All in a Week

Sunday: Helen bikes out to a neighboring village every Sunday for a small time of Bible study with some of the ladies and then a morning service. The week before she had offered for me to go with because her other bike would be fixed by then. (I think it needed new brakes; for which I was very thankful for!!). So we set out around 8:30. I wasn’t quite sure what neighboring village meant, but I soon found out that it meant quite a distance for a biker. It was about a 7-8 mile roundtrip. Now before you think, “That’s not too bad.” Just remember that these are Zambian “roads/paths” we’re biking down and we’re both wearing trousers under our long skirts. ;) Needless to say, a week later I’m still recovering from that workout. Long gone are the days of church family picnics when my friends and I would ride our bikes all over James Island County Park for hours on end!! But the Lord was good! Despite the struggle it was, we made it to Chantente in plenty of time for the services. The way back was a little bit more tricky. The sun had come out, and earlier we had realized that we hadn’t brought as much water as we should have. Thankfully Helen had advised bringing a snack and I had packed some ground nuts (peanuts) in my bag. We made it home riding for half the time and walking for the really tough parts (I wish I could show you the paths… many times it was narrow on either side with a sort of ditch right down the middle because of the rainy season). I’ve never been more excited about a cold shower! We rested for the rest of the day, made some biscuits and tea and relaxed.

Monday was the beginning of the school year!! It has been such a joy and blessing to be here teaching! Learning styles are completely different, and many of my students while they are learning English still need help with directions. Thankfully we have a wonderful interpreter! Mumba interprets just about every direction we give as well as parts of lessons that aren’t specifically vocab or reading; I’m not sure how we’d manage without him. He is in his gap year. Because the school year here is year round, when students write for their senior year final exams in November, they don’t find out their results until February which is too late to enroll in university. So usually two of the older kids at FCV will come to Amano for a year and help 1 with the older and 1 with the younger. This year Mumba and his sister Nancy are both helping!

Teaching wise my week was very focused on vocabulary, small group reading lessons, geography, shapes, and art! It’s been a joy to see the differing ways the children learn as well as different ways to help those who are struggling. It’s also amazing to work with a team of teachers! Because our classes are combined (4-6) we have several teachers who come in at different times to teach. So one of the teachers works on specific math skills with them and then BC will also teach some kind of math lesson as well. The 7^th grade teacher comes down to teach science and social studies during last hour while BC and I go to the 7^th graders to work on English and vocab. It’s a healthy teaching atmosphere and I am so blessed to be working alongside of these people! I’m learning so many things, so many teaching strategies and I’m pumped!

I also was able to meet and work with Tori a dear friend to so many I'm working with now who used to teach at the Christian school in Riverside (Kitwe right across the bridge) and then was their administrator, from there she then taught at CABC for a little while and then due to sickness had to leave the field and return to the states. She is currently living up in New Hampshire... I think, with her husband and working as the assistant principle at their churches Christian school. Her advice and input about life in Zambia and teaching students of a different culture was so insightful! I felt as though I was in teacher-in-service for our several chats around Helen's kitchen table. What a blessing it was to hear and learn from her experiences :)