Today started off by going to the office for a little while before going over to Munali. We needed someone to make us copies of our HIV/AIDS questionnaires because our first session at Chipata was going to be this afternoon. The person got back late so we left the office later than usual. On the bus ride to Munali was just the start of our struggles. As soon as I sat down the man next to me said “you pay for my bus?” I told him no and that I didn’t have the money, and he didn’t seem to understand why I wouldn’t pay for a total stranger – go figure. The man sitting next to Chrissy asked her where she was from. When she replied the United States, he said “ahh the United States of America,” and then gave her a knowing smile and asked, “North or south America?” She had to refrain from laughing, and just told him North America. He then went on to ask if heaven was closer to Zambia or the United States. Huh?!? We had no idea what he meant, and he thought we didn’t know what heaven was, so he pointed up at the sky. Really, some of the people here are just crazy, that’s the only logical explanation.
After a really sucky bus ride we got to Munali a little late. Now, let me remind you that we are rarely late, usually being early to our sessions, and most of the other peer leaders show up at least 15 minutes behind schedule. This never seems to be an issue to them because they run on “zambian time.” However, today when we got to the site everyone kept saying “you’re late,” or asking “why are you late?” Umm seriously?!? The one time we aren’t on time we get interrogated, but all of them can show up whenever they feel like it without it being a big deal. We found this pretty frustrating and next time they come tardy I will have some words to share. Not to mention they didn’t even have anything for us to do. We literally just stood around watching and eventually decided to take a group of little kids to play a game of the Zambian duck, duck, goose.
We talked to Ivy, one of the other volunteers here, about this problem with communication, tardiness, and organization that we’ve been having and she definitely related. We decided it would be awesome to put together an organization and leadership workshop to share with Sport In Action and the peer leaders. We’re going to try and encourage weekly meetings to plan sessions, organize who will run each session, and review challenges and problems as they come up. We think the p.e. sessions will be more effective and reach more children if there is more planning and reflection. We’ve both had so much leadership training we think it’s possible to make a decent workshop, and we can use my materials from the High Impact Leadership course Chrissy took last year to supplement it.
The next session we had was at Mumana, and this one we got to run by ourselves and was a total success! Two guys from Scotland who are here for a week, Kieran and Duncan, were there and helped out. All the games we played worked as planned and our discussions went really well. Afterwards we had the kids play “catch the Muzungu” and chase the boys around. Duncan thought it would be funny to have them chase me around too, I was exhausted after trying to outrun about 40 kids. Oh and once they catch you they go straight for your hair because they are obsessed with touching it.
We left and took the journey to town and then out to Chipata. We got off the bus a little early and were slightly lost but some nice women helped us out and got us on another bus. The bus driver showed us exactly where we needed to go. At one stop on the way a man hopped on the bus and started asking about my shoes. He made it clear that he wanted them but I said no because they were my only pair. He persisted, and even when the bus started moving he continued to hang onto the side of the bus in the open doorway asking for my shoes. The bus’s moneyman (the guy who collects the money and organizes people on the bus) had to push him off and shut the door. Sheesh people don’t know when to give up around here.
Once at Chipata we found out that the Anti-AIDS club wasn’t meeting today so we couldn’t run our session. We were pretty bummed but not entirely shocked by this news. The kids were preparing for sports day so we just helped out with the athletics. Chrissy played volleyball with the kids and I helped coach a basketball team.
After being on the court for about 1 minute this guy (maybe about 18 years old) came up to me and wanted to “pound it" with my fist. This wasn't unusual because a lot of people love giving us high-fives and hand shakes because we’re white. However, he continued to come up to me and do it over and over like every 1-2 minutes, punching my fist so hard it hurt my knuckles. He also made a random sound every time, something like “whoosh.” I was really confused until another teenage boy came over and told me he was crazy/mentally unstable. This kept going for the next hour or so while I was there. Some of the boys tried to keep him away from me but I didn't want to be mean so I kept acknowledging him. He also repeated almost everything that I said word-for-word, it was pretty aggravating. When Chrissy came over to watch, he went up to her and did the same thing, trying to get her to “pound it.”
Anyway, when we left the school he started to follow us out. We tried to get him to stay but he refused. Luckily two boys came with us to make sure that he didn't follow us the entire way, but even they couldn't convince him to go back to the school. He proceeded to hold my hand – fingers interlocked – and would not let go. He kept telling me his name (Michael) over and over, and where he lived and that we were "going to go home." When I tried to pull my hand away he just gripped it tighter like a vice, to the point that it hurt. The boys, Chrissy, and I all had to convince him to let go. When we finally got to the bus stop Chrissy told the bus’s moneyman that the boy following us was NOT getting on the bus. He pushed Michael out of the way so that we could board the bus, but I didn't notice that Michael got angry, shoved by, and followed me onto the bus. Chrissy said that when I turned around and saw him I had a look of pure panic on my face. The men on the bus had to literally throw Michael off so that we could get on and then they shut the door quickly. About 30 seconds down the road the bus slowed down and when we looked out the window Michael was still there - he had been following the bus running next to it! Ahhh!! When the bus took back off we were finally safe, pheeww.
We made it back to the office safely after a long bus ride and then headed home for the evening. It was dark while we were walking back but we know the way very well. Tonight we made chicken noodle soup for dinner, with carrots and onions and spaghetti – it was soooo yummy! We sat in the living room with our soup and watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We were falling asleep during the movie so we just went to bed, our past two days had really tired us out.
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