Another day of deep gratitude and delight at watching willingness and participation express themselves in many different forms!
The day began with a wholehearted reception from our welcoming committee when we arrived in Kantolomba. We played a spontaneous game with the children. We casually walk along as dozens of them follow behind, then we suddenly turn around and start chasing them. They scream and giggle with delight! After about 5 minutes we are ready to collapse and hand them back over to their poor teachers, who now have 40 over-excited children to deal with. Luckily, the teachers seem to enjoy the fun as well.
Jen gives up at the end of the chasing game.
“Good Morning!”
Phil wasted no time getting straight over to the preschool room to continue with her grown up pupils. Much to fit in the last three days!
It was Beatrice’s day to teach a practice lesson to a select group of children. She did great!
Winter points to the watermelon on the chart.
Singing in a circle—always a popular choice.
After the children leave, Phil continues training.
We’re pretty sure Veronica and Beatrice are enjoying the process more than they let on in this photo!
Meanwhile, over in our English skills session with Charles, we work on creating a poster of useful English phrases for teachers and students in the classroom: “I didn’t understand the instructions. Please could you repeat them?” “Please could you explain it in another way?”...
Charles carefully writes out the English phrases.
The intention behind the poster is to support students’ participation. This happens not only by offering these helpful phrases that they can use, but also, with the poster hanging on the wall and the teacher modeling using the phrases, by having a classroom where students know it’s a great learning tool to speak up and say “I don’t know.”
Charles and the poster - ready for the classroom wall!
In the dining hall we find Agnes reading aloud from a book in her lap.
Agnes reading to her colleagues.
She calls us over. She wants to read to us, to show us what she’s been working on. Of course! We take a seat on the bench next to her. It is a true delight to listen to her reading: steady, composed, melodic, and, from the beaming smiles on her face and the delight in her voice, bursting with enjoyment. We captured a short video clip to share with you:
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The beautiful flow of the reading pauses for a moment as children come up holding a plate ready to be filled with nshima and beans for lunch. Agnes serves lunch, and then gets back to the book.
Agnes with book in left hand, serving spoon in right. This is a multi-tasking we can get behind!
As we’re sitting with Agnes on the bench, she tells us that she is learning English. She says that she wants to be able to communicate with us in English.
Just yesterday, we had been given the assignment of looking at ways to support the whole team, not just the strongest English speakers, to learn English. And there it was. Life offered the gift of the unplanned, unscheduled meeting with Agnes. We got to hear from her first-hand that she wants to learn English. Her willingness is truly inspiring.
Sitting quietly after our reading session with Agnes, moved by all of that willingness to learn English, ideas began to drop in about ways to offer English teaching to those on the team whose English is at beginner level. Could we use the songs the preschool children have been learning? Could we create a book of simple English phrases with the Bemba translation underneath that would be useful for the team to use in their work, illustrated with photographs of daily activities from around the Living Compassion property? “Please wash your hands.” “Please wash your dishes.” We will keep you posted as these plans unfold! Very exciting.
Contagious reading. Contagious participation. Miriam sits outside reading quietly aloud to herself.
A friend comes to join her.
We join the young women for another action-packed reading session. More inspiring willingness: today, to help us understand what’s happening in the story we’re reading, we sing a little song with hand gestures to show the difference between “close together” and “far apart.” Everyone joins in!
Sounding out the words.
There was a thrilling moment. We pointed at a new word and asked what it was. On previous days, when no one knows what the English word means, the girls keep silent and just stare back. Today Mary, Agnes’ daughter, spoke up: “I don’t know.” ALL RIGHT! A huge leap in communication. So exciting.
In the sewing room, production carries on. We are shooting for 40 pairs to bring back!
Love how this one matches Mr. Phiri’s outfit.
It’s a fun challenge to get a new angle on a subject we report on every day.
Which one is yours?
These small slivers of chitenge didn’t make the cut, but we want to share what a beautiful sight they make bundled up in the box!
Outside of the sewing room, we ran into Twaibu and his friend Abraham. We want to share the fruits of our short photo session, not only because the photos came out well but because it was such a fun experience of participation!
We can tell Abraham understands a lot of English. He helps get the instructions across to Twaibu about where to stand for the photo so that the light is behind us.
Twaibu and Abraham
And our favorite of the whole lot: Twaibu takes a photo of Abraham.
At lunch we get a shot of the amazing posture we often see. Foster is the best example. We have never seen her lean against something or slump when she sits.
How much Pilates would it take to pull off sitting like that hour after hour?
An important part of the Living Compassion culture is that everyone cleans up after themselves. Here, the teachers wash their dishes after lunch.
Jen met with Theresa and Rose later in the afternoon. Rose, as you may remember, is the nurse who came on board a few years ago. She has been a tremendous asset to the project. Unfortunately, she just had two deaths in a row in her family and has not been at the project while we have been here. She came out to meet with us today to talk about how things are going with her work with Living Compassion. We decided that her next endeavor will be to focus on everyday children’s health—to educate children and their caregivers about the simple, yet life saving measures, such as hand washing and proper hygiene. She is also going to put in place a program to help teach children everyday life skills, such as cleaning their plates properly after eating, cleaning up after themselves, politely greeting someone when they meet, etc. These are simple things that some children in the community never have modeled for them, and it is a tremendous kindness to offer these skills as they grow up and enter the larger world.
Rose and Theresa
Before leaving, we try our hand again at getting new and different views on regular themes. How did we do?
The courtyard tree.
From inside a building looking out
Looking out the door of the sewing room
Georgina helps us out and poses under the tree.
Two more days to go. Much to prepare!