Highlights from June 22nd,
2012:
- Making Alphabet books with Kindergarten class
- Leora getting locked in the bathroom
- Eating caterpillars
- Playing with kids at recess
- Meeting Alex, Aaron, Joyce, and Gift
- Jumping in the pool
- Tea time
June 22, 2012
The
day started off in the usual way. We woke up and went to the Birdland school
around 8:30 this morning. Jack and Gigi planned an activity for us to do with
the Kindergarteners at Birdland, which involved making alphabet books. We began
by greeting Olive Mumba, and then Alice, Grace, Carly, Sam, Reed, and Emma
worked with the Birdland seventh graders on continuing their short story
projects in writing groups. Unfortunately, many of the kids were absent because
they were at the school field training for sports. They taught the seventh
graders how to write stories based on prompts, and then how to critique the
stories written by their friends. Generally, they were very successful and the
students worked well. Meanwhile, the rest of us were working on preparing construction
paper and tape for the alphabet books. Once all the preparation was complete,
we began to work in the kindergarten classrooms. We split ourselves into two
groups and began to work in two different classrooms. We asked the kids to pick
a letter of the alphabet from the pile of construction paper letters which we
had previously compiled, and then we asked them to draw pictures of words which
began with the letter that they had picked. At first, we had some struggles.
Some of the kids were shy at first, or they were not able to recognize some of
the words. As they got more comfortable with us, and as we received help from
the teachers, we were able to complete the project successfully.
When we finished
the project, we had our “tea time” break. The cooks at Birdland school provided
us with tea, traditional Zambian cookies, and corn porridge, which were all
delicious. However, during our snacking, a catastrophe occurred. Our dear
friend Leora went to the bathroom in the Birdland kitchen and she got trapped
inside the stall! Using her wit and agility, she climbed to the top of the
toilet, opened the window, and cried to the cooks (luckily stationed right
outside) for their help. Using their strength, the cooks freed her from the
stall and she was able to rejoin the group just in time for recess.
It is safe to
say that everyone had so far some of the most fun on this trip today at recess.
After we had our tea break we went out on to the playground just as the
kindergarten through third graders came outside for lunch. They came running
out of their classrooms and greeted us with hugs and high fives and we
proceeded to play with them for at least an hour. Izzy and Reed played with the
kindergarteners on the slide and the merry-go-round. Gigi, Josie, Leora, Sam,
and Grace played games with the older kids such as tag, hide and go seek, red
light/green light, Simon says, duck duck goose, and then some of their fun
singing/dancing circle games. Since it was a half day, the students got out of
school at 12:30, so we eventually had to end our play and say goodbye. We were
sad to leave them because we are not going to see them for two more weeks!
Watching the kids get picked up by their siblings and parents at the end of the
day was a great experience. As Gabe said, “It’s like watching the cars come to
pick kids up from the Temple, except better!” We all cannot believe how sweet,
adorable, and happy these kids are, and we know already that leaving them to go
home is going to be so hard!
While most of us
were on the playground with the little kids, Grace, Alice, and Emma were
talking to Aaron and Alex, who were two of the students that we funded to go on
to grade 8. They really enjoyed talking to the boys and said that it was nice
to just sit and have real conversations with them and felt that they got to
know them better than if they had just asked conventional questions.
After playing
with the kids we were hungry so we went back into Olive’s office to eat our
sandwiches. However, in the middle of our eating, Olive mentioned that in her
culture when one takes out food and begins eating it is custom to share with
those around you. Jack and Leora immediately offered their food to her, and she
accepted some dried fruit. Olive told us not to feel bad about it, but we appreciate
learning something new and will make sure to act differently next time. After
we stuffed ourselves with sandwiches, Olive told us that the cooks had actually
prepared a lunch for us, which was waiting in the kitchen. Of course, we were
grateful for this offering, but we were already so full that we were unable to
eat as much of the food as we had eaten in the past. Today’s Zambian meal
consisted of Kudu meat, pork, rice, vegetables, and of course…Nshima! A true
African meal could not be complete without something even more exotic. Today,
we all tried fried caterpillars. The overall consensus was that the
caterpillars were salty and the taste resembled that of tortilla chips. The
meal was delicious as usual, and we certainly tried new things. We also established
a new motto, a twist on the original teenage slanf term “YOLO,” which means,
“You Only Live Once,” and usually justifies taking risks and having new
experiences. Tommy suggested that we change this motto to “YOGZO,” meaning “You
Only Go to Zambia Once.” We plan to use this motto throughout the duration of
the trip, especially when tasting foods like friend rats and caterpillars! But
we do hope that we will be in Zambia more than once, as we have already become
very attached to the people and to the culture here.
We ended the day
with a beautiful walk down Palabana Road and then Jack, Sam, Carly, Josie, and Reed
(pulled in by Jack with her clothes on) jumped into the pool and we practiced
the Zambian National Anthem (which we will perform for Munali tomorrow). As we
write this most of us are at the bar watching the Germany/Greece Euro Cup game.
A special note
to our parents: don’t worry, One Direction is working its way into many of our
conversations, one of our bffls at Birdland – Blessing – even knows What Makes
You Beautiful and we got a video of us singing it with him! I bet you now know
who is writing this…
All in all, it’s
been an AMAZING first week here in Lusaka. It is great to have our close
friends nearby, and we are becoming even closer as a group as time goes on.
Zikomo for reading!!!
Lots of love,
Izzy and Josie
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