BACK TO WORK

Life continues here in Ndola with this week has our first visit to a couple of the schools that “Beyond Ourselves” help with in the neighbouring town of Kitwe. I say neighbouring but I mean it is about an hour away. Before that though a much more important piece of work took place.

Until we get a place of our own, Jan and I are staying with Emily amd Malcolm Pearce plus Lucy and Albert, their two children. Emily works for Beyond Ourselves while Malcolm is a teacher at The Simba International School here in Ndola. They moved here nearly a year ago now and moved into the home we are staying at in April. Since then the water has been a serious problem. It is piped from a spring some 150 metres from the property and has been hit or miss since they moved in. The spring feeds a tank in the garden which is then pumped into the house. The tank was often dry and the feed pipe was blocking up. Several local “plumbers” had looked but still it wouldn’t work. When we arrived there was water but that ceased a day later. I looked at it and worked out the feed pipe from the spring had been damaged in several places where excavating vehicles had run over it. It also ran along the bed of the stream and through a culvert that had blocked flooding part of the drive. To me the easiest thing was to cut out the damaged section and clear the culvert. Renew the pipe properly jointing it and feed it through the cleared culvert. This was done, no more flooding and the tank filled quicker than before. Fitting a ball valve to the tank stopped it overflowing when full and all was working and still is.

Clearing the Culvert

Locating the damaged pipework

As we said earlier, we have both been ito a couple of the schools where I managed to get started with painting a blackboard ready to fit and started fitting noticeboards to some of the classes. As we are new the children all run around and what to know who we are. Jan is involved with the teaching side and did a teaching lesson observation as well as talking to the heads about standards etc.

Winter here so some where thick jackets although the day temps are into high 20s

Selfie with some children

This little girl is about 4

Jan learning to count in Bemba, the local language

Teaching us Bemba

Life here will not be all about work at all and although we haven’t been anywhere apart from Ndola and Kitwe yet we do aim to look around the immediate area. We have found one nice bar/restaurant in the nearest shopping mall where I had a 12 oz fillet steat and Jan had a veggie curry plus a large Greek salad to share and a bottle of a very nice chilled South African wine cost the princely sum of under £30.

Night out at Bo'Jangles in town

Emily, Malcolm and family have now gone away for the weekend and we have the house to ourselves so Braai every night and tomorrow we called in to get tickets for Zambia v Guinea Bissau in the qualifying of the African Nations Cup. This is being played at the new stadium here in Ndola just up the road from where we are staying so both of us can walk proudly in our new “Chipolopolo” team shirts. (The locals called the national Football Team the “Chipolopolos”). Just to rub it in we purchased the best seats we could and are in area just above the team dug out area on the centre line. We though we would splash out so the cost is 150 Kwatcha each and at an exchange rate of over 10 to the £1.00 then the most expwensive seats for a Zambian Football international is under £15.00. (Take note Wembley and all other football grounds)

More about that with pictures we hope next time

Until then, enjoy the summer

Mike and Jan