New Advocacy Initiative

For those of you who do not know, I was a kindergarten teacher in the inner city of Washington, D.C. before coming to Zambia. During that time, I began to understand the importance of early childhood education especially in the life of a child from a low-income background. When I started reading the education policy for Zambia, I was appalled at the lack of vision and understanding of early childhood education that was demonstrated in the policies. It is my firm belief that if we want to close the achievement gap between high-income and low-income students, one of our focusses must be on providing high quality early childhood education to low-income students.

As much as I criticize the Zambian education policy and personally want to rewrite it every day, they did get something right in my opinion. They stated in the Education Sector Nation Implementation Framework that the Minister of Education would “provide subsidy (for early childhood education) to all OVC from needy families, as well as to children with physical and/or mental disability.” They stated that they would develop and operationalize a targeting mechanism by the beginning of 2009.

Now I don’t know if they have actually developed a targeting mechanism yet, but I do know that the Jubilee Centre, through our network of churches, helps coordinate the care of 3000 Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC). Imagine if we could get these children into early childhood facilities on the government’s dime. We have already written our first letter to the Minister of Education inquiring about the mechanism they were planning to set up and how we can help our coordinators apply for these subsidies.

To show you how messed up the system is consider this scenario. We, as a network, have 3000 OVC, and we want to get these subsidies and to place these children in early childhood centers. But the problem is that the only ECE centers are run for upper and middle class families. The system can not support this influx of children in this sector yet the Zambian government has made it very clear that they will not build or manage any ECE centers. While we may get subsidies from the government, it is going to be just as challenging to get these children in these centers and to convince the families of the importance of this education. In my opinion, this is just another case of the Zambian government writing something in their education policy to make the Americans and Europeans happy. The Zambians don’t really value this form of education. If they did, they would make sure to develop a system that fully supports this form of education for all children.

Right now Jubilee Centre’s policy is to push for things that the government has already guaranteed in their policies. Soon, we must push for reformed policies because the system is again going to prove to us that it does not work for the disadvantaged.

Thanksgiving Reflections

Today has been a Thanksgiving unlike any other. It is unbearable hot, and nobody even knows that it is Thanksgiving. My experience is kinda like the question that asks if a tree falls in the woods with nobody around does it still make a sound? I will be honest. That tree makes a sound, and it is still Thanksgiving even though nobody is celebrating over here! I always loved Thanksgiving because of the break from school. The break allowed me to prepare for one last push before the end of the semester. While in college and TFA, I never did any work during Thanksgiving break, and I loved that time just to be with family and to relax. After work I am going to celebrate Thanksgiving with some American missionaries. I am looking forward to that opportunity, but it will definitely be a different experience.

David Temfwe asked me today what the pilgrims were thankful for. Off the top of my head I told him two things: the process of settling safe in a new land and for their new friends in their new land. At which time, David told me that I am essentially a pilgrim because those two things are things for which I can definitely be thankful. I could definitely add to that list, but I thought that it was funny how similar the pilgrims thanksgivings and my thanksgivings are. Yeah so the pilgrims were definitely thankful for their harvest and hence the celebration, but I am also thankful for my bountiful harvest at Quicksave (the grocery store).

As I get older though I realize that the things that I am most thankful for are often times the simplest things in my life. Yes, we have definitely progressed as a society since 1621, but in other ways we are not unlike the pilgrims. The pilgrims were thankful for the simply necessities in their life, food, freedom, and friends, and I still find myself thankful for these very simply things. The problem, in my opinion, is that our thankfulness for the simplicities ends after November 26th. What if this thankfulness extended throughout the month of December? I think the holiday season would look very different if we consciously decided to extend our attitude of thankfulness throughout December. Hey, I struggle just like the next person with this, but it is just a thought. Give it a try!

Church Decision and Thoughts

After much internal debate, I have finally decided on a church. I am going to The Church of the Holy Nativity, an Anglican church in downtown Ndola. I made this choice for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that throughout my journey of church “shopping” I realized that I personally need order in my worship. That is a personal preference and definitely not a stipulation for all worship experiences. I love the liturgy and structure of the Anglican worship experience and the thought that many before me have gone through the same process and experience of worship.

The second reason is that the service is short. Call me unspiritual, but I can’t do three hour church services every week. I can’t do anything for three hours. I get bored watching movies for three hours. More than the time issue though, I hate inefficiency; therefore, if I think something can be done more efficiently, I can’t concentrate. Three hour services are great if they should take three hours. But if we could complete them in two hours, that really annoys me. I realize that this is my culture speaking, but a shorter service basically allows me to the opportunity to actually focus on the reason for being there. I know I have issues, but that is just the way I am. I have to switch projects at work every couple of hours in order to be productive. I work best in short two hour spurts. I know I have issues.

Thirdly, the church is a smaller congregation which allows me to get to know the people on a more personal level. Those are my reasons and the thought process behind my church choice. If you come visit me, will we go to the Anglican church? Probably not. I will probably take you to the slums to a church there, so that you can get a true African experience. Or we may go to my Anglican service at 7:30 a.m. and then catch another service after that. It’s called double dipping. It is what the saints do. I have never done it, but I have heard of legends who have. Just know that during the second service, I will be excusing myself to the restroom right before the preaching starts...

Another Rain Note

I know that I am writing about the rainy season again, but it affects life so much here. The rains have really come now, and when they come they come hard. There are not many times of light drizzle. If it is going to rain, it is usually going to rain hard. I wake up at night many times to the rain pouring on my tin roof. In September and October I always saw men digging the ditches along the roads. The ditches were three feet deep already; therefore, I questioned whether they really needed to dig them any deeper. I was wrong. They probably need to dig those ditches at least five feet deep. It is amazing how quickly the ditches fill up when it starts raining.

During the rainy season the internet and power supplies are also very sporadic. You can have internet one day and the next day the internet will be down because of the rains. I have no idea how the internet is affected by the rains, but it is. Who knows why the power supply is affected but that is also the way of life. For example, this morning the power is out at the office. The power is out just on our street though. Why, why, why? No one really knows, but I am typing this right now with the hum of a generator in my ear. What a joy...

On a good note, with the rains come cooler temperatures. A break from the heat is always nice (especially when you have not experienced air conditioning since August). I am staying dry though. I have a good raincoat and an umbrella; therefore, I am more than equipped for the conditions.

Satan

Did I get your attention with the title?

I think that I have previously written about my impressions of Zambian politics. One of the basic problems is that there is a lack of quality leadership among the ranks of the politicians. While the issues are very complex, one can not deny that this basic facet of a functioning society is missing. Most problems, whether they relate to the issue of voting patterns or to the issue of corruption, can be traced back to a lack of vision and leadership from all Zambians. While the Zambian culture does not necessarily promote innovation and optimism, the Zambians leaders must be counterculture in setting a proper standard for behavior and vision.

This has not been the case lately in Zambia. Over the past two weeks, the major headline in the news has been the fact that President Banda has been calling the leader of the opposition party Satan because Banda disagrees with the policies of this man. The man’s name is Sata by the way; therefore, that is how Banda sort of gets away with his name calling. Can you imagine if Obama came out and called Huckaby, Palin, or McCain Satan? Though different politicians or parties may think these things in America we at least hold ourselves somewhat accountable.

The saddest thing is not that Banda keeps calling Sata Satan, but that the Zambian people just accept that this is the way of life. There are definitely exceptions, but the majority just accept that things will never change.

“Politicians will always insult each other and get nothing accomplished. We will always be poor.”

This attitude and coexisting mentality quite possibly are the most difficult things about working here. At least when I worked in the inner city of DC, there was still some prospect of hope and change found among the people.

I was teaching a lesson on investment to a group of teachers. One of the parts of the lesson focussed on using role models in the classroom. It was so hard for the teachers to think of role models because no one has come up from the slums. There are no rags to riches stories except in the case of politicians who did it through dishonest gains. We can’t accept that this is the way that it is going to be. Someone will one day rise up from Mapalo to a position in society, and I will rejoice that day like never before. Then we will have a proper example that demonstrates that life can be different. We must hold out hope for this day because if we don’t we will be defeated.

Termites :(

Try this for a food that many Zambians like to eat: TERMITES. Supposedly, a specific type of termite comes out during the rainy season, and they are a delicacy. It is amazing the things people consider delicacy. In some places you have snails (escargo) and squid (calimari), but in Zambia we have caterpillars and termites. Whatever happened to a good piece of chocolate cake? Can't we consider that a delicacy because I have not seen one of those in a very long time? Plus, it tastes a lot better than termites and caterpillars. I have eaten caterpillars, but I will not be seeking out the termites. I just think that if a little bug can destroy a wood house then it can probably destroy me if I put it in my body. Call me crazy, but that is just my thought process.

In other news my mother wants a picture of me on my blog. Not much has changed except the fact that I keep my hair short, and I also keep a goatee. Unfortunately, my blog will not allow me to upload pictures at this moment. When it does I will be sure to upload one. Peace!

Customer Service Please!!

Well we are approaching the third week of my car not being fixed. (For those who have not read past blog posts, another man hit my car from behind a while ago.) The insurance company is still holding things up. Uuuugggghhh. It is really starting to get on my nerves that whenever I go over bumps my trunk opens and closes. The truck is tied with rope, but it still opens. It may be Christmas before my car is fixed.

On another note, I tried to open a basic banking account today. Little did I know that it would be such a trouble. There is seriously a checklist of ten things which you have to do before you can open an account. All I want is a safe place to put my Zambian money. It is not like I am trying to buy out Walmart.

I have gotten used to the adage in the USA that "the customer is your first priority." That is not the case in Zambia. There is a zero return policy at most stores and you better be able to jump through fifty hoops and frustrations if you are going to accomplish anything. It always makes life interesting because there are no guarantees.

In teaching news this week was a very good week. I saw teachers trying to implement differentiated instruction in their classrooms (that means that they are trying to teach to all of the student's skill levels instead of just teaching to the middle.) I also had the opportunity to meet one on one with most of my teachers. They were all very appreciative of the program and excited to tell me how they were going to change their teaching practices. One of my star teachers, Sam, told me this week not to get frustrated even if there was no implementation. He told me that it takes them time to change. It is hard to get frustrated when someone as nice as Sam asks you to be patient.