It's July and Southern Africa is cold

Its July already and time is flying by! For me, July is usually a month of trips to the beach, long sunny evenings and the odd crazy heatwave which sometimes lasts only for a weekend. Not to mention my Dad's birthday ! However, this time round I'm experiencing the opposite. I can't believe how cold it is in Zambia.OK, it's officially winter in Sub-Saharan Africa, but I wasn't expecting it to be this cold. All around Chipata you can look into the hills and see bush fires, which often indicates that people are chopping down trees for charcoal. (It happens to be illegal but many people still ignore the warnings).

Everyday you see women carrying firewood on their heads, often walking for miles to bring it home. Most mornings it even takes me a while to adjust to the fact that I’m actually freezing cold in Sub-Saharan Africa – I do have a braisser and some charcoal, but I think I will save that for cooking during the unpredictable power cuts.

Last week, I got my first taste of winter during a leaving party for our youth volunteers which was held in the garden of my house. We offered a lunch buffet of hot foods prepared on a braiiser (barbecue). It was a cold and windy afternoon and for the first time since the rainy season it looked like there was a storm brewing on the hills.

Despite the typically British barbecue weather, the party was a great opportunity to say goodbye to our youth volunteers from Zambia and the UK, who have spent 3 months at Dzithandizeni Nutrition Group carrying out research on poverty and nutrition levels in the urban and rural areas of Chipata. We learnt a lot with them around and we will be sad to see them go. I think I’m now the youngest again at my organisation, so I’m calling all the youths in Chipata to get involved with the nutrition Group – come rain, sun or storms!