Working as a Teacher Mentor

I've been working a bit lately.  Probably not full time yet but slowly working up to it.  MCC has been very gracious at giving us time to get settled and time for the daily living adjustments… how much time it takes to mop the floor in dry (read dusty) season, get the kids settled into this new house, get the house set up, call the plumber for leaks in the toilet, and cook and do the dishes.  Slowly we are adjusting to the changes (no dishwasher!)  We have the washing machine working - but it does need someone to watch it while it's going incase the hose pops off!  

Andrew's been working at Chodort every Tuesday and Thursday for awhile now.  I've been home with the kids and supposedly "working" in my home office.  Alas - this has not yet happened for more than an hour here or there!  Hopefully we'll be getting some house help soon and the desire is to find someone that can help the kids out by at least feeding them and washing their dishes! That would free up a lot of time!  Though today I didn't get anything done in the home office in part because we are starting to have some new friends drop by.  

I have been to 6 of the 8 schools I will be working with.  So far I've been meeting the head teachers (principals) of the schools and most have given me a tour of a few classrooms.  The first time out to each of the schools I have been taken by a fellow MCC worker, Kajungu, who is also working at the Brethren In Christ (BIC) schools.  I asked the Education Secretary (who is in charge of the schools) if there was a map and he laughed at me!  So Kajungu, the MCC worker, has been showing me around and has been introducing me.  He is working in the same schools but doing peace clubs.  His recent passion is helping the BIC schools get rid of corporal punishment.  Corporal punishment has been illegal in Zambia for awhile now, but it is still widely used.  He's trying to get BIC schools to be leaders for Zambia and to be some of the first schools to get rid of corporal punishment. 

So, yesterday I went - by myself - to Macha, which is about an hour from Choma.  I had been out on Friday with Kajungu but many of the teachers were away as Thursday was a holiday for Zambian Independence Day.  Most of the way is nice paved road.  The last 10-15 minutes is dirt but not too bad.  This is the just shortly after the turn off from the paved road but after this (right now dry) river crossing the dirt road was pretty decent!

The narrow bridge.  And yes, I was taking a photo while driving... but I was almost stopped.... ;)

There are 2 BIC schools in Macha; Macha Central and Macha Mission.  On the way into Macha is another BIC school, Hamoonde.  I stopped at all 3 of the schools yesterday.  I spent most of my time at Macha Mission and that is where the following photos are from.  I was welcomed into their classes to watch.  The teachers and students were mainly speaking in the local language, ChiTonga, but the teachers were gracious and spoke both English and ChiTonga while I was in the classroom.

Macha Mission Basic school.  The left building is the staff room and head teachers office.  The right building (left side) is the Grade 1 room in the morning and the Grade 3 room in the afternoon.

Mrs. Hiinga doing a lesson with her Grade 1 class on the carpet.  I think she said she had 40 students. 

A Grade 1 student, Mary Chikashi, doing her seat work.  Many of
the students did not bring their pencils or paper.

The Grade 3 class

At Hamoonde I had to pick up a report that needed to be photocopied and returned.  That's right teacher friends - NO PHOTOCOPIER at the school!  Can you imagine teaching without a photocopier?  I took it to the Macha hospital where I was told there was one.  I got there and it was out of toner.  Luckily the nursing school nearby had one!

I am starting to figure out what I want to do next as a teacher mentor. The head teacher at Macha Central talked with me for quite awhile and I got many good ideas from him.  (He mentioned some things he like from previous teacher mentors that were very helpful!)  But this next week we are heading to the big capital city of Lusaka where we have MCC meetings.  We're heading up early so that I can finish some assessments in a couple schools there that the previous teacher mentor started.  (The school year starts in January and ends in December - so I'm doing year end assessments!)  We're looking forward to our time in Lusaka.  Hopefully we'll buy some things that we haven't been able to find in Choma AND we're staying at a place with a pool for our team meetings!  It should be good!

Prayer requests:

- travels to Lusaka - driving in the BIG city on the left hand side (double round-abouts - shudder!)

- decision about possibly putting Kate into a private school starting in January

- that the mosquitoes would stop biting Michelle so much