In Lusaka

After an exhausting 31-hour journey, I arrived in Lusaka, Zambia on schedule on July 19th. I had a wonderful welcome committee at the airport: the other Finnish volunteer Mariska, the chief of KYPT Mr. Kafuli and the secretary of KYPT Gift. And of course taxi driver Joseph. I got accommodated at Riikka’s (a Finnish embassy worker, not a UN worker as I for some reason had assumed) luxurious house in Kabulonga, the posh neighbourhood of Lusaka. I’m a bit ashamed of living this fancy but on the other hand, I’m secretly enjoying all the facilities that we have here, including a washing machine, toaster and a bath tube. I would still be happy to live in a true Lusakan family, and I’m hoping it will be possible during this journey.

It feels really natural to be here, I feel belonging here. At the same time, however, this is like living in a dream. It’s hard to believe that this amazing plenty of colors, noise, people, and scents really exists. Everywhere I go my brain is in an overload mode for seeing, hearing and experiencing so much at once. Did you know that in Lusaka, the soil is red and the moon is upside down? Did you know that the busses are REALLY tiny in this city of a million inhabitants (16 people squeeze in, almost sitting on each others laps), and they don’t have line numbers? Did you know that you can walk into your MP’s office anytime you like? Did you know that when you meet a Zambian, you should say “How are you?” “I’m fine, how are you?” and make a special three-parted handshake? Everybody’s shouting as us: “Hello Madam!” or “Mzungu!” or something that I can’t quite understand. That’s OK, I knew beforehand to get prepared for this. But the thing I feel very uncomfortable with is when strangers touch me on purpose, it feels kind of threatening to me.

On my second day in Lusaka, I went to KYPT in the city center with Mariska and met everyone. Levy (Mr. Kafuli) took me also to the other KYPT center in Kanyama. The marketing manager, Andrew, showed me his photos of Livingstone and played me some songs that he had composed on a computer, partially in Finnish – believe it or not! We ate at the KYPT restaurant where the hotel and catering students had their final exams including preparing and serving three course meals. I had nshima (a white porridge-like dish made of corn) with beef stew. Embarrassingly, I first wondered where my fork is until I was told that you eat nshima with your (right) hand! I used my own fingertip technique in rolling small balls of nshima which was very interesting to the Lusakans who laughed and took photos of me. It was a very messy and creative dish.

We are planning on a KYPT stand for Agricultural Exhibition to be held on August 2^nd to 6^th in Lusaka. Me and Mariska will be there for three days presenting KYPT. The automechanics, autoelectric, power electric, catering, and tailoring students are going to manufacture some items to be presented and sold at the exhibition. It is a really big event in Lusaka, everyone is going there. I’m so much looking forward to it!

The students have been on holidays but will be back to school next week. That is when I’m supposed to begin teaching them business communication and Windows Office tools. I’m as excited as you can imagine! I was given a desk at Andrew’s office where I can plan the lectures. Luckily I brought my own (or Tuukka’s, to be exact) laptop, it will be useful.

There are a few computers at KYPT, some of them quite new and modern. However, there are not enough computers for the students to practice with (only two very old and slow ones). At least the operating system they are using is Windows XP instead of some old one. They also have two laser printers one of which, however, was out of ink and the other one out of paper today. In two of the computers, they have access to the Internet via dial modem which can be rather slow.

The weekend has now begun, so I guess I’ll be wandering around in Lusaka and enjoying the sunshine before the darkness abruptly falls down on the city at six p.m. And after sunset we’ll probably head to a bar with the other Finnish girls. Until next time – bye bye!

The pictures: 1) First sight to Lusaka from the airplane. The massive green circles are fields. 2) Riikka's house by night.

Bye Finland!

We'll head to the airport early in the morning. I must admit I'm a little scared of travelling on my own... let's hope I'll find my way to Lusaka eventually! Everything's such a mess here, I'm still packing and both of us are quite stressed out. Hope life is less hectic in Africa.

It's sad to leave loved ones behind :/ Luckily it's only 6 months until I'll be back.

I've been humming Enya's May It Be all day. A bit melodramatic, huh? :) Gives a certain sense of peace, anyway.

May it be an evening star
Shines down upon you
May it be when darkness falls
Your heart will be true
You walk a lonely road
Oh! How far you are from home
Mornie utúlië (darkness has come)
Believe and you will find your way

Bye everyone! See you soon again!

What to pack?

Here's some pharmacy stuff that I'm going to take with me:

- Lariam
- disinfectant
- antibiotics
- anti-diarrhea drugs
- pain killers (paracetamol)
- plasters
- mosquito repellent
- tweezers
- sun lotion
- aloe vera lotion
















Clothes:
- t-shirts
- long-sleeves
- jacket
- a couple of long skirts
- trousers
- underwear and socks
- scarf
- comfortable sandals
- tennis shoes

Sleeping bag

Laptop
Camera

Some material for teaching (psychology, marketing, IT etc.)
Map of Zambia
Guidebook

Finnish stuff to give away:
- Moomin book
- Finnish music on CD:s
- a couple of magazines
- candies and xylitol chewing gum
- rye bread
- luminous tags
- photos

It's a rocky road to Zambia

Did you think it would be easy to become a volunteer worker in Africa? Well, it's not. The preparations for the journey will take time and energy, and can be nerve-wracking, especially if you are working full time (doing your practical training) and writing your Master's thesis at the same time as you're planning your stay. Nothing about getting to Africa seems to be easy and simple.

Firstly, I was unable to get contact to KYPT (Kanyama Youth Programme Trust; my host organization in Zambia) for a couple of months. Then, I participated in a Kenkku meeting of SYL (National Union of University Students in Finland) and learned that the chief of KYPT had been changed. Just like that, without informing me or KEPA/ETVO. The funniest part of the incident was that the e-mail address of KYPT had not been changed. So, the only thing I had to do was to change the first sentence of my e-mails from "Hi Lewis" (the ex-chief) to "Hi Levy" (the new chief), and so, I started to get responses again.

Of course, by the time that I got the confirmation of the date of my arrival from KYPT, the flights with a reasonable price had already been sold out. Eventually, I had to postpone the departure by two weeks and yet, the tickets cost 100 € more than the original ones.

For going to and staying in Zambia as a volunteer worker, you need to:
a) get flight tickets (about 1400 euros), for which you might need an international student card (10 euros; a passport-size photo is also needed)
b) get a business visa for which you need to send your passport with all kinds of papers to the Zambian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden (postal fee 10 euros). These papers include two filled-in application forms, two passport-size photos (5 euros) with signatures, an invitation letter from the Zambian employer, a letter from KEPA/ETVO, a receipt of the visa payment (50 euros) and 9 international stamp coupons (13 euros).
c) get a work permit in Zambia (100 euros) for which you need professional certificates and the invitation letter from the employer.
d) get an insurance for the whole period in Zambia (for under 26-year-olds, for 6 months, about 200 euros)
e) get a medical certificate of your health (69 euros)
f) take about 8 different vaccinations (in total, about 250 euros),
g) begin taking anti-malaria drugs two weeks prior to the departure (about 160 euros for the whole 6 months)
h) buy medicines including everything from antibiotics to anti-diarrhea drugs (in total, about 150 euros),
i) I also needed to buy eyeglasses (130 euros) as I don't think it's safe to wear contact lenses under conditions where you can't always wash your hands with clean water
j) get copies of your passport, insurance documents, invitation letters and so on
k) cover all the living expences in Zambia including the rent (100 euros per month), food, commuting and so on...

All this costs something that is, taken together, a huge amount of money for a student. Don't expect to find any estimates of the total costs of your journey anywhere. Surprising money holes will just appear every now and then as you do the preparations. Naturally, most of the offices that you need to call or go to in order to get all the documents that are needed, are open only on office hours, so if you're working full time, it's a bit complicated to get everything done.

Believe me, I've been just about to give in for a couple of times. I've been playing with the fascinating thought of getting the money that would be needed for the volunteer work period in Africa (somewhere between 6000 to 7000 euros, I guess) and going on a luxurious 2-month holiday or on a backpacker trip somewhere far away with my boyfriend and just to ease my mind. However, in Finland we have this thing called sisu ("to have the guts/stamina/stubborness"), so I have kept on dispite the difficulties. Now it's less than two weeks till the departure, and almost everything is done. So I'll just lay back and enjoy the beautiful Finnish summer before getting to Africa, the continent that I've been dreaming of for so long!

The flights

First, I'll fly to London on Wednesday morning on July 18th (let's keep fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly in the security checks). Then, I'll fly all night to Nairobi, Kenya, and finally, will arrive to Lusaka on Thursday midday. I'll be staying at a Finnish UN worker's apartment in Lusaka. Naturally, I'm a bit dissapointed for not beeing able to crash into the Zambian culture by living in a family, but I'm sure it's not a bad idea to have an easy start in Lusaka with someone who speaks your language and has an indoor toilet :)