Three months ago today I was at Mama Mia with my roommates. Two months ago today I first arrived in Zambia and watched ¾ of a rerun of the Superbowl. One month ago today I helped run a field trip on campus, had my first run in with the immigration office, and saw a local hospital. And one month from now I will be on a plane leaving Africa. L The time is flying!
Today was a day of learning (as is every day!). Pastor K explained to us the local custom of grabbing the right arm with the left hand while shaking hands. Apparently it originated when white people first came to Africa and didn’t trust the Africans, so they wanted to see both their hands while meeting someone. Many people shake my hand this way going through the line at church but I had never thought about it before. Then, one of the sem students heard one of the preschoolers call me Mr. A (they always screw up the genders in the titles!) and he explained that they don’t have those titles in their language and there are no gender specific pronouns in Nyanja, so even some of the adults mix it up sometimes, as I can attest from reading my students’ summaries in English class.
It was a very busy day today, but a very nice day. I had my one on one with R this morning (no J again!) and he had me cracking up as is normal. Today he was calling two of the letter flashcards his friends: indigo and unicorn. (Indigo starts with I, I says i (short i).) He couldn’t tell me why though. They weren’t originally an alphabet set of flashcards so in the first week, T and I altered them—purple became indigo and a horse was turned into a unicorn—so maybe they’re his “friends” because they have paper and tape mutilating them? I don’t know! I had the realization today that he’s 11 turning 12 and while he’s in grade 4 and can barely read, he’s the age of students I’ll be teaching at home. So it was reassuring that I can teach grade 6! J He also told me green was his favorite color, green like my shirt (I was wearing blue). I was like, no, what color is this and he said blue, but then he told me that it’s green like another shirt I have (which I had worn a few days back). Good memory! I thought this was pretty hilarious. J And don’t worry, it’s not just me laughing, R learns, too. J
After time with R, it was time for ESL. The ladies finished up their pen pal letters today. Man, pen pal day is tough to teach! Again, I don’t think the lower level ladies are at a high enough level to benefit from it, but I made a promise, so we’ll continue for the next month yet. After ESL it was lunch time and I did something crazy….did my first “block training” aka biking for awhile and running. I have no idea why I signed up for this mini triathlon, but I did, so I’m gonna have to stick to it! Hopefully I finish!
After lunch I had three higher level girls, all around 11 and 12, too, and we had a lot of fun, too, so again, very reassuring for my job next year! (Wow, I was really comma happy in that sentence!) We were working on comparisons and writing sentences, so we compared school in Zambia to school in America. They couldn’t believe class sizes were around 25 (M’s class has 72!) and that kids have their own books and desks (they each share with 4 people). I ended the teaching day with A, and she was as adorable as ever. We were working on letter recognition and I was having her color letters certain colors whether she correctly picked it out on the first try or not and she would cheer each time I told her she could color the letter yellow! I really enjoy my tutoring time here. Small group instruction is awesome. J
Lessons knocked off at 16 hours (that’s how they talk here), and P, the church secretary who is our new friend stopped by to chat for awhile and take some pictures. Then T and I were rushed out the door for yet another elementary school play. N, D&L’s son, was the constable in Hansel and Gretel, so we went to cheer him on. The set reminded me of my floor the past few years for Halloween in the Halls with all the potted plants everywhere. N looked like a Mario Brother. Considering all the kids were in grades 3 through 6, they did very well. So, yes, T and I have now seen a play in Zambia set in Bavaria at the Italian school in town where the actor we knew was American. T and I braved the concession stand during the intermission (lunch was a long time ago!) and it was a madhouse. We made it out of there with some chicken tikka burgers though; they’re very popular here. We got back around 9 pm and tried to watch a movie, but we failed because we were too tired. Good night world!
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