Teaching in Zambia

Our team of teachers (4 of us) traveled to a humble school right in the middle of a compound.  The Zambian teachers greeted us with smiles, warmth and enthusiasm.  Upon our arrival they gave us a tour of the "school" building.  It resembles a construction project in the early stages.  The floors and walls are unfinished concrete covered in dirt.   With dirt roads throughout the community, it is a constant task to sweep the floors.  As you walk the halls, you will find children sweeping them throughout the day.  You nearly choke on gathering clouds of dust as you go from class to class.  There is no running water and only a few hanging light bulbs throughout the building.  On a chilly winter morning, I thought I was going to freeze in my dress.  There is no heat or air throughout the building.  The Zambian teachers meet with us for introductions and goals for the day.   Irene is the teacher I will be working with for a few weeks.  She is a very lovely lady.  All of the teachers seem delighted to have visitors from America. 

After introductions, they took us out back to a courtyard to meet our students.  Again, the "playground" is covered in dirt.  The students  were assembled in lines and greeted us with formal introductions, the Zambia anthem and the Lord's Prayer.   I spent the day observing and making dozens of pages of notes.  The goal is to take over a few lessons each day and to model different strategies for lessons covering the same objectives.  The Zambian classroom is very teacher centered where the students copy off the board for hours.  In a 4th grade classroom, the students do not know all of their letter names or sounds and they can not identify very many words.  They are focused and diligent, but the task of copying sentences all day does not enable them to learn to read what they are writing.  While taking a restoom break, I discovered that there is no running water.  You have to fill a bucket with water from a large trash can located in the bathroom before pouring it into the toilet.  There are no student bathrooms, because they have never seen or used a toilet.  The children go to a latrine behind the school to relieve themselves.  The "homes" in the compounds do not have running water or electricity, so they are unfamiliar with simple things that we take for granted like toilet paper.  Can you imagine?  A Zambian minister was dumbfounded by the concept of toilet papering in America, considering it is a luxury in his country. 

Half way through the afternoon, a student went over to the window to retrieve his shoes from a boy sticking them inside.  He said he wore the wrong size, so they were trading.  Shoes are a luxury as well and are rarely worn.   Near the end of the day with a few hours remaining, the teacher walked up to me and said, "I'm done.  Is there anything you can teach?"  She asked me to teach anything on letters and sounds.  So, I dug deep and jumped into an afternoon of shooting from the hip.  The students were delighted by a VERY different style of teaching and became very engaged.  Once I discovered that my class of 4th graders do not know how to read or write I felt right at home in 4th grade.  It's just like an American kindergarten class at the beginning of the year.

We begin taking over lessons tomorrow.  Our goal is to model student centered and engaging lessons with limited resources. I will be stocking her classroom with all the wonderful supplies provided by many of you.  The children do not even have crayons or markers, so the new materials will be a joy for the children and their  teacher.  My personal goal is to help Irene with classroom management.  She struggles in this area.   Classroom routines would be a huge help!!  Well, it is almost 10:00 p.m. in Zambia and I still have some finishing touches for tomorrow, so "goodnight" for now.  I would appreciate your prayers as this job seems overwhelming to me.  I am here to serve Irene and not to give her all the answers, but I would like to help in the most meaningful way possible.