A Scene "Gazed Upon by Angels in Their Flight"

It’s been about a week since my last blog and everyone is firmly settled into their placements. They’ve had over a week worth of day’s at their sites, coaching sports, leading school PE sessions and taking education classes about HIV and AIDs.

A lot has happened since my last update. For starters, I’ve just got back from the first of three trips to Livingstone, home to one of the world’s seven wonders, the Victoria Falls.




Hayley unfortunately was unable to come on the trip because she was required to lead Netball workshops in Chipata, around 7 hours away from Lusaka. Me being soley responsible for 11 other individuals sounds a little daunting, but it was fine (I say that, but you’re probably better off asking one of the guys for an unbiased opinion), if maybe a little stressful at times.

I managed to arrange transporting with my good friend Wiseman, whom I met last year on the trip. He charged us 3.2million Kwacha for a return trip, that’s about £450 between 12 people, which is pretty reasonable (Livingstone is an 8 hour bus journey).

He’s a good friend, such a good friend, that when I found out he had a new born baby (only 4 days old at the time), he decided he was going to name him after me. Therefore, Wiseman’s new child is named Andrew, which to be honest, is just going to look out of place on the register at his school – but Wise didn’t seem to care!

Everyone in Zambia likes to know the meanings of songs and various words so he was quite happy when I said Andrew was a Greek name meaning a leader of men – however I had to use myself as a living example of how meanings don’t always transfer into reality. When he told me his plans, it was probably one of the happiest moments of my life – I say this full in the knowledge of the risk of sounding soppy. He’s promised to bring him round to the Wallace house shortly so I can meet him, so I’ll have a picture for the next blog.

The rest of the trip was good, I had taken part in all the real touristy activities when I was on the project last year, so spent most of the time relaxing at Jollyboys, officially one of the world’s best backpackers. I did however go back to the waterfalls, it was Wiseman’s first time in Livingstone so I wanted him to see it – he got really excited by it. The picture below is the two of us with his friends that travelled with us.




We walked around the falls, got very wet from the spray and then walked down to boiling point – which is the bottom of the falls.



I got this picture of the bridge people bungee jump off – much to Wiseman’s disbelief. Two of Zambian’s biggest fears? Heights and water…

Lots of people went and did safari and white water rafting as well – but I was more than happy taking pictures of this monkey I found.





I spent the rest of the day lounging around the backpackers soaking up the Zambian sunshine. Pretty sure I’ll be bored of the place by the end of the 3rd trip! However, when the 3rd group do arrive, the water levels in Livingstone and at the falls will be lower, which will mean me and Hayley will be able to try out Devil’s Pool – a little area right next to the edge of the top of the falls you can swim in.

I do sometimes find it hard to experience the very tourist orenitated Livingstone in between experience the depths of deprivation in areas of Lusaka, but you can’t really go to Zambia and not see the falls – it’s almost a crime.



Since the last blog, I’ve also seen my friend Vince who took me along to the new Lusaka Youth Development Olympic complex near the compound of Chipata. The complex was created with the pure intention of training children in Lusaka in Olympic sports whilst also educating them in the process. The complex is astounding and has facilities we’d be proud of in 1st world countries.




I joined in with one of Vince’s basketball sessions and just proved how epically unfit I was getting knackered within the space of 10 minutes. This is one of the things Greg pointed out to me when he first saw me again 3 weeks ago – “Andrew, you’ve put on weight” (dumbo is the word for a little portly in Nanja) , this was then repeated by pretty much the population of Lusaka – but 4 months of nshima and basketball sessions should put me in good stead.

Often when you’re visiting a placement, the peer leaders who work for the two NGOs will very kindly invite you round to their place for lunch. I’m already a big fan of nshima so I’m always keen to take them up on the offer. However, as I’m sure my parents will back up, my last attempts to make nshima last time didn’t go too well as it just looked like soggy porridge (I suppose porridge is always soggy really). So I’m practicing my nshima technique and will have another bash for folk when I’m back. I’ve splashed out on a Zambian cook book too so people should be excited for caterpillas and rats when I’m back (jokes, it will be nshima and sweet potatoes with peanut butter).






A sneaky wee snap of me stirring the nshima for the day.

I’m actually really enjoying the food out here. I thought I’d miss food from home, but the chicken here is just so good it’s not an issue at all – although I might have changed my mind after 3 months.

Today as a thank you to Greg, Kelch and Paul (who all work at EduSport) I took them for lunch at a marketplace restaurant near the office. It was 6,000Kwacha (around 80p each) for nshima, the best chicken I’ve ever tasted with cabbage and gravy. It was amazing. Afterwards, they bought Boel (fellow Stirling Media student) and I fruit and sugar canes to complete a true Zambian lunch. I wasn’t such a fan of the sugar cane and having to tear it open with my teeth. I felt like, and apparently, looked like a panda wrestling with it before attempting to eat it.



My Dad found an interesting article in the Guardian about the company Alive and Kicking – situated in Zambia – and forwarded it to me. They make footballs, employing disabled people to help offer them a source of income when it can be very hard. Sport in Action and EduSport both buy all their footballs from the company – so here’s a little picture of one of their balls to finish with.

If you search for them online, you’ll easily find their website. There’s a link to famous people that endorse and use their footballs across the world. There’s a picture of Obama alongside no other than Robert Green – no doubt that will not be there in a couple of weeks! Unless they’re trying to prove their products aren’t goalkeeper friendly.

A Mzungo Back In Zambia

So it’s 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon. I’m sitting in the living room of the Wallace house, the house in which the Wallace students of Group 1 are currently residing. The Wallace group is a group of Universities from across Britain. They are: Stirling (from which myself and fellow team leader Hayley attend), Northumbria, Cardiff, Loughborough, Bath and Durham. Other the next four months, 2 other groups will live in the Wallace house, situated in Lusaka, capital of Zambia.

The Wallace Group are currently enrolled in a project called IDEALS (International Development through Excellence and Leadership in Sport), a UK sport institutive which operates in a number of countries across the world.

The project which myself and Hayley were selected team leaders for is The Zambia Project, now in its 6th term. Last year I was involved as a media student with the objective of promoting the project through various media. I was in Group 2 of the 3 that were out here in 2009. This year, along with Hayley, I’m co-ordinating and supporting all 3 groups (each of which will spend 6 weeks here in Lusaka), spending a total of 123 days in the world’s 8th poorest country.

Hayley and I were certainly thrown straight back into Zambia Culture. There is currently a group of St Andrews students doing similar work to the Wallace group in Lusaka. On our first night back, they invited us to their house for ‘Zambia Night’, a good chance for all students to get a real taste of Zambian culture. The peer-leaders that take sessions throughout the year make traditional Zambian food for the students to try. It was another chance for me to taste caterpillar, which doesn’t actually taste too bad, but the texture of thousands of legs on your tongue was not missed.




The Zambia project is a rare project in the fact that both parties involved benefit hugely. PE students from the Wallace group of students can apply to come to Zambia for 6 weeks and coach under privileged children in deprived areas of the world. From UKSport’s point of view, they are developing the leadership skills of today’s future and tomorrow’s present. They come and undertake placements arranged by two of Zambia’s leading Non-Government Organisations, EduSport and Sport In Action. These organisations benefit from the money invested by the Wallace Group and the coaching skills and knowledge of British students. It’s a win win situation. The NGOs use sport as vehicle for social development.

Although poor economically, the country is rich in culture and personality. It certainly hasn’t taken me long to get well back into the swing of things although has been a bit of a culture shock for the students staying in Africa for the first time. One thing is for sure, the whole of Africa seems to have caught World Cup fever and there’s a real sense of unity brought together by nations pride for the first time the world’s biggest sporting event to be held on African soil.

Sport In Action go further than sports coaching, their coaching sessions try and educate, inspire and empower young people through participation. They go even futher than that too. One of their latest ideas involves taking a massive screen out to rural communities (like, mud huts and no electricity rural, much much more rural than Sible Hedingham) of Zambia and showing games from the World Cup for all. I’ve decided that I’m going to travel with the screen to one of the communities and watch a game out there before returning to the Wallace House.





The students under went their induction to the two NGOs they will be coaching for. The induction included presentations about staying safe in Zambia and also a trip on the back of a massive truck to all the placements they will be working: Kalingalinga, Fountain of Hope, Chipata and Chawarma. They start their placements tomorrow. I will be travelling to Chawama with two of the students just to make sure they get there OK – especially considering how hard travelling in Zambia can be.

The bus system could almost be a whole blog post in itself, but if I describe it now for you, hopefully it will paint a clearer picture of how Zambians do things. Basically, there are very few bus stops. There is no bus timetable and there is no set fee for trips. If you need a bus, you set off in the direction you need to be going, wait for a man out the side of a bus (which is basically a big van) to shout the final destination of their trip, and hail it down if that’s where your going. Before you get in, you need to negiotate a fee.

Getting a fair fee can be hard because they assume as a white person, you are going to be very wealthy and will try and charge you extra for a journey. So once you have let them know you’re not going to pay more than 3,000K (the equalivant of 40p, which is a lot for a bus ride in Zambia) and won’t be taken for a ride (that’s an unintendly good pun), you can get on. But even then it’s not that simple. Buses will take up to 14 people and you may have to squeeze in very closely to a lot of local people who will all give you strange looks because the mzungos (white people) in Zambia they know will all travel in un-neccessiarly large 4x4s.

Once you’re in, you might have to wait a while because buses usually won’t go any further until they’ve taken maximum profits possibly by filling up the bus as much as possible. Finally, once everyone is in and the bus is moving again, the conductor will take your money off you and may not return any possible change until he’s got some money off another passenger. There’s also only one door, so if someone right at the back needs to get off somewhere, everyone will have to get off and back on again to let them out. It can be a nightmare. But also good fun if you’ve got some banter going with some of the drivers.

It’s also been great to see everyone again. We’re in the same house we were in last year, so its been great seeing Grace (the maid) and Hendrix (the security/ground maintenance man) again. They’ve welcomed myself and Hayley back with welcome arms. The house is great, we’ve even got cable TV for the World Cup.





These first 5 days in Zambia seem to have been very very long, but 123 days will go very very quickly I’m sure. This has been a very long first re-entry so thanks for reading it all, or as they say in nanja (one of 74 Zambian dialects) ‘zeecombo quambeely’ (thank you very much).

Remember to join the ‘Zambia Project’ Facebook page and also follow @zambiaprojectuk if you use Twitter at all for more updates!

Goodbye Scotland!

So as many of you know, back in January I applied for the position of 'Team Leader' for this year's Zambia Project. If this is the first your hearing about the Zambia Project then please check out this site for more information! Sports Director at Durham University, Dr Peter Warburton, interviewed both myself and fellow Stirling student Hayley Barr along with one other girl for the position.

They were ideally looking for one team leader to have Media capabilities and a previous experience in Africa and one to have Netball coaching qualifications, so myself and Hayley fit the bill perfectly, I could have played for England Netball team back in the day (.... that was a very bad joke).

Anyway, the position requires us to return to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia next week and co-ordinate this year's student's Zambia experience for 4 months. It sounds very patronising calling them students when we are both students ourselves, something which has never happened! The team leaders have always been graduates and myself and Hayley are the youngest ever selected team leaders, something I'm very proud of (without blowing my own trumpet).

So if you enjoyed reading my blog when I was a student out in Zambia last time, then keep following it this year! I'll have plenty of good stories and keep you all informed of what I'm actually doing out there! I'll be flying out next Friday and I'm leaving Scotland till October this very afternoon!

7-12th August

The last five days have certainly been eventful. When I left you last, we were going to head out to Raphodies which is a fancy resteraunt in Lusaka and then hit one of the night clubs. The meal was a complete success and everyone had a really good time and we were enjoying the night club until one of the girls was a victim of theft and had her camera and purse stolen. The purse wasn't the annoying thing, but the memory card of photos which are almost priceless in terms of memories. Anyway, we had a big cofuffle in the local police station with the guy accussed of stealing the belongings and eventually made it back to our beds at 4.00 in the morning.

Considering the late night, it would perhaps be forgiven of us to have a bit of a breather, but never the less, we were all up early and many of us were preparing to sample the experience of living in a rural community in the real Zambia. We made the journey from Lusaka to Kafue in one hour and arrived just before it was getting dark. Upon arrival, we were greeted by Emily, a friend of Kelvin’s, who had kindly arranged our stay for us.

Although Kafue is far less developed than most of Lusaka, it wasn’t the rural community we were going to experience on Sunday, only our place of rest for the night.

We were shown to our accommodation, one house for the girls and one for the boys, for the night and dropped off our belongings before heading out to visit the slums of Kafue, which approximately has 4,000 residents.

Once dark, we made the trek back to the girl’s quarters where the Zambians, all training to become Doctors, treated us to shima, soy and fish before saying good night and parting ways for the evening (but not before some cultural exchange in the form of Zambritish dancing!)

We were all up early at 6.00 to make the short voyage to one of the Catholic Churches in Kafue, where many projects involving children are run. One this particularly Sunday, an organised activities day had been planned for the children of Kafue which involved drama, games, music, and a service in the afternoon. We were then told we would be the special guests for the day and songs and dances had been prepared for us!

From the church, we arranged a bus to the rural community where the project was being held. As we made the trek, the level of development decreasing was clear as we passed tiny communities and significantly less electricity and modern technologies.

When we arrived we quickly started off with some Zambian games before our time had been come to be sang and danced to by the children. During the song, we were told us muzungos must dance in the middle, which, having seen African’s dancing, was a complete embarrassment!

We then led some games for the children including ‘Whats the time Mr Wolf?’, ‘British Bulldog’, ‘The ship is sinking’ and ‘Stuck in the mud’ before, with permission, we were allowed an insight into how rural this community really was.

We were shown inside a mud hut which had been constructed with empty tins of paint and then coated in mud and water until it dried. The hut is well made as in the summer it’s cool and doesn’t get too warm and has a removable straw roof which is changed during the wet season.

In terms of food, Shima is part of every meal, as it is in any Zambian’s and other foods include sugar canes, fish and chicken.

We then made a short journey down to the harbour to have a short look around and test out some of the local food catching techniques in one of the boats before heading back to enjoy some food which had been kindly prepared for us by the ladies of the church.
After lunch, it was time for the church service and we were kindly allowed to see the first ten minutes which involved much singing from the children before having to jump on the bus back to Kafue and then back to Lusaka. Overall, the weekend was a really interesting insight into how the real Africa gets by and made us all appreciate how fortunate we really were.

We then made the trek back to Lusaka and endulged in some British football in the form of Chelsea v Man U, which turned out to be a suprisingly good game in the company of a couple of Castle largers. Happy days.

After we returned back to the house, there was a British roast awaiting us made by the rest of the group which had been made for the Zambians who had made a traditional Zambian meal for us a week before. There was certainly no caterpillars this time round.

On Monday I was shown round Muvi TV's, (Zambia's first independent TV Station) home base which was really interesting. It's actually more advanced than you would imagine and very insightful considering I've never seen inside a TV Station.

And that's about as far as I've got, in terms of my work here in Zambia, I'm currently working on the Sport In Action Website - www.sportinaction.org.zm - and creating a database of photos for the two NGOs. On Friday, I will interview 4 girls who are part of the Zambian ladies football team who have recently returned from Norway.

Next Installment ( I forget what day I'm on )

OK, so it was only actually a couple of days since the last post, but already, so much has happened....again!

After the long weekend of doing very little, we felt we owed it to ourselves to get dinner out as a group and treated ourselves to a meal at O'Hagans, which is the Irish bar at one of the Shopping Arcades in Lusaka, Manda Hill.

The food was absolutly delicious and was nice to have a steak and cheese baguette with chips! Beautiful! During the day, I had finished working on redesigning the Sport In Action Newsletter and felt happy with the end product which looked a lot better than it had originally.

That was pretty much the extent of Tuesday, but Wednesday is when it all picked up. In the morning I just went into the office for a meeting with the man who runs and manages the Sport In Action Website and just as he was about to show me how to edit it all, we had a power cut, which wasn't restored till 4 that afternoon meaning no work whatsoever could be done meaning I had the opportunity to go for a roam.

One of the ladies at the offices, Francine offered to help me find a Zambian football shirt in town and so the pursuit began. It was incredibly hard to find the offical replica kit and we scanned the streets being offered everything on show! You can find absolutly anything you could possibly need in town, but we had no joy when it came to something offical and authenic! Anyway, we went into this shop called Axis and the owner said if I came back at 4 he might be able to help me out.

Kelch had previously told me that I could get the shirts from the shop and that the owner was the manager of the National team and so when I returned at 4 I asked the man if he was the owner - and to my suprise he was! It was so strange to just bump into the manager of a national team - you wouldn't exactally find Capello working in Matalan! Anyway, we had a good chat and managed to get a photo and such is the manner in Zambia, he sold me one of the shirts he had managed to find me and chucked in a free penant. I think I will go back and ask him if he wants to join us for dinner one night - which would be incredibly cool!

That really made my day and was chuffed with the shirt. It was also a good day because I had bumped into some TV show producers who were out getting an interview at EduSport and offered me the chance to go to their studio and possibly get interviewed (which would be very cool!). Francine has also made me a small receipe book of traditional Zambian meals which made it a very good day all round (other than the lack of productivity).

Thursday was also a good day, but again of little productivity because of another power cut throughout the day. However, I had previously agreed to make Shepards Pie for Cecherine as she had made me shima on Monday and thought it would be nice to treat the peer leaders at Kalingalinga (one of the placements) to some traditional English food - which I think they really really enjoyed which was pleasing. I spent the day in Kalingalinga just soaking up some Zambian culture watching the local football team training and making some more Chimbonas (the plastic bag balls) before returning back to the house to make dinner for the rest of the grouip - the spaghetti bolongese also went quite well which was suprising more than anything.,

Strangely enough, when asking for directions, I bumped into a kids TV show presenter who said I could come to their studio as well just proving it's not what you know, but who you know! Shame all these good contacts are in Zambia!

Anyway, thats all for now - tonight we are going out for Dinner as it's Kerry's (one of the staff members) last nights here before hitting one of the local night clubs - which could be interesting!

A Muzungo In Zambia - Days whenever to 20!

OK so on Sunday after the eight hour trip back from Livingstone, we arrived back to our house in Lusaka to another surprise. Basically, the landlord had evicted us and given us till Monday to move houses which was an absolute nightmare. That included moving all the furniture which belonged to Sport In Action (bunkbeds and such!).

It took us ages to gather everything and jump onto the truck to move to our new house which had previously belonged to a group of St Andrew students who had been working for Sport In Action. However, even though it took so much effort to move house, it was really worth it because the new house is absolutely huge! I’d like to think I’d become less indulgent and materialistic since my time in Zambia but it was such a big house it was amazing.

Because of all the faff of moving house, no body went to their placements they had been due to continue on and we went out to repair some hungry stomachs (it’s never a good idea to use the word starving in Africa…). We went to a café at Arcades which is where all the rich Zambian’s and murzungos hang out. After two weeks of African food, I found the most british meal on the menu I could find, Steak Pie and chips, beautiful!

In the evening we watched everyone’s videos from the Livingstone experience which included people jumping over the Zambezi river and the white water rafting.

On Tuesday I had a pretty blank schedule in terms of my media work so I went along to one of the placements in Kalingalinga (which has since become my favourite out of all the placements, mainly because of the awesome peer leaders). I watched Hayley and Rachael give some morning sessions before heading to the Sport In Action office to set up a meeting with George to discuss my work with the organisation and work out a schedule. Myself and Naomi then went to use the internet café at Arcades for the rest of the day so I could plan my presentation I was due to give to people at Sport In Action on Thursday.

On Wednesday I attended Charles’ football work shop which was really really good. It was obviously something he is very keen and dedicated about. He was very effective in getting his message about the purpose of each drill across to those doing the practical side of the workshop. After that I went to the office to work on Sport In Action’s first ever newsletter.

Thursday was my big day as I gave my presentation on journalism. Because of the convoluted nature of the British newspaper system and many language barriers I reframed from going in depth but spoke about the fundamentals of writing a story. I pointed out the inverted pyramid and the 5 W’s which are a necessity when reporting. I then involved a practical activity when those who attended split into two groups and designed their own newspaper front cover and opening two paragraphs to the same story, one in the style of a tabloid and one in that of a broadsheet to illustrate the differences. Apparently it was quite enjoyable and I got a sign of respect from the Zambians at the end which was very touching.

I went to Chawama in the afternoon to just have a look at the placement and watch a football game between some under 15s. The standard is very good, but that could be expected when children have nothing else but to play football 20 hours a day. I was absolutely assaulted by the children there and muzungos get surrounded. They all want to shake you hand and are content just running after you for an absolute age until they catch you. John got a great picture which he said make me look like Jesus…..his words.

In the evening it was mine and Gabby’s turn on the cooking rota so under inconvient circumstances we served up Stir Fry, which although not my favourite dish was actually pretty tasty and I can say that without sounding big headed because I didn’t actually do much other than cut up some onions, set the table and cook the noodles!

Friday was a really good day. Charles and I had been asked to tour round a Christian Radio Station out of the city which took a real mission to find I can tell you. Majery who we had met before showed us round and was a really good guide. It was really interesting to get an insight into the quality of the Media in Zambia. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that that radio station was a million times better than that of ours at Stirling, but then again, they have 13 full time employees and we are just student radio, but even the quality of the equipment and skilled technicians was really high! I did get my picture taken with the DJ who was on at the time and tried to get one with him with me holding a sign saying AIR3 – but I don’t think it came out very well.

I spent most of the working day trying to revamp the Sport In Action newsletter before we headed back to the house for our first big party which all the peer leaders were invited to. It was a really good evening with some Zambian tunes and dancing and gave us a good chance to get to know the peer leaders a little better – all of whom are amazing people. I intend to sponsor 2 for next year which to us is £60 each – but to them a potentially life changing chance.

On Saturday we attended a workshop being held by two of the girls at Kalingalinga on agility, balance and co-ordination. Afterwards we went to Arcades and just spent the day taking in some western culture which is sometimes needed. We relaxed by having a big lunch and hitting the cinema to see some predictable American rom com ‘Ghost of a Girlfriend’s past’ – which although predictable had some redeeming qualities and it was good to see some form of culture we are more use to (not to say it’s always such a good thing).

On the Sunday we hit the markets and got some more souvenirs and presents for back home before we went with Koh, a worker at Sport In Action to an all you can eat Indian meal for K23,000 (less than £3!). It was really good and as soon as you finished your curry they came round and filled up your plate with some more food. After the meal we hit Manda Hill which is another shopping mall. It was a bank holiday Monday because of Famer’s Day which is a national holiday. That meant over the weekend there was a huge agricultural show at the Show Ground which means it was a hot spot for theft. As soon as we got off the bus to go to Manda Hill, all muzungos were targeted and you could feel people rummaging through your pockets feeling for goods. It was a really horrible experience in which you just had to power your way through thefts. After those daunting moments we watched some English football at an Irish pub for the first time since we had been in the country. We met the rest of the group and found out we had a new pet rabbit which one of the staff members had bought from the show ground. In the evening it was Zambian Night which meant the Zambian people at Sport In Action came to our house and cooked traditional Zambian food including caterpillars, which were actually as disguisting as they sound. They had been fried but were ridiculously crunchy! Perhaps the taste wasn’t actually that bad on reflection, but it was the mere thought which turned my stomach as I chewed on them. Obviously this was served with Shima which I have since learnt how to cook! The rest of the food was really good and it was an enjoyable evening which we concluded by sitting around chatting about different things.

On Monday I had arranged to have lunch at one of the peer leader’s house for another conventional Zambian meal. When I got there I found out it was Cephil’s (the peer leader) mothers birthday! I had the meal with Cephil, her two sisters, her younger brother and her mother and it was really good to experience the good food in an authentic Zambian household. I learnt all about how marriage and dating were different in Zambia from what we are used to. Basically, you can date someone for around 4 months before you are expecting to marry them. When you do ask them to marry you, her parents will come and meet your family and ask questions and a deal is expected to be made. This can be done by trading money or even animals for their consent for their son to marry the daughter. Hopefully me referring to just men and women getting married hasn’t sounded narrow minded, as in Zambia, being gay is illegal and highly frowned upon.

Anyway, after the meal, I had felt bad about being invited to their house and having food without having a present for the mother, so bought her favourite, which is apparently chocolate ice cream. After this, we went down to the community pitch to watch a game between a couple of local teams. Then another of the peer leaders, James, taught me how to make a chimpomba which is an African football made of newspaper and heated plastic bags. I then was allowed to keep it and we are going to make some more on Thursday.

And so here we are, that was last Monday to this Monday, although all the days seem to merge into one! That’s all for now.

A Merzonger In Zambia - Days 5-11

The last 7 days have been crazy busy and I have so much to report back on!

Sunday can only be described as a real insight into Zambian lifestyle and popular culture. Following on from the last entry, after we experienced the harrastment and gulf in deprevation from the Culture and then City Markets, we were treated to a real Zambian meal by Vince who is working with Sport In Action.

He served up shima (the solidifed porridge which makes any Zambian's staple diet) along with various other dishes which all defied appearances and were very very tasty. My personal favourite could best be described as sweet potato mixed with peanut butter! Tasted beautiful.

Monday was the first of two induction days for us. The days were hosted by the two NGOs the sport students will be going on placements for, and I will be raising their profiles across Zambia. Presentations were given (5 days too late) into health and saftey and a brief description of culture. A test at the end illustrated how well the students really knew Zambia.

Considering the prevelence of HIV and Aids in Zambia, it was perhaps a shock to learn that 46% of school children have an indepth knowledge of the danger of unprotected sex. However, importantly, it is the blief of EduSport and Sport In Action (who work in partnership) - that this is 64% not enough.

In the afternoon, the students split into the two groups that they would be working in. I went with the EduSport students and engaged in Zambian games for most the afternoon with the current Zambian peer leaders working for EduSport. This is something I will not be reporting back to the newspapers I am sending blogs to, but basically, the peer leaders are so amazing, I fail to see how valued the Wallace Group's involvement can help them develop - when really it should be the other way round. The peer leaders work with school children playing different games and sports as voluteers and the children absolutly love them - and hang on every word. Most of the other students feel the same - but we've been assured that our input cannot be valued highly enough in terms of the joy the kids get - and seeing things from a different perspective.

One thing that really strikes me is the wisdom and deep knowledge that all those involved with the NGOs possess. They really have a great unity which binds their beliefs together for a better future. They look beyond the surface of life and examine how we can all become better people which is really inspiring. I have so much respect for every single one of them who hardly have anything themselves to give so much back to the children for nothing but good karma and morale satification in return.

The induction was completed on Tuesday when we all jumped onto a truck and visited all the sites the students would be coaching at. Travelling through the streets of Lusaka offered a real insight into the varities Lusaka has to offer as well as exposing the poverty and prevelence. Travelling through the slums was truely shocking.

I met two young ladies from a local Catholic Radio Station who present a kids programme. They have offered me the chance to visit them and the station despite the fact I wasn't able to avoid the topic of religion and my own beliefs.

I also met Sera who stole my camera for the remainer of the trip and took photos. It was probably just as well as in some places of Lusaka, locals can get very agiatred by Muzungos (which is actually how you spell Merzonger - me being the idiot I am) taskng photos as they believe you are exploiting their situations for photo opportunities back home.

Although English is the offical language of Zambia, there are 73 dialects across the 7 provinces of Zambia and English is in actual fact every Zambian's second language. Many of them speak very good English but in most cases the language barrier is often very complicated to cross.

It seems strange that many Zambians have modern technologies such as TVs, CD players and even Ipods yet the infastructure is so poor. In the slums you can see TV aerials out the top of tiny buildings and in the really really remote rural parts of Zambia which are full of subsistence farmers, mud huts advertise Zain (the major mobile phone company) top up cards for sale.

The truck visit and ride was really enjoyable and it was really good to meet and get to know who carries out EduSport and Sport in Action's philosphies.

On Wednesday I got to meet Patrick who will be the man I will be working with to help improve EduSport's profile. For EduSport for the next few weeks I'll be improving their website, helping them with their partner's (Go Sisters, aimed at equal opportunities and empowerment for ladies) newsletter and advertising and promoting an upcoming football tournement they have arrange which aims to increase knowledge of HIV/AIDS.

In the afternoon I went out to Kalingalinga where Kelch lives. Kelch is one of the main guys at EduSport and we had met at the induction weekend in Durham. He's a really really good guy and I think he's probably the coolest guy I've met. His hunger for knowledge and that that he already possesses is astonishing. He's the wisest guy in the world and the slightly sickening thing is that he's only 15. Everyone in Zambia looks and more importantly acts, a whole lot older.

Hayley and Rachael are doing their placements at schools in Kalinglinga and I went along to take some pictures of the area and help out with some of their sessions. I joined in with the current U16 Zambian champion football team from Lusaka's training and looked so out my depth at times it was unreal. Admittedly I'm not very good at football by any means, but I'm 3 years older and have played a lot of football over the years - these guys were a different class. Most play in barefeet and their first touch is unbelievablely good. They proved that you don't need quality equipment to be all you can. I also joined in the girl's netball session and thoroughly enjoyed it! This was the only day of placement before the start of the next week as on Thursday we set off for a long team building weekend in Livingstone.

We left Lusaka fairly early in the morning and after an 8 hour trip arrived in Livingstone, named after the Scottish Doctor David Livingstone who was the first western man to discover the Victoria falls whilst looking for the source of the river Nile. The trip went quite quickly really and were in the much more tourist orinetated Livingstone to check into Jollyboys, the world's best bagpackers (apparently). It was really nice and had a very much western set up. Food was good and beer was cheap! Because we had made the trip in good time we were there in time to see the sun set over Victoria Falls (one of the 7 wonders of the world and Livingstone's major selling point). We all got some amazing photos. Despite decling sales world wide, Cooper is still Zambia's main export and source of income, however, the Victoria falls offers a huge incentive for tourists across the world and is set up well to make the most of this.

When we got back to the hostel we had a few beers and a very nice chicken vindaloo before getting an early night for an early start the next day. On the Friday, most of us had signed up for White Water Rafting down the River Zambezi, which is where the falls pour into. The names of some of the rapids was highly offputting an not for the faint hearted. Amongst some of the names there was the 3 ugly sisters, the mother and the Terminator 1 and 2. Our group was all in one raft with our guide who we nicknamed T-Pain - we then duly starting singing "I'm on a Boat at" the top of our voices for an Air3 folk reading. It was great banter and had a really high team morale despite capsizing on one of the rapids and myself and Amanda having to be rescued by another boat after we were taking miles away from our own raft. It is quite scary when it happens, especially if you get stuck underneath the raft! After the trip, we were taken back and offered complimentary lunch and drinks during the ride back to the lodge. Good times all round! Theres nothing quite liking driving through rural Africa with a bottle of Mosi (Zambia's finest beer).

After the whole experience we had booked ourselves up for the Booze Cruise - which is as bad as it sounds I'm afraid. We had all paid a certain amount of money to drink and eat all we wanted during a lovely boat trip down the Zambezi. University students and alchol is never a good combination and there were a few casulties. I was fortunate to survive the experience and live to tell some fine tales from a thoroughly enjoyable day! During the rafting previously, I had talked up a good deal with some of the guides for a pair of their work shorts which were really snazzy green Rivwer Zambezi swim trunks. We could either buy from the company for $35 US Dollars or $20 from them - needless to stay they dropped off at Jolly Boys are the booze cruise to make a canny profit! There was however some elements from the day I do forget I'll be honest.

Getting up the next day for an all day Safari in Botswana was a struggle, especially considering the early start but so worth it. It was an hours drive to the ferry which took us to the location of Alexander McCall Smith's novels "The Lady's Dectective Agency". We then got some handome looking stamps on our passports and continued through to a lodge and some a spot of light breakfast which was all very elegant. We were then introduced to our driver and guide for the day Jacko (obviously debately "nicknamed" 'Wacko Jacko'). He certainly was wacky. We saw a whole group of Elephants who were taking a wash in one of the rivers and although they look fairly chilled out, can be quite agressive when their terrority is invaded. We got very close to the group and some started to get a bit touchy when Jacko, rather than defusing the potentionally dangerous situation by driving away, descided to just turn off the engine which was really scared a couple of the girls but with the benefit of hindsight was very very funny really. It pretty much summed up African's relaxed chilled back approach perfectly.

During the Safari we also saw Gifarres, Hippos, Rhinos, Warthogs and Buffalos before we were taken on another boat down the river to have lunch and go Crocodile, Elephant and Hippo spotting. We were successful and got fairly close to a hippo which is the world's most dangerous animal in terms of how many humans they have eaten. It was a really good day and we concluded the days activies with dinner at the Pub and Grill back in Livingstone. I had Steak and Shima which was really nice before heading to bed to prepare for another early start.

The first half of Sunday was possible the craziest most daring 7/8 hours of my life. Some of us had signed up for the breakfast meal deal. We were taken up to the Livingstone Royal which is a 5 star hotel in Livingstone and from there were taken by power boat to the very height and pinnacle of the Victoria Falls. We were given a brief history of the falls before just casually walking across the top of it where a slight slip could have made things very interesting! We were then allowed to be taken to the very very edge of the falls and to look down at the monsterous sight. It was an incredible sight and experience that photos could never capture. We were then treated to a beautiful breakfast over the falls. We had coffee and muffins before a delicious eggs benedict. After we were taken back to the hotel and almost back on the bus, we were surrounding by a huge herd of Zebras and Gifarres which were just casually walking around the place in a fairly noncholent manner which was almost better than the safari!

As if standing on the edge of the Victoria falls wasn't daring enough, I had then signed up to do a bunjee jump over the Livingstone bridge which connects Zambia and Zimbawe. It was craziness and I didn't want to do it - but deep down knew that it was 100% safe and also knew that this was a once in a life time opportunity and something I wanted to say I had done. I went with Kerry our staff member and without her probably wouldn't have done it. We had planned to do a tandem jump so it wouldn't be quite as daunting (if that's possible when looking down a 1100 metre fall) however I was too heavy and had to do it by myself. I managed to pluck up the courage and actually felt fine until I jumped and actually looked down - it was the single most scariest moment of my life because it goes against everything in human nature! I was so glad when it was over and don't think I would ever go it again but am glad to say I've done it and have the photo evidence which I'll get posted tomorrow hopefully.

After the jump, we handed back to Lusaka where a new suprise awaited us - but that's for the next blog I feel! Overall - even if the placements ended tomorrow - the stories I have from Zambia are near endless and this has been the most incredible time of my life which I'm loving every second of. Until next time!