In Norway, after Magnus Carlsen became the world champion in chess, the
interest for chess has exploded. But I was surprised when my Kenyan friend
Mwaniqe last week asked me if I could assist him at a chess workshop at a
compound. He didn’t know how to play it, but he was running the workshop for
NOWSPAR (a Non-governmental organization). I know how to play but not a lot
about tactics and points etc, so it was good that Ivan from Uganda, who works
for Edusport came to instruct the participants, as well as me. Ivan is a good
friend of me and Mwaniqe.
First Day
The first day was on Tuesday, we were supposed to start at 8
AM, but we waited for about an hour before we got enough people to go to the
location where the workshop was being held. Then we had to wait a bit longer
for the rest of the people. The participants are both disabled and healthy
kids/adults, and they are all willing to learn the game of chess. Some pick it
up fast, others don’t.
Before we started it was a group of small kids standing at
the entrance of the room looking at me, I guess they don’t see many “Mozongos” in
their compound very often. Before I got to take a picture or talk to them, they
got chased away by the adults. The course lasted 2-3 hours and we left the
chessboards with the participants.
Second day We came a bit earlier this day, to try to start earlier, but still we had
to wait half an hour at the compound. And we also had to wait by the location
of the workshop, and again the kids came to the doorstep to look at me. I
grabbed the NOWSPAR camera and took a couple of pictures, it flashed, and the
kids shouted: “Futi! Futi!” which
means “Again! Again!” so I took a few
more photos. Then I took my GoPro camera and walked over to them, and I started
talking. I spoke a bit of Nyanja to them, and whenever I got stuck I had one
translator (one of the participants). It was so cool, and I’m glad I got it on
camera.
The day contained a recap and playing, and it seems like
they really enjoy it. I hope they will continue after the last day of the
workshop and improve their game, so when Mwaniqe and Ivan come back in a couple
of weeks, they will see the progress.
Third day The final day of the course we had the Zambias women champion of chess
visiting the workshop. And we made the participants play for a couple of hours.
Afterwards they wanted to show their appreciations, so we were invited to a
cultural dance. We were all hungry and had busy afternoons, but we said it
would be fun to see what they had arranged for us.
And wow, what an experience. They were dressed up and painted, danced in front
of us with drums in the background. They wanted me to come up and dance with
them, and why not? So I went up while Ivan filmed the whole thing. After a few
minutes of dancing with a massive crowd (Can you imagine a mozongo in a
compound dancing with drums).
The days that I spent there I had so many kids looking at
me, saying “Mozongo” or “how are YOU!?!” It was so cool, and
since it’s so far away from the city centre the kids haven’t seen many white
people, so I’m a very interesting person for them. They are a bit shy in the
beginning, but when I talk to them they seem very keen on talking/touching me.
Holiday/exam at
University of Western Cape On Friday at 05:00 I will head to the airport in Lusaka, and arrive Cape
Town in the afternoon. I will have one week where I’m going to have as much fun
as possible before I meet up with all the other Norwegian volunteers to do a
week program at the University and then have an oral exam on the Saturday the
14th of December. After that day our official holiday starts, and it
lasts for one month, more or less. I got my whole trip/holiday planned and I’m
really excited. I will try to keep the blog updated, but I’m not going to bring
my laptop, so I don’t know how often I will have access to a laptop (and
internet).
First day at the workshop. Me speaking to the kids about the game of chess
Me and Ivan (from Uganda) talking about chess
Showing the movement of the different pieced
They are learning. Both healthy and disabled people were at the course
From day 1, we donated chess boards so they can play and practise in the future
Day 2. A bunch of kids came to look at the mozongo in the area
Touching white skin is always interesting
I was speaking Nyanja with them
Recap and going through tactics
They were playing and I was observing and giving guidelines
Day 3. Instead of staning by the door, I came out to say hi
Showing the skills I've learned from the Africans. Notice the disable guy sitting and dancing on the ground
Thankfully I wasn't dancing by myself
A dancing mozongo in a compound attracts attention
I filmed a bit during church yesterday. Have a look!
Sunday 24/11-2013
It’s only 5(4) days
until I fly off to Cape Town for a week holiday and then an oral exam, so I
felt I had to go to church service today (I've been going 5-7 times since I
came here in mid-August). The plan was to go to the gym, and then get picked
up, but my host dad had been invited to a different church to preach. Since it
was far away, and it started earlier than normal I had to choose between gym or
church, and I decided to go to church, for my families sake.
Preacher and singing
When we arrived at
the slightly bigger “church” around 9 AM we met the priest and the other
pastors. I and my siblings took our seats on the second row. It started with
the pastor giving a preach about praying and pray even if things go well, not
only when we need something. After about 45-60 minutes some ladies started to
sing. Here, the women are very good singers (men as well), and I had no problem
listening to the choir for an hour, but it was the end that caught my
attention. Because it started easy, and the women were dancing a bit and it was
all good, then one of the pastors came up and danced a bit and when I had
walked back to his seat some other guys came and danced. I had one thought in
my head: “Don’t make me come up and dance! Don’t make me come up and dance!”,
so when the pastor gave me a nod to come and join, I kindly refused by smiling
and shaking my head.
More intense
Then slowly it got
more intense, and the women were singing louder and louder with more passion
than before, and occasionally the lead singer went down on her knees. Then,
when the singer remained on the floor, more and more people joined her,
kneeling down. One was kneeling down with his forehead on his chair, another
one with his head between his knees, rocking back and forth. I am not a
religious man, so I wasn’t sure what to do, so I pulled my camera up and filmed
a few seconds of it, I wasn’t worried to be looked at, because everyone had
their eyes closed. I had a quick look behind me, and the majority of the people
behind me were deeply in their prayers. Then while the choir was singing, the
lead woman, who was kneeling in front, started praying loud and fast. I
recognized the prayer from earlier, and it’s so quick I can’t pick up the
words. It was all building up to a grand finale, an orgasm, a highlight, I
don’t know how to explain it. It was just so tense!
Respect and a scary
blessing/prayer
Then, after the big
moment when everyone was shouting and singing/praying it slowly quiet down, and
it was relaxed, with some of the girls singing. Then it was 11 o’clock and they
had been singing for an hour, which flew by. Now my host dad was up for his
preach, he talked about respect, but the thing here in Zambia is that they use
a microphone, even though the room is quite small. My ears got blasted for an
hour, but at least I knew I wouldn’t fall asleep.
Before we finished
the ceremony the pastor said that those who had regrets and wanted to be
blessed could come up and get prayed for, but it had to be serious, I thought I
didn’t have any serious regrets so I remained in my seat. It was
really cool to look at the pastor placing his hand in front of the peoples
forehead and giving them an intense prayer. It was almost scary. Afterwards I
shook hands with all of the people that was there, which was about 85 people.
They thanked me for coming and welcomed me back. Even though I might not come
back, I’m glad I skipped todays exercise for this. Peace out.
After the first preach these women started dancing and singing. You can tell that I enjoyed it
Standing in a circle singing. Notice the fella' who's looking at me
They sang out, and came back in again.
Lots of babies and kids at church
I'm enjoying it a bit more than Daniel
It starts to get intense!
Men and women came and danced! Look at the little baby with his hat, so cute
Here people are kneeling and praying/singing. No word for this...
The last thing that happened at church. The pastor gave an intense prayer for those who needed it
Second quarterly report, even though it's only 2 weeks since I sent the last one. Here we go:
9.Please give an
example of a positive experience either from work, the host family or from the
community you live in. Please formulate this as a story.
Another
Story
My
last story was so good (in my opinion) so I don’t know how to give you a story
that will answer your expectations. But I’ll try.
My meeting
with the General Secretary of NIF (Norwegian Sports Paralympic and Olympic Committee)
which didn’t go like planned.
Two
weeks ago I was told that the General Secretary (GS) of NIF, Inge Andersen,
would come to Lusaka and he wanted to meet us volunteers over breakfast. I was
so excited! Meeting with one of the most important people in NIF, if not the
most important! I tried to sleep the night before, but was thinking how it
would be to meet him, and maybe making a good impression so he would remember
me until I send my job application to NIF. I knew it would be hard to be
remembered by a guy who meets new people all the time in his busy schedule.
So
the day had come, Tuesday 12th of November 2013, and I went to the
gym early to relax and get decent shower (lot better than cold water from a
bucket in our bathtub at home). I met Anja outside Southern Sun Hotel were we
was invited for breakfast at 07:30 AM. We came early, around 07:10, and I asked
the reception if they had a wheelchair I could borrow. After a bit of
explanation (where I did not tell the truth) I got the wheelchair, and me and
Anja had some fun outside the hotel before rolling into the breakfast area,
there we bet Anita and Helene, Norwegian volunteers in Kabwe and Livingstone.
So,
then it was just to wait. The first person that come around half past seven was
an employee of NIF, Bjorn something. He is an elderly man, which, in my opinion
don’t have the same sense of humour as me. So he didn’t really get the wheelchair
joke, so after a while, I felt uncomfortable and took it back to the reception.
Then more of the NIF staff came, Tom and Diane, which heard about the wheel
chair joke and thought it was a bit funny. I sat next to Tom and he was a very
interesting guy, who have been working with sports for a long time. But Inge
Andersen, the GS of NIF didn’t come. The guys had an appointment at the
Norwegian Embassy at 9 AM, and just before they were going Mr Andersen arrived.
He said he thought we were coming with them to the embassy, so he didn’t rush,
but now he realized his mistake and said he would sit with us for 5 (which
became 10) minutes.
Unfortunately
some was talking so much that Mr. Andersen didn’t get to say much, which was
very frustrating, and he never saw me in a wheelchair. But at least we got to
meet him, greet him and say good bye. Hopefully we will meet him again
sometime.
BUT
I did surprise someone with my wheelchair, because when I walked to the
breakfast buffet one of the ladies that worked at the hotel said: “YOU!” and I
answered “ME!” with a smile. I walked to the ladies and they said this:
“We saw you in a wheelchair! And then you just stood up and started to walk! We
thought we saw a MIRACLE!!! We couldn’t believe what we saw! We actually
thought you were disabled!”
I laughed and said it was just a joke, and there hadn’t been any miracles, I just
tried to fool a few important people from Norway. But next time I will succeed!
Here I'd got my wheelchair, and I had to go outside before I dared to sit in it.
Here I am!! Happy lad
All of us. From the left: Bjorn, Helene, Tom, Me, Ivan (Uganda), Mwanique (Kenya), Anita, Anja.
I had got some new trainers just a few days earlier.
The Norwegian volunteers in Zambia/Zimbabwe this year. I will meet them all in Cape Town in a couple of weeks!
Since my last blog post, a week and a half ago, I finished my exam (which has a deadline for 6th
of December), and I’ve just gone out and worked with other volunteers, so at
least I got something to do.
Last week I went to St. Patricks and had two PE
sessions with Anja and some other peer-leaders from Sport in Action. The first
session I came there on a Tuesday and none of the girls had brought their PE
clothes, so we had an indoor session. Since we only had planned a PE session,
we asked the girls what they wanted to learn, and they said Norwegian. So we
taught them some Norwegian phrases. The following day was a bit more active, and
the girls had their PE kit, so we had a session in the school yard. I
introduced some kids athletic exercises and it was great to be out on the field
again. I love doing it, and seeing how much fun the kids have.
Last week, I also joined a basketball team! I met a guy at Lusaka
Backpackers a couple of weeks ago, and he asked if I played basketball, even
though it’s been almost 8 years since the last time I played I said “yes, I
played basketball”. So on Thursday last week I went to the basketball quart (it
turned out I went to the wrong practise, but it was still fun, and the
following day I went to the right place). Even though I’m a bit rusty, it was
still a lot of fun, and the other took good care of me. Hopefully I will have
time to practise with them a bit more before I go for my Christmas holiday.
This week we met the General Secretary of NIF (The Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee
and Confederation of Sports) at a rather nice hotel breakfast. I was really
excited and to loosed up the nerves, I borrowed a wheelchair from the hotel,
and pretended like I was disabled. It turned out everyone showed up, except
from the General Secretary (Inge Andersen). Mr. Andersen showed up 5 minutes
before they had to leave, so we barely had a talk, which was disappointing, but
hopefully we will meet him again. At least I had some good talks with the other
people who were coming from NIF/Norway.
During this week I went to Kalingalinga where I had a
session with some kids, together with my friend and volunteer from Uganda,
Ivan. The kids were behaving, even though they weren’t used to seeing white
people. “Mozongo mozongo!” they shouted when I walked from the bus stop to the
compound.
Later in the week we had a mid-term evaluation. Here all of
the sports volunteers in Zambia gathered at Kingfisher Lodge in Lusaka. It was
great to meet the other volunteers again and share experiences, it turns out I’m
not the only one with long days doing nothing. We also got to present our first
few months for our host organization and our coordinator, which will work with
us to help us get busier in the future.
Here is when I came in the classroom
Here is what we taught them
Outside in the school yard
Basketball
I need to iron all the clothes I dry outside, because of the bugs which lay eggs in my clothes (they itch)
Thats right, I can iron as well!
Another basketball picture
Here I'm in the wheel chair and Anja is pushing me
15th of October, we were supposed to send in a rapport, but since I never got this, I had to do it now (after I asked for it).
I was asked to write about a positive experience, and formulate it as a story. Well, I put some effort in it, and here is the result:
1.Please give an
example of a positive experience either from work, the host family or from the
community you live in. Please formulate this as a story.
A
Story
One
afternoon Ruben, a sports volunteer from Norway, came home from work. It was
another quiet day at the office, where he hadn’t done anything specific, but
coming home to his host family always cheered him up, so did this day, indeed
it did.
He
came in the door with his bike under his arm, he was a strong Norwegian this
guy. He could easily lift two mielie - meal bags if he had to. But that’s not
what this story is about, it’s about a chicken, which is about to die!
When
Ruben walked in the door David, his host-dad, was smiling a little bit more
than normal and he said he’d been given a bird. Ruben didn’t understand what he
meant, and walking in to his room to put his bike there. When he got back out
in the living room David explained. David was doing some counselling for a
couple which was getting married, and this day, on the last day of counselling
they brought a chicken as a gift. “Cool!” Ruben said, “what are we going to do
with it?!” David explained that they would have to kill it, since they had no
room (or interest) to take care of it. Ruben got more excited and shouted: “Can
I kill it?!!” David said, sure, that wouldn’t be a problem. The chicken-killing
would happen sometime during the same evening.
Time
went on. Hours felt like days. The chicken was still sitting on the balcony. It
was a white 5-6 months old chicken. Nice and fat.
Then
the time had come. They had to kill it on the balcony, because a mozongo
killing a chicken in the back yard would draw too much attention. Another
mozongo came to watch the whole thing, Anja, who was Rubens neighbour; she was
helping him filming it.
Ruben
was given a bread knife first, and asked if that was the knife he would cut the
chickens throat with, no, he got another knife, a sharper one.
David
was holding the chickens body, and nervously Ruben grabbed the chickens head
with his left hand, holding the knife with his right. This was a natural
position for Ruben, since he was right handed, everyone knew Ruben was right
handed, he always held his book with his right hand, always. And by now, 2
months into his volunteer work, Ruben had read 6 books already, including Jo Nesbøs
“Panserhjerte”.
Back
to the story; Ruben was holding the chickens head and looked at David, he gave
him the “do it” nod, and Rubens hand was shaking a little bit before the knife
cut into the chickens throat. It went so quickly, Ruben didn’t stop until he
got about half way, and the blood was flowing out into the pan they had placed
below the chicken. The blood didn’t stop, and some of it dripped over Rubens
fingers, it was warm, dark-red and fresh. The blood kept coming and coming,
until Ruben was told to cut the head off. So he did. The chicken was dead.
Afterwards
they dipped the chicken in boiled water, and start plucking the feathers off,
and it was almost falling off before they even touched it. After five minutes
the chicken looked like a chicken in any supermarket, only with legs, so Ruben and
his host brother, Daniel, cut off the legs. Then Ruben got to cut the chicken
open and take the intestines out, they were still warm.
Then
Ruben said: “What are we going to slaughter next time David?” David looked at Ruben
with his big white smiley teeth, and said: “a goat”
It’s been a while since I last posted a blog, because I’m now without
internet at home, and I’ve been ill, but I’ve also experienced a lot since
Thursday 24/10.
Wedding and a returning mom Last weekend I went to a wedding, but I couldn’t go to the church ceremony
because I HAD to work at OYDC, which turned out to be doing nothing except
taking some pictures and helping Mark (a hurdle-sprinter) with the hurdles. It
was a national athletics event, but and I will not say how it was run, at least
I got home in time for the wedding in the evening.
The African weddings cheer me up so much! The moment I got
there I smiled. It is so much music, dancing and it’s filled with happy people.
Yet again I was seated on the first table, so I got to see everything from the
front row. We had to leave early to pick up Doreen (host mother) from the
airport, which was cool too, because I got to drive the car back home (driving
in Zambia is NOT like UK, US, Norway or anywhere else in the world!). Doreen
had been away for a week, so it was good to have her back (no one can cook like
she does).
Surprise parties and vomiting The following day I went to a surprise party for a friend of a friend, she
turned 40 and it was a lot of fun, cake, music, rain, food, surprises etc etc.
Then on Monday I went to a dinner with the same group of Zambians, but I got
food poisoned that day, so even before I got the food I vomited what I’d eaten
earlier. I went to the clinic with Anja and took a blood test just to be sure
it was not malaria. Slept for almost 2 days and recovered on Friday (4 days
later). Apparently I lost some weight, but I don’t have any scale here, so I
don’t know.
Nurse parties On the Friday I recovered, the Norwegian nurses were going out clubbing,
and they asked if I wanted to join. Party with nurses? Who says no to that?! I
got ready but couldn’t find my keys, I looked everywhere, so I convinced myself
that I had left them at the office. Without keys I can’t stay out for later
than 10 PM, so I came back early that evening. I still had fun those two hours
with the nurses though.
The next day, I booked a bed at backpackers in Lusaka, so I
could party without worrying about coming home 5 AM knocking on the door to
wake my family. The backpacker is cheap, so it’s not a problem. Me, Anja, the
nurses and a girl from the Norwegian Embassy went out to party, and it was a
lot of fun. I haven’t been out much in Lusaka, so it’s good to explore the
night life as well.
Breaking in doors On Monday I was supposed to be doing a Kids’ Athletics course at OYDC, but
again it got postponed. Reason: unknown. So I booked my holiday (29th
of November. Destination: Cape Town, SA). I met Anja at the coffee shop and we
organized and booked our tickets there, but when we went home she noticed she
had lost her keys. Typical Anja. So shortly after we arrived home, Anjas host
family called my host dad to break into her bedroom. We went there with a
couple of screwdrivers and broke into the door, without making too much damage.
It's my mothers birthday today, so I made this class say "Happy birthday Øydis" in Norwegian!
Here is a standard start of the day in a classroom
Here is me taking photos of the 5000 meter runners
3 laps to go!
The stadium in the background is still not open, even though it was supposed to be in 2009
Another Monday at the office. Here I'm giving my hair some protein. It made it soft!
OPS! It fell on the floor
Thankfully I had two
When I was sick I had a lot of sparetime, so I cleaned my bag, and found these. I was supposed to give them to my Godmother in Oslo this summer, but I forgot
African butterfly in our kitchen
Saturday morning. Daniel is sleepy! :p
I was supposed to make eggs, but Daniel asked if I was making pancakes, and I said: "sure, why not".
They were very tasty
Daniel and Dawn shared that oppinion
Daniel is very flexible!
Anja lost her keys, so David had to break the lock
Anja was really upset
Lucy was smiling though, having grounded Anja for the second time in a few days! (She came home 5 AM on Sunday!)
I gave it a shot
I should have been in Prison Break!
On Tuesday I met Anjas class
They were supposed to have PE, but they "forgot" their PE clothes, so we had Norwegian lesson instead
