Finn:

Day three has been a tiring yet brilliant journey around northern Lusaka! We were up at the crack of dawn to visit some very deprived schools around the outskirts of Lusaka. The children were very excited to see us and welcomed us with lots of singing and dancing. We spent lots of time chatting to the kids who had plenty of questions for us too. A lot of the younger children were especially keen to jump on us which was a lot of fun. At least twice I ended up at the bottom of a pile of hysterical kids who were obsessed with feeling my hair which must look alien to them.

Peble was the first school we visited who gave us a very inclusive welcome to their school. They took us on a tour which was comprised of five or six, small and poorly equipped classrooms. Despite this they were in very high spirits. I made friends which a young boy called Alfred who introduced me to his classmates and showed me around. All of the children eagerly told me their favourite subjects (usually maths and science which starkly contrasts us at Esher). Many of the children played sports such as Football, Basketball and occasionally Cricket to my delight. They all love tag rugby which obviously helped us a lot.

We visited six schools by the end of our visit and met plenty of excited children. Edward, Ezra and Christian were especially welcoming to me. We took plenty of pictures with the children which I’m sure will be uploaded later. It was incredibly tiring but even more rewarding to meet all these kids who live such different lives to us.

Once we had finished with the schools we headed back to camp for a while before heading out for first coaching experience of the trip. It was challenging but fun to see all the children play. They definitely play a lot better than we did during our practices. It was especially tough trying to coach those who are new to the sport and speak little English but by the end we had a good game going.

Its been an exhausting day but very rewarding all in all. Despite nearly getting deported at customs when we arrived (issues with the visa and it took a long time to get through!), flicking my dinner over myself and a monkey stealing my shorts; it has been an incredible few days already! 

Ellen:

At 5am we woke up to get ready for the day. We ate our breakfast and began the journey to the northern schools. When we arrives at the first school, all of the kids were stood outside and gave us a very warm welcome. There were lots of them and they were very welcoming. We said goodbye and drove to the second school; the second school was massive. There were kids from ages 4 to 18 and they were very nice, and showed us around their school. It was very different to our schools; there were so many children to a class and lacking in resources, but their school had an awesome sense of community. 

We hugged them goodbye and made out way to the next school. At the third school there were slightly less kids but they were all still very close. We sang songs and said hello. This school specifically looked after orphaned and under-privileged children, and helped them to access education and food. After this, we went to 3 more schools. 

All the schools were extremely welcoming and we felt very appreciated. It was very nice to see all the different people and make a difference to them. It felt good giving them some of the donations that we brought over with us. 

When we got home, we had lunch and went out coaching in two local schools. There were so many kids, and they were all very good! It was awesome. 

We then came home and lots of us played Volleyball together before dinner, which was a curry. It was lovely 🍠

Apologies - just a few photos to go with these great blogs - late and we took 1,000 photos to sort!!

Chris