Staking a fish pond is not a complicated task. Measure a 15 m x 10 m rectangle, make sure it's square, then measure another rectangle in the center of the first. Mark the corner of each of the squares with a mark so that all the marks are equal level. Not complicated, but it does require doing a little bit of math and maybe even some geometry. Math can be a big challenge for the villagers in our area. Staking the pond requires the staker to add 3.3 and 3.3, or 3.9 plus 3.9 depending on the side of the fish pond being staked. My counterparts, the guys who help me do a lot of different kinds of work in my village, have completed either grade 9 or grade 11 math. They had a little trouble doing the math I mentioned above, but they were able to muddle to the correct answer after two tries. I've since started a minor program with them to do a few math problems from the Zambian Ministry of Education grade 7 practice book. I've learned that I enjoy the heck out of teaching basic math, but more on that later. One day I went to stake a pond with another group of people whose education level was probably similar to my counterparts and was composed of 3 adults and a teenager. When I posed the same question of 3.3 plus 3.3 to them, they tried a couple times unsuccessfully to do that problem in their head before they gave up. Four people. Unable to add two numbers with decimals in their head. When I gave them paper and a pen they were able to do it. All of these people are intelligent. They can grow food, build whatever they need with the appropriate materials from not too far from their back yards, raise animals, and survive in the Zambian bush for a long time with nothing on their backs but an axe or knife. But this is just one extreme example of the difference in the education of people in Zambia compared to the United States. I can not imagine how my life would have been different if I was unable to add simple numbers in my head. Would my life have been more on par with Zambians? Probably not. Would it have been any different at all? Does it really matter if someone can add 3.3 and 3.3 in their heads? I'm not sure if it does but somehow I feel like the skill of addition without paper and pen is only a simple example of the ability of someone educated in a decent education system. If they can't add that, what else are they unable to do? Something in me sees this lack of ability as almost a crime considering the grade level these people have completed. In defense of Zambians in other districts and cities, I have heard that the standards in the rural villages are much lower than those in larger towns. I heard that students in our area need only a 40% to pass the standardized tests that mark their progress through the countries education system.
There is a hardware store in Mwinilunga that Gina and I frequent to purchase various things we need for our hut. We have come to know one of the operators pretty well. One day he came outside to chat with me asking lots of questions about how long I've been in Zambia and how I came to know how to speak some Lunda, and where I was from in the United States. After the small talk, and explaining that I live in the State of Washington on the West Coast of the United States, he asked me if he could ask a question about America. "Sure!" I said. I love it when Zambians ask me questions about American culture. It is, after all, one of the goals of the Peace Corps to introduce American culture to their host culture. He asked me, "To the west of where you live, what is there?" "Well," I said, "If you go west of my State you will go into the Pacific Ocean, and if you went far enough you would go to Asia". He thought for a moment and said, "But, Asia is to the East. How is it that you go west and find Asia"? This was not the first time that I have met someone who had difficulty understanding that the Earth was round and that you could go east or west from the same point and find something on the other side of the earth before you returned to the point. They had learned that the Earth was round, but had difficulty understanding the consequence of living on a round object. The thing is, this was an educated business man that I was talking to. He ran what appeared to be a successful business and knew how to speak English pretty well. How is it that one can go through life without a good understanding of how the continents were situated on a globe? Again, so what does it really matter that this man didn't understand that you can get to Asia by going to the east or west of Zambia? Again I ask myself, if he doesn't understand this, what else doesn't he understand about geography? Does he think that Hawaii is a different country than the United States of America? Does he think that America only refers to the United States, or does he realize that America can also refer to South America? Does it matter? Would he be just as shocked to know that I don't know the difference between the tree that is used for bush rope and the tree that is used for an axe handle? Interactions like these really get me thinking about the importance of education in different cultures. Does everyone in the world need to know the same things? Again, I don't know the answer to that, but I still feel a strong urge to make sure that everyone in the world can do basic math. And knows that the earth is a sphere. Anyone know of any teaching positions opening up in Yakima in 2013?
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