Meheba Refugee Settlement

I spent the last week in the Meheba Refugee Settlement, which is north of Lusaka. To get there, we took a charter bus for about 10 hours to a town called Solwezi. From there, we were greeted by two of our colleagues who drove us up to the camp itself. The FORGE compound in Meheba is quite large. Every one of the Meheba staff members has his or her own room, which looks similar to the photo below:


Every day, we woke up at sunrise, ate a small breakfast, and then engaged in group meetings. Sometimes, we also took the opportunity to bike to the market, which was about a 20 minute bike ride away, or to the giant ant hills (as in 15+ feet tall!) to get reception to call family and friends.

There were lots of cats and kittens around, which was nice because they ate all of the spiders and rats. However, the spiders ate the mosquitos, so it's kind of nice to have them around too. They are flat and very large (sometimes larger than your hand), but they pick a spot on the wall and do not move from it, making them harmless.

While we were there, the FORGE Women's Center was holding a graduation ceremony for the graduates of the knitting, sewing, and women's health classes. The women had also made tie-dye chitengas (cloth used for skirts and dresses), which they were very proud to show off.

This man is a typical vendor in the market located near the FORGE compound.

Bobo, who is one of the recipients of a FORGE microfinance loan, currently owns and runs a bakery in the market. Here, he is pictured with his pet monkey which was discovered eating the vendors' food and sold to him.

The monkey posed for me and allowed me to photograph him before he went back to eating Bobo's delicious bread!

A day later, we biked to a neighboring zone to visit one of FORGE's primary schools. This is a preschool made up of mostly Angolan refugees. They were singing their ABCs and learning the days of the week when we arrived.

After we left the preschool, we biked down into the neighboring Zone G, which is comprised of Rwandan refugees. Below are some photos of the children.

On our last day, Suzannah, who is also an ICM, and I recorded interviews of the 6 new librarians of the FORGE libraries. They talked about how excited they were to learn through reading the many books that FORGE has had sent over to the camp.

And finally, a Meheba sunset.... This truly is a beautiful camp!!!

I am back in Lusaka to gather my things and prepare to move to the Kala refugee camp, where I will be living and working for the next several months. It is hard to summarize my journey thus far into one post, but I hope that the photos have said much more than any words ever could have!

And I've arrived in Lusaka!

After a 24 hour journey from San Francisco to London and then again from London to Lusaka, I am finally at the FORGE house in downtown Lusaka. We will be staying here for two days before departing to the Meheba refugee settlement to train. The house has a beautiful garden and is equipped with a sizeable kitchen, a common area, two bedrooms, and yes, running water and electricity.

The two project managers, the camp operations coordinator, Kjerstin, and myself are staying in one room while the 8 refugees from Sudan, Congo, and Angola who are being sponsored to study at a local university by FEF (FORGE Education Fund) are staying in the other room. Aside from being a bit jet-lagged, the first day went very well.

We spent the earlier part of the day running errands such as grocery shopping, obtaining working permits, and purchasing Zambian cell phones for communication between camps and to the management in the US. That evening, we all had dinner together, which consisted of vegetables such as cabbage and potatoes, nshima (starchy substance made purely from corn meal), and a fish stew.

Afterwards, we chatted in the common room on things such as the US presidential campaign, which the refugees were very interested in. They knew about every one of the candidates, including background and positions on various social/economic issues. After that, we had a trivia quiz on African politics and history. It was a fun Saturday evening!

The person on the far left of the photo is Paul Ohisa, whose story is featured on FORGE's website. Kjerstin is in the bottom left corner and Bekiwe, one of our project managers from Sacramento, is in the center.

The night was filled with rain and amazing thunderstorms. The weather has been rainy, but heavy rains usually only last about 20 minutes. All and all, Zambia is absolutely beautiful! Here is my first glimpse of the country from the airplane window:

Today, we are spending the day settling, relaxing, and preparing to travel to the Meheba refugee settlement. I am about to shoot a video with Kjerstin regarding information on FORGE for a grant that she is applying for. We are hoping for a break in the rain so that we can shoot it with the gorgeous Zambian scenery in the background!

I am very excited to have the chance to show everyone back in the US and around the world how FORGE is providing opportunities for such an amazing group of people! For now, it's time to get organized...