Started the morning today with what I’ve decided to call a “copper shower”. You can smell the copper in the water here as soon as you turn the water on. It is an almost overpowering metallic smell. But it was hot, so I decided that was a good trade-off for the smell.

Last night, I learned you must remember when you are sleeping under a mosquito net, you should be extra prepared. The net is suspended from the ceiling, and after you get into the bed, you tuck it under the mattress. This is fine, except once you tuck it in, you can’t get to the nightstand to reach your alarm clock, bottle of water, or to put down your book. I must have tucked and untucked the net 10 times last night. Then I forgot about it when I got up in the middle of the night. You can get untangled quickly, but when you’re half asleep, it’s a bit annoying. Then while you are annoyed, it hurts when you run into the bathroom door. I should do much better tonight, since I am now a pro with the net.

Today we visited many people in the local community. Our first meeting was with the community leaders and many Caregivers. They talked about how they take care of orphans and vulnerable children in the community, and how they care for people living with HIV and AIDS. They do amazing work! In this area, there are 42 trained community members who EACH take care of about 20 children and 6 ill adults. They are all volunteers and have families of their own to take care of as well.

After we met with the leaders, we visited a young girl and her younger brother. They are orphans living alone in the community. One of the Caregivers checks in on them daily, and the community members have come together to help her go to school. School is free from grades 1 to 7. Once you start 8th grade, the family has to pay school fees. Without the help from her community, she would not be able to attend school. She is very quiet and is going into the ninth grade. She loves science, and wants to study to be a nurse. At first, she was too shy to talk to us, but when we started asking her about school and her favorite subjects, she brightened right up! Her brother is a bit younger, and would really prefer to climb trees right now. I think having so many visitors was a bit too much for him. It was a bit hard for us to talk to him while he was up in the tree. I thought about climbing up to sit with him, but couldn’t figure out how to do that in a culturally appropriate way while wearing a skirt.

We then visited another family with five children. Their mother is a traditional birth attendant, and had been called away just before our visit to help an expectant mother at another village home. The oldest girl in this family is 16 and in the 7th grade. She likes math, and hopes to be able to do better in her studies this year so that one day she can go to the 8th grade, and later study to be a nurse. The children had been given a game, but didn’t know how to play it, so we showed them how to play. They are very excited to start playing the game this afternoon.

We then went to visit a school in another community near by. This school is very excited because they were recently given funding to put electricity into the school. The head teacher was already making plans to make a resource center, computer lab, home-ec lab, etc. He doesn’t know where he’ll get the resources, but he says if he doesn’t have a plan, then he won’t be able to start looking for the resources! He says he started the school in 2006 with just over 150 students. When school starts again this term, he will have nearly 1200 students in grades 1 to 8. He is very excited, as this is the first time he will have the ability to teach 8th grade. Until now, he only had classes through grade 7. The amazing part is, he has only 16 teachers, 10 of those are for grades 1 to 7, and the other 6 are for grade 8. And he says he is “quite comfortable” with this, as he has more teachers than other schools. On average that is 75 children per classroom. When you factor in that just over 1100 of the kids are in grades 1 to 7, and there are only 10 teachers for these grades, that’s 110 children per class. They have staggered the times a little, but as far as I can gather, there are times of the day when all the children are in attendance.

There are many dedicated people here in the communities we visited today that are doing everything they can to help the others in their community, and their work shows. Kids are in school. Homes are made of brick or clay vs. mud huts with thatched roofs. Community members find income generating activities, and have made actual business plans to figure out how to pay school fees for orphans. It is amazing what can happen when a community really comes together!

Tomorrow, we’re moving on from Kitwe, to a town called Chingola. We have a day of rest after we arrive, but will most likely spend most of that trying to catch up on all the work and report writing we have to do from our visits this week. Hard to believe we’ve been here a week! But I will definitely be ready to come home when it’s time. It is interesting to meet all these people and see the country, but it can be exhausting too!