Last day in the field

Today was our last field day. We are now about 450km from the capital city of Lusaka. Solwezi is a small town, but very active. There are several mines near here, run by South Africans, all mining copper. They’re all open pit mines and absolutely huge!

Our day started by visiting two schools. One trained teachers, and the other was a high school for grades 10 to 12. We didn’t meet any of the teachers in training, but did get a chance to talk to several of the high school students. They are very well spoken, and clearly enjoy school, particularly science and math studies.

We then drove out quite far from the town, and visited a rural school. Unfortunately, due to road conditions, we were late, and only had a chance to talk to one student, the “library prefect”. He is the student in charge of all the books in the library. Here they also lend books out to the community. Again, the favorite subjects were science and math, followed closely by world history. Even within the community, these were the most checked out books!

While in the library, it started raining. Huge raindrops! And lots of them! Instantly, the ground went from hard clay to huge mud puddle. We waded back to the truck. The helpful man with the umbrella didn’t really help much, but he tried! And then off to the next location.

At the next location, we were served lunch. A wonderful person who works in the community made lunch for all of us. We had chicken, beef stew (or something like it), cooked sweet potato leaves, fish head, potato salad, mushroom salad, green beans, nshima, rice and a few other things. This lady is amazing! All made in a small kitchen with no running water and solar power! It was the best food I’ve had since I’ve been here! And we have had many good meals!

Then off to a clinic, and a community gathering point where we met more Caregivers. Each of these people cares for 33 children. Some have one parent, but the parent may be very ill. They walk between locations and check on some daily, and others weekly. Can you imagine taking care of your own family, home, and fields, and then also caring for severely ill adults, and their children as well? I don’t think I could do it!

Today we drove the 8 hours back to Lusaka. What a long ride! Along the way, you see field after field of corn, soybeans, coffee, groundnuts, tomatoes, onions, and other crops. This is rainy season, so everything is wonderfully green. You also see many people walking along the side of the 2 lane “highway”. Even children as young as 4 and 5 years walk alone or with other groups of children on the way to school, or other locations.

Tomorrow is our last full day here. We’ll spend most of the day in the office doing all that wrap up stuff that is required at the end of a visit. One more update, and then the long trip home!