Week One

 Week 1: Zambia 

When I arrived, it felt like coming home. I was met at the airport by two staff of the guest house that I’ve never met before, but they embraced me like they’ve always known me. I keep forgetting that it’s been six years, it feels like just yesterday that I was here. There are a few changes in town but things seem mostly the same. Because there has not been much rain in the past couple years, the country is experiencing power shortages. The power usually comes on for a few hours during the night but it’s typically off again by the time I wake up.

I am teaching at a school called “Will Christian Pre and Primary School”. This week I helped with the Grade 1 class, mostly 6 and 7 year olds. How do I even begin to write about these children? They are the most beautiful children I’ve ever seen. Their eyes are so big and curious. Their smiles light up their entire faces. They are so, so happy. They fight over who gets to hold my hand or who gets to carry my stuff. They give all the love without any conditions. Their classroom is a small room with two tables and four benches. They squeeze 10-12 bodies on each bench. They have zero problem stepping over each other or using each others shoulders move past. I love how comfortable they are with each other and how it doesn’t even phase them to have a classmate use them as physical support. They have a chalkboard, some hand drawn posters on the wall, and that’s it. The teacher typically writes a lesson on the board and the kids copy it into their notebooks. Pencils, sharpeners, and erasers are always in short supply and if one student takes a pencil that belongs to someone else, there will absolutely be tears. I brought pencils in for each child today and one said “this is for me? I get to keep this?”.  (I have blisters on my thumb and fingers from sharpening so many pencils with a tiny metal sharpener. Add electric pencil sharpeners to the list of things I take for granted). I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about how they are being taught but I’ll keep those to myself for now 😉

Fridays are typically a half day and “Sport Day” so we went to an open field and they played games. We played their version of “Duck, Duck, Goose”, another game they know, and I attempted to teach them Freeze Tag. Yesterday I tried to teach them “Red Light, Green Light”. They’re working on it.

This afternoon one of my taxi driver friends drove me around the neighborhood where we used to spend a lot of time at “Homework Club” with kids in one of the poorest communities. We found Chaanza who was a charismatic, outgoing, funny 11 year old last time I was here. Now, he is a charming, mature, polite, intelligent (and way taller than me) 17 year old. He is going to get all the kids together for a  reunion on Monday afternoon. Stay tuned! 

Chaanza in 2018

Chaanza now 🥰

Tomorrow I head to Botswana to camp out at Chobe National Park and go on safari!

One more thing! 

There are always projects to be done here and so many things we want to help with. One of the other volunteers that is also at my school, has set up a GoFund Me to support the school. Our original plan was to buy whiteboards for the classrooms because the chalkboards are hard to read from and so dusty. However, the head teacher also shared with us that they really want a water supply system. They often have to end school early because they don’t have any more fresh water for the children. Having a water supply system would ensure that students are able to get fresh water and be in school all day. We want to make sure the money is put to the best use and hopefully be able to see part of the project complete by the time we leave! The link is below if you are interested in donating! Thank you 💜

https://www.gofundme.com/f/will-christian-academy-school-zambia