"We are family...."

"Give us joy in our hearts, keep us singing!"

Wednesday dawned and it was the penultimate day in our schools. The realisation that things were coming to an end culminated in our final planning meeting held at Mutombe School. Sally didn't disappoint us and had another wonderful activity up her sweaty sleeve! This involved talking about our experiences and what we gained from this experience and where to next. We were delighted to listen to the reflections of the Zambian teachers who told us how much the partnership had enriched the teaching in their classrooms and the overall atmosphere of the school. It was recognised that both groups learnt a lot from each other and to say that the experience was rewarding would be an understatement. Warner and Elzette's words encapsulated the sentiments of the group as a whole and emotions were running high. They commented on the dedication and passion of the Zambian teachers and their ability to teach quality lessons in a near resourceless environment. We concluded that really our styles of teaching are similar and it was an honour to come in and help fine tune the methods being used. This has been a great launch pad to identify areas for future development and it is wonderful to realise our fundraising is going to now put this group of teachers through a year of formal training to further hone their skills.

That night we had a tremendous surprise in store for us back at the New La Hacienda. Humphrey had secretly organised for our last evening a night of food, dance and laughter. We had a troop of dancers perform for us while we had a delicious last meal and then it was all on for young and old. Holly started the proceedings off by eagerly jumping up to join in the dancing and showing she has the hip action of the Zambians down pat! By the end of the night the whole group had gotten their groove on in true Zambian style and euphoria filled the air.
We were presented with absolutely beautiful chitenge (a traditional Zambian sarong) which we wore for the dancing which made us truly feel like real Zambians. The evening also included some moving speeches from all parties and by the end of the evening we all felt like one big happy family!

Thanks everyone, it was a wonderful night!

Holly, Sally and Sonia.