After a very long flight we arrived in Lusaka on time – I overheard the pilot saying that there was no radar so it was “real” flying for him. It looks like Lusaka is in a very flat area, with mountains in the very far distance.
After claiming all our bags (at least 3 each!) we were met by the team (Geoff, Colin, Penny, Abe, Chika) and driven to the Chamba Valley compound. My home for the next 2 weeks will be Cottage 2 with Gay, Lindsay, Martyn and Chris – Gay and Lindsay have taken the bunks and insisted I have the regular bed which I am not arguing with! I do like my room-mates!
We unpacked then visited Kiine school – Cosmas greeted us and gave us a brief introduction – the school was set up by a couple from the NW of the country, eventually serving 250 children all in one school house. When they needed to move on they handed over to ECZ, who have worked at developing both the school and the vision, with the help of both Mission Direct and a Dutch charity. Currently 350 in grades 0 (nursery & pre-school) to 8 (13 / 14 years old) with a vision of 1000, including grade 10 and a University College. All of the children come from the neighbouring shanty town (Kaunda Square Community) from poor or vulnerable families. They absolutely love their school and the education that they are getting, recognising that it is the way out of poverty.
The children were waiting for us when we arrived at the school and sang beautifully for us (I'll put at least one clip online when I can so that you can enjoy it too!) and then we visited their classrooms – I went into the year 1 class where the teacher was showing them one by one how to trace the letters of “bean bag” and around the shape of the bean bag – it took me right back to my early days of learning to write. Although some of the teachers are trained, many of them have not yet had their training, which will be a mixed blessing – as soon as they are trained and registered with the government then it is likely that they will be offered life-long jobs at government schools that come with good salaries and pensions, and so the community schools like Kiine lose them
After lunch (the kitchen team are looking after us very well!) each of us went through all the goodies that we'd brought to leave behind in the various projects that we'll be visiting – British Airways knew we were travelling for this project and gave us a baggage allowance of 3 cases of 23 kilos each. So you can imagine the amount of things we have! In the corner of our cottage we have 2 huge heaps of donated goodies each for a different project.
This left a pocket of time to have a quick look at the PCs that the Rewired lead had shipped over – they have been refurbished by Computers For Africa, and look really good. We are ready for tomorrow when we begin work.
We kept up with our busy schedule with a visit in small groups (4 people) led by local people for a visit into Kaunda Square Community which is right next to Chanda Valley Compound where we are staying and which is the home to Kiine School. Abe was the guide for the group that I was in, escorted by Rebecca who is a 9 (ish) year old girl from Kaunda Square for whom Abe is a very special adult (he is). At the point where we got to the market Abe told Rebecca to go home, but she began to be quizzed heavily by a group of women and Abe became worried for her safety so she stayed with us for longer – it turned out that they wanted to know about the sponsorship that she gets to enable her to go to school and how their children could get it too. The market itself was fascinating – the most memorable things were the tomatoes, greens and piles of dried fish (mostly the size of whitebait). As well as the indoor market and the market stalls outside, there were make-shift kiosks along the street selling much smaller quantities – no doubt at a healthy profit but at a price people could afford at the time they need what was on sale. Children were all around, playing with whatever they had found – one child was pushing a long articulated train made from milk-shake bottles with the lids for wheels; two other children ran out to take “photos” using “cameras” that they had made from polystyrene scraps.
The day has ended with a good hearty dinner – and a time of informal reflection between my room-mates – we are looking forward to starting work tomorrow.
