World Wise Schools, Part 3

World Wise Schools is a program through Peace Corps where volunteers serving in various countries are connected with teachers in the States.  We are either randomly selected for a teacher or we can choose.  The Peace Corps volunteer shares info with the students about the country through letters and e-mails, and if appropriate, matches students to write to each other. 

The Yakima students we have been paired with mostly come from Mexican American backgrounds, and many were born there or are first generation Americans.  For almost all of them, English is a second language.

We paired up with students from our village basic school, which serves grades 1-9.  The students that wrote back were from grades 7-9, and were anywhere between the ages of 12 and 19, as repeating a grade several times is not uncommon in Zambia.  All of the students who responded speak Lunda only in the homes, and get basic English instruction at school.  The deputy headmaster hand-picked his best and brightest English students from the school.  Most of the selected students were male, as many girls in the village don’t stay in school past 4^th or 5^th grade.

Just a few examples, with as little editing as possible, of our third batch:

Dear Zambian student,

I do like bisicles and books my favorit book is “Narnia.”  I would also like to now wats your favorit food and book. 

Also I am in grad 8 and I ame going to grade 9.  I have 2 sisters and one brother.  I like living hear because I hav lots of caring frends who care about me and who lisin to my sad days and happy days.  They take care of me and lisin to me.  I also love writing and playing football and fishing.

Dear Zambian student,

How have you been?  I am doing wonderful.  I am wondering what your favorite color is, mine are black, green, and red.  Also do you have music there?  We have varities of music to listen to that would interest us.

So what are the hard things at your school.  For me it would be science.  I find it challenging and kind of complicated. 

Do the friends you got their good or terrible, please describe them.  The friends I got are cool and sometimes trustworthy.

The united states is an awesome place to be.  Hope you can come by.

Dear Zambian student,

Here in America It Is getting cold because It is Fall real close to Christmas.  I can’t wait until Christmas.  Everything Is beautiful there are lights at night that glow up white snow.  Everywhere yes it is cold but a cup of warm chocolate makes it all better.  The snow is cold but it sure looks pretty.  In my family there Are six.  I have two brothers my sister, my mom, and my dad.  I am the smallest one the rest are older than me.  I have pets.  Also I have 3 birds, 2 Dogs, and 1 kitty.  I Do go to school.  I go in eighth grade at Washington Middle School.  I am Also very sorry to hear that you and your family are suffering.  I wish I could help, but I do not have the supplies to help, I am too young.  Do you play sports?  Are you learning to speak English?  I speak 2 languages Spanish and English.  I am very glad that I got the chance to write to you.  Oh by the way Do you have parents?

Dear Zambian student,

I am so happy to write back.  My favorite subject is art.  We get draw, color, and work with clay.  My favorite food is chicken with rice J.  When I grow up I want to be a famous singer.  I love listening to music.  Especially listening to One Direction.  One Direction is the best boy band.  They are Zayn, Harry, Liam, Niall, and Lanis.  My favorite member is Zayn (my future husband)  Another language I speak is Spanish.  Spanish is my first language.  I have seen a lot of wild animals at the zoo.  Mrs. Wilson took us to the zoo as a field trip.  I love going to the zoo because I love animals.  After school I always watch tv.  I love watching music videos especially One Direction.

Dear American Student,

I am your friend.  I thank you for this letter I got.  I hope and trust you are ok.  And thanks for sending this letter to me again.  And my friend what type of food we heat in America?  And what types of animal.  I want the help from you to help me about the education so I want to tell you about the examination that I was write last year 2012.  My friend I am the highyest in the primary school grade 7 and 8 subject.  I have 656 markes.  So the total number of subject is 800 markes.  I want to know your subject that you do well at school.  And me my subject the I do very well is maths and my definont subject is English.

Dear American student,

I am your new friend from Africa, am doing grade nine for this year 2013.  I got have 15 years old.  In my class my favorite subject is mathematics.  I sometime during thte holidays I am I am practicint to diging the gardens, some vegetables which I like to grow are rape, onions and so on.  And Also am acting some dramas.  Am a fine boy.  We are only two, am a first born from our family am a boy and my sister is a girl.  I love to go to school every day I don’t want to losing my school.  And when I complete my school I want to be a soldiere.

Dear American student,

I am 15 years old.  I wat to ask you a quation if you are going to church or not?  But I going to church too much.

I wat to tell you about my family.  In my family there are eight.  I have three brothers, three sisters, mom and dad.  I am (number) five in my family.  In here in Zambia there are no white snow because of there are too much sun.  In my family we don’t have dogs because dogs are catching a chickens and goats.  I am going to school in grade nine.  In my family we are fuffering about money, clothers and brackets.  Pleas if you wat you can help me.

Dear American student,

Thank you for letter.  I am writing you this letter.  How are you bean.  Im doing wonderful.  And if your wondering I am a boy.  My favorite hobbies are watching movies, play soccer and so on. 

My favorite subject in school is religious education class because I like doing the activities.  When I grow up I want to be a foot baller proffesional soccer player.  I am trust you because you are friend.  I can tell her anything and I know she won’t tell anyone.  Well I wonder what it’s like where you live.  I am finished writing this letter.  God bless you my best friend.

Dear American student,

How are you by this moment of time?  I am doing wonderful.  I am try to show you my things, I like watch football, television and I like to play with my classmates even listen to music like Jolly because my friend calling me, “you jolly person.” 

My hard subject is maths, me science is simple.  This science is helping me because me I want to be a scientice. 

Here I have Godfrey he is good to me we are friends and we are at class at the same way.  My penple can you help me about this maths?

Utopia?

-->

Gina's Post

Imagine a community where . . .

-There is no homelessness

- There is no gun violence

- People grow over 90% of their own food, the majority of it without synthetic chemicals

- Parents are okay with their children playing outside at night without fear of traffic or strangers

- Life is largely free of television or commercial advertising

- If someone is sick or has died, the community gathers to support the family

- Money is rarely transferred—more commonly people barter goods and services with their neighbors

- People pay few taxes, but instead donate time and labor to their community

-People gather at least weekly to share a common spirituality, although they still have the freedom to practice religion how they wish

- There is an extremely low carbon footprint: bicycle and walking get the residents most everywhere they need to go, much of the electricity comes from solar power, and almost all commercial products are re-used or repurposed with minimal waste.

-Most of the objects that people own are either second-hand or handmade using natural local materials, and locals pride themselves on their self-reliance

- Many people own mobile devices, but face-to-face communication is 100 times more prevalent than using these devices.

- Neighbors gathering for mid-afternoon or evening chats is the norm.

- There is a communal respect for the natural surroundings

- People can leave their houses without locking the doors

- It is not uncommon hearing your neighbor singing for joy as they walk by

Many world images come to mind that could fit these descriptions:

-       An Amish community in the eastern US

-       A hippie/burning man commune in Northern California

-       An expatriot eco-lodge and organic farm in Central America

-       A yoga ashram in Bali or India

-       A grassroots back-to-earth community in Scandanavia

But . . . if just given the above description, how many Americans would pinpoint this community to rural, Sub-saharan Africa?  Before I left for Zambia, I got responses as varied as, “be careful” to “but what about the drastic poverty there?”  Indeed, the news coming from Africa bombards us with images of sad-looking pot-bellied children, guerilla warfare, and urban gang violence.   Luckily I had been to Africa before and realized this simply wasn’t the case for the entire continent.  It’s just like many outsiders believe that all there is to America is New York City and Hollywood.

Although the people I live and work with are monetarily poor (Zambia has one of the lowest per-capita incomes in the world), many of the rural traditional communities are rich in terms of social support systems and self-sufficiency. 

I’m not discounting Africa’s problems: indeed there are many.  My little Lunda Utiopian neck of the woods is often cited as having the challenges of:

-       lack of access to adequate health care

-       high rates of infectious disease

-       high birth and  death rates

-       illiteracy

-       little access to formal education

-       hard hours of labor many days of the year

-       gender inequalities

-       deforestation

-       pending encroachment of land by multinational mining companies

But, does this list of challenges mean that the proud lifestyle that the locals have chosen to preserve must be sacrificed to overcome the challenges?  Indeed, what do we as outsiders have to learn from living with people who live in an entirely different way?  What really is the value of money?  These are questions that have struck me profoundly as a Peace Corps volunteer and will indeed influence some of the choices that I make for the rest of my life.  In the meantime, I’m making my best effort to share with you that in building intentional communities in the future, we may have to step back and look at some of the less “developed” cultures to inspire and perhaps motivate us to live in a more sustainable way.