Last day in Kabwe - Thursday 21st April 2011

Today was the last which we would work with our school groups. Friendships had been built up in the short time we had been here, and this was our opportunity to say goodbye to our friends from Sport in Action, and also the children we had played with during the week.

Parachute play at Mpima School

A planned festival, for all of the children we had worked with, to be held at Twafane School, was cancelled, so each group again made their way to their allocated school for the morning session.

One of the basketball teams at Twafane

Netball and basketball tournaments were arranged at Twfane School, with the boys playing basketball in matching vests, enjoying the chance to play competitively.

After working with the peer leaders to deliver different games and play activities to the children, the students left at lunchtime, with varying degrees of sorrow, having really enjoyed their work with these children who face uncertain futures.

The afternoon was free time, with the majority of the group taking the opportunity to go into Kabwe town centre. Here, they found themselves the centre of attention, some finding this rather oppressive.

Setting up the volleyball net at Mpima School

Knowing that we had finished our working time in Zambia, we were all looking forward to spending the evening in the company of the SIA volunteers, as they had been invited to Mulubila for a barbeque and drinks, so they could say their farewells.

This was a great night for everyone, forging new, hopefully, longlasting friendships. Since arriving back in the UK, we have been keeping in touch with each other on Facebook, and some students are considering the possibility of visiting Kabwe in the future.

Olympic Youth Development Centre - Wednesday 20th April 2011

Today, while each group continued with their great work at each school site, Clint Godfrey, senior lecturer at UCLan was to travel to the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka, to deliver a workshop to Zambian coaches of different sports.

The aim of the session was to let these coaches understand the infrastructure of sport in the UK, and to give them the tools to aid the planning of their own objectives.

The journey to Lusaka was taken on a coach from Kabwe town centre - our local fixer, Shadrick helped Clint and I to get our tickets at the bus station, and we were on our way - a journey of just over two hours to the centre, which is on the northern edge of the capital city.

On entering Lusaka, the huge tower, which mimics an Olympic torch came into view, and we made our way past the security gate into the massive complex, which I have described before. It was much quieter than last week, with no major events taking place, but we could see some football coaching on the astroturf pitch.

The statue at the OYDC to commemorate its
opening on 28 May 2011

The reception area held some mementos of Zambian successes in previous Olympics (incidentally both in the USA), and other Olympic memorabilia, and we met the Centre Director, Clement Chileshe, who explained that while Clint was delivering his workshop, I could work alongside his office staff to look at their communications, and their website in particular.

The session at OYDC ended at about 3:30, and we had expected to be given a lift in to Lusaka, so we could catch a bus back to Kabwe, but we were escorted out the centre to a small market area which was where small minivan buses were parked, and with a bit of help, we got in one, and waited...and waited...and waited.

Typical of the bus which we used to get home -
no bullet holes in this one by the look of it

The place was a hive of activity, with hawkers trying to sell us bubblegum, juice, combs (has anyone seen Clint Godfrey?!), Disney Princess photo albums, and anything that could be shifted. Squeezed into the front passenger seats, looking a a bullethole in the windscreen covered with a sticker of Jesus Christ kind of unnerved us somewhat, but we were where we were, and had no real alternative but to wait on our driver turning up, and he could have been any one of hundreds of men milling around the place.

Along with street hawkers, we had a chance to look around us, in particular, a woman who had crates of chickens she was transporting. She was grabbing them, and feathers were flying; we thought she was about to throttle them in front of us, but she was simply tying their feet together to stop them from flying away. No pictures of any of this, as getting a camera out would have put us into a bit of a sticky situation, so sorry for the lack of pictures today.

We were reassured by the presence of a couple of police cars a hundred yards ahead of us, so knew that we were relatively safe. It turned out that the delay we had was because the national President, Rupiah Banda, was opening a hospital across the road, so we waited on his cavalcade speeding past, and then we were on our merry way.

Now, it only really struck me on the drive back to Kabwe, having finally set off at about 5pm, that the sun sets at 6pm, with total darkness arriving by 6:30. No roadlights meant for an interesting drive for the last hour or so. To be fair, the driver was safe, and never put us in any danger.

The drive home wasn't bad at all, with only a couple of stops to drop off people in the van by the roadside. Arriving in Kabwe at about 7:30, we were met by Shadrick and his taxi friend, as we had phoned ahead to say we were on the way.

Again, the laid back attitude to life in Zambia hit us on the drive through Kabwe to the lodge, when the car ground to a halt, having run out of petrol. The driver simply got out, opened up the boot, got a bottle with petrol in it, emptied it in the tank, and once more, we were on the way home - no worries.

Looking back at his day, Clint was glad that he had managed to build up good links with the OYDC, but felt that there is a different way for students to interact with their tutors in Zambia, and the session was very much a one way street, which he would have preferred to have been more interactive.

The UCLan website has details of the workshop in its news pages.

Back at Mulubila Lodge, it was time for us all to prepare for tomorrow, our final day working in Kabwe.

Sport in Action - Tuesday 19th April 2011

The second day of work for us at our selected schools.

Today, Katondo Basic School was my destination; further afield than the Twyfane School which had been the focus of our work to date. The school itself is larger than Twyfane, with four single storey buildings, surrounding a yard.

We arrived at about 9am, after a walk of approximately 3 miles, through unrecognisable scrubland, and along dusty roads with no discernable names or features, other than the houses along them. Again, the majority of people were more than glad to wave, or say hi, with children running out of their homes to run alongside us.

Katondo Basic School

The field outside the school was rather quiet, with only younger children waiting for us; older children were inside the school, sitting exams, and they would arrive to play after about 10am.

As the students got together with the Sport in Action peer leaders, I took the opportunity to look at the area surrounding the school, and found an example of British charity work, on the water tower. This was donated by a past president of the Dunfermline branch of the Rotary Club.

The water tower donated by the former president of the
Dunfermline Rotary Club

The games played by the group followed a similar pattern to those already played on other days, and the children all took part without question. It was refreshing to see children play without becoming distracted by other things going on around them.

The morning session was split again, with older children taken to play netball and football, with younger children continuing to play group games, including with the parachute. It was during this time that I managed to take time out with Edina Bulaya, to speak with her about her work with Sport in Action.

Here is the video of that chat -

Children at KBS with Chris Caiger,
Nick Cheese, and Naomie Pitts

The Sport in Action work relies heavily on volunteers within each community, and without people like Edina Bulaya, who herself was a child receiving help from SIA, they probably couldn't exist. So, you can see, that the peer leaders are constantly looking for children within their groups who could be identified as potential peer leaders of the future.

After an aborted attempt to find our way back to Nkrumah alone, Clint and I rejoined the group before the lunch break at the college. Again, a chance to catch up with other groups about their mornings' work.

The afternoon was spent with the rugby team once more - this was my last session with them, so I took the chance to give Cyprian two Lancashire Rugby polo shirts that I had brought over. Hopefully, we will see two High Ridge School rugby players in Lancashire shirts soon.

On leaving the rugby lads at the end of the session, I couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed, as they seemed a bit quick to beg for new shirts, shorts and boots. As it was, I had already started arranging with the students to donate spare shorts that we had, as our kit that the university had given us included two pairs of black UCLan embroidered sports shorts.

Today, Rob James shared his thoughts on the work today, where he took basketball sessions at Twyfane School, and also his thoughts on the visit so far -

Sport in Action - Monday 18th April 2011

This was our first full day of working in the field, with each group making its own way to their destination school.

The map showing locations of the schools we worked at is below

Satellite view of Kabwe. Pins to the left of the map show details from a walk carried out to lead mines by our photographer Carl O'Keeffe during the visit. Thanks to Carl for the map.

One group had a good walk ahead of them to Kafulamase, which we had been told was about 4 miles away. Only on returning later in the day, were we told that it had taken an hour and a half for the group to reach the school there, so it really had been a trek for them. They arrived too late to see the children that day, as they had been at the school since 7am waiting for the students and peer leaders to arrive.

At Twyfane, the coaches there broke the children up into smaller groups, and concentrated on their specific play themes. Rob James worked with basketball players, Jill Murphy with netball, and Natalie Loveday, Rob Hadfield, and Will Broster with the general play for younger children.

It was here that I filmed this short clip of Anxious showing me how to make a ring out of a Kwacha note, one of the many activities that children find to do with everyday objects -



A part of our preparations for visiting Zambia was some fundraising, partly to bring over some peer leaders to the UK on their exchange visit, but also to bring some kit out with us. Each group took with them a play parachute to their school, and the children loved these. Here is a short video of the parachute in action.



Again, we went to Nkrumah College for a lunch break, with stories exchanged among the group of their morning activities, with them trying to outdo each other in how far they had walked to each school.

The afternoon sessions went ahead once more - Will Broster had the opportunity to carry out some specific rugby coaching with a team from the High Ridge High School, who play rugby sevens. These boys are about 15-18 years old, and very talented athletes. Watching them in action, they appear to be sprinters, who have made the transition to playing rugby.

Will had expected a group of between 15-20 players, but instead worked with eight boys, taking sessions in passing moves, evasion, and contact drills, working on laying off the ball in the tackle.



I've mentioned 'Zambia time' before - well these guys are serious operators of this. A 2pm start time turned into a 3pm session, but with the heat, I think that Will was glad it only lasted an hour. On speaking with the teacher at High Ridge, Cyprian Mooya, he was keen to have the boys playing meaningful rugby, but there is a lack of local opposition. this means travelling distances to play in tournaments against other school sides, and like the UK, the game appears to be played primarily among the middle classes.

This is in contrast to the boys in front of us this afternoon, all of whom are from the Katondo district here in Kabwe, and all just keen to play the game when they can.

At the end of the session, it was time for the short walk back to Mulubila, and a chance for everyone to reflect on the day.

It was clear that some of the students were having difficulties putting their plans into action, with the peer leaders taking the lead in sessions, but as time went on through the week, this would change, and there was a greater sense of achievement among the students by the time we left.

The evening starts early in Zambia, with sunset at 6pm at this time of year, and with an absence of street lights in many areas, total darkness by 6.30. Mealtime at 7:30 gave us a typical plate of either chicken, beef (chargrilled!!), or pork, and vegetables, chips, pasta and coleslaw.

I had expected to be offered fried crickets at some point, but was left disappointed.

Here is the day, as seen by Rob Hadfield -

A day of rest!! - Sunday 17th April 2011

After the hectic day we had yesterday, we were basically left to our own devices this morning; a slightly later breakfast before a chilling out, with the prospect of a football match in the afternoon against the local Sport in Action team.

As part of the continued links that have been built up with UCLan and local organisations in Kabwe, Cliff Olsson had arranged for a session to be held at Nkrumah College with local SIA volunteers, as well as teachers from local schools. The students were given the opportunity to come along if they wanted to, with Stuart Tomlinson, Sam Chouhan, Lucy Robinson, and Hannah Willis joining in.

Students and volunteers at Nkrumah College

On arrival at Nkrumah, there were no teachers there, and it transpired that the contact who should have been arranging teachers to attend had not told them. However, the session went ahead, but shorter than had been planned, as the temperature was getting a bit on the high side.

Although it was shortened, and without as many participants as planned, it was still a worthwhile exercise, with the volunteers seeing how games and training exercises can be planned to test participants to the full.

The afternoon football match was held on the pitch in Katondo, and we had heard that it was an event that the community supported very well. This was clear, when we arrived there, there were hundreds of children waiting for us.

Without going into too much detail, UCLan won 2-1, goals coming from Richie Sandham and Chris Caiger. Watch the post match interview video below. This was the first victory for a UCLan team, so were were all very proud to have beaten the SIA team on their own patch.

In the evening, we had to settle down to give some thought to how we wanted to plan the next few days, as everyone was split into small groups of three or four, to attend sessions at different sites in Katondo. This was where the hard work really started, and reality bit.

The groups were announced, with sites allocated, and each group working together to make their plans.

Today was the first chance for many of the group to communicate with the UK, as there is no internet connection available, and old mobiles had been brought out to use with local SIM cards. Shadrick, our SIA co-ordinator has been working really hard to get us all connected, so his arrival this morning with SIM cards and top up cards was a boost for our spirits, as we made those calls home.

Here is Adam Dixon's review of the day -

Meeting the children - Saturday 16th April 2011

Today was the first day of our visit to Zambia where we would really find out why we are here.

Up early for a good cooked breakfast at 7:15 before the half hour walk through the Katondo district of Kabwe, we were ready to get involved with the SIA project for real.

Zambian kids learn to adapt and play with anything they
can get their hands on

The walk through Katondo was a bit of an eye opener, with the housing becoming more and more basic as we went on; walking through the local market, literally everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at us all, but the children immediately started coming up to us and saying hello, before they clung onto us. We had been told that the children would do this, but for most, this came as a bit of a surprise when it happened for real.

The school we worked at today was the Twyfane Community School, which is the focal point for this community. Education in Zambia is not free for all, so only those able to afford it, can send their children to school.

The Twyfane School however, was set up several years ago as an alternative to the normal state school system, with the community paying for the facilities, and children being educated at a lower cost than they would be normally.

One of the classrooms at Twyfane 

The school building itself is a one storey, 'L' shaped building, which has recently been extended, and caters for approximately 850 children from the wider Katondo district. The building is nowhere near big enough to fit all of them in, so the school day is staggered, depending on the children's classes; Grade 1 at 7:30-8:30, for example, and so on throughout the day.

The school headmistress is Mrs Chileshe (whose son Clement, set up Sport in Action, and is now Centre Director at the OYDC), and is supported in the running of the school by governors who live in the community. Having such close links with SIA, the school benefits from the work carried out by the charity, and has also been assisted by other British universities.

With the SIA peer leaders and co-ordinators on site and introductions made, it was time to get started. Ice breakers with all of the students, children and SIA volunteers began with group singing and dancing. It was clear that British reservations about being centre of attention and looking silly would have to be thrown out the window for this week, as the children lapped up the fun.

The activities for the children were split between the basketball court at the school, and the football pitch which was a two minute walk away. The only way that we could know that this was a football pitch was the presence of goalposts at either end of an area of dusty scrubland, badly potholed, and thick patches of long grass.

The facilities weren't important though, as the SIA peer leaders gathered the children around them, and delivered what were to be the staple activities for the week. The games, although accompanied by chanting and singing, could easily be transported to any group of children around the globe, and it was clear that for this age group, games are a universal language.

The reality of Zambian health and social issues began to dawn on us with the SIA peer leaders then sitting the children down in a large circle and asking them questions about the issues around HIV/AIDS. One in six Zambians are HIV positive, or have full blown AIDS, while in Kabwe, it is reported that as many as one in four are affected. Take a look at the video and think about how young these children are, and whether children of a similar age in the UK would ever be aware of such issues. Please take time out to watch the video. The responses to the questions posed show the level of ignorance towards HIV/AIDS, albeit among children, but it goes to show that these people truly need help to get the facts behind it.

The end of the day at Katondo market

The end of our day at the school arrived, and the walk back to Mulubila Lodge; almost every child who had been at the school came with us to the edge of Katondo in a chaotic mass, and said their goodbyes, until we would see them tomorrow.

During the week we were to have in Kabwe, most of us would find ourselves befriending one child in particular. A young lad by the name of Anxious introduced himself to me, so on talking to him, it was soon apparent that he was one of the victims of this country's poor health record. Although he was well, he didn't go to school because he had to look after his sick mother and younger brother. He didn't know his age, but I imagine he would have been about 12 or so. He asked for a present; I had nothing but leftover boiled sweets in my bag from our flights, so gave him them to pass around. I was to see him again though, during the week.

Destination Kabwe - Friday 15th April 2011

This was the day which we travelled to Kabwe, the focal point of the trip as far as our work was concerned. All the preparation had taken place in Preston, with the module delivery completed, and the exchange visit a few weeks before having given the Sport in Action team the chance to give a short induction to the students on the work they were to carry out.

Before leaving the university, we took a walk around the campus, taking in the library, which was very basic, and unlike the UCLan library, where we are fortunate to have the latest technologies, and books and journals available to us. We were the centre of attention, with students stopping to stare at us walking among them. On close inspection at the books in the sports section of the library, we could see that they are in dire need of up to date materials, with books from the 1980s being the latest references to sporting theory available.

The Sport in Action headquarters in Lusaka

On leaving the university, we travelled to the Sport in Action (SIA) head office in Lusaka to meet some of the team there, and view a short video which I think we had seen already back in Preston. While Cliff and Clint met with the management there, we all walked a short distance to a cultural village, to see some local crafts. This was the first chance to take part in haggling and bartering with the sellers, with some managing to get bargains through exchanges for their own possessions.

As yet, we hadn't had the chance to change our cash into the local currency, the Kwacha. Having bought US Dollars to travel with, we fought hard to understand how much we actually had right throughout the visit. At a rate of £1 = K7600, we exchanged Dollars at $1 = K4700. This was done at the local arcade, in Spar of all places. 

The UNZA coach took us all to Kabwe on our first real journey across Zambia. Kabwe is a small town 135km north of Lusaka, and is on the the Great North Road, which was to have been a part of Cecil Rhodes' visionary empire building route from the Cape in South Africa to Cairo in Egypt. 

The OYDC tower

Just before leaving Lusaka, we stopped at the Zambian Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) on the northern outskirts of the city, where Cliff and Clint were to meet the Centre Director, Clement Chileshe.

This facility opened in May 2010, and is the best sports facility in the whole country, with facilities including indoor sports halls, athletics arena, 3G football pitch, and handball, basketball, and netball courts. When we arrived, it was a hive of activity, with the inter-provincial youth games taking place.

Our presence was a bit of a surprise to say the least, and we found ourselves surrounded by people wanting to say 'Hi' and have their photograph taken.

I spoke with a shot putter who had taken part in the games, and he quite plainly turned round and asked "Will you take me back to England?". Normally you might think that this would be a joke, but not here; any opportunities for getting the the developed world are jumped on without a second thought. This wouldn't be the only time that a member of our group would have such a request.

Another example where sport is used to
promote health initiatives in Zambia

As the games were taking place, the schools had their own cheerleading routines in the form of traditional dances. A close look around gave us a chance to see further healthy living messages, with banners reminding people of the dangers of HIV/AIDS, and t-shirts with similar themes being worn by participants and officials.

After a stay of about half an hour, we left the OYDC for a non-stop coach drive to Kabwe, which took about two and a half hours. It was now that we were able to see for ourselves what rural Zambia looked like. We drove past small communities along the roadside who set up makeshift market stalls, selling tomatoes, watermelon, and sugar beet, among other things.

We arrived in Kabwe, staying at the Mulubila Lodge to the north east of the town centre. The road on which it was located was tarmaced, only to the lodge entrance, and from then on, it was a two lane badly rutted dirt track.

Lodge 4B - home for a week

Our accommodation was good, with us paired up to a lodge each, with a front room, bedroom, and bathroom, including shower, with hot water. Meals were either chicken, beef, or sausage, with pasta, and vegetables. 

The bar at the lodge had a good enough supply of the two most common beers in Zambia, Mozi,and Castle. It was interesting to see on the second evening there, that the fridge in the bar was better stocked!!

Having completed our travelling, it was a chance to rest before our first meeting the next morning with all of the local SIA peer leaders and co-ordinators, in delivering play to local children at the Twyfane Community School.