Guest Blog

I was delighted to have my first visitor from the UK come and stay recently! My Dad (Bryan) returned home on Tuesday after spending almost two weeks here. He very kindly came to help the Bible College with their accounts and also got to experience a bit of my new African life. I asked him to be a guest blogger and write a few words about his experience...

I am writing this as I sit in the departure lounge at Ndola airport (which is very small), having said goodbye to Ellie after a wonderful 12 days with her. It has been a real privilege to be here and see first-hand what Ellie and Rosie are doing in Kaniki.

Although school starts at 7.30 each morning (with porridge), many of the children arrive before 7.00 with some having walked for an hour or more. They enjoy playing on the newly installed play area or talking to their friends and offering to help the teachers get ready for the day.

In the school playground

Other than a short lesson in Bemba (the children’s native language), all the lessons are in English.  I was very impressed with the way that the classrooms have been laid out and they look great.  I found that coming to visit Ellie meant that I was a courier, as she made sure that I brought out extra resources from the UK to enrich the children’s learning experience.

Who's teaching who?

Some of the children at school

It took a few days before I really understood the impact that this small Christian school is having on its pupils.  Having visited a few of their homes, I soon realised that life for the children here is very different to what we know at home. Many of them live in very dilapidated houses made of mud or breeze blocks, with the better ones having corrugated iron roofs, pieces of plastic or another assortment of materials to cover the roof. Their houses are often no bigger than many of our lounges. Most or all of the family sleep on the floor, and often the only furniture may be a tree stump or an old oil can to sit on.  Often the families have very little food or have to go without.

During my two weeks in Kaniki, I spent some of my time helping sort out some of the accounts for the Bible College. I also managed to visit some of the children in their homes, a Zambian football match in the local stadium, a small safari park, two churches, the market, and a Zambian curry house! Everyone I met was very friendly and hospitable. The children at the school were very excited to meet me as a new visitor and one of them gave me the nickname ‘Pastor Cross’. They really seem to enjoy school and seemed very happy even though they don’t have much.

Zambian Champions League Match against Guinea

Enjoying a Zambian lunch after the Bible College church service

With the pastor and his wife at one of the local churches

 Thank you Ellie and Rosie for having me!

The Neighbourhood

The compound that Rosie and I live in with some of the other volunteers is surrounded by high brick walls, with pieces of glass and barbed wire on top. The gate is manned by two guards called Noah and Winter, who we often stop to chat to. We soon learned that Noah is a football fanatic and that Winter uses snakeskin to create art! Sometimes we take them leftovers from dinner, so they’re always pleased to see us.

The entrance at Plot 121

This means that we feel very safe living here. But it also means that sometimes it’s good to escape and get out! On one occasion Rosie and I decided to go with Simon, one of the Danish volunteers, who was going for a haircut at the local barbers.

The place is called ‘Hollywood Barbers’. It turned out to be a very popular place with people crammed into a small shack, all waiting to have their heads shaved. We chatted to a few people there (some who smelled like they had come from the bar!) but it became very noisy when the heavens suddenly opened and rain thundered down on the corrugated tin roof. Sometimes storms here lead to power cuts and that’s exactly what happened on this occasion. Poor Simon ended up with half a haircut!

Sometimes Rosie and I like to go for a stroll around Kaniki. We often wander in a loop around the college to avoid getting lost! We greet people with “Mulishani?” (Bemba for ‘How are you?’) and often we hear children shouting “How are yoooouuu?” to us. Today I also saw a Zambian person running for the first time since I’ve been here! However, I suspect he was in a hurry to get a bus rather than exercising in the middle of a hot afternoon. 

Tomato stall

Along the local road there are various stalls selling vegetables, mostly tomatoes. Bikes are popular, and I have adopted one here which has a working brake on the front but not on the back! Cars, however, are extremely expensive as they are all imported. Most people get the bus if they need to go to town, if they can afford it of course.

We also pass some bars (blasting loud music in competition with each other), the occasional small shop and a couple of churches. There is lots of maize growing here too. It seems that people living here have a bit more outdoor space than those who live in some of the villages we visit with Arise. I’ll write more about the Arise project in a future blog post.

Whenever we return home, we’re always glad for a cold drink and a chance to sit in the shade!

Lusaka, the capital city

Our mid-term break brought a most welcome rest and also the chance to explore a new city. I love Kaniki but it is quite intense living and working within a compound, particularly as it feels ‘out in the sticks’ compared to life back home. So Rosie and I decided to visit Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, for a few days.

We arranged to travel with our friend Anna (from church here) who had to go to Lusaka for a work meeting, but we persuaded to stay on with us. Unfortunately Anna’s car broke down the evening before we went! As the car that Rosie and I drive over here is only suitable for shorter journeys, it meant a five hour journey on the bus.

I was actually rather pleasantly surprised, as the bus turned out to be a coach with enough seats for all the passengers - the usual buses around town are more like vans which large numbers of people pile into! I even managed to sleep for half of the bus journey.

We met Anna in Lusaka as she had opted to leave at 5.30am! When Rosie and I arrived, we felt extremely popular! At the bus station there was a huge crowd of men shouting ‘Taxi!’ at us before we'd even got out of our seats. I literally had to push people out of the way to escape!

Another pleasant surprise was the place we stayed. At only 120K (approx. £12) per person a night, our expectations were not very high. However, we had a nice two-bedroom apartment for the three of us. We appreciated the clean tile floors which meant we could walk around in bare feet (I usually keep my flip flops on here!) as well as the power shower.

The Baptist Apartments

The apartment was a walk away from the centre. 

Anna on our walk into the city

Casually strolling along in front of us...

In most capital cities, you would expect there to be lots of historical and cultural things to do. There aren’t many in Lusaka! The only remotely cultural thing we did was go to a big market. It was great fun bartering and chatting to the people who were selling handmade crafts. If you've ever been to Africa or been given a present from here, you would probably recognise a lot of the gifts!

Another treat was actually drinking a cocktail. Yes, just the one…I thought I’d better not go overboard having had no alcohol since I left the UK! We had a tasty meal out on our first evening in the city but later found out that the dinner we'd all eaten didn’t agree with us! Suffice to say, we didn’t eat out much the next day.

Dinner and cocktails!

In Lusaka, there are three shopping centres which each have a cinema, so we were easily able to find entertainment. We enjoyed strolling round the shops, buying things that we can’t get in Ndola, having coffee at Mugg & Bean (an African coffee shop!) and seeing a few films at the cinema...five films, to be exact! We saw American Sniper, Kingsman, Jupiter Ascending, Annie and Taken 3. More movies than I think I saw at the cinema in the whole of last year! Yet it was great because it was cheap (yes, I am my mother’s daughter!) and so different from what we've been doing since we arrived in Zambia…it felt like a small taste of home.

Our bus journey back to Ndola was fairly straightforward, although rather amusingly there was a young boy travelling on the seat next to us with two live rabbits!

New Playground

One of the things I love about the children here is that they get so excited about things. This was certainly the case on Friday, when they got to play on the brand new playground at school!

Tabitha swinging away

Alice: "Miss Cross, look at me!"

A team from Denmark, who were visiting (staying at the farm), set up the playground the previous day. They were delighted to see how well it went down with the children! The playground equipment itself was shipped over from Denmark in a container, as most of the other school furniture has been - desks, chairs, mats and much more.

Angel, Victor and Purity (behind the post!), Grade 2

Bernard, Tumello and Chongo, Grade 1

At the end of the day, the children went straight back to playing on the equipment. It was quite hard to get them to go home!

Half term (mid-term break as it is known here) has arrived…phew!

Not that I have favourites

During a ‘Plan, Do Review’ session where the children were choosing their own learning activities (I am quite getting into this Key Stage 1 malarkey!), one of my pupils called Comfort kept asking for help…

Whilst pulling faces for the camera, he asked “Miss Cross, please can you do this puzzle with me?”

  

“Miss Cross, please can you help me count?”

“Miss Cross, please can you read me a story?”

How could I resist such a cutie? :-) 

Baluba Farm

Mufilira Road
Kaniki on the left, Baluba on the right
(heading into Ndola)

Baluba Valley Farm, named after Baluba River, lies across the road from our base at Kaniki Bible University College. The farm was set up in 1980, a year after the Bible College opened, in order to produce food for the college students and workers here. Today the farm continues to supports the college, financially as well as with food. They also generously donate a huge crate of bananas to the school each week for the children’s snacks.

On Tuesday last week (our day off due for Presidential elections) we invited ourselves to Baluba Farm for a tour…

Team on tour

Maize

Bananas

Each of the workers is responsible for a particular plot of bananas

Bananas galore

Banana plant flowering

Last year the farm produced over 500 tonnes of bananas!

Chicks

Chickens
(We also saw where they are slaughtered but I didn't take a photo of that!)

Cow shed

Milking time

Calves born in the last couple of days

View of the farm from the other side of the lake (where the monitor lizards live!)

Attempting to climb the water tower!

Those that made it to the top!