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It’s been quiet at the school this past week, as the kids arrived on Friday night. I was told to enjoy the quiet while it lasts, as there won’t be too much of it once the ball starts rolling. This week was mainly filled with relaxing, acclimatizing to the area, and lesson prep. Nothing too exciting went down (I guess I did go tubing down the Sakeji river, but sadly I have no photos of that) but I’ll try and include some highlights!
On Tuesday of this past week, I was able to attend a Christian conference in the nearby village of Kalene. Although the village is only 22 km away, it took us an hour to drive there! The conference was specifically for Sunday school teachers, and the content was both challenging and eye-opening, both messages we attended were great. It was fascinating listening to a message that was either presented in both Lunda (a local language) and English by the same speaker who would switch between the two after a couple of sentences (still not sure how he did it so flawlessly! My mind struggles enough just speaking in English sometimes!), or listening to one speaker in English who would pause to allow his words to be translated into Lunda. I actually enjoyed the pause for translation, as it gave me time to digest and truly think about the words that were just spoken. I also have to comment on the Zambian singing. I have not a clue what they’re saying (although I can usually recognize the tune), but seeing these people enthusiastically pour out their praise and worship to God in the language they know, in full assurance that God hears them is very moving. It also sounds incredible! We could definitely take some pointers from our Zambian brothers and sisters in Christ to amp up our singing on a Sunday morning. They seem to sing in a way where the leader sings a word or phrase just before the congregation starts the verse, which gives the appearance of the song leader calling out, and the audience singing back in answer. It’s very beautiful.
Here’s a video of their singing (it’s just audio with a black screen):
At lunch, I got to try the traditional nshima of Zambia! Of course back home when we attend a conference, we all go through the food lineup, load up our plates, and then sit together at tables with forks and knives to enjoy our meals off of our own plates. Here, eating lunch was much more intimate. Bowls with nshima and what they call the relish (the sides that go along with the nshima. In this case, it was pumpkin leaves as the greens and sausages as the meat), are brought out and placed on or between benches. We would then wash our hands, and in groups of about 5-7 gather around the meal and dig in with our hands! There’s somewhat of a trick while eating nshima, as you try to prevent burning your hands with the hot dish. You grab off a piece of the nshima and then kind of roll it into a ball in your hands, moving it lots so it doesn’t have time to burn your skin while in contact. You do this for a bit, and then use the nshima to grab some of the relishes. I was told that I was lucky to have my first introduction to nshima be sausages, which are very familiar to me, rather than the small dried fish! Of course, to us back in North America, this way of eating seems so foreign, but let me remind everyone that it’s simply different, not bad. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and as I said earlier, there’s some sort of intimacy and closeness you achieve with the people you’re eating with while you all pull food out of the same bowls with your hands.
The animals and flowers in Africa have been both beautiful and fascinating. There are many different insect forms here and the butterflies are also absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, they’re too fast for me to get any noteworthy photos of (I may or may not have also lacked in attempting to photograph them), along with the many lizards and geckos. I’m sure we have some lizards living in our house, just last night as I was closing my curtains one bolted out across the wall, and I have lost him since! I guess he’s now a little Schrodinger pet of mine, not sure if he’s alive and still in my room, but also not sure if he’s dead or gone. A snake was also found in one of the dorms this week and had to be killed as it was headed towards a piano (as you could imagine, a snake in a piano is a lot harder to remove from a dorm than a dead snake).
The kids arrived Friday night, and I gotta hand it to them, 3 months is a long time to be away from home! There were some sad faces, but most of them seemed excited to be back at school. I spent yesterday trying to learn their names, and just get to know them. Remembering names is not at all a strong point of mine, so being presented with the names of 70 kids, who for the most part all want you to know their names, is quite daunting. However I’m trying my best, and the kids are being very gracious towards me no matter how badly I butcher their names.
My schedule is very busy, but as some of you know that’s just how I like it. I’m teaching grades 4/5, 6/7, and 8/9 science as well as 8/9 geography and 4/5 “News” (I’ve got a neat idea for this class, but I'll save that for a future post). I’m also helping out with some P.E. and scripture classes throughout the week. I’m really excited about the science classes and have been working all week to get some fun hands-on lessons ready for throughout the term. The geography class, if I’m being completely honest, is slightly out of my comfort zone, but I am looking forward to trying to make what I would label as a “boring class” a little bit more interesting. Apologies to my geography professor grandpa, and geography majoring mother for calling geography boring, but maps and flags just don’t cut it for me. . . But also please keep your phones on so that I can come running to you guys for help when a student asks what an archipelago is.
As always, I ask that you keep praying for me. Specifically, pray that I don’t get burnt out and that I’m able to find times to relax and focus on things that are life-giving to me so that I can be life-giving to the students around me. I also ask that you pray for opportunities to share Christ. Yes, I’m here to teach, but my teaching has no value if it does not include teaching of the one who died for the sins of the world.
Lessons from the week:
Bringing white shirts to Africa was probably a bad idea.
Pineapples take 2 years to grow.
What you teach children now, lays the foundation for their perception of the world and who God is for the rest of their lives.
To God be the glory, now and forever.
Isaac
