We are having a wonderful time spending very full days out at the Kantolomba property. Phil has become a full-time preschool teacher while Jen is doing a great deal of project documentation and coordination. We crawl back in the door of the guesthouse at the end of the day with renewed awe and respect for our Zambian colleagues who do this day in and day out—wow.
All of that is a preamble to our apology that we are combining Thursday and Friday into one blog—self-preservation!
Preschool has started! It is truly impossible to describe how cute the students are. They are knee-high (though they are all at least 3 years old, they seem to us about the size of an average 2-year old in the United States), full of energy and their little voices make your heart melt. We had decided these first two days were going to be all about making the children comfortable and that we would leave the bulk of photos and video for next week when they are more used to being with us. But we did sneak a few photos…
Shabba and Joseph are twins, children of Peter, a member of the cooperative. Shabba is one of the stars of the show so far. And, there is evidence that as she gets more and more comfortable she may be a handful—lots of life force!!
Left to right: Natasha, Theresa, Deborah. The nametag on the forehead started when one child put hers there and it became the trend. Works for blog photos! These are three of the quietest children so far, especially Deborah. It is going to be interesting to see which children perk up over time as they receive proper nutrition.
A nice one of Theresa standing next to her mom in colorful chitenge.
And the big news is that we have found our teacher! Joy! Joy Chabala, age 34. She is a joy, indeed. She seemed to appear out of nowhere just as we were losing hope that we would have someone to pass the program to before we left. She comes from Twapia, an area adjacent to Kantolomba and only slightly better off economically. We are very pleased about that as we never expected we would find someone that local who fits what we wanted in a teacher. Her English is very good, almost as good as Theresa’s. Her pronunciation (to our ear) is not as clear as Theresa’s, but we have explained to her how important that is to us. She is very open to improving in that area, and Theresa is committed to helping her. Thank goodness for recording and listening! She is going to listen to recordings of us speaking and learn to mimic the pronunciation. Theresa had a British teacher for her first three years of primary school, and she credits that for her clear diction.
Susan, left, Phil and Joy, right, in a singing circle with the children—learning the word, “Hello.” One big challenge: the teachers will prompt the children to “say hello” and the children mimic, “say hello.” It is ALL new!
Meanwhile, outside beautifying the surroundings of the preschool continues. The new grass is already growing nicely.
Beauty watering the grass.
As coordinator of the projects, Jen and Theresa are the ones to officially meet and greet new babies in the cooperative—it is a tough job that someone has to do!
Baby Emmanuel, Pauline’s son, came for a second visit.
We were all enthralled by his little “smile.”
Wearing his gift from Living Compassion (all of you!). It is cool at night these days, even as low as the high 40s, and that is COLD for folks here. Imagine 47 degrees in an earth house with no insulation, no mattress to sleep on, no heat, often not enough blankets! We knew these cozy fleece suits would be just the ticket. We only wish they had them in everyone’s size!
We mentioned earlier in the blog that three baby boys were born in the last several months and that 2 had a tenuous start (Emmanuel was one). Well, it turns out that one of the boys is a girl, Baby Christina, born to Winter and his wife. We do not know her well, and Theresa was not sure of her name. Once someone has had a child, they are no longer called by their given name; instead people call them Bana ____, the name of their first-born child. So, for example, Eugenia, in the cooperative, is called Bana Melody as her daughter Melody is her first-born. And the dads are called Bashi. Lingson, Eugenia’s husband is Bashi Melody. So, often Theresa does not know someone’s given name.
Christina was actually born completely healthy, but she is seen as a miracle child as her two previous siblings born in the last 3 years all died within days of birth of unknown causes. Both those babies were born at home, and Theresa and Rose strongly encouraged Winter to be sure he saved the necessary kwacha to afford transport when his wife began labor in order for the baby to be born at the clinic in the neighboring area.
Indeed, Christina is very healthy now at 5 months! She also got a new, cozy fleece suit. As luck would have it, when we bought the suits they only had 2 blue and one pink. We reassured ourselves that the baby would not reject the pink, “because I am a boy.” We had given the blue ones to Emmanual and Michael, and when Winter’s “son” Christina arrived we realized Life had taken care of us once again!
Also mentioned in an earlier blog, we have been having a great time seeking out many of the first 100 children in the program. Word has gotten around and now they are seeking us out. They are never all there at once, as some go to school in the morning and some in the afternoon, but we did get some great groups shots. And Jen had a chance to chat with many of them. We are capturing some of their stories to pass along to you during the weeks leading up to the Bridge Walk.
Jen on the lawn with many of the first 100 children in the program. A bit of the conversation is in English, and the rest Theresa translates.
A good group shot. A couple of easily recognizable faces: Twaibu, end of third row on the left, and Agness, in a blue dress on her knees all the way to the right.
And these are the students who come to us in the afternoons. You may recognize Naomi in the very front, and that is Regina that Theresa has her right hand on.
It was really fun to discover that we have shared memories we could laugh about together. We figure it would have been July of 2006 when we were here and participated in feeding the first 100 children. We were over at the old site, the little church building we used to use before we had our new, lovely property. One of our favorite things was to watch the children sing a song, the chorus of which had them put their hands on their hips and sway back and forth and shimmy to a squat. It was adorable! We asked them if they remembered it, and they all roared with laughter. Then we did the dance again together!
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The dance.
Groups of friends asked for individual photos.
We know 3 of the 5 names. Top row: Gloria, Regina, ?. bottom row: Naomi, ?.
These handsome fellows wanted in on the action as well.
Naomi and Regina
Josephine was passing by and decided she would like a portrait as well. She took off her chitenge and sported her capris—very cute.
And a whole group of boys gathered their friends for a group shot.
Back at the preschool the children are getting ready for lunch.
Everyone washes hands before eating. Just that, the teaching that it is very important to wash ones hands before eating, can be a life-saving lesson.
Regina and Estella bring over the lunch from the main building. We are happy to say everyone seems to be enjoying the “Magic Fence” idea and makes great efforts to use English, even if it means speaking only a word or two to communicate “lunch.”
Enjoying peanut butter rice and tea.
A bit of time outside after lunch
We thought this was wonderful how naturally curious Shabba and Joseph were about the posters on the wall. Joseph kept “petting” the animals, as if scoping out whether they were real.
And Susan escorts a couple of the children to the outhouse.
Soon enough it was time to go home. We had decided 2 ½ hours for the first couple of days was plenty. We will gradually work up to a 5-hour day.
Most of the children were collected by someone only a few inches taller than themselves.
As soon as a younger sibling is born, children become little moms and dads.
All generations are involved. Angela, on the Living Compassion team, collects her grandchild, Gift, to take him home.
And granddads get in on the action as well. Lingson, head of Stoco—the cooperative’s stove making business venture—takes his granddaughter Theresa home. We just found out today that Theresa is the daughter of Melody, Eugenia and Lingson’s first-born child. When we met Melody in 2006, and she was very ill. No one knew what was wrong. We arranged for her to visit Dr. Obi, a local doctor we had come to trust and like a great deal, and he diagnosed her with abdominal TB. He said she was not far from losing her life to the untreated disease. The recovery is long and takes 100% commitment to the medications in order to work. Through the team efforts of Living Compassion, Melody made it, and now we have Theresa in the preschool. Stop and take that in. Your participation is working!
Phil waits with Felix for his family to pick him up.
Shabba and Joseph catch their “rides” home.
Phil had the ingenious idea to hang some mosquito netting over the classroom door so we can leave it open and let the nice breeze and light in. We just treated the net with a mosquito repellant, and it is drying on the line.
On Tuesday we saw the great bags Rose taught the girls in her program to make. It is ingenious, really. They take mealie meal sacks, of which the project has many (mealie meal is used to make nchima, served to over 800 people, 2 days per week—that’s a lot of mealie meal sacks) and embroider on them. Then they sew the sacks together to create a bag that the children use for books for school. The minute we saw them we wanted one, and we figured you probably will, too.
The team washed all the mealie meal sacks in preparation for starting the bags.
Rose comes every Tuesday and Friday. She has taught invaluable skills to the girls, now the boys as well, and many of the women in the cooperative.. She has a strong conviction that teaching someone a simple skill like knitting, crocheting, and embroidery can open possibility for the person who is motivated to make a difference for herself.
We were quite impressed with the focus the girls had as they worked on their knitting. The girl in the front left was new to the group and was watching only as there were no extra needles. Rose says more and more people are joining all the time.
Sandra is a quick learner in everything Rose presents.
Rose tells us Queen (great name!) shows a lot of promise, as well.
Concentrating
A great shot of busy hands
And the boys were having a chess tournament. We asked Rose about teaching them to knit. She said she had asked if they would like to, but no one had taken her up on it. However, as we talked to them, and agreed “Yes, perhaps it would be too tricky for you to learn, maybe the girls are cleverer,” they laughed. One brave boy stepped forward to try it out. We think he will set a trend that others will follow. There is a long way to go to break down gender barriers, but a good deal of progress has been made since we started. Back then it was common practice for the men and boys to be served first. This never happens anymore.
Considering the next move.
Several of the girls proudly came up to write their names on the chalkboard. Just a few short months ago they were not able to do this.
Outside, as the business of the day was winding down, the women in the cooperative joined in embroidering the sacks. We have only a week before they need to be packed in our suitcases bound for Sangha Market!
A team effort.
A beautiful photo of Foster
In the sewing room Georgina is mending the uniforms of several boys. These are all boys who started off in Charles’s class, among those whose families did not send them to government school for any number of reasons, always financially related. They did very well with Charles, and were sponsored to join the official school system, entering grade 6 at a local government school. They are now preparing for their grade 7 exams, and we are all pulling for them. So far, of the children who have left Charles’s class to enter government school, we have a 100% success rate at passing the national standard grade 7 exams. Congratulations, Charles!
Thursday afternoon some of the team prepare the peanut butter for tomorrow’s meal. It is a three-stage process. Wednesday, they roast the peanuts (called here “groundnuts”) and cool them overnight. Thursday, they are pounded into a paste, and Friday, the peanut butter is cooked into the rice. It is one of the most popular dishes.
Agness pounding
Also on Thursday afternoons is the weekly “board meeting.” A group of 7 on the team—Veronica, Theresa, Georgina, Charles, Josephine, Beatrice, Foster and Theresa—gather to discuss the business of the week and to prepare a report that they send back to Jen. Martha, our accountant, assists by taking notes, typing them up and emailing them back to us. A few points of interest from the meeting this week:
1. They report on the number of children in attendance each day. All laughed that Tuesday, the day hard-boiled eggs are served, is always the highest day of attendance. Apparently, it is a real treat to get to eat an egg. Martha laughed saying, “If a child has to miss that day for any reason, it will be a big problem for them.” That gave us a brainstorm to assist with something we have been puzzling over. Tea is served as part of the meal two days per week. Unfortunately, everyone is accustomed to drinking tea with a good deal of sugar in it. As we bring extra awareness to our diet at the Monastery and are serving even healthier and better food, we knew we could no longer justify having this consumption of sugar on the menu. But how to not just take it off and have it feel like a big loss to folks?? Eggs! We did the math, and without a deficit to the budget we can add eggs to the days we used to have tea! YEA! No more sugar and everyone gets more eggs! Luckily, “free-range chickens” is not an issue—there is no such thing as a non-free-range chicken here.
2. They are ready to begin the next round of revolving fund loans. There is a pool of money that comes from the repayment of the roof loans that gets loaned out to individuals to do things like pay off debt, buy cement for the foundations of their homes, pay for children’s school fees, start small businesses, etc. Everyone has gotten one loan, and there is now enough in the coffers to start a second round. That created very large cheers!
3. This one was amazing to us—the first group of people who got a roof loan will make their last payment next month—wow! “How long has it been?” Jen asked, “three years?” “NO! four,” they promptly corrected. Very, very great.
(Our apologies—everyone was involved in the meeting so there was no one left over to be the photographer.)
On Friday afternoons everything gets a good scrub, washing away the dirt from the week and preparing for the week ahead.
Another team effort
This Friday happened to be Josephine’s birthday (29!), and we used it as an excuse to have a small party. The highlight was passing out the bracelets we ordered on Sangha Market for everyone on the team. We got one with each person’s name on it. Thank you to our dedicated bracelet makers (Wristpirations) for making 40 bracelets for the team. They were a big hit.
The birthday girl gets her bracelet. Jen wore her “fancy” chitenge outfit for the occasion.
Even the men got bracelets. We assured them men in America wear bracelets, and they said they would proudly wear them.
The whole group
Josephine wearing her birthday present—a purple turtleneck we knew would look beautiful on her. We were right, huh?
Little Cheri definitely inherited her mama’s good looks!
On Friday afternoon we had some meditation instruction.
A little background: About a week before we left for this trip, we received a very exciting email from Theresa:
“The ladies who read some of the books would love you to bring one or more of Mama Cheri’s books, if you can. This came to my attention today when we were having lunch with the team and we were discussing how you can come out of Depression. That’s when the teachers who had read the book went and brought the Depression book and all sorts of questions were asked on Depression and we referred to the book for answers. Please if possible can you bring us one or more of Cheri’s books?”
When we asked Theresa further about it in a phone conversation she said the information in the book was a huge revelation for many, and they are eager to hear more.
We never talk directly about practice when we are in Kantolomba. If people ask we freely tell them, but much like we advise folks who come on retreat when they are headed back home: best really to be the practice, no need to talk about it. St Francis said it best, “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.”
In the sewing room earlier in the week, the topic came up again with Josephine, Georgina, Theresa and Veronica. The Depression Book made a huge impact on Georgina. Essentially, what she got from it is that it is possible to not stay stuck in your thoughts, that you can choose where you put your attention. Theresa really understood the idea of the voices. They all loved the part about “You can only be as happy as you can be.” We talked about how we would not trade places with people who have a lot of money and are unhappy. They laughed saying rich people can't sleep at night because they are up worrying about protecting their money, but you find someone in Kantolomba sleeping 8 hours straight.
Then Veronica asked what meditation was, said she had heard all kinds of references about it but did not understand what it was. We had a great discussion about it, and offered to teach anyone who was interested. "Let's do it Friday," Theresa suggested. "Yes! On my birthday!" Josephine smiled.
And so we did. About a dozen of the women gathered with us in one of the large rooms and we sat. We talked through the basic posture and counting the breath in order to keep the attention focused here, in the present moment. Not everyone in the room spoke English so Theresa translated as Jen gave the instruction. We have no idea the impact on anyone else, but it was a grand pleasure for us to be quiet and share the silence with people who have become as much Sangha as anyone we know.
We shall see.