Day Four - First day in the Classrooms

Kia Ora Everyone,

After an uneasy sleep of waking every hour in fear of being late on our first day in our schools we were finally woken by the infectious laugh of Lyn echoing through the hallways - we were well awake now (ha ha). It was a very spiritual start to the morning as the sounds of the call to prayer from the mosque bellowed through our hotel and it cast a calm sense of serenity for the day ahead.

During breakfast Lyn shared her blog for the day and many laughs were shared by all. Nervous smiles were on our teams faces as we waited for our drivers to take us to our schools - of course we are running on 'Zam'(bia) time and we were anxious to get started.

Finally team Nangoma (Helen Wilson & I) were on the road travelling at 140km weaving through cows, students, workers and farmers - this was scary yet very entertaining. A local group of young men were running along the roadside singing in beautiful harmony for their morning fitness, Helen and I looked at each other and had feeling of excitement build up and then good old Bob Marley came blasting through the radio - we knew it was going to be a great day.

As we turned towards a dirt road we had an off road experience that we would normally have to pay for in New Zealand. Finally we arrived to our respective school and we were met by the School Manager and Staff and then instructed that we would be introducing ourselves in front of approximately 500-600 students (GULP!!!) Nangoma School welcomed us with 3 harmonious songs which welcomed us, preyed for us and wished us luck in our journey - they stressed the point that our visit is truly a blessing. The choir brought tears to our eyes and it was an emotional, overwhelming powerful start to what we know is going to be a life long relationship.

After meeting our teachers we went straight into observations - one lesson was on a Grade 2 lesson for Social Studies learning about 'Zambia' and the importance of their anthem (very patriotic and humbling). The next lesson was a Science lesson Grade 8 about "How much Oxygen is in the Air" and the only resources used were a plastic container,candle and match.Unbelieveably the student understood the concepts and demonstrated their understanding through oral reports.

The main insight today was that regardless of materials. infrastructure, large class sizes (55-75 students) they perservere to achieve the best they can do. They are doing a great job with what they can and their success rates are very high improving from 9% in 2002 to 67% in 2007. An amazing improvement by any educational facility. This school has excellent quality teachers doing their personal best with 1 text book, chalk, 4 tables and no resources or materials. Well done Nangoma - we really don't realise as teachers how lucky we are!

In discussion with the teachers it was great to share experiences of mutual understandings and even more so when you are sitting in a school house with a teacher who has six orphan children plus four of her own planning lessons, making dinner,feeding her 20 chickens, cleaning 8 cats, hosting a stranger whilst breastfeeding!

Everyone was welcoming and to take us to their humble home was an experience I will never forget. As we headed for Makupi school to plan for the next day my peer teachers William told me that tomorrows lesson will be teaching "equatorial rain forests" and Lillian will be teaching "pro-consular Africanus animals" Okay ...gulp..Okay..panic..Okay..breathe. I had to laugh,we then worked together to create a sure fire lesson that involves a lot of fun, group work, and hands on activities. This is very different from the rote learning styles that are evident at the moment.

Working with two teachers from Nangoma who have enthusiasm, insight and the passion to teach is phenomenal to see despite all the previously stated disadvantages.

Helen and I had the best day ever - Proud to being a kiwi, Proud of being Maori, Proud being a teacher and Proud to be a part of this project of development.

This is a small snap shot of the day and this blog will not cover the things I have seen and been a part of but I encourage all that read this to come and see for yourselves "Beautiful Zambia" and make a difference!

Vanessa Te Huia
Rotorua Intermediate School