It's been a crazy last week, yet I mean that in the best way possible. We have done sooo much, it feels like its been more like 2 weeks than one. We arrived in the country of Zambia on Monday, and went directly to our hotel in the country's capital called Lusaka. The first full day we had in the capital, we visited a non-profit organization called All Kids Can Learn Zambia (AKCLZ). The non-profit had two main areas of focus: a micro-finance project where they trained young people to run their own businesses, one of which was a roadside produce market, held inside of a large barn. When we toured the site, two girls probably in their late teenage years were demonstrating how they were learning to use computer and accounting skills to run the business, and keep track of what they sell. It was interesting to see how, in the middle of a small rural area in Zambia, there was an existing project that already had people my own age learning business skills, while I come from a more privileged life with access to so many technological skills, and still have no idea how to run my business. After visiting the produce farm, we went to the second project of AKCLZ, which is an orphanage, also known as a "children's village", which is a better description of it. There were several "houses", with about 12 kids living in each one, and one "parent" looking after each household. They were very nice houses (each bed was equipped with a bed net!), and seemed like an excellent environment, one of the best establishments for orphans I have ever seen. There was one house in particular that stuck out to me, where the woman looking after the children was from Detroit, and had moved with her husband and two young kids a few years ago in order to live and work in the children's village. I admired her family very much, to have the courage to suddenly leave everything familiar and move to a rural community in Zambia, and sacrifice a lot in order to make someone else's life better.
A few days later, we had a "fishbowl activity," where we gathered in our hotel conference room and met about 15 Zambian youth (from age 18 to 22) to discuss, compare, and contrast our lives with theirs. When we first arrived in the room, there was an awkward silence, accompanied by a few nervous smiles. Though, after a few ice-breaker games, we were animatedly talking and laughing amongst each other. The highlight of the discussion, I thought, was when we went around and listed out some common stereotypes and misconceptions we had or used to have about each other's countries. It was pretty interesting (and funny) to hear what each person's take was on the other country. My brother Satchel mentioned that he used to think Africa was all desert, with a few buildings, a lot of huts, and a sparse landscape. Someone else from our youth delegation said that they used to think that most people in Africa had AIDS and was dying, but was surprised to learn that only a little below 3% of population was infected with HIV/AIDS. The Zambian youth said they heard that the US wasn't street-safe, parents were less strict, there were no rules within school systems, and there was more opportunities for entrepreneurship. Overall, the experience was very eye-opening, because we never really get the chance to lay our stereotypes out on the table in front of people different from ourselves.