My family

When I arrived on monday, I had no idea where I would be staying but I assumed that I would stay in a hostel or a lodge until I could find a family with whom I could live. I hadn't even bothered to ask about it because I had very much assumed the no worries -attitude. However, on monday they actually immediately organized with a family that I could stay there. Someone called there around eleven, and at 2 pm, I was already in my new bed taking a much needed nap. Sometimes things do happen quickly here!

The mother of the family has worked earlier at KYP and her sister works there at the moment. Besides her and her husband, there are five children ranging in age from two to fifteen. I am not the first volunteer to stay there, also Marianne (her blog in Finnish) stayed there some years ago. I consider myself very lucky with the family, as they are very nice and they have really taken me as a new member of the family.

We live in Kamwala South, a compound in Lusaka, maybe around five kilometers away from the city center. The area is rather new, so there are still unfinished houses, and not much green. After one week in Lusaka, I am not much of judge on anything, but I think the area is still reasonably nice.

The biggest culture shock so far was perhaps getting to know the children. They are unbelievably well-behaving! They do their part of household chores without complaining, and they also voluntarily offer to help me. Try to imagine this: I came home after work and I had walked on a rather muddy road. The 10-year-old boy saw my shoes after I had stepped in, and taken them off, and said: "Let me clean those for you.". After that, he actually took my shoes, and cleaned them, and then brought them to me. That's just one example but I could give you dozens of them.

There are some things that seem to be universal with the kids: they love ice cream and they find my computer extremely interesting. Unfortunately, the choice of games on my computer is rather limited, and there are no car games.

The children address me as Auntie Anu, as they are supposed to show respect towards older people. I am truly an old person here, even if I don't necessarily look old to others: the mother of the family is actually younger than me (from this, people smarter than me can probably quite soon figure out that only the youngest of the children is actually biologically hers).