Big, big day. Monday, our last day out in Kantolomba before flying home, is sure to be giant so we did our very best to attend to as many things as possible today to ease the pressure.
Unbeknownst to us, the team had arranged for all the students to eat at once, when they would normally be there in shifts. This was to be a special treat for Jen to get to see everyone. It was, indeed, special—special and chaotic! Fun, though.
One of two rooms packed with children!
Now THAT’S a pot of nchima! (Eugenia and Maureen serving.)
Mr. Cute. You may remember him from a blog a few days ago when Cheri was holding him.
Beauty preparing vegetables for the next round.
No wonder they can balance immense loads on their heads—they start when they are tiny.
Some packed up for later.
Now serving the older students.
Around 10 o’clock the girls began arriving for the new program, which starts today.
Jen greets the girls.
Rose decided to begin with the sports program, so she gathered all the eligible boys and girls. For now we are inviting just the older students, 10 and above. We figure we’ll get our feet under us before tackling the energetic bedlam of 6-year old soccer.
Rose with the sports folks.
After being introduced to the sports, the boys were excused and Rose met with the girls to lay out her hopes for the girls’ program. They will learn some basic skills such as knitting, be given some health education, and get to participate in learning English. No doubt, over time, as the girls are around, more ideas of ways they can integrate into the larger project will become evident.
The first official girls’ program meeting.
As some of the groups were still eating, we decided to try out reading to the students who were around after class. It was perfect for about 7 minutes until we attracted enough attention that it quickly became a pushing contest. We ended that session and waited for the official story time that had been planned for later in the morning. It is clear they are eager to be read to, which is very heartening.
Jen reading with some students.
Muyunda went over to see the guys, who were still hard at work on the hammermill building. They felt pretty sure they would be finished by day’s end.
John (on top) and Shadreck.
Once all the children had eaten, those who had not gone home were assembled in the largest room for story time. We were not at all sure how this would go. We had Theresa tell the students that very likely they would not understand much of what was read to them, but not to worry, that over time they would understand and that is how they would begin to learn a lot of English. Amazingly, after a shockingly short time of settling them all in they listened VERY attentively. At one point we decided to excuse the very youngest students as they were not able to sit still, and we wanted the older students to have the benefit of listening without that distraction. The teachers sat in as well so they could watch Jen modeling how to read slowly and clearly, stop to show pictures in the book, and to ask questions to help with comprehension. We are working on recording about a dozen books that we will leave here so the teachers can play the recordings and go through the books with the students. Having a native English speaker read is of great benefit in learning pronunciation.
Jen reading to the whole group.
Because children’s books do not always have simple language, the teachers stand to learn a good deal as well. Beatrice took Mike Mulligan with her to study after the reading.
And now, the moment all had been waiting for… the sports teams got to play. Muyunda was great with the boys! He got right in there and had them trying out their skills, even worked towards choosing a captain (they decided in the end to do that on Monday). One of Beatrice’s younger sons, Brilliant, (Duncan is Beatrice’s second oldest son) is on the team. She reports that he is very good at football and tells her he is going to be a “footballer.” Apparently he is also very good in school. Seems to be quite a family!
Muyunda with some of the football boys.
The girls’ first netball training.
And then, on to learn some knitting.
The younger girls learning to knit.
And the older girls.
Theresa, Jen and Rose met to tie up the last items on the health list, as Rose will not be on the property again before Jen flies out on Tuesday. We discussed putting into place a new cooperative healthcare fund. Every month, each member of the cooperative will pay 3,000Kwacha (less than one dollar) into the fund. A record will be kept of each person’s “account” and they can use the balance in their account for themselves or their family members to see Rose (for a fee of 500Kwacha—about ten cents). The money in the fund will be used to help keep a supply of medications. This was an idea the health team came up with as a way of having people value the healthcare available to them. Everyone seems happy with the arrangement.
We also laid out the plan for the house cleaning and a new medical house. Mabel, who now lives in one of the homes on the Living Compassion property, is the recipient of the latest roof loan and has decided to purchase a house of her own. This will leave her current house vacant and we have decided it will be a place Rose can see people, as well as store basic medical supplies. The three of us will go shopping in town tomorrow morning to buy the basic supplies to have on hand.
Meeting about medical items.
And, sure enough, Charles came to report at about 4:30 that the hammermill building is complete to roof level. Well done!
As we walked over to see the hammermill building we saw the girls had finished their programs for the day and were enjoying braiding one another’s hair on the lawn.
Quite beautiful, don’t you think?