Rachel and I woke up (late – our alarms are too quiet and we’re having trouble waking up from them), quickly got ready, and went to a local Lutheran school with Sue Birner. Sue gave a short presentation on America to the school there (I’m having trouble remembering the name now – I’ll ask Rachel later). Rachel and I really wanted to see the school because we’re planning on having a teacher in-service with this school and Matero, the other Lutheran school in the area. The school surprised me in many ways. I was pleasantly surprised to see the classroom management. I was reminded of St. Marcus a little when we entered each classroom and the students sat up and said to the principal, “Good morning, sir!” The principal responded, “Good morning, how are you?” Students: “We are fine, thank you, how are you sir?” “Fine, thank you. Please be seated.” “Thank you, sir!” (When they said “sir,” it sounded like "sah." I love these accents!).
I was saddened to see the conditions that these kids learn in. It’s completely run-down. The walls are decorated with pieces of paper with hand-written drawings and notes on them. They’ve obviously been ripped off the wall a few times and are dirty, but every piece of paper is valuable. Everything on their walls is something that an American would throw away without thinking twice about it a long time before.
HIV/AIDS is rampant here. Most of the students at the school are orphans, most likely from AIDS. This means that many of the students probably have it too. There have been great strides in Zambia (at least in the urban areas) as far as medicine and education goes, so it is slowly becoming more controllable, I guess. It’s heart-breaking. Americans are so blessed, yet often still so unhappy. Here I see lots of smiling, happy people, yet they have nothing compared to what even a poor person in the states has.
When we got back, we went to the guest house kitchen to watch Dee and Anne teach cooking class to the wives. They cooked fritters, which are basically just doughnuts. They’re delicious! Rachel and I rolled ours in sugar because the women don’t put much sugar in them. One thing about Zambians is that they can’t handle sweet stuff like Americans can. Dee said the cakes they sell in the stores aren’t sweet at all – they look pretty but would not taste good to an American.
At the end of the lesson, the women sang an African song. It was so, so beautiful. I noticed this in church, too. They have such strong, throaty voices. Hearing them sing an African song praising the Lord brought tears to my eyes.
Overall, our day wasn’t very busy. I did some laundry, worked out, and planned a little more for Monday. We’re trying to enjoy our last few days of peace and quiet before our busy weeks start.
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