Immigration Day (Blog from Jami Ward)

Thursday started out like a standard Zambian day, the rooster was crowing by the window, the sun was beginning to shine in a big blue sky and my mosquito net was beginning to fall. I was awoken by Jill bringing me a piece of bread with thickly spread chocolate Nutella, which is a highly effective means of getting me out of bed! We all ate breakfast, packed for the day at the schools, grabbed water and headed out on foot. We walked to Eastlea where we met the STS Zambian facilitators to teach the last day’s curriculum. The celebration of Freedom Day on Tuesday, 25th of May, meant that we had to squeeze the getting tested topic in with transmission/prevention talk. Being that it was a last day for the students to practice their presentations, we all gave the students a little extra time to practice along with extra guidance. We also all spent sufficient time answering the student’s questions about HIV/AIDS and making sure that any misconceptions were clear. The girls had lots of additional questions about pregnancy and mother-to-child HIV transmission. For the life skill lesson, we encouraged the students to think about what life means to them. The topic was quite abstract for a lot of them but good discussions was had. After teaching at Eastlea, we walked out the back gate of the school, as usual and walked to the corner where we again caught a taxi which would take us to the bus stop for the bus to Murundu. We were walking towards the bus, where the drivers were waiting for us, when we were stopped by two men who claimed to be with immigration. The immigration officer talked to the Zambians first, asking what we were doing here. Johnny asked to see his papers proving he was who he said he was. He proved he was with the immigration office and proceeded to ask for all our passports. He harped on the fact that we should have registered as travelling as a business. We disagreed but then convinced them that we’d do better next time. This pleased them and then we spoke some Chibemba which made them laugh, which seemed to do the trick. We assumed they were trying to find a way to get just a few Kwatcha out of us! They failed!! During this whole charade, a bus driver who remembered Austin from the day before was loudly signaling for him to bring us to get on his bus. Once released from the immigration officers … we all went and jumped on the minibus to Murundu. We barreled off, down the road to Murundu, tightly packed in the minibus. We got to Murundu basic where we all went and taught again! The girls at Murundu declared to Jill that, “they know everything there is to know about HIV/AIDS and sex.” Slightly overconfident perhaps! We practiced the relay for the sports clinic on the students at Murundu. It didn’t prove to be the easiest game to organize but it was fun. With a little reorganization it would work perfectly. Overall, it was a terrific day filled with lots of great talks and fun!