Tuesday 30.04.2013

"Often during the holidays you can get as few as 50 or so kids on the first day" says Kelly our team leader. "Then as word spreads that can quadruple or more by the end of the week".

So we`re going to have our work cut out because this morning we were met by a crowd of upwards of 120 children, waving wildly at the bus as it drove by and then pursuing it with delighted cries of "Book-busee!" and "Kelly!"

We were at Zweilopili Community School, at Morelight in the Dambwa Compound of Livingstone, only twenty minutes or so from the centre of Livingstone but it might as well have been on a different planet.
After a greeting from the head we started straight in with the books and activities we had planned in the comparative serenity of the Bookbus the day before



but soon realised what Kelly had meant by the need for flexibility as,after a reading of Rumble in the Jungle, we were swept up in a tsunami of eagerness and energy, cries of "teacher! teacher" as hands reached for paper, crayons,scissors and glue to make their elephant headbands and exotic looking birds, older children ensuring that younger siblings were not left out.


The noise was deafening, the pace relentless, the fun enormous, the children`s enjoyment seeming out of all proportion to the simplicity of the activities.

In any event, by the time the bus left in a cloud of dust and a chorus of goodbyes and see-you-tomorrows it felt like we`d probably learnt at least as much as they had and earned our lunch into the bargain.

The first part of the afternoon was variously spent eating, sleeping, discussing the morning`s events and exploring the town a little more (including that coffee at Wonderbake) but then it was back to the drawing board to prepare for tomorrow - books? activities? games? songs? Whatever we arrive with it`s guaranteed the kids will respond with massive enthusiasm and big smiles.*

*We`ll try and take pics as and when we can of the actual sessions but these things need to be done with tact, respect and permission and probably not on the first day.

Sunday 28.04.2013

This acclimatising business is such hard work.....

breakfast by the pool and then a short drive to Mosi o Tunya, (the Smoke that Thunders in Lozi,) otherwise known as Victoria Falls and if anything lives up to its own publicity this does.



Awesome doesn`t begin to cover it. In any event most of the time we were rendered speechless by the roar and the fact that we got drenched in the spray.

Couldn`t quite understand why anyone felt it necessary to chuck themselves off the bridge over the gorge



even if they were attached to elastics.

It felt like enough of an adventure to negotiate the footbridge that was running in water whilst simultaneously getting hit by a horizontal deluge


but hey-ho, each to his own. Sartorially challenged maybe but very happy



we returned to town and after a late lunch...by the pool....


we strolled into town and found ice cream and, of course, good coffee!!

So that`s it folks - fully acclimatised: tomorrow we start work. Honest!!

Saturday 27.04.2013

Left home in a hailstorm and arrived in Livingstone about 28 hours later to temperatures of around 27 degrees.....bit of an adjustment but a very welcome one.

Met by team leader Kelly as well as the other two volunteers who`ll be with us this week - Lena from Germany and an American lady - Tena.

Installed into tents,stroll down Livingstone`s main drag, supper cooked for us (it being our first night) - in short - a gentle introduction....and guess what? It`s the school holidays!
However in some ways that could make it even more interesting and possibly give us a bit more scope and time to develop ideas and activities as it`ll be `holiday clubs`.

So tomorrow looks like it`ll be more adjustment time - it`s a tough life -



before getting down to the nitty-gritty on Monday.

Wednesday 17.04.2013

So suddenly, for the first of the Aberdeenshire contingent, there`s only just over a week to go.
How did that happen?

Last jabs for me this morning and thankfully no side effects: the others are all pin cushioned up and we are now asking each other things like "How much money are you taking? and "Have you got your mosquito net yet?"

The Readathon took place on a frankly cold and inhospitable day of which we`ve had quite a few this winter but nevertheless was pronounced a success - spreading the word about our own Mobile Libraries as well as the work of the BookBus to various locations in the shire



(that`s Aberdeenshire btw - not Hobbit land, although sometimes you wonder.....)and in the wake of which people are still sidling up and quietly producing cheques towards the project.

And our last fund-raising event was nothing short of a triumph - a packed hall for a quiz night that went on far longer than any of us anticipated and for which huge thanks is due to the organisers and the people who came out (on another freezing night!) and contributed so generously.

And, hard though it is to believe, it was the first time the five of us had actually been together since the idea was first mooted last year, so here we are in all our glory:



and two of us even remembered our Book Bus t-shirts!

So not quite sure what else there is to say at this stage. Feel strangely calm which might be a sign that something`s been forgotten.

As I write it is cold, it is wet, it is grey: in Zambia it is 28 degrees Farenheit with 0 percent chance of precipitation. That`ll do......not sure where the next post will be from but bring it on!