FUSN Teaching Team at Chawama

Greetings from the F.U.S.N. teaching team!

It is hard to believe that our time of teaching at Chawama Community School has come to an end. I have had the opportunity to work beside dedicated volunteer teachers at the school. John Mukosa has been at Chawama for two years; David Tindi and Gift Menda Menda have been there since January of this year. The challenges they face are great, yet they are succeeding in reaching most of these wonderful children with their caring and love of learning.

The people of Zambia seem open and joyful in spite of the struggles many undergo here. The children are playful, though their surroundings to us seem bleak. My fellow teachers from F.U.S.N. and I have enjoyed teaching these eager young minds and making new friends. Jen and Zoe Newberg, Wendy Haskell, Eva and I are sharing an experience we will never forget. Fortunately, we were accompanied by our "lead teacher" Amy for three days, and Lucia helped with our lesson planning.

Even in our short time here, we noticed improvement in our students' comprehension of the alphabet, numbers, colors and English language. The Chawama teachers thanked us for introducing new methods and materials. We certainly learned from them, too!

This past week, Jen was instrumental in obtaining shelves (see previous blog post). Her collaboration with Tom Murphy and Brian, our driver, produced purchased boards and donated cinder blocks for shelves in the second classroom and storage room. Jen also bought 75 three-section plastic plates, which the caregivers said they needed.

In speaking with John, David and Gift, I learned that they have several desks that need repair. Mary at the school mentioned that she would like a lock on the storage room door. Unable to fit a visit to a hardware store into my morning, I handed 100,000 kwacha to Brian, our driver, once again to round up woodscrews, machine nuts and bolts and a hasp and lock.

To my surprise, during a momentary teaching break, I saw Brian chiseling out a space in the storage room door to install a brand new morticed lock. What a guy! My out-of-pocket cost for materials was 65,000 kwacha ($13 US). They are delighted.

A song that we introduced to the Chawama schoolchildren has become an unexpected hit. They cannot get enough of "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on The Bed." We love this, because they learn counting and English at the same time with this song, and it's fun. Zoe was like a pied piper leading them in another new favorite -- "The Chicken Dance."

--Norm Thibeault