As the LearnServe Zambia 2010 trip comes to an end we had the delight of sharing two days with students from the David Kaunda Technical High School. The high school was established in 1934 and it is one of the oldest schools in Zambia. It is also a boarding school. David Kaunda Technical High School accepts students who have excelled in grades 7, 8, and 9. The school’s main purpose is to focus on natural sciences and engineering. Us Learn-Serve travelers got the opportunity to shadow a student from the high school.
The day was very fun for me! I was paired with a senior boy named Nelson. Nelson is an awesome guy and we immediately clicked! We both play basketball and volleyball and we are both pretty active in our school clubs. Nelson is the “Anti Drug” club leader and the vice president of the club “Careers”, but something that I loved was the we both listen to similar music. I love old school rap, rap with a purpose and rap that doesn’t talk about the same old things. I like rap such as Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, Common, Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G, NWA, Easy-E, The Roots, and my beloved Wu-Tang Clan. Nelson loves some of those artists but he mainly the music that is on the radio back in the states like Lil’ Wayne and Birdman. Lots of the kids also listened to similar music. In the morning, I walked into a classroom and on one of the walls I saw two signs of the Wu- Tang Clan! I was so happy to see that sign because I love the Wu-Tang Clan. That just shocked me because it just made me believe that music is universal and that is the one thing that can bond people together.
During the day, we visited classes and we took a tour. The campus was big and it has about 700 students attending. David Kaunda is just like any other school; there are many groups based on classes and popularity. There are a lot more boys than girls in the high school. The boys are the typical high school boys: they have that “wandering eye”, make fun of each other, and compete for attention. Nelson took me into a class with no teacher, the guys just stared, winked, and whistled at me. It was a bit awkward and once they found out that I listened to good rap music they seemed to like me even more. In one classroom, the boys’ asked me all sorts of questions such as “What’s your favorite artists?”, “ What was your impression of Zambia before you came?”, and “How are the boys at your school and are they different from the boys here?”. They were funny and they sort of reminded me of my guy friends at school.
The next day we all met up at the Zambian National Museum. We went around the museum with our partners and I learned a lot about the history of Zambia. The art in the museum was absolutely beautiful – it was so amazing to see that people are very talented. This was not the first art museum that I’ve gone to but this is the first art museum that I appreciated. Going to the museum really made me appreciate art and people that create beautiful sculptures, drawings, and paintings. When I go back to the states, I think I might take a trip to the local museums of art and look at them again with a new-found respect . The David Kaunda school kids were great and saying by to them was quite sad, but luckily we are all going to keep in touch with things like Facebook and E-mail.
-Tammy