Ten or more dirty little hands reach for me as I make my way out of the bus. Sweet little faces look up at me, some smile some call my name beckoning me to come to them. Not wanting to deny a single one of them, I squeeze each hand, draw a few in for a hug, and smile at each one as I pass by. My heart melts for the little babies, so I pick one up and little into those dark brown eyes. I am so overcome with love for each of these children.
This is what many days this past week and a half have looked like for my team and I. We are staying with a lovely host family, partnering with a local community pastor, and working in Destiny School in Matero – Lusaka, Zambia. Pastor Peter is the school director. He started this school so that the kids in the community would have the chance to attend school for nearly free. Many of the kids that attend here are on school sponsorships. It costs about $40 to send a child to school here for 1 year. The school is Christian and therefore they teach about Jesus and have regular Bible studies. We have had the amazing opportunity to work in the classrooms a few days. I was with grades 5-6. They are all in one classroom and have 1 teacher to about 35 students. I told them a little about myself, my family, and the job I had back home. Then I answered questions they had and even sang them our national anthem. Then each student stood up and told me their name, how old they are, how many are in their family, and their favorite color. The teacher then went on to tell me all about Zambia and the 10 providences they have here.
My heart has been absolutely overwhelmed here. My favorite part of each day is sitting outside with the kids each time they go to recess. They all love to sing and dance for us, but love it even more when we teach them something that we know.
One of my favorite days was when we help out with P.E. for all of the grades, babies to 9th graders. We walked all of the kids out the front gate and down the street to a large dirt field. Most of it was covered with trash and the back half was a trash pit that was burning trash. It was extremely dusty out there, but we were so excited to be with the kids. Our team broke up into pairs and decided to each do something different so that all of the grades were covered. Wendy played soccer with the older boys. Rita and Stephanie did relay races and hand games with some of the older girls. Laura, Stacie, and Michelle had the majority of the kids and were going to teach them different dances. Robyn & I started off with the younger kids and we tried playing duck, duck, goose with them. That did not last too long because as soon as the group that was teaching dancing started, all of our kids were so interested and took off running towards them, so we joined the dancing group. I then noticed one of the teachers pulling some of the babies out and taking them across the field, so I followed. She began to sing them a song and before I knew it they were singing and licking up rocks, so I followed. Two little boys came over and wanted to hold my hand while we sang, so across the field we walked hand in hand, singing, and picking up rocks. Then the teacher had us all sit in a circle and started singing a song about a rat and how that rat wouldn't bite us. It was quite funny to hear the explanation of the songs she was singing since I do not know the language, Bimba. So I sat with the two boys on my lap and watched as she called different kids into the circle to dance as the singing continued. This all went on for about 30 minutes and by this time I had 4 kids sitting on my lap and outstretched legs, 3 hanging on my arms, and 2 were playing with my hair. I was in love.
So there I sat in the red dirt of a tracy covered field, with 3 & 4 year old boys and girls all over, listening to little ones sing their lungs out while traditional dancing took place. I cannot think of a place that I would have wanted to be that wasn't right there in the heart of Zambia loving on these little kids. I love holding each and every dirty little hand that wants to hold mine, squeezing the ones that need a little extra love, and dancing with the ones that just need a good laugh. This is my life, loving on those who just need that something extra to make their day special!
