Arriving back after the holiday was exciting and worrying at the same time. I had been wanting to get home back to my own bed but I had also got worried I might have forgotten how to teach. Arriving home from Lusaka was a little difficult.
We left at around 5am it was raining a lot so we got wet getting on to the bus. Despite arriving an hour and a quarter before the bus left we were told there was no space for our bags in the coach hold. Fortunately one of the people who work on the bus carried my bag down the aisle and put at the back, in the aisle. I went to my seat to find it was being saved for someone else. I stood by it until they eventually realised I wasn’t going to give up on my seat. It was damp by the window as it wouldn’t shut properly and it was raining a lot of the way home.
When we eventually got to Mambwe I was a bit disappointed. I think that over the holiday I had glorified the house as when we arrived I felt quite disappointed. It wasn’t in a bad state it was just that I had felt very at home before the holiday and over a month later I didn’t feel like that anymore. I don’t think being in nice hostels all the time helped but as it turns out I settled back in quite quickly after getting back.
We had the opening staff meeting the next day which was an experience. We were told it started at 9am but it actually started at around 10am and it lasted until about 15:30 so it was safe to say a very thorough meeting! There were some interesting things discussed such as the need for more boys dormitories, a new science lab, more classrooms, a new borehole, a new ablutions block, a lack of staff in certain departments, the schools farming exploits among many others. It was worth going to but it was a quite long meeting. I also had an opening departmental meeting for maths and science and I had to take notes for the maths one which took around 2 hours but was quite productive.
The first day of term was a little underwhelming there wasn’t an official timetable and there were only around 100 students on the morning of arriving. All the grades were grouped into grade classes as there were only a few from each class. This happens in Zambia because many of the pupils’ parents struggle to get the money together to pay for the term as it has just been Christmas and the farmers have just been buying fertiliser to ensure a good harvest later in the year. The number of pupils remained low for the first 2 weeks but by week three we were getting to almost the right amount.
The environment was very different when we arrived back. Before we left we had had some rains and some of the plants had started to grow. When we arrived home everywhere was green! All the bare ground had grass growing on it and all the crops like the maize had started to grow very tall. All the fields on the walk to the boma were ploughed and had varying crops growing. They mostly grow maize as with every other place in Zambia but they grow a lot of groundnuts (peanuts) and cotton in the eastern province.
Our garden which was completely baron and bare before we left was now sprouting grass in places. We have no mangos left on the trees which is a shame as we won’t have any for the rest of the year. They will start to grow before we leave but won’t be ready to eat. On the up side we have a lemon tree in our garden that has just started to grow some lemons. I just hope the kids don’t steal them before we can pick them ourselves! I’m planning to make some lemon curd and still lemonade at some point. Unfortunately the person who had been clearing our garden had stopped and become unreliable. We found a new person to do it through the head teacher’s son. He is extremely reliable and uses the money to go to school. He has to use a hoe to cut up the grass on the ground then he sweeps all the grass up and cuts back the hedges. I have no idea how they manage to all that work in the heat.
Talking about heat sadly the rains haven’t really brought much of a reduction in temperature. Overnight it still only gets to around 20 overnight and in the day its often just above 30 which is cooler but the humidity makes it feel just as hot as before. The clouds do help keep it cool but not if they aren’t thick. It does cool down when it rains but only briefly. Didn’t rain that often when we got back but recently it has been raining at least once a day.
We realised since we got back that the roof leaks in over 7 different places in the house. It leaks in the lounge kitchen and store room but not in our bed rooms or on anything electrical fortunately. The rooves of the houses are very old and are all in need of replacement they are made of grooved tiles they aren’t made of metal though. They were first installed in 1991 which is approaching 30 years. They probably should be replaced at least every 10 years but the school never has enough money.
Ill be talking about what I have got up to since we got back a bit more I just thought I would give you an update after returning even if its very late. I’ve been fairly busy which is why it has taken me a long time to actually post this post.
Jack in Zambia 