Zambia Day 4 – David Kaunda High School

Today we visited the David Kaunda School which is considered one of the best schools in the area, and the students that attend are the best of the country. This experience differed from the previous places we visited in that it was less rural, more westernized, and the Zambian students were most comparable to us in the United States. It was interesting to see that even the most educated and smartest students in Zambia still knew less than I expected about true life in America. The girl I was partnered with that was showing me around the school asked me if there were any black people in my school, and she even asked me if most schools were segregated. Just as we have many false preconceptions about Zambians and their way of life, the Zambians really don’t know much about America more than what they see in movies and TV. The boys dorms at David Kaunda School (the school we toured) especially surprised me. Even at one of the nicest and most prestigious schools in all of Zambia, the living conditions reminded me of army barracks: rusted out metal bunks, dirty mattresses, no bed linens, and two small, less than functional toilets shared by the entire two-story building. On a lighter note, we ended up accidentally witnessing a Zambian wedding when we first arrived at the school. There was so much singing and dancing and music being played as the couple and their family processed out. The whole wedding was very uplifting and made me want to have a Zambian wedding of my own.

Brandon Sickel