CD Recording

CD Recording

Tuesday evening, our friend, Bob D’Antoni from our church in MD arrived from the Children’s Village in Namibia. He was there to record for a second CD of the children there. He came for a one day recording session with our children.

So on Wednesday, gathered around the microphone in our living room, about 25 of the children, as well as Mama Rose C, and Teacher Malowa recorded about 11 songs and scripture readings.

Bob left on Thursday with the basic tracks he had recorded. He will take them back to the states, mix them, add some instrumentation, and send the final version for our approval. So look forward to a CD from the Village of Hope in 3-4 months!

Week 3

Week 3

Today was the first day of our 3^rd week of school. Yesterday early afternoon we had a heavy rainstorm. I didn’t think any parents would come to the 2^nd meeting held at 4pm. However, we had about 12 parents come. These were folks who couldn’t make the Friday meeting. Once again I was encouraged by the interest and desire of these parents to have their children receive a good education.

I’m wondering if we will also be influencing schools in the surrounding area. The head teacher from Shalubala in Landless Corner has his 2 children coming here. A teacher at the school has a daughter here. One of the teachers at Okada Community School has her son coming here. And the niece of the head teacher at Liteta is now a teacher at our school.

I’m trying to learn the names of the new children. I’m not sure that I will ever be able to do that. The goal of learning these names is complicated by the fact that everyone wears uniforms, so they even look even more alike. We have interesting names like Cleopatra, Wisdom, Savour, and familiar names like Elizabeth, Thelma, Abigail.

On the way to church yesterday with my singing team, Prudence said, “I can’t wait til tomorrow. I like school.” I asked those in the car if they liked having new friends. The response was a joyous yes. I believe that it is very good for our children in the Village to be in a setting with other children, bigger classes, and opportunities to share their faith.

TGIF! - written 1-20-12

TGIF! This is one of those weeks where I was very aware that I was sooo glad that it was Friday!

This is the second week of school. We have doubled our student population and have 3 new teachers. This also means that we are not serving lunch to about 70, but we have gone up to serving about 140 lunches. You should see the n’shema pot. It takes 2 of our male workers to stir the n’shema. Benedict bought what he thought was a huge amount of pumpkin leaves to have to cook as relish for today. Unfortunately, they really cook down and there wasn’t enough for the upper grades.

I’m still trying to make order in my office. All of you who have been here and helped organize the office, it is almost all moved to a space about 1/3 the size. I don’t yet have glass in the windows, just the grill. So at the end of each day I have to move everything off of my desk that could get wet if it would rain overnight. The room is arranged in 2 areas – one for office and teacher resources, the other the library for students. Right now we also store all the cooking items in the library area. That includes 2 tubs of plates that we use, the huge pot and smaller pots, etc. It is a good thing we eat with our fingers here – no silverware to mess with.

Then the mud!! It has been raining quite a bit this week, so there is lots of mud. The children take off their shoes when they go into the classroom so that helps keep the rooms fairly clean.

Sue (from Buffalo, MN), it would make you so happy to see all 125 kids using the paths in the courtyard as we gather for morning meeting. There is enough room on each side of the hexagon for a class to stand. Of course, if there is lots of rain some of it is filled with water.

Folks who are sending their kids here have put together car pools to get the children to school. There is a car that comes from Liteta, one from Wangwa farms, one from Landless Corner. This has all been organized by the parents. We have nothing to do with it.

We called for a meeting of the parents since there are so many new students and we wanted to inform them of some of our policies and what to expect. I gave them the option of 2 different days and times to come for the meeting; one for 2:30 today, and one for 4:00 on Sunday. To my amazement and joy, we had about 50 parents show up today!! The meeting lasted over an hour. After I finished my part, we opened it up for questions. All of our experienced teachers were there as well. Overall it was a very good meeting.

We have eager children, hardworking teachers, good helpers, and a loving God who has provided the school and all that we have.

No Room in the School!!!

No Room in the School!!!

The first week of school is over. What an exciting time it has been! We began the week with about 120 registered students. By Friday all the classrooms were full for a total of 123 students. This means that we doubled in size. Our teachers have been working so hard and are so dedicated to the principles and methods that we are incorporating into the schedule for the day. The children are all eager to be at the school.

Parents in Zambia are so eager to have their children receive a quality education, and the government is just not able to keep up with the demand. As in all countries, the future of a nation rests on the education of the children and youth. So we are praying that all of our students will be building a strong foundation in understanding God’s way, developing a love of learning, and growing in mind, soul, and body.

September in January

When I was growing up, I was always excited for September and beginning of school. Here the school year starts in January. Monday is the first day of school. We have opened enrollment to the community, and as a result of the big demand, we are adding two new teachers. Emmanuel Musonda will be teaching with Bruce Malowa the grades 4-8. We are now interviewing for a grade 2 teacher. In the meantime, we are moving furniture, books, etc. Many of our children from the Village of Hope have been helping. They are always such willing and joyful volunteers!

Susan Lukaart who has been our education mentor (and now AKCLI Board Chairperson) is here from Michigan and helped lead our first day of Professional Development and Planning for the teachers today. We will continue tomorrow. The team we have is outstanding and it is a joy to anticipate what the new year will bring!