Life post-IDEALS

It’s crazy to think two weeks ago today I was due to be heading to the airport to board a plane to return from Zambia. But here I am still am, living the dream for that little longer, and looking ahead to what the next six weeks have in store for me. Life without the students has been a little different, rather varied at time but nonetheless enjoyable. On one hand I miss the busyness of the house, the constant noise and chatter, the stories from the day, laughter and banter and the way we all lived the Zambia dream together… 12 of us squeezed into the house that soon became home. I miss the sleep talking, and late night chats, the random banter and the weekend ventures, the times that were only made because of the people I shared them with. Yet on the other hand I am enjoying the freedom to go where I want when I want, the flexibility that comes from creating my own schedule to spend time here, there and everywhere. I enjoy not having to meet the ‘needing to be home before dark rule’, and I am enjoying the way I am feeling very settled here. Every day my route home takes me to a bus stop, where I then walk about 15 minutes to my house. On this route home I always walk past the same taxi drivers, the same shops and the same market and I am now rather enjoying the conversation that has been struck up every time. In Zambia there is often times you receive attention and it’s a little unwanted but this attention is actually welcomed and even over these past two weeks I have had some lovely little chats with the locals on my way home. It is in these times that I stop and take a moment and realise how ‘at home’ I feel, how welcomed I feel and how genuinely content I am. I may have six more weeks left but I am sure that without a doubt they will fly by, just like the past twenty weeks have!

Cricket at the UTH Special School

I have also discovered here than no one day is the same, even if two days you do exactly the same things the conversations you have, the encounters you experience all make every moment unique. These past two weeks have included many of these moments. Last week for example, when going to UTH Special School to help deliver a PE session there, I walked past a group of kids who were playing cricket and recognised a few of them. So I stopped, assuming that this was some of the class we normally teach and joined in… Only in Zambia could you do that. It wasn’t until about half way through that I soon realised, that not only wasn’t this class the one I teach but another group were delivering it. I soon found out that the Zambia Cricket Union were delivering this session and had recently created a new partnership with the school, which was fantastic. After chatting for a while we discussed the possibility of partnering the ZCU and Sport in Action and I am going to spend the next few weeks looking at forming a partnership where cricket is delivered through some of our programmes, and helping up-skill some of our Peer Leaders along the way. I never imagined playing cricket in Zambia but like I said no one day is the same.

Steph and I still Living the Dream

I have also managed to visit the Alive and Kicking Football Factory within the past two weeks. Through the IDEALS programme the footballs we have always used have been created by Alive and Kicking which are an organisation who makes football in Africa for Africa, printing them with messages to help use sport as a tool to educate about health. The words ‘football factory’ make you think or at least made me think of this industrial sized building but it’s far from that. Each football is hand printed; hand stitched and formed into being. Each employee creates approximately 3.5 footballs a day, which as you can imagine suggests the process is quite a long one. It was inspiring to watch these individuals hand craft these balls, focusing heavily on the small details which make these balls what they are. I was blown away by the work they do and how dedicated they all were in making their products. I am looking forward to working more closely with Alive and Kicking and their partner organisation Tackle Africa to help deliver the health aspect of their programme.

Oh and the weekend may have included a little visit to 'Oktoberfest' which was so so much fun! It was nice to enjoy a day off with Steph and some of our Zambian friends as we made our way to Fringilla to enjoy a day of music, dancing and a few drinks. This was the first festival I have ever been too, ever and it's fair to say Zambia more than delivered. A great day that was so much fun and another memory created from living the Zambia Dream!

Some highlights from Oktoberfest 2015