Time for School!
Posted
by
Kelly
on 17 May 2010
It’s the first week of the new school term in Zambia and we have a new vehicle to begin our work! The Bookbus Truck has arrived! It is the same truck which we took to Meheba last year. This is great news because it means we can reach out to the schools that couldn’t take part in our project because of the limits of the bus! So on Monday we had a major tidy out of the bus and transferred all the books and materials to the truck. I also visited the schools to re introduce our program and to make a timetable for the new season. At the beginning of term all the pupils are expected to clean the school, tend the garden, cut the grass etc so classes don’t begin in earnest until next week.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we went to Linda community school and were given our usual warm welcome. The kids and the teachers were so happy to see us back and we began our usual 1 hour lessons with grades 4 to 7. The children at Linda now look very smart as the entire school has been donated uniforms by a local church. Attendance was quite low on Tuesday but when word spread that we were back Wednesday the numbers had grown. It was great to see the World Food Program delivering food again and hopefully this will improve attendance too.
Thursday, we ventured out to the Libuyu compound and the Maanu Mbwami community school. This is one of the schools I discovered last year on a bike ride but it was inaccessible, now we can reach it with the truck. There are just over 300 pupils in grades 1 to 7 and these are some of the neediest children in Livingstone. The school was started by Pastor Smoke Chewe 7 years ago and it has slowly grown to today’s numbers. The teachers were super enthusiastic and welcoming. The children had never experienced anything like what we were offering and this is an amazing feeling. Although attendance was low, we are assured that Thursday will now become the favourite day of the week! All the volunteers agreed this was exactly the kind of school that the project was aimed at. We look forward to working with the pupils and the teachers at Maanu Mbwami (vernacular for Knowledge is Power!)Friday we returned to our old favourite, Cowboy Cliffs preschool where we went on a bear hunt and did the animal bop!
We have been busy in our free time too with sunset cruises, tea at the Royal Livingstone, bike rides with Cliff coming back with lots of local produce from the markets…including caterpillars! And on Saturday we went to Maramba Stadium to watch the Zambian National Football Team! As the match was free it was completely packed and we actually got turned away at the gates but managed to sneak in a back door after following a group of Zambians that were determined they weren’t going to miss this! The game ended 0-0 but the atmosphere was great and the little girls walking around with blocks of ice on their heads to keep cool were the highlight!