Initial Thoughts:
I was graduating this year and planned to travel for a while. I’d travelled during my gap year and had enjoyed that so much I wanted to do more. However along came the PZ opportunity and I just thought this would be a good start. Where else to kick start my travelling than Africa? I also loved the idea of being able to play football and coach it for a summer. I had never been to Africa but I wanted the chance to experience a completely different culture but also one which had football as such a major part of the core of it. Although I entered on the sports side of things, I was happy to get involved with the counselling side as well because my virology studies at university meant I had a relevant interest in HIV.
Impressions of Lusaka/Zambia:
It’s much more westernised than I thought, even though there are areas of contrast where there’s no obvious western influences and others where it’s really intense. Overall I can understand now why people say there is so much to be done in Africa for it’s about 50 years behind the Western world. There’s lots of examples of that – the sexism, the standard of living, the housing facilities, the education (which takes you right back to the sexism where you see how the girls are given so much less educational opportunities than the boys). They’re working towards improvements in some of these areas, but in some areas they need to start working towards getting better systems, e.g. in the female equality.
Impressions of the Value of the Project:
I think it is just fantastic for our team members on an individual basis. Everyone here has changed since they arrived and I know I certainly have. I am amazed at how much I took things for granted back home – things that I’ve achieved that I thought I’d worked hard to get, I realise now I didn’t work that hard. I was lucky enough to be born into a situation where I had the backing, the support, and the opportunities without a second’s thought and I got things quite easy really. I’m much more appreciative of what I’ve been lucky enough to get now. I also feel more confident – I always was confident in some ways, but I’ve added to that. I’ve loved every minute of working with my boys in the football team in my placement – these guys will give me 150% every minute – they work on that pitch right up to the last second and if we were to go on playing another hour, they wouldn’t slack for a minute. I really admire them, their guts and their commitment.
I think one of the most valuable things I can do for the kids I’m working with is that, especially with the football, we give them the opportunity to take them out of their surroundings, their daily context, and for a little while football lets them escape into another world. We’re all equal, they’re David Beckham in their heads, we’re all in a team fighting forward for one point. And the daily grind, their home lives where they have nothing, doesn’t matter for a while.
They seem to get something out of us coming here too. I know it’s wrong – it definitely shouldn’t be this way – but they do hold up this perception of the “muzungu” (white man) as being in some ways superior to them – in financial, educational terms at least. They are surprised that we come all this way to visit them. But in this project we get the time to get to know them and they very quickly realise that we’re their equal – and, given that we all have different strengths, not as good as them in some ways. That changes their view of themselves and I can see some of them starting now to think in real possibilities of what they can achieve now. Their confidence grows. This is especially true for the peer leaders and the SIA people.
It’s easy to see the short term value of the project every day. What we don’t see is the overall long term effect that we leave behind and I’m sure that that’s there, but we just won’t be here to see it. For now I’m happy enough seeing the short term benefits to the kids, to the peer leaders, to SIA, and to us, day in, day out. I think it’s a fantastic project.
Impressions of the Team:
SIA – Some of the peer leaders are better than others, but I have to say I have really admired the incredible work of the ones I’ve worked with – Staffy, Levi – the way that these guys can go out to a group of hundreds of children and have their total respect, eating out of their hands in minutes – it’s a pleasure to see. I really admire them and want to learn to work with people that way.
PZ - I’ve loved living with these guys. People say I’m the cheery one. I play the role of trying to keep everything upbeat – I just don’t let myself get dragged down into trivia. I think any group dynamics that have caused strains at times have just passed me by. I don’t think they’ve been about important things anyway and the trivia doesn’t matter when you see the situations our people are working in every day so any disagreements pass pretty quickly. I’ve really loved living with the three other guys, sleeping in a room with them. Being an only child I’ve never shared a room with siblings and this has been a right laugh…...the antics, practical jokes etc. have been hilarious.
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