Caterpillars, Mangos and Flying Termites OH MY!

Rainy season is here…but it’s still damn hot! What the heck!? At least things are getting greener now…despite all the mud.

October flew by and November feels almost over (but its just begun, right?!) Never a dull moment… from teaching a legless child how to walk, to getting my first teacher-training workshop off the ground! I’ve been busy busy eating mangos (and NOT caterpillars or flying termites despite much persuasion), painting my room purple, planting flowers and pumpkins, teaching computers, swimming in the deepest lake, running around town like a maniac and of course planning for my X-MAS Vacation (though far away it may seem.)

I don’t think I’ve mentioned my little friend “Peanut” aka Kelvin, before…but he is one of the pupils at Chepela that makes me smile every single day. Peanut is in grade 1 and is an amputee at the knee. Whenever he sees me at school from a distance he yells “Ba Ellyni!!” and comes quickly to greet me. He moves about the school in a wheel chair but is MUCH faster on his stubs, pant legs trailing behind him (making him look like a little sea lion!) Just a few weeks ago some doctors at Kasama General Hospital measured Peanut for prosthetic legs and ever since we’ve been working on him using them. When I say “We” I mean his teacher Mrs. Chilongo, and me when he comes to Physiotherapy twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings. His new sets of legs are just over a foot long, made from some type of hard plastic with fake red sneakers attached at the ankle. Before getting into them we roll up his pants legs and put thick yellow socks on his stubs. The first time I helped him put them on I stood him up in front of the full-length mirror in the Physio room so he could take a look at himself with legs. We stood and looked and giggled for a good 5 minutes before moving to the parallel bars to practice walking. Learning to walk for the first time is slow-going, especially when your legs aren’t attached to you! Just this Friday I was running around busy with the workshop and Mrs. Chilongo yelled my name from her classroom “Ellyn! Ellyn come see!” I poked my head in to see Peanut standing with his legs, with Mrs. Chilongo supporting him a bit from behind. He giggled just as he had when he’d seen himself in the legs for the first time, and Mrs. Chilongo just beamed. Moments like that I gotta save for the rainy days,

The Basic First Aid Teachers Workshop took place this past week on Thursday and Friday. Getting all the logistics figured out with Kasama Red Cross was hectic and very stressful and on Wednesday afternoon I was still unsure what would take place the following day. Thankfully the trainers came through. Fifteen teachers from eight different schools in my zone were trained for two-days on how to respond to various emergency situations at their schools and in their communities. At the end I got to present them all with certificates and first-aid kits to bring back to their schools. I think it went as best as can be expected for coming together at the last minute (despite my months of preparation!) and I am certainly glad it’s over!

In other work news a man from Zambia National Scholarship Fund came to visit my Computer Literacy class on Monday to check up on the computers his organization and donated. He took some snaps of me and my pupils and asked me and the Deputy Head teacher to write some letters to his boss about the computer donations. The following day the man came back with an email response from his boss who had read our letters and seen the pictures and had decided to pay our school a visit when he comes to Kasama next week. The administration is in high hopes for some new computers and printers to come our way as a result and maybe we’ll have a computer lab for me to teach from next term! Yesterday I gave them an end of term quiz to see where they are with all we covered these past months (with the typing they all did great, but computer terms... need work) so today I will be rewarding all those who did well with pencil sharpeners, notebooks, and other educational trinkets sent by my mother and grandmother, grand prize being an Obama postcard! (Every child in Zambia that can speak knows the name Obama, and children as young as 6 can identify his face- crazy!? I think a bit...)

Recreationally play-time with other Volunteers has been keeping me sane. My friend Stevie from the North Western Province came to visit us stayed at my house for 2 nights and we had a delicious dinner party with Ric and Laura. A bunch of my friends and I are planning to be in Malawi for Christmas and New Years (!!) Halloween, although sneaking by practically un-noticed, served for a great stepping stone in my American to Zambian cultural exchange (Peace Corps Goals 2 & 3) when I made my two nieces in the village knock on my door and say “Trick-Or-Treat” followed my “Mpeleniko Sweetie!” (Give me a sweetie.) We did this for about half an hour before we were tired and full of chewie chocolates.

Quote of the Week: “What’s it like to fly?”
My friend Catherine (lone teacher of Chiba Community School) when we were discussing the distance between America and Zambia.