It is around this time of year that reports begin to filter in, as IDEALS students deliver Edusport sessions in Zambia. In the following article, John Harrison records his experiences so far.

Thank goodness for the Spar shop.  From the comparative mollycoddled luxury of life at home in England or a student flat in Edinburgh (I don't claim luxury includes tidiness) to my first experience of Africa was something of a shocking comparison.  It was perhaps natural to seek out familiarity ... and the only thing I could find at first was a tiny local supermarket which at least seemed to be hygienic.

Zambian poverty is not something you can prepare yourself for in a hurry.  A picture is always worth a thousand words and I found myself recording everything, so perhaps the 6000 or so photographs I took maybe represent the sum total of a personal encyclopaedia.  Then again, a life experience is always worth a thousand photographs!  Luckily I now have both to keep the memories of 3 weeks with the IDEALS and sport development projects in the under privileged communities of Lusaka fresh and vivid. 

Arriving at one o'clock in the morning, I was soon on a bus to a rural community an hour outside the capital, the crust of 24 hours of travelling prised from my wide-open eyes.  Immediately, the dusty brown colour that seems to dominate all of Zambia became the permanent backdrop, relieved only by small splashes of human colour darting around.  At 20 years old, the contrast between my comfortable upbringing in Stockton-On-Tees, and a child’s here could not be greater — one classroom for mixed ages, one water pump between thousands, a scrub football pitch that doubled as a grazing area for animals, old tyres for toys, buses held together with wire and a staple diet of ‘nshima’ - an unappetizing stodge of flour and maize.

The longer I spent in the communities, the more the personalities of the residents (if you could call someone living under a concoction of hardened mud and bin bags a resident) came smiling through, bright-eyed and white-toothed.  They are the most generous, giving and contented set of individuals I have ever met.  The families face a struggle every day just to survive, to get water (clean or not) and to eat.  However, they give their undeserved yet undivided attention to the likes of me and put their hearts and souls into everything they do.  Their enthusiasm is infectious, and their generosity is astounding.  To have almost nothing, but to share it with a stranger without hesitation is so very refreshing.  The scruffy fabric wristband and the sewn toy chicken are two gifts that shall never leave my wrist and mantelpiece respectively.

Briefly leaving behind the plain brown vista, breathtaking Victoria Falls is one of the world's 7 wonders and is so full of colour and wildlife.  Like the Spar shop, it seems so incongruous with the nearby squalor.  Perhaps one day it too will have a lottery terminal, however right now that is not the first small luxury I would hope for the good people of Zambia.  That title belongs to the national currency of replica football shirts, the maximum allowance of which I will be taking with me next year.