Melissa - My Zambia '09

My name is Melissa, I’m 15 and attend Leith Academy High school. I’m writing about the trip to Zambia I went on with South Leith Parish Church.

I visited Zambia in Africa for two weeks. On the trip we visited and saw lots of eye-opening and over-whelming things. The poverty we saw on the way to Fringilla the shanty towns we passed and small mud hut villages, woman carrying heavy loads on there heads and running at the same time, lots of people walking and small children sitting by the side of the road.

One thing that really astonished me was seeing how the girls over there live compared to us, their schools as well as their living standards.

Arriving in such an environment was such a fantastic experience for us all. With so much excitement and anxiousness we were finally there, in Africa, after a year of planning and several meetings. The whole 28 of us enjoyed each other’s company and got on really well. Seeing so many happy smiling faces and being so cheerful for the little that they have was absolutely astonishing.

Arriving for the first time at the school, I could never have envisaged a happier group of people in all my life, they gave us such a warm welcome by singing and dancing, which was amazing, and made us feel really at home.

Our task was to carry out certain projects at the school: dormitory refurbishment; computer laboratory refurbishment; health education and teaching. I was part of the teaching project, delivering classes in time management and cultural exchange.

Comparing the similarities and differences between Scotland and Zambia, but to be honest, I thought the girls were probably brainier than me, but finding out what Zambia was all about was really fun and I personally think that the girls enjoyed learning about Scotland as well. The girls were so keen to learn and find out things about Scotland. I even did some one to one computer training with the teachers, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would be teaching a teacher.

As well as meeting new friends and learning about their culture, one thing that really inspired me the most was being able to see the seventh wonder of the world, Victoria Falls. This for me was just such a fantastic view and such an eye-opening thing to experience. The consequences were getting soaking wet but I think all of us took the chance to see such a fantastic view.

For us all I think it was such a successful trip and we achieved everything we set out to do. I think if I had to choose one thing out of my whole two weeks living in a different world to my own, my favourite part of it would be meeting new friends with a new culture and being able to see what life’s like in a different country, a country which I would never believe I would be able to visit in my life. Receiving the warmest welcome, I don’t think anyone wanted to go home again but here we are now writing about a life-changing experience, an experience that no-one would ever be able to imagine unless experiencing it for themselves and if I ever had the chance to experience this again I definitely would do it all again.