January Addition

I don't even know where to begin. I realize I have been neglectful of my blog, last update was four months ago... so here you are family and friends. My New Years resolutions: operation hydration, eat at least one fruit, one vegetable, and one protein a day, and (drum rolllllll) make at least one blog post each month. So January addition coming at ya :)

As you can see I started a blog post while I was home in America but never did get to putting up all those pictures even though I had that wonderful high speed internet. So Americaland to begin with. It was oh so wonderful to see those of you I was able to catch up with and as always there is never enough time to catch up during the short bit that was the holidays so remember snail mail and the art of letter writing and I am also turning over the new leaf of being faster and better at writing everyone back that writes to me :) So many resolutions...

It was strange being at home because the first week it felt like Zambia had only been a dream, that it never really happened, everything about Zambia was just so distant. And then the second week rolled around and thankfully I got back the last year of my life and it all felt real again. Think looking at pictures, giving a Zambia talk to a classroom of fifth graders at my old elementary school, and acquiring things from America to bring back to Zambia made it feel real again. It is hard also on the flipside of things to think I was just in America less than a month ago. They are different worlds but both very redeemable with different highlights. I must admit I do love the rain or shine the sun comes out and stays out for most of the day. Unlike Michigan where I saw the sun perhaps 3 maybe 4 times while I was home. Could have acquired seasonal depression had I been there longer and not so caught up and loving seeing everyone again and in the holiday spirit. Words  cannot describe how wonderful it was to be with my family for Christmas Eve/Christmas and to be able to catch up in person, break out the onsie pajamas again.

And while it was really wonderful to see family and friends again and enjoy the delights of the modern world, it is also really good to be back in Zambia where the sunshines, the people are so friendly/giving of themselves, and to have purpose and direction working on my projects in the village again.

So you ask, what am I up to in the village these days? Well when not having parties in my kinzanza with my host family children reading the books my mom sent me (which they absolutely love, their eyes light up when I break them out), I am also up to a couple of things at the schools. I have decided my main focus areas are:

1. Girls Empowerment (as seen through my work with Camp GLOW, Girls Leading Our World, and the Girls Club in my village. We had our first meeting this past Tuesday. The girls voted and we will be called Girls Club, very original I know. During the club meetings we will talk about different health issues including HIV/AIDS, malaria, etc..., business skills, and various life skills such as leadership, self-esteem, etc... The girls seem very reception but a bit shy. Hopefully they will quickly warm to me and get used to the muzungu working at their school. This is my first project working at Luamvundu, the zonal school for my district. Previously my efforts have been focused at Lumwana East Basic.

2. Literary. Started a library club at my school and it's been going really well attendance wise. We've had anywhere from 60-100+ kids coming to look at the limited books we have at the school. We still need to work on increasing their literacy but starting with instilling a reading culture and interest/love of books. Books are really only seen at the schools as they are expensive for a villager and a luxury item. Along this same grain of thought Mr. Banda, the senior teacher, and I are developing a plan to build a library room or a completely separate library. We are still working out the details but created a materials list for both with most of the materials and general cost and quantity based on one of the school block renovations by the mine that we have the records from. Mrs. Comben's grade 7 class is also supporting us in this process and fundraising to build part of the library. We are hoping to receive a donation as well from the local mine. They have built several nice library buildings in the area at some of the local schools in their area of work. Feel like I'm reverting a bit back to my days of emergency home repair in rural West Virginia.

3. Learner centered methods. Or in other words teaching through other means just strictly the lecture based method. It is more difficult then it sounds because the children do not have textbooks to take home and study so they do need to write a fair number of notes down from the board so they have something to study off of. And because behavior change takes a fair bit of time. I have been co-teaching geography with Mr. Yambwana going on two terms now and hoping it is making some sort of change. I also teach TGMs (teacher group meetings) some Fridays to the teachers at my school about different topics: teaching and learning aids, classroom management, learner centered methods, etc...

So those are my main work focuses while I'm here in Zambia. Of course the other focus is cultural exchange which is an everyday activity. I must be going though, run some errands in town and then head back out to the village. This is hopefully the first of my now monthly updates!

Oh and this one is for you Dad - the word they call white people is muzungu or chindelli (something like that). The first one, muzungu is the kaonde, bemba, etc.. word and then chindelli is the lunda word. I have tried to teach the children my name so many times... newest approach is going to be to teach them my kaonde name - butemwe, it means love. The head teacher gave me my name and I have not used it. Chatting with a zambian friend in the village about the children always calling me 'white person' he was surprised I had not tried my kaonde name, as Andrea is not a common or known name in Zambia.

On that note, hope all is well in America and you are enjoying the snow!

Ten-Four
~Andrea