadline, with many nights, weekends and holidays spent either working with the refugees in the camp, or escorting repatriation convoys back to the DRC. During the past few months I have helped the office in registering refugees for repatriation; I have undertaken verification and protection screening for refugees with registration issues or protection concerns; I have conducted numerous Best Interest interviews and drafted reports for children who are potentially at risk; I have ... read more

August/September 2010 - Kawambwa to Victoria Falls to Sydney and back again Well, it is fair to say it has been a whirlwind 6 weeks or so! First off, in the week before I went to Australia I ended up going to Victoria Falls with Taban, and it was awesome. We drove there in Taban’s car - it is about a 6 hour drive from Lusaka, and the road was surprisingly good. Although we only had two nights there I managed to squeeze in as much as possible. The falls truly are an amazing sight that is impossible to put into words. They are something like 1.7km across! As you can see from the photos, I managed to do some white water rafting on the Zambezi River, which was great. The rapids were pretty scary and ... read more

14 June onward - settling in Jambo people! Well, as I write this, I have been in Zambia for almost 4 weeks, which to me is just crazy! I have been a busy camper in that time, and whenever I have hoped to add a new blog, I have had so much to write it is easier to just combine them all into one big one, which I have done here. Anyway, the word ‘jambo’ is hello in Swahili - write that down - you never know when you might use it. If someone says jambo to you, you say ‘jambo sana’ back. The Congolese refugees I work with here all speak Swahili, which you may have heard of (they call it the East African language, because it is spoken in Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, Somalia etc ... read more

Welcome to Zambia! I arrived to Lusaka, Zambia safe and sound, two days ago. The flights went surprisingly well, and I took the opportunity yesterday to catch up on some sleep and settle in to the guest house (Gossner Mission Guest House). The guest house is a lovely little place, with a friendly German couple running it. All of their profits go toward running two schools for disadvantaged children nearby, which is obviously great to hear. The only issue I have faced so far is getting around (to the shops etc), so I have had to make friends with a cab driver very quickly! The country has a pretty safe feel to it at the moment. I started work at UNHCR today, which is Monday 7 June 2010. This morning I have commenced my induction, and ... read more