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.

Hello Lusaka - Thursday 14th April 2011

Addis Ababa airport at 7am local time isn't exactly a hive of activity, so we were all left kicking our heels for a couple of hours until check-in for the onward flight to Zambia.

For most of us, this was our first time to Africa, and the excitement was really kicking in. Adrenalin was keeping us awake, as some of the group had struggled to sleep on the journey through the night.

Surprisingly, the airport terminal was quite a modern structure, similar to what you would expect to see anywhere in Europe. The flight carrier, Ethiopian Airlines were excellent, with great facilities on board, screens in the headrests, and free (take note holiday companies) headsets. I had never imagined being able to watch The IT Crowd while flying above Sudan.

Take off once more to Lusaka was about half an hour late (10:00), with another long flight ahead. This flight would take a route via Harare in Zimbabwe to collect passengers, before our final destination.

This flight allowed us to take in some African scenery, with the journey into Zimbabwe passing over the mighty Zambezi river.

Lusaka Airport terminal building

Finally, after 24 hours of travel, we arrived at Lusaka at 2:30 local time (one hour ahead of UK), the landing being a bit bumpier than the earlier one. The airport terminal building really belonged to the colonial era, and was a sign that Zambia would be a bit of a culture shock to us all.

Our flight was the only one in at the time, so there was no fighting to get to the baggage collection; the only queueing was to get past the immigration desk.

Each of us had to give our fingerprints electronically on arrival, along with paying a US$50 immigration fee.

We were then collected by a minibus from the University of Zambia, which had a trailer attached for our suitcases and bags, and took us through the outskirts of the city to the university campus, where we would stay the night.

The archway on the airport road

The road out of the airport went through an archway into/out of the country, celebrating the 45th anniversary of independence in 2010. The country was known as Northern Rhodesia until 1965, when it broke away from the British Empire.

Samsung TV advertising

The drive through Lusaka surprised us, with Spar and Barclays Bank being two familiar names there, along with seeing posters of Chelsea FC players advertising Samsung TVs.

A poster in the reception area of the
 Commonwealth Centre

It was clear that HIV/AIDS has a large effect on this country, with posters and notices giving advice on healthy living.

The temperature was very warm, although bearable, but we would have plenty of time to get used to this in the days ahead.

We arrived at the University of Zambia campus after a short drive, and decamped at the Commonwealth Youth Centre there for our overnight stay. The first major hassle for Cliff came when the reception there didn't know we were arriving! The first chance to see how laid back Zambians really are; we had been told that timekeeping didn't really mean much to Zambians, so 'Zambia time' was now the order of the day.

An example of Zambian security measures -
note the glass on the top of the wall

The accommodation was basic, although comfortable enough; what you would expect from shared student accommodation, without the hot water.

Our main thoughts now were just to relax for the rest of the day, with an evening meal of beef, chicken and/or fish heads (!!) with rice and pasta. Unsurprisingly the fish heads were left by most, so it was on to the bar for a couple of beers to chill us out before the next day's travel to Kabwe.

Farewell UK - Wednesday 13 April 2011

The day has finally arrived for the group. Arrival at Heathrow Terminal 3 for a 6pm meet saw us all arrive throughout the afternoon, having taken different routes there. It really was a case of planes, trains, and automobiles, with lecturers Cliff Olsson and Clint Godfrey letting the plane take the strain from Manchester.

The check in process was straightforward enough, but equipment was a bit of a problem, with excess luggage successfully getting through without any charge.

The flight out of London was initally to have been at 9pm, but was delayed by an hour. Leaving the UK at 10pm, we managed to get to our first destination on time at 7am (local time) in Addis Ababa. The time difference was 2 hours, so it was a bit confusing for us to take in what time we were actually on, what with the onward flight to Lusaka.

The flight itself was comfortable, with our meal served at about midnight. A very nice beef curry, with some lemon cheesecake is just what you need at that time of night. Being a night flight, there wasn't much opportunity for taking in the scenery, but flying over the Egyptian coastline, the moon cast a long strip of light over the Mediterranean, just as we entered Africa. In the distance to our right, were the lights of a large city in the distance, and by following the GPS screen in the cabin, we worked out that it must have been Tobruk in Libya.

Flying over the Egypt/Somalia border, we had about half an hour of turbulence, so that was a bit discomforting for the nervous flyers among us. Sleep didn't come easy for most, so it was a weary bunch who arrived to spend a couple of hours at Addis Ababa airport.