The events of the first week of June

It’s June! Crazy! I’ve been here for a month!
Well, this last little while has seriously been a whirlwind of activity.
On Saturday we hit a craft market that happens once a month in this place called Kabulonga. I have not seen so many masungus congregating in one area since I left the Hethrow airport. It was a lot of fun. I love craft markets. After that we went out for pizza- which was also fun. I ordered the bbq steak pizza again. That evening I had a special music practice for church the next day.
Sunday was exciting with church in the morning. It was fun to sing with three other people for a special number. The worship was really cool. Later was a community meeting at the school. The kids did their drime about the consequences of sex, and they did a great job. The community really enjoyed it. Afterwards, Lisa did a talk about HIV and AIDS awareness. AIDS is a big problem in Zambia. Because there is a stigma around the disease, people don’t want to be tested—they’d rather not know. Of course, if you don’t know you can’t take measures to stop the spread of the disease. After that was the youth group meeting which was also a lot of fun.
On Monday, another volunteer was added to our busy house. I taught at the school in the morning and then Chris and I left go with Tanya to pick up Josh at the airport. After having lunch at home, Chris and I left to get our visas renewed. A guy from World Vision came with us which was really nice because he did all the talking and my visa was renewed really easily. That evening, Sharon made us a bunch of traditional Zambian dishes. She wasn’t able to get caterpillars though (too bad!). I liked the rice and this tomato/ onion sauce, and I stayed away from the little fish.
On Tuesday, I taught at the school. In the evening we all went out to a new Indian Restaurant. There are quite a few here. I had some amazing buttered chicken.
Wednesday was a sweet day. In the morning was PE with the kids. Chrissy and Josh were trying to teach them the proper way to keep score, to rotate and the proper ways of hitting the ball. They really liked calling “zero serving two” before serving.
World Vision gets a bunch of stuff donated to them and then they distribute it. Today we were able to take a whole bunch of dolls to the school. They were cool dolls too. They were hard (which will keep them cleaner than the cloth-body ones) have eyes that open and close, bottles to “feed them” and even an extra diaper (these dolls pee!). Of course, it took Sharon, Chris, Tanya, Josh, Chrissy, Paddy, Lisa and I a few hours to get them out of the boxes. That was some crazy packaging! We were told it wouldn’t be really culturally appropriate to give them to the boys, but we were able to give one to every girl in the school. They were so thrilled! They were kissing the dolls and feeding them (I saw lots of boys filling up the bottles with water). I don’t think most of these kids have ever owned such a cool toy. I took a picture the day before of a little girl who had tied a flip-flop to her back pretending it was her baby. Lisa, Paddy and Chrissy also had brought a bunch of stuffed animals for the kids which had been donated. And guess what… there were exactly enough stuffed animals for all the boys in the school. Totally a God-thing! After that busy morning, I headed off with Tanya and the ladies to a place called Chikumbuso. The story there is really cool too. It used to be a bar and brothel, but then this lady called Linda Wilkinson came and made it a place to benefit orphans, widows and single moms. There’s a sewing cooperative there, and there is a bag making program (they crochet beautiful bags out of plastic bags) and they’ve started making bracelets. They are also making soy milk (I think) and there is a school there as well. If you are interested in reading more about this project, you can check out: http://www.chikumbuso.com/.
Chris, Josh and I were left at home that evening and we had fun cooking dinner together… and making up our recipe as we went along. It was good times. We also watched “The Last King of Scotland” which was on TV. I was really interested in it because it’s about Uganda.
On Thursday I taught at the school. Chrissy, Lisa and Paddy left today. It was sad to see them go. They have been so wonderful to have around. I look forward to seeing them again when I go to the States. In the evening, Josh, Chris and I went to the mall where we had dinner (we went back to the messy burger place and enjoyed said messy burgers and milk shakes) and did some shopping and had a humorous conversation with a really drunk man at the supermarket.
Today is Friday. My grade four class are working on writing and illustrating short stories that they will present on Monday. I’d brought some treats for them today so that was fun. They are working really hard. Lots of my grade 2 students were crazy today (and did not get their good-behaviour treats). Boy they tired me out! Friday is always a half day, so some of the teachers came over to the house after school and we hung out by the pool.
This week has gone by so quickly! It’s crazy to think that I’ll only be here for two more weeks. This is an exciting time at Grippes. This weekend we are looking forward to the official opening of the bore hole. The woman in the village have also started construction of a brick oven which they hope to be able to cook bread in to sell. Part of the proceeds from that will go back to the school.
Other exciting things for me? I’ve ridden to school and back on the back of a bike a few times. I registered for classes for next semester. I saw some pictures of my beautiful sister’s prom.
It’s been a good week,
Dayna