Ruben bloggar frå turar, innland og utland: Mkushi!

Work in rural Zambia

Last week I was told to get to Mkushi (North of Lusaka) to observe a Kids’ Athletics workshop. Finally! The plan was that I was going to take a bus on Monday afternoon, stay the night at a lodge, attend workshop before heading back home to Lusaka either in the evening or Wednesday morning.

On Monday the bus was leaving Lusaka at 14.00 and my colleagues told me it would take about 5-6 hours. It’s a long journey. When I asked my contact in Mkushi, she said I would arrive around 18, maybe even 17. It’ll go fast she said. I didn’t believe her, I’ve been too long in Africa to know that nothing goes fast here.

I got in the bus around 13.20, and it was almost packed already. At 13.50 a priest came and prayed for us. A bit after 14 we took off. Even though it took about 5.5 hours it felt faster. I enjoyed it.

When I got to Mkushi my contact, Lina, found me and escorted me to my lodge. For K150 (170kr) it was quite decent. Fridge, TV (one channel), freezer, bathtub, toilet and a bed was more than I hoped for. I was dead tired and went to bed (but some bed bugs and mosquitoes kept me awake for a while.

Tuesday

After a morning run and a big English Breakfast at the lodge I went to the school were the workshop were being held. I came early to help prepare. At 9.00 only a few of the 25 invited had showed up. We waited 40 minutes before we started with an opening prayer. 9 had showed up by now. The 10^th participant came at 10:20, and the 13^th (and last one) came at 13:30.

The workshop is designed (by ZAAA) to last two days, but the workshop facilitator tried to squeeze it into 1 day. It was hectic, but it was OK. I was there to observe, but had to step in and lecture at times.

Some of the participants were attending only for the reason of lunch money, K50 (when a lunch cost K15-K20) and the certificate. I lost a lot of respect for a lot of them when I realized that. The workshop finished at 16.00 as planned, and while the participants eating biscuits, drinking soda and holding their “well-earned” certificate, everyone was happy. After everyone was gone I briefed Lina, the facilitator, on how it had gone and I gave her some advice what to do differently next time.

Then we waited about an hour for our taxi driver which took us to a gas station where I would wait for a bus to Lusaka. When I got to the bus station it was 17:40, and I was told the bus would arrive maybe at 19, or 20, or maybe 21 or 22. SO… I sat down and read. I’m getting used to this waiting, and it’s not much I can do about it. But I know I will appreciate the time-management when I get back to Europe.

I had nshima w/ chicken for dinner, local style. Being the only white man I got a bit of attention and I talked to a lot of travellers stopping by to get something to eat. There was one guy who knew a lot about the peace corps and the last I saw of hime was drinking a beer before driving off on his motorbike..., and another guy who was very nice, considering he barely spoke any English. He didn’t know any Nyanja either, he was Bemba (like most people in this area). In the end he asked for money for food. I gave him K10, and he walked away without buying any food. To be honest I wasn’t surprised

At 21.30 the bus finally arrived! I asked for a seat and the bus driver said there was space, so I bought a ticket for K100. But when I went inside there was no seats available, and I could see 4 adults and 5 kids in the back row (5 seats). Then the bus driver shouted to me, waving me to the front of the bus. He gave me a pillow and told me to sit next to him. So I did. 1.5 meters away from the massive front window, without any back support. This was so awesome! I loved it! It was full moon and very little traffic. But when we were driving at full throttle in the fog or passing trucks I was a little scared.