I am sitting in the office on a Monday morning after an eventful and really exciting weekend. But let's start the highlights in order.
1) Since Friday we are 2 more in the SIA-family. Dominique and Marten from Holland joined the SIA-house and are staying for 6 months in Zambia! On Friday we more or less showed them around and went grocery shopping. After 5 days of pasta I felt like mixing it up a bit....so I bought some rice!
2) On Saturday I went to "school games" at Libala High (School). Raul, my collegue at the organization, is the coach of the girls-basketball team at Libala High. The schoolgames turned oput to be a tournment between 5 schools in basketball and football. The football field was more or less an acre with two posts and a bumpy field of grass. It was, thus, eve more impressive how the palyers performed. What was even more impressive was the celebration when somebody scored a goal. Players started to dace, to do backflips and to jump through the air like...yeah like what?!
Another thing that amazed me was the warm-up sessions before the matches. The whole team is jogging in file, dancing, singing and throwing themselves on the ground. It is just catching and so much fun to look at....it is the joy in their face and the passion they have for the game and the music that creates this wonderful picture.
At the same time on the basketball-court (streetball) boys and girls were battling out the prestigefull glory of being the best school on the court. I was surprised by the physical intensity and the partly very spectacular games. Apart from that I met a lot of new people and had some interesting chats about the current performance of the Zambian football team. While Raoul was busy coaching the boys and girls of "his" school, I switched my chair frequently between the two fields, enjoying the games in the sun...oh did I mention that it was sunny again. I heard afterwards that we had 42°C that day! At night I most likely looked like a lobster who just jumped out of boiling water. It was a great day and I took some great pictures from the fields. Too bad that I couldnt join the others out for some drinks...the sun was giving me a hard time.
On Sunday the two dutch and the two norwegian and me went to the Sunday Market. I could have spent a lot of money since there were lots of amazing handmade stuff and potential souvenirs. I figured, however, that I will have to come back at a later stage. We spent the day walking around the market and taking pictures of our neighbourhood. My personal highlight were two sales women at the street who gave us two fresh Mangos for free when we bought some fruits. Not onyl were the Mangos really really good, but we are now officially their best friends for life. It seems to be quiet easy to get in touch wit the locals here which eases the whole transition process from "being used to your surrounding" to "being the white stranger". Even though one is more than aware of the fact that the colour of skin should not be a matter of concern, it is an interesting process one experiences when people continuesly tell you that you are "white".
The Sunday should not end without two additional highlights.
1) I had my first Zambian beers after I realized that I would never be able to keep my "promise" not to drink for the 10 weeks I am in Zambia. It is just not ME....watching soccer, chilling in the afternoon sun and NOT holding a cold beer in your hands while chatting with your African friends.
2) Zambia vs. Equatorial Guinea....Final match of the group stage..."Colour"-TV, CheeseBalls, and a screaming crowd in front of the screen when OUR captain Katongo scored the important 1:0 for Zambia which meant that we qualified for the quarter-final. Tonight we will know whether we are going to face Angola or the Ivory Coast. But everybody is pretty confident that we can beat any team this year. The spirit that this team brings on the field is accompanied by the touching background of Zambia's participation at the African Cup of Nations. In 1993, the whole Zambian national team died in a plane crash when they left Libreville, Gabon for a FIFA world cup qualificaiton match in Senegal. A resurrected team defied the odds, and displaying an offensive playing style, came second place after losing the final of the Cup 1994 against Nigeria. This year the "Chipolopolo" want the title more than ever since the final will be played in Libreville, Gabon!
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