Zambia Part II

After all the hard work in Twapia was finished, we headed off to Nsobe Game Reserve for a weekend of R&R. The park itself was just breath-taking. See for yourself!

We took part in pretty much all of the activities the place had to offer - the Safari drive, fishing (bad idea), swimming, canoeing. We even got to hold some tiny snakes and a baby alligator (or crocodile, I can't remember which). There was also a spa - and I use the term loosely - where some of us got some interesting hot stone massages. 

Nsobe was such a cool place and it was great to spend some time in such a different kind of surrounding to the semi-urban one where we spent the majority of the trip. In all, Zambia is an amazing country. Although there is quite a bit of poverty there, the people themselves are so happy and friendly. The crime rate in Zambia is astonishingly low which is why, while in Twapia, we were staying right at the heart of the community that we were trying to help. It is a pretty incredible country and has a real wealth of what you would traditionally associate with Africa. 

Cheers for reading,

Jane


P.S I have some insanely exciting news that I will be sharing sometime at the end of the week!

Zambia

Now for a post about Zambia. This was my second time working with Habitat For Humanity (I went to Hungary in 2007) and it was just incredible - pretty tough work but so rewarding, and what an experience!
Please prepare yourself for a seriously long post. Epic post!

Also for any of you who don't know where Zambia is (just in case like) here is a little map.

After a day in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, we made the five hour bus journey to the Ndola where just a couple of miles outside the city, the township of Twapia was located. We were straight to work the day after arriving. The work was pretty hard and even though it was only between 24 and 27 degrees the whole time we were there, while you're working it would often feel way hotter. Not much of a tan was got though unfortunately as we were all constantly coating ourselves in sunscreen. 

This was what the site was like when we arrived. 

The kiln made out of bricks to bake the bricks 

Window Putty Man

Cutting the ribbon at the Closing Ceremony

For the building, our team of twelve students from NUIG was divided into two teams of six and we went to two separate sites (the site in all the pictures above was the site I was on) and we also visited a third site on two occasions. We were quite proud of ourselves with all the work we got done. As you can see we almost finished the whole house in the two weeks we were working on it. 

One highlight of our time in Twapia was the amazing kids that roamed around the township, constantly asking us how we were and what our names were. Their fascination with us meant that they were never far from the site or the houses we were staying in. They also loved getting their photo taken and seeing them displayed on the screen afterwards. 

They went apeshit for the bubbles!

My entourage 

One of the girls being brave

The living conditions in the township were very basic. No running water, plumbing or electricity. We were all even seriously missing chairs by the end of the first week. The toilet facilities were rough to say the least. Ladies who lived in the area cooked our meals for us and a lot of nights after eating the would come in to us and make us all sing and dance - no matter how tired we were, it would always be great craic! In return for them singing and dancing every night we would also have to sing some Irish songs for them, so after trying out pretty much every song we ever learned in primary school, we settled on the English translation of a very catchy Gaeltacht song called Baby Shark, and a shortened ten verse version of Ro Ro the Rattlin' - neither of which I'm sick of despite singing them about twice a night every night for two weeks! 

So that's all I have to tell ye now. I'm sure I think of something else to say and I'll just add it to the post I'll do about Nsobe Game Park (a safari park we went to after all the work was done).

Cheers for reading,

Jane 

Map via google.images.com

the instagram diaries

My sister Harriet and my gorgeous nephew getting their photo taken today in Suzy McCanny's studio in Sligo

After much determination, Francis Boulle of Made In Chelsea finally retweeted my friend Linda

my attempt at Goddess - in the style of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus - on the Draw Something app

the recent gorgeous weather in Galway brought out a lot of loveliness including these cute little chalk drawings that cheered me up immensely on my way to college (shame it's all gone now)

a friend of mine brought a box of Twister ice creams into the library, very yummy but we got a lot of stares

Cheers,

Jane

team building

(Taken with instagram)

So this weekend, my Habitat For Humanity team journeyed off into the abyss. 

Well not so much into the abyss but in search of Esker Monastery which actually proved extremely difficult to find on Friday. We were about to start our Team Building Weekend and the first team building exercise of the day was actually finding the place. And we did. Eventually.

Overall it was a really great weekend. There was a lot of playing games, alternative song-writing (pictured above), bonding, sharing and then the whole thing was rounded off with a legendary game of Kings. If you happen to be Kings-inclined, then I have something amazing to share. The "With My Pants Down" rule. When you draw whichever card you have assigned to be the New Rule card then embrace the "With My Pants Down" rule. Fear not. It is more innocent than it sounds. Kind of. At the end of every sentence the phrase "with my pants down" must be said. It sounds juvenile but it is fairly hilarious. Image the innuendo! Actually it's not so much innuendo but just blatant statements. Literally no sentence is safe... with my pants down.

Cheers for reading,

Jane 

eBay books

As part of my fundraising for Habitat for Humanity, I have decided to create an eBay account especially for a charity auction.
Below are a collection of photographs of two beautiful books that I have decided will be the first addition to this account.
First up is Taschen's 25th anniversary edition of Fashion: A History from the 18th to the 20th Century.

Isn't it pretty??

Next up we have - for all Audrey fans out there - Ellen Erwin's The Audrey Hepburn Treasures. This is basically a scrapbook of Hepburn's life and career with replicas and copies of tickets, programmes, letters and scripts. It is so beautifully put together and ideal for anyone who is Audrey-inclined!

Although these have not been posted yet on my eBay account they will be shortly. Soon I will have a page listed underneath the Header that will have a list and pictures of all of the items up for auction as part of my fundraising.

Cheers for reading,

Jane