First week volunteering in Livingstone, Zambia

We have begun our projects.

We are both working in a community called Linda Farm. The project is intended to help a community of disabled adults and their children sustain themselves by raising and selling chickens locally and growing vegetables to feed the community. You can learn more about the farm by clicking on another blog I found:

More about Linda Farm

Aaron is working directly on the "blind" farm, helping prepare for a new community pre-school that is opening there. He works with a local man, Bilton and this week had a young crew of 3 boys help him as they broke up rocks, clay and cement to regrade the land in front of the school so water would run off away from the building.

Aaron's boss and his daughter

The crew

Each day, Aaron has come "home" dirtier than the day before. My favorite story week one,  is that not only did Aaron clean out the chicken coop, poop wise, he had to mix the grain and audit the number of chickens in the coop! Guess his finance skills were welcome by Bilton! Think they started with 70 birds, focused on 20 and ended up chasing 50 that "flew the coop" so to speak, as the boys forgot to close the gate! Of couse, a few chicks got away, so Aaron had to chase and grab them. He captured a dozen on his own! Oh, if only we had a picture?! The visual will have to work. His week ended with planting flowers in front of the school and the sale of 3 chickens, whose proceeds go to help sustain the farm. Aaron can now pick out a good chicken, by the size of its breast! Who knew?

First 2 birds sold for the day!

The children, all 65 of them, have been meeting in a three small rooms, each less than 100 sq. feet, waiting for the school to get ready. Sydney, check it out. Two teachers, sometimes one volunteer and 65 kiddies in pre school!! No chair, desks or supplies yet, but hopefully donations will start coming in? We also took a couple pictures of local people (approximately 90 live in the community), how they cook outside, and we tried to give you a sense of size and look of a family house, of which there are a total of 10-12.

Greens and onions

Mixing "NshIma"- daily food staple

Typical House

As for the the neighborhood around us and what we have done in our spare time, we are very close to a soccer field, a large water tower, which is our landmark, and always people walking. Most women carry child, food or water on their head plus often have a kid or two  tagging along. Most are clean and dressed well. Everyone is friendly and often say hello with a big smile to the 2 new "muzungu." or white people who are in town! Town, per se, is a 40 minute walk away, consisting of 3 or 4 blocks of stores, grocery markets, gas stations and of course, a cemetary. Who would have guessed there would be a Jewish section!?? There was a small Jewish population from late 1800's to around WWll. Early settlers came as farmers and traders. There is still a Chabad House that serves the area, however, it is in Lusaka, Zamba's capital, a mere 6-7 hour bus trip from here. Otherwise, we would check it out for the High Holidays. Will have to find services as I have before, live on the web.

My walk home

check out inscription

We either walk or take a taxi to town, for the equivalent of a dollar each, to buy groceries, water, delicious homemade Italian gelato and eat out. Otherwise, we are provided 3 meals a day at the guest house.


As for my assignment, I am at the community vs public primary school. I have been teaching 2nd graders, about 45 boys and girls, 8 -10 years old, and recently, picked up 7th graders, ranging in age from 12 to 18. They asked for help with punctuation and environment studies (pollution, recycling) as they prepare for exams to get into secondary public school---at a cost we think, of $250/year, an enormous amount of money by Zambian standards. The community school targets vulnerable children and orphans, who otherwise, may not go to school. It is sponsored by local committees of parents and teachers. These parents do not have the money to send their children to school. Resources are equally scarce here, although, most kids have desks or tables they share with 3 or 4 others. skill level varies enormously. There are kids who absolutely "get it" while others struggle painfully or just try to be invisible. Teachers seem to treat everyone the same, moving ahead whether the topic was understood or not?  I have not established enough credibility to take pictures my first week.  Will provide more observations and share pics next post.

For those observing, L'shona Tova and a happy, healthy new year.

Arrival in Livingstone, Zambia

FYI- You will enjoy blog and pics better if you open on a laptop!

Check out a few of our videos related to this post on YouTube:
Vic Falls Zambia side - Baboons on a walk




Last week, we told you our weekend plans. We visited Victoria Falls on the Zambian side, looking into Zimbabwe. This time of year is the dry season so we weren't sure what to expect. Wow! Our first view of the Falls included sheer rock gorges, falling water to the tune of 75 to over 100 meters down, or 1 football field, and yes, a rainbow! Some of you know what that means. Take a good look at the gorge and read on further for my zip line ride.

Rainy season, the falls form a sheer curtain of water over the cliff, dropping 500 million liters of water a minute compared to "only" 10 million liters a minute at the height of the dry season. That is a LOT more than Niagra on any day! The spray and mist from the falls leaves you drenched as if it awere raining during high season, which we missed.

While walking the 3 available trails, we moved out of the way for several baboons who trample all over the place, many carrying their babies, chasing their "girlfriends" or picking and grooming their pals.  If you aren't careful, they will happily pick up anything you have hanging on you or loose. Aaron almost?9lost our water bottle. Some of the baboons, the males, stood 3-4 feet tall and looked like they weighed a lot.....65-75 pounds!

 Our hike ended with a beautiful shot of the Victoria Falls bridge. The bridge was built by the British, manufactured in pieces in England, and shipped here. It opened around 1905 and at the time, was the highest bridge in the world. It is one of few bridges in the world that can accommodate rail, vehicular and foot traffic crossing over the Zambezi river, connecting Zambia with Zambabwe. The night before it was to open, the 2 large arches, one from each side, overlapped by something like an inch and a half.....fortunately contracting and fitting perfectly by morning! Phew!!

On to our last week of volunteering. We got picked up by Obey, our taxi driver who drove us approximately 4.5  miles to the farm and my school. Otherwise, it would be an hour and a half walk on very hot, dry, dusty roads in temps somewhere in the 80's. We'll pass. I got to school just before 8am every day to find the kids cleaning the courtyard which is like a dust bowl, or standing in line for assembly.

My daily routine focused on teaching 45 kids in level 2, or like our 2nd grade, ranging in age from about 7 to 12. I taught English everyday, but was also tasked by the teacher, Matildah, to teach Science and Creative Development/crafts as well as help with Math! Can you imagine, me and science or math!? In the grand scheme of things, and using their lesson book, I did okay.

The challenge is that there are not enough books to go around. 3 or 4 kids have to share or more often, look at the one book the teacher has and is using at the front of the room! The limited paper, pencils and resource books was so hard to digest and the time required to copy everything vs write in their books was sometimes excruciating to watch as they worked with short pencil stubs or waited to borrow a friends sharpener.

I attempted to solve one challenge, by buying each child a pencil and their own sharpener. They seemed pretty happy with this small effort. Now, the broken toilets and lack of running water week 2, topped all challenges to date, resulting in having to dismiss kids at break so that they could go home for water or to pee. The pre-schoolers get to run outside the gate at the same time and use the wall or squat in the bush. Delightful, .......not! We have our sponsors and others trying to solve that one, at least for the immediate short term. I may try for grant money for the longer term fix.

Moving on, when my teacher was teaching reading and history/religion in the local language, Tonga, I would help the 7th graders, ranging in age from 12 - 18, practice for their upcoming exams and play with the pre-schoolers. They were so cute and engaging. Itzie bitzie spider, hokey pokey and of course, my favorite, head, shoulders, knees and toes were big hits! There was one other volunteer at the school, named Thomas. He's from England, where he taught for his profession, until getting discouraged and quitting.

However, volunteer teaching seems to be recharging him. Sara, the little girl with all the corn row braids in pigtails, was one of Thomas', Aaron's and my buddies. She loved to hang with us and the other teachers. Check out how the teachers hold a meeting outside. No staff room here.

My final day, the teachers surprised me with gifts of earrings, a necklace and a Zambian flag wrap, called a "chitenge" and worn by most of the local women as a skirt, dress, baby carrier or apron. Pics should tell the story.

Now for Aaron's second week, Week 2 focused on continuing to prepare the school, redoing parts of the cement floor which had not cured properly, and planting flowers! Aaron personally picked up, planted and watered the green plants you can see around the playground and in front of the school. They not only look nice, but act as dust catchers when the wind blows.

The plants came from the missionary, from South Africa, who lived next door and offered to help. His farm however, was like night and day compared to Linda farm. He had all the resources the farm for the blind and disabled, can only aspire to have as they develop. A lot of pictures of the community homes give you a sense of the homestoday. Stay tuned for future posts, for a new, upcoming project, spearheaded by Aaron!

The children of the farm loved meeting Aaron each morning to say hello and see if they could help. They added to his enjoyment of this placement and, along with Bilton, his supervisor, and resident of the farm, will remain in touch through Thomas, the farm's Chairperson, who lost his sight in his late 20's, and provided Aaron with his email address.

Our final night in Zambia was spent looking over the Zambezi river, from the deck of the Waterfront pub, a popular place to see the absoutely beautiful Zambian sunset. Wouldn't you agree?

Finally, we couldn't end this chapter in Livingstone without a BIG THANK YOU to our hosts, Rabeccah and Kennedy of Dream Livingstone, a local non-profit and partner to IVHQ, the organization we volunteer through. An even bigger "zicomo" (thank you in Njanja) to Rabeccah's incredibly helpful and friendly staff: Ewaas, Wevan, Mark, Binta, Arthur and Oliver. We will miss your smiling faces.