Back from Zambia

G'day

just got back from Zambia - what an amazing experience. I must say, it wasn't all roses. For starters, my living situation was pretty scummy at best. Filthy would be an appropriate word. And I don't know if any of you have heard but there's a major energy crisis is Southern Africa at the mo, which meant large chunks of time with no power. Taking a cold shower is not fun at the best of times, let alone in the dark.

But aside from having an amazing time visiting interns and getting to see Victoria Falls (pictures to come!) I was thoroughly impressed with our training course. "Master Trainers" training course to be exact. Yes, I am now a certified "Master Trainer." I will explain more of that when I really get to know what it means :) We went back and forth between improving the Grassroot Soccer curriculum, team building and exercises in "thinking outside the box", which I loved.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I made it back safe and sound! and here's a little side "small world" story that rivals the one of seeing my ex-Mcgill teamate in the middle of a lake in Taiwan:

I went to see Zambia get annialated 5-1 (vs Cote D'Ivoire I think) last week at a bar in Lusaka. I was sitting next to a friend when I overheard "Canadian" and turned to see her about to intro me to another ex-pat in the crowd. He said "what part of Canada?" to me and I said Halifax. I got a raised eyebrow to the extent that I thought he was one of those snobby Toronto types that forgot Canada had an East Coast but then he said "where'd you go to High School?" I said QE and it turned out he went to St Pats (across the street from QE). I didn't recognize him so I said, " Well I live down the Purcells's Cove Road so I wasn't even supposed to go there". I got 2 raised eyebrows this time and he said he lived on Parkhill Drive (about a 10 minutes walk from where I grew up).

To make a long story short- this guys' name is Nico, he went to school with my brothers and I went to school with his sister Rachel. He's been to my house, met my mom, and I'm pretty sure I can remember him as a little kid. SO BIZARRE. In the middle of Zambia, I meet someone from home. We probably know about 200 people in common.

I'll get those pictures rollin in. Till then ...