"Please, Peace, just stop crying..."

                This morning was nice and relaxing.  I got out of bed very carefully as my feet are very sore from yesterday, made coffee, read some of my book, and got ready to go to town with Rachel.  We went to the mall, got some more Internet time, bought a cup of coffee (the man in the store asked me if I knew the American singers on the screen.  I laughed and said no, I’ve never met Chris Brown or Jay-Z), and got my passport pictures I’ll need for my business Visa (the one thing I forgot to do before leaving America, which was fine because it was way cheaper here).  While at the mall, Rachel received a call from Dee saying that the preschool teacher, Charity, was sick, and wanted to know if we could cover from 1-3.  We said of course we would, hopped on a minibus back to Chelsten (the suburb where the seminary is located), walked the short distance to the seminary, and quickly tried to prepare for the chaos that was sure to begin.  We only met Charity once – she’s a pretty, young Zambian woman who was hired to teach preschool to all the little kids there for a couple hours a day.  Rachel’s the early childhood major, so I was looking to her for help.  I’m definitely better with older kids, starting around age 10 and up, and have absolutely no clue what to do with preschoolers, especially when they speak no English. As we were walking through the gate, Rachel got bit by those horribly huge ants that have been moving their nest around.  It looked really painful, and apparently when the pain wears off she’s going to be itching for a week or so. 

                So…preschool.  It was a little crazy.  To be fair, Rachel and I had no idea what to expect.  We hadn’t seen Charity teach and had no idea what the routine was, and we really only played with the kids that one day.  Rachel is definitely more of a natural with them.  In order to give you an idea of what it was like, I’m going to recap some of the funniest, made-me-want-to-pull-my-hair-out moments.

                Goshen (remember the cute, naughty one?  Today, he was mostly just naughty) ran out the door, grasping tightly onto his cob of maize (basically corn – their staple food).  He winds up, chucks the maize out the door, and then wanders off into the grass.  I tell him, “Goshen, come back in please.”  He then drops his pants and starts urinating in the grass.  I’m a little startled, but I don’t know what else he’s supposed to do, so I just walk back inside.  A moment later, Goshen comes back too. 

                Peace is a little two or three year old.  She’s certainly not the most peaceful child.  She is either doing one of the following:

1)      Crying

2)      Slapping other kids in the face

3)      Hanging off my leg while gazing at me lovingly and fighting off other children who want to get a hug too

Another name that doesn’t quite match up: Innocent.  He is usually the one making all the little girls cry.   

                There were moments that went well – they liked playing ring-around-the-rosy and Rachel had them play “What time is it, Mr. Wolf?” and they loved that.  But just when I thought I was getting the hang of handling my half of the kids, something would happen and then about half of them would erupt into tears.  I kept thinking about that scene in Finding Nemo where Nemo is going to school and he’s looking at the preschool playground where all the little fish (or whatever they were…I can’t remember) just started bawling.  Anyway, I’m interested to see what preschool is like with Charity teaching.  I don’t even know what American preschool is supposed to look like.  Is this normal?  Do all three year olds cry this much? 

                After that, Rachel, Sue and I went on a short walk and then came back to get ready for church.  We went to Bethel (the chapel on the seminary grounds) and enjoyed another service mixed with the very traditional WELS and African worship styles.  We even used the old hymnal.  One thing that surprised me was that women and men sat on opposite sides for the most part.  This is because there is still a belief that women are inferior to men.  It is improving – some men sat with their wives – but it’s taking its time.  In the rural areas, this is still strictly enforced.  After church, as the members filed out the door, they shook hands with each person who left before them and then went to the back of the line.  It was really nice – everyone greeted everyone. 

                I downloaded a book on Zambia on my Kindle when we were in London, and I started reading it last night.  It’s been pretty depressing.  It’s about an Englishman who came to the Eastern Provinces (Zambia is divided up into a few different provinces – I can’t remember how many right now) to teach math.  He gives a very harsh, critical commentary on Zambian life.  There are differences in our situations – he’s an atheist surrounded by corrupt members of the Catholic church, he’s living in the bush, this was five years ago when many advances weren’t yet made, etc. – but it made me really sad to think about the situation in this country.  It’s the first time I’ve really felt like that.   

                Changing the subject, if anybody knows a lot about astronomy and can give me and Rachel a short description of what we’re looking at down here, that’d be great.  I think we saw Orion, but can we even see any of the same constellations that we can see in the Northern Hemisphere?  Do they appear for a while?  We’re confused.  Any help would be appreciated.