Today I woke up with probably one of the best rests I’ve taken so far since I have been on the trip. It was wonderful. I had so much energy and was eager to start the day. After getting dressed, I rehearsed my part for the talent show, which we were scheduled to participate in. My main part of the talent show was to reenact part of the Dr. King’s famous I Have a Dream speech. It was kind of challenging to recreate a famous piece of history, especially at the last minute.
You see, LearnServe was invited to co-host a talent show with the Loveness Hangoma Foundation, a grassroots nonprofit in Livingstone started by Loveness Hangoma to help support people living with disabilities. What we didn’t know until a day before the show was that we would be required to share our own individual and group talents. The previous night we created, scripted out, and practiced our portions of the talent show. It was stressful, but the group remained flexible and Japhet was super helpful, since this is his area of expertise. After a late-night practice session, we continued in the morning after breakfast. Afterwards, we met up with Loveness and Precious. Loveness herself is a model and the former Ms. Livingstone. She has represented Zambia in multiple runway and fashion shows. Precious is a person living with physical disabilities that Loveness met a couple of years ago and took under her wing.
They gave us a brief overview of the day before we hopped on the bus and started our journey. First stop was a hospital that worked with kids with disabilities. Even though we were ready to meet up with the kids we had to wait about 45 minutes just to interact with them because of communication complications. We later found out that the Director of the program was choosing to make things difficult for Loveness. He was delaying our meeting with the performers, insisting that Loveness find transportation for them and asking how much money he would get from the talent show proceeds. It was just a little glimpse into some of the challenges Loveness faces in the work she does.
After finally meeting them, he also then required us to give a little sneak peek of what we had planned for the talent show, which we were not expecting. One of the kids sang and the LearnServe group previewed our Wobble Dance. It was wonderful. After leaving the hospital we then went to a house a little out of town where kids with disabilities could meet and talk and be looked after. Being there was very heartwarming because the person who was teaching them and leading the discussion had a physical disability herself, so it was very motivational. She was in a wheelchair and had a difficult time speaking. But, we could tell she was in charge. It goes to show that just because you’re faced with a challenge you shouldn’t give up on yourself and people you care for. We couldn’t stay there too long though so I exchanged contacts with people and took a bunch of pictures with the people who were present.
From there we traveled to the place of marvelous talent. We practiced more, laughed and joked, and even started a dance battle with one another. Very lit. I even met someone with the same name as my grandfather “Leon.” I was astonished by that for a good while. I didn’t expect to meet anyone with that name in Zambia. The world is smaller than I thought. But anyways, shortly after all the freestyle playing, the talent show finally started. Only two hours late. We found out later that the hospital Director had made Loveness pick up each and every child from their home instead of having transport pick them all up together which created quite a delay. But Loveness kept saying that it would all work out in the end. And, she was right.
The show kicked off with a rap song that was amazingly good. And then I was up next. I’m so glad I had practically the best coach in the game, Japhet. When I tell you I wouldn’t have done it without him… trust me, I wouldn’t have. But I started my speech and it was a major success. Everyone was clapping especially my fellow peers. As the talent show went on, it got better and better. Every person brought something new to the table. Even us, breaking out two dances and a song. The whole talent show was a success and by the end, everyone was up front dancing no matter if they were a participant in the show or a member of the audience.
One of the talents that really stood out to me was seeing a few of the kids with disabilities modeling and dancing. This made me feel very motivated to never give up and continue to strive for the best, because those kids, even with their challenges, still stood and participated without fear. I became grateful for being able-bodied and more aware of my privilege to walk around without a physical disability. When they went up, they became one right then and there. In those two hours of performances, we all became one.
After the show was over, we had a talk with Loveness and two people who live with her, Precious and Claudia. It got deep. Precious began to tell her life story and her challenges with living with a disability but it also became very inspirational on how she overcame those challenges. Precious wasn’t allowed to attend school until demanding that her mother send her. In spite of the bullying she graduated at the top of her class. Claudia told us about the disadvantaged school children she works with and what she does to help them. She even shared her story of how she was raped by someone who broke into her home. At that point, Loveness had to comfort her and a few of us got emotional. It made us appreciate all that we have even more. We talked for about 45 minutes until we had to say our goodbyes.
To end the night off we went to a restaurant called Café Zambezi. I had lots of food, but the main dish was a crocodile pizza. It wasn’t the best, but it was good. Mostly, it tasted like seafood chicken. When we left I was freezing cold, so when we got back to the lodge I was grateful to be indoors. We finally debriefed the day and got settled in for another great sleep.
Keion W., Cesar Chavez Public Charter School