Rural Schools

I have visited 4 rural schools in the last few days. Back in 2002 I found that Choma Secondary, a city school, had some deficiencies and challenges in resources and infrastructure. That prepared me for what I am now seeing somewhat, but it is still difficult.

Some challenges are 95 in one classroom with 2 teachers, most classes are more than 60. The schools need more classrooms and teachers. Some schools are having the Gr. 1-3's come after lunch, so some teachers are teaching twice in a day. They receive a small allowance for doing this. They did have textbooks but are always saving some for future years. One room I visited had 4 books for 32 kids. When asked to do something in the book, some could not even see the book. There are never enough desks, so some kids just sit on the floor.

I have also found classes sitting without a teacher at every school, because the teacher is not around. A teacher told me that when she went on maternity, other teachers are supposed to cover her classes. These teachers already have a class, so I doubt much filling in happens.

All of the principals and vice principals are teaching as well. Even so, they have welcomed my visits, and I have had to tell them immediately that I don't have any funding to build classrooms, teacher housing or buy text books. This of course disappoints them, but they tell me they are happy to receive any help I can give them. One school has me sharing some thoughts with teachers tomorrow about characteristics of excellent teachers. I am struggling with what to say, as the number one factor here is probably teacher to pupil ratio - imagine teaching every subject to a class, and being told that you are to make sure that every one of your 60+ students has achieved the objectives set for every lesson. I pray that God will guide me!

Surreal Landings

We are in Zambia!! We landed in Lusaka after our 11 hour flight from London amidst the hazy morning skies at 6:20 am. The haze comes from the smoke from grass fires lit by herders trying to speed the new growth of grass that comes with the rains in November. Josiah peered out of the window and asked breathlessly, Is that Africa? He is excited and filled with wonder at the prospect of being back to his homeland, having only pictured and video memories. When we step off the plane, I told him to take a big breath, and the smells of Zambia came back to us - the dry, smoky air, mixed with the scent of the trees surrounding the airport. Despite the lack of rain since the last February rain, flowers are beginning to show in the trees of many trees, that also are preparing for the coming rain.

We walk down the runway to the doors with the small sign overhead that proclaims, Welcome to Zambia. We are the last ones off of the plane, having recouped our 9 carry on bags that have challenged our patience and muscles over the last 48 hours. As we troup into the building, Josiah is wondering when we will see monkeys, lions and leopards. He sees a big sign that has a picture of a giraffe, which seems to reassure him that there are indeed many animals awaiting him just around another corner.

We finally caught up with the other passengers and find the line for visitors. The plane had been almost totally full, yet the little airport does not seem very busy compared to the Calgary and London airports we went through. We are soon asked to go to another line, that seems a little shorter. The nun wearing a vest that says she is airport chaplain assured us that it doesn't matter which line we are in. She soon asks us to go to another line that we can see is headed for the sign saying Zambians. We chat with a man who we soon find knows of Macha, our final destination - in fact he spends part of every year there doing malaria research and asked if we knew certain Dr's. We did, and I am amazed how quickly we are making connections in our ever decreasing small world! After a short wait we are past the serious lady, having paid the $50 Visa fees.

We go to the baggage collection area and immediately see some of our bags going around the conveyor belt. Last time we were here, we had to come back for bags the next day. This time though, we are blessed to see all 12 of our bags with the little red tags attached to make them easier to spot. It also helped that we were the last ones through the line. A man working at the airport helped us load our bags onto carts and we headed for the exit. The lady asked for our baggage tickets, but after checking 3 said under her breath that we sure had a lot of bags and waved us through.

We immediately saw Kathy Fast with the MCC sign waving at us. We were back in Zambia, and Karlene said, I can hardly believe it! Josiah and Keyana were little troupers on the trip, helping by carrying their backpacks and pulling carryons that were almost as big as them. They did not complain about the length of our trip or anything really. We were very blessed throughout the journey.

We are now in the MCC guesthouse, also the home of the MCC Country Reps. We are in the midst of re-orientation, a bit on the fast track since we were here just 5 years ago. We will be heading out to our new home tomorrow, and are looking forward to God showing himself again and again.