Last Day in Zambia; Teacher Training

Yesterday I joined Chris Mead as she held her third and final teacher training in the South Luangwa area on creative writing. We were at Mufwe Basic with ten 2-7 grade area teachers. It was scheduled to begin at 8:30, by 9:30 eight teachers had arrived and by 10:00 they were all there. Chris teaches 5-7 year olds in England and did a fantastic job presenting. Last year she visited as a volunteer like me. The content was valuable, she engaged the learners, checked for understanding and had fun. She began by explaining that Zambians teach the way teachers in the UK taught many years ago. The teacher stands in the front of the class and lectures. When she asked what they thought creative writing was, the answer was, "using the imagination." In order for students to write creatively, they need to know stories. She asked how often they read stories to their students? Some teachers raised their hands, but most did not. She read Handa's Surprise, by Eileen Brown. She began by suggesting they ask, what do you think the story will be about. By asking the children, they are using their imagination and they are thinking for themselves. Chris modeled how to read a story. How to hold the book so all could see the pictures. She asked a lot of questions. This was a very basic lesson. If you want children to be literate, story reading is the place to start. The most memorable part of the day for the teachers will probably be learning to tell the story The Little Red Hen. After modeling, practicing with the group and then with a partner, everyone used hand gestures and retold the story , some with theatrics and some with deep concentration. To help develop the idea of creativity, Chris mentioned that you can change the animals from a cow, cat and dog to an elephant, hippo and crocodile. And, change the topic of the story from baking bread to fixing a broken down car. At the end, "who will ride to town with me? I will. I will. Oh no you won't, I'll go to town by myself." Other activities included writing descriptions of photographs and objects. One of the laminated pictures was of lightning in a storm. She asked them to describe how they would feel if they were there. On chart paper, teachers shared descriptive words and Chris wrote them under the heading FEEL. Frightened, scared confused, afraid, threatened, nervous, cold... Use your imagination. SEE. Dark as the night sky, dark as a wet elephant. HEAR. Crashing trees, booming thunder, birds whistling, drums, wind blowing like a speeding vehicle. Now write an opening sentence to a story by describing the scene. Chris talked about a big box of objects she keeps in her room. She is always having the kids describe the objects so they can build vocabulary. The objects could also be used to set the scene for a story. A key for example. Other objects in the bag was costume jewelry, British coins, an empty box, shells. She has a time during the day where everything is focused on speaking and writing descriptive language in order to build vocabulary. Lunch break was at 12:45 with nshima and chicken. Some girls had been preparing outside on a fire for an hour or two. The chicken had been cut into pieces and fried in oil. There was some sautéed cabbage and onions along with the nshima. I had tried nshima once, when John ordered it at Flatdogs Camp, but this was the real thing, so I filled my plate. I ate with my fingers, but couldn't seem to take a fist of the doughy corn meal, form a ball and slop up the veggies. I asked a man if I could take a video of him eating so I could show my students back home. He didn't seem to mind. I told him he was going to be famous! At the end of class, about 2:00, Chris gave out a packet for each school. Each packet had a set of picture books, all African themed, a stack of laminated pictures, mainly local recognizable animals and places, and a bag of objects including seashells, pine cones, costume jewelry, British coins and keys. She had also prepared a manual explaining some of the activities she was presenting. It was a really great day and made me think about education in Zambia. First of all, I thought I had empathy for Zambian teachers before, but now I truly do. I have heard and read plenty about the problems with teachers. They leave the kids in the classrooms alone, they sit at the front of the room and lecture, they don't teach, they are late to class, sometimes dont come at all and on and on. Well, spending the day with real Zambian teachers, kind and caring gentle people, changed me. They could have been teachers in the states at a workshop. They collaborated with their partners, participated, laughed, did activities which made them uncomfortable, and had fun. When I think about their teaching conditions; 50-90 hungry students in a room with no desks or books, I can only believe they want to create a more literate country; why else would they teach?

Wednesday Night Rotary Club

Last night, Jenny and Mike invited me to go to their weekly meeting with them, so I did. It's a new club, about six weeks old, and they are not yet chartered. There were 17 people, seven female and six muzungus. Some had Fantas and some had a Mosi. The scheduled speaker did not attend, and there was a critical discussion about this. He is the head teacher at the Mfuwe School and was supposed to talk about standards. Instead, a school teacher talked about the problems of education in the Valley. Number one is hunger. The children are hungry. Number two is over enrollment. The classes have between 70-90 students and this is too many. Next, there are no books. The government is supposed to provide text books for the students, but there are no books. Typically there is one book which the teacher uses. Infrastructure was next on the list. There are not enough teachers. Also, many of the teachers do not do their jobs. They are seen at the bank and this is not good to leave the students. The teachers who have heart are good teachers. They care about the country. Many teachers do not have heart. Absenteeism is also a problem. This led into the last problem of no parental support. The parents do not insist the students go to school. They do not support them with books. Although this topic did not come up, parental support has got to be extra challenging with a great percentage of the kids not having parents! Having two parents is very, very unusual. When the speaker was finished it was opened to questions. There were a few. Jenny wanted to know who was responsible for providing textbooks and the answer was 'the government.' Evidently, books are provided every five years but they disappear rapidly. After the discussion on education, it was open to other business. Dave of Project Luangwa had forms for villages needing bore holes dug. Jenny wondered if the village at the far bridge needed a bore hole because she often sees them digging in the dry river bed sand for water. The Rotary president was going to follow up on it. The paperwork needed to be completed by the village chief. Last of all, I was asked to share something. So, I mentioned that we used to struggle with parent involvement until we started opening the schools to family nights. I said this has been successful for us in developing partnerships. I couldn't bring myself to mention that we feed the families all the pizza and hotdogs they can eat. Besides not having food, many of the villages don't have electricity. When I left the meeting I had a feeling of hopelessness. There are so many problems. Then, this morning Jenny and I went to Uyoba School, as we have been doing each day, and worked with the kids who showed up. This is their four week holiday, yet many came to learn. We continued to work on vocabulary words by teaching them charades. Then, they painted their words on paper and wrote a sentence using the word. We hung these posters on the walls, the only color in the room and the only objects on the walls. It was also the first time they had ever done anything at school besides listening to a teacher who stood in the front of the room lecturing. They wanted to learn and they did learn. So, I found the HOPE.

AIDS

I bought a book written by a local Zambian woman to read while in the country. It's about her life in a privileged Zambian family living by the shores of Victoria Falls. Then, AIDS, which was a mystery illness at the time, took her parents, sister and brother. When she was 21 she learned that she was HIV positive and decided to turn a tradegy into something positive. It's quite a story. She now lives in Chicago. I just missed her book signing in a Lusaka book store by hours! Anyway, I've included part of her epilogue.

Warrior Princess by
Princess Kasune Zulu with Belinda Collins

"When our time on earth ends, our life should nor only be measured by how longed we lived or what we managed to accumulate, but by what we achieved in the time we lived, the differences we chose to make, be they great or small, and how we chose to respond to the least of our brothers and sisters. We must think hard about the purpose of our life and be deliberate about the legacy we choose to leave behind. Whatever passions burn in your heart, whatever promises you have made to yourself and others, do not delay another day in pursuing them in the hope that time is on your side. Time has a habit of getting away from us. Take it from someone who knows all too well that time is running out: when the years have faded and we have all gone and our grandchildren ask, "What did they do?" what do we want the answer to be! Let us stand together and be counted."

The Blind Leading the Blind

Yesterday I began tutoring a young man who would like to go to Teachers' College. He has a new laptop and would like to know how to make a PowerPoint. His laptop has some assistive technolgy software installed, since he is blind, which provides screen reading. Screen readers give voice to computers. However, I'm struggling with how to use the tabs at the top to perform functions such as insert new slide. He can't use his mouse, as you can imagine. So for today, I have a list of Power Point short-cut commands ready for us to try. I'm just not sure if he has to have PowerPoint Shortcut Tools installed, or not? We'll see. Where are Linda, Casey or Skip when you need them!

Christianity by Paul

I believed in Christianity when I was a very young boy. It was at this point I received Christ to be my Lord and my Savior. Much of the time, I could see visions when I was sleeping. Whenever I told someone at my place about my dream, they would say, "Yes, it has happened." This is how people could understand that Jesus Christ was unifying in my body. I could give revelations to people telling them what God was telling me. One other time I was praying alone, and I had a prayer point. I said, "I am going to pray about experiencing the power of God. " Then I said, "God, protect me from the works of the Sit Back Evil Spirit." Just as I was speaking, and angel appeared to me and said, "Your prayers have been heard and I am giving you the authority to trample on surface and recover every sickness. As it says from the book of Luke 4:18, the Lord has anointed me to preach the gospel to the broken hearted, to those who are lost.

English Club

Kulamba Traditional Ceremony by Simon
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
Kulamba traditional ceremony is well known for its best traditional dances. It is practiced by the Chewa people from three countries; Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. Their paramount chief is called Kalonga Gawa Undi. Kalonga means come together and gawa means to give out. The ceremony takes place in a village called Undi where all the Chewa people from different places gather together. It occurs once a year. The ceremony always takes place on 25, August every year. The traditional dances that are practiced are Nyau, rite of passage, for example Muganda, chisungu as well as karat. It attracts a lot of people but once the Ceremony end a place reverts to quiet sanctuary.

School Is Out

Driving through town today I heard, "Mayshell, Mayshell!". It was one of the 2nd grade girls which I taught to hold a book and turn the pages. She had a baby tied on her back with a chitenge cloth. I'm really hoping it's not her baby since she was probably eleven tops. The kids are really given a lot of responsibilities for their age. It sure makes me wonder what the children think of a muzunga, white person, coming to their school and insisting they have clean hands and turn the pages gently.

Limbapo Nursery School

Close-up pictures of the kids who arrived early today. We made sure that George, the teacher, was going to be there today! No more of this trying to discipline in English when the kids only spoke Nyanja! George is a quiet spoken and gentle teacher. He's also a runner. Recently the 5th annual local 10 K took place with about 300 people running. The 1st year George was 4th place, then 5th, 6th, 7th and this year we was number 14. He said he didn't train this year. I took a great picture of him wearing his race t-shirt but will need to wait to post since I used my camera rather than my iPad. He's holding the orange County 10 fan in the photo!

The Two Suitcases

The night before last we went through the two suitcases which John and I brought to Africa with donations from FCSD#1, Baldwin Creek, and John and I. I shouldn't be surprised that many items had been removed before getting to Project Luangwa. Three educational puzzle-type activities, a wind up flashlight, and most of the books which my mom and I bought in Boulder at the 2nd hand stores. The books were picture dictionaries, atlases and a picture encyclopedia. The used laptops were there. The picture I'm attaching is dark because the electricity was out when we opened them. No electricity is a common occurrence. Karen, the Project Luangwa Coordinator was disappointed to learn of the missing items.

Second Day at Uyoba School

Only about half the kids were at school today. They have three terms per year and tomorrow, Friday, this term ends. So, like the Lander kids at the end of the year, many have checked out. Today we taught the 2nd graders, probably aged 8-12, how to hold and open a book. First we passed a towel around to wipe dirt and dust off hands. Then we taught them how to gently grab the top right corner and turn the page. Zambians are used to turning pages by pinching the page with their thumb and index fingers. There were. couple of kids who struggled holding the book and turning the pages. I've been told it's their 1st book. The books we used, called My ABC, are from the same Happy Reader series. We went through each page of the colorful little picture dictionaries saying the letter and reading some of the corresponding words. The kids are like parrots, so I don't say much. For example if I say, "Turn the page," rather than turning the page they will say, "turn the page!" H is for hut, V is for Village, C is for crocodile, and so on. It was an amazing feeling introducing these colorful little Zimbabwean picture dictionaries to the students. All of them were engaged, even the obvious class clowns.

Libapo Preschool and then Uyoba School

This morning we divided the kids into two groups of about 12 each. Again we worked on colors and coloring. Evidently these guys have only been working with muzunga's, or white people, for about 3 weeks now. They are new at coloring and of course there are many different approaches. Some stay in the lines, some color off the paper. Every single kid put forth great effort. The main teacher, George, wondered how they were supposed to color the picture of the zebra, pronounced zaybra, since zebras were black and white? Good question! At the end of class, we posted all of the colorful zebras on the wall. This afternoon was my first day working with the 84 2nd graders. We went yesterday, Monday, but the teacher had sent them home early so she could correct their tests! If I had eighty-four 2nd graders, I'd send them home too, haha!! Two volunteers, ages 16 and 19, and I found the kids outside waiting for us today. Their teacher, Helen, started sending them all into the classroom, until I caught on and said, "we are here to work in small groups." A previous volunteer, who was here for 6 weeks, leveled and grouped them into mangoes, bananas, apples and oranges. So I took one group at a time, dividing them further into yet smaller groups. Small groups is a foreign concept in Africa, or a luxury for us in America! We counted off 1,2,3; 1,2,3 etc and it seemed they may have done this before, because twice a kid, a boy no less, tried to detour to the group he wanted to be in. No such luck! We eventually got around to the 'keywords' flash cards. This is a new series, called Happy Readers, which the previous volunteer began just months ago. I just followed the directions. Here's a quote from the manual; Computer Analyses of word counts in books and other texts in English reveal some interesting findings. Approximately 100 words make up 50% of all the words in a typical text. These are called Keywords, and they can be thought of as the "glue" around which the other 1000 words are built.
Anyways, the series comes out of Zimbabwe, and the volunteer coordinators are thrilled to have it. I have a slight problem in that the kids haven't put their hands on a book yet, but I'm just following the manual. It was fast and furious for a little over an hour! The kids were very well behaved, eager and it was a joy to be teaching them. Lucky for me, I had read enough African Volunteer memoirs to have a plan when the teacher tried to send all 84 kids into the room with me! I forgot to take a picture, but I'm sure that's a good thing. Taking pictures causes quite a commotion around here.

Local Nursery School

Spent the morning at a close by nursery school with about 25 little 3 & 4 year olds. They have two caretakers, no certified teachers. It was the culminating day for a Froggie unit and they wore the masks which they colored yesterday. Megan, another volunteer has been with them for about a week, and we will both be with them this week. They also learned to hold a doll and carry it with a chitenge cloth. They had never had masks on before. Of course, some liked the masks and a couple refused to wear them!

Project Luangwa

I arrived yesterday to Croc Valley Camp where I plan to stay for two weeks while working with students and teachers. It's a VERY relaxed camp with mainly overland campers, both large groups and smaller families. At the time of arrival, the pool was being drained because a wounded hippo had spent the past two nights in it! Evidently enough water was left in it for him to return, because this morning a pile was left. The staff is back to cleaning it today. Last night Karen Beattie, the director of Project Luangwa, and her husband Dave drove to my camp to introduce themselves. So, now I am officially beginning to volunteer. Originally I was going to help at the Victory School, which is really a nursery school housed at the Victory Church. Now it's sounds as if I will be helping a new reading program get established with a group of second graders in a near by school. They wanted to buy me a drink, but I had to pass since I have diahrea. Is this more info than you care to hear !? More to come later. Last night I needed to leave my little room to use the outside bathroom, but could not get out! There was a hippo grazing in the very small courtyard. OMG. I had an empty water bottle and there was a pair of scissors in my first aid kit to cut the top off so all went well. It was definitely a first!

Markets and Rhinos

Maramba Market is the local market in Livingston used by the local people for day to day living. Crowded, congested, very alive and vibrant. It assaults the western perspective with odors and sounds. Everything is for sale! From fresh meat to clothes to food stuffs of all kinds, bicycle parts and catepillars. A woman who works at Chanter's Lodge, Susie, guided us through the market yesterday and helped us make good purchases. We learned that bargaining is only found in the tourists curio stalls and not used in the market, which was refreshing. We bought a chitenge for Hannah, a Zambia stocking cap for Eliah, socks for Michelle and a hoe and broom for John. From the market we went to the Livingston Museum where we learned about David Livingston, the first white man to see and name Victoria Falls. From the museum we went on a walking rhino safari. Eight rhino live in Mosi Oa Tunya National Park. They are heavily guarded but roam the park, no fences or gates. We we fortunate enough to see five of the eight, and got as close as 50 feet from one of the males. They are amazingly big, we were told 2 1/2 tons. I am moving back to South Luangwa Valley today and John is heading home to Wyoming.

No Man's Land and Tire Changing

We left early to go to Victoria Falls. A $10 taxi ride from downtown Livingstone takes you to the Zambian/Zimbabwean border. When we were almost there, our cab driver stopped on the side of the road and changed a perfectly good right rear tire with an also functioning spare. We're still wondering what that was all about and we won't ever know. The border between the two countries is the Zambezi River. Victorious Falls is on the Zambezi River. No Man's land extends both sides of the river for about a half kilometer, also known as ZimZam according to a very friendly young man on the bridge. He was also proud to recite the names of US presidents; Mr. Obama, Nixon, Ford, Papa Bush and Lincoln. No Man's land is full of touts who aggressively persue every white tourist with endless goods and services. They walk beside you talking steadily from border to border. I resisted in the morning but bought a copper bracelet and Zambezi River God necklace in the afternoon. We viewed the falls from both sides. Zimbabwe's side has the best views, is more expensive and aggressively pushes rain jackets and guides. It's more relaxed in Zambia and the sunset views are magnificent. I scored a great pair of used shoes from a croc type shoe/raincoat rental stand. I'd been wishing I had my crocs from home so it was very exciting. Unfortunately we didn't haul FCSD#1 along so will post pictures in a couple of weeks. The falls are absolutely stunning in length and complexity. They are a series of dozens of falls and the name given to them by the local people, Smoke that Thunders or Mosi oa Tunya, really is the best description. Lunch was at the Victoria Falls Hotel, one of the classic colonial hotels of old Africa. If you want a visit to Africa of the past, this is the place. White hunters were at a table next to us. I wanted to hang out in the bathroom for a while because there were tissues, TP, hand soap and body lotion. In my survey of women's bathroom in Africa, this was the best and Olduvai Gorge was the worst! Research is continuing however. :)

Part Two; Potato, Crocs, and High 5's

A few minutes of paddling quickly trained Julian's English family of four and us to be rafters, as long as Potato stayed on the oars at the stern. The boat was rigged as a combination oar and paddle boat. A few riffles were followed by a class three and a legitimate class five rapid. The boating was accompanied with frequent banter between Potato and Stanley, the guide in the other boat. Numerous high fives in the center of the boat with our paddles kept our minds off the crocodiles. Have I mentioned the crocodiles in this river? They really were there on the banks in the calm pools below the rapids. They weren't the big ones and there were no stories of anyone being chewed on in this stretch of the river, but the thought of swimming with something that can eat you kept me out of the water. John, on the other hand, swam a few rapids, by choice! My eyes never left him while he was in the water and I was pretty nervous. Twenty-five kilometer and about twenty rapids later we reached the sandy beach take out. We had no flips, no one flushed out of the boat, and we all had our feet and hands intact. The four men in Stanley's boat swam repeatedly and flipped twice! The guides have this river so wired they can flip or not based on passenger desires. Some of the rapids are as big as the Grand Canyon waters. A cable car, which we needed to sign a waiver before getting in, takes you from the beach to the rim of the canyon. However, the porters deflated the rafts and carried everything up by foot, almost beating us to the top. A delightful lunch and an hour shuttle through three local villages, where we dropped off the porters, brought us back to Chanter's Lodge. The banter lasted until we dropped Stanley off at his village with Potato' departing words, "Say hi to your wife and my children!" River guides are the same all around the world. The company, Bundu Adventures, and the guides were save, professional and very competent boatmen.

The Mighty Zambezi with the 'Potato'

Yesterday we flew from Mfuwe to Livingston via Lusaka. We wandered around Livingston which is the adrenaline capital of Africa. There is everything here from bunji jumping to walking with lions to rafting. John being the river rat that he is, really wanted to raft the Zambezi River. I was a little fearful, but knew I had to do it. John and I met on a Grand Canyon raft trip, so ... We were picked up at 7:30 by a typical African shuttle vehicle, the back of a truck. Our guide introduced himself as Potato, or we could call him 'Spud.' On the way to the put-in we stopped at a village where about ten men hopped on the truck. We shortly learned they were the porters to carry everything down to the water. A great safety briefing by Potato was followed by a one mile hike that dropped about 500 feet to the water. The porters carried everything including the two rafts which were wrapped to resemble two giant pythons. Three porters carried each python. Two self-bailing rafts, ten clients, two guides, two safety kayakers and one kayaking photographer set off down the Mighty Zambezi. More to come.

Leopard

This leopard was setting on a branch in a tree with a dead bush buck on the branch above and a spotted hyena on the ground below. It's not an uncommon site for South Luangwa National Park in Zambia.

Elephant at Flat Dogs Camp

Quite a different lifestyle avoiding elephants on the paths and in the villages.

Back at Flat Dogs Camp

We just got back from 6 nights in the bush of South Luangwa National Park.   I am having an amazing time and have been up close and personal with giraffes, elephants and lions to mention a few animals.  We spent our first three nights with a guide by the name of Isaac Zulu at Crocodile River Camp and Chikoko Tree Camp.  We were the only guests which is pretty lucky if you ask me.  I have a lot of pictures and interesting stories to work with Lori and the 1st graders next year when we do an African Powerpoint. Isaac helped with labeling pictures so that when I got home I didn't say, What kind of scat is that ???  Then we spent 3 nights with Deb as our guide and she is one of my new heros!!  She is a very special person!  Soon we spend 4 nights in Victoria Falls, which is one of the 7 wonders of the world.  Then, I'm back here for my volunteering and village life.  I've met a few people, mostly UK folks, who live here and I'm feeling perfectly comfortable with the area and people.  I should have internet connection from now on.

Lusaka Airport

Just like Riverton! DC hotel to hotel in Lusaka, Zambia took 26 1/2 hours.

Dulles

DC to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and then into Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.

Zambian Embassy in DC

Stopped in this morning, just because I was in DC. 2419 Massachusetts Ave. No one was available to visit with since the previousTourism Board Director had moved on and the new person in charge hadn't arrived yet. No maps. I did pick up a Zambia Export Product Catalogue which advertises Savanna Beef, Mables African Creations, freshpikt,MIAPEN Zambia Crafts, Copper Belt Forestry, Hipego Zambian Handcrafts, York Farm LTD, Tiger Animal Feeds, MMobile Telecommunications, Sylva Food Solutions, Mukwa Creations, Capital Fisheries Limited, COMACO, African Joy, Zambezi Gold, Bien Donne Farm, UBUCHI, Zambia Coffee Growers Association LTD, Zamseed, and Bobbili Gems.

Packing for Project Luangwa

The two bags are packed and weighing in at 44 pounds each. We're taking reference books, educational puzzles, two lap-top computers, erasers, pens & markers and composition books. Thanks to Baldwin Creek Student Council and FCSD #1 Tech Department.