Tuesday 22 December 2015

A Day At Janna

This week’s blog is a walk through Janna Community School in photographs. 

Reception
Children’s hand print artwork brightens up the classroom. It’s great to see more and more of the children’s work up on the walls.


School office
 Gertrude the office manager busy writing
receipts for parents.


Grade 1
 Holding up the name cards that Teacher Patricia uses when teaching.


Grade 2
Teaching the new curriculum with new texts book now in the local language.


Grade 3
Saying a daily prayer before the start of every day.


Grade 4
Teacher Gracious and class hard at work in a science lesson – using every inch of board space!


Grade 5
 It’s a perfect day to be outside learning about building materials as the new wall is being built so there are lots in the playground.


Grade 6
The children are hard at work writing their tests.


Grade 7
Grade 7 have now finished for the year but teacher Ireen is still working hard at school – Here she is in front of her organised teacher notice board.


Kitchen
Mary is preparing the vegetables for lunch – enough to feed the 340 children at Janna. 


Nursery
Learning about hygiene and washing hands before eating.


Lunchtime
Finding a spot of shade to eat lunch!





Tuesday 15 December 2015

Our First Six Months in Zambia

Six months ago that Mike and I left Heathrow to start our new adventure;  volunteering with Beyond Ourselves. It has been an amazing journey, with so much to learn and experience, amazing opportunities but also some challenges, both personally and for the people of Zambia.

Just to set the scene, I was a Head Teacher in Tower Hamlets in London and my husband Mike was running his own construction business. We had decided about a year ago that it was time for us to do something different with our lives. So this time last year, I said my farewells to my school and started the process of packing up our house. We had visited Ndola and the amazing team, who are  Beyond Ourselves Zambia, in February before deciding that we would very much like to join them.  As we had just taken early retirement, we knew that we wanted to spend some of our time working with the charity and some time exploring and learning more about life in Zambia and the neighbouring countries. 

We arrived in June, and were lucky enough to stay with Emily, Malcolm, Lucy and Albert while we settled in and found ourselves somewhere to live. We eventually found a house to rent on a farm, just outside Ndola, which really suits us as we both enjoy the wildlife and the peace and quiet. We have seen so much wildlife in such a short time. Sitting in the garden in the evening watching the resident family of owls teaching the young one how to hunt and the amazing coloured birds flying around will be memories we will treasure. 


In the first few weeks we started to accompany Emily into the schools. She was very patient about answering our numerous questions and giving us a crash course in Zambian education.  As you can imagine, the schools are built and organised very differently from those in England. Mike has been learning lots about building practises in Zambia, and seems to have spent a lot of time looking at the ablutions! For those of you with a background in education, you will know how much time we all spend talking about toilets so it came as no surprise to us.  I have been busy trying to learn more about the Zambian education system and the expectations in the schools, which has been fascinating.  

So far a large percentage of our time has been at Kawama School where Mike has ensured that water is available and that the school now has a modern toilet block for the children and of course staff, to use. This has involved getting a new water supply via a borehole and pumping it to a tank high on a stand. We all know that it is not always easy working with contractors anywhere in the world, but it has been frustrating at times. Working practices in Africa are, well, very African. People don’t always turn up on time or even turn up at all. Often when they do arrive they have no equipment so have to go again. Since he has been at Kawama, Mike has been working to involve local people from the immediate community with the idea of developing their skills . Having found hard working individuals, who are keen to develop and learn new skills, is very rewarding has made a huge difference. Hopefully, once the local community are involved in working there, they will begin to have more pride in the school and it’s facilities.

One of my highlights this term was seeing the teachers begin to understand the importance of play for young children, which is something I am passionate about but is not yet fully accepted in Zambia. I have also been working with the Head Teacher to share some of the Leadership skills that I have developed over the years. It has made me realise just how lucky we are in England to have good quality training as part of our jobs. 

We love living in Ndola, which prides itself on being the ‘Friendly City’. It really does live up to it’s name as people are so welcoming wherever we go.  Compared to cities in England, it’s not large, but we found that we have very quickly got used to being here.  Still there have been some challenges for us, being very used to living in London, shopping is very different. The supermarkets are mostly South African, such as Pick and Pay and Shoprite which sell most things that we would want. However, you can never rely on them having what you want when you want it. We have learned to buy things when they are on the shelves and enjoy them. We have also been exploring the smaller, more local shops which makes shopping more interesting. As a vegetarian who has lived in London for many years, I am very grateful that there are numerous Indian restaurants and Pizza places. 


 Many of you will be aware of the challenges that Zambia faces at the moment, most significantly the crash in the value of the kwatcha against the dollar and the loadshedding. Since we have been here, the value of the kwacha has fallen by over 50%. This has meant that the prices have risen dramatically. We have noticed just how quickly prices have gone up, even for goods produced in Zambia. Talking to people in the community makes us realise just how hard it has become just to feed their families and pay their rent. Loadshedding means that there are times each day when there is no electricity, at the moment anywhere between 8-9 hours. People running businesses now have the added burden of trying to organise their day around the times when they have power. It is hard to see people trying to make a living and improve their lives when life is so difficult for them. Although there is never enough that we can do, we hope that by giving the children in the schools a good start to their lives with the feeding programme and the quality of education they receive, the future will hopefully be a little brighter for them.

Own personal challenges have involved attempting to import a car that we bought in South Africa in August. All I can say is that we have learned a lot about the systems in place in Zambia which are very different from what we are used to. When we spoke to people before we bought the car, it sounded fairly simple. However, we have now learned that everything takes much longer than we were expecting, and has involved numerous meetings and even a trip to Lusaka. Frustrating though it has been, it has given us an insight into some of the difficulties that countries face in developing their economy.

Much as we love being in Ndola, we have also taken the opportunity of travelling in Zambia and neighbouring countries. Back in July and August we flew to South Africa, where we picked up our now infamous car and drove back, over six weeks, to Ndola via Botswana, Namibia and criss-crossing Zambia through many of the National Parks.

Zambia is not yet as well developed for tourists as other countries, but with a bit of effort and patience there are amazing things to see and do. Recently we went to Kasanka, one of the smaller National Parks, to witness the World’s largest mammal migration. No not the large mammals of the Serengeti but the 10 million or so Straw Coloured Fruit Bats that roost there every November.




All in all Zambia is a fantastic place and for us working here with Beyond Ourselves is an amazing time and one we love.











Tuesday 8 December 2015

Teaching At Kawama School

On the 20th October 2015, 19 eager Cranleigh students departed for Zambia, a journey which they had been anticipating for months. Many of us were unsure of what to expect visiting a country 7,000 miles away from home in a continent many of us had never visited before. However after surviving 3 flights and several hours of waiting at airports we were immediately struck by the beauty of Zambia when witnessing an incredible sunset.

Whilst in Kawama we engaged in a wide variety of activities. We all taught Maths, English and Science – whilst it was hard at times to overcome the language barrier, the children all engaged with our teaching and it was incredible to see how enthusiastic they were to learn. We also painted the inside of the toilet blocks and helped create resources for a new library initiative that ‘Beyond Ourselves’ is starting. Furthermore, we visited local homes in the Kawama community to help with the chores; this was particularly eye-opening as we saw first-hand the conditions that the families live in, and this made us realise how much we take for granted back home.


One of the things that struck me the most out in Zambia was the similarities our communities have, despite the stark differences which range from GDP, to living conditions and technology. Kawama, just like Cranleigh, is an enormous community and this was evident from the second we were welcomed – how we were able to feel so at home is a real testament to the people in Kawama.

It made me realise that there are many things we can learn from the Zambians; their pride in who they are and where they come from astounded me – in the recent weeks of attacks worldwide it has been special to see everyone unite - however it is disappointing that Western society seems to only unite in times of adversity, whereas in Zambia they come from a culture of full unity every day.
These children are no different to us, we were so impressed and moved when we heard of their aims for the future: they wanted to be teachers, doctors, nurses, accountants, miners and many other ambitious professions.

They have the exact same potential as all of us at Cranleigh and they are only being held back due to the environment in which they are raised. This is not right. But with Beyond Ourselves support and the children’s determination to learn – amazing results are being seen, and there is no reason why these children’s aspirations can’t come true; just like ours.


The trip was truly a life-changing experience which we will never forget, and on behalf of all the Cranleigh staff and pupils I would like to thank; the children for being so amazing all round, the amazing teachers at Kawama School who welcomed us into their classrooms to help teach with open arms (I don’t think any of us could be the jobs they do – they are incredible!), and last but not least – Dan, Melissa and Jodie – all who dedicate their lives to ‘Beyond Ourselves’ and without them this amazing charity would not be able to achieve what it currently is.

By Christian, one of the students at Cranleigh School who visited Zambia

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Zambia's Economic Storm


In October, the Zambian Kwacha had the unenviable record of being the worst performing currency against the US Dollar in 2015.

The Zambian Kwacha
Whilst this may be good for tourists travelling to the country, it is symptomatic of a serious underlying economic crisis that has been building in the country over the last 4 years: persistent government mis-management and poor rains has combined more recently with a Chinese slowdown and collapsing commodity prices creating the perfect economic storm.
Our travelling economist friend Stuart Block goes into more detail…..


http://www.beyondthebike.org/blog/beyond-the-bike-2011-13/entry/triple-deficits-and-economic-crises-in-zambia