The New Normal

There are so many ways in which life here is different to life in England.  But as I said to Callum the other day - not complaining, just mentioning - about something we couldn't get here, he scathingly said, “We live in Zambia now Mum, cope with it!”

Our typical school day requires us to get up at 6, hurry through the getting up and breakfasting ritual and the boys out the door at 6.58 to arrive at school at 7.00.  Man, it makes a difference to be right on the doorstep!  If Steve forgets his phone I just pop down to his classroom and hand it over, likewise if Callum forgets his snack.

Callum has registration and seven 50 minute lessons with two breaks.  He’s supposed to come home at 13.10 when school finishes, but it’s hard for him to drag himself away from football to do something as boring as eating.  He arrives home sweating buckets, followed by a small band of friends all keen to play with his Lego and Play Mobil whilst he is persuaded to have lunch.  Over the week his after-school activities include mini-volleyball (for which he has been selected for the school team, one of only two year 4s), woodwork, football, badminton, fun with tablets (the electronic kind) and basketball.

Callum serving at his first volleyball match

He arrives home at 16 latest, rushes through homework which he gets every day, to be ready for swimming.  Living on site we are lucky enough to have access to the school pools after school activities have finished and all day at the weekend.  Callum’s a determined little soul when he wants to be, and so that he can progress to the higher swimming group in PE he has been practising every single day.  He’s made great progress and his swimming teacher has placed him in the top group of the beginners who swim without floats.  We’re just working on putting his face in the water and blowing bubbles at the moment.

Callum practising swimming after school, you can just see our house behind the wall

Steve also has registration and seven 50 minute lessons but with one break.  He doesn’t finish until 13.30 and is then surrounded by pupils wanting whatever pupils want.  He often doesn’t get back for lunch until after 14.00 and then leaves again to fiddle around in his classroom for a further 4 hours.  There are all sorts of wonderful little eccentricities to do with getting work done at school.  If you want to photocopy anything you have to take your own paper to the photocopy man, he then puts it in the queue for the one photocopier.  He knocks off at 16 though, just about the time Steve starts thinking about what he needs to copy.  Printers are equally inaccessible.

Two days a week Steve coaches the U16 volleyball team.  And no he isn’t a trained volleyball coach keeping it secret all these years!  He’s already been with the team to one Saturday match and is just about to leave for another one – it’s 6.30 in the morning.  Next Saturday the team has a national tournament up in Chingola in the Copperbelt (north of the country), so they have to leave on Friday at 5 in the morning for about a seven hour drive, returning late on Saturday.

Two evenings a week Steve plays sports, badminton one night and football the other.  All other evenings he seems to spend marking or planning lessons.

Steve "marking" - some things don't change!

And so, to me, what do I do?  Sometimes it feels like precious little and other times it seems like I’m the one making this family functional.  I mostly get up with the boys, help out getting breakfast, bags and Callum’s clothes and persuade Callum that he needs to wash his face and clean his teeth.  When they leave at two minutes to 7 I heave a sigh of relief, get a(nother) cup of tea and appreciate the silence on the veranda.  Then I am responsible for sorting out all problems.  It took over five weeks to get a bed, and involved many trips with Miss Procurement to the shops.  In the end I just bought the best I could find and claimed it back on expenses.  I sort out maintenance and repair issues which can easily take up the entire day.  When our house flooded because one of the several flexi-connectors in the bathroom gave way and the outside stopcock was completely dysfunctional, it took all day running workmen around to get spare parts, standing over them to make sure they did what they were supposed to and didn’t disappear to find something and not come back.  Incredibly maintenance stores don’t store spare parts – I’ve yet to establish what they do store.  in the meantime, it's amazing what a Zambian workman can do with a plastic bag and bit of bicycle inner-tube.

Pangi, our friendly school plumber, fixing one of our many leaks

On Tuesdays I go to a ladies bible study group in Kabulonga which takes all morning.  It is my refuge, where I go to feel normal, cry with anger and frustration, laugh and share with other ladies who have been in the same situation as me.  At various points during the week I’ll meet people for coffee or lunch, and the least exciting bit, go food shopping at one of several supermarkets.  Spar at Arcades is the best place, calm, uncrowded and twice the price of Shoprite.  Shoprite in Manda Hill is definitely the worst and I only go there if I’m feeling particularly robust in spirit.  The aisles are narrow, the shelves high, the shoppers plentiful and the queues long.
I've also made myself useful to school and church doing presentations and other documentation.  At the moment I'm working on a template presentation for the school and I've just finished putting together a song sheet that has maximum songs to minimum paper.  At least some of my skills are being used - can't wait to get back to engineering!
I generally have to be back home by 13.30 to make sure Callum actually eats lunch and gets to his chosen activity in the right clothes with the right equipment at the right time.  When he returns home hot and sweaty after activities we have a calm and delightful time together doing his homework – not!  Fortunately swimming is a good enticement to do homework.

On Tuesday evenings I have started Nyanja lessons.  Nyanja is the most universal of languages spoken in Zambia, it’s also spoken in Malawi, some parts of Mozambique, and Zimbabwe so our teacher told us.

As to finding a job – the reason that we came here – I’m pleased to say I’m not short on offers.  What I need is my university transcript.  We didn’t even know what a transcript was until we came here, but it seems to be a very important bit of paper.  It’s the paper that notes all your grades for all the subjects you studied that make up the final single grade of your degree.  I immediately applied to Leeds University for it, who promised it within 4 weeks.  It is now nearly 5 weeks and we are no closer to getting it – hohum!  Once I have my transcript I can apply for my engineering licence and once I have my engineering licence the company I choose can apply for my work permit and start working.

Weekends are the time to relax, to play and explore.  We’ve been out to Kalimba, the reptile farm we didn’t make it to in February, and Lilayi, the elephant sanctuary but we’re equally happy staying on site spending the day relaxing and swimming and popping out for breakfast or lunch to The Deli, a café walking distance from here.

Year old crocs at Kalimba

Old crocs dozing in the sun, the open mouth is to cool off

Weaver birds situate their nests over danger like crocs so that
predators are discouraged from raiding their nests

Steve and our buddy Fraser getting close to a boa constrictor

A year old orphan elephant takes its milk from the keeper
at Lilayi

There are unfortunately many elephants orphaned
because of poaching

Every fourth Saturday of the month there is a craft market at the Dutch Reform Church where there are lots of stalls selling the usual African wares: wooden things, fabrics, jewellery and lots of nice food.  Every Sunday there is a similar market at Arcades.  We still haven’t got used to the very in-your-face way of selling they have.  If you even look their way the stall holder is on to you, trying to persuade you to buy his goods.  If the beauty and craftsmanship of his work (about the same as any number of the other stalls) don't grab you, he’ll have a go at telling you how poor his is and how he has no money to get home.  It doesn’t seem to occur to them that if they sold something different from all their competitors and then left you to browse unpressured you would be far more likely to buy.

Dutch Reform Craft Market

And finally of course Sunday.  We’ve found a church we like that meets at one of the other international schools.  There are lots of expats, a few white locals and a few black locals, mostly because they’ve married expats.  I thought when we arrived that we would find a locals’ church and really get stuck in with the culture but they tend to meet very early in the morning, 7 (who are we kidding we’d ever make a start that early) and go on for hours (Callum and I would get the wriggles).  Then of course there’s the level of understanding even though they speak English.  Anyway our church has about 40 members and has a diverse membership, representing all 5 continents I’m sure.  The sermons have been helpful and relevant to our situation.  And the number of songs we sing is mercifully few and off a CD rather than a big band (sorry Martin).  It's small enough that each visitor gets a personal welcome, and there's time for testimonies after the initial welcome.  We love it and feel very at home.

A sense of normality is beginning to emerge.