Arriving in Lusaka and trip to Kaputa (north Zambia)

This is my contribution to our blog since we arrived in Lusaka mid-August. We are still waiting for our container to arrive. In all respects, the contrasts with life in Hanoi could not have been sharper. Wonderful weather, dry, spacious and often empty streets, no pollution, the sound of birds, few shops, a handful of restaurants (many Indian or Chinese), moving around in a car, only two karaoke spaces (run by Chinese), no sitting or eating on the street, no horns, many smiles, lots of laughing, English-spoken, and a much slower pace of life. Our own life is now very much focused in and around the house. Our house is not very big but the garden is (!) – somewhat like a farm. Our chicken, two cats, 7 guinea pigs, and > 20 rabbits, together with the fruit trees (lemon, guava, avocado, banana, and mango) and the space certainly contribute to the feeling of living a rural life. The children are very happy and we enjoy it as well, although we also miss the liveliness of To Ngoc Van. The children go the American School and every morning the school bus arrives at 06:45 (!) to pick them up. The curriculum is very much like UNIS in Hanoi, the school is smaller but has a similar style – lots of activities, they all play tennis, Annique basketball, and Noa & Annique do horse riding. For Noa, Grade 6 means a big change and school life got more serious with homework, tests. The first week, she had to be able to identify all African countries on a blind map! Good thing was that they all were able to make some friends and had children come over to play at our house.

 Lieke has spent much time driving around with the children (before we moved into our house) and finding her way around Lusaka. Already before arriving there were contacts with Dance4Life Zambia and she had a number of meetings with the team, exploring how she could make a contribution to their work in Zambia. Hopefully other work opportunities will arise as well. In all, settling down in Lusaka has been energy-consuming – big change in our life. Finding a new rhythm, getting used to a new life style, leaving behind Hanoi and Vietnam (which was difficult for all of us), getting to know people in Zambia, and being patient around the efficiency and pace with which the agreed repairs to our house were completed. Not like Vietnam!

At the end of September, I (Paul) went on my first field trip for UNICEF. I participated in the review of a Government programme that we support, which provides a monthly allowance to families with children below five years in districts with very high rates of poverty and child mortality. One of these districts is Kaputa, about 1,400 kilometres north of Lusaka at the borders of Congo and Tanzania – separated by Lake Tanganyika. Nearly two days in the car to get there, with the last stretch being a gravel road. The contrast with travelling in Vietnam could not have been bigger: endless, straight roads, through the savannah like plains, the odd village here and there, a monkey crossing the road, and antelopes aside the road. Back to basic accommodation, power cuts, water from a bucket, and chicken or fish with nshima (maize) or rice every evening. Many in Kaputa have difficulties in meeting very basic needs, in particular getting enough food. One meal a day (often not more than a piece of nshima) is not an exception. The allowance that the Child Grant programme provides is based on getting these families one extra meal every day.

Our first meeting in the district is well attended and quite lively, another big contrast with Vietnam: everybody speaks out, issues are raised, and nobody afraid of criticizing whatsoever. Our visiting team is led by a lady from the Social Welfare Ministry, responsible for the programme. Still, people tend to address questions and concerns to us (UNICEF, UK and Irish embassies). When we visit the community volunteers (who help families register for the programme), teachers (who volunteer to do the payments), and families who receive the allowance we are impressed by the positive reactions and the fact that now close to 10,000 families in this district receive the money since 2010.

Although our visit is short, we get an impression of the difference this regular transfer can make in their lives: they can buy more food, shoes and clothes for their children, soap (one mother told us that she was now proud of sending her children to school clean), school uniforms, and some mothers (who receive the money) were able to start a small business such as selling dried fish or tomatoes. Mothers receive 60,000 Kwatcha monthly (about 12 US dollars), which is paid out to them on a bi-monthly basis by a group of local teachers who volunteer to act as paying officers. We really hope the programme will help improve the nutritional status of the children, something we hope to demonstrate through an evaluation end 2013. Indeed, many of the children we met were under-nourished, too short for their age, coughing – certainly confronting. Typically, these remote and poor areas are severely understaffed and teachers, nurses have to work in very difficult circumstances. We agreed that the Government should provide more incentives to work in these areas and recruit more staff (which it can certainly afford!). We observed that many families are not registered for the programme even though they have kids below five. The district officials blamed a limited budget. Again, this is something that the Government of Zambia can certainly afford. For those of you interested to read more about (the technical details of) this programme and its evaluation, the following website is useful: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/transfer/countries/zambia