Laura's Diary

Hey guys! Wow, it’s been a while and a lot has happened since I last wrote!
My first trip away was with my whole year to Killary in County Galway as part of our Gaisce. We piled into the bus very early on Monday the 16th March and drove for 6 hours to the centre. We had lunch straight away then jumped into our overalls and on to orienteering - in the rain! In the evening we played games then fell into bed. The next morning we woke up to beautiful sunshine, got into our hiking gear and after a quick breakfast we headed, in groups, up the mountain.  We reached the summit at about 1pm and had our lunch. We took a picture of our group at the top of the mountain then started back down. The scenery was amazing! On Thursday the weather was gorgeous again and we walked along a flat trail (thankfully!), to the banks of a river. We had our lunch and carried on walking until we came to a deep point in the river, and because it was so hot we decided to jump in! I think it was the best decision we made on the whole trip. We had to walk back to the centre soaking wet then a quick change and back on the bus to Dublin.
My next trip away happened over Easter, again with my year. On the first Saturday of the holidays at 4:00 am, 60 girls from my year arrived, bleary eyed, to Dublin airport. We were off to Paris! Our plane touched down on French soil and we went on to the Musee d’Orsay where we got to see paintings by three of my favourite artists, Monet, Renoir and Cézanne. After that we headed down to the Champs d’Elysee. We had dinner in a gorgeous restaurant then did a bit of shopping before going back to the hotel. The next morning we headed to the Palace of Versailles - it is amazing with all rooms richly decorated. For lunch that day four of my friends and I went to a little cafe that served snails. I had to try one to say I’d tasted it, but I won’t be doing that again! After Versailles we went to a church called Sacre-Coeur, which is on the top of a hill, with a lot of steps leading up to it. After a quick dinner we drove to the Seine and got on the Bateaux Mouches, which is a boat that travels along the river at night time, so you get to see Paris all lit up. The day after, we went to the area around Notre Dame, on to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo among others. Then we took a walk through the Tuilleries Gardens and off to the Eiffel tower where we ate our dinner at the foot of the tower, and then got the lift up to the second station. The view was fantastic. We were all very sad to leave but we have great memories from the trip!
The YSI show case is happening tomorrow the 6th May. YSI stands for Young Social Innovators. Each fourth year class in my school had to think up a social issue that needed to be highlighted. My class thought that the issue of slave labour needed to be discussed as it affects all of us. We all buy cheap clothes and shoes, but do we even think for a second about where these goods come from? They are most likely made by underpaid slave labourers in sweatshops or workhouses. Our motto for our project is ‘Care Wear Fair’. To highlight the issue we staged a fashion show in our school, did a survey and put up posters around our school. After sending in our 12-page report we were accepted into the showcase, where we will stage our fashion show again. It should be a great day as there are loads of projects from all over the country, so we’ll get to meet lots of people.
That’s all for now!

Niamh's Diary

March was a major month in our TY year. After seven long, hard months of preparation and fundraising we had finally come within weeks of our departure date to Zambia. For the first two weeks of March we had work experience. I did my first week in a pharmacy and my second week in a veterinary clinic. I really loved both of the weeks, especially the pharmacy. Before we knew it, there was only one week before we left for Zambia. We were so busy with all the last minute preparations that we never really got a chance to think about our trip, which may have been a good thing though as when I did sit down and talk about it I began to feel really nervous and a bit panicky. Although the school had done as much as possible to prepare us I think everyone was feeling apprehensive and wasn’t sure of what to expect.
On Monday 30th March we said goodbye to our parents at the school and then went on a bus to Belfast airport. A strike had been planned for that Monday so that meant we had to switch our flights – just in case of delay. That morning, we flew to Heathrow and there we had a few hours’ stopover. After a ten-hour flight to Lusaka airport we landed on Tuesday morning, met a few of the Sisters of Mercy in the airport and soon began the two-hour journey to Mazabuka – the town in which the Sisters of Mercy are based. My first impression of the country was of pure, unspoilt beauty. Even in the capital city there were hardly any high-rise buildings. We slept for most of the journey and when we arrived in Mazabuka we split into two groups of nine and got settled into our accommodation. Our group stayed in a guesthouse called Azania house. It was clean but very basic, although, to be honest none of us really cared as long as we had a bed to fall into!
 Wednesday and Thursday were spent visiting two different schools. My group went to a rural school called Chiding Basic School. The more rural the school, the poorer the facilities were. As we drove down the seriously bumpy dirt track (you have no idea what a pothole really is until you drive down one of these!) we saw the school in the distance. We got out of the bus and saw students coming towards us in costume, doing a local warrior dance. They started to lead us to the school, and we assumed that that was our welcome - we were seriously mistaken! As we turned the corner there were hundreds of students all lined up on the side of the road and the school choir led us in, singing their welcome song. It was the strangest feeling ever because some students were yelling and clapping, others waving and some – the younger ones especially, just looked terrified of us. We all sat down under a canopy of trees and the students sang, danced and recited poetry. We really hadn’t expected anything like this!

The welcome at Chitongo Basic School

As soon as the welcome presentation was over we were invited into a classroom, where we introduced ourselves and heard speeches. We were then introduced to nine girls and each of us was assigned a girl to look after us for the next few days. As we walked to visit a local village we each got to know our friends. My friend was called Lisa. She was one of eight children and her mother had died a few years ago. It was so strange to discover that, for the majority of the girls, one or both parents are dead. When we reached the village the headman came over to welcome us. Polygamous marriages are very common and this man had two wives but the common number of wives is four. In the village we were going to prepare a meal – from scratch. That meant collecting the firewood and water, seeing the chicken being plucked, gutted and chopped up, milking the cows and pasteurising the milk. We helped pound the maize and prepare it for the inshima (the staple food of Zambia). This is like a paste made from finely ground maize. It tastes very bland so they dip it relish. Relish could be anything from specially prepared pumpkin leaves to pigeon – the local people couldn’t understand why we weren’t eating as much as them but for us a few bites of the inshima filled us up for a few days. The village consisted of two small houses that basically looked like mini-crannogs. There was no electricity and no running water. That was a strange day for us as normally a tourist would never get the chance to experience real village life and see the real Zambia. One thing that was a major culture shock was the way women are seen as second-class citizens. Although technically they are not, this has not translated into everyday life. The women serve the men, while kneeling before them and the men are always served first. The men sit on chairs while the women have to sit on the floor. Things like that took a lot of getting used to. We also had to wear wrap around skirts and scarves that are called ‘chitenge’. The girls in the school made them for us and it was a really nice souvenir from the trip as we got to keep them.

  
Village Life

The second day in the school was a lot of fun. We had a little concert under the trees where all the hundreds of students came out and did loads of different performances. They made us get involved too and our terrible dancing certainly made them laugh! We played some Irish traditional music and did a few sets of Irish dancing, though I have to admit that our attempt looked fairly pathetic next to their performances. They told us that they had been preparing since they heard we were coming in October! We taught them how to play rounders and ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’. At one point we had over a hundred people in our game of Duck, Duck, Goose! We also got a chance to participate in the feeding programme. A bowl of meal is given to each of the junior students but the senior students don’t receive anything – even after walking kilometres to school. The average class size in the school is 60 students per teacher so that was a major shock.  That second day was one of the best days of my life – I will never, ever forget it.
 We spent the next few days visiting various schools around Mazabuka as well as visiting the local hospital as well. It was really shocking to see how bad the conditions were and the hospital was fairly empty apart from the AIDS/HIV clinic, which was so crowded we couldn’t get in. In the post-natal ward the electricity went out while a premature baby was in an incubator!
We also visited a sugar cane plantation – Mazabuka is know as the sweetest town in Zambia as it produces so much sugar. We visited a coffee plantation that week too. An Irish woman owned it, who was originally from Navan and we bought some coffee to take back to Ireland with us.
 The following week we spent some time in the compounds of Mazabuka. These are the poorest areas – kind of like shanty towns. We saw the Lifestart Programme in action. That’s the programme set up by Sr Mary Cudden, one of the Sisters of Mercy who was previously based in Navan. They help children in the compounds from birth to the age of five and their aim is to give the children the best start possible in life. After working so hard to fundraise for the programme it was brilliant to see, first-hand, where our money was going. It was strange that at the time we didn’t feel pity for the people. They are so happy and spirited, that you just feel really humbled and appreciative of what you have. It is only when you look back on the experience that you realise how bad the living conditions are in the compounds. 
 For our last few days we drove six hours down to Livingstone, the tourist capital of Zambia. There we visited Victoria Falls, which was such an amazing experience. We also travelled to Botswana and went on safari which was a lovely way to end the trip. The programme for the trip was designed to give us an overall view of Zambia and I think they really succeeded in doing that. I gained from the experience in every possible way and I definitely think it is something that every single person should experience at least once in their lifetime. Zambia is such a beautiful country with so much to offer and I really can’t wait to go back in a few years time!

Children in the compounds (They all got so excited when we took out our cameras)