… Dhabo, Agnes, Margret, Magaret (yes,there were two and they each spelled their name differently), Willard, Valerie, Joseph, Kebby, Katherine, Matthews, Amira, Abigail, Miriam, Rose, Blessed, Faith, Evaline
Twenty-two names of children who have made an impact on my life the last 3 weeks. Only maybe a dozen of these came to class every single day but I got to meet all of them at least long enough to know their names and faces. December is the holiday break for Zambian schools, but this private school allowed children to come and review lessons during the morning hours.
The first day our team was there, they told us to split up and two of us would go into each classroom. I stepped into the 5th and 6th room real fast. I watched the head mistress teach that day and she said I should teach the next day. Katie and I spent the next 10 days teaching the multiplication tables, English spelling, presentation to the class, and comprehension of English stories. We started each day with a Bible story. And songs. Lots and lots of fun songs!
-I learned again that English words really are hard to spell correctly when you learn in sounds. The word ‘restaurant’ really is a hard word to spell if you just think about it.
-Playing games outside is so much fun in any language.
-Learning to read your story in front of the class is difficult because English isn’t your first language.
-The Zambian national anthem is in English, gives glory to God, and the whole school sings it together most mornings.
-Little Sally Walker fills a bunch of time and gets them to do what they do best- dance!
-Counting by 6’s is harder than it looks especially if you haven’t learned to do it until the 6th grade.
-Desks can be wobbly, the floor can be a dirt floor, the metal worker next door can be too loud through the glass-less windows, you share your notebook and pens with other students — all of these can be commonplace, yet part of a school day; and you still learn so much!
-Singing silly songs (‘Oh-lay-lay’ and ‘A-toody-tah’) makes anyone’s day better.
I’ll look back on these Zambian school days with lots of good memories and think of these children with love.
And. When I hear the chant ‘Do you love the Lord, do you love the Lord?!!??!!!!!’ I WILL respond with ‘Yeeeessss! I love the Lord!!!!!!’ And start doing the ‘Je-Je-Jesus’ dance!
