#umutima

Clothes and a baby blanket by the women artisans, tailors and dressmakers of the Umutima Sewing Collective, Rwanda. Basketry in collaboration with a weaving collective from Gatsata.

For the full story, visit Just Keep Sewing

You can find Umutima’s products in their shop at Nyamirambo Women’s Centre and now also at Inzora rooftop Cafe.

Hey folks,

Today is the last day! I can't say it's welcomed, but I have missed the dogs and everyone back home. Our plan for today has been very loose; we just had to go into the Edusport office to say our final goodbyes and pick up the Alive & Kicking footballs.

I had arranged to meet Godfridah in the morning, so that I could say thank you for the experience and opportunity to work with her & just say goodbye. It was really nice catching up with her, seeing as we had been away all week so far. We went down to Kabwata Cultural Village, which is just a little area of tepee market stalls; selling art, crafts and chatengis. It was really nice in the village and it's completely different to the feel of the markets in the towns. The stall holders are more relaxed, although there were still a few who tried to usher you into their space to show you their crafts. It's hard to explain the crafts to you because everything is so individual to each stall. The majority have little wooden figures of rhinos, hippos, elephants and the occasional giraffe. These always look really well made, especially the smaller ones as they are so intricate.

From the Cultural Village we went the opposite direction, past the Edusport office and into Kabwata market. We were just coming in to get some frittas for everyone back at the office. We started our time in Zambia with some frittas, so we decided to end our time in Zambia with some frittas. We actually got fresh ones today; straight out the cooking oil. They were awesome!! Back at the office everyone had some, then we did our goodbyes. Godfridah left before we did, so I got to say goodbye to her but plan to keep in touch on Facebook. How awesome is the internet?! Brilliant!!! We had to say goodbye now to two amazing Go Sisters; Sharon and Annie. They both said see you soon, which I think is awesome because who wants to say goodbye? And I totally will see then again!!

We came back to the hostel to chill for a bit, before heading into town. We had to meet Sharon and Annie to get the Alive & Kicking balls as they were being delivered to Edusport. In town we were picking up a t-shirt from a shop that Lyson had ordered it in & searching for a Zambian football top for me.Kingsley came with us and negotiated with the stall holder to get my football shirt! It looks so smart! Just need to get Coach Bupe on the back now and I'll be good to go! We had no luck getting the t-shirt Lyson had orderd, but we did catch up with Annie & Sharon again before leaving town. These ladies are just amazing. Both said see you next time, hope it's not too long and thanked me for visiting their country. The hospitality of this country and these people is amazing. It still surprises me and makes me feel really priveledged to have had the opportunity to be in such an awesome country.

Tonight we chilled out at the backpackers, with Kingsley and with Greg. We played a few games of pool... all of which I lost & we played a game of team chess. Fiona and Greg (Greg can't play) and Kinglsey & me... and neither of us can play. Somehow Kings and I ended up winning- crazy eh?! Was a brilliant night & a great way to round off this undescribable experience.

The flight is early tomorrow morning, like 8am so that's me signing off until I'm back in the UK.

That's all folks!

Hey folks,

We’re now into our last few days in Zambia, so today we had a few things to get through before leaving! We started at the Edusport office before heading out to OYDC! We were taking 400 books out to OYDC for their literacy program. There was some confusion regarding the time we were to meet the director, so we got to sit & watch the under 17 national ladies train! They were really good! The squad was massive because they were doing trials, so the efforts of the girls were top class! There was one player who was not only particularly striking as a player, but she was also a Muslim! It was amazing to see a Muslim girl getting the opportunity to be involved in the national squad! It was easy to see why; she was scoring goals, pushing back down the line to support the defence & pushing the ball up the park completely unselfishly! She was a fantastic footballer and an even more inspirational role model to other Muslim women and girls! When we met with the director he had organised a team of young people to receive the books & the media were there to get an interview & some photos for the paper! Fiona was interviewed by Movi TV, as were a few of the young people with their books. The young people who spoke were so appreciative of the books we had given them & really seemed to be enjoying reading them. After OYDC we were heading to Bauleni to see the BUSA team for one last time. I wasn’t looking forward to this because Fred & the rest of the team had made us feel so welcome! Having had my team in Bauleni for the football tournament I felt quite attached to Bauleni. It’s such a welcoming place. While there there was some corf ball going on with a peer leader, there were majorettes practising and there were some kids playing football; both with leather balls & chimpombwas. We said our goodbyes to the guys there & came back to the hostel. Me and Fiona were in the pool for a little bit; just for a photoshoot for Educate, Empower, Inspire! It was really cold in the pool!! We just chilled here tonight and contemplated our final day tomorrow!

That’s all folks!

Hey Folks,

Today we went to the amazing Victoria Falls. There is a free bus that runs from Jollyboys over to the falls, so we jumped on that at 10am this morning. When you’re on the main road in Livingstone heading towards the falls you can see the mist from like 3 miles away. That in itself was cool, never mind actually being at the falls.

When we arrived we paid 100Kwacha each entry then you walk into the national park. Literally outside the office were some baboons, just wandering about. It was actually pretty scary because they are so unpredictable. Some of the baboons had babies attached to their belly; this looked pretty cute but still they freaked me out.

We walked through the park and there were areas that you could see right onto the falls; the first few areas were dry, but the closer we got to the falls we started to get showered with the mist from the falls. It was cold, but the day was hot so it balanced out. As we started walking down the path towards the bridge over the falls there were people coming back from there, some of them were dripping wet; like I thought they had been in for a swim fully clothed!! Then I saw some older people coming back up with Victoria Falls raincoats on. Seriously you’re basically going there to get wet so just get on with it, you know? I loved it! Sometimes I could look at the falls and there would be no spray, then from nowhere BOOM it was like I’d stepped in the shower fully clothed! It was awesome and I had this waterproof camera with me so I could take photos at the same time!

We walked over the bridge over the falls, which I think must have been the wettest point. By the time I had walked further into the falls park though I was getting pretty dry though. We stopped like just at the top part of the falls and sat down on the rocks to dry off! Such an amazing view, but the whole time I was wondering how many people had fallen off. It must happen eh?!

We walked the opposite way after this to see the bungee jumping bridge. I had been thinking that I might do it, but then I thought about the girl who’s bungee snapped on that exact jump so I panicked! Seeing the height of the bridge actually made me feel a bit sick too so probably best I didn’t. Maybe one day I will face my fear and make the jump. Just wasn’t meant to be this time!

When we got back to Jollyboys we just chilled out for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. That hostel is such a diverse place there was always something going on; we even heard a girl having a job interview over a Skype call. Insane!!! She totally duffed it up though poor girl was getting all flustered! The guard on duty at the hostel got knifed! We just heard this through conversation of the staff, no one panicked though so it can’t have been too bad!

There is a little hideaway chill out zone at Jollyboys, where you go up the stairs into a little comfy areas that looks into the sky. Was up there tonight and I could see all the stars! It was so pretty!

  That’s all folks!

Hey folks,

Today we were going to Sharon’s house in Chawama for the famous ‘Sharon Soup!’ It’s not actually soup, but a sauce that accompanies meatballs. We went to the market up at Arcades before going over to Chawama. It was nice and there were lots of stalls selling different things. Some stalls had wooden animals in all sizes; there was even a giraffe that stood pretty tall. There were stalls with artwork; mostly landscapes and animals, and the majority of stalls had chatengi material; which is the material used to make African skirts among other things.

The market stall holders were all very friendly and encouraged us to have a look at their stalls! Quite often they would tell you “it’s free to look!” From the market we made our way to Chawama in a taxi. It didn’t take too long, maybe around half an hour. When we arrived we had a bit of a way to walk to get to Sharon’s but it wasn’t too bad as 2 of Sharon’s boys came to meet us! Arriving at Sharon’s we were greeted by her youngest child Baby David, who is 3 and super cute!! Sharon had put on a cracking lunch for us, there was; nshima, rice, meatballs, beans, Chinese cabbage and sweet potatoes! It was a seriously amazing lunch!!

We had arranged to see the Chawama CSEE land today, so Sharon had organised a bus ride in her brother’s bus. The roads in Chawama are not tarmacked, so everything was super bumpy! It almost felt like being on a roller coaster – except it wasn’t fun!!

At one point I cracked my head off the roof of the bus because we flew over a bump in the road. This bus journey was even crazier because we managed to leave Chawama and goa all the way back into town at Libala High School!! By the time we got here I was green, so we decided we wouldn’t be visiting the land as it meant going all the way back to Chawama. Instead Sharon got her brother to take us to Inter-City bus station to get our tickets for going to Livingstone, then they dropped us back at home.

The rest of the afternoon was a chilled out one, just getting things organised for our early start in the morning. We had dinner at the hostel with Cath and Vince came over too. It was really chilled out and nice.

  That’s all folks!

  :) x