Visit to Community Schools in
Zambia
Three Weeks Adventure in
Ndola
On July 1, 2009 I boarded a flight
from Sydney bound for Ndola via
Johannesburg. Finally, on track to live a long-term
dream to volunteer in Africa.
A wonderful welcome at Golgota
community school in a township of Ndola
with all the children and teachers gathered outside their classrooms. They
sang and smiled and made us feel very welcome. We helped the children
unpack the boxes DHL had kindly delivered free of charge. They were full
with uniforms, books, educational materials, notebooks and stationery, all
desperately needed. It was a cold morning and many of the children were
scantily dressed so the warm fleeces were put to immediate use.
We spent each morning for the next
couple of weeks teaching the 5 different age classes which shared the two
small makeshift classrooms. Ceri worked with the older primary children,
Chloe and I split the huge Nursery/Grade 1 class between us for the first
part of the morning and then assisted with the older children.
We helped show the teachers that
learning can be fun and the little ones need to have constant change. The
children had a wonderful time with lots of singing, ball games, painting and
drawing were incorporated into the learning program. By day two the children
were walking up the street to meet us, carrying our bags and holding our
hands. We would scoop the saddest looking, tinniest tots into our arms
and make them smile. A little girl called Angela who had a sad face stole my
heart as I scooped her up and tried to get a smile. She was always so sad
and lost looking, younger and smaller than most of the other children.
Finally, two days before we left I picked her up and she smiled and smiled
and smiled and was still smiling when we left!
We left Golgota around midday and
walked in the, by now, hot afternoon sun to Nekhairo Community School,
about 30 minutes walk away. After a few days, the locals got used to us and
would call out greetings and shake our hands as we passed by.
The children from Nekhairo would give
out an excited shout as they saw us appear around the corner and run to
their classrooms keen, no doubt, to see what new learning experiences these
funny white teachers had planned for them. The local teachers were
invaluable with translating where required but were generally happy for us
to do the teaching.
By the time we left, late in the afternoon and
squashed ourselves onto two overcrowded minibuses, we were tired. We’d pick
up something to cook at the supermarket in town which was surprisingly well
stocked. The evenings were spent preparing lessons for the next day.
The last day we had a party day at
each school. We bought lollies, oranges and biscuits. We had balloons for
all the children. We played ball games, board games, hopscotch, skipping
and more, with lots of singing too, of course. We made big posters at each
school with each child and teachers’ handprint on them to help them remember
our visit and the special day we had together. Pastor Chris at Galgota Community
School presented all three
of us with beautiful long African dresses. We will all treasure them as a
special reminder of a magical time.
Lorraine
