a week with tonsillitis

Early last week while I was building with the team I started to get a headache and fever so my day was cut short and I went back to bed. Over the next few hours my fever went crazy and I got worse headaches and a sore throat which made it harder and harder to swallow. The next day I had a Malaria test which came out negative (phew), so after another awful night I went to a doctor in Luanshya. The doctor seemed to have a good reputation and the Hands at Work volunteers who live here trusted him (medical help can be a bit dodgey over here) so I went and was diagnosed with Tonsillitis and was given a long injection that seemed to last hours and then a course of Antibiotics. After a few more horrible days and fevery nights I finally started to feel better towards the end of the week.

I had a slow weekend and then on Sunday I started to help set up the accomodation for the Hands at Work conference that is on over the next few days. My role at the conference is on the audio/visual team so I'm spending my days half on the sound desk at the back of the conference and half photographing and filming bits of the conference for the media team. I'm really enjoying having my camera back in my hands for a while, hoping to get some good material for future use.

My First Week In Zambia

I have spent the last 6 days working at Kachele farm as part of the building/maintenance team here and we've been working on a new building project. We have been converting three old brick chicken sheds into accomodation for future volunteers. There will be an apartment for a couple with a small bathroom and kitchen in one building, then the second two buildings will have 2 single rooms in each, all with a small en suite shower room.

The first two chicken shacks were being damaged by a huge tree that had sent roots under the foundations and were lifting the walls and causing cracks. So our first two days were spent hacking at the roots with an axe and digging trenches that we would later fill with concrete to protect the new buildings from damage in future. This was back breaking work and the axe gave me blisters all over my hands, but it was worth it to protect the houses. Then Wednesday was spent cutting the walls down to a level that we could build on again, we used a grinder to cut the windows out and then made a start on the interior walls.

On Thursday I took a break from building and joined a team who were going out into one of the communities we work in. It was my first Zambian community visit and it was brilliant seeing a community so different to the ones I’ve seen in South Africa yet still using the same system and goals that make up the Hands at Work Model. I went with Russell and Dianne to visit a home, the family that lived there were Mother, Father and 4 year old son. Both of the parents were paraplegics. They had one wheelchair and a hand-pedal three wheeler; it was hard seeing people living like that whereas if they were in the UK they would have all the support and healthcare they needed.

Friday and Saturday were spent building again, I had my first try at brick laying and the houses really started to look like rooms rather than a building site. We mixed bags and bags of mortar and concrete by hand (not fancy mixing machines) and filled in the trenches we dug earlier, fitted the first doorframe and some other bits and bobs that needed clearing or moving or recycling. So after 2 months of doing very little manual labour I’ve been back at it and I’m loving the feeling of exhaustion after a days work.

The internet here isn’t strong enough to upload photographs but I will keep trying. The Video Blogs won’t have a chance uploading so there will be very little visual stuff on my blog until I’m living somewhere with a better connection. But I’m not moaning! I’m just glad I can email home!

Arrived at Kachele

Yesterday we got out of the pickup truck at about 6pm and I had my first tour around Kachele Farm. It had taken us four days to drive there...

On Wednesday at 3.30am my alarm went off and I stumbled out of my room and into the pickup truck that would take me 2100km north. I was travelling with Sal, Jaap, Simon and George (Australian, Dutch, South African and Canadian). The back seat of the Hilux was a bit cramped with 3 not so short men in it. We were on the road for 14.5 hours that day, stopping only for fuel and bodily functions. It took around an hour to cross the South Africa/Botswana border which I thought was a long time (oh how wrong was I?). While we were driving we saw ostrich, a fairly big snake, warthogs, baboons and a few elephants, all on our way to our campsite.

The next day we packed up and left at 8:00, we drove for 5 hours to the Botswana/Zambia border and spent an hour leaving Botswana and crossing the Zambezi by ferry. On the Zambian side of the river we had to get our visas and then go through customs, this took 7 hours! That border was awful, the lowest point of the trip. We were trying to get a trailer full of sheets and blankets through but it took forever, we had different people telling us to get different bits of paperwork and it was all a big mess. While Sal was sorting that out we were being pestered by people asking to wash the car or watch it (protect it from people who might steal luggage etc). Trying to convince these people, particularly one guy who'd been at the home-brew, that we could watch it perfectly well while we're sitting inside it was almost as hard as getting the trailer through customs. We finally crossed the border just after it got dark and drove for another hour to our campsite just outside Livingston. I went to sleep in the tent listening to Victoria Falls roaring away in the distance.

Friday was our rest day. Me, Sal and Jaap went to Victoria Falls for a few hours, it is coming to the end of the wet season so the falls were pumping so much water that we couldn't see much of the actual waterfall because of the huge cloud of mist and vapour that was being thrown into the air around it. Walking across the cliffs and over the bridges we got wetter than if we'd been for a swim! I managed to get a handful of photos and videos before my camera got so wet it cut out, I spent a lot of time over the last few days trying to dry out the camera and my lenses. We spent that evening watching the sun set over the Zambezi before an early night.

On Saturday we had another 12 hours of driving ahead so we were up early for a 6am start. The road quality was very mixed that day, from brand new tarmac to roads with potholes bigger than bath tubs. I've never seen potholes as big as those ones, some were at least 18 inches deep. After a long, hot and very cramped last day we arrived at Kachele Farm not long before sunset. I met a load of people, some completely new, some from my orientation and some I hadn't seen for at least 4 years. I had an absolutely amazing journey, if my time in Zambia is only half as good as this roadtrip then I can't wait to get started.

Roadtrip to Zambia:

Over the last two weeks I've been waiting to go to Zambia with a building team but due to a few changes of plan along the way I've had some time where I haven't had a proper 'job description'. So instead of sitting around waiting I've been helping out where I can; I spent most of my time with Dave helping him service the charity’s cars and pickup trucks so lots of oily, dusty days underneath engines.
 

 

Over the long Easter weekends we’ve had a chance to go camping a couple of times. One weekend me and a few friends camped at Mankele and entered a mountain biking race there and the next weekend we drove about an hour and a half and crossed the border into Swaziland and stayed a few nights in an ex-mining village called Bulembu. Bulembu turned into a bit of a ghost town when the asbestos mine was closed down about ten years ago and since then has been turned into a self-sustaining village for orphaned children. It was amazing being shown around by our mountain guide as we climbed Emlembe (Swazilands highest peak) and then back down into the village. Our guide, a man called Mathakoza, told us he was a golf caddy for the mine managers while the mine was still open so it was great hearing the story of his village from his own point of view.

 

 

 

So after two weeks of feeling a bit like a spare part in a big machine I am finally going up to Zambia to help a team build some accommodation for volunteers. Five of us are going to drive up through Botswana in a pickup truck and trailer; we will leave at 4.00am tomorrow morning and will be on the road for 4 days! I’m really looking forward to the trip but I know it will be a long time in a cramped car full of men and luggage.

I’m not sure how long I will be in Zambia but I think it will be at least a month, then after that I could be moved again or stay on in Zambia. I am a bit behind on my photo and video processing but I’ll try to catch up and get some more work on my Flickr and Vimeo sites. I'm so excited about the next part of my trip!