Bright Stars

Today we had the privilege to see a preschool called "Bright Stars" in action.  It is run by two Zambian women, one of whom we met earlier in the week at Fran's house. Fran is a missionary who has been in Zambia for quite some time.  Throughout her years, she has taken in/adopted 5 or 6 girls.  Nesi is one of them and she is running the school.  As with previous posts, I'm not posting photos with the kids' faces, but I am posting photos of the outside of the school (the one with JJ), photos of the "playground" equipment, and a photo of a girl in her school uniform washing her hands before snack.

  

Although I have no photos of the inside of the school without showing kids' smiling faces, I will tell you a bit about it.  Picture two miniature tables, about the width of your kitchen table and the height of less than 2 feet. Then picture 8 or 10 children sitting around it on tiny stools.  There were 3 different rooms for the kids... The morning session was divided into 3 year olds, 4 year olds, and "reception," which is basically our kindergarten.  The afternoon session had grades 1-3.  I helped mostly with the three year olds in the morning.  We did not stay for the afternoon session.  JJ and I taught the kids how to play "Simon Says" and "Red Light, Green Light" (which we called "Stop and Go").  I learned a new song/chant that I can do with my little ones this year.

Another thing I learned, which was a trend throughout the trip, was to be grateful for what I have.  I knew I would be grateful when I saw how the Zambians lived, but I didn't think about how I would feel in a classroom.  Especially since we saw the preschool.  These kids were packed so tightly together.  I used to complain about being in a portable classroom without much space for the kids to play.  Well, these kids had NO space to play in their classroom.  They had no toys, no housekeeping center, no creative writing/coloring table.  It was very different and very sad.  I feel even more grateful this year.  I have transferred schools.  I will get my first indoor classroom and it is large! I am also getting all new equipment and materials.  It's amazing how I have been blessed with all of this stuff.  Even without all of the toys and materials, these children were still so happy to be at school.  I think part of it was because their teachers were happy they were there.  In these last two years of teaching preschool, my main goal was to make sure my students knew that I love them.  These Zambian teachers seemed to love their students, too.  I guess we are not that different after all....

One last thing that I will mention is that a new building is in the works for Nesi and her school.... This photo shows the floor and walls.  When more money is earned for it, construction will continue. Hopefully the kids in the new school won't have to be so squished... and maybe, just maybe, they will be able to have room to play :)

Mulunda Miaka Orphange... A Friend Forever

My new friend, Pam (short for Pamu) has been working on building an orphange for quite a while, along with her husband Menda.  She explains, in a video on YouTube and on the orphanage website, that there are so many children orphaned because of the death rate in Africa... mostly due to AIDS. You can read about the orphanage and watch videos by visiting the Mulunda Miaka website. 

We wanted to help Pam and Menda and see the orphanage.  Their car broke down that morning, SO, we took a taxi about 20 km (about 12 miles) to get there.  Some of the road was paved with tarmac and the rest was a newly made dirt road full of bumps and holes and whatnot.. it was a rough ride.  This first photo that you see below is Pam and Menda, on the orphanage campus, in front of the house where they will live.

When we first arrived we toured the grounds and were able to see the chicken coops (currently 400 chickens, 500 more are coming soon), the buildings, and the gardens.  Below is Pam showing us the water pump.

And after all that hard work of touring, it was time for lunch! Pam made meat pies... and they were delicious! A meat pie (pictured below) is pastry-ish dough filled with spices and meat and deliciousness!  Can you tell I'm hungry right now?? ;)

Photo from http://www.musingsfromamadmozart.com/journal/2009/9/4/empanadasandmeatpies.html

After lunch, it was time to work! JJ and I went to the chicken coop to "gather" the eggs.  I put "gather" in quotations, because moments before we walked over there, the caretaker of the farm had already gathered them, but JJ and I still wanted to go in there, so we did! We each found ONE egg!! Notice the footwear...

JJ, Beth and I carried the eggs (I could only take 5 trays without fear of dropping them) to the "room" where we ate lunch.  I say "room" because there was a ground, bricks, and a roof... no windows or anything.  But there were chairs, so we worked in there! 

Our next task was to clean the eggs.. and it took forever with 6 people working! Each little egg had to be cleaned off so they would be ready to be sold!  If I remember correctly, there was close to 2300 eggs!

When the painter arrived, JJ and I were off to paint! It was a crazy ordeal in itself, but those details are not necessary here... Take notice the very, very strong ladder that JJ had to stand on and take note the hand brush that JJ and I used as opposed to the roller that the painter is using.    :)

After painting, it was time to go back into town to the BOMA (market-type area) to sell the eggs.  Pam opened the trunk of the taxi and the eggs were sold in less than five minutes!

Here is a video from YouTube about the orphanage.  It was made a few years ago, so things are different now, but I thought it was cool to see how they do construction in Zambia... It also has some good African music!

My friend, Kuji

Sunday night, we went to the Kapatamoyo's for dinner.  Mrs. Kapatamoyo used to teach with Jennie.  We were able to give away some of the toys that I was given to bring.  We gave Kujinanji (aka Kuji) a toy car and his sister, Columba a princess toy.  They LOVED them!

The next morning, we went to the Mukinge Hill Academy, a Christian elementary school. When I first walked in, Kuji shouted, "Aunty," and waved with a huge grin! "Aunty" is a nickname for basically anyone who is not a mom and "uncle" is the male equivalent.  I was called aunty many times, especially since the children had trouble remembering my name!

Anyhow, I was asked to help Kuji do some work.  So, I helped him.  Then, he took a division test.  Well, it turns out, he divided the entire test.  Most of the answers were correct, too... if he was supposed to multiply! So, his teacher asked me to take him outside and re-do it with him.  As most of you know, I am a teacher.  Well, I have never taught division! I was NOT good at it! I TRIED to teach him using rocks, but that was not the way that he learned, so he was not getting it! Finally, Beth finished up her task and I called her over! HELP! So, she helped teach him, and he started getting it! Yikes.. poor kid!  Guess I'll need to brush up on my division skills if I ever change grades!

The Hospital... eek!

The Hospital is a major part of Mukinge.  I don't very much like hospitals in the states and this one is no easier.  The hospital beds were so close together, all in one room, with no privacy or peacefulness.

We decided to go visit the Pediatrics area (Paeds ward) to give out some stickers and bracelets to the kids.  We thought they would love to have little gifts, well, we were right... but their parents loved the gifts even more! They were asking for bracelets, too!  And most of them did not speak English!  Once we brought out the camera, oh boy, they had a grand time! Posing with each other, by themselves, running to pick up their babies for a photo.  There was one man who did speak English and told us that the ladies were asking for copies, unfortunately, we were not able to do that for them.

We gave away many bracelets in the Paeds ward and then walked outside to see if we missed any children.  Turns out, we handed them out to more adults!  One lady was pretty old and she was so happy to get a bracelet that she stood up on her mangled feet and started dancing for us! I took a photo with her because she was so happy, but I'm not going to post it for privacy reasons.  

Maurice

So, today was our first full day in Mukinge.  We began by sleeping in and taking our time.  After visiting the Academy and secondary schools, we walked to a store that is run by Jennie's former student, Maurice.  Maurice is close to my age and along with running the store, he runs his family farm. When we get to the store, we greet him and see the store.  He asks us if we have a little bit of time to see the farm... since it was "right down the road." Well, it was not close, and it was not right down the road! In fact, it took about 45 minutes in his car, each way! We were just thankful he had a car and we did not have to walk there! I suppose I should also mention that the road is made of red dirt... not cement!  Since it was the dry season, all the dirt and dust was seeping through the doors and windows and getting all over our clothes and into our airways!

While on the way to the farm, we passed many villages.  It was neat to see the differences between them all.  Some had a lot of land, some had only a little.  Some had only one hut/house, some had more.  We saw a lot of people walking, some with shoes, some without.  We saw a couple of kids playing with a large tire.

Finally, when we arrived at the farm, we had to walk a bit to get to it.  Which meant crossing the stream! As you can see below, the men crossed with no trouble and left us ladies to take care of ourselves!

As we walked the path, we approached the area where the care takers of the farm lived.  There were a couple of homes and a "kitchen," which is simply a shelter where they cook their food. The walls of the homes are made of clay bricks and the roof is made from a straw-like material called thatch. I asked Maurice if the rain ever comes in the roof.  He said, "no, no it does not come in...never."  I asked him this because when we were in there, I could see the sun shining through the thatch.  A couple of seconds later, he said, "It just leaks a little."

He took us for a walk to show us the rest of his farm which is about 200 hectares (480 acres.. I think!).  He has many vegetables including eggplant, cabbage, rape, and maize.  He had pigs, chickens, fishponds, and some banana trees!

He also grew carrots and had one of his workers pick some for us.  Which worked out because we needed something to bring to the missionary's potluck that night!

We finished our tour and Maurice drove us back to our guesthouse and we went to the "take away" which is a restaurant.  They did not have any food left... just scones.  They were good!

I should also mention that Maurice is a very good artist, but it is not easy to get supplies.  First of all, he has to have the money for them.  And second, he has to travel to the city to buy them.  If anyone reading this would like to pay for a piece of art (which may take a while to get here) or donate money for his supplies, let me know.  

More to come....

I fell in love...

Falling in love is very easy for me... especially when it comes to children!  For lunch on our first day we went to our friend Pam's house.  Pam has four of her own children and has taken in Little "Lu-Lu." At first, he was not sure what to think of me.  THEN, I brought out the big guns.... I tickled him!! His smile was so big! It just completely made me melt! He is so cute. I told Pam I was going to take him home with me.  Although, we would have never made it since I'm sure immigration and customs would send me to jail!  Because I'm not positive this blog is private, I won't post a current picture of him, but the Orphanage website has an older photo of him that you can check out.  Take my word for it that he is still super cute.  He is almost 2 now!

Mukinge

So, I know I said I would give you stories, but I figured it best to give you some background on where we went before I get into the stories. 

Above Photo from Wikipedia
Below is from http://wiki.machaworks.org/Communities/Mukinge

Mukinge is a small town-ish area in Kasempa, which is in the North- Western Province of Zambia. It consists mainly of a hospital, a few schools and some residential areas (and let's not forget the "Take-away" and the BOMA!).  It's interesting because, just like in America, people come from all different levels of wealth.  There are the homeowners who are educated, dressed well, and have careers and a few miles away, there are villages where they live houses like this....

The house we stayed in was HUGE.  It had five bedrooms.... and a SHOWER! We were thinking we would have to take baths instead of showers.  We had to boil the water before we drank it for fear of getting sick.  We also took malaria meds.. just in case!  

It was the dry season while we were there... that means no rain, no humidity, and very chilly mornings and nights.  Even though, we were grateful for our house, there was no heat, so we were very cold at night!  Thankfully, it was a full moon while we were there, so even though it got dark early, it didn't get pitch black while we were walking from place to place.

Zambia is 6 hours ahead of South Carolina/Ohio time.  This only made communication more difficult.  Internet is a rare commodity over there.  One of our team members had an international data plan on her phone, but it didn't always work.. even with a cell tower on the hill.

It is also not very easy to get to!  We flew into the city of Lusaka and then had to take a six-seater plane (aka puddle jumper) to the "air strip" in Kasempa! We could have taken a bus for 13 hours, instead of the plane, but that takes too long!

When our plane landed, people from the village came to the fence to see us.  It's their entertainment for the day.  We were also greeted by other missionaries... I was too nauseous from the flight to talk to them though!

More to come soon...