May

Oranges from our African garden

In May Paul achieved the water supply to the site and got the drainage well under way, and Jane was volunteering somewhere different every day of the week - except for one - a painting day ... hooray ....

There are impala grazing at the dam I promise -
 the view from one of the painters' homes

Painting group
On the 2nd I joined the art group.  Choma is  small town with  different communities interacting, and word was out that someone new was in town who liked to paint. I had invitations from two different people, so it was meant to be.  The group are mostly white Zambian farmers wives who are a close network of friends - although not in the distance sense - and they meet at each others houses.  A drive of over an hour is the norm for them; all have lovely homes in stunning locations, down long sandy unmade tracks through the bush which extend for 20/30 kilometres off the tarmac road.  Everyone is very kind in offering lifts each week, depending on which direction we are headed out of Choma.  So I am very happy to be painting - don't we just need a specific day - and make new friends (no, not too many A&C!)

An average weekday lunch time -the three of us on the verandah -
Sooty takes relaxing to the max
 

The Site
Paul comes home for lunch every day as the site is just up the road, a short walk or truck drive, and our house is mid way between there and Chordort. The first house is being fitted out and the water supply and drainage are being installed. Nixon's tower was up and awaiting the water tank on the top, and the pump, which would take water from the borehole across the site to the first two houses to begin with. 

The orphans watching a 1970s BBC Childrens
Programme at Ann's pre-school

Orphans' pre-school
Our friend Anne is from Newcastle with the  most wonderful, if incongruous here, Geordie accent, runs a preschool which I went to visit.  I was looking for places where I could volunteer regularly, although sadly this is too far out of town for me to be able to get to each week.  It is in a converted house on a farm with plenty of light and airy space. Ann runs a pre school for the white farmers' children in the mornings, and then a free one there for local orphans in the afternoons, so that was when I visited.  The children were so keen to learn, very well behaved, and have an excellent teacher in Ann.  It was so good to see them having a structured time there, along the same lines as a pre=school in the UK.

Just testing the Library prizes

Mochipapa Road School Library

Jane and Rahem established the visits to the library each week, and are working our way through the whole school.  We have two sessions and read two books to a group of 12 or so each time, then we all talk about the story and ask them questions.  As ever, some are as bright as buttons and the same child puts up their hand with the right answer, and some are so shy they can barely look at us.  They seem to enjoy it all though - and the books we have are full of lovely pictures which has them enthralled. We do have a language barrier with the smaller ones as they are only just learning English as they begin school, so the illustrations are invaluable.  Ann has given us some stickers and small prizes to give out, so they had to be tested them out with great hilarity in our kitchen.

Trip to Masuku

Traffic on the road to Masuku  - oxen, donkeys, goats

Definitely taken from inside the car

Subi Thomas (the accountant at Chodort) had to deliver a computer (he's one of two IT teachers too) to a school in a very remote area, two hours down a dirt track from Choma.  He knew we would find the drive interesting, as well as the school, so we took off together one Friday.  

We eventually stopped at a mission clinic to collect the young Revered Oscar.  We were invited to look around the clinic, which was in a sorry state.  The ward had tall metal beds with no mattresses - if you or your child needed admission you would have to bring your own.  The building itself was crumbling and dilapidated, and full of people waiting to be seen. Frankly, it was shocking. It requires complete renovation and refitting; we have thought about it since and would love to find a way to bring the clinic into the 21st century, at least.  

We thought we had arrived at our destination, but we had collected Oscar to be our navigator to the school, so we set off again down narrower and narrower tracks with 6 foot grass growing down the middle.  

I started talking to two little boys ...

... to be joined by the rest of the class

Masuku School is too remote to have electricity, so we did wonder about the usefulness of a computer. However, the Australians sponsored the supply of solar power some time ago, so that was the answer.  It was in a wide open space, sunshine abounding, so a life changing innovation.

I was told that the little boy on the left of the photo was deaf; had I not been told initially I would just have thought him very shy as lots of the children are.  When we were joined by the others he obviously found it difficult to know what was going on.  There is a school in Choma for those with special needs including the blind and deaf, but he could never travel there.  

We were shown around the other classes in operation, made the children laugh at our attempts at Tonga, and looked through their exercise books.  There is a great deal of copying from the board in Zambia, this is still their learning tool.  

Subi, Reverend Oscar, daughter, father and mother, Jane talking to child behind them all

On the way home to Choma, as well as Revered Oscar we stopped to give a lift to a young woman who was hitching a lift; she was going to return to her teaching job in Lusaka.  We stopped the car for her to visit her family and say goodbye to them for a while, and we were introduced to them.  Wow.  We met her father and his three wives, told of the thirty children they had between them and the 28 grandchildren.  When they asked me how many sons I had and I held up one finger, they laughed hysterically ...   Not very impressive, and they didn't even ask about daughters.  Anyway, in the photo you can see the thatched kitchens belonging to each wife, and they each have a bedroom opposite their kitchen.  One happy father!

They are a pretty organised rural family, as with all those children and grandchildren they have had lots of workers to work their land.  The brothers and sisters of the teacher we met all have similar jobs in Lusaka or other towns, and we feel are very unlikely to return to the rural way of life.  The rural life seems a lot easier than town life here, with plenty of land to farm and a clean water supply.

 

Oh well, that's the beginning of May - plan to finish May on Monday - will go to press for now ...