Last Nights Under the Stars

Well, we're back from our second and final camp with orphans and vulnerable children, and it really feels that our time here in Zambia is drawing to a close (we fly home on Tuesday!). We have photos, but uploading these first three took me so long on this internet connection that I just don't have the patience. Give us a few days and they'll be up.

The camp, although tough and tiring, was actually quite enjoyable. Wilson drove us out into the bush on Monday evening, and as soon as we arrived we received a few hesitant English greetings from the older children - although it was very dark by that time, our skin evidently still gave us away. There wasn't much time to do anything that evening other than sit around the campfire which we lit (I'll certainly miss how easy it is to do that here what with all the dry wood) and sing songs, after having our dinner which some women from the nearest village were preparing. It was still nshim, of course, but we were prepared for it this time and, dare I say it, we may even be beginning to grow accustomed to it! I wouldn't say we exactly enjoy it yet, but the sauce was good. Making sure the fire was well stoked, we soon wrapped ourselves up and went to bed - very close to the fire. I feel a little selfish that we steal all the prime warm spots whilst the children sleep under blankets away from the fire, but they seem to sleep with no problem at all - we wake up whenever the flames die down.

snug as bugs in rugs...

The morning started early with the mandatory road run; Eva got all sporty and joined them, whereas I managed to wriggle my way out by going for a walk with Kenneth to the nearest houses to see if anyone had a pump to blow up the footballs. The first couple of huts didn't have a pump, but then one man offered to take the balls to his friend and bring them back later. We left them with him and headed back for breakfast. 

Breakfast is one of the meals on camp which I really do enjoy. The women made the incredible sweet and milky rooibos tea, which we consumed with bread (and a hard boiled egg some mornings). We then sat with the children in order to fill in questionnaires which Eva and I had created: these evaluate the children's attitude towards problems before the camp and again after the camp, to judge the programme's effectiveness. We had tried to make the questionnaire as simple as possible: we read out the questions (which Oliver and Kenneth translated into Tonga) and they only had to write down the question numbers and a multiple choice letter from a-d. However it soon became clear that this was beyond many of them - even though the ages ranged from eight to eighteen years, at which point you would expect them to know the alphabet, several of the children were unable to follow the counting of the questions or to write any recognisable letters. When it came to writing 'yes' or 'no', a few just made any mark they could to fill the paper.

This was followed by Oliver's motivational talk before we began the day's activities. The activities are all aimed at promoting teamwork and peer support between the children: there was the 'electric wire', where the children must help each other to get over a rope without touching it, the 'spider web' where the children must pass each other through gaps in a rope construction, and 'crossing the river' where they were given a long rope and told to use it so that they must cross the 'river' without touching the ground. By English standards, I would imagine all the games were completely against all health and safety regulations, but they were fun just to watch, never mind to play. 

Lunch was nshima, beans and cabbage (surprisingly tasty) and in the afternoon we played more games with the children and had our bath. This time there was even a grass shelter constructed, so we weren't completely exposed to the rest of the bush whilst we washed! As darkness fell again, Eva and I decided it was time to crack out the marshmallows which we'd bought for the children to roast on the fire. We told them all to find sticks, and the ensuing experimental cooking caused great excitement.

The next day began with more team games, and then the 'atomic bomb' (which sounds a little more dramatic than it actually is). Oliver had made a creature out of clay, and a 'spy' from each group of children was allowed to see it. The spy then had to describe the creature to the 'messenger', who in turn had to relay the information to the rest of the group so that they could replicate it. Eva and I were honoured to judge the final products...

The afternoon was occupied by a more sobering activity - collecting the testimonies from the children. A particularly shocking story was that of Fiona: her parents had died and she was living with her aunt, who was abusing her and even threatening her life. She related a moment where once her aunt had even tried to pour bleach into her mouth. The SAPEP team are following up on her problem, but the number of children who are abused on the death of one or both of their parents is horrifying, and there are no effective schemes from the government in place to deal with it.

The serious atmosphere never lasted long though - during our break Eva and I were persuaded to cycle around on a bicycle which was far too large for either of us (our feet didn't even touch the ground!) I think Wilson and Oliver derived more amusement from this than the children did - Eva said she felt like a circus monkey.

After lunch we gave our human rights lesson, in which we taught the children about the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and invited them to make some role plays based on various rights. They came up with slightly more bizarre scenarios than you might expect in an English school: the 'right to life' play featured Satanism and a witch doctor, and whenever we asked them to think about owning property the prime example they invented was buying a car - a true sign of status in rural Zambia. Later it was time for the 'bridge of life' - a rope bridge had been constructed between two trees and the children had to cross it. We did of course have a go, and discovered that they had made it look a lot easier than it actually was.

After another nshima dinner, it was time for bed (or at least Eva and I decided it was - the children stayed up singing and dancing long after we had nodded off next to the fire). We were relieved to know that it was our third and final night in the bush: although it is truly beautiful to fall asleep under millions of stars, the bruises from the ground got the better of us (and the fact that I found a millipede up my jumper). In the morning it was time to go - although we found time for a few balloon races first.

When we'd left the SAPEP offices on Monday, Bernadette had sadly mentioned that it was her birthday - I say 'sadly' because everyone else had completely forgotten. We promised her a party as soon as we got back from the camp, so last night (having bought a cake and gorged ourselves on pizza to get over the nshima diet) we invited her over to our lodge (also mentioning it to a few of her friends whom we've met during the past few weeks). We couldn't resist the temptation of buying non-blow-out candles, and our mischievous-ness was rewarded with great amounts of laughter. They really were pretty spectacular - we ended up having to find a glass of water to put them out! After a few drinks, our fairly sleepless nights in the bush were taking their toll and it was evident that we couldn't stay up much longer - we made our exit and blissfully crashed out in real beds with real sheets and mattresses...

As I mentioned, today has been spent sedately going through the questionnaires and compiling our report. The data is somewhat confusing and mildly depressing: some of the results would appear to have gone the opposite way which we may have desired, especially concerning the children's attitude towards rights. But then again, some of them were so baffled by the questionnaires themselves that the results can hardly be considered reliable.

We've got a quiet weekend of report-writing ahead, although knowing our luck it will never be quite as peaceful as we think!

We'll update soon. Lots of love - back in under a week...