Community Entry

A lot has happened since I last wrote. It is 21:30 here and that is an hour and a half past my bed time, so this will be brief. First off, on April 23rd I finished training and became an official volunteer. We had a nice ceremony at the Ambassador's residence (fyi-there is no ambassador to Zambia currently) with real coffee and everything. We then left the next morning for our sites and the "real world", or as they say here "Zambia, the real Africa." We are in a community entry period for 3 months which pretty much just means we are not supposed to travel and stay close to our villages. We our to observe as much as possible and then at the end of June I will begin co-teaching in the classrooms. After a few weeks of observing the schools, I am excited to start working with the teachers and students, but needless to say, the education system here is "different." First off, there are 1,100 students enrolled at my nearest school and we had almost 100 students show up the first day of school (second term now), which is good and bad considering we have 8 classrooms for grades 1 through 9. School starts at 0700 and so far I have been the only one at the school believe it or not at or before 0700 everyday. The teachers favorite conversation, however, is how the students are always late. The teachers like to chase with sticks in their hand the children around the school grounds telling them to pick up garbage and/or sweep the dirt off the dirt (I haven't figured out that one yet). I have begun picking up garbage with the kids and the teachers look confused. Everyone here is wonderful though and I just hope they are receptive to my suggestions when I begin talking and no longer observing. They all mean well (I think) and have their ways, and I hope I can understand their ways just as I want them to understand mine. I haven't said much because there is still so much to perceive and learn. I have ventured to the futbol pitch in the evenings and began playing some pick up games with the community. They asked me to join in on a venture to a nearby community for a "friendly" game. Sure, why not. We arrived on a Sunday after a lively truck ride, and then uniforms came out of nowhere and they said, "Grant, 7," which I found out shortly after means play right-wing. People came out of nowhere right before the game and we had an actual crowd and I must admit I became nervous. I was clearly out of shape, but did not embarass myself at least. We have a big match vs Luangwa on June 6 so we are training hard for the next couple of weeks. I am in pretty darn good shape between the bike riding and soccer playing. At the end of the day I am ready for some Nsima (which is a good thing cause we eat Nsima for lunch and dinner... everyday) and sometimes I am so hungry I endulge in the local delicasy here, mbewa... mice. When in Rome. I got some other good pics but don't have time to upload them but will be around a computer in another week or so. The one pic is of Vuka holding none other than dinner. Rebecca and Chiza are in the other pic. They are hauling maize that we just picked in the field to the storage containers that we just built by our huts.

TTFN