Typing this up in my hut so I can post it when I go to Solwezi. Laying under my bugnet typing my written out journal entry by candlelight. It seems like a collision of two different worlds using my computer right now in my mud hut in rural Zambia. Well anyways, onto the rest of my entry before my computer battery dies. (Talked about the juxtaposition of our lives last night with April. It's crazy that you can wake up in your hut living village life, interact with a variety of people from the Home for the Aged, to the Sports tournament where I am the only muzungu to then end the day sitting around a table with a bunch of other American Peace Corps volunteers in the city enjoying electricity and small joys like refrigeration and being able to order food. Such is my life for the next two years..)
26 May 2011 - Human Interaction:
It's amazing that you can be connected to another person when there is no verbal communication. The elderly woman who lives on my compound, the grandmother of the Kumwana Family, visits my hut everyday just to check in. She's one of the family members I feel closest to but we've never exchanged more than a simple greeting and thank you. She'll come over we'll greet with the traditional handshake, clap, handshake, clap; that will be followed by our no longer awkward (well at least less awkward) silence when we stare at each other for anywhere from a minute to an hour if she decides to sit and watch me. We share a laugh as we determine we're both just as lost as the day before on understanding the other. When our interaction is completed then she'll get up, I say nasakilili (the Lunda word for Thank You) and then she returns to her sitting area by her hut. She understands that I have a very limited understanding of Lunda and she seems to have no knowledge of Kaonde or English so we're at a bit of loss on the conversation front. Today she said something about my drying rack not being finished and gestured that I was running low on charcoal; or at least that what my charades skills led me to beleive. I wonder if this will continue for the next to two or if I will acquire an ability to understand her in Lunda before my Peace Corps service is completed. She makes me feel welcome and like I am a part of her family and like I am a part of her family which is amazing because we've hardly said a word to each other. Learning there are so many other ways that people communicate besides the straightforward method of speech.
Hot Waffles: I am in temporary ownership of a Zambian puppy named Hot Waffles. he's about 3-4 months old and has quite the personality. Every time I try to leave my hut he somehow knows and shows up out of nowhere from playing the the neighborhood kids or stalking a chicken. Then it's a little game of how long will a Zabmian child hold the dog before he thinks he's going to be bitten. Considering Hot waffles doesn't enjoy being held against his will and he's a teething puppy the answer is never long enough. If I'm lucky eventually an adult will step in and the the dog, I'll give up and hope he gives up when I ride my bike away, or I'll bring his leash (rope/collar I made out of pcord) and have a little boy hold onto him while I'm in my meeting or playing sports with the schoolchildren. He knows he's not supposed to follow me to because I'll turn around give him a look and point my finger - he stops dead in his tracks and as soon as I start to walk farther he continues to trot after me. But other than our little struggle with him staying home when I go to work it's nice to have someone around with me at my hut and doesn't require much more than some food, water, and stick to chew on. While I'm talking about dogs I should also mention that dogs in Zambia are treated much differently than dogs in America. Dogs in Zambia are generally left to fend for themselves for food and water and there is the general idea that if you beat the dog he becomes a better guard dog. There is also the issue of rabies which in the states there are significantly fewer stray dogs and I there is not the issue of having access to the vaccine or having money to pay for the treatment like there is in Zambia. So what I'm getting at is that Zambians are definitely scared of dogs, they are taught at a young age to stay away form them. When I first brought Hot Waffles to my house no children visited for a good week. Now my family has gotten used to him, the boys love to play with him, and the other children have caught on that if they run away from him he will chase them. And now that I've spent a significant amount of time talking about a dog... let's move onto some of the work I've been to in Lumwana.
I'm in community entry which means for the most part I'm not supposed to be starting work but moreso observing lessons in the schools, integrating into the school, my family, and the community as a whole. I've been working on getting to know the teachers at my school, getting to know the kids and have them get used to having me around, meeting different contacts in the community, trying to find potential projects, and also keeping my eye out for potential friends. Two years is a significant amount of time and I intend on doing what I can to truly intergrate.
There are 6 schools in my zone that I can potentially do work at. Five of them are government schools and one of them is a community school. The government schools are funded by the government as the name would imply and then the community school is funded as best it can be by the community where the school has been built. When I first learned about community schools I had a hard time wrapping my head around it; I still struggle. Community schools came about in the 90's for a couple of reasons there was/is overcrowding at the government schools, there are some children that cannot pay school fees (even though grade 1-7 is 'free' there are still PTA fees, uniforms and shoes are also required to attend school), and sometimes the distance to the closest government school is 5k plus (which is a substancial distance especially for younger pupils). The reason community schools were started is logical and I commend all the communities that have pulled together enough to buy/create the supplies necessary to build a school block so that their children (or the vulnerable children/orphans) can attend school. The issue that I have difficulty wrapping my head around is that even once the school block has been built the government still does not provide funding or donations of any sort to the community schools. There are numerous other hoops they must jump through before they can be considered for funding which if a community school is lucky and plays their cards right they can hope to receive funding in some capacity years after the school has been in operation. We had a session on Community Schools during pre-service training where we learned all of this background information and many of us questioned why the government didn't do more to aide the schools. They have development goals for 2030 and there is a focus on the education of its people and this does not seem to be fulfilling that goal properly. The explanation we received was the the government simple does not have the money to support these additional schools. They can be officially acknowledged by the government if they reach certain standards and if they reach a high level of operation the the government will provide them with funding. I know that Zambia is a developing country, the rural government schools are also struggling with funding and they are given funds from the government/teachers there are salaried by the government, but leaving community schools on the outside still seems cold to me. There has to be money somewhere in the national budget that could be reallocated towards at least covering the salaries of a couple of teachers for each community school. It's a harsh reality that the right to an education remains 'a good idea' that has yet become a reality to those living in rural poverty in a third world nation.
So I have started to get familiar with the different schools in my zone to assess potential projects and counterparts for my PC service. I've still need to visit two of the government schools, they are located further out down a dirt road, working with the Head Teacher (think Principle) at my closest school, Lumwana Basic, to coordinate a visit to them. Of the other schools I have been working the most at Lumwana Basic, it's about 800 meters from my hut, a quick little 5-10 minute walk when you factor in the hill. I've been mostly observing lessons of all the grades 1-9 at the school getting an idea of how the lower grades are taught and then trying to identify a potential counterpart to co-teach with next term. I've gotten a good idea of how lessons are taught at the different grades and by the different teachers, almost all teaching is based on lectures, copying notes, and repetition of facts. That's one of the focuses of my job is to introduce learner centered activities into the classroom such as stations, small groups, pair-share, etc.. I am still working to find a good counterpart for co-teaching with because I'm looking for someone that teaches upper basic (my original focus was on gr 7-9); focusing on the upper grades because they have a better understanding of English and will be able to understand me better when I teach. However there is an issue of teachers leaving for town because they are writing exams or doing coursework for their degree. Teachers often do a distance learning program while they are teaching to work towards their diploma (the teachers have their teaching certificate but diploma is a seperate affair). The hitch is that they need to go to town in order to type up their work, sit for exams, or attend class; subsitute teachers do not exist in Zambia (at least not in the rural areas I have not observed classrooms in urban areas). If the teacher leaves then it is up to the other teachers to cover that teacher's class or the pupils are left to sit without instruction for the day. Corporal punishment is also not a thing of the past. It's technically illegal according to a law that was passed I think in the last 10 years or so. There is no one that enforces this law in fact I am pretty sure the law is not even widely known amongst teachers. There is also the question as to what is considered corporal punishment. Many Zambians have the view that corporal punishment is necessary in some circumstances to get through to the pupils. As an American raised in a completely different environment this is another one of those difficult ideas to understand. Taking it from the Zambian perspective you teach how you have been taught, which also includes the way you discipline your students. In no way am I accepting corporal punishment or saying that it is okay for them to hit or pinch children's cheeks when they do not provide the right answer or are considered to be disrupting the classroom but there is a different culture here and part of the issue is that an alternative method of discipline needs to be instigated such as postiive reinforcement and finding the root of the problem for the child's lack of understanding. The issue of hitting children exists at my school, not school-wide but with a couple of the teachers. I have not figured out how to deal with this issue completely yet. I will not work co-teaching with a teacher that in anyway harms a child. For this reason I am continuing my search for a couunterpart and thinking about expanding my search to include grades five and six. I want to confront the teacher(s) and have a discussion with them about their use of corporal punishment; but it has been recommended to me that I develop a relationship/repoire with the teacher(s) first and then breech the concept of corporal punishment and potential alternatives. This is hard to do when I go to their classrooms to observe a lesson and a child is hit or pinched. Trying to bide my time, it is a gray area, but sooner rather than later something needs to be done; I just need to figure out a way to breech the topic keeping communication open and do so in a way that they will be willing to try positive reinforcement, and other non-abusive methods of discipline. There are great things going on both at the school and in the community but just as everywhere else there are also areas of improvement.
Onto positive events. I have started working at the Community School. The school is 4 km away, it's all uphill on the way there but the great thing is once you get there you know it's going to be a breeze getting home - you hardly even have to pedal :) The school is one classroom block, the school was started in 2003 primarily because of the distance to the government schools in the area and because of the cost of attending the government schools. The school teaches grades 1-6; there are currently 2 teachers there that teach mostly as volunteers. There are small school fees of 15 pin - equivalent of 3 USD per term. However there is a large orphan/vulnerable children population and many of the pupils cannot pay the fee. The fee is intended to provide the teachers with a stipend for the cost of living so that they can support themselves; I'm not really sure how they get by but I think mostly because Zambians especially in rural areas live with their extended families and take care of each other is the only way I figure that it works for them to be 'volunteer' teachers at the community school. The teachers at the school are not certified, they have attended government school through grade 12. I had a meeting at the Community School a couple of weeks ago with one of the teachers and a counterpart in the community that works closely with the community school. I learned the specifics about the school and a bit about their needs. Then last week I had a meeting with their executive board, the community members that run and oversee the overall operation of the community school. It was interesting because the entire meeting had to be translated from English into Lunda or vice versa for the board to understand me and me them. I explained my role as a PC volunteer and what I would be able to help with (education, teaching method/knowledge) and what I would not be able to help with (building teacher housing, funding the school, becoming a full time teacher at their school) and we decided that I would best used if I started to teach English class once a week to the 6th graders. I started teaching there on Monday morning. The teacher with classes in the afternoon came in the morning to translate for me and I started to work teaching the grade 6's and the grade 4's; they share a classroom and currently neither grade has a teacher because the third teacher at the community school recently left for actual employment. Together we created an alphabet teaching and learning aide that we could hang above the chalkboard in the classroom. I created an outline of each of the letters the night before on cut-up flipchart paper. We went through the different letters of the alphabet which most of them already knew, they each colored in their letter (those crayons you sent are sure getting their use mom), I gave them a pre-test of 25 sight words to see the level all the pupils were at, and then we finished the class with the children drawing a picture to go with each of the letters of the alphabet (a is for apple, b is for boy... t is for tree... w is for well) and then we hung the letters in order in the front of the classroom. It was a fun lesson and served mostly as a gauge as to where the pupils are at since I had not met them before and only had the information that they should know the alphabet but not sight words to go on. The challenge now is to keep this up. I know I need to start with a focus on phonics but do not really have much/any information on teaching phonics. I also don't think phonics is a strong suit of mine, hooked on phonics as a child, speech class in elementary school, sounds like I'd be a great person to teach young impressionable children how to speak English properly. But looking around they don't even have a teacher right now... something is better than nothing.. and I've come a long way from my childhood self.. if you have any suggestions for teaching phonics or potential materials to use that would be amazing. I have access to the web/printer every couple of weeks. Wishing now I had brought more of my teaching materials from college - and that I had sorted through them better when I was stateside so I could actually remember which books were helpful and which weren't. So that's Community School take one. Take two next week - planning on doing a vowel/consonant review/focus for the fourth graders and getting the sixth graders started on a phonics chart which they can then teach the 4th graders how to use and introduce more sight words..
This week I also had an information meeting for an Adult Literacy Class. We held the meeting in a church over by the community school, near where my counterpart that side also lives. He told me the community was interested in learning English. I told him I could help - I'm supposed to work in the community once a week and have been keeping my eyes open for potential projects - also hoping to look into women's groups through a contact with my nearest PC volunteer neighbor. We set a time and date, this past Thursday at 14 and he took care of spreading the word and there was a great turn up. It was just an introductory meeting to gauge interest, assess the literacy level of the attendees, and gain a general understanding of the idea of Adult Literacy class. We're planning to meet every week on Thursdays at 14 at the church. The literacy levels range from very beginning - being unable to write their own name, to advanced including my counterpart who translated the entire meeting into Lunda for everyone. At the end of the meeting we had 24 people signed up for the class but my counterpart told me to expect even more next week as the word spreads. We'll see how many people really stick with it. I'm pretty sure we're going to have to have separate meeting times for each group: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. My hope is to have everyone meet at the same time and to have separate groups - different activities going on at the same time. Some people learning the alphabet and how to spell their names, others site words and simple phrases, others tenses, others practicing conversations? Somewhat wondering what I've gotten myself into but know that I just need to take my time and see how everything unfolds and what ends up being the best set-up for the class. Everyone wanted to meet at least twice a week which I would love to do.. but also trying to make sure I don't spread myself too thin for when I start co-teaching at the school, get involved in clubs, continue working with the girls football team/playing some football and volleyball myself, and then try to create a literacy program at the school. Everything sounds like a great idea but the reality of the situation is sinking in. There is plenty of work to be done but need to decide to focus on particular projects and hope there is time for others later. Glad to have this problem over not being able to indentify any counterparts or projects that I can contribute to in the community. It's been a bit over a month at site and I feel like I'm getting a good handle on things but know there is still far more to experience and learn and that I'm only just now beginning to see the shape my service will take for the next two years. I'm very hopeful and excited about the different potential for so many things but am trying to hold myself back and continually remind myself that these ideas are great but I need to check myself to make sure the projects I want to work on are indeed what the community wants, that they can remain sustainable after I've gone (or been worthwhile in the meantime in the case of adult literacy haven't figured out how to make that project sustainable), and remind myself that everything I want to do is going to infinitely longer than I expect. I'm living in a rural village without electricity, I get around by foot and bike, everyone in the community is also busy with their own lives, and change takes a substancial amount of time. I hope two years will be enough to accomplish some of my primary goals. Time will tell.
Just went into print preview and realized that I just typed something shy of 6 pages.. guess this one's going to be a long entry. Especially since I'm not done yet. If you're still with me way to go :)
I live by a very large mine. Which means a couple of things: there's great transportation when I'm trying to get into town, my market at the top of the hill has far more in it's tuck shops than other areas since it's by a mine turn-off including a refrigerator where I can get cold softies and an amazing shop has started stocking cheese for myself and Audra (I know living a bwana life for a volunteer) (but can only indulge every once in a while on my PC budget), and it also means that there's a budget around for things like sports tournaments. The tournament starts tomorrow and the whole thing includes somewhere around 6-10 schools that live in the area that the mine operates. Tomorrow we're playing Nalaga School in girls football, boys football, netball (only girls really play netball), and volleyball (apparently co-ed but think we only have boys right now..) The mine is going to transport them from our school to Nalaga for the tournament. We play different school next week at our school, the following week is semi-finals, and then finals. The advantages of living by the mines. Without transport non of this tournament would be possible not to mention the organization provided by the mine is clutch for the games actually occurring. So for the last week we have had sports practice everyday of the week. Usually sports is only Monday and Friday afternoon. We've also been working on forming a girls football team. Traditionally the boys play football the girls play netball. So I was really excited when this opportunity presented itself as many of you know i love playing soccer and the opportunity to introduce the girls to it made me very excited! The first sports practice that I went to they introduced me to netball (a game that combines basketball and rugby together.. we play on a dirt pitch which is probably why basketball has not been adopted and they throw the ball to their teammates but cannot run with the ball the objective is to get to the net (basketball net without the mesh net portion) and then they shoot one handed. There are addition rules with how many steps/shuffles you can take when you have the ball that I'm still working on getting down) . After playing some netball then we started a small game of soccer on on the netball pitch. I thought they'd know the rules and be good at football since football seems to be an obsession with Zambians (turns out gender roles it's the men and boys that play football. It was a great laugh 'playing' football that first practice as the girls attempted to kick the ball missing left and right, hammering the ball out of bounds, handballs galore, but the most I had laughed in a long time (and I consider laughing a great pasttime). They have come really far from that first practice - some of the men from the community football team have been coaching them. I started off attending their practices and then turned into more of an assistant coach of sorts. The community coaches are better qualified considering their soccer abilities are superior to mine, they can instruct the girls in Lunda their native language, and they have known the girls for longer. But I'm sticking in there. I provide the ball (possibly the best thing that I brought from the US), provide addtional instruction when I can, and most importantly show them that girls can play football; I may not be as good as the Zambian men in my village but I can handle the ball well enough to set a positive example for the girls. That's the hope at least. Sports provides a positive outlet for the girls, keeps everyone at practice out of trouble they could otherwise be getting involved in if bored in the village (no t.v.'s, limited access to books, plenty of chores... ), it keeps everyone active, and what I love the most is it creates a sense of community amongst everyone on the fields. Yes there are separate teams you have the boys football team, the newly formed girls football team, the community football team, the girls netball team (pretty much the same girls as football), and the co-ed although mostly male volleyball team that included pupils and community members. I play football with the girls sometimes and almost always join in playing volleyball but I also love just sitting there watching everyone play their respective sport sitting with Hot Waffles in my lap and the little children all staring at me because I'm the village muzungu (white person). One of my favorite parts of village life so far. (Lumwana First Games of the tournament was yesterday - we won in Netball, Boys Football and tied in Girls Football and then I had to leave before volleyball was over so I could make it to town before dark. Next weekend we're hosting a different school at our school compound. Keep ya updated :)
Must wrap this up and catch some sleep. Departing early in the morning to bike to Audra's site 7 km and then walk to the church by her house to meet up with the HIV/AIDS drama group she's involved in. Traveling with them to the Old People's Home where they're performing and an event I'm not completely sure of is occurring. The members of the group are really great and recruited to perform at many of the events around the area. They put on hilarious skits involving men dressing as women to fit the roles for the skit and are generally funny; which is saying something because most of the times I've seen them they perform in Kaonde or Lunda so I have only the slightest notion what they're actually saying. The Home for the Aged is an interesting concept within itself for Zambia. It's not like in America where when people get old and need help caring for themselves they are sent by their family to a home to be taken care of. When people in the village get old their family takes care of them. But for the most part the elderly people I have met could give me a run for my money in an arm wrestle. They're still active carrying out the daily chores and cooking for family members. So the people who end up at the Home for the Aged are ones that are vulnerable, don't have a family to take care of them for one reason or another - my guess is one cause could be the prevalence of AIDS. Others are at the home because they're simply so old their families have cast them out suspecting them of witchcraft because they should not still be alive. I have heard about the home from a couple of people and am very interested to find out the history: when it began, who founded the home, who runs it/how is it funded, and to meet these imfamous 'ancient' people. (The event was supposed to start at 8 am - we were picked and brought that side after 11 - continual struggle with 'zam' time. So I had to leave early from the event because I had promised the girls that I would be at the sports tournament. But while I was there I got to meet the Bishop that has been working as the general overseer of the Home. I saw the people in the home - they danced for us at the beginning of the event. It's sad, really sad, to sit there and think that society has abandoned them. It's really great that this home exists and they now have somewhere to live don't get me wrong but the profoundly sad part is that in most cases their families beat them, refused them food, and in general tried to rid themselves of the 'witchcraft' that they represent. They have experienced so much in their lifetimes and should be valued as other elderly members of the community are... )
So I have added in some comments to my blog post used the brackets ( ) to try to help make sense of things.
Life here never ceases to amaze me.
Catch ya later.
