some attend graduations, others create them

I should begin by elaborating on the title. There is an advertising campaign in Lusaka for the phone company Zain. Billboards splatter the city with images of happy couples, families, events and all retain a similar phrase "Some [fill in the blank], others create [fill in the blank]." For example, "some fall in love, others create it." Therefore in honor of the one advertising campaign that has caught my eye as rather individualistic and something that I have spent a bit of time pondering my title reflects the power of catch-phrases. The graduation part might also seem a bit confusing...Grassroot Soccer has a curriculum of 10 different hour long sessions that they disseminate to youth ages 12-about 19. At the end of the curriculum we like to celebrate-aka dance a lot-the knowledge, skillz (our curriculum is called SkillZ so I now spell many s' with a z), and relationships that they have attained over the duration of the curriculum. Since I work with mainly refugee populations the event took place at the urban UNHCR site, Makeni.

Let's paint the scene shall we. A courtyard surrounded by 302 chairs set the stage for the graduation, a PA system played every popular Zambian song known to man (it's getting to the point where I am starting to learn the words of songs, or make them up), and off to the side we had our testing partners. The Elton John Aids Foundation recently gave GRS a huge grant to amp up our testing and Voluntary Counseling and Testing capacity. An amazing gift and an intense undertaking it has lead us to combine all events with a testing component. Children and their parents getting tested for the first time, dad's with their children coming up to me and asking for consent forms, people excited about knowing their HIV status. That is why I am here- to support knowledge and healing. It was chaotic and nothing, I mean nothing, went as planned but at the end of the day it all happened in a successful and positive manner. A quintessential learning process. It feels like a small accomplishment to have the first event of my time here past and I am curious to see, feel, and experience those to come.

Off to Meheba this morning, the refugee camp up north. Gearing up for a 10-12 hour ride. Wish me luck.