So where do I begin? Back in January
I tore a ligament in my knee so I was unable to go for my run like I planned.
School has been very different over this term due to having double grades. I
still taught swimming but this term I was also more involved with other
subjects such as Music which I now teach grades 4 & 5 as well as 6 & 7
with Michelle, Maths and English, Art and ICT. I also became the Chemistry
‘teacher’ for grades 11 & 12 which is GCSE level due to the fact that the
previous chemistry teacher left in December. Of cause many people thought that
was hilarious especially my Dad and Sister (my dad was a chemist and my sister
is studying A-level chemistry). By teacher I mean that the children are doing
an online cause and I’m around to help as much as I can. I no longer taught PE which made things different. I have had three
different timetables for this term so far. Things got changed or I had to move
or someone else needed more help than others. This term definitely kept me on
my toes! It also meant that It was tricky to update you all because I wasn’t
100% sure of what was going on myself.
Over the past few months it’s been
very difficult to avoid a certain topic of conversation. COVID-19 or the
Coronavirus. Here in Zambia we’ve only recently had any confirmed cases but to
be honest it’s probably been here for ages and we could have already had the
worst of it here. Zambia doesn’t have the same elderly population or the
medication to keep most of the people it would have affected most alive in the
first place. Here if someone dies with a fever you assume its Malaria not
coronavirus. On Tuesday the 17th of March we found out that the
school would close as of Friday the 20th which came as a shock.
After finding that out maybe an hour before lunch, just after lunch I received
the news that all the German volunteers were being called home! I didn’t know what
to do or what to say. It was only the day before that we had all been given the
opportunity to ask to go home and then the next day the choice was gone! It was
a very tricky evening and none of us really knew what to do with ourselves. We
were all in shock! None of us expected that to come so soon or if at all.
As I write this now I am the only
remaining foreign volunteer left. The team since I arrived has gone from, at
its biggest we were, 8 people to now being 2 people. Daniel left back in
December, Alex was promoted to dorm parent so is no longer a volunteer even
though he is still here. Now, Melanie, Michelle, Pia and Julia have all gone
home. It was such a stressful time. At first we didn’t know when they would
leave then we were told Monday the 23rd. So we planned to go to the
market for the last time on the Saturday before and then have the leaving party
on the Sunday. Then we hear that the flight has been moved to Sunday the 24th and
that the markets are now closed. So change of plan now we have the party on
Saturday. Then we hear that they leave on Friday the 27th.
Thankfully we kept the party still on Saturday because late Saturday evening we
found out that they fly tomorrow (Sunday 22nd). By this time, I am
just so exhausted and to be honest I didn’t really care when they flew I just
wanted it to be over. Which sounds horrible but it was just so hard saying good
bye over and over again and then the not knowing. There was a rush of packing
and then they went round campus and said good bye to everyone. Tomorrow came
and we went to Ndola for their flight, then get this, Michelle can’t fly today
she’s got a flight for Friday so they’re now separated. We all said a very sad
goodbye to Melanie, Pia and Julia which might have involved dancing at the airport 😂. So I still have a house mate for another week. YAY! 😁 Oh but wait, NO, I don’t, because late on Tuesday
evening we hear that she will fly tomorrow (Wednesday 25th March).
I have decided that I really hate ‘tomorrow’! Tomorrow is never allowed to
happen anymore, it’s just too stressful. Wednesday was tough, we (Diana and
I) couldn’t travel to Ndola with Michelle due to another family traveling aswell
so there wasn’t enough space. So we said goodbye to Michelle here at Amano and
almost had to hope that we didn’t see her come back later that day. (This was
very possible with the way flights were at that time).
After all of this, as I’m sure you
can understand, I am exhausted! It was a lot of late nights making the most of
the time I had left with them, it was a lot of stress just not knowing when
what was going to happen. Sometimes I was relieved and other times I was
shocked and other times I was just very sad! To be honest now I’m kind of glad
they’re gone for the one reason that all the stress is over. I obviously would
have preferred for them to not have needed to go but because I knew they did
have to go it was all just about the waiting for it to actually happen.
From that Wednesday I moved in with
the Wardle family for a while to just recover and basically not be alone in my
house while trying to process it all. I’m helping with home-schooling the kids
anyway so it was good to also be able to have company in the evening too. We
have done all sorts. We made lemonade. We had a snow ball fight (in shorts and and
t-shirts 😂). We’ve
done all sorts of practical science experiments, such as, using bicarbonate of
soda and vinegar to clean the inside of the oven. It’s been so much fun getting
to hang out with the whole family and I feel so blessed to have them so close
to me. I don’t know what these past days would have been like without them,
especially with the new lockdown rules we have at Amano.
On Friday the 3rd of
April I moved back into my flat. It’s very strange here now, especially since
the way I cleaned it was to remove all the furniture from the living room so
that I could then sweep and mop the floor more effectively. It was still my
home but it didn’t feel much like it. The next day though thankfully Diana
moved in with me! We have now moved all the furniture back to its right place
and it’s feeling more like home again. It’s still very strange without Julia
and Michelle though but I’m sure I will get used to that eventually. Here is to
figuring out the new normal, a boat I’m sure we are all in. Good luck all.
At some point I will try to go back
and fill in some of the gaps between now and Christmas 2019. I’m sorry that I
have been so quiet, I will try to get better at updating you all. Thank you for
all your prayer and support.
Beth Richardson, Amano, 05/04/2020
