My recent happenings…..
Gosh, I can hardly believe its almost February – I had written a post in December but never actually posted it, so just decided to start again! I have had a busy few months in some ways and yet sometimes I feel as if I don’t have enough to do! I have learnt a lot about the education system in Zambia, and in fact a a lot about Zambia itself!
I will just give a run down of what I have been up to! I had a chance of visiting all the community schools in the Lusaka education district except one(because it was closed!). I suppose I was not surprised with what I found and yet there was an element of shock at the amount of rote learning which was happening in the early years classrooms! Perhaps the biggest issue I had was finding children writing exams!! Yes, 3 to 6 year olds writing exams! I was horrified by this and let the teachers know! However, I cannot blame the teachers – most of them have no early years training as I found out when I had a workshop in December with them. Even the few who had been trained and held a Diploma, had really no idea of early childhood development which was quite worrying! As you can see from the photos below, its very much teacher centred learning and yet this is nursery school with kids from 3-6 years!
The workshop was good for me to get to know the teachers individually and to learn what they did at their schools, and why. Some of them are part of Community Primary Schools, while others are nursery schools on their own! I hope the workshop at least gave them basic knowledge and helped them to understand that play is a useful tool in teaching young children! It will take a while for a change of mindset but at least I have sown a seed!
Another exciting thing that happened was my induction service at Mtendere CCAP where I worship. Mtendere is one of the compounds (townships) in Lusaka and is very congested. Just before my induction we had a lot of rains and the road was impassable, so we had to abandon the vehicle and walk through the mud to get to the church! The induction was held by the Synod and there were people there from the Synod as well as some of the Presbyteries nearby. I was very blessed by the preaching from Rev G Nyirenda who talked about unity and working together. I had to sign a document and then there was gift giving! I have to say I was extremely humbled by this experience. I received so many gifts, it was embarrassing! Some of the gifts include chitenge (cloth), dresses, crosses with Bible verses on them, dinner sets, a Zambian clock, jug and glasses, and many others! I managed to do a speech in Nyanja which the General Secretary said was a good speech, but the accent was a bit off!!!
I spent Christmas in Lusaka with an Irish friend. I went to church on Christmas day and we went out for lunch, where we had turkey but not like it would have been in Ireland – no sprouts to be seen! Was a good day though!
I have done some travelling too. In December I went to Livingstone with the General Secretary where I met the Presbytery members to do a seminar on Early Childhood Development. It was nice to go back to Livingstone – I think the last time I was there was in 1996 when I went on the bus to Zimbabwe from Zomba, and went to Victoria Falls! We visited the falls which were completely dry which was a shock! However, recent photos show that there is much water now because of all the rains we have been having.
Unfortunatley on the way back from Livingstone in the evening we were involved in a car accident. No one was hurt, but my car was badly damaged from behind. I was stationary in a line of traffic when a guy came up behind me and his small vehicle went in below my vehicle and it was badly damaged! So, while we had hoped to be home by 8pm, it was midnight by the time I got home, after spending some hours in a police station! Am happy to report that the vehicle was fixed by the insurance and is back on the road again! Am thankful to God that Rev Kabaghe was with me when this happened, as he was able to deal with the drunk people on the road, as well as the police!
At the beginning of January, I also travelled to Kitwe which is in the Copperbelt of Zambia (where the copper mines are). This time I went with the moderator and the General Secretary and we had a meeting with three Presbyteries together. I really enjoyed this meeting – there was a lot of interaction and questions, and I hope that gradually people will begin to understand that looking after young children properly is important!
Having come back from Kitwe, I had a lovely visit from my niece Molly, who studies in the US and was on holiday. We had a good week together even though it rained every single day -she never saw any sunshine! We went to visit the elephant orphanage at Lilayi where orphaned elephants (usually because their mothers have been poached), are looked after and then rehabilitated into Kafue National Park. There are three babies there at present and we had a nice time watching them feed and then play a little bit!
My plan for this term is to visit all the schools and discuss with the head teachers their vision for ECD in each school! I have been to three so far, and I intend to have meetings with parents at a later date, when the rains have calmed down. I went to the three schools the second week of term, and some children had not yet reported. One reason may have been the weather as we have had really heavy rains for the past few weeks and many of the compounds are badly flooded, in some there is also cholera due to large pools of stagnant water. So I have to wait until more children start coming to school, so that I can then ask all the parents to a meeting! I will also be spending a few days in each school, monitoring how the teacher teaches, and to practically give any help that I can. In the Easter holidays, I hope to have a few more days with the teachers to make materials for their centres!
I went to the Ministry of Education (after many tries) and met with a lady in Curriculum Development. I had hoped that she might give me some documents to assist as we plan our ECD programme! However, only after I asked, she gave me this small booklet! Apparently because we are not Government institutions we have to pay to have the documents printed!!
Lovely surprise this last week – I received some Christmas cards! Thank you so much to those of you who sent me cards and letters, I really appreciate it! I am sure there are more in the Post Office but they just haven’t reached my box yet…maybe by Easter…or maybe never!!
So this is a brief outline of what I have been up to! I will try and update the blog once a month at least, so that I don’t have too much to put on at once! I am enjoying my work and am blessed to have lovely people to work with. I know its late but I wish you all a very happy and peaceful 2017! Thank you for your prayers and support!
Blessings and love,
Diane x
January 29, 2017
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