On Wednesday Ruth, Jo and I went with Vincent and Joel to the school at Kepeshi village, where we had been twice before. This was Jo’s first time into the rural bush, so there were lots of new sights for her and she had many questions to ask Vincent and Joel. On arrival many children were waiting for us. School had been cancelled for the day, due to us coming to decorate the classrooms, but this hadn’t stopped many of the children coming to see what was going to happen. Many of the adults had been waiting from 8am for us, so by the time we arrived at around 10am many had gone back home, thinking that this was another occasion where people had promised the community something, only to find that it never happened. A distrust had been built up by many villagers based on councillors, individuals and other organisations promising things but not delivering. So our arrival provoked a great reaction of excitement and enthusiasm amongst those that had waited, and some went to tell others who had gone back to their homes.
The school had been built in 2000, and while the structure was fine, the interior was lacking it’s original freshness. Also lacking was a decent blackboard. Each classroom had a small piece of board, but we brought some blackboard paint with us, and Ruth and Jo got to work painting the new blackboard.
Photo: Current Blackboard Photo: Ruth and Jo paint a new blackboard
As for the walls, we had been instructed to bring white paint for the top half of the walls, and dark blue for the lower third of the room. Throughout Zambia the painting of walls with a lower darker colour is commonplace, and many schools are painted blue and white. I’ve also seen this on my visits to Uganda. The theory of the dark colour on the lower part of the wall, is that this will get more dirty, and show up on lighter colours. The paint here is mostly oil based so has to be mixed with thinner. However while on the phone to Vincent, his strong Zambian accent combined with bad mobile reception meant that when he’d asked us to bring thinner, (pronounced Theeena) the closest word I could come up with was peanuts, which I was sure weren’t needed! Ruth suggested that he might mean wing nuts, because we were also going to be mending desks, which had become broken. Anyway while in the paint shop it became clear to me that he meant thinner! Anyway after telling the story to Vincent when we arrived, he found it very funny, and from then on referred to thinner as wing nuts!
We had rollers, but you cant buy poles for them, however this wasn’t a problem because the sugar canes fitted perfectly as poles for the rollers. In Africa you learn to make do with what is around you, and that God provides, even when it’s not how you expect. Vincent and I started the painting, but soon other members of the village were eager to take over, and the classroom was soon transformed.
Photo: Vincent painting using sugarcane roller
Ruth had also decided to paint a colourful alphabet and numbers on one of the walls, and Alice one of the 2 teachers there was so pleased with this, and that this would really help the young children learn.
Photo: Many help to paint Alphabet
We painted the teachers’ office, but were unable to finish the other classroom, as ran out of white paint, however we promised to come back again next Wednesday.
Photo: Finished classroom
Later in the afternoon, we met with Alice, and Patrick the other teacher, and also a number of parents, and other villagers to discuss how they could help fund the school, which after initial funding from outside, was now struggling to survive. The government does not recognise many schools in the villages, and while primary education is provided for free in the urban areas, it is less often the case in many rural areas. Indeed in 2004 it closed for a year, and 2 teachers left because they were paid no more. Alice however felt called to continue teaching there, and so in 2005 she began teaching again, but doesn’t receive a wage. Patrick also started teaching at that time. They are not trained teachers and would love to receive training, but again there is no money, because although they wanted to charge the parents for each child, most cannot afford it. While we know we could raise funds for them from the UK, it’s also true that this will only solve a problem temporarily and when the money runs out things will go back again. Also reliance on money from outside has crippled the ability of many in rural areas to try and provide for themselves, which is the better alternative, so with Joel, we asked them to go and think about ways in which they could raise money themselves. We are due to have another meeting with the community next week when we return.
Photo: Meeting
Next time on the blog....Around 100 come to our conference, and we give away hundreds of cakes!
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