The Zam Fam

So Jeselle, Angus and I have really been settling into our home here in Lusaka, working on making it homey and all that good stuff. Jeselle is pretty much an interior designer and has matching rugs, curtains, candles  etc., while Angus and I are living more on college budgets but working with what we got...

Pictures of all those who bring light to my day 

We have also characterized our different roles in the house, with Jeselle being more of the mama, as she is an absolutely AMAZING cook (seriously I cannot wait to become a wayyy better cook this year). Angus is taking up his roles as logistics guy and man of the house, as he was already tested with the task of killing the spider below and passed with flying colors. I have openly labeled myself as the "grandma" and most responsible/caretaker mama of the house b/c I am typically in bed the earliest and up bright and early to go for a run. We are balancing each other out very well and having many laughs along the way!

So the other night we were sitting around talking and eating dinner when we came up with a brilliant idea. As many of you know, we are all unpaid interns and have worked very hard to raise money to support ourselves throughout the year (and I am incredibly grateful for everyone's generous support!), so we devised a way to raise some funds of our own here in Zambia.... We decided that we open up a stand on our street and name it "Mzungu Crafts & Food" (still working on the title, gotta keep Mzungu, but open to any suggestions). Mzungu is what many Zambians call foreigners or white people here, as there are different words used for this throughout Africa and much of the world. The specific food & crafts are still in the works but watch out Zambia here come's some delicious food and crazy crafts!

So this guy decided to join the fam (temporaily...)

Another housekeeping note, along with those roaches I mentioned before we have also been meeting some of Africa's wild animals. Typically you think of think of the big game animals right? Lions, crocs, hippos, elephants, rhinos, etc. Well we haven't seen any of those guys yet, however we have encountered roaches, mice and a freakin huge spider! The mouse made its first sneaky apperance as I found half of my loaf of bread missing, then it proceeded to terrify Katie (one of last year's interns who just moved to Malawi), and finally we found it in the mouth of our dog Kamba as she preceded to interrupt our roommate Skype call to some of our fellow interns in South Africa. Everyday is yet another adventure but loving every minute.

Angus and I have also explored the soccer scene in Lusaka, playing futsal a few nights a week on really nice turf fields in town. Some of the Zambians that play also played on the Zambian National Futsal team that finished 7th at the last world cup, not bad Chipolopolo! We have also joined an 11v11 team with our boss called Mzungu Football Club in one of the local Zambian leagues, we'll see how that goes...

On a work note, this week I am really getting started on more of the job roles/tasks that I will be doing this year. It is definitely a lot of work and a bit overwhelming to try to grasp it all at once, but I am incredibly excited to be learning a lot and getting tons of experience. I will be largely responsibly for inputting data on all of our interventions run in Zambia, getting statistics from the data and keeping all of our Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) data up to date. Along with M&E I will be working very closely with our Program Director and all of the Grassroot Soccer coaches in the field to make sure all of our interventions are running smoothly, and continuing with our coaches development.
This weekend we also have our first Voluntary Counseling and Testing Tournaments in one of the compounds in Lusaka. These only happen a few times a year and run all day Saturday, where we hold a tournament of local teams with food, music, dancing, and most importantly testing, with the goal to get as many people out from the community as possible tested to know their HIV status. We will have our testing partner on site at the tournament and provide counselling, testing, referral and treatment for free to anyone who desires it.

One of our amazing coaches GRS leading the kids in an intervention game at a recent Challenge Day in Linda compound, Lusaka (will explain more on Challenge vs. VCT Tournaments next blog) 

Zikomo (thank you),

Caseface