Habitat for Humanity Zambia Fundraiser Dinner

The Habitat for Humanity event last Tuesday, October 23, went pretty well considering it was the first time they had done a fundraising dinner.  It was sponsored by a very large and upscale realtor here - Pam Golding Properties.  The Vice President Dr. Guy Scott and the Second Lady (as they call her) Dr. Charlotte Scott were there, as was the mayor of Lusaka and some MP's and ministers.  Of course, it was the local corporations who donated the most.  The politicians just want to be seen with the VP; they acted like a bunch of lemmings.  We are learning so much about how corrupt it is here which is very sad as nothing will ever change until that does.  The owner of a local business, Safintra, a roofing company, started off the auction by donating ten roofs for houses and also promised 10% of the profits of a new material his company is using to Habitat for the next year.  He was the nicest man, I had occasion to talk to him over the phone several times and then spoke to him at the event- his name is Sandeep Kaushik. I worked the welcome bay, as it is called, having people sign in, organizing the ushers to take them to their tables, etc.  So I got to meet quite a few people which was fun! All the HFHZ people wore shirts made for the event. I have posted some pictures below of the night and some of the wonderful people I work with.

It is very interesting how invitations to events are done here.   Email invitations are sent out, and then followed up with a hand delivered one because the postal system is so unreliable, no one uses it.  Every company seems to have drivers.  Although it clearly gives the RSVP information on the invitation, no one ever responds, so phone calls have to be made to everyone to see if they are coming. Of course no one RSVP’s because they know someone will call to find out if they are coming- self-perpetuating situation!  And guess who did all of this – which was hysterical because I can’t understand the accent half the time and don’t even know the correct pronunciation of many names, so had to constantly ask my co-workers how to say them!

The invitations didn’t even go out until about two weeks before the event. I will never get used to the Zambian lack of motivation and leaving everything to the last minute. Of course, instead of this making me more relaxed, it made me more stressed about the success of the evening! There was no database of corporations to invite, so I created one but finding addresses was unbelievably difficult.  Rarely was it on the company website, and many companies didn’t even have a website, or were owned by larger corporations in South Africa with no local contact information. I guess it all turned out okay – there weren’t as many attendees as they had hoped, but they did raise enough money to have a decent profit.

Saturday night, October 27^th, we went with our neighbor Vinod and two of his Indian friends, Ashoo and Kamina to a local celebration of Dussehra, the Hindu Indian festival celebrating the triumph of good over evil. The women were all in gorgeous saris, etc and the dancing was fantastic as was the food!  We had a great time and were only two of about 6 white people there - everyone else was Indian!  Ashoo and his wife Kamina have lived in Africa for 38 years after moving here from Delhi.  They have lived in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Nigeria. They have one son who is a doctor in the US and another who works in advertising in Brisbane.  They are lovely people and we really hope to see them again.  I forgot my camera of course, so no pictures.... There is another big Hindu celebration coming on November 13, Diwali, which they have invited us to.

Musoli and I signing in a member of the media

Sakalima Yoyo - who I work with the most

Given - the sweetest lady!  Took all the pictures I have posted for this event

Aunty Sara on left - works for Pam Golding Properties and Musoli

Yusef Dodia on the left, our incredible MC for the evening, talking to the Mayor of Lusaka, Daniel Chisenga

VP Dr. Guy Scott and Second Lady Dr. Charlotte Scott

Voster Tembo, another co-worker, welcoming guests

my boss - Linda Sharon Mofonko - an amazing woman

VP Guy Scott dancing with the band leader and I'nutu Zamoulis, the Managing Director of Pam Golding Properties (lady in red jacket). The dance is called sowela - people throw money on the dance floor - and it of course was for HFHZ