Zambia

Some of my colleagues from Minnesota have a round-about connection with some folks in Zambia. I was able to accompany them on a trip to Zambia. We first met in Cape Town at an international disability conference (which was very fun – especially the day we spent in the wine country!). Unlike the conference I attended previously, there weren't that many African delegates, so it wasn't as interesting. We did have a fascinating township tour though which we all appreciate very much. Then we flew up to Lusaka for a week of meeting with disability groups, doing a small research project, and conducting a workshop. We got a very warm reception from people who were interested in learning more about disabilities in Lusaka, and a highlight of the trip was the establishment of a new disability group that has now started to meet in a very poor neighborhood of Lusaka. It was hard to really get a sense of what was going on in Zambia in such a very short visit, but I think it was worthwhile. It was interesting for me to see the differences between Lusaka and Windhoek. Lusaka is a much more polluted, dirty city than Windhoek, and my eyes burned while I was there. However, people were very friendly, and almost everyone spoke English quite well. There was also a lot of entrepreneurship going on in Lusaka, and it seemed as if everyone has his or her own small business. Part of our trip was interrupted by the funeral of the president of Zambia, who died a few weeks before we arrived. It was a very interesting time to be in this country, and we learned a lot about Zambian politics because of the timing of our trip. While I enjoyed Zambia and the Zambian people very much, I was very happy to arrive back in Windhoek! There is a whole blog devoted to this collaboration that discusses our trip as well – The Twin Cities Zambia Disability Connection.



Tribute to the Late President Mwanawasa


The Minnesota Team with the Zambian Team