Training Curriculum and Kitwe Visit

Today I wanted to give you a brief insight into the training program we developed. In the program we first teach basic core leadership principles that can be applied to the classroom, and then we teach them "best practices." Best practices are proven teacher strategies that help children learn. We only focus on five leadership principles, but we think that if the teachers can truly develop these principles they will be successful in the classroom. If a teacher can 1. set big goals, 2. invest others, 3. plan purposefully, 4. execute effectively, and 5. continually increase their effectiveness, they can make significant gains within the classroom. Within each of these leadership principles are different subcategories, and each of these subcategories entails one session. For example, here is part of our training schedule for Mapalo.

1. Plan Purposefully

a. Objective Driven Lesson Plans October 15th

b. Classroom Procedures and Rules October 22nd

c. Differentiated Instruction: Zone of Proximal Development October 29th

d. Age Appropriate Understanding of Children November 5th

e. Levels of Critical Thinking November 12th

2. Invest Others: A Child Centered Education

a. Creating a Welcoming Environment November 19th

b. Student Interest: Can and Wants November 19th

3. Set Big Goals

a. Setting Goals November 26th

b. Long Term Planning December 3rd

c. Assessments December 3rd

Hopefully, that gives you a little bit of an idea of our training philosophy even though it is kinda hard to do without sitting down and looking at the documents . After we finish the leadership training, we move to training them on teacher best practices. The program for Mapalo, the community in which I work at the moment, will last until the first of April.

While the "pilot program" is on going in Mapalo, we are already looking at expanding the program to other communities schools with whom we have contact. Lawrence Temfwe and I are traveling tomorrow to Kitwe, a town about 45 minutes away from Ndola. There we will engage the pastors and school leaders to see if this is something they want for their community schools. The program would look different in Kitwe though. Instead of offering an hour and a half session each week and constantly monitoring the schools, we would run an intensive three day session when the teachers have time off, and we would only engage in a limited amount of school monitoring.

Things are still going well in Mapalo. The teachers are still excited, and I can begin to see change in their teaching practices and mentalities. For the past two days, I saw educational games being played. When I first walked into the school, I never thought this was possible. They also know when I am coming to the schools; therefore, they may just be doing it to show off to me. Whatever the reason, students were having an engaging and meaningful educational experience and for that I am thankful. Until next time....

Honest Business Practices

I went to the store during lunch today to pick up bread. As I was walking out of the store, a man walking beside me said "Hello!" I replied with a cursory hello as I continued walking to my car not paying much attention to the man. Then the man started talking about my haircut at which time I recognized that he was my barber. We chatted briefly, and I told him that I would be in this week to see him. It was a welcome surprise even though it should not have been a surprise at all (the barber shop and store are right across the street from each other).

Anyway, I got into my car and started to drive off when I saw someone running at me. My immediate thought was to grab my gun, but I remembered that I left that with my mother so that she could defend herself on the rough streets of Thomaston, GA. After thinking about some self defense moves, I saw that it was again my barber who was running at my car. I rolled down my window, and he told me that he overcharged me on my last visit and that he would give me a discount this time when I came in to see him. He could not have overcharged me that much because the haircut was only $2. He told me that he would only charge my 5000 quacha this time ($1.11). I really don't care about the discount, but I just thought about how nice and honest his actions were. I had no idea he overcharged me and would have never have known the difference (I am an ignorant American in some regards and in other regards language difficulties make it difficult to question things like that). He did not have to offer me the discount but was honest and upfront about his dealings. So many times you hear of corruption in all spheres of life in Africa. Sadly to say this is many times true, and this is definitely a problem. At the same time, it is not everyone. My barber it turns out is a very honest businessman even when nobody is holding him to be. I thought a story of hope is something that needed to be told because I know that the 24 hour news stations are not telling you stories like these. May there be more stories of hope in our lives because I know that I don't get tired of hearing them.

By the way, for those of you reading this blog who do not know my family, my mother is a precious woman who is in no way like the woman I have depicted on this blog. Even though I may make up stories about her hitting me in church and her carrying a firearm, she has never once hit me and does not own a gun though she did steal our neighbor's gun once (JUST KIDDING MOM :). I told her nobody believed those stories for a second (see earlier post if you are wondering what story), but I just wanted to briefly defend her honor. Here is to my precious mother. But all the other stories on this blog are true, and I will defend their veracity until the day that I die. Peace and love!

Free Books!!!

Today I went to purchase books for a few of my schools. A person in the United States sent money over to purchase the books. This is a desperate need because some of my teachers before now did not even have a single book from which to teach. It is definitely a sad state.

Anyway, I ran around Ndola today finding different books. The books that my teachers teach out of are student practice books. Until today I had never seen a "teacher edition." Well, I purchased most of the books from one store and then went around trying to find some other resources that the first store did not have. I ended up going back to the first store, and when I started looking at the books again they handed me a bunch of books for free. They also started handing me free teacher editions. I never told them what I was doing, but they kept handing me free stuff. Why they did not just give me all the free stuff the first time I came into their store I don't know, but I don't really care. The bottom line is that I came away with twice as many books as I should have. It will be a happy day when they receive the books next week!

Choosing a Church

Well, if you read my monthly update, you saw that I have not settled on a church. I want to desperately settle on a church and get “plugged in,” but it is very hard for me to choose a church. Sometimes my critical mind gets me in trouble, and this is one example of that time. I have come to accept that the church is imperfect and will always be that way, but that does not make it any easier for me to choose. One of the main questions is how much do I want to challenge myself when choosing a church in Zambia. All churches are different from what I have experienced before, but do I need to go to a church that is very different from my previous experiences? If I wanted to choose a church that is extremely different from my upbringing, I could always go to a Pentecostal church in the compounds. A former American who worked for the Jubilee Centre choose to do this and got a life lesson in the process. He said that every Sunday there was always a big breasted woman breast feeding two children at once during the worship service. He said it was hard to pay attention while that was happened, but at the same time he and his wife felt like they should challenge themselves and go to a church outside their comfort zone.

That is great for him, but do I need to push myself that much. I totally believe that everyone should experience a true African worship service at least once, but I don’t know if I personally could settle into such a community. Maybe that is a copout answer. Maybe I am choosing the easy way in order to be comfortable. There is no easy answer though because there is a fine line between truly knowing yourself and your needs and continually trying to push yourself to experience new, different, and stressful situations.

One thing that I know is that I can’t go to a church that preaches a prosperity gospel. I define the prosperity gospel as an understand that the belief in God will benefit you financially. You see this teaching many times in America, but you see it more often in Africa. I can’t go to a church that preaches this because it is not the gospel. It is a distortion of the true message of Jesus and what He claims to provide to his people. Many churches here continually preach that this is your year of breakthrough for blessings. Then if you don’t receive your blessings, you are evidently sinning. This is not biblical and is not the gospel of Jesus Christ (read Job for one example of why this is not biblical). I can’t go to a church that preaches this because it frustrates me very much. I want to yell in the middle of a service because this is not the gospel and not the purpose of the gospel. (At the same time I want to yell in church in America many times. I once did yell in Thomaston at FBC, and my mother slapped me. Ok, that was a complete lie, but I once wanted to yell to see what kind of reaction I could get from my mom and the congregation. Anyway I digress.) Because so many people are poor the preachers are just telling the people what they want to hear to make them happy. I wish I could say that this was the case only in Africa, but it is also the case in America. Constantly, we are just telling people what they want to hear instead of preaching the gospel. Some churches in America preach the prosperity gospel while others preach that the gospel just requires you to do good and be better than your neighbor while forsaking any sacrifice that may be required. The church is losing relevance and prophetic vision by the day because it gives up preaching the gospel in favor of preaching what people want to hear. That is one of the reasons that the Jubilee Centre focusses on training church leaders because when the pastors and leaders truly understand their vision and the call of the gospel they can effectively communicate the gospel with out fear. May God save the church before we hurt ourselves and may I choose a church before I hurt myself.

It Can't Be....

I will admit that I benefitted nicely from the American team being here. My father brought over two suitcases full of “supplies” for me. There was Bath and Body Works Jasmine Vanilla hand soap which is the best soap made by man. I like to call it ambrosia for your hands. There was also a five pound bag of Chik-fila breading; therefore, I can make my own Chik-fila sandwiches in Africa. There was a season of both House and the Office, more books, gatorade mix, my tennis racquets, homemade brownies, Starbucks coffee, and many more things. It seriously was Christmas come early. My mother also included my birthday and Christmas gifts. I will hopefully have enough self control not to open those until the respective dates.

It was difficult seeing my father fly away yesterday, but the Lord is good. When my dad first came to Zambia in 1996, I seriously don’t think that he ever imagined he would be flying away from Zambia one day while leaving his son behind. Sometimes there are small blessings of which we have to be aware. After dropping off the team at the airport, Lawrence and I had to stop at the “American” shopping center before leaving Lusaka for Ndola. We always love to get things there that we can’t get in Ndola, or that we can get a lot cheaper in Lusaka. I was in one store in the shopping center when out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a can of Dr. Pepper. I said that it could not be because I have wanted a Dr. Pepper so bad for the past two months. I walked over to the store and sure enough there were cans of Dr. Pepper in the freezer. I grabbed four of them before anybody could steal them from me. There was nobody else in the store, but I was sure someone was going to steal them from me. I took them straight to the cash register not caring about the price. I asked the lady at the register if you could get these anywhere else in Zambia. She told me no, and that 12 cases come in every shipment. Of those 12 cases, the store immediately calls one individual in Lusaka who comes to purchase 2 of the cases. I need to know that person. She pointed to his phone number on the wall. I thought briefly about memorizing it, but I thought the phone call may have been a little too weird. One can of Dr. Pepper ended up costing $2, but I did not care. I purchased my four, thought about purchasing 12 more, and got out of the store as quickly as I could. I am sure that I freaked the cashier out, but it did not matter to me. I have not drank one yet because I am waiting for those special moments when I really hate Africa to drink them.

A Week WIth the Medical Team and a Surprise Meeting

Written on October 3rd

Well, I have been Americanized again after having spent a week with my father and the medical team from the United States. It was a welcome break from the normalcy of life in Ndola. After having to learn to survive by myself in Zambia, it was different being in an American group and having so much structure. I could get used to somebody cooking for me every night (as it was this past week).

During the week, the medical team ran clinics in a compound called George during the day. I mainly worked in the pharmacy because I have worked there many times before on these types of trips and know my way around. At the same time I would also take some of the team members on tours of the markets and compound. Many of the team members stated that it is a lot different walking around these communities than just riding through them. The realities of the situation become more real during the walks.

Last night, Friday, the team hosted a banquet for the pastors and volunteers that they worked with during the week. I thought it was going to be a very relaxing evening, but little did I know that I had business to take care of. I had received an email during the week from a friend of mine who stated that she had met the Zambian High Commissioner of Revenue on her travels in Kenya. She told him what the Jubilee Centre and I were doing in Ndola. During their talks, the High Commissioner, Mr. Mwansa, told my friend that he wanted to meet and talk to me. Well, things progressed very quickly since I was only in Lusaka for the week, and the only time which we could meet was on Friday night after the banquet. When the banquet finished around 8:00 p.m., I called him and he told me to come to his golf club. Lawrence Temfwe could not believe that Mr. Mwansa wanted to meet and talk because Mr. Mwansa is a very high ranking political figure in Zambia. In U.S.A. terms he is basically the head of the IRS.

Well, Lawrence wanted to talk with him as well, but he had another meeting that night. Therefore, Lawrence dropped me off at the golf club, and we tried to find him. The people at the club told us we had to speak to his assistants in order to speak to him. I wanted to tell them that I had been speaking to him all night on his cell phone, but I held my tongue. It turned out that Mr. Mwansa was getting elected the president of the golf club that night. While I waited for him, I started to talk to his assistants/bodyguards, Gift and Lusaka. Well, I spent about an hour and half at the club talking to his assistants while the voting/meeting happened at the club. Mr. Mwansa came and talked briefly to me, but he was busy with the voting and interviews. He was very proud to show me the president’s bar in the place and where his picture would be on the wall.

Well, Mr. Mwansa wanted to still talk about what we were doing; therefore, he said that he would drive me back to my guest house. His driver, he, and I got into his car, and we started talking about the programs that we are starting. About two minutes into the drive, he asked me if I have had dinner. I tell him yes, but that I would be glad to sit down and talk to him over dinner. He said that would be great and that we should go to his house; therefore, Mr Mwansa and I drove to his mansion.

I eventually called Lawrence and Martha Temfwe to tell them where I was and what I was doing. Martha basically told me that I was ridiculous. Well, Mr. Mwansa and I sat down and talked over dinner about his experiences visiting rural community schools and some realizations he had. Basically, he had no idea that these conditions existed in his own country. I told him that education experiences were not that much different in urban community schools not far from him. About halfway through our dinner, Lawerence and Martha showed up with Greg Smith and Boone Haygood, two Americans. Martha, Greg, and Boone sat in his living room sipping cokes and watching TV while Lawrence and I continued to talk to him about the state of the education system and what needed to be done. About 11:45 p.m., Lawrence and I said that we had to leave. Mr. Mwansa and his friend Lusaka would have kept talking for the night if we would have let them.

The question is will there be fruit from this meeting? Mr. Mwansa is a very powerful man in Zambia. I believe that his heart is beginning to be opened to the true state of education in his country. He does have contacts in the education sector and does want to do something. We are going to definitely keep him in the loop about what is happening and the progress that is made. He wants to focus on the rural community schools; therefore, we are going to start thinking about how the programs we have started to put into place can be transferred to a rural setting. I don’t know what will come about because of this relationship, but it is a definite beginning of a relationship.

Asia in Africa

September 24th

September 24th

This was written on my way from Ndola to Lusaka where I will meet my father and his team. They arrive on Friday afternoon. I wanted to write to give an update on life and not just education related material. It was become hot in Zambia. I think that I mentioned this before, but the weather pattern is one where there is a wet season and a dry season. We are in the last month of the dry season. It is also the hottest time of the year. The heat is not necessarily the problem though. It is still a dry heat; therefore, coming from hot summer days in Georgia this is nothing. The problem is the dust. Everything is dusty- you, your car, your house, your shoes... Plus when the wind picks up, it sprays the dust into your eyes. It is a give and take because when the rainy season comes everything becomes muddy. Africa is full of extremes and this is just one example of that.

I forgot to mention in my last post that we held our first teacher training meeting yesterday, Wednesday September 23rd. I provided an introduction of the program to them, and we also played get to know you games. It went really well. The participants were eager to be there and seemed to enjoy themselves. In total we had 16 teachers from the four schools. I will not hold a meeting next week because for the entire week I will be in Lusaka. Again, Lusaka is about four hours drive away from Ndola.

During our meeting yesterday, we played a game called Four Corners. One of the questions during Four Corners was to pick the place you want to visit. The choices were the USA, Europe, Australia, and China. Nobody picked China; therefore, I asked them why. The teachers were very honest in telling me that the Chinese were racist against them. Throughout my time, I am slowly beginning to understand more clearly tensions like this. Asia has come into Africa with development assistance, but for the most part they are exporting the natural resources without truly providing for the people. They take the natural resources to China, manufacture cheap goods, and then bring the cheap goods back. The development done by the Chinese in particular centers around the economic centers that prosper them, and the Africans can see this. For example, the nicest roads are on the way to the mines. Yes, that has to happen to a certain extent to grow your economy, but at the same time Africans can begin to see that they are being fleeced. Some have proposed that this is the new type of colonialism that is developing in Africa, a strict form of economic colonialism. Some of this has changed in recent years as China is starting to help in more development projects not centered around their economic growth. For example, in Ndola there is a new soccer stadium being built by the Chinese, but the stadium does not fit into the culture. It has huge dragons around the entrance and an ornate Chinese wall around the outside. I would say that it is weird to see this, but at the same time this is what Africa is becoming; therefore, unfortunately you begin to expect this.

The problem is not that the Chinese are coming in to make a profit, but that Zambian government is not considering the long term ramifications of their decision to allow the Chinese to come in with such force. The Zambian government sees the short term benefits of jobs and development without understanding the real issues. The issue is that Zambia is not developing their people to take the leadership reins in the economic sector. This is a very difficult situation to analyze because of the many different factors that contribute to this relationship. One book that offers a balanced perspective on Africa and the Asian influence is Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles by Richard Dowden. He refers to the Asian situation as a new form of colonialism, but is still balanced in his analysis. It is a long book, but a very good read if you are interested in Africa and its current state.

One thing I do know for sure is that ordinary Zambians are starting to clearly see the situation and the treatment they are receiving. Their attitudes towards the Chinese are becoming more transparent. Hopefully, Zambia can figure out a way what truly benefits them before it is to late.