July 17th- The Library Opens!

Today, we had the pleasure of seeing the Bird Land Library open officially. As some may know, for the past 3 years the SAAS Zambia Club has been raising money to fund the construction of this brand new building for the school. The day was wonderful and special for everyone on the trip, but I found myself especially happy to see the library open because I oversaw a great deal of this fund raising when I was the Zambia Club president for SAAS middle school in 2008. For my entire 8th grade year, I organized bake sales and shamelessly tried to encourage my classmates to buy as many cookies and cupcakes from the sales as their wallets would allow. Needless to say, the small fortunes spent on treats helped Sonja and I raise a large amount of money to start the building of the library.
So on the 17th of July, I was overjoyed to be marching around with the Bird Land students who carried a banner announcing the opening of their library up front. This banner was even carried in front of the local police band. After marching back to the school, we sat in seats under tents and happily listened to guest speakers praise all of the hard work that went into this opening. Our MC was a comical man, always making jokes about names or throwing in stories, so it seemed like only a short while until Olive and Sonja cut the ribbon at the door of the library. Parents, students, and government officials alike flooded onto the freshly waxed green floors of the library. People admired the shiny new plaque that was out on the veranda of the library. Bird Land primary students grabbed our hands and made us sit down with a book from the shelves. The local TV crew even made it out to capture the day’s events.
Dancing ensued the book reading but we soon had to leave on our buddies and travel to Olive’s house for a fabulous lunch on her lawn.
The entire day passed very quickly for me and I still can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that 3 years of work just opened before my eyes. I am so proud of the work that SAAS has done to open this library and I look forward to hearing from other Zambia trip students about how its shelves are filling up with books that can “transport them to another world” – Stacia Cammarano 8th grade poster advertising another bake sale

Safari Thoughts

From Gabe:

We got back from Safari Monday. It was certainly an experience; the highs were amazing, and the lows helped me to develop my patience and learn firsthand what the Blood Diamonds acronym "TIA" (this is africa) means.

Let me start by saying that my perception of a safari was way way off. Of course it's dangerous to have preconceived notions, but I thought that a safari was mostly about watching animals. Having been through the experience, you watch animals during "game drives", and while they are an important part of the experience, an equal or more important part of a safari is getting from point A to point B. Points A and B are often separated by long long distances on poor dirt roads with potholes. To quote Walt, it was kind of like driving over swiss cheese. For better or worse, we were given a two wheel drive, 12 passenger van, along with a land rover. Needless to say, the Land Rover did pretty well on the terrain, while the two wheel drive van failed miserably.

Now in the US, getting from point A to point B is generally a given. If you setup a schedule for a road trip, most of the time you can stick to it. In contrast, on swiss cheese all bets are off. This became apparent on Day 1 of the trip, when we arrived in Kafue National Park (west of Lusaka) around 6pm, only to find that we had another 40 km to go on swiss cheese. Hence arrival at the campsite occurred close to 9pm. Similarly, on day 3 we lost two of our tents due to the bumpy terrain and swarming Tsetse flies, then had the leaf-spring on one of our trailers fracture 20km from our destination. As the sun set, several of us jury-rigged the suspension and then we limped into camp after dropping off the trailer for repairs. Consequently day 4 was spent waiting for repairs. Fortunately we were staying at a lovely campsite on the Iteschi Teschi, an enormous lake regulating waterflow on the Kafue.

Day 5 was a sketchy drive back east through stunning terrain. We followed a clear track until it began to braid. At first the braids came back together, and then the track disintegrated into chaos. At one point our driver threw up her hands in some combination of frustration, helplessness, and good natured TIA... It was shortly after this that the driver, Adri, seemed to find her cigarettes more readily. Needless to say, with a lot of help from the locals, we found powerlines and followed them to Namwala, stopping twice with all hands to extract the floundering passenger van embroiled in sand. When we hit pavement again near Choma, there were audible sighs of relief all around.

The first five days were nevertheless punctuated with sublime moments. On a boat ride on the Kafue river, we came within 20 yards of schools of hippos, then goggled at kingfishers, water monitors, egyptian geese, and baby crocks. On a walking tour, we saw the remains of a ground hornbill taken by a leopard, and watched a native guide make rope from the fibers of a tree. The sunset over the Kafue was unrivaled.

At Iteschi Teschi, we took a late afternoon/evening game drive onto the plains. This was Africa as I'd imagined it; numerous types of antelope in large numbers on grasslands, elephants feeding in the forests adjacent to the fields, and bushbok wandering through native villages. We watched a wildebeest terrorize puku antelope, fretted slightly as we had a puncture within a quarter mile of elephant, and then marveled as we stumbled upon a cheetah moving through the grasslands. I couldn't get my camera working fast enough to capture the cheetah, but the mental image is fixed in my neurons. As the sun set, we switched on high powered lights and looked for the telltale glint of cats eyes; we caught a glimpse of a serval cat. On the way back, the lead car was treated to the trumpeting of an elephant just off the road; slightly dangerous for sure.

The second half of the trip was punctuated with the same mix of good and miserable. Heading South on the road from Choma to Livingstone, Rylie, Kate, and Clare all struggled horrendously with a stomach virus. Surely that 6th day was one of the worst of Rylie and Kate's lives. We practiced triage, postponing the trip into Botswana's famous Chobe national park while the ladies recovered in Livingstone. Our South African guide, Hendrik, took us on a game drive in a local park outside Livingstone, where we caught our first glimpse of giraffe, and came face to face with Zebra and Cape Buffalo. After a couple days of recovery, we headed into Botswana to Chobe. While we only had one day in Chobe (we were originally slated for 3), it was surely the highlight of the trip. Herds of impala, kudu, and giraffe roamed the dry grasslands. As we crested a ridge, the lush Chobe river came into view. The contrast between dry and wet was astounding, and the animals flocked to the moisture during this dry season. Herds of elephants, hippos, and the supremely impressive and unattractive Marabou stork coexisted with crocodiles sunning themselves. It was unreal.

On the way back into Botswana, the last bolt holding the rear axle of our Land Rover to the wheel hub sheared off, and after some trial and error, we ran the rear wheel drive in 4 wheel mode with no power in the rear wheels back to Livingstone. Fortunately the next day was slated for Victoria Falls, and Hendrik once again spent his day conversing with the locals in an effort to get repairs done on a Sunday. While he slaved, we enjoyed the falls, which were breathtaking. We bought and bartered for curios (Gibson traded his watch and a water bottle for a necklace, bowl, and a mask). In the evening, we enjoyed watching Spain and the Netherlands battle out the finals of the World Cup with an international assemblage of musungos and tourists at our safari lodge in Livingstone.

I would be lying if I stated that the safari was incredibly fun. It was more of an acquired taste for me. I, like most Americans, am accustomed to getting what I want when I want it. The nature of a safari, however, is unpredictable, and you must relinquish control. We ate less and often at very late times than we were used to, and spent long long hours in the cars. Our guides, while nice people, operated on African time, meaning that attempts to break camp and leave by 8:30 often became 10:00 or later. Piece of mind was often lacking as days were spent getting repairs done rather than traveling. Nevertheless, the necessity to adjust and relinquish patterns is part of the allure of the safari. When we banded together to remove the passenger van from sand, or when we all collectively breathed a sigh of relief on reaching tar road again, or when I tried to comfort Kate and Rylie, I was reminded of how fortunate we are in the US to have predictable lives. And certainly the wildlife is unlike anything i may ever see again.

It's late, so i'll save the discussion of the issue of race as it pertains to safari for some other time.

Some Pictures from Safari

Gibson and Walt watching a hippo on the Kafue river at Kaunga Lodge.
Sunset over the Zambezi from Livingstone.
Impala drinking at the Chobe river.
Malachite Kingfisher on the Chobe.
Rylie and Gibson feeling primal at Victoria Falls.

Reflections on High School Technology Training

by Gabe

It's been quite an intense week for myself. It's not every week that a teacher has the opportunity to run a classroom in another country. I feel very lucky to have been given the opportunity, and I was amazed as I watched the Zambian students deliver powerpoint presentations today comparing and contrasting US and Zambian economics, religion, role of HIV/AIDS, ecology, governmental structure, and history as it relates to colonialism and independence. Our students did an exemplary job of exercising patience and tenacity as they delivered one-on-one education on the basics of powerpoint and internet research throughout the week. I hope that our students picked up as much about Zambian culture as I did, and I hope that we had a lasting impact on the Zambians, both in terms of cultural exchange and technological knowledge.

Visiting another high school is always enlightening; in this case it also humbled me and raised frustrations about our educational system in the states. The students we watched learn so much with so little and are both dedicated and very well learned. Today we watched seniors reviewing geometrical and trigonometrical concepts in preparation for their end of 12th grade examination. As in many systems throughout the world, the necessity to pass cumulative tests prior to advancement seems to elevate student achievement... the stakes are simply so much higher than they are in the US, and hence on the surface the teachers focus less on getting students to "buy in" to the value of their content, and more on delivering the content. In the US, it often feels that we must continually play the entertainment game and convince students that the subjects we teach have inherent merit; the energy expended in this pursuit ultimately means that we cover less content.

Still, I'm very much aware that my own analysis is tainted by my personal "lens". Ultimately I simply feel very grateful today that the goals of the week were met handedly, and that I have had a chance to experience education in a totally different venue. My preconceived notions on the level of education in Africa have certainly been shattered, and I'm much wiser now.

We leave for safari tomorrow morning and I am looking forward to the third week of this trip. Every week is totally different and I'm sure the upcoming one will be no different.

June 28th- Stacia C.

This morning was windy and cool as we piled into the red Munali School bus. Our goal for today was to help some Munali high schoolers (most of them we met on Saturday) learn how to create a basic PowerPoint presentation. The students filed in and sat in the white plastic lawn chairs. One of our teachers, Gabe Cronin, started things off by explaining what our project for the week was. SAAS students were to teach some PowerPoint basics and then eventually help the Munali student create a presentation comparing and contrasting certain topics in the U.S. and Zambia. For example, my topic was religion in school. At the end of the week, our presentations would be shared with each other for a mutual learning experience.
Today, I helped Mary, Stephen, and Nkole create simple PowerPoints about their favorite foods or school life. Their typing was slow and deliberate, but I was astonished at how quickly they remembered the steps that were shown on the example computer each small group had in front of them. After slowly finding the right tabs and buttons, the students I was overseeing quickly picked up the details I explained to them and learned many things about how to make a PowerPoint. After this, our individual discussions began about our topics for the week. I was also working with another SAAS student, Alisha, and in no time we were exchanging questions about the religious happenings in Zambia. We discovered that most of the population is Christian and that praying happens at school every morning. One of the largest differences between Zambia and the U.S., religion wise, is that some Zambians continue to practice old religious traditions while Americans seem to have none. An example for this type of old tradition in Zambia is the continued practice of what I’ve heard to be "bush magic" or worshiping other less known gods. However, no matter where our conversations led us today, I am positive all of us had a great time interacting and teaching these students. Their intelligence and maturity continues to amaze us all and we look forward to working with them for the next week.

Pictures (Rylie)

June 26th- Lydia

Today we went to meet the kids at Munali. We all bussed to the Zoo. On our bus, the first half of the bus ride was relatively quiet, just getting to know the people next to us. However, the second half of the bus ride was spend singing songs and getting to know everyone. When we got to the zoo we all went to a field where we all introduced ourselves. Then the Zambian kids wanted to perform some poems and songs which were lovely. We ended up playing many games, some of which were similar to duck duck goose, only with a scarf, and sharks and minnows. Next came the dancing. Someone had brought giant speakers and we had an excellent DJ. We all stood in a circle, and each one of us brought a little something to the dance floor. It was amazing how good all the Zambian kids were at dancing! The dancing was made even better by the little boy busting some moves with all the other kids. The little boy was probably better than any one of us.
We had a delicious lunch that consisted of potato salad, coleslaw, chicken, sausages, and oranges. They also kept us very refreshed with cold coke, fanta, and sprite. After lunch came the traditional Zambian dances, which were very interesting to watch. The girls came out and took turns moving their hips, and only their hips to some good music. Then came the boys, wearing potato sack skirt like things that were shredded, and also moving their hips. The zoo was the same one we went to with the 5th graders at Birdland, so we went through it quickly.
I think overall everyone had an excellent time. I have heard more than one people say that this was the best day yet.