First Day of Teaching: Written by Stacy

I am typing this up from the lunchroom of the guest house where we are staying.  We have all returned from our first morning of teaching in the schools and the room is a buzz, full of stories.  Julia, Anne, Brita and I went to M'tendere, the school that  our church, the Union Church in Waban, supports.  The minibus winded its way through narrow dirt streets lined with vendors selling a variety of things, some that I could recognize, many that I could not.  We stopped a few times in the maze of the twisting streets to ask for direction.  Finally we pulled up outside a huge metal gate.  As we piled out of the minivan into the hot sun and dusty road, we could hear the sound of children singing.  Gwen, the teacher, and Mary a leader in the women's group SWAAZ (our on the ground partner) met us with a wide smiles and heart felt embraces and ushered through the gate and directly us into the classroom building.  Sixty or so children spanning the ages of four to thirteen greeted us with bright eyes and a rousing song. 

And so it began.  For the next three hours we sang songs, told stories, played games but more than anything else, at least for me,even if just for a few hours, we closed the gulf of difference between our two worlds.
The purpose of these schools supported through local church's partnership with Communities without Borders and SWAAZ is to help prepare some of the Zambian capital's most disadvantaged children for entry into the government sponsored primary schools.  Without these schools and the exposure to reading, writing, and math that they provide, these children may very well not be able to enter into the educational system that truly is the gateway to opportunity.

As I held Margaret on my lap as Anne read a story to the children, as I worked with Issac as he meticulously wrote his ABC's, as I led the children in the song "if you are happy and you know it" I was content.  I do not know what the future will hold for these children.  I do not know who will and who will not find their way out of such crushing poverty.  I do not know if these children will even remember the strange lady whose name was so hard to pronounce.  But I do know that for those hours, we were in the world together.  Sharing in the moment.  Enjoying each other and learning from each other and I for me, at least right now, that is enough.  Peace -- Stacy