Monday 17/3

Internet connection in Zambia is horrible at the moment. No internet at work, internet-cafès or other offices. I wrote this post on Monday (yesterday) and posting it the moment I get internet connection.

Official opening of Kids’ Athletics
Since January I’ve been working with a program called Kids’ Athletics, and even though it’s been running for a while, we had the official opening at OYDC (Olympic Youth Development Center) last Friday (14/3). The First Lady (The Presidents Wife) is our ambassador, so she was there as well as representatives from IAAF (International Athletic Association Foundation), the Sport Council, the main sponsor Nestlé and  100 participating kids (+ a lot more in the crowd).

The show started at 9 AM, but I was there at 7:40 AM with a few others to do the last bit of preparations. Just before (!) 9 o’clock the music band started playing, the dance club started dancing and a lot of kids were ready. About 9:15 the VIP arrived. First, there were speeches and music with dances, afterwards we had the demonstration of the Kids’ Athletics Program. I must say, it was “organized chaos”! And I’m glad it didn’t last for too long. Afterwards, when the First Lady held a speech I went up, just a couple of meters away from her, and took a few pictures. I was just about taking a “selfie” with her in the background when one of her bodyguards came to me and told me I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of her. I walked away and suddenly another bodyguard approached me with a serious face, saying he wants to see the pictures I just took. “Sure” I said and showed him. I then asked him if I had to delete them, but he doesn’t answer, just grab my phone and delete all of them (the President of ZAAA, Mr Mpondela, my boss was very upset when he heard this). Later when the dance group performed another dance and approached her to invite her to take part 3 bodyguards jumps in front of the First Lady. But Ms Sata (First Lady) is quite cool, so she told the guards to back off, and she joined.

Other than that not much exciting happened at the official opening (it was covered by the news and showed on ZNBC that evening), except that at least two girls passed out when they ran the 1500m. It was a bit scary, but thankfully we had the red cross/ambulance there, so they got taken care of.

Baking Day
On Sunday (16/3) me and Anja (my neighbour) made “rundstykker” and “bollar”, which are very Norwegian. The “rundstykker” was very healthy, made of muesli, all sorts of seeds, butter, some flour, milk and egg. Delicious! But the Zambians doesn’t like these “rye-buns” so we also made “bollar” which are a lot more sweet and unhealthy for our host families. We put some “nugatti” (chocolate spreading), and jam and brown cheese on them. My family loved it! They didn’t even believe me and Anja had been making them, because the “bollar” was so good. I think they enjoyed the chocolate spreading the most though. It took forever to make these “rundstykker” and “bollar” but we had plenty of time, so we played cards and Yatzy while waiting for the oven to do it’s magic.

Great fun and a good way of killing time on a quiet Sunday after a morning workout.

Mail
My Norwegian family sent me a package about 8 weeks ago, and it still hasn’t arrived, so I’ve been asking for it lately, but just last week I found out that my office can’t find their key to the post box. So we need a police report as well as paying K40 (£4) for new keys, therefore I expect this will take more time. Last time my office checked their post box was in December so there is not ideal to send me any mail since I’m going back to Norway in less than 12 weeks (IT’S GETTING CLOSE).  

Washing clothes Since our washing machine broke down last week I've been doing the laundry myself. It's not like pressing a button on a machine at home. Good "fun"