N

Sorry guys but there will not be any updates this week. I am in Lusaka with the medical team, and we don't have access to the internet. I will be sure to still write and post date them. Have a great week!

The Numbers Lie

Here is a little piece I wrote the other day about the "progress" in the Zambian education sector.

To give you a better reality of the education situation in Zambia, I offer you a segment I call the truth behind the numbers. According to the Millennium Development Goals Progress Report 2008, Zambia is likely to meet Goal 2 in providing universal primary education. In my humble opinion, this will not be a reality. While Zambia has shown increases in two of the three indicators for this goal (percentage of children in school and grade seven completion percentage), the percentages for the third indicator, literacy rates, has decreased. How are we supposed to say that we are likely to meet the goal when a crucial indicator, literacy, is decreasing in the 15 to 24 age bracket? The government may counter that because more students are completing grade seven the literacy rates will increase.

But literacy rates will not increase if there are still inadequate facilities, lack of teacher training, and discrepancies in resource allocation. Even if the student “completes” grade seven, if they have learned nothing it is an absolute waste and will not help the literacy rates climb. The government is good at making claims of addressing these issues, but their action leaves much to be desired. As I have observed and read, the government policy statements are not being fulfilled. This is an issue of justice because the government is not lacking in their fulfillment of government schools promises, but they are lacking in their fulfillment of community schools promises. Again, the orphans and vulnerable children get the proverbial shaft because they can not afford to go to community schools. Don’t think that educational inequality is only present in Zambia. It is present in America as well. Look at the funding structures for public education or the concentration of quality teachers.

The reason that I write this post is because I just finished writing a letter to the Minister of Education inviting her to come and speak at our “Stand Up and Take Action Campaign” Event in October. I found another strong point in my argument, the literacy levels; therefore, I am excited about the prospect of this event and her participation. Please pray that the Minister of Education accepts our invitation to speak. Don’t worry I phrased the letter very kindly and did not express my true opinions of their lack of follow through. At the same time I told her that we are going to be having a celebration of Zambia’s accomplishments. It is only going to be a celebration with some truth telling thrown in. It should be fun.

Those issues really get me going. They are abusing the data to make themselves look good to the Western world. This is a two way street though because the Western world does not understand the system here and does not care to understand it. They only want to place expectations without getting their hands dirty. They also want success stories to make it look like their money is well spent. Those are some major stereotypes and generalizations I know. There are exceptions to the generalizations.

I step off my soapbox now. Sorry about the lack of updates recently. Expect a new post soon concerning life in general. Peace!

I just want to cook!

In other news, it has been three straight days with power outages starting at 5 p.m. every night. The power comes on again about 8 or 9 p.m. I don’t mind the no lights situation (I actually enjoy it), but it makes cooking difficult/ impossible. Lawrence said that last year this happened every night for five months. We will see what happens, but hopefully the trend does not continue.

The beginning of this week will be spent observing schools again, and then we have our first teacher training meeting on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. This first meeting will entail introductions and going over our October schedule. The program is actually getting off the ground which is great.

On Thursday I will be traveling to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. My father and his team from the states will be arriving on Friday in Lusaka. For a week they will be doing medical missions in one of the compounds of Lusaka. I will spend next week with them helping with their program. I am very excited to see my father, to spend time with the team, and to get American goodies for a week (like gatorade mix, yippeee!!!!).

First Week Reflections

Alright, I am done with my first full week of observations of schools. I will observe again next week, and then next Thursday will be our first training session. My plan is to have a one hour training session each Thursday. This first one will just focus on introductions and laying out the vision for the program that I have designed. I will get into the specifics of the program later, but basically I plan to develop the teacher's leadership skills so that those skills can be applied in the classroom to make academic gains. Developing leadership skills will also help in whatever life trajectories the teachers take. I will also be teaching best educational practices after we have set up a foundation of educational leadership. There is a lot to do, but I will describe the program more later.

As far as first week observations here are my initial impressions. I can handle all the children in one classroom because there are no other options. Yes, Patrick there is only one teacher in that class with 60 students. That was the significance of the shirt. There is a lot of wasted time. Just like in America, the education system still follows the culture, but here that is evident in the wasted time. Teachers sit and grade student work while the class just sits there. The work is mainly copying some activity off of the board. We are mostly working with the students having no books and the teachers only having one student book. Teaching is nonexistent in that in most classes there are no questions asked of the students or by the students. Reading done by the students is almost nonexistent in the schools. The student's job is basically just to sit there and copy off of the board while listening to the teacher. Most of the copying exercises don't even accomplish an objective. I apologize for the random thoughts, but hopefully that paints a better picture of education in this situation. I also apologize for the bleak picture. It is not all hopeless. The best teacher I saw runs a school by himself. It is he and 250 children. He has different classes come at different times during the day. He was actually asking the students questions and allowing them to think. I am really encouraged by him also because he wants to be the best teacher he can be and wants to provide a high quality education for the children. Peace until next time!

School Video

My sister-in-law Brittany asked a question on my last blog post. She asked if the children have summer vacation because summer is almost on us in Zambia. Zambian schools operate on a 3 months on and 1 month off schedule. It is year around school, and they change grades in January. Here is the video that I promised. It is of a first grade classroom. Yes, all of those students are in one class and yes, there is not much work being done in that class. On other notes it is getting hot here. The rainy season starts in November, but until then it gets hotter everyday. I really want a peaceful, cool, and windy Chicago fall day right now. It only feels natural, but it is not happening. Such is life though. Peace!

Ceremony and School Observations

Yesterday was the official opening of the Jubilee Centre’s Resource Center/ Conference Hall. There were festivities all day long and an opening ceremony in the afternoon. The Resource Center is located just behind the main office building. This week people from Willow Creek Church in Chicago are holding training sessions in the Resource Center. The Jubilee Centre has very close ties to Willow Creek. I have included a picture and a video of the ceremony for you. The video is of the whole crowd singing a praise song. I have no idea what the words mean. I just try to sing along. They could be singing the white man is evil for all I know. I have not gotten that impression yet though, so I think that I am safe.

I have also included pictures of the Mapalo Bread of Life School. To be honest some of what I saw today was worse than I expect. Disorganization abound in some classes, and at times it was hard to say that learning was taking place. At the same time there were also some classes with very attentive students doing their work. The work that they were doing is a different subject, but it was good to see some organization and care put into the instruction. All in all I saw good things and bad things today. I have much work ahead of me, but it is not insurmountable. I do have a video of the school, but it takes a while to download. I will be sure to post it later.

The Market and Burning

Well I wanted to post a couple of pictures today to give you a better idea of life in Zambia. I am sorry for the poor quality on the first picture but that is of the market in Kansenshi (the neighborhood in which I live). Now most of my shopping I do at the modern shopping complex but I buy my fruits and vegetables here. Inside the market are rows of wooden booths in which the women sit all day selling their home grown food. They all have fly swatters to keep away the bugs from the food. It is kinda fun buying your food there. It makes you feel like you are really living the life. The other shopping place where I buy most of my food is seriously just like an American shopping market. I mean don't get me wrong about the American shopping market. I love that for all that it is worth. Today I found Bertolli's Olive Oil, Kellogg's Rice Crispies, Miracle Whip, Coke Zero, Feta cheese, and the most recent Time magazine. To be honest if I did not go into the compounds I could lose track of the fact that I am in Africa. Life is definitely different, from the underdeveloped nature of the city to the different customs, but you can find a semblance of western culture in a city as large as Ndola.

The second picture is of the burn pile beside my house. Yes, I agree that it is dangerously close to my house, but that is for a different story. My house is where the bricks are on the left. If you have ever been to most underdeveloped parts of Africa, you know that the way to get rid of trash or anything else is to burn it. You either burn it in a big hole in your backyard or you burn it in the ditch in front of your house. Therefore, there is a constant smell of smoke whenever you drive around the city. It is not like a pleasant smell of a burning campfire, but instead it is a rather putrid burn. Those are just two characteristics of life in Zambia. In the coming weeks, hopefully I can bring you more tidbits like these to give you a better idea if you ever want to come live or visit. Peace!

Photos and Story

Well, I moved into my house. Here are pictures of my room, the den, and outside the house. I need to find things to put on the walls because they are pretty bare, and I also need curtains. And some plants around the front would be nice so that it does not look like a prison. That will come though.

I can’t believe that I forgot to write about my journey into Mapalo, the compound, by myself. Lawrence was very scared for me. He made sure that I had everybody’s cell phone number in case I got myself in trouble. The purpose of my trip was to visit the four schools with whom I will be working. I can't drive my car into the compound because if I did I would have to buy a new car in a couple of months. The car would be ruined because of the wear and tear. I have to drive one of the Jubilee Centre trucks or the bus. When driving there you have to drive about 10 mph because the roads are so bad. In the rainy season you need a 4 wheel drive vehicle, or you will be stuck. I got to the first school ok, but when I went to leave in the van and go to the second school the van would not start. They had just put a new battery in the van that morning; therefore, I played around with it for about ten minutes. I could get nothing to happen though so I called somebody at the office. They said that they would be there with a mechanic. Well, the drive is a 15 minute drive; therefore, I expect them to get there in about 2 hours.

Not wanting to waste time, I asked my guide Sam if we could walk to the other schools. Sam is the principle at the Bread of Life Community School. That was the first school I visited. He said that we could. Little did I know, but Mapalo is a very big compound and my four schools are not close together. We ended up walking around and visiting schools for three hours in the middle of a very hot day. Needless to say that I was very tired when I got back to the van. Guess what though? 3 hours had gone by and nobody had come. Oh, Zambia! I called someone again, and they apologized profusely and said that they would be right out. Lucky for me though one of the men at the Bread of Life just started fiddling with the battery. He spent about 15 minutes working on it but eventually got it to start. I took no chances on the way back and drove straight to the Jubilee Centre. It all worked out for the best though. Sam and I had a great time walking and talking. He is one of the main people that I will be working with; therefore, it was good for me to spend time with him. That is all for today. Enjoy your weekend!

Power and Policy

Well, big news to report. The power is finally on in my little house. This is huge for me. It means that I finally get to call a place home. I am very excited about it. I will include pictures some time, but it is really not much different from the States. I am not living in a mud hut or whatever your picture of Africa is. It has two bedrooms (one is my office) and two and a half baths. There is a lot of space. The only real difference from the states is that all the floors are tile, but I have a few rugs. Hopefully, with time I will be able to call it home.

Well, I promised my thoughts on the policy initiatives that I think the community schools should pursue. First of all, for those who don’t know I am working with community schools not government schools. These schools are privately financed to serve impoverished communities that are not served by the government schools. The plan is for these schools to eventually be strengthened enough so that they can be run by the government. That is the Zambian governments plan to help meet the UN Millenium Development Goal (MDG) of providing universal primary education by 2015.

Through my observations and readings, these will be my four suggestions for possible advocacy initiatives. The first issue is to focus on teacher accreditation. The Zambian government does not count time spent working in community schools as time teaching. Also, paths to teacher certification for these teachers are not transparent or manageable given the fact that the teachers are not paid. There must be clear and manageable paths for these teachers to be trained and certified. My brief training will not do. There has to be longer term solutions. The second issue is the issue of teacher deployment. Under the new mandates provided by the government for community schools, the government should be deploying their trained teachers to community and government based schools at an equal rate based upon need. This is not happening; therefore, the government needs to be “pressured” to fulfill their promise. The third issue is the transparency of the grant allocation process for community schools. Presently, the government does provide a small amount of money for community schools. The allocation process is murky though. Administrators have told me that during the last allocation, money was given to schools that did not exist. They were a little bit upset at that fact. Finally, the fourth issue is providing classroom or school libraries. Research has proven that when books are present children’s reading scores increase. It is not rocket science. The only books in the schools are text books and writing books. There are no books for children to simply read for enjoyment. If gains are to be made, this must change.

There is one more issue that I really care about that I will bring up, but I doubt that they will go forward with it. That is the issue of early childhood education. In order to meet the MDGs, Zambia must strengthen this sector of their education system. This initiative needs to start with the urban and rural poor. This is where it is needed the most. My mind races to beginning something like HeadStart in Zambia. (HeadStart is an early intervention childhood program that focuses on individuals in poverty in the US). To strengthen their system Zambia must start with a solid base (early childhood education, 1st, and 2nd). Of the 110 pages in the National Implementation Framework for Education 2008-2010, there are two pages on Early Childhood Education. The issue must be forced. Ok, I will get off my soapbox for now.

That just gives you a short overview of the issues presented when dealing with this type of education system. There are so many other issues I could bring up but my suggestions would be to start with those. In many ways, the schools are in a transition period. Resources have been promised, but there has not been follow through by the government.

By the way, some people have been asking about an address if you want to send letters, etc. to me. The address is:

David Bramlett

PO Box 70519 30 Lualaba Road,

Kansenshi

Ndola, Zambia

Still a Vagabond!

Well, I finally got my bed situation straightened out; therefore, I will have a place to sleep when I move into my house. Yet the power has still not been turned on in my house. I am still staying at another guest house. It will be a huge relief when I have my own place so that I can settle down and rest. Hopefully that will come soon because living out of a suitcase and moving from house to house is getting old. Since of end of June I have not spent more than one week in the same physical space. For the past two months, I have been a vagabond (sort of in a privileged way); therefore, I am really looking forward to actually settling down.

Work is continuing to go well though. I am going to Mapalo today to start my observation period of schools. At the same time, I am starting to develop a long term plan for teacher training and starting to work out the logistics of that process. On Friday, we have a big meeting with a group of community school leaders to discuss policy initiatives that we want to pursue. These leaders will be from some other community schools with whom I will not be directly working but with whom we we partner in other endeavors. Basically, they are within the network that we run. I will be giving a short presentation on my brief observations of schools and readings of Zambian education policy. Evidently nobody has read through the policy manuals that I have; therefore, my job is to throw out ideas and let the leaders use their experience to decide on the actions. Even though taking a back seat from the leadership standpoint of the initiatives is hard for me, it is a much better system in the long run. The leaders in the communities need to be leading these efforts. They need to be at the forefront and need to have ownership of the movement. Our job is to help them with the process and to encourage them along the way. That does not mean that we don’t provide leadership. It means that our leadership is in the form of support and strengthening. I will be sure to write a blog soon about the specific policy measures that I am recommending, but that is it for now. Hopefully, I will post more pictures of Mapalo and the community after I visit today. Peace!

Pictures from Mapalo

Well, here are some much anticipated pictures from Mapalo (the compound in which I will be working). One is of the Bread of Life Church and its school (bottom left) . The others are of some homes in the community and a few of the children. That's it. More comments to come later, but I wanted to show those pictures while I was thinking about it.

When Is A Queen Not A Queen?

So I moved into my new apartment this weekend, but two things were wrong. First of all, I still don't have electricity. For the past two weeks, they were supposed to turn on the power. Whoops!!! That did not happen!!! For the time being, I am staying in another guest house. Martha Temfwe is going to the power company today to see what the problem is. They are hopeful the power will be turned on today, but I am not holding my breath. Secondly, I went to put my mattress on my bed and the mattress was to long for the bed frame. Both of them were supposed to be queen sized. The mattress and the bed frame were bought at different stores, but evidently there is no standardization of size. Concerning both of these issues, Lawrence Temfwe said "This is Africa!" Unfortunately, I feel like I am saying that entirely too much.

Well, personally, I am doing good. This past Saturday was hard because it was the first day of college football, and I could not watch a darn thing. All I was thinking about on Saturday was football and how for the past six years of my life I planned my work around watching certain football games. Well, I guess that I will have to find a new passion over here. Alright, I am off to figure out how to get a bed long enough to fit my mattress. Peace!

Pictures (Sort of!) and Meeting Results

Well, imagine the fact that I forgot my camera once again when I went to Mapalo. So, no pictures of the compound or schools in which I will be working. I promise that those will come next week though as I will spend three days observing the schools. I felt so bad about not taking pictures that I post three random pictures I took a few minutes ago. The first one is driving through downtown Ndola. The second one is the car that I just purchased today. That is a Toyota Carina for anyone interested. I have never heard of the car before, but it runs well and gets me from place to place. The third one is of the "park" across the street from the Jubilee Centre. As you may notice in the picture all of the land is burned. This is the way that Zambians control weeds. They burn everything to keep it down. Alright, I promise that pictures of the compounds are coming at the beginning of next week.

I am very excited after the meeting. It went great! The school leaders and pastors were very excited about the program, and they welcomed me into their community. There are still many challenges, as I am sure that I will find out at the beginning of next week, but this is a very big step into getting this program off the ground. Nobody has ever worked with these schools and actually cared to get them what they deserve. You could hear that tone in their voice, but you could also hear the excitement in their voice over the possibilities. I pray that we are not creating a white man savior mentality. I don't think that we are but you always have to be aware of those things here. Alright, I have to go but peace!

Meeting Today with Pastors

Well, today at 3 p.m. Zambian time (which means anywhere from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.), I am meeting with the pastors and principals of the community schools in Mapalo. I am very excited. Last weeks meeting was in partnership with another meeting; therefore, all we did was briefly introduce the program to a large group of pastors. There were 15 pastors at that meeting and out of those 15 only 3 of them run community schools. This week we are meeting with just the three pastors, their principals, and some others who are invested in the schools. At the meeting, we are going to present a three fold vision for partnership between the Jubilee Centre and the community schools. It will be to strengthen the curriculum of the schools, to train teachers in best practices, and to develop policy initiatives based off the partnership. We are also open to any other ideas the schools may have for our partnership, but that is the vision right now. This vision is basically my job. So if you ever wonder what I do, all you need to do is think about those three points. It all fits back into the vision of the Jubilee Centre though because we envisioned this partnership in order to strengthen the ministry of the church to the orphans and vulnerable children of Mapalo. Also, at the meeting, I have many questions for the pastors about the government’s involvement in the schools. According to the Zambian official policy, they should be providing training for the teachers while also having providing grants for individual schools. From preliminary questioning, this does not seem the case; therefore, out of these issues spring our policy initiatives. I am very excited about this partnership, but the challenge, according to Lawrence, is for us to communicate this as a partnership. I think I wrote this in my update email, but this is not a take over of the schools. This is about us coming in to support and provide training to further their ministry. We don’t want to run these schools. They are better run by the communities themselves because then they can be more responsible to the community. This organic nature is one of the strengths of this format. Alright, I have to go finish preparing for the meeting, but I wanted to provide an update. I will be sure to take and post pictures of Mapalo today. Peace!

All I Want to Do Is Look!!!

I need a car to get around Ndola by myself; therefore, David Temfwe and I stopped by the “car market” today. Buying a car is not that urgent, but it is on the to-do list. The “car market” is basically where men sit outside all day with used cars from Japan and wait for people to come haggle with them. Little did we know that just stopping by the car market would turn into a full day ordeal. We just wanted to look to see what the people had to offer, but that is not what the car dealers had in mind.

We stopped, looked, but did not see anything that we liked. One of the guys knew David though and said that he could bring a car by for us to look at. I asked David why we could not just leave and tell him that we were not interested, but he said that is not how business is done in Zambia. Therefore, the men brought a car by, but we did not like that one either. We had more errands to run, but before we could get back to the Jubilee Centre, the men had called David’s cell phone to tell him that they had another car that they wanted us to look at. They actually brought the next car to the Jubliee Centre! All of us stopped work for ten minutes to look at the car and drive it around. That car was in bad shape though; therefore, we told them no. We also told them that we would call them when we wanted to look at cars again. These people don’t take no for an answer though. At 4:45 p.m. in the afternoon, they brought another car by the office. Now that is persistent! I guess they think that we just hang out in the office all day and don’t work.

Their persistence may have paid off though. This last car that they brought by was in good condition with relative few kilometers on it. We will have to see what their price is. My color does not help the negotiations; therefore, I have taken a back seat in the process. I still don’t know what I think of their persistence. I love the effort that they are putting in to becoming a good salesman, but in all honesty it kinda puts me off a little bit. I kinda want to say, “Settle down!” I guess that I get this from my father. It takes him three months to make a major purchase. My father has been car shopping for the past nine months. He finally bought a new car last week. I seriously thought Jesus would return before my father bought a new car. Well, we will see. I am tired of all this shopping, but I guess that it is apart of setting up life in a different place. Peace!