Ruben bloggar frå turar, innland og utland: Runaway Saturday 15/2-14

This morning, Saturday 15/2, I got up around 8 AM, got dressed and ate my porridge/oatmeal. I was heading to OYDC to work out (hence the title) when I met my young neighbour showing off his newly captured grasshopper (picture below). He also asked for my bike and some money, as usual.

I walked to Kabwe Roundabout, only stopping by the post office (as I usually do on Saturdays nowadays). When I got to the bus stop there was an empty bus waiting for me, after jumping in I started reading the book I brought, and I had read for about 20 minutes before the bus was full and we started off our short journey. It took about another 20 minutes before I got to OYDC. Since I had my iPod earphones plugged in, I didn’t talk much (Norwegian style baby!)

At the field the track-and-field team was training, and most of them knew me from before. They asked me to join, but I had my own program to do. After a few laps warming up I ran 4x4 minutes, an interval exercise I’ve known for years (and is supposed to be very efficient for stamina). I noticed that my endurance is not as good as it used to be, but that is as expected. After the runs I laid down and did some stretches and core work (planks, mountain climbers etc) and suddenly I had a bunch of kids (between 5-16 year olds) with me (they didn’t run after/with me, since the track-and-field team was running training). Before my lunch break I took some photos and asked them random stuff (like what do they want to be, and the answers I got was everything from bus driver to pilot). I sat in the stands and ate my white bread with brown cheese (the last bit I had!).

I went on the scale and I am now 91.2kg.

After lunch a couple of the sprinters came up to me and was asking about advice. I coached them once in September, but since then I’ve been stuck at the office. They wanted some advice on how to run faster, and they seemed gutted that I hadn’t been able to train them. Even though I’ve never been a sprinter I gave them as much advice as I could.

Second part of my workout was 10x1km, and I did well (improved since last weekend). The track-and-field team was done training so all the kids were following me again. It’s usually fine, but at one point a little girl (reached up to my knees) ran straight over my lane, inches from my knees (the kids love to get in my way which becomes annoying after a while), so I considered making the work-out short but then they got chased away by some adults (30-40 kids were bathing in the “pool” by one hurdle). I finished my session after 10 intervals, stretched and walked to the bus stop.

Shortly after, a bus picked me up, and there was maybe 6-7 passangers, and when the conductor asked for my money I gave him the normal K3, but he insisted that the price was higher than that. I told him in Nyanja that he was lying and he should lower the price, this made the atmosphere in the bus very good. People were laughing and told that it does cost K3. I “argued” with the conductor for a while, but in the end I gave him the extra Kwatcha. A man sitting in front of me asked me about my Nyanja. I told him I had taught myself and I’ve lived here for 6 months now (but actually it’s 4 in Zambia, 2 on holiday in 5 different African countries)

Man: “What is the best about Zambia”
Me: “The people here are very friendly, except from the conductors who takes my money!”

Man: “What do you do here?”
Me: “I’m a sports volunteer, and coach kids about sports”
Man: “OK, that’s great. What’s your name? (In Nyanja)”
Me: “Ruben”
Man: “You don’t have a Zambian name?”
Me: “I do, but I can’t remember…. Do you have a name for me?”
Man: “Mulenga”
Me: “What does that mean (every Zambian name means something)?”
Man: “It’s like artist, but wait, I think βupe is a better name since you came here as a volunteer. It means Gift”

So now my Zambian name is βupe (pronounced something between Vupe and Bupe)
-At this time I was trying to throw out everything I knew in the local language.

Me: “When I see a Zambian girl, I say: Koma uoneka bwino lelo (You look pretty/beautiful today)”
Man: “What is the best about Zambian women?”
Me: “Taco! (bum)”

Man: “What are you going to bring back home from Zambia when you leave?”
Me: “Well, in Norway we are very closed up, and we usually mind our own business, but here you are so open, and you talk to strangers on the bus. I really like that, so I’m hoping to bring that with me home to Norway. The Zambian people are so friendly!”

So to sum up, this was a really cool bus trip, even though I overpaid for the trip, it took longer than normal and it was crowded (it always is). We talked about Zambian food, other African countries (Mozambique is very corrupt) and how great Zambia is.

I walked from town to home and outside our flats some of kids saw me, and they begged me to spin them around, so I did. Thankfully it was only three kids, ‘cause those spins makes me really dizzy…

At home I took a cold bath (thankfully we had enough water!) and relaxed.