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.

International Women’s Day and Youth Day

How many of you knew that yesterday, March 8th, was International Women’s Day? If you did, did you celebrate? Well, I celebrated because International Women’s Day is a holiday in Zambia. Don’t ask me. From the information I can gather nobody does anything out of the ordinary except that no one goes to work. I cleaned up my house, went for a run, went out to lunch with some friends, and did work from home. There is not much to do in Ndola on days off; therefore, I don’t appreciate the holidays here as much as I appreciate the holidays in the states.

The weirdest thing though is that this is not the only federal holiday this week in Zambia. Friday, March 12th, is Youth Day. I am not making these things up. All offices are closed on Friday to celebrate the youth of Zambia. I thought Americans were the only ones to take weird holidays. I was wrong. It looks like it is a worldwide trend.

So, if you don’t want to go into work on Friday just claim that you are Zambian and have to celebrate Youth Day. I am sure that your boss will buy it. I will write you a note if you need one. To validate your claim go take a kid to the park. I think that I am going to work on Friday so someone can claim my day off for themselves. Now I am off to celebrate another people group. I wonder which one we get to celebrate next week. Babies? Aborigines? WASPs?

Zambian Cultural Value: Hierarchy

Let us continue our previous discussion of Zambian cultural values. Another thing that Zambians value is their hierarchy. I think a few of the reasons for this are because of the age issue previously discussed and because of the lingering effects of the colonial age which only ended 35 years ago. Whatever the reason, one must know that you are not supposed to disagree with someone who is above you in the hierarchy.

This hierarchy can be a social hierarchy or a tangible hierarchy such as those that exist in the churches many times. Whatever the hierarchy, I have never enjoyed or liked hierarchical structures. I understand that if used properly they can increase efficiency, order, and delegation of responsibilities. At the same time, I think that many times within hierarchies leaders try to create minions who will not question their authority. We many times call these people “yes men.” They always tell the leader that he is right and never disagree with his opinion.

I have never and will never operate as a “yes man.” My mother said that I have been like this since birth. I was your prototypical strong willed child who when told to do something would immediately push back against that command. I am still that way to this day. You can be the President of the United States, and if I don’t agree with your opinion, I am going to express myself. Of course, I always try to do it in a respectful manner that does not devalue the person, but I will express myself. The Zambian culture does not value this trait unfortunately.

One of the main places you observe this hierarchical structure is within the church. Most churches have a bishop, and no bad word is every spoken against the bishop. The red carpet is rolled out for these men which also annoys me. I am of the opinion that everyone should be treated equally, but in Zambia your treatment depends on your position in the hierarchy. In my opinion things are this way in America, but they are more overt in Zambia about it. In America, we just put up a facade many times to cover up our treatment of people within the hierarchy.

Let me again state that I love the order and structure of many high church traditions. That is one of the reasons why I love Anglican and Presbyterian churches. At the same time though if the bishop is not preaching truth or is not being held accountable, I have no problem with questioning him. I have gotten many a looks when I have questioned what a bishop says. I have also gotten many looks when I have questioned the treatment of bishops compared to the poor. In general, I have just gotten looks because I question things too much. I don’t just accept things, but in Zambia the prevailing attitude is acceptance without questioning.

Whether I like it or not, I am having to learn how to stroke people’s egos to accomplish what needs to be accomplished. O.k. stroking someone’s ego sounds bad. Let’s say I am having to learn how to efficiently operate within this hierarchical structure. I can butter up the police officers with the best of them (there is a good southern phrase for you, “butter up.” I still got it :). Let me translate my conversation with a police officer for you. “How are you today, sir? Yes sir, I have all of the documents right here. Thank you so much, sir. Have a nice day!” really means “This is a pointless checkpoint and procedure, and unfortunately I am presently questioning whether you are corrupt. I know though if I stroke your ego and feign my respect that things are going to go a lot smoother for me.” Maybe, I need to just stop feigning my respect for people and actually give them respect. The problem is again that I do not respect someone based upon their position, but I respect someone based upon who they are. What is worse: my feigning of respect or actually disrespecting them?

O.k. my analysis sounds worse than the reality of the situation. I have not challenged the authority as much as I have wanted, and I have only upset one person when challenging authority. It is something that I try to approach very cautiously, and I often times have learned to hold my tongue and nod my head, a.k.a. stroke people’s ego, because of the sensitivity of the cultural situation. The key is learning when to challenge. I think that it is in relationships that we are able to challenge the cultural values held by all people. That is why the most honest discussions which I have had have been with my coworkers at the Jubilee Centre. If anything, I have probably not challenged as much as I should. (I keep it bottled up inside. It’s a real healthy procedure you should try sometimes.) Lawrence Temfwe is constantly telling me to challenge more often people’s assumptions at the Jubilee Centre. It is a constant learning experience for me because through this experience I am coming to a greater understanding of the values I hold and why I hold them. My value of time, efficiency, and success is constantly being challenged, and I am having to wrestle with why I value those qualities. Needless to say, I am learning a lot.

How Old Are You?

One thing that you have to know about Zambia culture is that age matters. If you are young, it is very hard, if not impossible, to earn respect. Leadership and authority are based upon age. I knew this coming to Zambia, and I knew that it would be difficult to start and lead a program because of this fact.

Therefore, I took proactive steps to make myself appear older. For example, I grew out my facial hair so that I would look older. I will admit that my goatee does not look good, but it does make me look older. Another step I took was to make sure that I was extremely professional when interacting with the teachers. This includes making sure that I am extremely knowledgeable about the subjects that I am teaching. It also includes telling my credentials in a positive light. When people ask what I did before coming to Zambia, I always say that I taught school in the inner-city of Washington D.C. and got my Masters in Education. I never tell them how many years I taught unless they ask. This has been a difficult line to walk though because I have also tried to develop personal relationships with the teachers and many times the professional and personal do not mix. I feel in many ways that I have been successful in this endeavor though.

My feelings were validated this past week. After the training session on Thursday, I drove one of the teachers home. During our time in the car we began to talk, and he told me that his birthday was next week. Of course, I told him congratulations and asked him how old he was going to be. He told me 26, and I thought to myself, “Oh crap! You are my youngest teacher. Don’t ask how old I am?” (I am 25 by the way.) Unfortunately, my fears were validated when he did ask how old I was. I turned the tables on him though and asked him how old he thought I was. He briefly paused, thought for a second, and then said that he thought I was in my mid-thirties. VICTORY!

How many times in life do people rejoice when someone thinks they are ten years older than they actually are? How many times will I rejoice at that fact? What would my response be if you told me at 30 that I looked and acted 40? Whatever the case, to be successful in Zambia I needed to convince people that I am old and have the right to speak. I wish that the culture was not that way, but I cannot change that. But to do the work which I have been assigned, I just have to work to exude the qualities which the culture values. And one of those happens to be age.

USAID Training

What was your day like this past Monday? Well, mine started out as usual until 9 o’clock rolled around; at which time the whole staff was informed that we had to cancel everything we had planned to work on and that we were expected to be in staff development for the next two days. That is Zambia for you! I can begin to see why people never plan around here. A fatalistic attitude can definitely set in when all of your well-devised plans are upset by people who have a disregard for planning.

Well, obviously my attitude was not very good, but when I arrived at our conference hall for training, I was very excited to see that my tax dollars were at work. The training was funded by USAID. Yippee! Even in Africa, I am able to experience the joy of American tax dollars.

The purpose of the training was to lead the staff through a self assessment exercise to detail the strengths and weaknesses of the Jubilee Centre. It sounds great in theory, until you realize that this is not America. First of all, the training did not provide sufficient training on the proper way to self assess. This is very important in Zambia because most Zambians have not had many opportunities such as this that require critical thinking. In schools critical thinking skills are not stressed; therefore, the skill of analysis is generally lacking. The presenters did not seem to realize this though in their presentation.

Second, it must be noted that Zambians have been lacking in life opportunities. This is not a fault to anyone, but it is just the way of life. When self-analyzing, it is important to have an ideal situation against which one can reference. Unfortunately, that ideal situation in our minds is based upon the opportunities and experiences we have had. Considering this, the expectations for the ideal situation in the Jubilee Centre were very low in my opinion; therefore, people kept grading themselves higher than we should have. For example, when discussing planning our frame of reference was very low. Compared to other Zambian organizations, we do an excellent job planning for our programs. We are setting our standard too low though when we just compare ourselves to other Zambian organizations. Unfortunately, this is the only frame of reference most people in the Jubilee Centre have had. Again, it is no body’s fault, but I do not feel like the presenters/organizers considered this to the extent that they should have.

The problem in my opinion is that this training was just brought from the States without any true understanding of the situation. Now, I trust that the people are USAID are not stupid and actually tried to tailor the training to the situation. Unfortunately, this is what one continuously sees with many aid organizations. If they truly understood the organizations with whom they are working though, they would have a two step process of analysis. First, they would come through, personally analyze the organization, and help the people of the organization come up with action steps for a six month period. Second, after six months had ended they would come back, formally teach how to self analyze, and then provide more guidance during the process of self analysis.

What can I say though? They did not really ask me how to run their program. I did provide my opinion on their evaluation though. I just thought you should know how your tax dollars are being spent.

Random Teaching Updates

Well, it is time for a few random teaching updates. First, the teachers continue to make drastic improvements in their pedagogy. When I observed this week, every classroom but one was completing an activity related to their subject matter instead of just making the students copy notes. That is a drastic improvement from the beginning when one out of 12 classrooms was completing an activity. What is even more excited is that the teachers are now starting to collect and analyze data on their classrooms (data gathering and analysis were recent lessons). With these new pedagogical practices in place, we will now be able to analyze the academic progress of the students. YIPEE!!! (I know I get excited about the weirdest things).

In other news, I recently ran a power point presentation for one of my sessions. For some of my teachers, it was their first time seeing a projector or a powerpoint. During the session, I once thought to myself, “I am teaching in the middle of the slums with a powerpoint presentation. This is weird but really cool at the same time. I wonder how many people actually get an opportunity like this.”

Finally, I was thinking yesterday that I am going to miss these teachers. For this particular group of teachers, their training ends in March. I have developed many close relationships with these individuals; therefore, it is going to be difficult not seeing them every week. I never thought I would feel this way. Sorry, I know this post is kinda random, but those are just some thoughts that have been floating through my head recently. Peace and love and have a great weekend.

To Infinity and Beyond (or to Kitwe)

Well, as expected, our little education program at the Jubilee Centre is expanding. Today, I went to Kitwe, a major town approximately 45 minutes from Ndola, to talk to a school administrator about training her teachers. Lawrence and I had already talked briefly to her about setting up the program, but today we had a very productive meeting in which we outlined the training she wanted. During the month of April, we are going to train her teachers and maybe the teachers from three other schools in the area.

I am very excited but hesitant about this training. First of all, I am very excited to be able to help these teachers and for a chance to expand the program. At the same time, I am hesitant because we are changing the format of the sessions. Because the schools are located in Kitwe, I can not give the individual attention to the teachers like I have done in Ndola. This is difficult for me to let go of because I feel like the success of the program has stemmed from the fact that I have been able to walk beside the teachers as they attempt to change their practices. With Kitwe being a distance away, I will not be able to do this. Instead, I will do a few site visits before the training to chronicle the teaching practices. Then, I will teach four days of intensive sessions. Finally, I will do site visits afterwards to chronicle any change in practice.

I am not saying that it is not going to be successful. From my visit today, the teachers seem eager to be trained and to grow as educators. It will be a different from the present structure, but we will have time to analyze the effectiveness afterwards. Maybe, I am wrong. Maybe, we will see that the effectiveness of the program is actually due to the curriculum instead of my individual attention. We will see come May.