Winter in Petauke

Ok, I have to admit: winter in Zambia isn’t that bad as winter back home but still it is really cold. When the sun is out temperatures are ok but that nasty wind is really tough. The windows of the house don’t close well so it gets chilly during the night and since there’s no heating system (what did you expect???) it really gets cold. Our offices have open windows all day but luckily my colleague agreed on closing them once in a while to make sure we wouldn’t get too cold. Basically I’m eating and breathing dust which means that last week I caught a cold: nothing bad but totally unexpected. The cold shower I have every morning probably doesn’t really contribute to that, but hey, another thing you get used to. My trick: boil some water before getting in the shower, then gather all my courage to fight the freezing cold water, wash hair and body and then get that great feeling of pouring the boiled water (mixed with cold off course) over my head. Once I was told this treatment is good for the skin so I hold on to that: I keep believing that my skin will get better :-).

Dropping temperatures also made me push back my boundaries: since my clothes aren’t always keeping me warm enough (I didn’t really bring winter material) I, for the first time in my life, bought some second hand clothing! A project from ‘People to people’ to help and support the community that provided me with a grey hoodie and a black jacket, nice and warm. I certainly know where to drop my clothes when leaving. I will be most happy to contribute!

Work is getting busier.
I conducted a workshop on Time Management (which was postponed three times, haha, that counts for sure) and had to find out the day before conducting it that I had to cut down the programme to half a day (instead of a full day) because another important meeting was planned. You see Time Management is a special one here :) It was a good workshop and it made people think a lot about how things are done now and how they could be improved. A good link to the meeting in the afternoon where every department had to present its Kaizen (continuous improvement) theme and action plan: the meeting started an hour late and 1 team still had draw up the action plan in the meeting and an other didn’t have any action plan at all… Again Time Management failed but hey this is Zambia!

That first Kaizen meeting was the beginning of a series of Kaizen meetings: together with the District Planning Officer I met all the different departments to finalize the action plan for their theme(s) so implementation can start and improvement can be made. Pictures and data will prove how progress is made and believe me there is plenty of opportunities for improvement but it is good to notice that everyone is committed to the programme. People come up with good ideas and sign up for different tasks: everyone is taken his/her responsibility and creativity rules. That’s the spirit! So Kaizen everywhere in the Council and I’m having fun shooting pictures of the ‘As is’. Hopefully I will be around long enough to have some proof of the ‘To be’.

Meanwhile I have been working to prepare some other workshop: Improving Driving Skills for the Council Drivers (hit the road, Jack :)), Sensitization of the Public for the Fire Fighters (let’s be creative and come up with some brilliant ideas!), Improving IT-skills (oh help, do I have the patience to do this?) for all Council employees using computers, … You see: I’ve been busy but I like it that way. Still plenty of work to come and plenty of workshops to be prepared and conducted so I certainly know what to do.

The last 2 weekends I stayed in Petauke: I did spent some time at home, doing my laundry, cleaning the house, going to the market and cook some nice food: I even tried to cook nshima but that didn’t work out well (apparently it’s not that easy as I thought it would be) so some more practice and advice needed.
And… I also went to a Kitchen Party. This is a party thrown for a girl that is about to get married and all people invited bring a gift for the bride’s kitchen, hence Kitchen Party. Colours for the gifts were: black, white and silver. After getting some advice from my neighbour I bought an electric kettle. A lot of people brought pots and pans so I felt happy having a ‘original’ gift. I did have a lot of fun at the kitchen party, had some nice food, got introduced to some African traditions and off course got invited to shake the body the African way so I did :) Didn’t seem the bride to be was having that much fun: she even cried a certain moment so I thought she wasn’t that happy ‘bout getting married, but afterwards I was told she’s an orphan and missing her mom on such an important day in her life was painful. Ok, I do get that. Luckily she has an amazing mother-in-law who organised the whole party for her. So, I guess she’s in good hands now.

Oh, before I forget: I can gladly announce that finally some letters are arriving. It took some time before I got hold on the first one but since I visited the post office I feel things are running (more) smoothly. One day I was fed up with not getting my mail so I went to the post office myself and being a well educated citizen I waited in the queue to be helped. A lot of people were waiting so I thought I would be in there for a long, long time and the sun was burning so not the best perspective but then, all of a sudden the post office clerk calls me to his counter and polite as I am I tell him that all these people were there before I even arrived so he should help them first. ‘No worries’, he says ‘they are all waiting for something else’. Okay, what can you say, so I just went to his counter, told him who I was and where I worked and asked him why I didn’t get my mail: surprise, surprise… a letter from my grandma was just waiting there for me! Although the address was complete and correct nobody ever thought of giving it to one of my colleagues who goes to pick up the mail every day. But, I did get it and that is the most important thing because it really feels great to get some mail. Every time a letter is dropped on my desk I immediately drop whatever I am doing and start reading… smiling because of getting a letter. It certainly makes a person feel good so I’m looking forward to more letters to come ;-)

By the way, if anyone feels to support the local community here: school materials (pens, (coloured) pencils, paint, clay,… and toys are always welcome! I’m trying to help out the kids of pre school: kids between 3 and 6 attending school 5 days a week and eager to learn a lot but teachers have to work with limited resources. They do a great job but some extra help is always welcome.

Nzikimo kwam biri!
Barbara