Today we went to Daughter’s Vision for our fourth day in Zambia. Daughter’s Vision is an organization that works with vulnerable or orphaned girls ages 6-19, encouraging them to stay in school by avoiding early marriage and childbirth. The founder of Daughter’s Vision, Gladys, greeted us and was so nice and welcoming. It made me really excited to start my day there. She is a former teacher from the Chikumbuso school we previously visited and started Daughter’s Vision on her own nine years ago.
As we were pulling up we saw a lot of the kids running towards the van because they knew it was LearnServe and some of them saw Gaby and Clarence. It was also because we clearly stuck out with our white van and American faces. They were so happy to see us. I was so amazed at how many kids were just so nice and open to us. Some of them were not shy at all while others were, but by the end they opened up to us and it was so much fun.
When we got there we were a bit confused because we thought there weren’t going to be any kids today. We were told we would just be doing a painting project for Gladys. The kids were supposed to come next week. We didn’t have our lessons or materials, but it was all cool because we made it work. Although we weren’t scheduled to teach, this experience taught me to always have a backup plan and to be patient when working with others. Sometimes you have to be flexible. So we all introduced ourselves to Gladys and she was clearly excited to meet everyone and welcomed us with open arms. She remembered our trip’s intern, Anisa, from two years ago! Anisa was especially helpful as she quickly came up with a plan for us to use the materials and books from previous years so we could teach some academic lessons on the spot. I was worried about doing this without too much notice, but realized these girls deserved to be taught. Gaby separated us into different groups: painting, reading, and a game/dancing group.
While we were painting some parts of the buildings it became bonding time for me and some of my trip peers. Sarah, Janee, and I talked about racism, colorism, our schools, and what colleges we want to attend. The conversations opened my eyes to others’ perspectives on race and schooling in America. I was really grateful for that conversation and felt I learned a lot about my peers and my country. After we finished painting, one of the kids outside of Daughter’s Vision wanted Janee and my attention so she said, “Aye Black Americans!” We just looked at each other and started laughing because no one ever said that to us before. The little girl then ran away. I thought about what she said and it made me feel disconnected from her and my fellow Zambians. It was the first time I had ever been singled out for being a Black American and I wondered what that meant to Zambians and Africans as a whole.
Every 45 minutes we switched groups, so I went to the group that was playing games and dancing outside. They were teaching us some African dances and we were teaching them American dancing. After we were done dancing they wanted to play some games. We played telephone, which was really funny because we played their version. In the Zambian version you don’t repeat what you hear the other person say. The game was challenging because they really didn’t understand what we were saying — they think we talk too fast, but we got through the game and everyone had a good time.
When 45 minutes was up we switched for the last time, and I had to teach math to several students. I gave them addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. They were really good at addition, subtraction, and multiplication but one of the girls, Angel, needed more help in multiplication so I did one-on-one time with her while the other girl did some division problems on her own. Angel tried a few problems by herself and got them correct, so I was excited to move her to division but, unfortunately, we ran out of time.
Overall, today was a wonderful day. I was so glad meeting and getting to know the kids at Daughter’s Vision. This was my first time ever being this active with kids like dancing and teaching. Teaching wasn’t that hard because math is my favorite subject and the kids I was teaching were very engaged. Dancing wasn’t hard either because I like to dance (but in private) so I pushed myself so that the kids could really be engaged with the activities. These two experiences really pushed me outside of my comfort zone and although I hadn’t planned for them, I have grown from the experience.
Amaiya W., Washington Leadership Academy