Paint, paint and more paint probably sums up my adventures since my last blog. I feel fairly confident that I now have the skills to be employed as a professional painter. The good thing about having spent the last 3 weeks painting is that it means the school is finished, looking great and ready to open in January which is the moment I've been looking forward to since arriving in Zambia. 

One big change in the last few weeks is that Cherie and I have stopped working in the play school as we realised the school was not going to be completed on time and that was our priority so we put all our energies into finishing the school building. We've still been going to the play school for one hour each day to make sure we were keeping up relationships with the children who will be joining us at Kapumpe school. This week, as a goodbye from us we took all 27 children to the mall for icecream in 2 minibuses. I was expecting the children to be excited (which they were!) but I had no idea that the majority of them would never have even seen icecream before. The first child we handed the icecream to just stared at it and had to be told to eat it. Thankfully once the children tasted it they loved it! We also had a Christmas party for the children and we planned to play lots of lovely Christmas songs but the children had their own ideas. They played some Zambian music, at full volume, and showed us their 'dancing' where they stood shaking their hips with very impressive rhythm and the funniest part was it was the boys who really went for it!

Zambia is definitely giving me an opportunity to learn new skills, so far I've learnt how to drive an automatic, a 16 seater minibus, to push start a car and then drive it without making furniture fall of the back as I navigate bumpy dirt roads(didn't quite manage this one and lots a sofa along the way), use an electro drill, put up wall brackets, carry a baby using a chitengi (large piece of material), sing and dance like a zambian and start a fire.

I'm slowly getting used to all the wildlife out here, some of which is good and some bad. Now that it's the rainy season there are tons of beautiful birds around, although when they squawk all night outside my bedroom window they seem a little less beautiful! Ants are everywhere and the huge ones are surprisingly painful when they bite but its really impressive to see how over night they can create an ant tunnel and even when you think you've destroyed it an hour later they're back in formation. The hardest thing to get used to is the snakes, which there are more of than I expected and unfortunately mostly in the new school grounds. The other day we found a green mamba which venom kills in 10minutes, luckily it was killed before it bit anyone. Recently I also saw what I thought was a large centipede with its head buried in the ground and trying to be brave I picked it up, however as soon as I squeezed it I realized the body was far to squidgy to be a centipede and it was in fact a snake. I was happy to discover it was already dead...I'm not sure trying to be brave in Zambia is such a good idea anymore! 

The change is season also means there are mangoes galore which has made me very happy and happier still when you can buy 8 here for the same price as one in england. 

Another thing I love about the rainy season is the storms, which happen almost daily now. Sometimes the thunder is so loud the walls shake and you feel as though they might fall down around you and the lightening strikes all the way to the ground and lights up the whole sky...I never get tired of watching them!

Although I feel I know the Zambian's culture pretty well now there are still some things I can't get used to such as seeing grown men walking down the road holding hands, but out here its more a sign of respect. The thing I love about Zambians is how joyful they are, they love to laugh and you find yourself laughing along with them (even when more often than not its not very funny!) 

I'm pleasantly surprised to find that it actually feels a bit Christmassy here, we've decorated our house and although multicolored tinsel and a tree with no star on top isn't my style to say the least, it's better than no decorations at all! We also hosted a Christmas dinner this week for 19 people so another new skill I have developed is cooking a full roast turkey with all the trimmings.

In one week I'm heading to South Africa to spend Christmas with the family which I cannot wait for, especially as it means I finally get to meet my new nephew!! So I will sign off by wishing you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year! 

I started writing this blog on a 13 hour bus trip from Ndola down to Livingstone for a week holiday with Cherie and Liz. However when the driver is overtaking large trucks into oncoming traffic at 160km an hour it’s a little distracting so this is attempt two.

My week in Livingstone was amazing, full of lots of adventures, eating out and relaxing by the pool. Before I even came to Zambia I decided the one thing I had to do was the bungee jump of a bridge at Victoria Falls. I found out its good value to do a bungee jump, gorge swing and zip wire slide so I paid to do all three. I surprisingly wasn’t that nervous doing the bungee, I didn’t really think about what I was about to do, which was a good thing as it’s a 110m free fall. I felt a bit more nervous when the guy put a lifejacket on me and explained it was in case I ‘decided’ to go swimming! The actual jump was fun although very disorientating and quite painful on the ankles as they leave you hanging upside down for what feels like a very long time. The whole experience was kind of ruined though by the fact that I was sick as soon as my feet touched solid ground and I continued to throw up for the next few hours. I also couldn’t sit up or open my eyes for about an hour and had to be piggy backed to a taxi and driven home to sleep…needless to say I didn’t do the swing or slide that day.

We also went on a 2 hour sunset cruise which was really luxurious and surprising that we could have as much to drink as we liked, in fact the captain told us the motto for the trip is ‘the more you drink, the more you see!’ Along the river we saw loads of hippos and as we were coming back to shore a family of elephants came to the water to drink and then they started to cross the river. The sunsets in Zambia are beautiful and even more so from a boat with a ‘sunset’ cocktail in hand.

We had some really nice dinners out, my favourite being the night when I had crocodile meat on a skewer which tastes amazing. On the last day Cherie and I went to Victoria Falls where you can walk over the top of the majority of it as the water runs out during the dry season. The last part of the falls has water all year round and we had a guide take us to the ‘devil’s pool’ which is on the edge of the falls and you have to swim through part of the falls to get to it. When you’re swimming only 5 or so metres from the drop and you can feel the current pulling you towards to edge of the waterfall it gets a little scary and it wasn’t until afterwards that we found out 5 people died accidently falling over the top last year! It was definitely worth it though to be able to say I have hung over the top of one of the Seven Wonders of the World!

I had to go back to the bungee place to get a voucher saying I could come back to do my slide and swing another time. But Cherie and I decided to do the zip wire as it wasn’t very scary and it was fun to be able to go slowly over the rapids and enjoy the view. I was going to leave after that however the guys working there are pretty persuasive and convinced me to the gorge swing which again is 110m free fall but thankfully you stay the right way up for this one. I was so glad I gave in to the peer pressure as it one of the scariest but most fun things I’ve done. The initial adrenaline rush is crazy and it feels so unnatural to just be falling so (as you can see on video on Facebook) I thought running in the air might help me feel more safe…id didn’t! Once you’re swinging though you can just take in the view which is lovely. All in all it was a really nice break away but also nice to be back in Kaniki and feel like I was home.

The 2 or 3 weeks before our trip away were very busy as life always seems to be out here. The playschool takes up most of our time and thankfully things have started to improve there. Although I still almost daily have to physically hold children on the ‘thinking chair’ and I am getting used to children pinching, hitting and kicking me. On the whole though the children are starting to respond to the discipline and seem to enjoy having more ‘teaching time’. We’ve made some big changes introducing 2 classes so we don’t have 2-7 year olds in one class which has helped a lot and the fact that the children will now sit and listen quietly on the carpet is a massive achievement. It feels really rewarding to give the children new experiences such playing with play dough and doing fun games like scavenger hunts. And despite us being very strict with them, every morning when we arrive they come running up to us giving us hugs so we must be doing something right. One of the biggest frustrations is getting the children to speak English but they understand a lot more even if they’re not always speaking it. One of the children, Merena, made me laugh when I was trying to help her say ‘please can I have the bike?’ which she managed but when I said no, later she then repeated ‘please can I have the later?’

Another part of my routine which I have really enjoyed is my weekly visit to the local village school in Kamfinsa. The school is typically Zambian, as in it only has a few desks and a chalkboard and the teachers although very enthusiastic don’t really understand how to teach Phonics (reading and writing) and therefore once I week I cycle there and teach vocabulary and phonics for 2 and half hours. One week I took a simple snap game to play which they couldn’t get enough of, luckily after 3 games it was time for me to leave so I could say no when they asked to play again! The children are 9 and 10 years old (but I’m teaching them year one phonics) which is not my normal age group to work with but I’m really loving it as the class are so eager to learn.

Also went to the local church in Kamfinsa which is always enjoyable listening to them singing in Bemba but in over 35 degree heat it’s quite hard to stay awake for a 4hour meeting. In the preach the speaker was meant to speak English and the translator in Bemba, however the speaker kept changing to Bemba mid-sentence which the translator found very confusing and ended up repeating most things in Bemba which was entertaining to watch but not very helpful for us to understand what was being said!

We have started spending a bit more time with the students here at the Bible college and we now join in with their sports afternoons where I’ve played chess (very badly) and volleyball which is sometimes a bit scary as they’re all so competitive, being the only girls and white they take it easy on us though! We often have dinner with them after too so I’m getting more used to eating with my hands, using the nshima as a sort of spoon.

One weekend we drove 2hours to ‘the sunken lake’ which is an amazing place where a group of caves collapsed in leaving a huge clear water lake where the shallowest end is 150m deep and they haven’t even been able to dive to the bottom of the deepest end. Some of the Danish people who live here have been going there for years so there was a big group of us who camped overnight, cooking on an open fire and going to the toilet in a hole we dug. Annoyingly after only an hour of being there I decided to tackle the rope swing which is attached to a very high tree and swings you out into the lake. I was pretty nervous as it was a long way down and you had to jump out sideways to avoid the rocks. I should have been more concerned with the thin rope attached at the bottom of the thick one because it wrapped around my ankle mid-air and before I could untangle it I had to let go so I didn’t swing back into the rocks and ended up with the most painful rope burn all around my foot and ankle. That was 3 weeks ago and it’s still healing up now so it was very deep and I have had to retell the story more times than I can count…Zambians are quite inquisitive! I still had a good time though, swimming from one end of the lake to the other and doing a straight 6m jump (no ropes involved) into the lake from some rocks.

And finally, the highlight of my time so far, I became an aunty to the gorgeous little Noah! It’s so exciting and I think my sister and brother in law have done very well to produce such a cutie of a baby. It’s hard not to be able to have cuddles with Noah but I think it will make the first time I meet him at Christmas in South Africa even more special….a day I literally cannot wait for!!

The more time I spend in Zambia the busier my life seems to become, but in a good way. The last two weeks we have started working in the play school which is where we will be from now until December in the mornings while we prepare the primary school in the afternoon (when they have finished building it that is!) The first week we spent there we were getting to know the other two members of staff and starting to sort the place out. We spent a long time organising toys into the right boxes (sounds dull but of course I loved it) and making lots of puzzles to see which had pieces missing which was unsurprisingly almost every one. We found out it wouldn’t have made a difference to the children any way as they don’t play with puzzles in the traditional way, they just arrange them randomly by banging the pieces into any hole which will fit.  We painted one of the rooms which had become a very dirty white and took down lots of old, ripped posters and put up new ones. It was great to see what a big difference this small change made. We worked really hard that week to get the play school ready as we were having 3 new children come and start the following Monday who would then be taken into the new school in January with some others. Disappointingly the children did not show up but we decided to teach what we had planned to the children who already attend the play school which is about 20 children. That first week of real teaching was more of a challenge then I would have expected. There were quite a lot of changes we introduced which meant repeating ourselves all week long, such as not riding the bikes inside and no jumping on the bed! Some children seemed to think it was funny when we told them off and the language barrier did not help. I’ve never been in a situation with children where I’ve felt out of control so it’s been quite a big learning curve to find other ways of communicating.  One example is where one child came inside and screamed and then all the children thought it would be fun to join in and despite us shouting lecka chongo (stop that noise) over the top of them they just carried on. We ended up getting one of the Zambian ladies to come in and she shouted in Bemba what we had asked….or so we thought! She switched to English at the end and said ‘you understand, you behave or I will get the whip!’ Thankfully most of their threats are hollow but it was not quite the message we wanted to convey to the children. We have also introduced sitting in a circle on the carpet rather than at tables in lines which is a new thing for the children and therefore results in us spending most of the time shuffling children around and crossing and then re-crossing their legs.

We went back and revisited the 3 children who should have started school with us and found that one had misunderstood and thought they should start in January, another was ill and the third had a funeral. Understandably they hadn’t been able to tell us as they would have had to walk 45minutes here to do so. Thankfully all 3 of them, Gift, Esnat and Purity, showed up today and we had our first day with children who spoke no English. They got on very well which was helped by the fact that we had a sort of TA start today called Brian, who wants to train as a teacher and needs some more experience, who helped translate some things. One crucial thing that needed explaining was the use of the toilet as most children have never seen or used a flushing toilet so he described how they don’t stand on top of the seat but sit on it which many children are scared to do as they think they will fall into the water. One thing I have really enjoyed is singing with the children, both teaching them songs and learning ones they already know.

I had a nice birthday, although quite a quiet one compared to normal. Liz and Cherie were very sweet though waking me up with a full cooked breakfast and a card saying I had a birthday surprise on Saturday. My surprise was a whole day of fun, for which I had to be blindfolded for first…we were a little concerned what the police at the road block would say when they saw but apparently a blindfolded person in a car is nothing to worry about. First we went to Jacuranda mall where we like to treat ourselves with ice-cream (perhaps a little too regularly) Then I drove to Nsobe game park (minus the blindfold!) and was treated to back massage then lunch by the river and my first glass of wine in over a month. I stuck to one glass as I then drove us around the game park, which is difficult enough navigating a 15 person minibus down very bumpy narrow dirt roads, all the while looking for animals, without feeling a bit tipsy! We managed to spot 4 giraffes that walked down the road in front of us and we were able to get very close which was exciting. A lovely birthday treat in all. I also bought a grass mat from the side of the road to make my room a bit cosier, I regretted this though when I got home as my bedroom quickly became infested with tons of tiny bugs, including small cockroaches, which I’m still occasionally finding running around over a week later!

On the Sunday we went to Charlie’s church, the carpenter from the college who is one of the leaders. He asked us to pick him up in the mini bus but I was not expecting 25 other people to squash into the back as well, luckily we didn’t have far to go for church. Unfortunately Charlie hadn’t told us it would all be in Bemba so much of it went over our heads but was still great to see a traditional Bemban church. As we waited for church to start (half an hour late) I watched an old woman hobble in, looking as though she might not make it to her seat but then later as the singing started she was the first to jump out of her seat and shake her behind in a way only African woman can! One thing about Zambians is they love to use sound systems but even the best voices don’t sound great as they think they still need to shout when holding a microphone. Luckily this church just had a choir and listening to them all sing together was amazing; we were even able to ‘join in’ as they had Bemban hymn books.

Whilst at the playschool one day last week we were asked to come outside and found some of the workers who are building the school waiting for us. One of them had just been bitten by a snake in the school grounds and they said it was poisonous so they needed some money to go to the medical clinic. When I asked if they were sure it was poisonous they said to take a look at it and that’s when I realised they had hung it over the fence and then they thought it was funny to tell me it was still alive, which it was not! Apparently he is still in lots of pain but other than that will be fine…I’m starting to think staying and teaching in the playschool is sounding like a better plan!

It has been a busy, social weekend, including a BBQ we threw for 12 people, not as relaxing as I thought, now I understand why my parents have binned their BBQ! Playing pool with some of the workers, going to the college’s monthly church service and having lunch with the students afterwards. The highlight was definitely Friday night where we were asked just a few days earlier to plan 2 hours worth of games/ performances to entertain the 50 something students, most of whom we’d never met. I wasn’t sure what to expect but serious bible college students, many of whom are married with children, running around, fighting for chocolate, and becoming very distressed when others cheated was not it! We taught them the chocolate game although the concept of throwing a dice once and then passing it on was lost on some people, they’d rather roll it until they got a six and then hurriedly shove the last person away and scoff the chocolate, needless to say I didn’t get one piece! The funniest game was a scavenger hunt, which started well and ended with grown men coming up to me and pouting because someone had blocked their team.  Perhaps asking them to bring me a full glass of water, a bench, a person and a lit candle was a little reckless…I wasn’t sure they’d hesitate if I got hurt if it meant they would win the point!  But all in all the evening was a big success.

So as you can see I’m kept pretty busy out here and I haven’t even mentioned, the weekly prayer meetings, bible study, student chapel starting at 6.45, swimming, and of course watching Downton Abbey.

Sorry this is such a long blog, I will try to write more regularly so it’s not like reading an essay to learn my news!

It feels like a lot has happened since my last blog so lots more to report this time...
Feeling very settled and at home here now and very much enjoying the food (especially when it is cooked for me) and the weather (hot and getting hotter!)
We went for a day out to Nsobe game park which was lovely and relaxing, except for the part where we visited the snake house and held crocodiles, venomous snakes and a very large python. We also saw a snake which lives locally in Zambia and if bitten by it will be dead in 20minutes...a frightening thought when walking through any tall grass! We went for a drive to see if we could spot any animals and after 20minutes of only buck we thought it was unlikely. however when we came around the next corner we saw a family of 4 giraffes which was a nice surprise.
Last Monday was Cherie's birthday so I decided to make a cake and spent Sunday evening making 2 for a Victoria sandwich, it wasn't until I took it out the oven and tasted it that I realised I had used salt rather then sugar! On Monday I attempted cake 2 and underestimated how much the cake would rise...it came over the top of the tin and set fire to the oven, luckily we managed to salvage it and eat some resemblance of a Victoria sponge.
We had another girl, Liz, join us last week and the three of us went to stay out in the bush with a lady called Mrs Chomba. We were really excited about seeing the way of life out there and experiencing 'the real Zambia.' It was definitely fun to walk around and see how excited the children were to see us and listening to them trying to speak English. It was also an adventure using the toilet in the dark (a large hole in the ground with an equally large hole in the roof) and sleeping in a mud hut where we saw large rats running along the walls and them scuttling around as we tried to sleep. Sleep didn't come easy though when wild dogs decided to have a party outside our door and a cockerel tried to wake everyone up when it was still dark...and then continued to try every hour until we got up! It was fun to experience real Zambian food too, which took 3hours to prepare and included Nshima (a bit like congealed rice) and some small fish with the heads still on. Eating by candlelight as there was no electricity made it easier though and using our hands was messy to say the least. Because of their culture we ate on our own in their house while the rest of the family ate outside and the 2 younger children did most of the work while we weren't allowed to lift a finger. All in all an interesting experience and the best part was how honoured Mrs Chomba was that we had come to stay.
There have been lots of things to get used to such as people only using 24hr clock and trying to work out what time to be some where when it's '15'. Also being called Muzungu (foreigner) almost as much as Charlie...people shout it at you as you walk past, despite it being more than obvious we are the only white people around! Getting used to the roads with crazy drivers and even crazier trucks and police road blocks everywhere. Today I walked through a family's garden and they were slitting the throat of a chicken (nkoko in Bhemba) while the children squeezed the juices out of all the organs, mmm delicious.
Today we went on home visits to the children who will be starting in the new school which was such a world away from the home visit I did 2 years ago working in London...sitting on logs or old tyres listening to everything being translated, having family members trying to guess when the children's birthdays are and finding out if they need medication for HIV. Still the children seemed excited about starting school although pretty shy. Also I popped into another country today as one child lived just over the train tracks which technically means we have (illegally) crossed the border into the Congo.
The last 2 or 3 weeks have been a nice mix of sorting things for the school, exploring the real Zambia around Kaniki and relaxing in the evenings with a movie or a book (I've read 3 already since being here!) I'm looking forward to going into the playschool next week to see how everything's run and then  to start teaching the following week, although I'm not very excited about the fact it starts at 7.30!
That's all for now.

So I have decided to join the world of blogging, which is pretty scary but I thought it would be the best and simplest way to keep you all informed back home.

I have now been in Zambia for a week although it feels like a lot longer and I already feel at home here which I wasn’t expecting to happen so soon. It hasn’t been as big a culture shock as I expected and in general I feel pretty settled.

The biggest surprise out here is the massive sense of community, the grounds where I am living is called Kaniki and it has a Bible University college, lots of houses for the staff, a playschool, a swimming pool, loads of huge ant hills (taller than me!) and of course the new primary school, all of which is within about a 3minute walk of each other. Everyone on the Kaniki grounds is so friendly and automatically accepts you as part of their family. At the moment all the uni students are away on holiday but will be back in 2weeks so I think it will be a bit louder and more chaotic then.

So far I have been getting to know the area, trying to learn the language, Bemba, (which I’m really struggling with) and getting to grips with what needs to be done for the school. In terms of the school which is called Kapumpe, the plan is for us to start teaching our children with some nursery aged children in the playschool on site, as they will be coming in with no English whatsoever! We will try to get them up to a basic level from September to December, where we will be teaching them from 8-12 every morning and in the afternoons we will be preparing the school ready for an official start in January. The school build should be completed by the end of September and then we will be able to paint it and sort out resources and make it look like a real classroom in the afternoons. We have already started painting some boxes to go in the class so I’ve had to try and get in touch with my creative side. At the moment it seems like a huge task and a little overwhelming but also very exciting and I really can’t wait to meet the children.

Other things I’ve been up to…going for swims, 3km run at 6.30 in the morning (might not be attempting that again!) sewing some curtains for my room and story bags for the school, reading lots, went to church on Sunday (3 and a half hour service!) went to a meeting run by the Zambian students which was very loud and interesting to see that they find almost everything funny and helped to finish painting a design on the wall outside the school. On Saturday we are going to a game park called Nsobe to relax a bit and have a braai.  

At the moment there isn’t that much to report but I will try and update the blog weekly. I now have internet on my Ipad so I can Skype and face time. I am still trying to get my phone sorted so Facebook or email is probably the best way to contact me if you want to. I will hopefully be able to upload some photos to Facebook soon.

That’s all for now.