We awoke excited about plans for the day ahead. Today was the day of our meeting with the people who will potentially participate in expanding the English program in Kantolomba: Theresa, Charles, Veronica, Beatrice, Joy, Georgina, and Josephine. We had invited them over for lunch at Castle Lodge for the meeting.
Over lunch, we got some good coaching in how to eat nshima with our hands: molding a small ball of it between the thumb and fingers, making a small indentation with the thumb, and scooping up the beans and greens into the little pocket. We enjoyed the experience of direct physical connection with the food, and saw, because we could feel the physical weight of the food directly in the hand, that it is a helpful practice in being aware of how much we were eating. Bringing hand-ful eating to mindful eating! Truly a kindness for the body.
Our intention for the first part of the meeting was to look at the biggest possible picture for the English program. We looked at the question “why do you think it is important to have good English skills in Kantolomba?” and wrote down what arose. Everyone shared a response. We heard that it is important to have good English skills in Kantolomba because:
- Schools from Grade 4 onwards use English as the language of instruction, and so it is important for young people to have good English to be able to succeed in their education. We heard that some young people in Kantolomba are ashamed to go to school because they don’t speak English.
- Lots of different languages are spoken locally, including Bemba, Lozi, Nyanja, Lunda, and it is important to have English as a common language to be able to communicate within Zambia.
- Employment opportunities open up for people if they speak English well. It is the global language of communication.
- Development in English at a national level is happening in Zambia. If you don’t speak English, you are left behind as the country moves on.
As we discussed the current English program, it became clear what a great team we have. Ours is not a formal school. We are an English program and a place for students whose families cannot send them to school to come to learn. And yet, our students are doing among the best in the area scholastically when they enter local skills and sit for the national exams. It was fun to watch the team realize they have much to be proud of!
When looking at long-term goals for the English program, Theresa reminded the team of the importance of moving forward with “one heart.” She gave an inspiring example of a way the team can practice “one heart”: to support everyone to speak more English within the Living Compassion team, Theresa asked the team to greet each other in the mornings in English so that the responsibility does not fall only to her as the “leader” to remind people to speak English. The team agreed to take on this practice together.
Charles made the point that the young people he works with need more “interaction and exposure” to English. We explained that a key tool for this would be the internet. Also, if the teachers are eager for more information on early childhood development, it’s all there on the internet. A perfect tool for practicing becoming one’s own teacher. We will be offering as many coaching sessions as possible during our stay on using the internet.
We ended the meeting by giving each team member the assignment to write a letter to themselves, answering these questions:
- Why do you want to learn English? What motivates you?
- What tools and techniques have helped you learn English?
- How can you support yourself to learn English from here? What can you do every day, every week, every month…?
- Thank yourself for all of the efforts you have made so far to learn English.
We are eager to hear how the team responds. They will share their responses with one another, and we will pool all of our ideas, tools and tips as we look together at taking the next steps in expanding the English program.
After the meeting we all watched a video on the impact computers are making in rural India. The content of the video was excellent. It was inspiring to see that the entire world of ideas and resources is available to the team through the internet.
At the end of the day, our computer genius connection in Ndola, Godfrey, arrived to work his usual magic. We always have him check out the two netbooks the team here uses to be sure they are virus free and such. This time we also brought two fairly old, quite slow laptops with us that he rehabbed to like-new. We are thrilled that they are going to be two perfect machines for computer learning out in Kantolomba. So much gratitude for all the assistance Life gives us in its infinite forms!