Our First day at Dwankhozi

The time we have all been awaiting has finally arrived – our first day at Dwankhozi Basic School. It was a jam-packed day, so get ready for quite the update…

First of all, as I mentioned in my last post, last night was a very special dinner. Along with Moses, Idah, and Maurice Masala, we were joined by 18 teachers, PTA members, and volunteer teachers from Dwankhozi. The room felt small prior to their arrival, but once our guests showed up, we were hard-pressed to find space. However, what the room lacked in free space, it more than made up for in delightful conversation. Our group was interspersed across four tables that were evenly divided between the Seattle visitors and our Dwankhozi guests, so everyone got a chance to get to know a new group of people.

The conversations ranged from introductions and getting to know each other to education, cultural differences, and even business. We spent over three hours mingling and getting to know the people that we will be working so closely with over this next week (and hopefully much further into the future).

After breakfast this morning we made a couple of stops to pick up supplies for today’s festivities and then made our way to Dwankhozi. After an hour of driving we pulled over to see Moses’ mother’s house and meet his mother, father, and nephew. They were so happy to meet us and I can assure you the feeling was mutual. The stop was short, but a great way to start our day.

A few miles later and we turned down the dirt road for Dwankhozi. When we got out of the van there were perhaps a dozen or two people nearby and the scene remained quiet. But after the word spread to the school houses across the property we were soon met by hundreds of children sprinting in our direction, waving, cheering, and happy to see us. It was a surreal feeling.

We spent the first hour or so surrounded by children, taking photos, and breaking through the language barrier and initial slight awkwardness that seemed to fill the air. They were happy to see us, we were ecstatic to see them, but it took some time for everyone to figure out how to show those emotions. I am not sure what it was that changed, but by hour #2, this problem had melted away and we were embraced by the community around us.

 

After the initial greetings and pictures, we sat down to begin the community celebration. Along with us there were hundreds of students, all of the teachers, a dozen or so PTA members, and perhaps 30 chief representatives and other community head figures. Everyone sat in desks in a circle around a large tree that seemed perfect for gatherings such as this and Maurice began the ceremony.

After a small speech, everyone stood while the children sang the Zambian national anthem in perfect harmony (certainly something that they have practiced extensively). Following that we were serenaded by the school choir (which has placed first in the province), shown live, student-performed plays and dances, and even had a group of community members perform a ceremonial Zambian dance – altogether an extremely impressive spectacle.

 

One thing that stuck me as interesting about these meetings is how incredible formal (and therefore lengthy) they are. Every member that stood up recognized every other individual and group that had attended, thanked those people, and only then began their speech. While this may be unique to meetings/performances in the United States, it was obvious that this was a very important meeting to the school and community. Everyone wanted to show his or her gratitude and respect to everyone else, which was quite touching.

Around 3pm the ceremony ended and everyone left the circle to begin cooking/eating lunch. In Zambia, meals follow a very specific protocol: in this instance the esteemed guests and chief representatives ate first in their own room, followed by our group and the teachers from Dwankhozi in our own room, and finally the children and their parents, who ate outside.

After eating, we continued to meet and talk with the community members. The group that performed the ceremonial dance began again, and perhaps not to our surprise, Joe decided to join them. It was the hottest point of the day, we were all tired, and Joe was surrounded by nearly 100 people as he danced his heart out in the group of community members; it was truly a sight to behold. 🙂

After this, we continued chatting and taking pictures while Tyler showed a ever-growing group of kids some card tricks and kicking the soccer ball around.

 

Around 5:15, we decided it was time to head home. The sun was going down, everyone was quite tired, and the hotel was still an hour away, so we hopped in the van and got ready to leave. Before we shut the door, the van was surrounded with children who were not-too-keen on letting us leave. We shook hands, fist-bumped, waved goodbye, and shut the door as we began the journey back to Chipata. Seeing the school shrink in the distance as we drove away was hard to see, but knowing that we still have the rest of the week to continue getting to know everyone gives us something to look forward to.

After an hour or so, we arrived back at the hotel, put in our food orders and headed back to our respective rooms to get ready for dinner, which we are heading back to shortly.

In other news, Beth and Donna are headed to Chipata tonight. The bad part of this news is that all of our bags, which contained vital supplies have not gotten anywhere closer to Zambia. We found out today that due to an IT failure at London Heathrow, thousands of bags are stranded there with no ETA, so Beth decided that waiting it out in Lusaka wouldn’t do much good. Certainly not the best news, but we can’t wait to have her and Donna back with the group later tonight. We have them in our thoughts as they still have 5 hours left in their drive to Chipata.

Anyway, that is all I have for today. Again, we can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds for us and hopefully neither can you. I will keep you posted, so look for an update tomorrow.

Cheers,

Ryan