Beautiful morning light over Castle Lodge is a delight for any eyes but especially our jet-lagged ones.
Looking out from the balcony at the Lodge, the smoke of a refinery in the distance. There are always at least a handful of momentous days on a trip, days where a milestone in the project occurs. Today was one, indeed.
It was Anna’s first day out in Kantolomba. She was greeted with big hugs and “welcome home.” An arrival like that makes the very long journey to get here a thousand percent worth it!
The children were on their break time, and the grown-ups took the opportunity to gather together to meet. We fired up the Genki English software and had a wonderful “play” session. We split into two groups and explored the various interactive learning games. It was fun to watch the teams share new discoveries and tips.
Outside of the classroom, Emma, whom you met in a previous blog, was absorbed in a game of chenga.
Watching her play is a true joy. It reminds us that Living Compassion is not only a place for children to eat, stay healthy, and have great opportunity to learn, it is also a safe, clean, supervised place to have a childhood. This is invaluable!
We are still exploring ways that technology may be helpful in the English learning process, and the teachers suggested we invite some of the children in. We decided that the teachers could work with the children on the laptops (the laptops have been used in lessons before, but the children have not yet worked on them directly), and we would have a couple of children at a time work on the iPad without grown-up interference to see what that is like.
Emma was the first to work on the iPad. Soon, her buddy Dave came over to join her.
She shared an earbud and showed him what she was doing.
Georgina and Veronica showed the children how to play the Genki English games. It is thrilling that on our last trip just seven months ago we taught Georgina, Veronica, and the other English teachers how to use the computer. They learned how to use the mouse, how to follow the movements of the cursor on the screen, how to click on something to communicate “yes! this one!” Today, Georgina and Veronica were teaching it to the students as if they were old pros! Learning to love learning indeed.
The student becomes the teacher
Testimony gets the hang of the iPad
Today was the big day… It was three years ago that Rose first had the vision of taking the students of Kantolomba out into the wider world. And now the time has come. Her idea naturally wove itself into the project, and here we are.
We were scheduled to leave for Masala Clinic at 2:30pm. Around 1:00pm students started to arrive. There was great excitement in the air. Everyone was dressed in their finest (a spectrum depending on household resources). Everyone had made a great effort to look his or her best.
We talked with some of the children and got to know them a bit more as we waited for the grade 8 students, who have a longer school day, to arrive. These students had been selected for the trip because they are the ones choosing to come to the extra lessons after their government school day, and they are coming consistently. To use our previous analogy, they are pecking on their shells. Makes a person want to go to great lengths to give them support, and the trip today is designed to do just that.
Some pre-trip portraits
Osrick (one of the first 100 children)
Deborah
Stanley. Would you pay him anything for that shirt or what?!
Agness (one of the first 100 children)
Mary
One of our ideas for bringing alive English on the field trips is to make a video and a book of each trip to record the English that the students hear so that they can access it over and over again and practice with it. And what could be more fun than learning English from a book that you have made and that you and your friends star in!
We got ourselves into mini-teams, including a book team and a video team. Each grown-up buddied up with two or three students to create little mentoring pods. The mentoring pods were designed to help ensure English only. And it worked!! On the way to get on the minibus, a couple of girls started to speak Bemba and their friend piped right up, “Nope! Only English!” As the minibus drove out the main road of Kantolomba, the students narrated the surroundings for us—in English!! “This is Kantolomba market. You can buy vegetables and nshima here.” “This is the police station…” Very impressed. Some teams practiced the kinds of questions they could ask while we were at the clinic. We knew, 10 minutes in, that this was exactly as we had hoped it might be. If we had turned the mini bus right around after 20 minutes and gone home, that, in itself, would have been a wonderful, complete experience.
But, no, we had a whole adventure ahead of us!
The Head Nurse at Masala Clinic welcomed us and encouraged us to ask lots of questions!
Twaibu reads the health information on the waiting room walls
Rose showed us around, and the students got to explore the different parts of the clinic: the TB screening room, the doctor’s consulting room, the pharmacy, the blood pressure and temperature monitoring station. At each stop, the students mett the person working there and asked questions. For many of the students, this was their first trip outside of Kantolomba. For all of the students, this was the first time they had been to a clinic for any reason other than to get treatment. It was amazing to watch them speak up confidently and ask questions: “Why did you choose to be a nurse?” “What interests you about the work?” “What training did you need to become a nurse?”
Exiting the plane in Ndola and heading towards the bus that will take us to the airport office.
The doctor measures Victor’s heartbeat.
We were thrilled to have a woman in this position as role model for the girls! The students had practiced asking questions in class with their teachers in the run-up to the trip. There was a particularly exciting moment when Twaibu, listening carefully to what the nurse at the temperature station was saying, asked: “What is a normal temperature?” This wasn’t a question that he had practiced with his teachers beforehand. It wasn’t a memorized question. It was a question that he come up with himself. He listened to the nurse and put together a question with the English he knew. It is a HUGE turning point in learning a language when we are able to “create” with the language, when we reassemble chunks of what we have learned into new combinations to respond to the situation we are in, instead of just repeating memorized phrases (like with us and our handful of Bemba phrases!). It is the movement from memorized English to Living English.
Theresa confessed to us after the trip that she had wondered how the students would do. She had worried a bit that they would all just stand quietly. She said she was overjoyed and very proud at how interactive they had been. It is a proud moment for all, especially since, out in other parts of Ndola, children from Kantolomba would not be those expected to excel, but they do!!
One important footnote here: we were very aware that many of the “stars” on the trip, the students who asked a lot of questions, were boys. In fact, as you get into older and older grades, the children who are choosing to come to extra lessons are, in greater and greater percent, boys. This is, of course, because just about everyone agrees that it is more important for boys to be educated. It is the rare girl who remains enthusiastic about her own schooling in the face of the lack of support around her. We are turning that around. We are working on strong mentorship for the younger girls to shepherd them through this potentially difficult middle period, where they start to get less support. Mirriam, Georgina’s daughter in grade 7 was a notable exception. She asked several questions during the trip. Watch for more star girls on future trips!!
Outside of the clinic, a bus full of trainee nurses was leaving the clinic for the day. Earlier in our tour, one of the students had asked if it was possible for men to be nurses. Who should be sitting up at the front of the bus but a real-life trainee male nurse!
Another opportunity for questions. Another opportunity for Living English.
Twaibu, who had been trained to take photographs as part of his role on the Book Team, took this wonderful group shot at the end of our trip. Are you enjoying watching Twaibu grow up as much as we are?!
It is the vision of the Living English program to expose the young people in Kantolomba to the possibilities and opportunities that open up to them when they can speak English. As we were leaving the clinic, Rose opened her eyes wide and said with delight: “Do you see? We have opened their eyes!” The next large milestone has arrived.
Team cheer at the end.
Go Living English!
Before we left, there was just time to capture this beautiful portrait of Memory.
A Really Good Person
Twaibu waves us off
We could tell it had been a big day by the quiet in the car on the way back to Castle Lodge, everyone happily tired out after a day of being fully used up by Life. Time to just simply be with the breath, be Life. We are very fortunate humans indeed.