A Zambian Market

It's not the easiest to take a picture of a Zambian Market place because some people are offended by it. Here is a picture of the Craft Market in Kitwe. You can get all sorts of trinkets there. There are Paintings, carved animals, sewn bags, malachite, key rings, Jewellery and much more besides. It is always one of my favourite places to explore.

In the Picture, you can see Miss Maren with one of the stalls and Stew walking back. She is wearing what is called a Chitenge. It's basically 2 meters of fabric that you wrap around yourself. In Tanzania, it is called a Kanga.

Chitenge Fabric is one of my favourite things EVER. It's all just so much fun.

Chitenge in Chiwempala Market, Chingola

Me, Sarah and Pia in Chiwempala Market

Mattias buying Tomatoes in Chiwempala 

A Week in the Life at Amano

So I thought I'd try to give you an accurate run through of what life looks like every day here (well for me at least). It's quite long, I do apologise. There are some prayer points at the end if you're able to pray for those though even if you don't read the whole post. 😁

Enjoy 😉

Saturday 10^th – We had a relaxed morning and were then invited to go over to a friend’s house. They have a pool so the rest of the day was spent in the sun, by the pool with good friends and then some amazing food!

A Day by the Pool

Sunday 11^th – Went back to Chingola Church again and this time I’m part of the worship team. I’m playing guitar in front of lots of people which makes me very nervous. Especially because I’m playing with a guitar that I’m not so used to. Some people then came back to the Wardle’s house for lunch again and we had a lovely time of chatting and laughing together. In the evening I was invited over to Frank and Julia Wittmann’s house. She was my volunteer’s coordinator from September 2019 to the end of August 2020. It was a lovely evening of catching up and sharing in good food. ­­­­­­­

Julia and Me

Monday 12^th – I helped out in Mrs Wardle’s (Wendy) Class. They were learning about spellings with the letters ‘OU’. This includes words like precious, though and soup which all made a different sound. My job was to go around and help them find new words with the ‘OU’ pattern and then group them into words that have the same sounds. For example: Soup, you, through make the ‘oo’ sound & rough, gorgeous, touch make the ‘u’ sound. I later had swimming with the Grades 2s and 3s (separately) which is always a lot of fun. We played games and practised our floating. My afternoon/evening was spent with the Wardles, we went on a run/cycle ride with a work out which was a lot of fun but tiring and then I spent most of the rest of the time doing some prep for the art lessons this week.

Sorting 'OU' words into sound groups with grades 6 & 7

Tuesday 13^th – I was on lunch duty and took my speaker along. Many of the children, especially the younger primary girls were very keen to play musical statues. Some of the secondary’s joined in and it was a really lovely time of dancing. I also met the ‘new’ Grade 1’s and taught them for swimming. They’re not really new though, they are coming to the end of Grade 1 now. The school year here in Zambia runs from January to December. They were very cute. Swimming with them though was a challenge because many of them are very nervous of the water, whereas others are very confident and splash those who are less confident. In the evening Talia and I went to the ‘Little’ Youth session.

 

Wednesday 14^th – We started the day with lots of Art lessons. I was there for Grades 2 and 3 but then had swimming with Grades 4 & 5 so I missed Art with Grades 6 & 7. In Art lessons this week we are making a Book for Mrs Mwanapabo, one of the primary teachers, she had to suddenly leave at the beginning of September. Each of the students has an A5 page and then on one half, they write a message to her and on the other they could draw anything they liked, preferably something that they remembered doing with her or themselves. After Swimming with grades 4 & 5 we had lunch and then I joined the Grade 8’s for 2 hours of Textiles. It was really lovely to get to hang out with Talia’s class again even though they are now in secondary. After school, Talia and I tried to make Lemon sorbet and it tasted amazing but it got spilt all over the inside of the freezer. I then got to enjoy the Volunteer's meeting in the evening. The team are sharing their testimonies at the moment which is really lovely to hear.

One of the pages drawn by a G3

Thursday 15^th – For the first two lessons of the day I was ‘assisting’ in Music lessons with grades 2 and 3. What this actually meant was that I sat at the desk glueing the pages of the book together that we were making for Mrs Mwanapabo’s leaving gift and every so often reminding the children to listen to Miss Pia. After break, I had two ‘free’ hours, in which Miss Pia and I finished putting the book together. I was really pleased with how it turned out but it definitely took a lot more effort than I had anticipated 😅. I’ve now had a lot of the primary teachers tell me that they want one too when they leave, the problem is that I most likely won’t be here to make it for them 😂. After Lunch, we had a lesson which is called ‘My Choice’ which is basically an hour where the children get to choose a club to take part in. I was helping out with the Swimming My Choice lesson. There is a Swimming Gala happening at the beginning of October so I am helping train some of the higher-level students in swimming for that event. After school, I went for a run with Talia and Stew. We ran 2km, cycled 4km and then did a short workout to round it off. I was very sweaty by the end. Exercising at this altitude and in this heat is something very different from back in the UK. In the evening Megan and I went and joined the ‘Big’ Youth session. It was so much fun, some of the girls were singing and dancing, and then we played a massive game of dodgeball. We later went into a time of bible study together. For me, it wasn’t so interesting because I had heard the talk on Tuesday in ‘little’ Youth, but it was lovely to hear what the older students had to add to the topic.

G2 Music Lessons with Miss Pia

The 'big' Youth 

Friday 16^th – Wow, I’ve made it to the end of another week. I’m tired, but I am having so so much fun. I had two free lessons this morning which was a little unexpected but I was very grateful for. I was able to sort out some more of my lesson plans for swimming and make sure that all the information on the system is up to date. We had a little assembly with all of the Primaries to say goodbye to Mrs Mwanapabo, the grade 1’s did a dance for her which was lovely and the book that we made was given to her. After break I taught grade 6 & 7 swimming, this had some really interesting challenges. We have some students who are very competent and can swim lengths; I teach them about techniques and ways to improve the little things in their strokes. And then we have the other end of the scale where the students can’t swim at all and are even afraid of the water. It was a challenge, but the lesson went well and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. 😁 After lunch the staff had a little farewell for Mrs Mwanapabo which was really lovely to be a part of. She was a teacher here when I was here before, although she was on maternity leave for the majority of my time. It was really lovely to see her again though and say goodbye. In the afternoon I went over to play the guitar with the worship team at church in preparation for Sunday and then I ended up cutting one of the girl’s hair for her. I managed to cut my finger three times though 🤦‍️. We have now finished the day off with Pirates of the Caribbean 2.

Worship Team Practice

Prayer Points:

• Please pray for energy for the Teachers, especially as one of the primary headteachers (there are two) is now on furlow for the next 4 months which means that there is more pressure on Wendy in particular but also on the other teachers here in primary.
• Please also pray for the new volunteers team as they settle into their lives here. They have a lot to do and a lot to learn and it's all in a new place which can all be very overwhelming. (I should know😅)

End of Week 1 Summary

Grade 2 Art Lesson

Week 1 complete... I've Survived my first week back of teaching! The Students were all so excited to see me. They had so many questions 😂.

I assisted a lot in Music and Art lessons in Primary. I couldn’t do much in Music because it was mostly the new teacher getting to know the students but I really enjoyed drawing self-portraits with the students in Art.

 

Monday’s swimming lessons I partially assisted with but then started teaching on Wednesda­­­y. I haven’t taught swimming since I left Zambia at the end of 2020 so my brain had a bit of a moment and I forgot what to do 😅. It was all ok though, the students had fun. Friday’s swimming lesson was much better because I had got my head around what needed to be done 😁.

          Grade 3 off to swimming lessons

Friday afternoon I went into town and got a few of my old favourite foods. I then went out to worship team practice for my Church out here and played the guitar. It was really lovely to worship with the team. In the evening I took the Wardles and Diana out for a celebration at Shalux 🥰. We were celebrating surviving the first week of term, Diana's Birthday, Stu and Wendy's Wedding anniversary and me being there in Zambia. We had a really lovely evening and I finally got the 'recipe' for the spicy carrots. All in all, a very lovely day!

Our meal out at Shalux

I'm Back!

So I’m back! I’m back in Zambia for a whole month! It’s really great to be back after over a year and a half being back in the UK (most of the time😉). 

I’ll be helping out in the school wherever I can, just trying to support Wendy and the other Teachers as much as possible. I’m especially looking forward to doing swimming lessons again! Don’t tell the children though that I haven’t been swimming in over a year 🤫🤭. 

I start back tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing all the teachers and the students. It's been so long since I've seen many of them. It's going to be interesting to see who remembers me 🤔 and what they remember. 

I’ll try to post a few more updates while I’m here this time 😅

It's Finished!

It’s finished! My teaching time has come to an end! These past couple of weeks have been super crazy! My aim was to be almost completely packed by the 27^th of November and I’m pleased to say I think I mostly managed. Still needed things to live with though. We have also had all the prep for the 3 Christmas performances. Due to Corona, we couldn’t do the normal Christmas play with all the primaries due to distancing the parents out and the students supposedly. Grades 1, 2 & 3 were together and I made many of the props with the students in our art lessons for it. This was very stressful and took a lot of work but I’m really pleased with how they all turned out.

With grade 1 we made sheep masks! The sheep were so cute!

With Grade 2 we found Shepheard staffs and made ‘grass’ to stand at the front of the stage.

With Grade 3 we made a fire. Now, this took FOREVER I spent hours before the lesson, making the bass, making the foam rocks (expanding building foam), and then giving them their first coat of paint. In the actual lesson, they gave the rocks another coat of paint, went out to collect the sticks, and then tore up the red tissue paper for the flames. Becky and I then spent at least another hour gluing the whole thing together and praying that power wouldn’t go (we were using a hot glue gun). I’m really pleased with how it turned out. The only thing that would have been better is if we could have put fairy lights inside it I think.

Grades 4 & 5 were together and they did a ‘countdown to Christmas’ performance, sadly I wasn’t able to see their final performance. Finally, we had Grades 6 & 7 together and they did a brilliant job too. My favourite line in it though was said by Talia Wardle, it was something along the lines of “we can make him a birthday cake and then throw it up to heaven” when asked what can they do to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas. I think I need to try this!

In our final swimming lessons, we had pool parties! It was so much fun! I especially enjoyed swimming with the grade 4s and 5s on Wednesday the 2^nd and with the 6s and 7s on Friday the 4^th which was my final lesson ever. With those grades, I can really swim with them as they are in a deeper pool and can properly swim without fear of drowning (most of them anyway but they’re very sensible, I also had extra people on the side of the pool keeping an eye on everything for me).

Grade 4&5

Grade 6&7

Grade 6&7

Grade 6

The children were leaving and I think it finally hit me a little bit that I’m leaving and I may never see some of them ever again! I have had such an amazing time teaching these amazing children, many of them have challenged me both with my patience and my intellect and I have grown and learnt so much from being able to teach them and support them.

For now, Amano Christian School, my time of teaching here is over. But I’ll be back, even if it’s only a visit!

Preparing to finish

Ok, so it’s now just under 3 weeks until I return to the UK, and I have to admit that it is much more stressful than I expected it to be. I have so much to think about, in terms of handing over my responsibilities in the school, sorting out what I’m taking home and what I’m leaving, planning and teaching lessons and most importantly making time for the people that I will have to say goodbye to soon. The students as well are all asking me questions like "Miss Beth, when are you coming back?", and "Miss Beth, why are you leaving us?" which makes things harder.

Prayer Points

•          Please pray for rest and good sleep. At the moment I wake up very early and my brain goes around all the things I need to do but I can’t do anything about those things at 4am.
•          Please be praying for peace in the leaving process. At the moment I am not as excited as I think I should be about going home because I’m so stressed about everything that has to be done here.
•          Please pray for the relationships with the people here. I have made so many amazing friends here and I want to be able to maintain those relationships but I know it won’t always be easy.

Meet the New Volunteers Team 2020/21

Mattias, Sebastian, David, Benjamin, Tina, Hannah, Me, Diana, Bekky, Melina, Maike and Katja.
The whole team while on holiday in Nsobe.

On the 2^nd of September, 5 new volunteers arrived from Germany and Austria. We have Tina and Bekky who are working in the Girl’s dorm, Sebastian who works in the boy’s dorm, David who works in Secondary school teaching Chemistry, and Melina in Primary school.

On the 7^th of October, 2 more arrived from Germany. Hannah works in the kindergarten and with one of the Families on-site and Maike who will also be working in primary school.

Finally, on the 10^th of October Benjamin arrived from Germany and he is now working in the Boys Dorm as well.

 

This now makes us a big team. We are 10 volunteers! Diana, Bekky & Tina live and work in the Girl’s Dorm. Sebastian and Benjamin live and work in the Boy’s dorm. David works in Secondary School. Melina, Maike, Hannah and I live together in the flat and work in primary or with younger children.

Tina

Maike

Hannah

David

Bekky

Benjamin

Sebastian

Melina

Me and Diana