That Is Just Life

I had dinner this weekend with an American couple who recently moved to Ndola. The couple is volunteering for an organization that works in communities similar to the ones in which the Jubilee Centre works. The couple has only been in Zambia for a week; therefore, they were sharing their initial impressions of the communities and what has stood out for them. After being here for over 8 months, it was very interesting to hear them share.

They continually said things such as, “I can’t believe all the naked children. There are so many children everywhere. They just burn their trash in a whole. The poverty is so vast. People just use the bathroom wherever they feel. The smell many times can be very pungent.”

These are all very true statements. The truth of the statements is not what struck me. What struck me is the fact that I don’t really notice these things anymore. Going into the compounds has become so much apart of my life that I am not struck as much by the depravity as I once was. It has just become life to me. It is almost as if I just expect to see a child eating a dirt pie on a daily basis.

One of the joys of being able to live and work in a place like Ndola for an extended period of time is that I am able to understand the situation and the problems to a greater degree than if I just spent two weeks in a place. I am able to become comfortable in this setting, and therefore, am able to experience the place to a greater degree.

At the same time, I don’t know if I want to become comfortable with the state of life in many of these communities. I don’t want to become comfortable with the fact that people live in mud brick houses that could collapse with the next rain storm. I don’t want to become comfortable with the fact that people defecate near their water source or do not have access to a quality education. I don’t want to become comfortable with the lack of medical facilities or the inability of the church some times to grasp its mission.

But how does one truly become comfortable in a place while still desiring and believing that the place can make changes for the better? One of the things that I dislike about many Zambian’s attitude toward poverty is that people say, “This is Zambia. We are a third world country, and we will always have people living in the slums.” I think when someone constantly sees poverty of this nature that attitude that can develop very quickly. My hope and prayer is that my heart and mind stays sensitive enough so that I never accept the “status quo” or “inevitable.”

Life Update

OK. I realize that I have not been posting recently; therefore, I have a little bit of a life update for you.

Teacher Training

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the teacher training in Mapalo is finished. After eight enjoyable months, we had our graduation ceremony on April 1st. The teachers were very appreciative of all that we had done for them and even gave me a gift in appreciation for all my work. It was definitely a moment of pride for me to see them finish the course.

One set of teachers down but another set to go though. Tomorrow, I will start training teachers in Kitwe for four days. Kitwe is a town approximately 45 minutes away from Zambia. (See posted map) This course will be shortened, but will cover 70% of our curriculum. In Kitwe, I will be training 25 school teachers who all teach in community schools. Schools are off during the month of April; therefore, for these four days, we will be having full day sessions to cover as much as the material as possible.

I will not be the only one training teachers though. For these sessions, I will take along two of my brightest teachers, Emmanuel and Samson, who I trained in Mapalo. With my supervision, they will be presenting half of the sessions. The goal is for Emmanuel and Samson to continue training teachers once I leave Zambia. I will not be in Zambia forever; therefore, part of my focus has turned to training others on how to train teachers.

Rest and Relaxation

After all the hard work over the past eight months, I have taken time over the past few weeks to relax a little. At the end of March, my cousins, Andrew and Kristin Timm, visited me for a couple of days after they climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. It was definitely a joy to be around people who have known me for longer than 8 months. I personally feel like I can relax more when I am around someone who knows me well; therefore, Andrew and Kristin’s visit was definitely a time of relaxation.

Highlights of Andrew and Kristin’s Visit

• Going to a 4 and a half hour church service. I thought the service was only going to be 3 hours long. After that service, I am evermore convinced of the grace of God because it was truly only by the grace of God that we made it through the service.
• Bargaining for souvenirs at the market. At the markets, you have to bargain, but Kristin did not understand this concept like I wanted her too. After she was ripped off the first time she bought something, I took her money away from her and bought everything else at a fair price. Kristin was not upset with me for that, but she was embarrassed by me because I will get the price that I want. I refuse to pay “white man” cost at the market; therefore, I am not the most loved man at that market. I have made such an impression at the souvenir market in Lusaka that they even recognize me now. Needless to say, Kristin was a little embarrassed with my techniques and quietly disowned me three times under her breath. But she got everything she wanted at a fair price.

Other than those highlights, our time was spent relaxing, catching up, and seeing the sights of Ndola.

Then last week, Lawrence Temfwe and I went away for a while for a time of resting, reading, and writing. We were preempting burn-out. You have to be careful about that around here. Needless to say, with training sessions, celebrations, times of relaxation, and all the traveling involved, I have not been around the office a lot lately. Life has been good though, and I am very excited to start training teachers again.

Policy Article

Lawrence Temfwe and I recently wrote an article about policy changes needed for community schools. The article was published in the Zambian Institute of Public Policy Journal. I have decided to paste the article below. Enjoy!


Community Schools: Hope for Poor Urban Children
In Zambia today many children in low-income communities have no access to conventional schooling. In some urban districts up to a third of the children in primary schools attend what are known as community schools. These schools are operated by unpaid and untrained volunteers who teach in community buildings which are of very inadequate standards.

In recent years, “the number of community schools has grown exponentially from 883 in 2000 to 2,129 in 2005.”[1] More recent figures are not available, but the number has only continued to grow. In 2007 the Ministry of Education issued The Operational Guidelines for Community Schools, which promised to provide, among other things, “equitable financial and material resources to all community schools.”[2] But this undertaking has not been met, and, most disappointingly, the Education Act remains silent on community schools.

Community schools play a vital role in most urban districts. In Ndola they educate 33,964 children, which is 29% of primary school enrollees. Though most of these community schools have registered with the District Education Office, resources and support are still not provided. The two most pressing needs are teacher training and equitable funding. If only the Ministry of Education will attend to these, the quality of education provided by community schools can be greatly improved
First, First, teacher training. The main reason for the success of community school teachers, despite difficult situations, is their impressive commitment to the education of the children in their community. Because of this, the Ministry of Education does not need to bring in trained teachers from outside the community, but instead to provide training for the existing teachers. Such training could be a short but intensive course covering basic pedagogy. A four month course, combined with continuous assessment, would impart the basic skills needed to provide a quality education. Hitherto there have been few courses of this nature. But presently the Jubilee Centre, a Christian NGO in Ndola, is running a pilot training course for twelve teachers in three community schools in the community of Mapalo. These schools serve 632 children with an average class size of 40 students. Before the course, their teachers were largely untrained. During this course, all teachers have demonstrated improvement in the skills taught, i.e., setting goals, thinking critically, planning purposefully, investing in children, increasing effectiveness, and employing best practices in the classroom. The Ministry of Education should now provide serious training to complement the remarkable commitment shown by community school teachers.

Second, equitable funding. The Ministry of Education must put in place a clear and transparent grant process for the distribution of community school funds. There have been countless stories about the misallocation or disappearance of these resources. There have even been stories of them being given to schools which do not exist. The Ministry must provide guidelines to make sure that funds are distributed in an equitable manner. The guidelines must include a rating rubric that explains how the funds are distributed. Only when a clear and transparent grant system is operational, will it be practicable for the community schools as a whole to ask for additional funding.
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Once these challenges have been effectively tackled, it will appropriate to turn to the question, ‘Should Zambia’s community schools become either private schools or government schools, or should they remain as an independent category?’ We believe they should be given a choice. If community schools meet the requirements and want to become government schools, let them be absorbed into the system. If they want to continue to operate as community schools with support from the government, they should have that option. However, in order for community schools to receive government support, they should have to enroll a minimum of 70% of their students from low-income families. This stipulation will provide a clear distinction between private schools and community schools.

There has to be an educational hope for the poor. But it may not lie in government schools. It may just lie with community schools, provided they receive sufficient support from the government to make this hope possible.
[1] National Implementation Framework pg. 41
[2] Operational Guidelines for Community Schools pg. 10

Small Video

Ok, I just realized that the video I posted is small and you cannot read the writing at the beginning. My blog will not allow me to make the video bigger; therefore, I have posted the words below for your enjoyment.

1. Teachers are attempting to be developmentally appropriate in their instruction.

2. Long-term plans are now written by the teachers.

3. Teachers are now teaching in small groups.

4. Teachers are now using games to review and teach concepts.

5. Experiential learning techniques are now used in classrooms.

The End of Mapalo Teacher Training

Well, it is over. After eight wonderful months of mentoring teachers in Mapalo, our training program has come to an end. It is kind of sad, but it is time to move on and train other teachers. Yes, there definitely were difficulties while running this pilot program (one school quit), but I could not realistically ask for better results given that this was our first time training teachers. To cap it off, I have attached a video detailing the changes we have seen in the schools. Enjoy!

Reckless Driving and Corruption

Yesterday, on my way back from Lusaka, I was stopped by the police for reckless driving at which time I received my second ticket since being in Zambia. Good thing they don’t keep track of tickets because if I continued at this rate I will have my license revoked.

Let me paint the scenario for you. I am following Lawrence Temfwe from Lusaka to Ndola, and Lawrence is what we would term a “speed demon.” On the road from Lusaka to Ndola, he averages 80 mph. That is totally fine with me, but I was not cited for reckless driving when I was going 80 mph. I was cited for reckless driving when I was driving 35 mph!

While following Lawrence, we came upon a truck that was going 20 mph. Lawrence passed the car right before a curve, but I said to myself that it would be reckless and dangerous to pass on the curb. When we came to the next straight away though, I did pass the truck. Unfortunately for me, the police officer who saw me said that I passed on a solid white line. Who cares that the lines are not visible on the road or that the car was going 20 mph on a road where the average speed is 65 mph.

The point of the story is not to prove my innocence because technically I was breaking the law. The point of the story is to illustrate my first encounter with corruption. While paying my ticket (you have to pay on the spot), the lady told us that we could pay half the amount of the ticket, but that we would not get a receipt. That means the money would go into her pocket, and that there would be no record of my wrong.

It was very tempting to just pay her the money and move on. The way they said it made bribery feel innocent and harmless. I internally debated what to do for about a minute. I finally decided to pay the full amount for two reasons. First, I knew that it was the right thing to do. I could not contribute to a corrupt society. I wish this was the main reason that I paid the full amount, but it was not. The main reason was that I would much rather have more of my money go to the Zambian government than some of my money to a corrupt policewoman. If she had been nice to me, maybe I would have decided to pay her the pocket money.

Before this experience, it was so easy for me to look down on people that feed the system of corruption, but until you are in that situation, do not judge. It would have been so easy for me to pay that woman and drive quickly on my way. No one would have known. Moral of the story: don’t judge until you have experienced it yourself. Next moral of the story: I have a disdain for authority. Immediately after I was given the ticket, I began to drive more recklessly. The ticket did not curb my behavior because I thought to myself, “If you are going to charge me for a vacuous offense, I am going to make sure I get my money’s worth.”

Life Changes

So I have been thinking a lot lately about changes I have made in my life because of my experience in Zambia. Let me start with the biggest and most significant. I ONLY WEAR ONE SHIRT! O.k. I have to admit that I still wear one undershirt and a collared shirt sometimes, but many times I wear a collared shirt without an undershirt. For those of you who don’t know me, this is a BIG change in my lifestyle.

Ever since 7th grade, I have worn at least two shirts at all times. Most times I wore three shirts, and sometimes I wore four if I wore a sweater. My brother and many others have relentlessly made fun of me for this freak characteristic. Wearing at least two shirts always made me feel safe. It was a way of being prepared for any freak accidents that could happen in a day. It was also a fashion deal for me. I would always match my undershirt with some part of my outer clothing. Sometimes I matched it with the Polo man on my outer shirt. Other times I would match my undershirt and my flip flops. Other days I would wear three shirts and all of them would match in some way. I know that now that I was being ridiculous. It was a big deal for me, but those days are over.

After all of these years it has finally gotten too hot to wear two shirts. One day I wore a collared shirt without an undershirt, and I really enjoyed it. Therefore, I started doing it more often and actually dread some days when I have to wear an undershirt. What’s next? No shirt? No comment.

In all seriousness, I have been thinking about the changes I have/ will make because of my experience in Zambia. This is just the first one that popped into my head. I promise to write about some serious changes soon.