Blogs from Chipata, Zambia, Africa - page 2

Awoke early and packed away my tent and helped with the breakfast as it was my cooking day. I felt much better than the day before and it was sunny. Someone put "It's a Beautiful Day" on their IPod and it really was. I slept for a while and read a while (finishing Bill Bryson's Down Under). We went through Lusaka soon after leaving, a curious mix of rural and city, with men in business suits and also some peasents. Ladies everywhere with cargo on their heads - even a chikcen surveying the world from a different persepective! The city was odd - big casinos juxtaposed with extreme poverty - people begging by the gates. The traffic was manic and not helped by pedestrians wandering across 3 lanes of traffic. Soon though we were back into ... read more

We set off from Lilongwe at around midday and headed for the Zambian border. We managed to get our passports stamped by the friendliest of folk to exit Malawi, headed across “no man’s land” up to Zambian border patrol. We were there for about another hour and a half in stifling heat waiting to sort all our paperwork, visas etc, with the authorities deciding to let the Irish in free aklong with the Kiwis, charging the Aussies US$50 to get in then the British US$150! A HUNDRED AND FIFTY!?!?!?! Just to get from one roasting hot country into another where the people are about as friendly as Zanzibar on a Saturday evening (Zanzibar, Derby that is, not Zanzibar, Tanzania). Anyway, we managed to fend off the lucky men selling Zambian currency (after we’d done some wheeling ... read more

Well, it's been about 3 weeks since my last blog, and am now back home so everything from here on in has been loaded up on return and as I get to write it up. I had one more field trip while in Chipata; a trip to see the chief of an area in which Caritas is helping. No photos, but was rather odd- we were the ones helping him (with money from our donors) but it was us kneeling, clapping at him and saying his praises. A bit of an eye-opener on the way back. Am used to seeing young girls with young babies on their backs- families are large and may either include nephews and nieces when parents die and/or may be led by the oldest child when families are orphaned, and I had ... read more

Coming to the end of an era now, as my placement is drawing to a close. Last week we had a final review session in which the whole organisation visited each office in turn. Each programme officer described their new classification system, were tested on it by colleagues and we identified any remaining threads to tie up during the remainder of my time here. So, enjoy the 'after' photos as promised in an earlier blog- lots of tidy boxfiles with shiny new labels! Have also been spending some time helping out with some more general business systems issues, but these aren't things you can take such satisfying pictures of :) It's been great fun, and I've become very fond of the people you see in these photos (plus the two drivers, Simon and Wilson, and the ... read more

Chipata is in mourning this week. On Saturday a bus travelling from Chipata to Lusaka travelling at what is thought to be high speed burst a tyre near Nyimba and overturned. Carrying over 20 more passengers than there should have been (over 80 rather than the 60 specified), 28 people were killed and 55 injured (radio this morning). A family of six died, a colleague's brother and his family were hurt and the nephew of one of 'my' Sisters died. The bus driver was reported as having fled the scene and the police are looking for him. Families have been having to visit all the local hospitals along the route to identify their loved ones. The bus company has provided coffins to relatives needing them. On Sunday and Monday evenings I joined part of the vigil ... read more