Rural Zambia...here we come!

This morning we left Lusaka for Mpika in the Northern district. The drive was roughly nine hours but before we left we had to pack up the two vehicles with an inordinately large amount of equipment including 15 batteries (like large car batteries), 12 sets of solar panels, 2 DC/AC converters, 4 computers and monitors, (more than 30 awaited to be installed us in the various districts), printers, cables wires, tools, suitcases for 7 people for 14 days, and all of our personal laptops and hand luggage. And we had to pack all of this at 5 in the morning.

On the road finally it started to hit me where we were going and what we were going to do. We were heading off into some of the most rural parts of Zambia to bring electricity through solar power and batteries – to bring new computers to people who had never seen or touched computers before – to enable young women across Zambia to learn computer skills, business skills and project management skills so that they could start-up small businesses of their own. And this would allow them to have a career, an income for their families and an improved future for themselves and their communities.

In our vehicle we were Lazarus, the driver; Melody, the group mentor; Fatuma, the IT mentor; and me. The other vehicle contained Albert, the driver; Alice, the group mentor; and Chanda the Camfed representative and coordinator.