Names in Zimbabwe, or maybe on this continent in general, are quite funny. Of course there are a lot of people with Ndebele names that we cannot even pronounce, but it seems like half of the parents give their children whatever word they come up with at the moment of namegiving, and the other half have words with a very specific meaning. Whether everyone understands the meaning of these names, is another story...
Like:
Forward
Blessing (We heard of a pair of twins that were called Blessing and Blessed)
Blessed
Prosper
Precious
Wonder
Happiness
Wonder
Handsome
Immaculate
Faith
Charity
Lovemore
Liberty
Furnace
Continueloving
Official
Malaria
Enough
Boys
Bigboy
Job
Children
Bobmarley
Percysledge
Doesntmatter
Precautious
Obama
Forget
Remember
Businessman
Pavement
Africa
Half of these are names of friends and people from BUYISAP and NYDT, the other half some guys that just walked into the office are giving me. They are actual names, it is not like they have a traditional name and an English name.
Youth centret vi bor på i Guwe
tirsdag 30. november 2010
onsdag 24. november 2010
Victoria Falls
Back with NYDT after a long weekend in Victoria Falls. Was nice, but strange, to see Zimbabwe from the touristy point of view, even to be in a touristy spot in Zimbabwe, which was a first for us! Victoria Falls itself is just a small town made more or less for tourists, its got one main street with curio shops, for the rest just hotels and lodges. It is a hub for doing activities like rafting, safari, bungy jumping etc.., so for broke students like Malaika and me, we spent most of our time by the pool, whilst the people we met were out doing activities all day. We did go on a cruise in the Zambesi river though, as that was the cheapest activity you could do. It’s called a sunset cruise, but has adopted the name “booze cruise” as there is all –you- can- drink on board. Great for two girls on antibiotics and the two older couples that were there. At least we saw a few hippos,- who would have known these quite, fat animals are the ones killing most people every year.
Not surprisingly, we went to see the actual falls, which was quite spectacular. Victoria Falls is divided between Zimbabwe and Zambia, with (lucky for us) the most water coming from the Zimbabwean side. It is actually one of the World’s Seven Wonders, a gorge/huge crack that was naturally formed and developed into a huge waterfall some time way back.
The last night we were there we put on our finest clothing (2$ dresses we’ve found at the second hand market in Bulawayo) and had dinner at The Victoria Falls Hotel. It is an old renowned hotel, very beautiful, we felt totally colonial sitting there in that old English-style hotel looking out over the Zambesi river and the bridge crossing over to Zambia. A big contrast to other things we have seen in Zimbabwe! But the chocolate cake we had for dessert made it all worth while…
The trip was not only leisure- we also visited Environment Africa, another MS partner that works with everything from planting trees to advocating for youth to take part in the decision-making processes. Was really interesting, it is a great organization that is rapidly growing. As they have their offices out in the high-density area outside of the touristy town, we got to see a different part of Victoria Falls, where the world of five star hotels and helicopter tours over the falls seems very distant. It is strange how the human mind, or my mind at least, can cope with these great differences - and if I might think it is hard, then how is it for the people living out in the townships, coming in to work as a waiter at one of the luxury hotels everyday. Beats me.
Not surprisingly, we went to see the actual falls, which was quite spectacular. Victoria Falls is divided between Zimbabwe and Zambia, with (lucky for us) the most water coming from the Zimbabwean side. It is actually one of the World’s Seven Wonders, a gorge/huge crack that was naturally formed and developed into a huge waterfall some time way back.
The last night we were there we put on our finest clothing (2$ dresses we’ve found at the second hand market in Bulawayo) and had dinner at The Victoria Falls Hotel. It is an old renowned hotel, very beautiful, we felt totally colonial sitting there in that old English-style hotel looking out over the Zambesi river and the bridge crossing over to Zambia. A big contrast to other things we have seen in Zimbabwe! But the chocolate cake we had for dessert made it all worth while…
The trip was not only leisure- we also visited Environment Africa, another MS partner that works with everything from planting trees to advocating for youth to take part in the decision-making processes. Was really interesting, it is a great organization that is rapidly growing. As they have their offices out in the high-density area outside of the touristy town, we got to see a different part of Victoria Falls, where the world of five star hotels and helicopter tours over the falls seems very distant. It is strange how the human mind, or my mind at least, can cope with these great differences - and if I might think it is hard, then how is it for the people living out in the townships, coming in to work as a waiter at one of the luxury hotels everyday. Beats me.
tirsdag 16. november 2010
NYDT
Two weeks have now gone since we started our attachment with a new organization, National Youth Development Trust, NYDT. Going from working with rural youth, this organization has a more urban focus, although working with a few rural places as well. Its main focus is to enhance the leadership qualities within young people, to make them aware of the power they have in decision-making processes, basically activate the young people in the wellbeing and development of Zimbabwe.
Dette skriver jeg på norsk- det er ved å besluttes om det skal være et valg neste juni, to år etter Presidentens parti og opposisjonen slo seg sammen. Det var et stort fremskritt for Zimbabwe at dette skjedde, og ting har sakte men sikkert blitt litt bedre, dog er det fremdeles mye som mangler, og løfter som ikke har blitt holdt. (Selvfølgelig, dette er jo politikk.) Han megtige slasken med navnet som begynner på M har fortsatt mesteparten av makten i sine hender, noe folket, og opposisjonen, selvfølgelig ikke er glade for. Et av løftene når de slo seg sammen, var at det skulle lages en ny grunnlov, eller en forfatning, og at dette skulle gjøres før det ble holdt en nytt valg. Et forslag har blitt laget, politikerne påstår at de har vært rundt i hele landet og samlet inn informasjon fra folket og deres holdninger til ting osv.., men det spekuleres i om folket virkelig har blitt hørt. Videre er det mange diskusjoner om hvorvidt Zimbabwe rent faktisk er klart til å ha et nytt valg, de fleste er selvfølgelig redde for at det skal ende i et blodbad som det gjorde sist, og at det skal være fusk i stemmetellingen. Likevel virker det som om det skal holdes et valg i juni 2011, og vi er rimelig glade for at vi ikke er her lenger enn tre uker til, da det allerede begynner å skje saker og ting: man kan lese i noen aviser (de som ikke er sensurert), at politikere blir sparket, viktige mennesker som holder med opposisjonen blir satt til andre stillinger osv.. Forrige uke var vi på Morgan Tvangsirai, opposisjonens leder og ledende statsminister, valgmøte. Det var interessant å se mannen som kanskje kan bli den nye presidenten, hvis valget faktisk foregår på en ordentlig måte. Valgmøte var i en township utenfor byen, vi var selvfølgelig de eneste hvite, og folk var rimelig ivrige. Mellom talene satt de på dunrende musikk og så svingte Morgan seg litt rundt på scenen, tydeligvis sånn man appelerer til folk her. Det var også en dame som visst vil stille til valg som vise president, hun sto nærmest og rappet på scenen og lignet på Kim Il Young, litt skremmende.
Dette har ingen sammenheng med NYDT som sådan, men de har i den siste tid hold møter med temaer omkring hvorvidt Zimbabwe er klart til et nytt valg, og hva dette har å si for ungdommen. Veldig spennende, organisasjonen er faktisk overraskende politisk, etter å ha kommet fra BUIYSAP hvor det overhodet ikke ble snakket politikk, har vi lært veldig mye om landet politiske situasjon de to siste ukene. Utad gjør de selvfølgelig så godt de kan for å ikke virke partipolitiske, det er jo ikke lov, men det er noen ganske åpenbare aktivister vi møter inne på kontoret.
NYDT’s main activities are to hold youth meetings in the different areas of Bulawayo and also two rural towns, they arrange HIV/AIDS events, and they work on gender equalities issues among others. Malaika and I have been helping out a bit here and there, we are in the process of making a newsletter for the next month, have been to a few meetings etc.. There are 6 men and 2 women working there, all quite young, which of course is nice, they are all lovely people and happy to have us there.
The plan was that we were going to move in with a family when we got in to town, but there has been a few problems; MS was late with two weeks of giving NYDT their money, and when they finally did the family could not have us after all. So we have been lucky enough to stay with Laura, a Danish girl that works for MS/Action Aid, and we are in the process of moving into another house right now. It is quite scary to see how much power a donor has. Because NYDT had not gotten their 4th quarter disbursement, they could not pay the family we were going to stay with, they did not have internet because they couldn’t pay the bill and they had to cancel many meetings. In the end, it is always the interest of the donor that comes first, a one week belated money transfer might seem harmless to the donor in Denmark, but if they were actually here, they would think quite different.
Living in the city again is nice, even though we really miss the people in Guwe, and the people in BUIYSAP. Some of the youth there call us on a daily basis, we are trying to tell them to not spend all their money on phone credit, and the reception is so bad that we cannot hear what they are saying anyways. But it is nice to know that they are eager to stay in touch.
It is for sure a different life here, we spend most of our time in the office, (it’s got internet and a toilet that flushes!), and we usually finish around 5 o clock, which only gives us enough time to go buy some groceries and get a lift home, before it gets dark and we cannot walk outside any longer. Laura’s showed us a few nice places to eat so we have been out a few times too, fairy luxurious to us! This Wednesday we are going up to Victoria Falls where we will visit an organization called Environment Africa, it is also an MS partner, and it will be interesting to see what kind of work they are doing. Then we’ll spend the weekend checking out the waterfall and try to find a pool where we can soak up some sun- it’s almost time to go home so we need our last rays of sun!
Dette skriver jeg på norsk- det er ved å besluttes om det skal være et valg neste juni, to år etter Presidentens parti og opposisjonen slo seg sammen. Det var et stort fremskritt for Zimbabwe at dette skjedde, og ting har sakte men sikkert blitt litt bedre, dog er det fremdeles mye som mangler, og løfter som ikke har blitt holdt. (Selvfølgelig, dette er jo politikk.) Han megtige slasken med navnet som begynner på M har fortsatt mesteparten av makten i sine hender, noe folket, og opposisjonen, selvfølgelig ikke er glade for. Et av løftene når de slo seg sammen, var at det skulle lages en ny grunnlov, eller en forfatning, og at dette skulle gjøres før det ble holdt en nytt valg. Et forslag har blitt laget, politikerne påstår at de har vært rundt i hele landet og samlet inn informasjon fra folket og deres holdninger til ting osv.., men det spekuleres i om folket virkelig har blitt hørt. Videre er det mange diskusjoner om hvorvidt Zimbabwe rent faktisk er klart til å ha et nytt valg, de fleste er selvfølgelig redde for at det skal ende i et blodbad som det gjorde sist, og at det skal være fusk i stemmetellingen. Likevel virker det som om det skal holdes et valg i juni 2011, og vi er rimelig glade for at vi ikke er her lenger enn tre uker til, da det allerede begynner å skje saker og ting: man kan lese i noen aviser (de som ikke er sensurert), at politikere blir sparket, viktige mennesker som holder med opposisjonen blir satt til andre stillinger osv.. Forrige uke var vi på Morgan Tvangsirai, opposisjonens leder og ledende statsminister, valgmøte. Det var interessant å se mannen som kanskje kan bli den nye presidenten, hvis valget faktisk foregår på en ordentlig måte. Valgmøte var i en township utenfor byen, vi var selvfølgelig de eneste hvite, og folk var rimelig ivrige. Mellom talene satt de på dunrende musikk og så svingte Morgan seg litt rundt på scenen, tydeligvis sånn man appelerer til folk her. Det var også en dame som visst vil stille til valg som vise president, hun sto nærmest og rappet på scenen og lignet på Kim Il Young, litt skremmende.
Dette har ingen sammenheng med NYDT som sådan, men de har i den siste tid hold møter med temaer omkring hvorvidt Zimbabwe er klart til et nytt valg, og hva dette har å si for ungdommen. Veldig spennende, organisasjonen er faktisk overraskende politisk, etter å ha kommet fra BUIYSAP hvor det overhodet ikke ble snakket politikk, har vi lært veldig mye om landet politiske situasjon de to siste ukene. Utad gjør de selvfølgelig så godt de kan for å ikke virke partipolitiske, det er jo ikke lov, men det er noen ganske åpenbare aktivister vi møter inne på kontoret.
NYDT’s main activities are to hold youth meetings in the different areas of Bulawayo and also two rural towns, they arrange HIV/AIDS events, and they work on gender equalities issues among others. Malaika and I have been helping out a bit here and there, we are in the process of making a newsletter for the next month, have been to a few meetings etc.. There are 6 men and 2 women working there, all quite young, which of course is nice, they are all lovely people and happy to have us there.
The plan was that we were going to move in with a family when we got in to town, but there has been a few problems; MS was late with two weeks of giving NYDT their money, and when they finally did the family could not have us after all. So we have been lucky enough to stay with Laura, a Danish girl that works for MS/Action Aid, and we are in the process of moving into another house right now. It is quite scary to see how much power a donor has. Because NYDT had not gotten their 4th quarter disbursement, they could not pay the family we were going to stay with, they did not have internet because they couldn’t pay the bill and they had to cancel many meetings. In the end, it is always the interest of the donor that comes first, a one week belated money transfer might seem harmless to the donor in Denmark, but if they were actually here, they would think quite different.
Living in the city again is nice, even though we really miss the people in Guwe, and the people in BUIYSAP. Some of the youth there call us on a daily basis, we are trying to tell them to not spend all their money on phone credit, and the reception is so bad that we cannot hear what they are saying anyways. But it is nice to know that they are eager to stay in touch.
It is for sure a different life here, we spend most of our time in the office, (it’s got internet and a toilet that flushes!), and we usually finish around 5 o clock, which only gives us enough time to go buy some groceries and get a lift home, before it gets dark and we cannot walk outside any longer. Laura’s showed us a few nice places to eat so we have been out a few times too, fairy luxurious to us! This Wednesday we are going up to Victoria Falls where we will visit an organization called Environment Africa, it is also an MS partner, and it will be interesting to see what kind of work they are doing. Then we’ll spend the weekend checking out the waterfall and try to find a pool where we can soak up some sun- it’s almost time to go home so we need our last rays of sun!
mandag 8. november 2010
Goodbye Guwe
Last week was our last week with BUIYSAP, and even though we only had work to do on our computers hence it would have been easier to stay in town, we had a strong wish of staying out in “our” rural area one last time. We managed to get some petrol and filled up the generator, and enjoyed the simple life of Guwe for the last few days. It has been so hot, and finally Wednesday the first rains came. A lot of rain, and along with the rain came the bugs. Never have I seen a bigger selection of bugs than what I’ve seen the past week!! The night of the rain we all of a sudden had about 20 frogs jumping both inside and outside of the centre, and a spider the size of my hand was welcomed us when we walked into our bedroom. The day after was even worse, a few seconds after turning on the generator in the evening hundreds of flying creatures showed up outside, and soon enough inside the centre. While Malaika and I was looking at the swarm of bugs with the greatest disgust, some of the boys happily rushed into the swarm with a bucket of water and started to hit the bugs into the bucket. It turns out these bugs are eaten as a snack, - you pull of their wings and their upper body and then fry their bums in a pot together with some oil. The boys got the youngest guy called Handsome to sit in this swarm for about two hours to pick the bugs and take their wings of. Nice job.
When we walked into our bedroom, the bugs were everywhere, but by this time their wings had fallen off, resulting in a hundred pairs of wings being scattered across our bedroom floor and small bugs running around. I don’t know how many bugs we managed to kill, but it turns out they release a certain smell when you kill them, leaving our bedroom in a horrible smell. Horroshow. Thank god for our mosquito nets! (Well, not completely, Malaika woke up twice having a cockroach crawling on her arm).
Friday night we wanted to do something nice with all the youth, but not being sure what to do or how they usually a have party, we told everyone to at least come down during the night so we could say goodbye to them. Late afternoon we decided we actually had enough food for everyone, and before we knew it, ten guys were making up the fire and getting ready to cook. Later they entertained us with some traditional songs and dances, then we cooked marshmallows on the fire, something no one had tried before! One of the guys managed to borrow the loudspeakers from the shops, and the minute the music was turned on all 40 of them rushed to the dance floor, and danced for three hours, until we had told them “this is the last song!, ten times.
It was a bit hard to leave Guwe Saturday morning, but my newly adopted strategy of saying “See you soon” instead of “Goodbye” really does help. The kids are writing their exams these weeks, and we have told everyone to let us know how they go, which they won’t know before February/March next year. I know it will be hard to stay in touch with most of them, especially since the majority will keep living in the rural areas where the outside world seems very far away - there is hardly any network, and ofcourse no internet. It is hard to say where these youth will go from here, they have been lucky enough to be sponsored by BUIYSAP to finish high school, but most of them do not have funds for going further to colleges and universities. The majority will probably end up as peasant farmers just like their parents, growing maize and having a few cows. It all depends on the political and economical situation in Zimbabwe, it is very interesting to see what will happen. I just read that according to a new survey by the UN Development Programm, Zimbabwes Human Development Index is worse off now than it was in 1970. The report, which came out last week, claims Zimbabwe has the worst living standards in the world.
When we walked into our bedroom, the bugs were everywhere, but by this time their wings had fallen off, resulting in a hundred pairs of wings being scattered across our bedroom floor and small bugs running around. I don’t know how many bugs we managed to kill, but it turns out they release a certain smell when you kill them, leaving our bedroom in a horrible smell. Horroshow. Thank god for our mosquito nets! (Well, not completely, Malaika woke up twice having a cockroach crawling on her arm).
Friday night we wanted to do something nice with all the youth, but not being sure what to do or how they usually a have party, we told everyone to at least come down during the night so we could say goodbye to them. Late afternoon we decided we actually had enough food for everyone, and before we knew it, ten guys were making up the fire and getting ready to cook. Later they entertained us with some traditional songs and dances, then we cooked marshmallows on the fire, something no one had tried before! One of the guys managed to borrow the loudspeakers from the shops, and the minute the music was turned on all 40 of them rushed to the dance floor, and danced for three hours, until we had told them “this is the last song!, ten times.
It was a bit hard to leave Guwe Saturday morning, but my newly adopted strategy of saying “See you soon” instead of “Goodbye” really does help. The kids are writing their exams these weeks, and we have told everyone to let us know how they go, which they won’t know before February/March next year. I know it will be hard to stay in touch with most of them, especially since the majority will keep living in the rural areas where the outside world seems very far away - there is hardly any network, and ofcourse no internet. It is hard to say where these youth will go from here, they have been lucky enough to be sponsored by BUIYSAP to finish high school, but most of them do not have funds for going further to colleges and universities. The majority will probably end up as peasant farmers just like their parents, growing maize and having a few cows. It all depends on the political and economical situation in Zimbabwe, it is very interesting to see what will happen. I just read that according to a new survey by the UN Development Programm, Zimbabwes Human Development Index is worse off now than it was in 1970. The report, which came out last week, claims Zimbabwe has the worst living standards in the world.
mandag 25. oktober 2010
Logistics
We have spent a lot of time in the cars driving people back and forth during the caravan, and we have learned a lot about logistics, and how to plan for it.
The organisations newly bought (used) car has come in hand- I was driving some of the youth to another school one day and I counted 16 youth in the backseat. In a 5 seater, 4w drive. And no one complains, even though you cannot open any of the windows and it’s 40 degrees outside. The car only has a tape player, and I can’t count how many times we have listened to Dolly Partons greatest hits, with everyone in the backseat singing along happily, while our supervisor yells: “Shake whatever your mama gave you in abundance!”
Logistics already being a problem, it didn’t make things better that the petrol station out in the rural area was out of petrol/diesel for almost a week. Well, out of petrol is not really true- the petrol was there, but the black market had bought it all (organised together with the owner of the petrol station ofcourse), so you had to go to a house close to the petrol station and by the petrol at a higher price. This happens almost every week. Now petrol is already pricey, it costs about $ 1,20, so black market petrol is no better. But we learned that from the same house you could also buy pigs heads and cow’s feet, they are stored in the back of a car, and those ones are also at a black market price, which is good to know.
The organisations newly bought (used) car has come in hand- I was driving some of the youth to another school one day and I counted 16 youth in the backseat. In a 5 seater, 4w drive. And no one complains, even though you cannot open any of the windows and it’s 40 degrees outside. The car only has a tape player, and I can’t count how many times we have listened to Dolly Partons greatest hits, with everyone in the backseat singing along happily, while our supervisor yells: “Shake whatever your mama gave you in abundance!”
Logistics already being a problem, it didn’t make things better that the petrol station out in the rural area was out of petrol/diesel for almost a week. Well, out of petrol is not really true- the petrol was there, but the black market had bought it all (organised together with the owner of the petrol station ofcourse), so you had to go to a house close to the petrol station and by the petrol at a higher price. This happens almost every week. Now petrol is already pricey, it costs about $ 1,20, so black market petrol is no better. But we learned that from the same house you could also buy pigs heads and cow’s feet, they are stored in the back of a car, and those ones are also at a black market price, which is good to know.
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