Hello everyone,
Its been really hot this last month in Zambia which of course means its really dry and dusty too! While I love the hot weather, there were some days that it was too hot even for me and the heat just zaps your energy levels.
Many frustrations also going on – went to pay my car insurance with my credit card and the machine said the transaction was not authorised, twice! So I called my bank who said there was no problem. I went back to the insurance and was told to go to another branch and see if it worked there. Now bear in mind, traffic in Lusaka is a nightmare and it was almost lunchtime so it took me almost an hour to get to the next branch! I paid successfully and after the three hours that it took, went merrily on my way back to work.
A few days later, I checked my bank statement and all was not so merry as I had been debited 3 times for the transaction! So, off I went to the insurance and the lady told me I had to contact my bank and they would sort it for me. I told her nicely that as they had debited my account, it was up to them to credit me again for the money taken. She said she would look into it. I went back the following day and was told they were dealing with it. This went on for almost 2 weeks and I was getting really anxious as it was a lot of money. So I decided to go to the head office. I met the assistant manager who knew nothing about it – neither did the accounts department! Eventually, one of the accounts people got it sorted out for me a couple of days later!
The moral of the story is…..patience is really necessary to work in this country!!! I am thankful that all the money was repaid to my account after much prayer and worry!!
Schools are going on better this term with all the teachers following their termly plan and themes.
Its challenging getting teachers to think about preparing in advance for anything, but I keep pushing them. Keeping materials clean is a challenge especially when there is no water. One of our schools, Chilenje, had no water for about 4 days and children had to go home. I went and bought two large drums to store water so when water comes they fill the drums and then use it when there is no water. This has helped a lot. In both schools, Chilenje and Kabwata, I am giving teachers assignments to see if they can understand the theory that they have learnt in practise in the schools. Its interesting to see how they write and copy exactly word for word from the reference materials!! This of course comes from the rote learning system that is in schools here – where children are almost spoon fed and don’t have to investigate or think things through for themselves. So, teaching the teachers is a slow process but I hope some will eventually understand why we play with children.
I am excited because I will be going to Livingstone mid November to train teachers for two new ECD centres that we hope will open in January when the new school year begins. One school is in Livingstone itself (home of Victoria falls), and the other in Monze so teachers will all come to Livingstone for a week of training and preparation. I will also have one day of training with the committee from the school in Livingstone.
I had some annual leave in October and went for 2 days to my favourite place in Zambia – South Luangwa national park. It was extremely hot and dry (over 40 degrees every day). Because of the heat and the scarcity of water (the Luangwa river is almost dry), the animal population stayed in the shade a lot of the time. I did have some wonderful sightings though and am so thankful to be able to have the opportunity to see these amazing animals in their natural habitat.
I arrived home from South Luangwa and the following day we had our first real rains in Lusaka – heavy rain one day and the next it rained steadily all day. I love the smell of the first rains here. So….the evening of the first rain, I had a visitor in my kitchen – a lovely brown snake! I didn’t quite know what to do with it so I called a friend who calmly looked at it and said it wasn’t dangerous. He picked it up by the tail, and it became very feisty and tried to bite him, but he calmly put it into a plastic bag and took it away to relocate it in a bushy area.
This morning I got up, went into the kitchen and quickly checked the floor to find another creature behind the leg of a table! I looked at it and it seemed to be like a small turtle or something. I got a stick and gave it a poke and it puffed up into a ball – it was a puffer frog. I have never had a puffer frog in my house before and on investigation found that it is called a Mozambique rain frog.
So lots of animals both in the bush and in my home!
I am still on leave this coming week so looking forward to just relaxing and doing some things around the house! We have lots of rain these days and yet no water in the taps but I am thankful for storage barrels (which came with me in 1995 to Malawi and I still use them for water)!
October 18th was a public holiday here as its a day of National prayer in Zambia. October 24th was also Independence day which I spent in the bush.
Thank you for all your prayers, your love and your support. Please do feel free to leave a message – its always good to get feedback!
Blessings,
Diane x
October 29,2017
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