"We love you because your skin is like [ours]"

On Friday, June 27, Emmanuel invited us to go see a drama performance put on by the deaf students. While waiting for the performance to start, some of the deaf students walked up to us and shook our hands. One of the Zambians had beautiful blue eyes. I had never seen a Black person with blue eyes before. Cheray signed to him that he had beautiful blue eyes and he laughed and signed thank you. It was so wonderful and just different to see teens like me who were signing and giggling and behaving like normal teens (not that they wouldn't). I only had interacted with a few deaf adults back home but never a group of deaf kids my age. One time we looked back to see a boy signing, "move back because you stink," to another boy. I never had seen someone insult another person in sign so that was interesting too. I was also amazed at my ability to understand most of what I saw. Thanx to Emmanuel, my sign-cabulary has grown. After observing, Emmanuel signed to us that the kids were going to dance for us first. The dancing was pretty entertaining. They were giggling the whole time and they were on beat for most of the time too. I did not think it would be easy to remain on the same beat as someone else that you are not looking at when you cannot hear, but later I figured they probably could see each other using their peripheral vision or they practiced A LOT. Once they were done, a handsome gentleman went to the center of the stage to sign and muffley say something to the effect of, "Now will show you drama (a skit)." Thank God Emmanuel was there to sort of translate for us what they were saying. I mean he used sign but he would spell out words we didn't know using sign so that helped. Just like the handsome gentleman, Emmanuel speaks while signing too, but it sounds rather muffled sometimes. Anyways what I understood of the scenario was... A boy wanted to marry a deaf girl but the parents would not allow it. He left his house with his dad shouting (they are all signing by the way) and went to the girls home to ask the father for his daughter's hand in marriage but that father would not allow it. Both the girl's and boy's mothers were deaf but the dads were able to speak and hear. I guess the girl's dad still said it wasn't alright and then the girl and the girl's family all went to the boy's family's home. At the house, the dads kept yelling. (if you are confused by my rendition of the story, you are not alone because so am I. The whole story, the moms were quiet and waited hand and foot on the dads but finally at the end the moms started signing (both being deaf) and said that the dads need to left the two youngs ones get married. I either did not understand the ending of the skit or totally blanked out because I still don't know if they got married... Despite my confusion I had a lot of fun watching the skit. I thought it was very ironic that the deaf students where acting out speaking people, without speaking... it was awesome... Then Emmanuel signed the rest of the kids introducing us. I could tell because I kind of heard him say seattle academy while signing and I saw him sign, "North America," which I do know in sign. The he told us to come in front of the deaf kids and go in a line and sign our names. So Cheray started and we went down the line and finally it was my turn. I signed, "my name is s-y-d-n-e-y. my sign name is (then i gave my sign name which I tried to explain in my previous blog)." They all started clapping for me because I was the only person who had signed my sign name. Finally the rest of the group went and then we signed our ages and our grades. Then our group kind of broke and some of the deaf kids gathered around me. They signed their names to me and then their sign names. They signed to me that they were happy to have met me and a couple of the kids asked for my email and told me I was beautiful. I signed to them that they did a very good job as best as I could. Then the handsome gentleman who could sign and speak at the same time came up to me and said/signed, "We love you because your skin is like us," which I figured he meant, "ours." That made me feel so good. It was the first time that I did not feel like a foreigner because I was from another country and know VERY little of my African roots. That was really nice to hear/see... Later that day a really cool girl named Lucy (not our Lucy from SAAS) asked me what ethnicity I am and I tried to explain that I was not quite sure what part of Africa I am from due to slavery in the States and she said, "You're from Zambia, you're from Zambia." I chuckled and thought that was really cute. Lucy's friend Natasha asked to have a picture of me so I gave her a prom picture of me and my boyfriend at the Garfield High School Prom at the Columbia Tower. She said, "Oh, he has beautiful skin." I told her he is Senegalese and she asked for the picture and I gave it to her. Then I met three new girls who were funny and outgoing and I just loved them. Then it was time to go. We said our good byes considering it was the last day working at Munali. Although I was sad, I was truly happy. I had another WONDERFUL day and I felt very good.

Today we got to sleep in a little bit, and we all woke up to a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and french toast. We got on the bus at 9:30 am and went to a market at a Dutch Reform Church, and browsed the merchandise until 12. There were beautiful carved wooden masks, animal figurines, jewelry, and other interesting trinkets.
Next, we went to Birdland School where the parents of students at the school organized a celebration known as Matebeto to thank us for everything we are doing. There was traditional dancing, and many of us got a quick lesson. The food included chicken, inshima (a cornmeal "staple" in zambian society), barbecued caterpillars(!?), ox heart, pumpkin leaves, and many more interesting delicacies. They also prepared a dinner for us to take home which we will soon enjoy!

Thursday, June 26

Yesterday, Thursday June 26, was so much fun! I woke up and got ready for school around 6:21am. Then I hopped into Mr. Cosa's bus and ate my banana for breakfast. Mr. Cosa dropped us off at Munali like every morning. The group splits up after tea time at Munali. One half works with the morning high school class and another group works with the afternoon class at the high school. Since there is not a lot of space, the school is broken up into two shifts. Some students come in the morning and the rest come in the afternoon. Whatever group doesn't work with the high school students works with the Birdland kids at the elementary school. Usually I work with the high school students at Munali first in the morning but Wednesday and Thursday I worked at Birdland (the primary school) in the morning. After we had tea and crackers in the Munali Girls' Lab, we walked down to Birdland. The walk there is about ten minutes and we always see children in different uniforms than the Munali and Birdland students. Sometimes some of the kids only know, "how are you," "im fine," and "i love you" in English. There have been a number of times that I have said, "Hi!" and they will respond, "Im fine!" Its really cute. One kid shouted out, "I love you!" to us. The other day one girl walked up to me when I was on my way to the bathroom and asked me if she could be my daughter. I did not know how to respond. I told her, "I am too young for kids now."

Once we got down to Birdland we walked into the new building that Mrs. Olive Mumba bought. Let me remind you that new to us is not always what new means to some Zambians. The building looks old and the floors are concrete, cold and dirty. The bathroom does not have a
place to put the toilet paper so its sitting in the unused sink. There are a lot of buckets sitting in there and it just looks distasteful. Right across from the bathroom is the computer lab. The labs has a steel gate and two locks. At the Munali Boys' computer lab, a couple months before we arrived in Africa, some one climbed into the ceiling and crawled over the gate door into the computer storage room and stole fifteen laptops so now they keep the new ones at the Girls' Lab. (There is a Munali Girls' school and a Munali Boys' School)... moving on, once the first group of third graders came in, we introduced ourselves, split up the room so there was about three students to one SAAS student. The third graders were really good with using the touch pad and they understood the idea of moving the cursor to a link and clicking it when they want to see what that link presents. They love when I show them where to go for games. The games are actually pretty fun. Sometimes I will ask them what is their favorite subject and they will say, "maths," and no that is no spelling error, they say Math with an "s." The students are really silent and well behaved. In class, the kids seem really reserved so it is exciting to see them
play games and react to loosing or winning. After teaching about four thirty-minute classes, we went to the main Birdland building and had a snack that one the teachers prepared for us.

We were all very appreciative because food is not a right here in Zambia, or anywhere for that matter. We had white bread, butter and yummy tea. I have consistently drank about three cups of that particular tea everyday now because the tea is given to us at Munali, Birdland, and Pioneer Camp. Then once we were done with tea, we were given the opportunity to teach some kids in the different classrooms. I got to teach some ADORABLE little kids. Sometimes I would ask them questions but they wouldn’t respond. They just starred at me. I was not sure what to do. They were the pre-grade children from 3-5years. I would ask the teacher desperately for suggestions because I did not know I would be teaching. I thought I was going to watch her teach. The teacher was super sweet. She told me to sing a song to them and I tried to sing BINGO but I forgot the lyrics half way through the song. I tried to tell them the story of snow white but I totally butchered it. I was just glad that no one who knows the real story was there to hear me. I accidently left out the seven dwarfs completely! They are one of the most important parts of the story. The teacher asked one of the kids to sing a song for me. HE WAS SO CUTE! I loved them. Finally I got them to sing the itsy bitsy spider with me. They already knew that song. I just helped them with the hand motions and a lot of the kids picked it up quickly. I kept running out of things to do with the kids and I would look at the teacher and ask her what to do. She told me to, “just pretend like you are a Zambian teacher.” That didn’t help much. Then she handed me a book to read to the kids. It was called, Head, Arms, Legs. They kind of got restless and the teacher threatened not allowing them to eat their snacks. She would say, “Do you guys want your snacks?” and they responded, “YEA,” then she said, “Well be quiet.” Then I FINALLY found a game that worked for us. I used the teacher’s piece of chalk and started to draw an apple on the board and asked, “What is this?” They shouted back, “AN APPLE!” Then I kept drawing different pictures. I was so happy to see them be so engaged and excited. After about twenty minutes of Pictionary, I asked the teacher to take a picture of me with the kids and she said yes. However, she had never used a camera before so I gave a quick demo. It was cute to see her confused expression when pushing the button. Then I started taking pictures of the kids and they would push each other to get into the picture. The teacher settled them down. Every time the camera flashed all the kids would giggle. They warmed my heart. Next we went outside to join all the other kids. The teacher wanted to take more pictures of us so I sat on the ground and almost all of them tried to sit on my lap. God they were cute. I retrieved my camera and started walking. Tons of kids came running up to me to shake my hand and hug me. They are all so cute.

I heard some yelling to my left and looked over my shoulder to find Matt being attacked by a small mob of charming kids. I asked him if he wanted me to save his glasses and he shrieked yes so I grabbed them for him. Lol. I probably should have asked if he wanted me to get the kids off. After hanging out with the kids for about 10 minutes, my group gathered in the back of the school to go through the kitchen door to get some lunch that was prepared by the teachers. I felt pretty bad though eating knowing that a number of the kids out there do not usually get lunch because of neglect and sometimes just because lack of money. Luckily Ms. Olive Mumba had the idea of using some of the funds we gave for Birdland to prepare a chicken dinner for the kids. That made all of us SAAS people happy. After lunch, Sophie, Matt, Cody, Miranda and I walked up to Munali to teach the afternoon class. I love teaching the morning class because I made some cool friends there but I also like teaching at the afternoon class because I get to work with a student named Michael who is deaf. When I work with Michael, Emmanuel sits near us to help me communicate with Michael. I have strengthened my signing skills SO MUCH this trip. Emmanuel is Deaf and is the Pastor for the Deaf Church in Zambia and today he taught me how to pray in Sign. He is also the teacher for the Deaf school at Munali. Back to yesterday. Michael is such a great kid and I like how patient he is with me. I now know how to sign: fast, slow, next, slide, go, sad, happy, want, try, dance, understand, hairy, Amen, Jesus, Christ, mother, father, how are you, email, sent, pray, father (Like God), name, I, it, is this, what, choose, your, how do you sign…, I’m fine, help, cousin, aunt, please, sorry and a lot of other words. I am pretty ok at signing the alphabet. Emanuel gave me my sign name too. You put up the sign letter for “S” and then you pat the left part of your chest with the “S” and then the right side. The “S” is a fist but with the thumb crossed over touching your middle finger while your hand is in a fist. I loved working with Michael and I was proud of our communication. However, sometimes I would just have to write to him what I need to say because sometimes I did not know how to sign what I wanted to say. I had a good day at Munali.

After class I walked outside and saw this teacher that a few of us think is cute. Whenever he sees us he calls out my name and has conversations with me. One time my friend thought he was trying to get her attention but he wanted mine. He showed me where he lives. Don’t worry mom, it was pointing distance from the school. The teachers stay around the campus. Anyways the first day we were at Munali a girl took me to his class and I sat in to watch. I even asked a question after listening for a while and sitting with the girls. I could tell he was happy to see me engaged in his lesson. One day he shared with me that sometimes its best to just tell the girl students that he has a wife and children to make sure that the girls do not even think of trying to get with him. What he said made since to me. He shared with me that he does not have a wife or kids but the girls think he does. I liked his teaching style too. He tried to make sure to give an unbiased opinion on the religions he taught about and when a girl asked him if the Hindu religion was the right religion, he responded, “Well we can learn a lot each religion. We can take something from each sect. You have to respect everyone’s beliefs.” That was really important for me to hear because I was not sure if the teachers gave biased information since there is not a lot of diversity in Zambia in the first place when it comes to religion and nationality. After chatting with the teacher, Mr. Cosa picked us up at Munali and drove us all the way to the house where we all changed into really warm clothes. Lucy and I traded gloves while Cheray grabbed a few blankets. We were all getting ready for our cool trip to a hill down the road. Paul, the cool owner of Pioneer, was taking us to look at the stars. Earlier that day, while we were at school, he bought steaks and the special ingredients for s’mores (I had to explain to him what they were so he would know exactly what to get).

Once we all got our blankets, scarves, gloves, and flashlights we packed into three SUVs. However the one I was in did not start so Sophie and I got in the truck with Peter. Sophie had to sit on my lap but it was all good. I was a bit worried because Peter was used to driving a stick shift but not with the stick on the left hand side…. The roads are switched around so we drive on the left. [When Melinda, Peter, Sophie, Miranda and I left the grocery store, we decided to use a taxi. All four girls squeezed into the back seat and Peter was going to sit in the front with the driver. Peter opened the door to sit in the passenger seat to find that he was actually in the driver seat. Lol. We all laughed as he hurried over to the other side of car.] However, Peter drove perfectly. We drove to the site and the sky looked beautiful. Peter cooked the steaks and the Nshima, cabbage, and tomato relish (they call relish anything that is like a side dish that can be eaten with Nshima) was already cooked. While the steak was being cooked, Lucy, Cheray, Margot, Cody, Sophie and I picked a bunch of hay. Then we moved the rocks away from this area by the camp fire, put down the hay, laid down a blanket, and all sat down and cuddled up for warmth. Once the food was ready we sat up and “GRUBBED,” (in other words, we ate and enjoyed what we ate). Then we began making s’mores. I showed everyone my SPECIAL way to make s’mores. I had the perfect stick to place the chocolate on the stick without it falling off too easily. Once I roasted the marshmallows using the ambers, I warmed up the chocolate and finished the sandwich with the crackers (the crackers were the same ones we ate during tea time at Munali). I made one for Paul and Katrin. Sophie only wanted a bite. Everyone loved the melted chocolate! Good times… Then we all huddled up on the blanket and starred at the sky. I love the group I am with! Thursday was a wonderful day!

Church This Past Sunday

Before we left the Pioneer, Melinda told all of us that the Church was having communion that day. During communion the congregation of the church eats the body of Christ in the form of little pieces of bread and drinks the blood of Christ in the form of juice. Only those who were baptized in a Catholic Church can participate in communion and only a about four of us met the requirements.We walked about half a mile to a church is called Saint Clare. Arriving at 10:00 am, we sat down outside the church doors waiting for other people to arrive. While waiting, I walked around the corner of the church to find Cody and Katrin playing the drums with one of the Zambians. Cody wasn't doing magnificently but he did alright for a beginner :). Once everyone started arriving, we walked in the church and sat down in some seats in the back row. The church was rather small. As soon as you walk in you are met with about nine rows of long wooden benches. I have some pictures of the church. Once everyone sat down we waited for a few minutes and then we some women in the front seats began singing. On the other side of the church humbly sat about twenty nuns. The whole church service was in Nianja. After the women finished singing four beautiful songs, the nuns got up in their rows and sang a few songs using hand motions. Almost how praise dancers use their hands. When the nuns finished singing, the pastor came out and spoke in Nianja. Sometimes the pastor translated what he said in English for us. He told us that we shouldn't be afraid of listening to God. He said that if God tells the gossiper to gossiping, the gossiper shouldn't be afraid to stop even if he thinks that gossiping is what defines him. Next thing I knew people were bowing their heads and we all assumed they were praying so we joined them. There was a lot of standing and then kneeling on the ground. Sometimes when I thought were getting ready to sit down they actually got down to kneel. I definitely depended on following what the rest of the congregation was doing so I could follow. One boy in front of me began reading the Bible out loud. The Bible was in Nianja. Only two people had Bibles: the pastor and the boy. After more preaching the Pastor and two little boys wearing matching beautiful African printed outfits left following th pastor. Then a gentleman went up to the podium at the front of the church and gave some announcements. Then he acknowledged us and asked that one of us go up to introduce our group. Cody went up and explained our projects her in Zambia and then the gentleman said something in Nianja to the group and everyone started laughing. We all looked around at each other wondering what they were all laughing about. The gentleman told Cody to speak a little slower. I guess not everyone in there spoke English so Cody repeated what he said and the gentleman repeated Cody in Nianja. The gentleman asked us to all go up so we may formally be welcomed. We all stood up and lined up in front of the church and the whole congregation, including the nuns and the adorable children, came to shake our hands with warm smiles. I felt so welcomed and at peace. Our experiences with having warm encounters with the Zambians have been really nice. Even strangers will wave to us and everytime we walk home I see smiling faces and warm smiles. My favorite faces to see are the faces of the children. They are all very cute.
We all had a wonderful time at Church. Saint Clare was not as long as some churches back home in Seattle. I especially enjoyed the music they sang despite not understanding one word.

Today my day was a little different. In the morning I went to Birdland and played games with 6th and 7th graders. After a tea break at 10:00, we said that we wanted to sit in on a class, so a teacher threw me into a classroom and said "Teach Math". Well that would have been fine if I had some instruction, but since I had no intruction it was great! I made up questions for the kids and they solved them on some old bits of news paper. The class lasted 2 hours and afterwards I got to walk through the play yard to the lunch area. Iwas ATTACKED by children. It was adorable, they all wanted me to shake thier hand, and I started picking them up and holding them over my head and running with them. The kids loved it and I was futher swormed. It was alot like Guliver and the Lilipens. They kids managed to take me down several times, and I would stand up lifing 5 or so children up with me. After around half an hour I managed to stuggle through the children to lunch. At lunch I was the last to come so there were no chairs left which was great becasue I got to sit outside with the teachers and cooks. I talked to them and helped make some inshima which was fun. After lunch we went up to Manli where the planned lesson was to use the internet, but the power was out... yet suprisingly instead of giving up the students starting to review the stuff that we had taught them before which was great because it told us, as Melinda pointed out, that the students really wanted to be taught the computer. Luckily after around a half hour the power came back on and we were able to continue with the normal lesson. When we went back to the camp, Peter and I made cole slaw and the bar tender, at the camp, Paul, took us upon a hill to have a BBQ and to watch the stars. we made steaks and chicken and he showed us scropio, orion, and the southern cross. He also showed us how to calculate South from the cross. The bar tender also had great stories. He was a conservationist and safari guy before he become the bar tender. He called his Bush days college. Today was Great!


Also, by request I need to put up a bit about when I fixed a guys bike with Lucy's shoelace. Soooo... a few of us were running the Chalabani road back to camp and I noticed a lone boy who was walking his bike. I had had a job in a bike shop as a mechanic's apprentice the previous summer so I figured that I might be able to help the guy out. The problem was considerably more serious than I have bargined for, in fact his rear axel or hub was spinning independently from the gear like a forward freewheel. I asked for a bit of string and, the real hero of the story, lucy, promptly surrendered her shoelace on demand. I tied the shoelace through the teeth of the rear gear and around the spokes of the back wheel several times. Now, when he peddled his bike the wheel spun, and it was fixed YAY.

Cheers as they say,
-Cody

a day in the computer lab

June 23, 2008
We went to Munali boys and girls school to set up computers in the girls lab. Then Lucy, Margo, Laura, Quinne, Katrin, Mindy, Nick, and I went to the primary school birdland to help teach grade 2 how to work with computers for about 2 hours. The little kids are cute and they are really interested in lions. Sometimes it was really hard to understand what they were saying because there English is broken but they were really excited to see the different pictures of animals. After we finished working with the Birdland students we went to go eat lunch at Munali. We ate Nshima which is basically corn meal that looks like grits and it came with chicken or beef and a relish. After we ate my group and I went to the girl’s computer lab to teach the high school students how to type. I first started out with 6 students to help until Quinne asked me to work with Michael because he is def and she doesn’t know sign language very well so I took over. It was actually really interesting working with a def student because I got a chance to see how smart and nice he is without him talking. Since he was getting the hang of the typing super fast I decided to just work with him and go ahead of the lesson because he was getting bored with the pace that the rest of the class was at. It really made me feel good to see Michael happy when he was understanding the typing lesson, and it was also fun because Emanuel one of the def teachers came in to help me with the sentences that I was writing on a piece of paper for Michael. Emanuel would tell me how to sign the sentences to Michael so he could understand a little better which was extremely interesting because I was learning something new that I was interested in as well as Michael. So by the end of the trip I hope to have learned quite a bit of sign language.

Field Trip to Dream Valley with Munali Students

We had an emotional departure from Pioneer Camp this morning. Scrumpy the tiny Jack-Russell Terrier from camp chased our bus out of the gate, locked himself out, and continued to scamper after us. With red dust blowing in his face, he chased and chased while those of us in the bus cried and laughed delightfully, until we realized that he could likely be run over by other careless cars or never find his way back to camp. Alas, we continued on our way.
We picked up some of the Munali students from we are going to be working with in the coming weeks at the school campus. They were dressed in their casual clothing, as it is a Saturday.
Immediately, our bus was filled with more laughter and smiles. Rachel, the spunky and vivacious head of the girls' computer lab, stood in the front of the bus and urged her students to sing something. They broke in and out of song, laughing and shouting throughout. They all wanted to sing "No Air"

We were heading to "Dream Valley," a park with lawns, a pool, and barbecue grills. The weather was wonderful. While the Zambian students felt fine in this "winter" weather, we were sweating and risking sun burns. Rachel and James (the head of the boys' computer lab) and their students treated us to a variety show. Throughout the day the students performed much dancing - traditional as well as hip-hop - and singing in English and Nyanja. There was also a wonderful and poetic rap (of which Cheray took a video which I hope you all get to see!) Nyanja is a tribal language spoken or understood by most Zambians. While on the topic of languages, I also learned today that most of the students know not only English and Nyanja, but also their parents' native tribal languages, such as Bemba or one that sounds like "Soul-ee."

Following some magic tricks with cards, we grouped with the Zambian students to learn some of the games they probably grew up playing in school and with their friends. I had fun trying to mimic and remember some sing-song rhymes and clapping games. We taught them duck-duck goose (yes, this is childish, but it brings forth much laughter and silliness, which everyone loves), and the "quack diddly oh so" clapping game we play in the U.S.

Many of those on the field trip played in the swimming pool, but I stayed back on the grassy lawns with a great girl named Monica Mambo Samikofi. Her friend Given took over the music (they nicknamed her "Miss D.J." for the day) while I embarrassingly learned some of their dance moves. There was much shaking of the hips and twisting of the waist. Apparently, there are MANY different ways to move the hips back and forth. I will practice!

Somewhere within all this activity we managed to have lunch - grilled chicken and sausage from the barbecues, coleslaw, and buns! (P.S. I have, happily and willingly, relinquished my standing as a vegetarian for the sake of this trip. It's just plain easier.)

By the time I had achieved a minor sun burn on my arms, we were boarding the buses to head back home. We dropped the students off in their appropriate neighborhoods, calling out "See you Monday!" to those we remembered the names of, and even those we did not.

Dehydrated and happy, we headed down Great East Highway and turned off onto the dusty red Palabana road toward Pioneer Camp. Scrumpy was there to greet us!

We have now enjoyed a great frittata dinner (accompanied by some watermelon for dessert) prepared by Peter and Mindy.
Good night everyone!
Katrin