Home soon!

Arrived in London yesterday, had a great dinner at a 400 year old pub, and board our flight home in a few hours. See you all at SeaTac later today!

Hello!
We missed a day of blogging so here is a recap of the last few days. On Wednesday our group split up for the first part of the day. Ruby and Embla went to Munali to teach the deaf typing skills. Both of them left with news of how impressive the kids typing skills were. Meanwhile, Sunny, Hannah, and I all went with a teacher at Birdland named Olepa. We were shopping for the Birdland buddies, who are the most vulnerable children at the school. We did our shopping at Manda Hill. We were looking for clothes e.g. jeans, shirts, shoes for a number of buddies. The shopping was hard work because the selection was not very good. Olepa took so much care and patience in finding the perfect outfit for each individual child. She wanted to make sure that they would enjoy wearing the clothes. After our shopping adventure we met up with the rest of the group and all took the bus to the Community Center, where we would have the shoe drive. When we arrived at the Center we were greeted by a group of about 80 kids from the Silver Rest School. While we waited for the shoe drive preparations to finish we did the hokie pokie for (and kind of with) the kids. They then taught us a game that was a lot like duck duck goose but instead of tagging the person they tried to throw a jacket at the person running away. It was a lot of fun! The Shoe Drive was an interesting experience for everyone I think. To begin, the kids eagerly arranged themselves in two single file lines. We then began fitting the shoes on each kid. We probably all got through about 20 kids until we had to start turning people away because we didn't have their size. Thankfully, Mercy suggested we bring school supplies for the kids who didn't get shoes, so that they at least didn't walk away with nothing. After the shoe drive we probably had to deny around 20 kids of shoes, and were all left with a guilty feeling. Later that night we talked as a group about the experience. For me I think it was a reminder of how we will never have enough shoes to give because even after we had to deny the 20 or so kids from the school, we walked home with many children who didn't attend school who all weren't wearing shoes. It is really hard to feel like you are making a difference when their is so much need.

On Thursday we spent the morning visiting an AIDS Hospice. The Hospice was run by nuns and their was a primary school attached to it for kids who were orphaned because their parents died of AIDS. We brought with us care packages for the patients, however their were only three patients at the hospice at the time we arrived, and left the rest of the packages forthe nurses who worked at the hospice to give out. We were given a tour of the school, and visited every single class. Each class was more full of life then the next; Breaking out in song, the room felt so full of life! After the Hospice and the visit to the school we went to Northmead Market, which was a lot of fun. Everyone was very successful with their purchases. Ruby, Hannah, and I were especially excited because we bought 2 Zambian music CD's for just 10 dollars! The market was so pleasant also because the venders were not as overbearing as the venders at Victoria Falls.
We had another great dinner tonight and everyone is happy! And looking forward to our last day at Birdland tomorrow.
Until next time!

Paulina

Written collectively by Hannah and Ruby:

Today we were back at Birdland! As we pulled into the driveway, we were greeted by a marching line of the youngest Birdland students (ages 2-5). When they saw us they immediately broke rank and could not contain their excitement. It was a very nice welcome back surprise. We got to play with the students during their recess before we got to work around 10:00. Today we split into two groups. Embla and Ruby stayed behind with Melinda to teach a typing class to the 5th graders while Sunny and I went with Alipa to Manda Hill mall. At the mall, we purchased 21 pairs of shoes for the Birdland students that have SAAS buddies. These students are the neediest. On the way home, Alipa wanted to know if the "red fish-like thing thing seen on t.v." was any good to eat. We figured out that she meant crab and told her it was very good. She said that she really wanted to come to Seattle one day and try it. We made it back with all the shoes which will be distributed later this week. Tomorrow we will shop for more clothes and school supplies.

While Hannah and Sunny shopped, Embla and I stayed back at Birdland to help Melinda teach computer lessons to some of the students. We taught four groups of fifth and six graders the basics of typing with all ten fingers. We compared each finger to animals found in the African bush and explained how each finger had different territories for letters to "hunt" similar to how each animal in the bush has a different territory in which it hunts. Today we taught them the home base position for both hands on the keyboard and the territory for the left pointer finger. It was cool to start teaching the kids how to type with all ten fingers, it reminds me of how excited I was to learn to type when I was younger. Most of the kids here type with only their two pointer fingers and it takes quite a while for them to type anything. Melinda and I showed them how fast you could learn to type if you use all your fingers on the keyboard, they were blown away! At the high school too, they were surprised by how fast we could type. Some of the older kids told me I was "faster than a bullet and sharper than a Gillette!" The children's excitement about learning to type is rewarding seeing as we are teaching what to us is such a basic skill.

Until next time!

Hannah and Ruby

Warning: Existential Content!

I have been having a difficult time sleeping. Several nights I’ve gotten up at 4am and had a difficult time returning to sleep. Being away from home for an extended period of time offers new experiences and places us outside of our comfort zone. We are able to reflect on our lives and patterns from afar and recognize the good, bad, and other. In addition, comparing and contrasting the values of the Zambians relative to my own helps me to affirm what humans believe to be important: e.g. persistence, family, and faith.

I feel simultaneously homesick right now, and also fearful to return home. On one hand I miss the luxuries of the developed world, such as readily available food, TV, privacy, and control of my time. For each of us on the trip, our “I miss” list would probably be different, but the feelings are likely similar.

On the other hand, I am fearful because I wonder if I will use what I’ve learned on this trip once I return to Seattle. In my own life, I find that I am not growing in the areas which I have seen most important to Zambians; in particular family and faith. I think our kids have a unique opportunity to implement changes in their lives. As we get older, our life “inertia” makes large changes harder to enact. As we get closer to the end of the trip, I hope that we will support each other in thinking about changes we can make in our own lives to improve ourselves as people. In the meantime, I will continue to work hard to live in the moment and experience the “now” rather than thinking too much about home :)

It's SATURDAY!!

Everyone enjoyed sleeping in this morning -- recovering from the excitement of Sunny's birthday dinner last night.  We have some pretty uproarious photos of that gala event.  The noise makers, party napkins, princess crowns, and presents made it great fun.  The coconut chocolate mouse with candles was a great success also. Now everyone has taken off on the the bus with Gabe, Merci, and and Melinda practicing singing the Zambian national anthem (with descants!). We will be picnicking with the students we have been teaching this week and with the Dutch college student volunteers who will be taking over the next round of instruction. With a little bit of leisure this morning I collected these thoughts--

On the safari trip we saw that all along the roads the majority of Zambians live in small villages, of ten to twelve thatched roof huts and a similar common space structure.  In many cases they must carry their own water in large yellow jugs.  They may grow their own maize, but have to carry it to the mill and back or import it in its ground form of meallie meal, which is a diet staple.  Items are carried from or to the village by bicycle or on women’s heads.  Fields are farmed entirely by hand, with rakes and hoes. Cooking is done over a charcoal fire (charcoal toted in as above).  Washing is done by hand. Everyone appears to be living hand-to-mouth, yet...

Ironically, the women of the villages are going about their cooking, carrying, hoeing, and sweeping, wearing sarong type garments of brilliant print fabrics I would give my eye teeth for. 

Ironically many villages have banana fields that they farm, bearing fruit so large and flavorful it is like nothing I have ever tasted and would give the worldto have in my back yard.

Ironically, we have just returned from a safari where we almost wore out our cameras catching pictures of beautiful wild animals in their native habitat, yet we met at the bar last night a young woman on a different type of safari, so proud to have killed her first impala and hoping to shoot a kudu today.

Ironically, the 7^th graders at Birdland School universally get the highest marks on the all-important national exams that qualify them for high school.  In fact they have done so well for so many years that the ministry of education is considering changing the standards for private schools, because they are outshining public school students so much.

 

Today was our third day working at the Munali school for boys and girls. We started off our day teaching the same group of boys and girls how to use microsoft power point who all made there own power point presentation about something they were interested in. Some examples of topics some groups chose snakes, Akon, Justin Bieber, fashion, and movies. We then spent our break time between the morning and afternoon session talking with students at the school who were also on break. The kids are all very friendly and inviting. Although they are not as openly affectionate as the kids at Birdland they are definetly welcoming. The afternoon session was spent teaching a new group of students what we had taught to the morning session. I think all the students on the trip including myself have a newfound appreciation for teachers at SAAS. Their ability to teach the same things more than a couple times with the same great enthusiasm is a skill that is challening to everyone. After the school day was over a group of us walked home from the Community Center, about an hour or so away from Pioneer Camp. The walk is along a dirt road that surprisingly many large trucks use (and aren't shy of covering those walking in a cloud of dust). On our walk home Ruby, Hannah, Gabe, Mercy, and I were greeted by a group of about 10 young kids, who looked as if they were expecting us. Thanks to Wanda and Gabe we had bracelets, Seattle post cards, and stickers to hand out to all the children. They were all SO eager to get a hold of what we would consider insignificant items. They walked for about 40 minutes with us, until Gabe suggested we tell them they should go home. I was at first confused, not realizing that the kids would follow us not because they were also walking along the same way but because they just wanted to walk with us regardless of how much of a detour it was. Once we got back to Pioneer Camp we heard news of a Cobra snake that had tried to attack one of the owner Paul's dogs. The dogs put up quite a fight and were able to kill the snake, which was definetly a relief! We had breakfast for dinner which was delicious. Melinda made the greatest egg scramble I think any of us have had. We also had bacon and cornmeal pancakes and biscuits. YUM! Overall, it was a busy but very good day.

Greetings from Pioneer Camp!
Today was our second day working with the grade 11 girls and boys from Munali High School. We teach two sessions every day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Today we finished up the exercise on search engines we started working on yesterday and then Mercy gave a talk on internet safety. We helped the kids set up Facebook accounts, change their privacy settings, and add us all as friends. The women from the school cooked us a delicious lunch of nshima, fish, chicken, pork, cabbage, and a multitude of other foods, it was soo good! I will definitely miss this amazing food when we come home.

After school, our bus driver dropped us off at the clinic on the side of the road that we walk home on. We met a few young girls on our walk back to Pioneer Camp who accompanied us for a little while. Tonight was taco night, it was a bomb dinner! Wanda made us a tasty rice pudding for dessert. After eating, we watched a documentary about Zambia and the economic state of the country. Now we’re up in the bar, blogging and checking emails and Facebooks.

Talk to you soon!
Ruby

Melinda's Safari Top 10 Picks

10. Surviving the Attack of the Vampire Tsetse Flies.
9. Waking up to the Cape turtle-doves calling "Work harder, work harder," followed by a cup of strong coffee and a rusk.
8. Watching elephants and how carefully they protect their youngest ones.
7. The expression on Paulina's face when we spotted our first giraffe.
6. Lying in a tent, in the bush, reading my Nook and listening to the African silence.
5. The food cooked for us in the bush--wonderful stews, desserts, whole meals grilled over the coals of our campfires(our celebration for July 4th included grilled steaks the size of the original 13 colonies).
4. First look at the dark chanting goshawk, to complete the chanting goshawk list (I saw the pale chanting goshawk--sounds like a bird from Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, doesn't it?--on my first visit to Zambia).
3. Two long, close sightings of lions with cubs.
2. Pel's fishing owl. Avid birders will know why this is high on the list.
1. African wild dogs--my first sighting in eight trips to Africa.

Back From Safari!

We got back to Pioneer Camp last night. It felt just like coming home! Never ever have I been so grateful to sleep in a bed. The safari trip was great. We spent two nights at the first camp. There we went on a "game walk" meaning taking a walk hoping to see some animals. As well as a boat ride on a beautiful river where we saw hippos! After that we went swimming in the same river, but in a secluded area where there were no hippos or crocodiles of course. After the first camp we drove a whole day and camped on the side of the road and headed off to the next place the next morning. We took a short fairy ride to Botswana and stayed in Chobe National Park for two days. Here goes the list of animals! Elephants, hippos, wild dogs, lions, baboons, giraffes, zebras, puku, antelope and a bunch of beautiful birds. Coming from the person who thinks birds are nasty and loves insects instead. After Chobe National Park we stayed two night at Victoria Falls. The camp was called The Water Front, it was more of a resort. It included a restaurant, two swimming pools and... real showers! I have to say, Victoria Falls was absolutely gorgeous. Most people that visit wear the rentable rain ponchos, but no we went all out! The girls and I got soaking wet, we looked as if we had just showered. It was incredibly refreshing. After seeing the falls we went on a walk by the other side of the massive water fall. We ran into some baboons... As we were walking one of the baboons hit Hanna on the leg and as she turned around it grabbed her water bottle and walked off with it! He tried to open the bottle and finally opened it successfully after going about it in every possible way. Once he opened the bottle, the large, human like baboon threw the cap over the edge where it must have fallen into the falls! It was definitely the highlight of our safari. There was a slight downer to the trip however, but it only lasted in the moment thankfully. It was due to the Tse-tse flies. These flies are viscous. They swarmed into the car, tens at a time and bit everyone multiple times... except for me, thankfully I tend not to get bit my any flies. But the bites sounded pretty painful by the screams of the girls! I did help kill about a dozen flies. However, Sunny became the professional Tse-tse fly killer. You'd be surprised, the girl was viscous but a complete expert with her fast reflexes. One of the flies landed on Hanna's tooth as she was laughing. It definitely stopped her laughter but not ours! Two flies got their way into the inside of my glasses as well, gnarly! Today was the first day at Munali High School. We thought both boys and girls in eleventh grade how to use the internet efficiently and how to use search engines. Tomorrow we will teach them how to use Powerpoint. The students are eager to learn something that is so normal to us. They love school and absolutely love learning pretty much anything. It was very refreshing and made all of us very grateful.    
Anyways, dinner is soon so I must head back, until next time!
Embla

We're Safely and Happily Back from SafariI

I'm sure everyone will want to add her own description of the Best of Safari 2011, so I'll just touch on what impressed me the most.  Our guides from South Africa, Hendrick and Adri, were the best!  They knew every animal, plant, and bird we met and were eager to share their knowledge.  Adri was a a great bush cook and kept us all in good spirits.  We camped comfortably in both bush and safari camps.  The river rides and game drives we shared were full of surprises and pleasures.  We saw zebras, giraffes, hippos, impala and a pair of sables and warthogs, baboons, honey badgers, and wild dogs -- and much more. The aroma of the veldt, the sounds of the birds, and the sights of animals combined to create a memorable experience.  The girls remain good natured, helpful, hard-working, and full of energy and play.  What a great group! --Wanda

Safari Tomorrow!

Today was a field day for the children at Birdland School. The children were doing sack races, balancing water bottles on their heads and running races. It is wonderful to see how into it the kids got! They seemed to be having the time of their lives as they cheered their teams on and made up their own cheers. At one point an adorable two year old girl named Natasha sat down on my lap and fell asleep in my arms. So precious. We also went to a market today in Lusaka where people are selling in small handmade shacks/tables, their produce, used clothing and tiny, tiny dried fish called Kapenta. Thousands in a barrel! It was truly amazing to see this traditional Zambian market, only a few blocks away from the Birdland School. We visited a woman's house right by the market. She is the mother of two children at Birdland School. Her and her husband are refugees from Kongo who came to Zambia in escape from war. Her home was a one room house but very very cozy and well kept. This family has been living in the home for the past three months for free but now the family must come up with the hundred dollars a months rent for the upcoming deadline. It must be so uncomfortable not knowing if you can come up with the money to keep your family under a roof. The woman is so unbelievably strong and still had a beautiful smile on her face. Tomorrow we head off to the week long safari! We are going to Victoria Falls, Botswana and other safari/camp sites. This journey will include a lot of driving, but a lot of excitement as well! My hopes are to see twenty elephants stampeding through the terrain with their babies, but I guess that is pretty uncommon say Nick and Gabe. And just so you know, we will not be able to use computers during this week!
Be back next week!
Embla

Thursday, June 30th

Today was day 3 at Birdland! It was “civilian day” today, so all the Birdland students wore their nicest clothes instead of their uniforms. We started the day by working with the 6th grade. Each SAAS student worked with a small group of Birdland students to write letters about themselves, which will be sent to the rising SAAS 8th graders. Then a few of us accompanied the 4th and 5th graders on a field trip to the Food Reserve Agency, while the rest stayed behind and distributed stuffed animals to the youngest students at Birdland. On our way to the Food Reserve, we got a real glimpse of Lusaka. We passed through a large open-air market full of fruits and vegetables, and lots of people. The kids sang songs the entire way to the Reserve. At the Reserve, we learned about the preservation of maize. The students all took notes and asked very good questions. Everyone stayed completely focused and attentive throughout the entire tour. I know I wasn’t that patient in 4^th grade! When we returned to Birdland, we said goodbye to the students who had a half day of school, it was hard to say goodbye even though we will see them again tomorrow! Everyone was showered with hugs from almost every student. We were served another traditional Zambian meal for lunch that was generously prepared by Dorine. We got to try caterpillar! Once again, the food was delicious! After lunch, we met in the library to talk about the itinerary for the rest of the week. The meeting turned into a tear fest when we started talking about our experiences so far. Everyone is struggling with how to handle the emotions that this experience has produced. I know my eyes have really been opened by this trip so far and I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to come! After the meeting we returned to Pioneer Camp for dinner. We had a delicious barbeque followed by a special “house party” in Nick and Gabe’s chalet. The gracious hosts provided us with soda, hors d’oeuvres, and chocolate, as well as some John Legend to set the mood. All in all, today was very rewarding and we are all very tired!

Until next time,

Hannah

Birdland Buddies

Well today was day three in Lusaka, and day two at the Bird land School and so far the kids, people, and place has exceeded every initial expectation! Coming to a foreign country and feeling so excepted so fast is beyond anything I could have wanted out of this experience. Yesterday, if you have been reading this blog you know was the first day, where we just met the kids and played with them, but today we actually dove into the class room and started to help!
We started the day with the seventh graders, giving them “how to write a fiction story” hand books made by our eighth grade kids at Seattle Academy. We broke up in groups; each SAAS representative had four to five kids. Each of us gave them their individual, personal book and let them read the directions given by the Seattle eighth graders. Then we proceed to talk about what they knew about writing creative stories, and possible topics for them to start thinking about for their own personal creative story, that we will be reading in a couple weeks!
Personally I met so many new kids, and fell in love with every one. I got three “buddies” or “pin pals” today that I will be keeping in touch with and sending letters and gifts to, so I am so excited!
All of us are very tiered, but ready for tomorrow! There will be more blogging to come, so stay toned!

Courtesy of Sunny Garcia

Day 2 in Zambia!

Today we went to the Birdland School. We came right during break time and all the children were playing outside. Never ever have I had so many kids run up to me and try to hold my hand all at once! The kids are so happy and constantly have a smile on their faces. They laugh and make jokes with us, and seem to feel very comfortable with us after about ten minutes. Every where we go people of all ages wave at us and say hello. People in Zambia are so kind and outgoing it is truly uplifting. It is inspiring to see how smart these children are. Some know their native language, English and are learning French as well. A Zambian meal was cooked for us today for lunch. It consisted of beef, chicken, peanut butter mashed with pumpkin leaves and "nshima." None of the food had seasoning, but everything was so flavorful and delicious! We all had food babies by the end of the meal.We left school at about three o'clock. At this time, hundreds of kids were out on this field just hanging out with their friends. I wish kids in Seattle gathered together after school and enjoyed each others company! Once we got back to Pioneer Camp we relaxed. Some took naps and others showered off the long but wonderful day. Anyways, dinner is in five!

Be back soon!
Embla

mwauka bwonji!(good morning in Nyanja)
we have all arrived at Pioneer Camp in Lusaka safely!! We were happily welcomed by a beautiful African sun rise! We spent most of the day getting situated in our new cottage-like house in Pioneer Camp, a rustic but charming community. All of the girls spent some time at the kids sized pool soaking up the sun. We also were surprised to find in vast undisturbed land of Zambia a super sized mall fully equipped with fast food chains (none of which we had heard of) and many other clothing stores. This was almost like double culture shock because we never expected to find parts of Zambia that were so Americanized and developed. Earlier tonight we began to unpack all thirty bags of luggage, containing laptops, chargers, donated clothes, books, shoes, etc., and sorted them into the younger kids school (Birdland) and the high schoolers. I must wrap this up because it has been a long day and it is time to enjoy Wanda's cooking and get some sleep!

Until next time,

Paulina

And we're off! (almost)

We meet at SAAS this afternoon, to load up the luggage and head to the airport, driven by the ever-wonderful Tomas. Then it's nine hours to London, seven hours in Heathrow, and nine hours to Lusaka. Arriving at 6:30 AM Lusaka time, Monday morning (that's 8:30 PM Sunday, Seattle time). If all goes on schedule, we will be descending into the Lusaka airport synchronized with the Africa-orange sunrise. When those of us who have been there before get off the plane, we'll know we're in Zambia when we hear the Cape doves calling "work harder, work harder."

Packing Day!

Today the Zambia-bound team met at SAAS to check gear and pack donations. Here's the tally, packed into 20 suitcases (in addition to our 10 personal bags):
*22 donated laptops
*More than 200 books for Birdland Library
*20+ science or math textbooks for Munali Schools
*35 "tutorial booklets" on how to write stories, prepared by SAAS 8th graders for Birdland students
*90 pairs of school shoes for children in our "neighborhood" outside Lusaka.
*School supplies
*Gifts and materials for "Birdland Buddies" (including many stuffed animal toys donated by an 8 year old relative of one of our students)
*Letters and cards from SAAS students to "Birdland Buddies"
*And much, much more!