Goodbye Zambia

I have now arrived back in Livingstone where our journey first began.  Today is the day I must say goodbye.  What an experience we have been so fortunate to have.  Every day presented us with so many memories that we will always cherish. As we return to school, we shall continue sharing as we all work together to continue spreading awareness and help fundraise for our schools and friends over here.  Goodbye for now Zambia, but not forever.  I threw a coin over my left shoulder..It wasn't quite the Trevi Fountain but I figured it was worth a try.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the rest of your holidays!

Prue.

St Josephs in Chivuna

 
On Friday afternoon, Sister Coldridah, Sister Debora and I headed off on a road trip to Chivuna which is about a two and a half hour drive from Choma.  The first hour is on a main road but once you hit a town called Monze the rest of the way is off the beaten track...dirt, rocky road with plenty of pot holes.  It was a real Zambian ‘Outback Experience’.  We had to drive very carefully along this road and dodge cows who wanting to come out and cross.

We arrived safe and sound to St Josephs Secondary School which is an all girls boarding school.  They are proud to be one of the top Secondary Schools in Zambia.  The compound (campus) is beautiful, very well maintained and they have their own church.  The school was originally founded by a group of Brothers who named the school St Josephs and actually built the church from scratch. In 1967 the Religious of Sacred Heart of Mary Sisters arrived and the handover of the school took place in 1970.  The Sisters decided to keep its original name.      

On Saturday morning I was awoken at 5am by a piercing alarm. I prepared for evacuation.  When I saw that no one else was in panic mode I dragged myself back to bed.  I soon learned that the alarms were actually bells for the girls.  The first is for them to wake and shower, followed by breakfast, followed by the start of school at 7.30am.  As we went on a tour and met some of the students we observed how serious these girls are.  If they are not in class, they are studying.  If they are not studying, they are washing and cleaning or gardening or helping staff with jobs.  Even on Sunday, rest day, most of them chose to study together for exams.  It was really nice to see 700 girls so serious about their education and their futures. 

We were also fortunate enough to go on a private tour of the school’s water system which supplies water to the entire community.  They are very proud to be producing the best water in Africa.  A 0.2ppM (parts per Million) for all water experts out there, apparently only Israel has cleaner water than them!  We could shower with our mouths open and even brush our teeth from the tap!!! It takes a lot of work to get water to this standard though and you will see how it happens in the photos below.

 

St Joseph’s Church which has been standing over 50 years now.  It was built by the Brothers. 

 

Sister Maire and Ellen joined me in meeting Sister Jennifer who assists in the medical clinic at the school.  She offered us the freshest pawpaw from her backyard. 

 

Sister Jennifer.

 

On our tour of the area, we passed a family taking corn (maize) off the cobs.  They then store them and use the cobs in the fireplace and the maize is sold throughout the year. 

Chivuna is surrounded by hills. 

  

The water system: First the water is first pumped out of the ground through boreholes.

 

It is then stored untreated in this tank.

Untreated water is also stored in these tanks and used to water their produce and gardens.   

 From here it is pumped to the water treatment centre whereby chemicals are added to purify the water.

 

 

The treated water is now ready to be used by the students and the local community. 

 

 

This is the original water pump that was used when the school originally began.  

 

The computer lab.  We have been working on getting this room organized so that students and the local community can take computer lessons.   

 

 

The school's library is run by Sister Maire. 

Captain Underpants is a worldwide phenomenon!!

One of the classrooms.

Two and a bit days was really not enough here.  I would have loved to stay longer and work in the classrooms here with the girls but unfortunately we had to leave. We were back to Choma again Sunday evening.  Today I will be leaving on a bus back to Livingstone with an Irish teacher from Kilkenny.  She is also in Zambia working for the RSHM Sisters.  I will show her around the city tomorrow before catching my flight back home to Rome on Tuesday 10^th of July. 

Can’t believe that this trip is nearing its end. 

I will write again when I arrive in Livingstone.

Bye for now.

Prue.

Final Day at St Mulumba

Today was my final day to St Mulumba Special School.  It was spent in some of the Hearing Impaired Classrooms.  After classes finished, the staff put on a Morning Tea to say thank you to everyone at Marymount for their support.  They really are so appreciative of everything you have all done to assist them in helping to make their dreams come true. I promised that I would pass this message on so please spread the word.

Here are some photos of my time spent in the classrooms.

 

  5th Grade - Learning literacy.  6th Grade and 7th Grade were also in the same room.

 

Sign Language can vary from country to country whereas Braille is standard.  Students use signs mostly to represent words and don't always sign every word in a sentence. You can often guess what they mean too which really helps when trying to communicate with the children.

7th Grade - Preparing for the national testing period.

 

 6th Grade - Students were taught about health and taken to school's nurse to learn about health cards...

 and the sorts of things you may be asked to do when visiting the nurse.

The classrooms were full of posters of work students had completed during class time.

1st Grade - The classroom was full of color and the teacher Mrs Makukisi was full of energy. She had a large class and managed the keep all of the students interested and excited about learning.

Mrs Makukisi teaching the students (and myself) plurals.  Boy and boys are signed in the same way but you just need to add the 's' sign onto the end of the word.

Tomorrow I will be joining Sister Coltridah on a journey out to Chivona where St Josephs Boarding School is located.  I will be spending Friday, Saturday and Sunday at this all-girls secondary school. It is in a remote location so there may or may not be access to internet.  If there is, you will definitely be hearing from me upon arrival.

Speak to you soon!
Prue.



 

HERE I AM continued...

Now after that day at St Mulumba times changed...

To me, it seemed as though everything was going a little too smoothly in Choma town and so I decided it was time to shake it up a little.  And shake it up I certainly did. I was officially welcomed to Zambia when I caught ‘the virus’.  A not so nice one at that…From what I can remember of our visit to the medical centre it was full of cricket talk and GABBA talk because the doctor found out I was Australian.  We seemed to be chatting about that for quite a long time, so long in fact that I have a feeling that had something to do with me falling asleep on everyone in the clinic.  When I awoke, the doctor didn't mention it again, gave me the medication I needed and I was taken home with the Sisters who took such great care of me. I have fully recovered now and feel happy to have been so welcomed!

The past four days were holidays here in Choma and everything shut down for this period.  A holiday in Choma means exactly that.  Every person receives these days as rest days.. and most spend it at home with their families.. except for those who decide to have a wedding.  A wedding in my backyard that is…

 

I watched as people set up seats on the grassed area outside my window and created arrangements and decorations very creatively out of material and ribbon.  Over a two hour period, the place had been transformed from a Lodge to a Wedding Reception venue.  I couldn’t wait to see what a Zambian Wedding would be like.  I waited and waited…and so did everyone else…The bride and groom arrived 2 hours late.  I felt a little uncomfortable at first peeking out from my window as my room was right in front of the ceremony...but I was told not be shy to come celebrate, so out I came. 

I managed to capture some lovely shots and video footage of the day below: 

 Our lovely Esta, who took great care of us at the Lodge, helping to set up for the big day.

 While the Bride is preparing to be fashionably late..the party gets started!

Not even a fire can dampen the spirit!  I did become a little concerned about the children and also the ash landing all over us but everyone assured me that it was completely controlled.

 Some of the beautiful clothing worn to celebrate a wedding.

I soon found out that this little boy in the middle not only looked good...he was a great dancer as well! I have footage to show when I get back.

Dancers are used throughout the Ceremony to introduce the Bride and Groom, to bring the knife down in order to cut the cake and then to return the cake to the kitchen area.

First glimpse of the Bride and Groom.  

I was informed the day after the ceremony that the reason the Bride appeared to be unhappy and held her head down was out of respect to her family.  It is a day when she is being passed over to her husband's family and this is a sad occasion for both them and her.

 I just had to include this one.  ADORABLE.

 The bride and groom about to cut the cake.

Once the cake is cut one layer is presented to their family.  

A beautiful afternoon and evening had by everyone! I felt very lucky to have seen a wedding in Zambia.  

Now I must return to St Mulumba school. Today I have been spending time in the HEARING IMPAIRED classrooms. I will be back again tomorrow to give you all an update on what we have been doing... I hope!!! :-) 

Speak to you then! 

Prue. 

HERE I AM!

My first blog has taken much longer than I had anticipated.  I am sure everyone has been wondering what has happened to their daily blogs…plenty of questions left unanswered…Now that the BOSS had left, did Prue disappear?  Was she out of range?  Busy working maybe?  Sick?  Tribal dancing in her backyard with the neighbours?  In the land of tranquility and life in the slow lane so much can still actually happen.  And all of the above did. 

 

Let me explain. 

Our last blog ended with Maria and Christine fading off into the Zambian sunset and Prue bussing it back to Choma.  I managed to manage myself well, jumped on a bus and arrived back to my destination  smooth sailing. 

The next day was a school day back at St Mulumba…and back into our regular routine, only difference was it was a lot quieter without the muchly missed company of Blogger and Banker.  I was very fortunate to spend time in the VISION IMPAIRED classes.   These children are an inspiration and I found BRAILLE to be truly fascinating.  

I observed from Grade 1 – 7. Most of the teachers are also Vision Impaired themselves, each with their own teaching style and each very effective. 

This photo was taken in a third grade classroom.  This is called a Number Board or a Cuberithm Board and cuberithms are inserted to complete math algorithms.  Each cuberithm has numbers in BRAILLE on them. With me still?

The third grade class had four students in it.  There were 3 different grade levels in one classroom.

 

For anyone interested in learning BRAILLE with me..  The numbers are broken up into two parts.  The left hand side is used if you are writing the number and the right hand side is used during math.

 Class rules are posted in every classroom. Teachers are valued and respected at all times.

A student here is using his finger to trace over the BRAILLE letters.  He writes from right to left using a STYLUS instead of a pen to make the indents in the paper and then turns the page over and reads from left to right.

 Fifth grade busy at work.

7th Grade using BRAILLE machines, similar to a typewriter to input the BRAILLE instead of using a STYLUS pen.  This is a much faster way of writing and it ensures that students don't end up with calluses on their hands. Students should really be introduced to and using these machines from 5th Grade but the school only has enough for this class at this point in time. 

I was introduced to this teacher as 'Military Man'.  He gets results and I really saw this in the performance of his students. It was an incredible thing to be able to observe how these teachers who are vision impaired do what they do and do it so well. There is definitely a sense of understanding and compassion from their part. He was telling me that his students will be taking the National Exam in Zambia in the near future and he believes they will do very well.  This exam is translated into BRAILLE for these students.

 1st Grade uses a lot of hands on activities to reinforce their learning.  At St Mulumba these students learn to read and write in their native language first and then from 2nd grade they learn in English.

 

Head of Vision Impaired, Mr Mweemba, holding a STYLUS and an ERASER which is a piece of wood that deletes the indents on the paper when rubbed. 

TO BE CONTINUED...