Jaleel and Yecenia break ground
Could you imagine starting your day’s work before the sunrise and finishing after sunset? Many people in Zambia live like this and some children are unable to go to school because of the mere distances they have to travel to get their daily work done. To the people in Zambia, the privilege of receiving an education is a great blessing.
Lola helps with the water
In Lusaka, there is a school for orphaned and double orphaned children called the Chawama Community School. Today we went there and helped contribute to their garden where they will grow vegetables such as cabbage, onions, tomatoes and spinach to sell as a profit for supporting the salaries of the teachers. We began by breaking up the dirt with hoes, which was no easy task in the hard, dried dirt. Then, using rakes, we evened out the bed of dirt, cleaning out lots of garbage, plastic bags, and even old pieces of tire. Once the dirt bed was even, we created holes and placed various vegetables and herbs in them. When the entire patch was filled completely, the patch of newly planted vegetables or herbs was watered.
A well-earned break
We continued for a couple of hours repeating the process over and over. During the entire time, I thought about my own school in comparison. What passion and gratefulness the students must show inside the classroom to make the people in the school want to sell vegetables and herbs to help them continue their education even though it’s such an effort. What would it take to create this same gratefulness in the students of America and my own school and how would it affect the way the school staff and teachers displayed an interest in our education?
Jaleel, student at the Cesar Chavez Charter School
Elizabeth Drew, Team Leader of the LearnServe Zambia team, called this afternoon to provide a brief update. The team will be leaving Lusaka for Monze tomorrow where they will start their work with the Malambo School. Since internet access will be extremely limited in Monze, there will be fewer postings to the Zambia blog through Saturday.