Workin' Life... not quite 9 to 5

I've now been an official volunteer for 2 months and I'm starting to see how my next two years will be spent. I have been visiting schools, meeting with district officials, and getting the lay of the land, literally. All of the people and places I visit I do so with my trusty bicycle so I can painfully attest to the accuracy of the 1950's topographical maps of the area, yes those 100 meter peaks and valleys do add up quickly! Today I met with the District Resource center coordinator to discuss the allocation of money to 4 IRI centers in my district. They will be awarded 10 million Kwacha (or just over 2,000 USD) to help construct buildings for them. Not a bad start however there are over 60 IRI centers in the district so we've still got a long way to go. The IRI centers will most likely be building classroom blocks for their schools, meaning a proper structure that will keep the rain out during the 3 to 4 month long rainy season. However both the basic schools and IRI centers in my area need lots of work. Here are a few of the projects that the schools in my area will be working and why :




Poultry: In order to raise more money for things like exercise books, chalk and teachers salaries schools often start Income Generating Activites. This can be a field on which the students grow corn to sell etc. My zonal head school will be starting a chicken coop in which they have chickens laying eggs to sell. We'll be setting that up as soon as we receive the start up money which should be any time from now....




Teachers houses: In order for another teacher to be sent to the school by the government a house has to built. As part of the teacher's salary housing is provided and it's a far trade since teachers often have to live in rural areas without friends or family nearby. However when schools are understaffed it can be quite a hurdle to overcome since buildings are expensive and funds aren't provided by the government. For this I'll be organizing communities to make bricks, and looking in all the places I know for funds after that.




More Classrooms: With over 100 kids in a classroom on occasion this one is self explanatory. For this too it will be working with locals to gather/make building materials and then helping them write grants for the cement, roofing sheets etc.



Library: As you might know I happen to be a reader. I love books and my villagers now tend to know that. I'll often crack open a book while cooking (cooking on a charcoal can take some time) or after a long bike ride. More often than not people will come up and start chatting with me while I'm reading, oh well, but one question that never stops coming up is "Are you reading the bible?" Despite Zambia being a christian nation the books I'm reading rarely look anything like the bible yet the question keeps coming up. It turns out it's not a subtle attempt at proselytizing but just the simple fact that 9 out of 10 books these people have assess to during their lives are in fact bibles. Nothing wrong with that per say but variety is the spice of life and the bottom line is these people need more books.



One of the schools in my area is interested in building a library. They have a few books and currently are raising money for windows in the library- however, they could always use more books! This is for a school with grades from 1 to 8 and English is taught in schools so language isn't a problem. If you are interested in collecting donated books ( from churches, libraries, schools etc) in your area, or just sending a few books to contribute that would be great. The US Post office will let you send 66 lbs of books for $10.00 in a M - Bag (Mailer bag: http://pe.usps.gov/text/imm/immicl/immicltz_026.html#NL508_26

Unfortunately the USPS has discontinued M-bags. If you are aware of another way to ship books cheaply to the Zambian Schools which desperately need them please let me know

So feel free to go ahead a send them.