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