Our new life in Zambia - By Emily Pearse

I am currently sitting in my living room about to head out for dinner. It’s what we call ‘tight wad’ Wednesday today as children eat free at our local restaurant. This time last year I never imagined that be heading out for a ‘kids eat free’ meal in the middle of Africa. 2014 was certainly a crazy year for our family. In a nutshell we came out to visit friends and Beyond Ourselves project in Feb and decided to stay for good!

We arrived in Zambia at the end of August just in time for my husband, Malcolm to start as a grade 5 teacher at the local international school. My two children, Lucy and Albert joined him later that week in grade 4 and 3. I spent the next few weeks setting up home and getting myself familiar with the Beyond Ourselves schools and our new town of Ndola.

We’ve been here now for 4 months and life is good – Zambia is a beautiful country and we still get very excited every time we find a chameleon or buy 10 mangoes for £1.
Last week was my first official week for Beyond Ourselves.  I’ve already been in and out of the schools doing a few observations and some training but it definitely feels good to be an official BO employee.

It’s a great time to start – January is the start of the school year for Zambia and our first days in each of the 3 schools were vision days – a time for looking back over every thing that has happened during 2014 and looking forward to what will happen in 2015.  Sometimes it can feel like things take a really long time to get finished (and started) but it’s amazing to see how the school buildings, staff, children and communities have developed over this last year.

I remember teams going out from our Church 3-4 years ago to help build schools buildings. Now there are enough classrooms to house all the pupils, bright colourful painted walls inside and out with learning murals inside and out, toilets, kitchens, play areas, blackboards, display boards, secure doors and windows (so resources can actually be kept inside the classrooms) and so much more.

 I am just at the beginning of my adventure with Beyond Ourselves and it struck me today that I have a lot to learn from the Zambian culture.
This ‘job’ is all about partnership – The transformation of these communities is going to come through the unity that we have with the all staff.
As much as I will be helping to train and resource the schools’ teachers they will no doubt be teaching and advising me along the way.
 I have been made to feel very welcomed and loved by Kawama, Janna and Greater Joy primary schools and I feel very privileged to be able to work for such a great charity alongside some great friends.