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.

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.