October Heat

The windy month of September has left us, and the hot, heavy heat of October has come. It sure has been a busy hot season so far. It would seem during the blazing hot days there would be little happening, but in fact it is just the opposite. In just the past week, we have added 7 baby goats, 24 chicks and 3 kittens to the family compound. It was quite amazing waking up each day knowing new life was beginning. During the same week, while Joey was brushing his teeth before bed I head, “Insoka ikulu, insoka ikulu! Big snake, big snake!” I ran out to watch the last tip of a snake tail disappear into the ant hill next to our pit latrine. A 7 foot black mamba had paid us a visit. Luckily, it did not seem to mind Joey’s presence and our host family quickly came and helped scare the snake away. We haven’t seen the snake since, but we don’t leave the hut without our headlamps. We also celebrated Joey’s birthday and teacher appreciation in the same week. Joey celebrated with oreos for breakfast and the movie “The Life Aquatic” after dinner for his birthday. The following day, for teacher appreciation, some of the teachers and Joey and I drove over 2 hours on a bumpy dirt road on the back of a canter trunk to Nsobe Game Park. Upon arriving, we observed ostrich, impala, zebra, and even giraffe, within the 1500 hectare park. It was a nice chance to bond with the teachers from school, and to see more of our surrounding area. This month has also had its share of conclusions. After weeks of hard labor, Joey finished his conservation farming demonstration plot. The field looks great, and after the planting rains, he will begin planting soya beans, maize, some cool agro-forestry trees and some improved fallow crops. Also, our community (primarily our host family) finally finished our 2nd structure! We plan to move in next week. What a nice treat it will be to have a place to prepare food and store extra luggage. The structure looks great and we are very grateful to our dear host family for helping us through each step of the process. This month also brought us a visitor from America! Our friend Jessica was working/visiting Cape Town, South Africa, and decided to make a trip to Zambia to see us before heading back to the States. She has been here almost a week, and it is hard to believe that we have to take her to the airport and send her back on her way tomorrow. It has been wonderful having her fun-loving attitude with us in the village. Her background is in health education, and so we invited her to share a talk with us at the school on HIV/AIDS. The school really appreciated it, and it was a great experience for both parties involved. October has been a great month, but we sure have a lot to look forward to in November!

As part of the local celebration of the 46th year of Zambian Independence, Joey was invited to play futbol with the school's futbol team. They played a local team and tied 1-1. Joey played very well.

Every Tuesday from 2:30-4:00 pm, Joy teaches a group of 6-10 adults basic English. Last week we learned about parts of the body.

As planting season quickly approaches, Joey prepared his field as a demonstration filed to teach the local farmers more about conservation farming. Here, he is placing lime in each one of the 2,000+ basins he dug.

*A special thank you to all of those who have sent books for my Read 100 to Find 100 program. It has been so successful, I will be able to start the Read 100 to Find 100 program at all six of the schools in my zone. Thank you!

READ 100 to FIND 100

For the past month at school I have been working hard to encourage the new library program I coined, “Read 100 to Find 100.” During the first few weeks of our time here, the school requested I start a library. Without hesitation, I scrounged up all the books in miscellaneous classrooms and categorized them. Within weeks the new school library was up and running. At first, the students were hesitant of the new room where the white woman spent her break trying to encourage them to come in. But over time, the library became more and more popular. I also made space on the library bulletin board where the students can hang their art. Not only are the students coming around, so are the teachers. Just last week, the sixth grade teacher brought his class in and requested that each student check out a book to read over the weekend. It is inspiring to see these small signs of encouragement from teachers.
Now, 6 months after opening, the library is succeeding and looking for help. Many of the books in the library are from the 1960s, battered, or at a high reading level. Most the pupils are hardly above a grade 3 English reading level. The hope of this new program, “Read 100 to Find 100”, is that if the pupils can manage to read 100 books that we already have, I can try to find 100 new books to donate. I created a chart at the start of this term, and just yesterday we made it to 100!! The children did a great job coming in during their 30 minute morning break to read and spend time in the library. During the program, I also asked a few students why they thought more books would help the school. I have included two of their answers at the end of this post.

So here it is…I am asking you, dear reader, if you have any old books in your basement or can pick up some used books next time you are at the Goodwill, the students here would really appreciate it. The library is mostly lacking in colorful picture books, easy readers, simple non-fiction books, and short chapter books. We also have a magazine and newspaper section.

In Zambia, the schools are always talking about improving their “reading culture.” In my mind, we can’t improve the “reading culture” without a place to start. Thank you in advance for all your support! I feel grateful to have this opportunity to help these students and the community.

Student responces:
“We like reading new book and-understand new English. Because some of they don’t know how to read. We can develop our school through reading and watching picture in other countries which are developed. For example America is one of the developed country.”

-Mwala, Grade 8


“Ukusambilisha abaana ifya kucomfya amabuuka ayapusana pusana. Ukusambilisha abaana ukubelenga. Ukuwishiba ifintu ifyabab myumabuuku. Ukwisiba ukulenga ifikope. Ukwishiba ifyo abantu bekala mufya lo fimbi. Ukwishiba icingelehsi.”


“(If we had more books it would) teach children how to use different types of books, teach children how to read, help us learn about what is in books, help us know how to draw pictures, help us know how people live in different countries and learn English.”


-Jenipher, Grade 7 (written in the local language, Bemba, and translated into English by Joy and Mr. Himoonde, Grade 3 teacher.)

P.S. I have found out that the best way to send books is to send it in a flat rate box. The small box is around $25.00 and the medium box is around $40.00. Also, any left over room in the boxes can be stuffed with pencils, crayons, sweets, erasers, small knick-knacks, etc. that I can use in my prize box. Also, please include a note with a return address so we can write thank you notes!