Get as much out of Zambia as you put in
By Story by Hilary White and pictures by Bivan Saluseki
Sun 01 Aug. 2010, 04:01 CAT
IT is said that of all the continents, Africa has the power to run rings around your imagination. It calls to something deep within us that longs to go back and see where we all started.
But approaching the continent as a tourist can be daunting, especially if you only have a couple of weeks in which to visit. There is so much to consider squeezing in, and that's before you've looked at issues of safety and responsible tourism.
Enter Travel4change, which I recently had the pleasure of accompanying to the sub-Saharan jewel of Zambia. The Irish company has worked out that not everybody wants to go on holiday just to point at things and consume away in a nice climate. Some want to roll up their sleeves, leave their sweat and positivity behind, and make some small difference to the lives of their hosts.
Zambia makes this an easy prospect for the visitor. Happy and handsome, the people are a sea of bright smiles and good wishes. There is never a feeling that you should be looking over your shoulder. The Irish are particularly welcome, a brotherhood forged during independence in 1964, when Irish missions and government-aid schemes stepped in to help a fledgling nation find its feet.
And we're still there, too. In the capital Lusaka, we paid a visit to the Irish Embassy, where Ambassador Tony Cotter filled me in.
"This year, Irish Aid is celebrating its 30th anniversary here," he said.
"We are very involved in the education sector. In 1964, only six per cent of its population had completed primary education. Access to primary education is now more than 95 per cent. Ireland has made a significant contribution in that respect. Last year, we helped build 2, 500 classrooms and to recruit more than 5 000 teachers."
Travel4change is part of this legacy. Helmed by the vivacious and determined Marjorie McHenry, the company organises nine-day to two-week trips, depending on your budget. You work three days building a school, before winding south to enjoy the more customary fruits of Africa along the mighty Zambezi River.
What's more, the company donates 10 per cent of the cost of the trip to the project.
Lusaka was a welcoming place to commence. The climate was a dry, sunny and generally Paddy-pleasing 26 degrees. It was surprisingly green, with elegant tree-lined avenues and landscaped grass-verges. International banking, houses and construction sites hinted at a nation developing nicely in the face of the continent's economic, political and social challenges. Aspirations for it to become a middle-income economy by 2030 appeared reasonable.
Our base for these first days the Southern Sun Hotel, offered a high level of comfort. The restaurant put on an excellent buffet each evening - you could help yourself to Mediterranean tapas and an extensive salad selection before asking the chef to grill you a fillet of African fish. If by the end you couldn't bring yourself to approach the dessert table, the Southern Sun even had its own Irish bar, McGinty's, to adjourn to.
In the afternoon, a fitness room and outdoor pool were available to help work up an appetite. But despite the hotel's Western mould and level of service, there were continual reminders of being in Africa: crocodiles sunbathe in a pond beside the outdoor seating area, while you eat a breakfast of tropical fruit salad and good coffee; above them, in the lush reeds, hang the delicate basket nests of weaver birds.
Things were more explicit outside the Southern Sun during our daily drives into the Kanyama compound. The high-rise and traffic of downtown Lusaka would give way to the clamour and frenzy of the market area.
Lines and lines of vendors manned stalls selling anything and everything, while minibus touts leaned and leered out passenger windows.
It's safe to say that our five pasty northern European hides stood out, but bar the odd "mzungu" (white man) heckle, we would get wave after smile after wave.
The tarmac road finally came to an end and continued as a bumpy track of dust and rock. This was Kanyama, a vast suburb home to some of the city's poorer residents. We continued on, resting finally by the large clearing that would one day be the Luyando Open Orphanage Community School.
There are about 1,800 HIV/AIDS orphans here, and while conditions in the area are comparatively better than in many other African townships - community spirit and housing structures are both sturdy - it is these children, their parents ravaged by illness, that Travel4change is setting its sights on.
During the next three days, our group worked in the dust and sun to scratch out what would soon be the construction site. Supervising work on the project was Hibernia Contracting, which, as the name would suggest, was an Irish-owned business.
The owner in question was a hard-nosed but helpful Dub by the name of Mark Brogan, who, incidentally, had also set a new standard in fundraising as chairman of Zambia's Wild Geese - the expatriate Irish community there.
Third World bureaucracies tend to get things done very slowly, however, and some teething problems emerged over property rights. This meant lots of phone calls and negotiating on Marjorie's part, while the rest of us helped clear away foliage and rubble.
It was satisfying outdoor work, the kind you wish you got more of. Sweat emulsified with sun-cream, running into and stinging my eyes. Dust travelled up noses and prompted bouts of sneezing. Hands were blistered and thorns snagged skin.
But all around, young and old came to shake your hand or help you carry a tree stump away.
This was going to be theirs and they understood this. We weren't heroes - merely assistants to a better start for these children.
Travel4Change organises responsible tourism that will have a positive impact on the local communities. The next trip is planned for November. For more details, visit www.travel4change.
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