Chipolopolo and City Slickers

Gina's Post:

Whoohoo Zambia!  Wednesday night was a huge night as Zambia's football (what we call soccer) beat Ghana 1-0 and progressed to the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations. Even like a fairweather fan like me found myself at the edge of my seat for the last 10 minutes of the game against Ghana that will lead this underdog team to the final match against the Ivory Coast this Sunday. We were in Lusaka for a conference and heard cars honking, people cheering "chipolopolo" and shooting off fireworks into the wee hours of the morning.  Even when we woke up at 6am, people proudly displayed Zambia jerseys and flags as they walked to work and school.  It'll be nice to be in the city with full electrical hook-up for a game that just might make history this Sunday.

Speaking of Lusaka, Scott and I were able to catch up on a few more posts about village life which we'll put up shortly.  This last week of the workshop was interesting, because each Peace Corps volunteer was asked to bring a Zambian "counterpart," or villager we work with closely on our projects to help promote local follow-through with projects once we leave.  Topics included permaculture, behavior change, and project development.  I invited a traditional birth attendant (TBA) who volunteers at our clinic and Scott brought a hardworking fish farmer.  Neither had been to Lusaka before--the journey to the capital city from our village is out of reach for most villagers as it takes 3 days and costs over 200,000 kwatcha ($40 USD).  This is usually less than what a family around us makes in a month with their farming income.  Anyway, our counterparts enjoyed the workshop tremendously and we took some photos they will be proud to take back to the village.

Highlights included:
- Teaching them how to plug in the TV in the hotel room (I admit I had to be taught the trick to the Zam-style plugs when I arrived in Lusaka as well).
- Walking up a large pedestrian overpass in Lusaka's version of a freeway to get a view of some tall buildings.  Scott's counterpart loved it, although mine only walked two flights of stairs before deciding it was too much.
- Going up an escalator--took a few tries to get on.
- Watching a 3D movie with surround sound--the closest our counterparts ever got was watching a flat screen TV.
- My counterpart had trouble reading the handouts at the workshop but could read the flip charts far away quite well.  I suggested she try on the reading glasses of another volunteer's counterpart and her world opened up!  Come to think of it, the only glasses I've seen at our village at all are worn by the teachers.

Oh the things we take for granted!