Drew's African Odyssey - Mwange Refugee Camp, Zambia

Today, I was approached by a friend asking if I would consider going on a weekend trip to some nearby waterfalls. I had been talking about doing a trip with this friend (a lady who is in charge of food distribution at the Red Cross named Victoria) for the past few months, but nothing had ever been done. We made the decision that we would incorporate the trip to the waterfalls with attending a traditional Outumbouko ceremony in a place called Kazeme, close to Kawambwa. I was so glad that we went. It ended up being 11 of us that went – my friend Barry, Victoria’s child and her sister and brother, the resettlement officer from the UN (a Danish lady named Rakell), and a few other friends. We first proceeded to the ceremony which is done every year to celebrate the life of the chief. Sacrifices of goats, chickens and cattle are made, the chief is honored with gifts, speeches and food, and finally the chief dances in the centre of the ceremony while people jump around him, praising him and firing off gunshots (fake) into the air. It was really something else!

It turned out that the RTP team from Kawambwa was also there, so I ended up linking up with them. It was great to see Kevin again (the guy from Calgary who got placed here and that I had attended youth group with in Calgary for years – what a small world) and we chatted for a long time about how things were going. Sounds like he’s really enjoying himself here and is looking forward to the year. He gave me the complete hockey update on all the trades that were going on after the lock out ended. Seems the NHL is getting shaken up!! Im SSOOOO out of the loop!!
The night was spent at the RTP house. Rakel, the lady from UNHCR ended up coming and staying with us. She is up here working at the refugee camp to work on settlement cases. Every year, the UN resettles a number of refugees into different host countries like Canada, Australia, Denmark, France, etc. Rakel gets to decide which refugees get to go where. To do this, refugees make applications and from those applications Rakel chooses people to go through interviews.

The second day of the Netball training today. I invited members of the girls netball team from the secondary school to come out and demonstrate the drills and activities that I would like the coaches doing with their students. It was really hot today and even though it is supposed to be the cold season, the temperature was up around 35 degrees. I felt bad making the participants run around and do the drills and I had promised to bring them water but, of course, I forgot…

It turned out that everyone was happy with the session and they were already making plans to start their own training sessions with the girls from the school.

In the afternoon, it was day 2 of the special needs workshop. Today the topic was stages of child development. The model of development that I showed them was based on children without special needs, so the participants were concerned that the model wouldn’t apply to these students. I had to explain to them that the model wasn’t in stone and that it could be adjusted based on the maturity level of the students and their specific disability. The teachers reminded me how flexible, open and assertive you need to be with special needs children. I’m always amazed by such insight into life these refugees have.

Today, I started another workshop for teachers who work at the special needs school. I had been working very hard in the past few days to develop the lessons, as all the material I had on children with special needs was in English. After hours of translation, I finally finished it off and wrote all the materials out onto flipcharts. It was great to see almost all of the teachers come out, even one pregnant lady who is expecting any day!! The session covered how to communicate, supervise and work with special needs and blind children. Some of the participants have worked closely with these children in the camp and know so much more than I do about their development, so I let them do a lot of the speaking and question asking. I think im learning a lot more than them from doing the workshop.

In the afternoon, I had a meeting with the project manager from HODI who, of course, didn’t make it to the meeting. It seems they have the director of HODI in from Lusaka and she is taking all of their time. Hopefully I can meet him before I go to Lusaka to talk about working with them in starting Anti-AIDS clubs in each of the schools.

Attended another Section Leader meeting today. There was also a RTP workshop going on and it was encouraging to learn that one of the coaches felt comfortable facilitating the session, which meant I could go to the meeting. The big issue in the meeting was once again about Sorghum. Everyone came to full attention when the head man from the World Food Program walked into the meeting. After discussing with the refugees a bit, he let everyone know that once the stock of sorghum was consumed by the refugees, their would definitlely be something different coming afterwards. He noted that what they would be getting would not be maize grain (corn) but would be a milled product (like flour, but another kind of cereal). Now the problem arises that the UN has gone to a lot of trouble to install hammermills in the camps that crush the cereals and turn them into flour. What are the going to do with these hammermills if the grain that they receive is already milled? Regardless, by the end of the meeting, the leaders seemed upbeat that there would be a change and explained to the UN that they would be encouraging their people to begin consuming the sorghum. We’ll have to wait till the next food distribution to see if this holds up.

Up to my ears in work this week, which is meaning absolutely no time for socializing. I’ve been getting to know our new driver better and he seems like a really good guy. It was funny to learn that his father lectures at the University of Zambia as a Physical Education professor and has worked closely with Right to Play in Lusaka.

He has a wife and two children that he left in Lusaka, but he hopes that they can come to join us in Mporokoso and we will bring them back with us next time we go to the city. It seems like he misses them a lot, but he’s enjoying life in the bush. The whole refugee camp and living in a remote area is all new to him, so it’s taken some time to get used to it, but he’s met some friends and he’s learning a lot, so I’m comfortable that he’ll continue with us.

Today, I was at the UN offices for a meeting with all of the NGO heads in the camp. The boss at the UN decided to start these meetings so that NGOs could work more closely and hear what each other is doing. The best news that I found out is that the work on the road out to the camp has finally begun! That means the road will be a lot safer by the time the rainy season comes and we can make it to the camp a lot faster. Right now we’re taking an hour to drive 38 kms to the camp..!! We also discussed the issue of refugees returning back to the Congo. It seems there’s been an influx of returnees with the problem being that they are not telling the authorities that they are leaving. When you leave the camp, you have to hand in your ration card (the one that you present at food distribution), but what most of the refugees do is sell the card or give it to one of their family members before they go. In most of the cases someone from the family is sent ahead to find out if it is safe to return, or if the fighting is still going on in the area. We’ve got a number of reports that the conflict is over in the Congo, with just a small portion in the Northwest corner still at war. In that region, scores of Rwandan Hutu troops, who were kicked out of their country after the genocide, moved into the Congo to begin military operations for gold, diamonds and oil. The rebel groups were often supported by other regional governments vying for control of the area. The latest I heard is that Congo was scheduling elections for sometime early next year, and the issue will not be resolved until then.

Had to cancel the workshop that was supposed to happen today as most of the participants were busy doing other trainings with FORGE (the American students). I’ve been learning more and more about what they’re doing in the camp. As I mentioned, the biggest thing they’re doing is building a library. The refugees have been thrilled that this is being done and the work is almost complete. The Americans invited children from the primary schools to come and paint murals on the wall and decorate the inside. They’ve also been holding interviews to hire a librarian and guards to look after the place. Also, the piano that they ordered has finally arrived (US $6000 later and 3 weeks late) and they’ve ordered furniture for a sitting room in the library. I’ve never seen the people in the camp so happy with what’s being done. It’s just too bad that the Americans know almost nothing about development and most of their projects are not at all sustainable, a lot of the refugees are only working with them because they’re getting a free notebook, but I think all in all, it’s good for the camp.

Today, I decided to take on a project – building a scoreboard for the sports teams to use at the camp. What was supposed to only take a morning, ended up taking a whole day… I went to see the carpenter who was building the board and spent a half hour haggling over the price, then to the market to buy the paint and the brushes. Mporokoso is funny because when you go to buy something, you never really know where to go. The shops are rarely consistent in what they have in stock and sometimes nobody has what you’re looking for. So, I ended up going to 4 or 5 shops before finding paint and brushes. What can make the process even more time consuming is that in each shop, you can be expected to greet the shopkeeper and have a bit of a chat, though this time I managed to get out of the shops with nothing more than a “Mulishani” (how are you) and a “bwino” (I’m fine).

Not to say that I don’t like this way of life. People are really friendly here and almost everyone knows my name. It’s a really relaxed lifestyle, with people just going about their business. Everyone you pass on the street says hello – not like the capital of Lusaka where you try to go from point A to point B with the least amount of human contact possible. I’m starting to think that maybe rural living could be the choice for me…. (well…).

Day 2 of the sports training. Ran into some trouble today as it was so windy and dusty that we could barely do anything. By the end of the day, I was caked with dirt and grime and all my clothes were filthy. Since there is no pavement or concrete in the camp, when it becomes windy, you can’t do anything. Red dust erupts into little tornadoes all around the camp and you’re lucky to be able to see anything.

It was great to see one of the refugees named Kabete come out to the training. He is a disabled man that contracted polio when he was in Congo and now walks with a severe limp. It’s amazing what this man can do despite his disability. He’s always engaged in community activities including sports and games and he is the most motivated member of the Anti-AIDS club, always singing, dancing and yelling out his messages!

I was pissed at the end of our session, when HODI, the NGO that is responsible for paying the teachers yet hasn’t done so in the past 3 months, interrupted our workshop to call all of the teachers into a meeting. They didn’t even have the respect to ask me if it was all right. I ended up telling them that NO, they couldn’t leave the workshop, but when the participant teachers got word that they might be paid, everyone trickled away to where the HODI vehicle was heading.

In the camp today inviting participants to the PE teacher training that will start later this week. Early in the morning I went to check up on the Anti-Aids club that is giving a workshop to Zambian youth from a local primary school. Whenever I attend these workshops it’s amazing how enthusiastic and motivated these people are. I like to think that it is because of RTP that this is the case. When I came into the room, the workshop was in the middle of performing skits about HIV/AIDS. The skits involved how youth deal with sexual approaches and the right things to say to avoid sex. After the skits, the group broke into a song and dance about youth empowerment. They even tried to teach me the lyrics, which was a difficult task. At the end of the session, I said that I would answer a few questions from the group. I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. The first question was about masturbation and if it was a sin. They asked if it was normal to ejaculate during your sleep and if masturbation was a substitute for sex. I had to be very careful in answering the questions as masturbation is a very touchy issue in that most groups don’t accept it. I answered that it is quite normal to have “wet dreams” and that it is one’s personal choice whether they want to masturbate or not. People shouldn’t discriminate against you if you do… Afterwards, I hoped that I had answered the question in a way that the youth could relate to…

Late last night, I found out that all the NGO heads from the two refugee camps were required to attend a security briefing in Kawambwa. I didn’t know what to think when I heard this. Was there some kind of security threat in the camp? Were the refugees rioting or protesting about something? It turns that the training was only to review UN procedures for emergency security situations. The man who came to give the briefing showed us a film that portrayed different security situations that could potentially arise and how to deal with them. It turns out that the same man was the one who played a leading role in the film, so I was joking with some other guys that this was the only reason the briefing had been given (probably true). While in Kawambwa, I got a chance to visit with Erin, who is on the RTP team at the Kawambwa camp. She only has two weeks left in her contract, so she’s getting really excited to return home. I also had a chance to meet the new UNHCR head for the area. He is from Sierra Leone and speaks both Swahili and French, not to mention his two doctorates and two masters degrees. This man should be infinitely better suited for the job then the last man, who was a former officer in the Sudanese military and barely spent any time in the camps…

In the camp for a meeting today. Participation in these meetings has been a little difficult these days as kids and teachers are on vacation from school. That means that people leave the camp to go do business in the surrounding villages; travel long distances to visit family or prepare their fields for the next farming season.
I could really feel the desperate situation of starvation as I was speaking to people today. A man named Gilles came up to me explaining that he and his wife and their two little babies didn’t have enough food to eat. He asked me for US$ 100, that he offered to pay back. The brutal part was that this man was somebody that I have seen in the camp everyday and who has been really great to me. That made it even harder to explain that I wasn’t in a position to help him. He finished our conversation by letting me know he and his family would be leaving back to the Congo.

Later on in the day, I found out that an official from UNHCR head office in Lusaka would be coming into the camp to select candidates for UN sponsored resettlement. This means that if a family is selected, they are moved to a host country in the developed world like Australia, Canada, or England. Refugees are selected based on age, skills, education level, etc. It was nice to see that the same man that had asked me for money earlier that day would be one of the refugees that would be considered.

Swamped with work already… It’s tough not having Sophie around these days as all the things that she used to do and that I took for granted I’m having to learn how to do. For example, getting around in the camp. It’s tough because everything looks the same and you never know which direction you're pointing. The houses are all made from mud bricks and thatched roofs, the only buildings that have metal roofs are the schools and that’s how I often orient myself. What make it even harder is that our new driver doesn’t know where the hell he’s going either and we’re both too stubborn (or too male) to ask for directions…

After getting back from the camp, I had a phone meeting with Toronto. They FINALLY confirmed my vacation time for next month, so I'm counting down the days till my visitors arrive. ONLY 3 weeks left!! I became more excited for their visit when I called them this evening to wish my little nephew a happy birthday (he turned 1 today!). They’ve gotten all the vaccinations and are sore from all the needles!

The first day to relax since coming back from Lusaka - or so I thought. I ended up going to the camp in the afternoon to enjoy the opening game of the camp’s football league. Wow, are those guys good!! The games are played on the central sports field, which is not so much a field but more like a clay tennis court. What’s even more amazing is that most of the guys play in bare feet. Last time I tried to play bball in the camp with bare feet, I ended up with huge blisters on my feet after only 15 minutes of play. Dunno how those guys do it… While watching the game, I ran into the American student group, FORGE. We chatted about happenings in the camp, etc. But it’s not easy talking to them as they always have a huge swarm of kids following them around all day. One of the guys, Johnny, wants to help out with some of the sports workshops we’ll be holding in the camp in the next week. I’m a little skeptical about this as the guys don’t speak any French or know much about how Right to Play works within the camp…

After the game, we ended up going over to the FORGE house, which is located just next to the camp,and is where all the American students are staying. Before they came, they realized that they didn’t want to be driving in and out of Mporokoso each day, so they found this big, vacant house about 10 min from the camp. As there’s no power in that area, they equipped the house with solar panels, painted it up, installed a toilet (outhouse) and shower (portable) and made the house livable. Now, all nine of them live there and they’ve employed locals to do the cooking and cleaning. We stayed for a dinner of chicken, potatoes, rape and buns. I had to laugh when the conversation turned to the girls complaining about all the spiders, mice and bugs in their house and would run away when they saw a spider and get their driver to kill it…. Welcome to Zambia…

Helped at a coach meeting today, though the turnout wasn’t amazing. As all of the kids are on vacation right now, the teachers who are coaches are harder to track down. Seems a lot of people are outside of the camp for business, seeing familiy or traveling somewhere. It’s been frustrating too because I don’t know my way around the camp so well, though we never get lost for too long.

It was great to see some familiar faces at the meeting, especially Joseph Kabobo, probably the most active coach and someone who I’ve been quite close too. The coaches are planning to organize a football tournament between the different sections in the camp.

Finally had a chance to stay in Mporokoso today and get caught up on some much neglected administration issues. I’m feeling the pressure of running the project alone. Seems everywhere I turn, somebody else is asking me for something. I can’t keep all of the things I need to do straight, which is why Sophie is so important to me and this project. She is definitely the organized one. Let me think of all the things I have to do tonight – make photocopies of a “Human Rights” manual for the anti-AIDS club; set up meetings with the special needs teachers, the coaches who are giving a child development training session and the HODI project manager; repair a broken stereo for the refugee scout leader; prepare materials for the next Anti-AIDS workshop; do my daily log, monthly budget and monthly report for head office; lastly, GET SOME SLEEP!!!

Was over at the FORGE group's house tonight for dinner. It was interesting to hear about their backgrounds and their reasons for coming to Mwange. Being the only other Westerner in the camp, they grilled me with questions about my experiences with the refugees. I felt like some kind of authority on camp politics as I tried to explain to them the situation. I only wished that Peter and Sophie could have been there as she knows far more about the camp then I do. The night finished off with a few too many beers and a long ride back into Mporokoso. Tommorrow’s not going to be fun…

Quite the commotion in the camp these days as 9 American students from Harvard University are giving workshops in the camp. I don’t think the area has ever seen so many white faces! The group is from an organization called FORGE, and will be giving training sessions in things like music, poetry, the environment, reading and peer tutoring, for the next 5 weeks. It was a big shock for them when they first came to the camp as they realized that what looked good on paper back in the States was not necessarily going to work here. For example, they had a library built in the camp without knowing what kind of books to bring. When they showed up with their books, people started asking for other subjects… They also decided to bring a piano into the camp, unfortunately there is nowhere that the piano can be placed where it will be safe (though the piano hasn’t arrived on schedule and nobody really knows where it is)…

They’re also having trouble with communication as none of them speak French and thus have to rely on translators. The problem is some of the words don’t translate into Swahili – the guy giving guitar lessons is having trouble because words like “treble” or “half step” or “bass” don’t have any meaning in Swahili.

First day back in the camp. It was so good to get home and restart the routines of daily life. I was also really missing the coaches in the camp who I had worked so closely with for the past three months. The coaches were shocked to see us with a new vehicle and new driver. Peter had forged a special relationship with some of the people in the camp over his last two years in Mwange and it was touching to see him say goodbye for the last time. The day was a little bit hectic as Mr Kakua (the new driver) gained his bearings in the camp. As Peter and Sophie had always directed us around the camp, I didn’t know exactly where all the locations were where we had to visit – a bit/lot frustrating.

A funny moment came when we were accosted by this old drunk/crazy lady in the camp. She latched onto our vehicle and started cursing us and demanding money. She wouldn’t let go of our vehicle and was still screaming as an interested crowd started to gather. I got out of the vehicle to remedy the situation when the lady came running over to me and started slapping and kicking me, demanding money. It was all I could do to shield myself and get back in the car, but not before she had left a couple of welts on my back. It’s really hard when people see you with so much to give but don’t understand that we have not come here for that.

Well, I’ve finally returned to Mporokoso after a near months trip to Lusaka. Things got really complicated while in Lusaka. Nothing was going my way. Examples - The insurance agent that was processing our accident claim seemed to be eternally out to lunch; our headquarters in Toronto (who were in the middle of training new RTP recruits) seemed to forget about us people in the field; the government department where we were supposed to have our new vehicle registered had a line of people coming out from it the same length as the wall of China; the mechanics where we were having our new vehicle looked at apparently thought they could get away with charging us 4 times the normal costs of maintenance work; and finally, who woulda thought that Zambia could get so friggin’ cold during this season? Two t-shirts, a pair of shorts and sandals just wasn’t cuttin’ it…

Anyway, needless to say, the trip was one gigantic hiccup – although there were moments when I was really enjoying myself…. I went to a traditional Zambian wedding with one of my friends from Mporokoso, who had a cousin getting married. Unfortunatly, I came at the wrong time. When I arrived at the venue, I heard that there was this ceremony going on called a “Kitchen Party”!! Little did I know that this event is only for women. The new bride is taught all the “moves” to please her man in the bedroom, by the older women in the family. Men are strictly forbidden from the gathering. Guess they could have told me that before inviting me. You should have seen the looks I was getting when I walked into that place…

While in Lusaka, I stayed with the Right to Play team that is co-ordinating a project within poor communities in the outskirts of the city. It was intriguing to be able to help them out in their work a little bit and to even visit some of the slums and housing projects where they are working. They have trained an incredibly motivated group of coaches within these areas. I couldn’t believe the huge amount of time and work that these coaches put into working with kids, as well as their amazing capacity to communicate with them. While on a tour of one of the compounds, called Kamanga, I became quite close with a man called Watson. As we approached the playing field, we saw all of the compound kids involved in an intense soccer match. It was shocking to hear that most of the kids were street kids, involved in drugs, not going to school and some with no parents. It seemed that playing football was one of their only escapes from life's burdens.

When our new vehicle finally arrived, it was a huge relief, especially after our accident of a few weeks back. I had been getting really tired of Lusaka, especially since I didn’t know too many people there or know my way around the city, so it was nice to see the end was near. Two days later I would start off on the 15 hour ride to Mporokoso.

As we started on the long journey, we were accompanied by our new driver, Mr. Jimmy Kakua. A very nice man, though not very outgoing or sociable. We hired him as he has extensive mechanical knowledge and he is willing to work in a remote location. It's still yet to be determined if he’ll work out…

It was nice to be able to join a basketball team in Lusaka, even though it was for a very short time (I only got to play two games and two practices). The level of play over here is not so good. I was playing in the top (and only) men’s league and there are no professional teams. One of the major problems is the infrastructure, there are only 4 indoor courts in all of Zambia. Of those 4, only two are in decent condition. The gym where we were training had almost no lighting and one of the hoops had recently fallen on a player and is now only tied to the wall with some thick wire… In my first game, it was a definite reality check to be the only white face on the court and to see the fans looking a little confused as to who I was. Luckily, I made a good impression as we won our game, the first win that the team had had all year. What was even better was I made some great friends, especially a guy named Brian who works at the state insurance company and is a great ball player. I ended up hanging out with him for the rest of my stay in Lusaka…

Also had a chance to organize my sister, brother-in-law and cousin's visit. It turns out that one of my really good friends has a cousin who owns a safari camp in the world famous South Luangwa Wildlife Park. We decided to rough it a little bit and reserved safari tents to stay in while we are there. Apparently the tents are right on the Luangwa river and you can see elephants roaming down the game trails from our doorstep! Just gotta make sure that we don’t leave any meat out… We also plan to see Victoria Falls and maybe white water raft down the Zambezi or bungee jump in Livingstone…