First thing out at the property Phil got some quality time in with a few hundred children. No reason to be bored!
When in doubt a little Simon Says
We sometimes forget to stop and take in the heroism of the women who are pulling off the feat of feeding 800 children every day over outdoor charcoal fires. There has been so much going on so far this trip that we have not yet had our traditional lesson stirring nchima—something to look forward to!
Martha and Lucy cooking nchima
Josephine and Estella carrying the nchima into the classroom to be served
Lucy and Audria serving
And then the crowds appeared!
These two handsome fellows wanted their photo taken with their lunch.
It is fun that among the sea of adorable faces we actually now recognize a good number of the children and can greet them by name.
We’ll bet many of you know this cute face… Little Dave.
And remember Naomi from yesterday’s photos??
We’re not actually sure we are going to be able to leave without her when we go!
Love those smiles
We could not get a smile out of Little Cheri no matter what we tried.
You might remember Enoc and Dave from old blogs. They are twins who arrived in the program about a year ago very malnourished. More than healthy now and Theresa reports, “Very naughty,” with a big smile on her face—they ‘re well loved here. This is Enoc—we think.
“Take our picture!”
“And me!”
This is actually from yesterday and somehow we missed putting it in. A bit of a smile, and those boots! In the very foreground is Little Theresa.
As the children finished their lunch and headed out to the yard area, Theresa and Jen did some recording. Creating the Good News updates has been so much fun and made us realize how many ways we can use recording in documenting the project.
And we caught the twins together—Enoc, left, Dave, right.
Some other friends. Cheri, again, in back and in the foreground this little guy may look familiar. He is little brother to Cosmos, one of the original 100 children and well-photographed in many years of blogs, and they look a great deal alike. They are the children of Mabel, one of the members of the cooperative.
And, of course, Patrick, Brenda’s son. Brenda lived in what is now the new English classroom when Patrick was born so we have truly seen him grow up from infancy. He’s now old enough to be in the Living Compassion program.
And one last smile from our new friend, Naomi, before she leaves for the day.
This morning the moms and/or dads came with their children to visit the new English program in advance of the first day of school tomorrow. We thought it might be good for them to have a little sneak preview and hopefully lessen the newness of it all when they arrive for the big day tomorrow.
On our way over for final preparations to the classroom, we passed by a large portion of the team hard at work planting grass in the new yard. When we hoed the ground on our work day on Saturday and Theresa talked about planting grass we wondered where they would get the seed. No, no seed is needed. They simply go over to the existing grassy area on the property, cut clippings and replant it. Yes, of course.
Beauty with the clippings on the tarp next to her.
Planting it in.
Maureen and Sophiya in the foreground planting.
It takes a village!
As we put the finishing touches on the new room, several of the teachers sat interestedly reading some of the books we brought. The English program will be an intensive for the 16 lucky children who will be in this pilot project but the resource and benefit of it will stretch far beyond. The other teachers will have access to the materials to use for their rooms as well.
Ethel reading.
Veronica helps writing name tags while Susan sets up.
Soon the parents and children arrived. Most of the children are 3 years old. The children looked very tiny and their mothers quite young. None of the children cried and all seemed curious. All of the mothers agreed that they wanted their child to attend this school to learn English. As they left, Phil put a star sticker on each child’s hand. Some of the mothers wanted one too.
Phil addressing the parents (Theresa translated).
These tiny charges will be our responsibility tomorrow!
As always there is much going on in every corner of the property. Over in the sewing room, Gertrude, Georgina and Josephine were working on some skirt samples for an order they received.
Gertrude working out the pattern
Josephine cutting.
Gertrude on the machine.
Meanwhile the older students ate their lunch. Again, very fun that there are a number we can greet by name.
Monica, Little Jen’s sister, Beauty’s daughter.
These are students from Charles’s class. Their English is coming along little by little.
Great smiles
The girls of this age are the ones we want to keep in school—they are right on the cusp of the age where their parents will considering marrying them off.
We actually learned all their names but did not write them down and will need to relearn them tomorrow. Oh well.
Another Naomi friend. Though her English is very limited she is getting less and less shy and spending a good deal of time just being with us. She was even our photo assistant at times today.
Martha, the project accountant, in addition to keeping all the books and reconciling accounts to send to Jen, comes out to the property two days each week to assist with financial and other official cooperative business. She offers invaluable service, such as individual counseling on how to use a microloan, as well as doing community education on topics, such as saving and starting small businesses. We are lucky to have her. Today she came and educated us a bit about the rebasing of the Kwacha. Kwacha is the Zambian currency and the current exchange rate is around 5,000 Kwacha to the U.S. dollar. Effective sometime this fall they are dropping the three zeros off the end of currency figures. Makes perfect sense AND, of course, there is an enormous amount of preparation needed to make the switch, not the least of which is educating people in places like Kantolomba. Trade my 20,000 kwacha for 20 Kwacha?!?!?! I don’t think so!
Theresa, Martha and Veronica going over the rebasing document.
In the room where we were meeting we saw this on the chalkboard. A simple grammar lesson. We are always impressed by the willingness of the teachers to create lessons on their own with none of the resources a teacher in the United States would be used to.
While the meetings were happening, Beatrice took Phil up to the garden area to see where the cassava plants were growing. Beatrice explained that they eat the leaves of this plant for “relish” (a vegetable to go along with their nshima). She said they also eat the root of the plant. It can be ground to make another type of mealie meal (maize is usually used to make mealie meal). Beatrice explained that they plant two groves of the cassava at different times. While they are eating the earlier planted cassava the other cassava plants are growing. They are very careful when harvesting the roots of the cassavas, so the plants live for a long time. After a time they pull out the old plants and replace them with new plants. While these are growing they begin to harvest the second grove, which by now are mature. Cassava are now growing many places in Africa and are a good substitute for corn meal as the cassava plant does not need much water.
Beatrice showing off the gardens.
We leave today with much gratitude and a good deal of excitement for the first day of school tomorrow!