Drama-tic Friday

The play went amazingly well! We arrived an hour and half late, but neither the students nor their teacher (and not even most of us acting) seemed to be bothered by it. I am really getting some lessons on Zambian time management (usually, when I turn up to work at 8am, the next person doesn’t arrive until 9:30am).

We started at 12pm and finished at around 2:30pm. The first act dealt with alcohol and drug addiction, the second one talked about HIV/AIDS and we finished off with a skit about arranged and early marriages. I acted as doctor Miriam Phiri (a common name in Zambia), diagnosing Sarah (Idah) with HIV. My next task was to convince her, her boyfriend who gave her the virus and her family that HIV does not mean a death penalty if one takes care of him or herself. I also talked about stigma and prevention in a little wrap-up dialogue with the kids after the skit. It was funny hearing Harrison translate for me into Nyanja- his sentences were approximately twice as long as what I said :)

From the students’ reactions I can say that they liked it. They were very involved and active throughout the play. It reminded me of the awareness performances we had to attend in middle school and high school and of our bored andoften offensive responses to the actors. I think Slovak kids could learn some behavior lessons from their Zambian peers (more about Zambian kids later).

After the play we were having lunch in a little teachers’ room opposite of the classrooms when two girls ran in to ask me if they could take pictures with me. My camera was dead by then, so we had to rely on a camera of a local man they called out from the street.

It was a fun day, which we finished by buying some Freezits on the way home.

Walking back, I found this writing amusing. Don’t know whom to fear more- the dog or the onner.