Programs

Over the last ten days we held the training for the facilitators of our Girls Empowerment Camp, outlined an environmental science activity plan, held environmental training sessions, laid a framework for monitoring with the Ngoma school, distributed and reviewed applications for volunteers to run the KnowledgeCenter, reviewed and signed off on the architectural plan for the Center, met with the Itezhi Tezhi District Education Board, visited potential future schools, and ploughed through a lot of paperwork related to the programs.

Late last week we were also joined by my cousin Katie and Sarah (in that order as Sarah missed her flight). Margaret and I arrived in Lusaka late on Thursday, heading straight to the airport to meet Katie! In typical fashion, we hadn’t made prior arrangements for sleeping so found ourselves in a bit of a scramble. Friday was filled with typical Lusaka mayhem. To kick things off, we were borrowing Luhana’s car for the day, and when his friend dropped it off at our backpackers, he let us know that the battery wouldn’t start if the car was parked for more than 3 hours. And this was a car Luhana had been mumbling about driving out to Ngoma. What his plan for starting the car every morning was baffled us. The rest of the day included a phenomenal meal including real espresso at Kilimanjaro, a lengthy line at the Bank, shopping for the programs at Manda Hill, and booking our travel from Lilongwe to Maputo. At $600 we continue to be astounded at the cost and difficulty of traveling. And of course you can’t book anything in Mozambique other than from within Mozambique. So we were kindly told, we’d just have to go and worry about leaving once we got there.

I’ll leave the comedy of Sarah’s arrival that night to her to convey, but suffice it to say we were on our way back to the field on Saturday as soon as we could get ourselves organized and on the road. That drive is absolutely miserable. No doubt a lot of the magic that makes the villages in this region what they are will be lost when they finally do pave the road, but for now, it is a taxing day long journey out here, and a serious impediment to tourists and resources making it.
On Tuesday we kicked off the Environmental Science Program with a day of training for the 3 teachers who will lead the activities at Ngoma: Mr. Buumba, Mr. Kasanga, Ms. Mubuyaeta. We completed a shortened version of six weeks of games and activities designed to familiarize the children with environmental issues in their daily lives and give them ideas for their science fair projects – the Fair has been pushed from August to October. I never know what to expect going into these sessions, but the teachers were great, eagerly working through all of the activities. Some of their responses to the questions I asked were classic – I asked them why they thought the monkeys were such a problem here, the response was because they didn’t have enough food in the forest – the fact that trash and food outside their houses might be the problem hadn’t occurred to them; they had no idea that dumping bath and cooking water or burning plastic is an environmental disaster, or that burying metal caused health problems. The list goes on. By the end Mr. Kasanga said, “you have opened our minds, this is wonderful” (Mr. Kasanga is an amazingly kind man who sports floral button up shirts on a daily basis - he would have loved the 60’s in the States). The trick will be for them to deliver the programs to the children. Armed with detailed materials, resources and a positive attitude, we have our fingers crossed and will know one way or the other soon enough.