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😅)