This week I’ve been head down, bum up trying to make a serious start on these objectives. Time seems to be slipping through my fingers, but the good news is that progress is finally starting to rear its little head (a major relief given that earlier in the week I felt a bit like a deer in the headlights… on a major motorway).
I began the week by hosting a brainstorming session to come up with a theme for this year’s festival with key members of the Barefeet team. While the session was due to start at 9am, we eventually kicked off closer to 10.30am; timeliness is not a strong point for Zambians and I now understand the meaning of the phrase ‘Zambia time’. I asked the group to think about the words they associated with Barefeet and then, separately, when they thought about the children that Barefeet work with. I had expected a contrast between the two and that the children would evoke words like struggle or hardship, but what astonished me was that the words they associated with the children were things like love, strength and vibrant – all positive. They view the children as heroes for not giving in to the constant battle that is their lives, which is a beautiful sentiment in itself. While we didn’t settle on a theme, we came up with a few serious contenders and the plan is to nail one down at the beginning of next week so we can start talking to potential sponsors before I leave. Watch this space!
We finished the week with the team performing at the Italian school of Lusaka, who were hosting their annual Carnevale. It was amazing to see them perform and how the kids reacted to them – they bring such enthusiasm to their performances and I would give my left arm to be able to dance the way they do!! Lucky for me the team weren’t satisfied with seeing my dancing efforts on my second day (for context, my Mum used to call me a baby elephant whenever I’d try to dance as child) so at after-work drinks they decided to give the live band my name and tell them they had to invite me up on stage. What ensued was chants of ‘Muzungu! Muzungu!’ from a crowd of pissed Zambians followed by a humiliating minute where I had to attempt to dance to some Zambian song I had never heard of before. Safe to say I WAS MORTIFIED and took the earliest opportunity I could to exit stage left. Not being satisfied with my publication humiliation I then proceeded to get myself locked in the toilet and was in there for 10 minutes before I spotted a man walking past the window who came to my rescue. Literally could not make this shiz up…
