Excitement Builds!

Emails are flying on our Volunteer Facebook page; everyone discussing what to take, what to expect, how excited they are! Lots of advise and help is coming in from the wonderful folks at World Vision, and a few volunteers who have traveled to Zambia before. It's sure helping to take a lot of the guess work out of the equation!
We received emails last night about where we'll be staying while in Zambia, besides 'The First Choice Guest House' in Kalomo, so if your interested check out the following sites.

http://www.crossroadslodges.com/contact.html

http://www.victoriafallszambia.travel/Wasawange_Lodge_and_Tours/accm_photo_gallery

We also learned we will be holding photo workshops for a group of children, while in Kalmono. I think the workshop is based on a program that involved a photographer by the name of Johnny Lam who held a similar workshop in Rwanda in last year. He explained the program he was involved with as follows:
The objective of the workshop is to empower youth to pursue their original ideas and tell their stories through the medium of photography. The goal of the project is to raise awareness on some of the most universally concerned issues, such as AIDS and the environment, and to generate a funding program to further promote similar workshop nationally, and continentally.
Look at these amazing pictures taken by the children in his workshop!



I can only begin to imagine the different ways we'll be seeing things through the eyes of the children we'll be working with. What we see and what children see are two totally different ways of looking at the world, so even for us, seeing everything as a new experience in Kalomo, seeing through the children's eyes will be "eye-opening"! And, think of the experience for the children! Last year in South Africa, we learned how much the children loved to have their pictures taken, and were fascinated by the cameras and the instant pictures on the LCD screens, so I'm sure this will be an exciting opportunity for the children. I'm sure they will feel such a sense of achievement and empowerment when they see what they produce. The next world famous artist may come from Kalomo! Each day the children will be given assignments of pictures to take, such as portraits and a day in your life, then we will be downloading the pictures to our computers, having the children pick their favorites, printing them, and on the last day there will be a gallery "showing" to celebrate their achievements together with their invited guests. I can't wait to get started!