Reflections as a School Director

We are over half way through our first term of the 2012 school year at our School of Hope. We have grown to 125 students, 3 new teachers, a full time cook, and opening of another classroom. We have survived, and in fact we are flourishing. Many things are the same as schools in the US – dedicated teachers, serious students, procedures, etc. But there are some things that make me laugh and shake my head – so different from schools in the US.

· Children arriving an hour early, riding on the back of their father’s motor bike (no helmets) .

· A mini-bus packed with over 20 kids eagerly arriving and running to where we keep the jump-ropes – the favorite activity while waiting for school to begin.

· Lining up for lunch outside, and trying to avoid the mud puddles.

· Children arriving and joyfully (most of the time) helping to pump and fill the containers of water for washing hands and for drinking, carrying the containers of plates and pots to the meal preparation area, and starting the charcoal fire for cooking lunch.

· Older children helping to serve the food.

· Everyone (including me) eating with their fingers.

· Being the school nurse and putting antibiotic crème and bandaids on a variety of booboos.

· Children standing around the copy machine just watching the papers come out.

· Having to call Uncle Wesley to have him turn on the pump because we have no water, so everyone is using the long-drop toilets instead of the flush ones.

· Trying to solve problems of rats and termites that would destroy so many things we have.

· Getting money from Patrick the accountant so I can send Maureen into Lusaka to buy material for more uniforms.

· Having to decide which lady we will use to make the jerseys (sweaters) for our school, when everyone needs the work.

· Making sure we have toilet paper, cleaning supplies, matches, copy paper, copier ink, brooms, mops, dish washing soap (used for hands as well)

· Using a cow bell to call everyone to Morning Meeting and again after lunch, back to the classrooms. It is nice and loud.

· Watching the teachers play checkers while eating their lunch – different rules than I’m used to.

· Excitement as children try to catch a rat in the classroom, and then holding it by the tail after it was dead.

· Praying about how we can raise money for another building, and how we are going to continue building as we keep adding grades.

A Home Away from Home

Last night Benedict was at the Takeaway/Restaurant waiting for workers from ZESCO (the power company) to come to fix a big problem. He started talking to one of the big truck drivers who was from Botswana. The man said that a few nights before he had planned to stop for the night at our place, but there were so many trucks, he didn’t think there would be room, so he kept going on.

The first praise is that we have so many trucks coming to park for the night!

He went on to say that he had emptied his load, and on the way back, he knew that he had to stop at the Hope Takeaway. He said that this is like his home!

The second praise is that because of the atmosphere, and the warm welcome many truck drivers feel that this is a safe and good place to stop!

Isn’t it amazing how God works? If we had opened a restaurant for just people traveling on the road, or people in the community, we would not have been successful. But God led us to make a truck stop that was clean, safe, and free of many of the temptations that truckers face on their long trips. Only God knew that that was what we needed and what these drivers needed.

Visitors from the US Embassy

On Tuesday, we had 6 visitors from the Consular Office of the US Embassy visit our Village and School. They spoke with the 4-8 graders about what an Embassy is and what they do. Afterwards they did some leadership exercises/games with the 6-8 graders.

It was a great joy to have the Chief say that our kids were different than others they have worked with. Our kids have critical thinking skills, she said!

Zambia Wins the African Cup!

It has been an exciting week. First Zambia kept winning. Then they beat Ghana in the semi-finals. Last night was the final against Ivory Coast. By the end of the 90 minutes the score was 0-0. After an additional 30 minutes the score was 0-0. It came down to penalty shots, and Zambia got one in. The Take-away was full of truckers and people who came to watch the game. Teacher Malowa's house was full of mothers and children who came to watch the game. The children have written about it today at school and I will be posting some of the things they wrote soon. The is only the second time the Cup has come to southern Africa and the first time to Zambia. There has been much celebrating and joy!

"We've come to register our children at your school."

Our school is joyfully moving along. In case you haven’t been following our news, we grew from 61 to 125 when the school year started in January. We opened our school to the community with a monthly fee to cover some of the costs, as well as the lunch that is served 4 days a week. By the second week of school we had every class full, and that was with adding a 5^th class.

Now I face the challenge, almost daily, of parents coming wanting to enroll their children. I’ve been told on several occasions that the children are crying because they can’t come. A group of 8 children whose parents work at a health clinic further in the bush showed up on Friday to be “assessed” so that they could come. Right now they are not going to school at all. Several parents last week brought money and wanted to pay even though we did not yet have a space.

We are considering some alternatives for some of these children or ways to raise funds to add on to our building.

Guards dropping, Big rigs stuck, Cobras hiding

Several events of the last couple of days have brought home the fact that we "aren’t in Kansas anymore." The other night as we were getting ready to go to sleep, we received a call from one of the guards. He reported that another guard, “had dropped.” Not knowing what that meant, Benedict had to ask, “Is he asleep, did he faint, is he dead?” He was just very sick, and I guess he collapsed. Francis Mboko drove him home.

The same night at 3 am we got a call saying that one of the big trucks parking for the night was stuck. Our parking lot is not paved, although we have put layers of laterite and gravel. Many of the trucks who park overnight are very heavy and very long. That night there were 18 trucks, so not much room to maneuver. Benedict had to find chains and lights so that the truck driver and his partner who was driving another truck could get the one unstuck. The whole process took a couple of hours.

Then people began seeing a very large snake on the path between the school and the community center. Roman saw it “standing up” and found the holes where it was living. Today I had to ask the older boys to redirect children walking to school to come around another longer way, so that they wouldn’t come near the snake. Our workers got the backhoe (thanks Uncle Wayne), dug up the holes and eventually killed the snake.

So life is never dull or boring or commonplace. And we are always learning something in all of these circumstances.