Solwezi, Zambia - Volunteering

Africa » Zambia » Lusaka
November 28th 2007

Published: February 11th 2008

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KTKARL

Kilelabalanda Orphanage

(Say it slow) Ki-le-la-ba-lan-da!

We were originally scheduled to volunteer in a small village near Livingstone Falls, Zambia, home of the Great Victoria Falls, but two weeks before our departure date, we learned that the location was changed to Solwezi, Zambia, about one hour south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Nice!! We were excited to volunteer, but weren't looking forward to a bus ride that was 17 hours out of the way! We were not sure what was in store for us, but were still eager to begin our volunteer project. The bus ride to Lusaka was surprisingly smooth, but when we arrived, the bus terminal was completely chaotic. Taxi drivers bombard you as you step off the bus and ask you if you need a ride to the "Cha Cha Cha" hostel. Apparently, that is where everyone goes, but we were lucky enough to have our volunteer driver pick us up.

Chris, the project leader, took us to their "office" which was quite scary. It was really just a dilapidated old building. We spent the night in a hostel and left the next morning for our 9 hour bus ride to Solwezi. When the bus driver dropped us if in Solwezi,

The gang and KT

our ride, Chris, was not there. We were in the middle of nowhere, and it was completely disconcerning. The only phone number he gave us didn't work and we were at a loss of what to do. We assumed he would know where we were and what time we arrived, so we just sat and waited with hopes of his appearance. Our group finally showed up explaining that their cell phone was dead and didn't get our call. We settled our nerves and were on our way to Kilelabalanda, the orphanage and school that we were to help refurbish. All the kids at the orphanage had lost their parents to AIDS.

Chris took us on a tour of the place and we both could not believe it. I immediately started crying when I saw the dorms the boys lived in. Their bedding looked like it had never been washed and the smell in the room was indescribable. It smelled like a repulsive combination of burning, body odor, urine and feces. He then showed us where we would be sleeping, a floor in a classroom that wasn't being used. There was no running water or electricity and the room was

Lusaka Bus Terminal

I promise I didn't stage this. In the middle of Zambia, Africa our friend was wearing this shirt proudly!

infested with bats. Lovely!. The bathroom was a hole in the ground with a horrible smell and flies so big they spoke Swahili. We knew we'd be going in "the bush" as soon as the sun set. I could not stomach the smell and almost puked everytime I went in.

The kids however, made the entire experience one we will never forget! Although they lived in these horrible conditions, they were happy, determined to get an education, and had an unbeliveable love for life and contagious uplifiting spirit. We were fortunate enough to be there for World AIDS Day; the students performed dramatic poetry and sang about how the disease robbed them of their parents, but wouldn't let it break them. It was emotional and amazing and will be ingrained in our minds forever.

The disappointing thing about our volunteering is that the company we signed up with was very disorganized and since they changed the location at the last minute, they did not have much scheduled for us to do. Or supplies for that matter. They said we were going to clean the boy's dorms, but they had no cleaning supplies and had no intention of painting

The School

it. We felt that if we were going to be there, we needed to do something to improve these boy's lives no matter how small it might be. So we decided to buy the paint ourselves and clean and paint their dorm. It was very rewarding and the boys were so excited. However, the most important thing we did for the kids was simply spending time with all of them! Whether painting, reading books, playing soccer or dancing with them, they loved our interaction and we felt we made them feel loved and special.

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