Tag Archives: Zambia

Zambia-Child-Reading

More Than A Library

“A library is an optional extra.”
So said my husband last year during the Passports with Purpose fundraiser. I didn’t have a meaningful come-back.
When I was growing up there were some books in my house but not many and certainly not a lot of extra money to feed my bookworm habits. Our Saturday morning visits to the local library were the high point of my week. I know he used his local library too. There was a library at my elementary school and a pretty big one at my high school – I bet his was the same.

Even with that, I had to concede that he had a point. Maybe the Passports crew had deviated from our goal to fund basic needs projects by partnering with Room to Read.

Of course this conversation was in my head when I met with the Room to Read team in Lusaka, Zambia.
Of course I thought of it when we visited one of the libraries funded by Passports with Purpose at Chilileka Basic School out side Lusaka (read my co-travelers stories about this visit on DeliciousBaby or WanderlustAndLipstick).

But really, I couldn’t wait to get home to talk to Murph about the experience. Sure, there was an aspect of pointing out how right we were to support this project (“Ahem, I was right honey”) but also I wanted to share with him – and you – what I learned during my visit.

The library we funded is so much more than “just” a library it is also a literacy and literacy education program for the teachers, children and parents associated with this school. Room to Read trains the teachers and a parent representative on how to manage the library and how to catalog books and operate a check-out system. The program funds a literacy teacher who integrates library time into the school day for all children. The kids can come to school early or stay late just to read.

The odds are completely stacked against children in rural Zambia getting even a basic education. Many (20%) do not have access to a school. The only words available to them to read are the ones the teacher writes on the board during the short school day. Only 7% of children attend high school and even if there is a high school spot available and if their parents can afford the fees the children need to test in. As one of the Room to Read staff told us “How can they pass the test when they can’t read?”

I realize now that I have been completely surrounded by books and reading material for my whole life. Sure, maybe I didn’t get the latest Harry Potter equivalent when I wanted it when I was a kid but there were ALWAYS books, magazines and newspapers for me to read. I did not understand what it means to grow up with zero reading material until I went to Zambia. I did not understand how literacy functions as a foundational element of learning. If a child can’t read, he can’t learn, it’s that simple.

My trip to Zambia to visit the libraries built by Passports with Purpose in 2011 is sponsored by Expedia.

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A School Playground Sign in Zambia

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Zambia-Mazabuka-HIV-Sign

I have two sons: one 12, one 16. If I had the time I’m sure I could write for a day on the differences between life for a tween/teen in Zambia versus the life my children are lucky to live in Seattle. Instead of all those words, the top picture, of a playground sign in an all-boys secondary (middle + high) school in Mazabuka, Zambia is a powerful reminder that teenage risks in Zambia can carry a significantly higher cost.

Head on over to DeliciousBaby for more travel-themed Friday photo fun.

My trip to Zambia to visit the libraries built by Passports with Purpose in 2011 is sponsored by Expedia.

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Seattle to Lusaka: Cognative Dissonance

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I returned from Zambia barely 48 hours ago.
I’m happy to be home with my family.
I enjoyed being fussed by my boys on Mother’s Day.
But.
Today I’m back at work. My stomach is tied in knots and I’m nauseous.
I work for Google. I like working for Google. I usually enjoy what I do. I work with great, smart, fun people.
But.
(I knew I’d feel like this).
It’s hard to care about online advertising after spending a week learning about literacy programs in Zambia.
Zambia is home to 12 million people and had a GDP of US$21 Billion in 2011. Per-capita GDP is $1,600.
I saw and experienced that poverty first-hand every day last week.
Google employs about 32,000 people and made US$37 Billion in 2011.
I feel extreme cognative dissonance today. To work and be productive is good. To help people in a developing country is good. To experience such extremes of how people live and work in such a short time is really, really hard.

My trip to Zambia to visit the libraries built by Passports with Purpose in 2011 is sponsored by Expedia.

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Lusaka Experience Township Tour

Lusaka-Zambia-Lusaka-Experience-Township-Tour-Garden-Mural
We spent yesterday morning on the three-hour tour of the Garden Compound (township) hosted by the inspirational folks from Lusaka Experience. This neighborhood of 26,000 people crammed onto unserviced, unpaved streets where their 2-room cinder block homes are built on what was once a garden is an example of the environment where most of Lusaka’s 2 million residents live.

Lusaka-Zambia-Lusaka-Experience-Township-Tour-Doorway
Coming from any developed country it’s difficult to really appreciate what it means to have no basic residential services until you see streets where garbage is piled up with kids playing right nearby.

Lusaka-Zambia-Lusaka-Experience-Township-Tour-Street-Scene
The houses here do not have running water and no indoor toilets. There are water taps in the neighborhood which the residents pay to use to fill containers of water to bring to their homes.

Lusaka-Zambia-Lusaka-Experience-Township-Tour-Happy-Faces-Kids
One of our tour stops was to visit the Happy Face center a resource center for neighborhood kids supported in part by the Lusaka Experience team. Many of the kids who come here do not go to school because the only basic (primary) school in the compound is over-subscribed. The center provides a space for kids to explore arts and crafts with simple drawing and craft-work.

Everywhere we went in the compound kids called out MuZungu, the local slang for “white person” and like kids everywhere they never tired of waving, calling out “Hello” and following us around.

Lusaka-Zambia-Lusaka-Experience-Township-Tour-Local-Craftswoman
The high point of the tour for me was a visit to this local craftswoman’s house where she takes chitenge cloth (the traditional women’s dress worn wrapped around as a long skirt) and re-makes it into fun bags and purses.

My trip to Zambia to visit the libraries built by Passports with Purpose in 2011 is sponsored by Expedia.

Like what you’ve read and interested in reading more? Subscribe to the WanderMom rss feed, follow me on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

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Lusaka-Zambia

Seattle to Lusaka: First Impressions of Zambia

Lusaka-Zambia

I may pretend to be a blogger/writer but really I’m a list-maker. Honestly, any time you’ve read a blog post that I’ve written there’s a 99% chance that it started it’s life as a list. Here’s a sample of the lists I’ve written about Lusaka and Zambia in the last 24-48 hours (links to stats added for this post).

What I knew about Zambia before I arrived:

  • That it’s one of the poorest countries in the world (#31 based on 2010 data).
  • That the rates of HIV/AIDS infection here are among the worst in the world (globalhealthfacts.org).
  • That malaria is a chronic problem here (nationmaster.com).
  • That literacy rates are low (unicef.org).
  • That Zambia had a peaceful transition from British colonial rule to independence in 1964.
  • That the first post-colonial leader was Kenneth Kaunda (aka KK) who stayed in power for 27 years.
  • The Victoria Falls are on the Zambezi between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Things I learned while on my way here (guidebook-less, I might add):

  • To prepare me for what to expect in Zambia, the Saudi couple who I met on my way from Dubai to Johannesburg advised that “while South Africa is part-European, part-African, Zambia is all-Africa.”
  • A South African hydrologist who met on the plane from Johannesburg to Lusaka – and who has worked all over Africa – suggested that Zambia is one of the most fertile countries in Africa. “Anything will grow there.”
  • That “Zambia has very little of the black-white racial tension that you still see in South Africa and Namibia” – from the German agriculture and forestry specialist – on his 7th trip to Zambia in the past two years – who I shared dinner with on my first night here.
  • Jeremiah, a Zambian forestry specialist who joined us at dinner, shared that “Kenneth Kaunda required that children attend secondary school and attend it in a different area of the country from where their parents were living. This was and is a big factor behind the lack of racial and inter-tribal tensions here”. It appears that the national motto, “One Zambia, One Nation”, holds true even though there are more than 60 tribes in this country.

Given all that, here are my first impressions of Lusaka and Zambia:

The single-runway Kenneth Kaunda International airport in Lusaka looks like it was built in the 60s and hasn’t been updated much since. It’s got low ceilings, graffiti over the windows and one rickety luggage belt. Passport control was four officers in small booths although they did have computers, digital cameras and digital fingerprint readers. It reminded me of a smaller version of Shannon airport before it’s latest upgrade.

There’s a prominent Bank of China billboard greeting passengers on the walkway from the plane into the terminal building. It may be that this jumped out at me because I’ve been reading the Economist’s reports on Chinese investments in Sub-Saharan Africa (http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/04/chinese_africa).

As our taxi left the airport, I noticed first three girls with their thumbs out trying to hitch a ride, then a small group of people waiting on the roadside and then a South American-style collectivo (shared minibus) trundling to pick them up. I’ve since since blue and white collectivos all over the city. Just like in South America, the wide open windows and jam-packed vehicles make me suspect that these no-frills, no-air-conditioning minibuses are the most common form of public transit for locals.

Although, given the constant streams of people walking on the dirt tracks alongside the roads, it appears that there either aren’t enough collectivos or that even these super-cheap buses are too expensive for many people in this city of about 2 million.

On the way from the airport to my hotel, obviously alerted by the Bank of China sign, I counted at least three Chinese restaurants and Chinese signs on businesses. Today, while walking during the evening rush-hour, I noticed that the trucks filled with laborers (usually sitting or standing in the truck bed) which passed on the road had Chinese drivers. I guess this is the Chinese investment in Africa in the flesh.

There were two billboards that caught my eye on the way in from the airport. The first was a government warning about pediatric HIV/AIDS and the second had a picture of a good-looking couple and the following text: “Having an affair? Don’t tell your husband but what about HIV?” Direct messaging I guess.

Zambia is much, much greener than I was expecting. There are many colorful trees and plants. I’ve seen advertisements for roses as well as a kid selling what looked like orange tree saplings on the side of the road. I wish I had a sub-tropical plant book with me. I’m just going to have to take lots of photo and put Google goggles through its paces when I get home. Seriously, it does seem that anything will grow in this red dirt.

Many homes and buildings are behind high broken glass topped walls with gates and armed guards. The data I could find on this says that petty crime is high here although not usually violent and avoided by taking simple precautions such as not going out alone at night. So far, I’ve found every single Zambian I’ve interacted with to be welcoming and very friendly.

Zambia is not cheap but not ridiculously expensive either – at least not in the affluent/tourist bubble that I’ve experienced so far. I’ve been taking mostly taxis which cost ~$10 for a 30-minute ride. A (very tasty) chicken curry dinner with a beer cost $18. Spar is a full-sized grocery store chain here (as opposed to the 7-Eleven style in the UK and Ireland). The one next to our hotel is well-stocked with a curious mix of mostly British brands but some local, some South African and Parmalat (Italian) dairy products.

For my kids (because I suspect a trip to Zambia could be in your future): you can check out things to do in Zambia and Lusaka on Zamazing.com.

My trip to Zambia to visit the libraries built by Passports with Purpose in 2011 is sponsored by Expedia.

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