May our leaving Lusaka yield as many great experiences as we have already had here in the capital city. This morning, we woke up and after breakfast threw ourselves at the task of sorting all the donations we brought to Zambia. With each person bringing at least 50 pounds of donations, it was quite a task. We sorted all the clothes, made packets for each of the teachers we will meet, sorted the materials we will use for our lessons in Malambu, and had plenty of supplies left over to divide between the organizations we will work with throughout our stay. This task took all morning and some of us even had to work through lunch!
We were in a hurry to eat and shower up in order to attend our first (and maybe only?) lesson in Chinyanja, so we will be able to greet our friends in their own language when we arrive. Learning a language is challenging, but we had great teachers who were up to the task: Philip and Gaspard Kalumba. This brother and brother team were patient and taught us a few of the necessities such as “My name is'” (Zina langa ndine…), thank you and excuse me (zikomo), hello (buanje, uli buanje), and a few others. This was as hard if not harder than sorting the donations, but we are prepared for tomorrow.
After this lesson, we went the David Kalunda School for a talk and a tour. When we arrived, we were each paired with a student from this government-sponsored boarding school. After a brief chat (it took no time at all to become fast friends), we introduced our partner to the group…and our partner introduced us. This got us off on the right foot and we were soon led around the campus by our newest friends. The campus was not packed (although 1,400 students attend) because Monday is a national holiday due to the recent passing of former President Chiluba. Regardless, there were still plenty of other students to meet and chat with while we were on our tour. Facebook addresses were exchanged, many photos were taken, and everyone wanted to stay.
Upon return from DK school, Jeremy took a group to get supplies for a BBQ. Since they took a looooong time to return, we were ready to eat as soon as the food was ready. After dinner, we had another group reflection to process all we saw, and got to bed so we would be ready for the World Bicycle Relief work tomorrow.
(Posted by Topher Kandik)