Mary and Passive

It has been a while since the last time I wrote on this blog.  Not because of lack of subjects, but probably because of lack of inspiration. That’s why today I want to redeem myself and share with you two stories of two inspiring people I met in Zambia.

Mary – the fighter
Mary, a 28-year-old woman is the preschool teacher in a small village called Musopelo B.  I mentioned Mary previously on this blog, but the more I know her, the more I want to share her story.
Mary just has one finger in each hand, but that doesn’t stop her to do anything. Actually, she is one of the best preschool teachers around and she’s not even trained. Every day, she teaches about 60 children from 9 am to 12 am. Her children know, among other things, the alphabet, the numbers, the colors, the shapes, the animals and how to write their names. This preschool doesn’t have a proper building (there are using the nearby church’s kitchen) and they don’t have benches (they borrow from the church).
Now Mary lives near the preschool. She is renting a “house” from her grandmother for K50 (about £5). This grandmother is not really her grandmother, but Mary sees her as family because she has helped her a lot. When she was in high school, she used to stay with this older woman.
Mary has a six-year-old daughter. We have never asked for her daughter’s father, but she says that she doesn’t have any husband. Like many other women in Africa, she says (half joking-half seriously) that she would like to marry a “Muzungu” (what they call to white people). However, she has bigger dreams – she wants to help her family to have a good life and maybe, one day, she can raise enough money to finish the 12th grade.
Mary has 6 brothers and sisters and her parents are still alive and still farming. One of her brothers is studying Medicine in Lusaka (capital of Zambia), but it doesn’t mean that their family is wealthy. Mary’s family faces some challenges and that’s why Mary is considering to stop teaching and to start a business.
She is paid K400/month (about £40) by the community and she says the money is not enough for her, for her child and to help the rest of her family.
 Before being a teacher, she was helping a shop owner to sell clothes. There, she says, she used to get K500/week (about £50). So now, her plan is to start to grow maize and sell it to raise money to start her own business - selling clothes - so she can help her family and also to have a good life.
Mary informed the community that she will leave the job if they don’t increase her salary. The preschool committee (group in charge of her salary) says that her salary will be increased, but Mary doesn’t believe it due to previous failed promises.
If the preschool committee does nothing to increase Mary’s salary, 60 children will be left without preschool teacher. If Mary chooses to stay, she will fail to help herself and her family. It’s a double-edged sword.
It is worth to say that Mary never loses hope – maybe because she believes in God. She also never loses  her good humor and simple way to see the things. She is not complaining about the way she was born or waiting for someone to solve her problems, like many people. She finds solutions.  She is always ready to do something to improve her life and help her family.

Passive – the entrepreneur
As you may know, I participated (together with my team mates) in a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to buy bikes and trailers to the communities in Zambia. At the end, we could raise enough money for 2 bikes, 2 trailers and 2 tool kits. We decided to give these items to two villages: Chitebulu and Namakolongo.
Passive lives in Namakolongo. He was our translator during the meeting we had with the communities to explain our project with the bikes and trailers.
This 27-year-old man is a community teacher (a teacher that is paid by the community, just like Mary) at Namakolongo school. Passive is not trained, but everybody says that he is a very good teacher. Nevertheless, Passive aims to become a trained teacher.
Passive’s life was not easy. His father died when he was 6. His old mother had to take care of him and his brothers with few resources. So, Passive couldn’t go to college to become a teacher. Instead, after finishing high school in 2007, he started to work at a Hardware Shop in Lusaka (capital of Zambia). He worked there for 2 years, but as he was not getting enough paid, he decided to move to the rural area to find a job.
Finally, he could find a job in a community school in a village nearby his oncle’s house, where he could stay. About 4 months ago, he moved to Namakolongo to continue his job as a community teacher. But he has never lost his focus on the Teachers Training College.
In Namakolongo, he started his fundraising project –  chicken farming. He is member of a farmer’s association in Lusaka which promotes chicken farming as a way to generate income and to improve the country’s health as well. As he mentioned, one of the important points of his project is to think positive.
In only 4 months, Passive could build everything he needs to keep the chicken. Now he just has to take good care of them and later sell them in the market.
Passive is also part of the Village Banking group in the village, which allows people who want to start a business to save, borrow money and share profit without going to the big banks in big cities. This Village Banking is helping Passive to continue his project. Despite the fact that he is the only man in the group, he is an active member there.
It is impressive how Passive, just like Mary, never loses hope and keeps following his dreams. Despite having had a difficult life, this entrepreneur doesn’t spend time complaining, just does the best he can to reach his goals.
Finally, his name doesn’t have anything to do with his personality. He should be Active instead of Passive. Passive says that maybe his parents had some kind of problem when he was born, but that his name will never affect the way he thinks.

I will never forget these powerful stories.
Mary and Passive are heroes. And I’m sure there are more heroes out there.
The more I think about these stories, the less I can understand why we complain so much, why we make things so difficult in our lives and why we are so negative.
Needless to say, these people don’t have half of things we have. They don’t have running water, electricity and all the technology that comes with it. What they have is faith and a big will to do something good with their lives.

The 6 things I miss the most in Zambia

Although I like to be in Zambia, there are a certain number of things that I miss. Besides my family and friends, here are the 6 things I miss the most here:

1. Good health care – The clinic is 3.5 km from the place I live. There's no public transport. People have to walk or to cycle, if they have a bike. In the clinic, despite the doctor's good intentions, they cannot do much when a person is sick with a disease that is not malaria. Fortunately, when I come to the city, I can go to a private clinic where the conditions are better than in the rural area. Still, I cannot stop to think about those ones who cannot afford private health care.

2. My toilet (inside the house) – Using a latrine is okay. Still, the idea of having my own toilet is way better! Not having to go out (with a torch) in the middle of the night because we have to use the latrine would be very nice. Never underestimate the power that a toilet can have in your life!

3. European public transport – Here the buses don't seem to have any schedule. They leave when they are full ( I mean, REALLY full). Usually, we are squeezed on a bus together with luggage, maize, cement and chickens. But that's when we have  bus. Usually we have to walk at least 40 min (one way) to go to the nearest villages. Most of the times, the weather is really hot and I really miss a car or even European public transport.

4. Fruit – In the rural area where I live, there's almost no fruit. Sometimes, we can buy small bananas. They usually have more fruit during the rainy season, which will start in November ( when  I'm leaving).

5. A good terrace – I'd love to have a terrace here where I could just sit, have my meal and enjoy the sunset at the end of the day. We have a terrace, but unfortunately we don't have any chairs or tables.  We just have two school-style benches that we cannot use because they are full of resin.

6. A beach – Hot weather reminds me of my summers on the beach. Unfortunately, there's no beach in Zambia. I miss feeling the sand on my toes and to swim in the sea.

“You can't change the world, but you can change yourself”

I've been very busy since the last post. Between presentations on HIV/AIDS, staying in Ndola, staying in Lusaka and starting to paint the nearest preschool, my opinion about Zambia completely changed.

When I arrived in Zambia, it wasn't easy. Different living conditions, different motivations and different mentalities.

In the beginning, I was disappointed many times with many things around me. One thing that I learned is that there is a big different between understanding and knowing. 

I understood when people told me that it's difficult to deal with the "african time", that there is corruption, that a person needs to be brave and straight forward if they want to help. I agreed with that. It made sense. However, when I arrived in Zambia I was shocked. It was difficult for me to accept the way people live here. I quickly realized that I needed to change my way of thinking in order to be able to help in an efficient way.

Just after I met with different Zambian people, I was able to know what people told me. I was able to extend my knowledge and to open my mind to a completely different culture.

I'm glad I'm in Zambia!

DAPP’s preschool and Chilikwela

Today I want to tell you about another 2 preschools : DAPP’s preschool and Chilikwela.

DAPP’s preschool is only 5 minutes away from our house. It is located at Children’s Town – a school and community center – where our house is.

Geoffrey is the teacher o has been submitted to a 3 – year training by DAPP, the organization we work for. He is responsible for 56 children, divided into two classes. There, the pupils learn how to count and how to speak English, which is not an easy task because the majority of them only speak local languages.

This preschool needs paintings. Some months ago, our friend Adela did a really nice job with the drawings on the walls but now they need to be filled with colors.

Chilikwela is located in Chitanda, about 3 km from the place where we are staying. We have visited this preschool twice, but the teacher has been in the hospital since May, so we never saw how it works in practice.

This school also needs paintings. Again, our friend Adela did a really nice job with the drawings on the walls, but now they also need to be filled with colors.

We are organizing ourselves together with DAPP in order to paint these two preschools so that the pupils can have better conditions.

True Vine and Musopelo

Today I want to tell you about 2 preschools not far from each other: True Vine and Musopelo.

True Vine is a community preschool ran by the True Vine Church. It is located next to the Malanbanyama market, about 3.5 km from the place where we are staying. At the True Vine preschool, the pupils learn the letters, the numbers, the colors and some other useful vocabulary and songs in English. Despite the fact that they don’t speak English at home, their English level is impressive.

Their teacher, Esther, is a dynamic and passionate woman who loves her pupils. In the past, she worked with orphans in Lusaka. Now, she lives in Malanbanyama, next to her parents and together with her 2 daughters in a small and humble house where there are no chairs or tables.

True Vine preschool

The second preschool I want to tell you about is Musopelo’s preschool, which is located about 0.5 km from True Vine’s preschool.  Musopelo’s preschool is connected with the Roman Catholic Church. The Church borrows its kitchen - an empty traditional round house made of cement and straw - to be used as  a preschool. They are still waiting for their own building that was promised last year.

At the Musopelo’s preschool, Mary – the teacher – has 56 pupils. There, they learn how to read and to count as well as some vocabulary and songs in English.

Mary is a fighter. She is a 26 years old woman who has only one finger in each hand. Mary has a 5 years-old daughter, who has also the same disability as her, but just in one hand. She lives with her family about 3.5 km from the preschool, so she has to walk at least 8 km per day. Many times she cannot manage to have breakfast because she doesn’t have time in the morning.

Mary is a preschool teacher for one year now. However, she is not officially trained. She was trained by Esther (True Vine’s teacher). She became a teacher because there was no teacher around. She confessed us that she is still learning Enlglish.

Despite the challenges, this teacher is passionate and she does her best with her pupils. Their English level is not as good as at True Vine, but their math and reading skills are impressive.

Musopelo preschool

In the next post, I will tell you more about the other two preschools that we visited! You can also check http://igg.me/at/12bike (section updates) for more information about the communities where me and my colleagues work!

P.S: Portuguese speakers: check my brand new blog in Portuguese (with different stories) on http://mariananazambia.blogspot.com

Mwmangwa

Mwmangwa is a preschool located about 4 km from the place we live. It is a government preschool next to a school.
Magret is the teacher. She just arrived to Mwmangwa 4 months ago. However, she is very enthusiastic and loves her pupils.
The pupils are about 20. They are divided by three different tables according their age: colouring, tracing and writing.
Only one girl speaks English (Zambian official language), but Magret wants every pupil to speak english. Now she is teaching the alphabet, the numbers and some words.

Preschools

During these last days, we have been visisting preschools in the communities around the place where we live.
It has been a nice experience. We quickly realized that being a preschool teacher is not easy at all.
We visited 5 different preschools. In the next posts, I'll give you more details about them.
Meanwhile, I'd like to remind you that I'm also involved in a project called 12bike, which is a crowdfunding campaign to give bikes and trailers to the communities in Chibombo. Find out more on: http://igg.me/at/12bike

New home

We arrived in Chibombo on the2nd of June. Chibombo is bush, very different from Lusaka or Ndola. When I arrived to the house where I am staying now, it was a shock. Although I didn’t expect very good conditions, I expected a nicer house.

My new home has four bedrooms and a common area that is a sort of a corridor, kitchen and living room. The latrine and the “shower” are outside. The latrine consists on a little house with a hole on the floor. The door doesn’t close properly; we have to use a rock to close it. The shower is not a shower. Actually, it’s only a place where we have to bring with us a bucket full of water and use an empty package of margarine to wash ourselves.

At least, we are lucky with the water. We don’t need to boil it. There’s a pump with safe water close to us … and if we want to warm some water, we can use either the two electric boilers or the cooker that we have.

When I arrived to my room, it was full of spiders and spider nets. Fortunately, after a cleaning action, there aren’t so many spiders as before.

Through my room’s door (even if it is closed), you can see what is happening in the common area. Actually, this door has some holes, which reduces the privacy and increases the feeling of community life.

Apart from me and my colleagues (Árpi and Zoltán), there are more people living in this house: Daniel from the US, Seong Han from South Korea and Andres from Colombia. We also enjoyed the company of a Japanese girl called Xiiro for a couple of days.

The best part of our house is the two nice and useful cats that we have. Besides of the food we give them, they eat snakes, mice, spiders and other insects. However, they are very clean and cute.

After one week, this house is not as bad as I thought it was in the beginning. I think I’m getting used to it.

In the next post, I'll explain you what is my job here. See you!

First impressions of Zambia

Me and my colleagues arrived to Zambia yesterday. After a long and peculiar flight with Ethiopian Airlines ( Heathrow - Addis Ababa - Lusaka), we arrived at Lusaka airport, where a gentleman from the organisation we are with was waiting for us. Then, we went to the organisation's office, met some people and had the famous nsima with beans. It was interesting because here they don't use cutlery. Eventually, we went to a bagpackers to spend the night there. In the afternoon, we went to a shopping centre to buy some food. We could find everything there, including a Portuguese restaurant callled 'adega' which serves kebab.
Today, we caught the bus in the morning to come to Ndola. The bus station in Lusaka is a really crazy place. Everybody is moving, shouting, trying to sell things ... And cars and buses are everywhere! Everybody wanted to help us with our luggage. I guess that our luggage was in the hands of many different people.
The trip took more or less 5 hours. During this trip, we passed by Chibombo (the place where our project is) and we stopped in Kabwe. We also passed by many rural areas where you could barely see houses. People here are walking a lot. During this trip, I could see many people walking and carrying fruit and other things in their heads. Some of them are also biking.
When we arrived to Ndola, we got a taxi to come to the headquarters, where we are now. Here we found other volunteers. We are going to stay here a couple of days to get to know the organisation and then, we are going to chibombo.
See you soon!

Countdown to Africa

It has been a long time since the last time I posted in this blog. In the last few months, I've been preparing my trip to Zambia and the work that I will develop there. Me and my colleagues who are going to Zambia came up with an idea that can change many lives in the rural communities in which we are going to work: bikes and trailers. 

We believe that the living conditions of these communities can be improved if they have access to these equipment. For this, we need your support!

Our goal is to fundraise 3500€ so we can buy 9 bikes with trailer, one bike with a special trailer which can be used to transport people in emergency, and tool kits for each bike and trailer.

With them, local people can transport water, food, start their own business or even be easily transported to the nearest clinic/hospital.

We are planning to create a cooperative so people can share these items in the community. At the same time, we are going to teach people about how to repair bikes and trailers and to promote income generating activities. Also, we will teach them about health, sanitation and how to deal with emergencies.

You can be part of this change on our crowdfunding webpage: http:/igg.me/at/12bike 

You can also share this webpage with your contacts so more people can help us!

In the middle of the next week, I will be in Chibombo (one one the rural areas of Zambia) together with my colleagues Arpad and Zoltan. I will keep you informed of what is happening!

See you soon!

Fundraising

My team have been fundraising since November. Basically, the people who don't

drive, sell magazines in the streets to raise many to go to Africa. Our job consists in

standing with a board around our necks where you can read " I am going to Africa as a

volunteer" or "Help me, help others".

We make the magazines at the school. Inside, you can read some reports from

the teams which are in Africa or India and some articles about our activities and

actions. Each magazine costs £2.

Let's be honest. Fundraising is not the best job in the world. Sometimes you get cold

and other times, you feel invisible... and the truth is that I never ever in my life

thought about selling magazines in the streets. It reminded me of those people in the

streets of Lisbon selling the magazine "Cais" and it didn't seem suitable for someone

who has fought and studied hard to reach certain goals. Still, I knew that this was part

of the program and I agreed with it. Anyway, I had sold calendars in the streets before

when I was a scout girl.

Quickly I realized that this with selling magazines has nothing to do with selling

calendars as a scout girl. First of all, I'm not a scout anymore. I'm a volunteer, a grown

up (although I look like a 17 years-old girl, which helps sometimes ) who decided

to be a volunteer, or at least, in some people's point of view, I am someone who

says that is going to Africa as a volunteer. Secondly, I am not British - they say I'm

American, Indian, Mexican, Venezuelan,Spanish or Italian - but actually I'm

portuguese just like Cristiano Ronaldo and José  Mourinho, who are, in some people's

point of view, "quite arrogant" (Luckily, there's lot of British people who have been in

the Algarve and say that portuguese people are nice !). Finally, there are more people

doing the same as I do for other causes. This is amazing, but it also means that I have

concurrence.

I have been fundraising in Hull, Withernsea, Beverly, Manchester and York. In all these

places, people have different reactions. While some shout "get a job!", others are very

nice and supportive. They want to know more about me, the school, the project and

the place where i am going. Some of them tell me their experiences in Africa. And the

most important, they smile at me and wish me all the best. This is my motivation to

continue to fundraise in the streets. I feel useful.

I love when I get the chance to talk to the people ! It's nice to hear what they have to

say, even if what they have to say is not so nice. I remember a man who assured me

that Africa was a country. I tried to explain him that Africa was a continent with many

countries, but in his opinion, I was totally wrong ! I found it both sad and funny. I

decided to go for the funny side. That kept me smiling all day .

Regarding my concurrence, I usually find homeless people selling a magazine "The

Big Issue" also for £2. Their motto is "working, not begging". Last week in York,

I decided to buy one magazine from one man I found in the same street I was. He was

very happy and we started to talk about our jobs. Next day, he didn't forget me! He was

in the same spot and he said hello.

It's good find nice people! I feel really happy when it happens. So, I have a request for

you:

If you find me fundraising in the streets, even if you are not interested in the magazine,

please smile at me. My day will be better :)

Choices

Everybody has to make millions of choices per day.

Getting up in the morning, taking a shower, getting dressed are examples of simple choices which we include in our daily routine. However, we can choose not to get up, not to take a shower and not to get dressed. But then, if we choose not to do it, there will be consequences : we can miss work or school, we can get fired, we can fail an exam … With all this consequences, comes one of the worst feelings ever – disappointment.

Disappointment is related with high expectations and it comes not only from the others, but also from yourself. We are pressured by the people around us to make the right choice, but actually the right choice isn’t the same for everybody.

When I decided to be a full-time volunteer, many people around me didn’t see my choice as the right one. They wanted me to pursue my studies and enrol a Master’s degree. Some said that going to Africa was not for me. They knew that this was a good thing, but there were afraid of its consequences. I would have a completely different life in a completely different place.

For me, this was the right choice. I wanted to be a volunteer, studying and  living in community, so I could help others in Africa. I felt really motivated to make a difference, so I enrolled the 18 months program at CICD.

When I came to CICD, I realize that living in a community is very different from living in a student accommodation or in a family house.  You live 24h/24h with the same people. Plus, everybody has to co-operate in daily tasks such as making breakfast, lunch, dinner, dishwashing and cleaning. When you live in a community you’re part of a big machine : if you do it wrong, the machine won’t work. A community life is based on trust. You have some rules and you expect people to follow them.

Once again, people make choices. It’s very easy to get disappointed. People are not all the same, we have different reactions. We are not perfect. We get disappointed with ourselves. We make mistakes and we learn from them. We find solutions.

A community life is a different life because we leave our comfort zone. It’s different from all you’ve known before. Sometimes it seems that we lost our motivation and our focus, but in fact, i believe if we really want to do something, we never loose our focus and our motivation. Another times, it looks like a dream come true. Sun is shinning and everything seems bright and cheerful.

The most important for me now is always to keep in mind my right choice and never let it go. Of course, it isn’t an easy task; I make mistakes, I make good things, I cry, I will laugh, I ask myself what I am doing here… Nevertheless, I know that if I follow this right path, I will grow as a person and become a better human being.

Welcome !

Hello ! My name is Mariana and I am a volunteer who wants to work in a community based project in Zambia.

A couple of months ago, I decided to come to CICD - College for International Co-operation and Development, in England, (http://www.cicd-volunteerinafrica.org/) to follow a 18 months program, which combines studies and volunteering.

It's been 4 months since I'm here and I think I already changed many things in my life.
The aim of this blog is to share my experiences with you. Hope you enjoy it !

Meanwhile, take a look at my team's facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/helpustogotoafrica

See you soon !