Saturday, June 14, 2008

Another school week

On Monday, my morning classes went really well. Boy, that is rewarding. We ended up not doing any classes in the afternoon because the food wasn’t cooked on time. The teachers figured that no learning would happen in the afternoon with hungry kids, so we just played with them outside.
On Tuesday Chris, Josh and I only stayed for the half day, and then we came home and made an amazing omelette together. In the afternoon I chilled at the internet café, sent off some pictures, ate some sort of pastery with cream in it (which was amazing) and drank tea. I have to tell you that I really, truly thought I would loose some weight in this land of steamed greens and nshima- but I have certainly had lots of food that I really like as well during my stay in Africa Light.
On Wednesday, the big event was that I started to get my hair done. Paxina (one of the teachers) and Theresa (one of my students) started the braiding and twisting and the cutting of yarn that would become my new look. In the afternoon was clubs and I taught the kids “Give me oil in my lamp”, “I’ve got peace like a river”, “Clap your hands and sing to the Lord” and we practiced “Go, tell it on the mountain”. In the evening we went out to a “fast-foodish place” that had Chinese and Indian Food. I had chicken chow mein and garlic naan. Delicious!
On Thursday we had a hair marathon and finally the masterpiece was finished. Not only were those hours quite painful (I have a sensitive scalp- ask Kylie my resident hair stylist), but also a bit nerve-wracking as a grade 2 student held the candle (rather close to my head) in-between using it to melt the ends of my extensions. It was a good exercise in trust and perseverance. Actually, just sitting there made me sleepy.
We also started a chapel sort of time with the kids. They sang, and Josh gave a message which Joseph translated. Thursday is also sports day. After the chapel time, all the kids headed outside. We stayed at the school until 5.30 just playing. Joseph, Chris and Josh had started high jumping over the volleyball net with some of the grade four boys and all the school was watching and cheering.
Sports are not my thing (and I am useless at high jumping!), but I’ll often sit and a large group of younger children tends to gather around me and on me and we watch and sometimes sing. Lots of the younger kids don’t speak enough English to communicate with me, but they’ll sit beside me and start singing one of the English songs they know and we’ll communicate that way. Music is really cool.
In the evening the power went out, but we had a bunch of hotdog stuff ready. Leeland did a bbq and it was delicious. Pretty soon after we were sitting at the table, the power came back on again. This country has the shortest power outages of any African country I remember.
Friday is always a half-day. Tanya has had a crazy week of driving everywhere doing school errands. She is such a servant-hearted person! Today she was going to meet with some people about some very badly needed school desks, so Josh, Chris and I held down the fort with all the grade four students. I think the class went really well. I’ve been reading my students some fairy tales and then asking them comprehension questions. Today I read them Snow White and they really got a kick out of my evil queen impersonation. And another random note: The Frog Prince—seriously weird story.
In my grade two class we have now made it through the whole alphabet! And they all got candy today for their good behaviour. My chart of good behaviour and the incentives that come with it have seriously transformed my class! Next week we’ll do lots of reviewing and learn some other sounds like “th” and “ch”. I also want to get in some extra tutoring with a boy in my grade four class, so I’ll be prepping for that this weekend.
After school I went to the market-market with Sharon (before, when I have talked about the market I’ve been talking about craft markets—except for the entry with the potato man which was the down-town market). I picked up a bunch of candy (to be distributed in my classes throughout the next week), and she got some food. Then, her, Tanya and I went and picked up a table for the women to use in their bakery. We had to fold down all the seats in the back and put it over them, and I fit in the car sort of beside and underneath the table on the folded down chair. Oh—the amount of things you can fit in a car in Africa! In the evening we watched some TV on DVD on my computer (Yah!), and played some Taboo. For dinner, Sharon brought over some caterpillars for us to try. They are a delicacy here. When you first bite them they are just salty and quite fine, but then there is this stomach-churning after-taste of raw fish. And I don’t like fish. But I did manage to swallow it, and now can truthfully say that I have eaten caterpillar.
The weather here has been quite cold as it is now the cool/ dry season (basically Zambian Winter). It’s very dusty and often quite windy. At the school we’ll get these big gusts of dust. We come home from the school so dirty!! Dust goes in our eyes, and ears and noses and our sandal-feet are now getting permanently dyed. This week, the boys attached cardboard (from the boxes that the dolls came in) to all the windows to try and keep the dust out of the classrooms.
Other exciting things have been happening in the village as well. A woman’s cooperative is being formed and the woman elected some officers for it. They also started making bricks for a building where they are hoping to bake bread to sell. It’s cool to see them all working together- walking to the waterhole with their buckets on their heads, coming back, stomping the mud with their feet, putting it into the forms. Tanya brought them some fish and tomatoes and onions to add to their nshima for lunch and they were so happy. They were singing and dancing while they worked. It was pretty cool.
Well, that’s all the events of the school week. It’s just flown by.
Enjoy the pictures!

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