Chipulukusu

I got to experience true joy! The new Kafwa center ribbon cutting!! We went to church Sunday morning which was amazing! The music! The choirs! I have never heard such good choirs in my life before... I was amazed. Then after that was the ribbon cutting.

First a little introduction to the Kafwa. The word Kafwa refer to a group of people that have been volunteer community health workers for the past twenty years for their village, Chipulukusu. With simple health training from Sherri Kirkpatrick, a great woman, they have been able to care for the most vulnerable in their community. Sometimes all they can provide is simply the ministry of presence, but that is so much when life is so hard. They do other things like make home health visits, cook the school lunch, weigh new infants, give sanitation advice, run a child support group for orphans who have usually lost one or both parents to AIDS. The Kafwa are amazing and have done so much for their community. Now they have a building of their own that they can cook in, will have a library, have a nurse's station for sick kids during school, and a large room to work in for their income generating projects. Exciting stuff! And you could tell it was during the ceremony. Mre singing and dancing while we were in the front row being treated almost like royalty simply because we were their guests.

Then on Monday there was an all day worksho for community leaders from Chipulukusu, Zamtan, and Chingola to talk about building happy and strong communities.

Tuesday is when the real fun began, though! This was the first day I was in the classrooms and was able to teach my lesson using the book "Chicken Little." I'm modeling a lesson output predicting, but moe importantly showing how you can use the students in the lesson by having them at out the story, stop and ask them what they think is going to happen in the story, and putting life into read alouds. The pupils have seem to enjoy it and have been engrossed in the story as I tell it. I would be no where without the translation of the teachers here at the school though so kudos to them!  Then after that we got to introduce to grade five how playing cards could be used as a tool to teach math. It was fun because almost all the kids have never even seen playing cards before.

Tuesday afternoon after school we got to meet with teachers first and then the school board. It was really interesting and gave a real insight into Zambian cultur and their education system.

Today I did my Cjicken Little lesson again and an activity about houses for grade one. Also, I got to read a story to grade six about a true happening of a woman empowering others in Kenya while working for the environment. I am a sucker for cute kids though and won't forgot the little boy that fell asleep in my arms during nursery today. Much to do and plan for tomorrow being our last day in Chipulukusu.

Sorry for no pictures and for the many spelling errors in this quick, quick summary. Technology is not my friend in ZambiA, well, not anywhere for that matter.

Andrew Murphy