Settling In

What a laid back day so far! I slept in a little bit today, ‘til 8am since the first thing we had to do didn’t start ‘til 9:30. Sleeping in until 8 really did feel like sleeping in, because it gets light fairly early here, plus I’ve been getting such good nights’ rest. So far, we haven’t been feeling the effects of jet lag too badly. We get tired at night around 8 but then we force ourselves to stay awake for a couple more hours and then we’re fine. Mrs. Birner said sometimes it’ll hit you even 5 days after you think you’re in the swing of things, so we’ll have to see if that happens to us.

At 9:30 we walked over to Bethel Church, the one on campus, to meet up with Dee and the seminary students’ wives. There were 11 ladies there, all very friendly and happy that we were there. They were also quite shy, which Pastor Phiri said they might be for a couple weeks, but when they get comfortable with us they will be quite chatty and fun, so I’m looking forward to that! After a quick introduction to the ladies, we headed over to Pastor Phiri’s office—he’s the dean of students—to figure out a schedule for our teaching. He remembered Dad from when he was at the LBI in Malawi, so he was happy to see me (although I’m sure he didn’t remember me). It’s nice to make connections here! So far, the tentative schedule we have is to teach English to the ladies 5 days a week in the mornings, usually 9:30-11, and one day from 8-10. Pastor Phiri was going to meet with the students to see what times their children go to school and then he will be giving us a list of the children that we can tutor, so we’ll try to figure out a schedule for that once we get the information. Once these things are figured out, we will talk to the preschool teacher and figure out what time slots we have left so we can help out there as well. I really hope we have some good chunks of time left so we can do that. The preschool part is what I am looking forward to a lot—seeing as I have a soft spot for the little munchkins.

After that, we headed over to Dee’s to take a look at what materials she had been using to teach the ladies. That gave us somewhat of an idea of where the ladies are at, and what things they’ve covered already. She also divided up the group for us into higher and lower level. I think I’ll be starting with the lower level which has 6 ladies, and Erika will take the 5 higher level  ladies. We do want to get to know all the ladies though, so we might switch around as well, and also try to figure out some things we can do as a whole group.

We also saw Dan Sargent today. He had been in Chipata for a few days and didn’t get back until late last night, so it was good to see him again. He’s still as tall as always, giving Erika a run for her money. It must’ve been nice for Erika to actually look up at someone for once. J

Now we’re just hanging out at home with the rest of the day free. Rough life, I know. We’re thinking we’ll set the grass mat outside and bring the box of teaching materials Tammy and Abby left for us, and start brainstorming teaching ideas while basking in the sun.

Being back in Africa is like a breath of fresh air. Yes, we will be working hard and will be busy teaching and doing things but there is no stress. Everything is laid back and goes with the flow. It’s not like America where there’s always a time pressure and everything is go, go, go! I just feel calm here. I’m blessed!

We spent a lazy afternoon trying to brainstorm for teaching. We couldn’t last very long out in the sun because we were sweltering! It’s hard gauging what the ladies already know, so it’s hard to plan a day’s lesson. We’re going to see if maybe we can watch Dee teach a class sometime this week, just to get a better idea of what level the ladies are at. We do have some good ideas bouncing around in our heads, so it’s just a matter of figuring out the details now. It’s amazing to see all the things Abby and Tammy did last year. We do have big shoes to fill, and we are so happy we have materials to use as an example.

Some of today’s highlights: watching a large train of ants walk back and forth across the concrete in our courtyard; watching Zambian TV—very much like TVM in Malawi. We watched the local news, the MTV music channel of Zambia, and now a Zambian cooking show; the fellow is making spare ribs with honey.

As I’m typing this I’m looking around the living room and only see 3 wall spiders. Mom, they are the flat ones that lie close to the wall. I had kind of forgotten about them too, until seeing them again. We’ve seen several lizards too. A couple small ones on the outsides of the guest house, a large one climbing up the wall, and I did have one that was in my room by the window, trying desperately to get out, so I let him out. In the mornings and evenings the courtyard is also covered with frogs, mostly small but also some larger ones.

We also ate a deliciously ripe mango today. The whole time I was thinking of Dave, Dad and Joe, and wondering if I would break out in a rash, but so far so good.

Also, there were riots in town today at the University. We don’t know why they were rioting, but when they do, people are in the streets throwing rocks and vehicles and possibly trying to tip them over. We were all advised to stay away from town, unless we went the back route. We didn’t go at all.

As I was lying out in the sun again, I heard the preschool children (their classroom is behind the guesthouses) playing outside. I couldn’t resist, so decided to go out there and play with them. I was briefly introduced to the teacher, Charity, and told her we’d love to help out with the kids when we figure out our other schedules. Man, are the children adorable! They all crowded around me, and they were playing with balls, so they all started throwing at me so we could play catch. Thank goodness Erika joined me after a while so she could take half the attention. It was so fun talking to them and trying to understand them. Most of them did not know many English words, so I had Paul translate for me and tell them to stop when they were all throwing balls at me. I learned 2 words. Spelling is most likely not correct. Mwamba=high. I had to throw the ball super high in the air for them to catch. Mvula=rain. It started raining while we were playing. I also learned the word for wind but I don’t remember it. I was having a tough enough time trying to remember the children’s name. The kids by me were: Paul (who knew the most English), Shanille, Emilee, Goshen, Brian, Aubry, Miriam, Maggie and that’s all I can remember. Erika learned the other kids’ names. We sang the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, and they sang me one of their songs. It should be fun to teach them, although I can already tell we might have some little stinkers. Which will be good—they’ll make us think up some management strategies, and I’ll have to see if any from my memory bank will work effectively here.

At 4:30, Erika and I went on a walk with Dee and Mrs. Birner. We took some back dirt roads and the afternoon was gorgeous. The most beautiful blue skies! We took a good hour and 15 min walk at a brisk pace, and it was so nice to just enjoy being outside and talking. I definitely got my first African sunburn today. But not too bad, where it hurts or anything.

When we got back, Anne had our supper all ready for us. It was delicious let me tell you!! Brown rice, chicken in the awesome tomato and onion sauce, and cooked veggies—carrots, green beans, tomatoes, pumpkin, and my favorite, cabbage.

The evening was uneventful. Watched a few episodes of Modern Family, had a brief power outage and read some more of my book. We might go out and look at the stars before bed too, since they shine so brightly here!