My permanent site is in a village called Nglande in the Chitambo District of Central Province. This area has lots of hills (some call them mountains but being from the Pacific Northwest they are hills to me), valleys and is a forested area. Looking out my front door I see lots of trees and the top of the next “mountain” which the sun sets behind every night. Central also will randomly have large rocks protruding from the ground which only adds to its appeal. People in my village speak a mix of Bemba and Lala, but so many people in the area speak English (it is the countries national language) that I unfortunately am barely using my Bemba. 
There are some really beautiful views in my area. From one of my host fathers farms you can see the forest canopy of the valley below and the rolling hills all around. There are even a couple places that have the quintessential “African” landscape with the thick tall grass and trees sprinkled about. I think my site is definitely worth a visit from the States! 

My site is very spread out. My house is about 10 kilometers from the road/tarmac. Unlike other villages there isn’t any true village center. There is no market or shops. So I have to pack in my food when I come from the BOMA. Which isn’t horrible because my host father send the kids to the tarmac to help me or sends them with my bike (another reason why my host family is great).

Besides fish farming and continuing the bee keeping project the last volunteer had, one of my main projects I’ll work on for the next two years is trying to help my Community School become an actual school recognized by the government. Community Schools have volunteers from the village teach the classes and not government teachers. They also don’t receive much financial help from the government. 

Right now the Community School (grades 1-4) is in disarray. The school is a mud brick rectangle shape building with two classrooms and a small office/storage area in the middle. Each room is separate from one another and has its own door that you enter from the outside, no hallway. The windows are basically just square holes in the classroom walls. There is no glass or bars covering the window. There is no door for the classrooms either just a doorway. The office had a door and a lock (a chain that goes through the doorframe and the door that you have separate lock for) which I guess is a newer addition to the school. Unfortunately only one of the two classrooms is really useable because the roof of the second classroom is falling down and there is no chockboard. So there is a lot of work to be done on the physical building part. There is also a ton of work to be done on the teaching side. The school has almost no resources only amount of school limited books that were provided by the government. The teachers have no lesson plans or ways to keep records. This will be the first thing I focus on. 

Fixing the Community School is an vital project because the closest government school is a 1.5-2 hour walk away. As you can imagine having the younger grades do this walk everyday through a forested area is a scary thought. Some of my host siblings that are in the upper grades do this walk. Recently they have been doing the walk barefoot because my host father just bought them shoes and they don’t want to get them dirty. Which I find cute and incredibly sad at the same time. It really makes me disappointed in recent cuts to humanity programs like Let Girls Learn and the Peace Corps that can help with problems like this (especially when Peace Corps members are volunteers). 

The school system in Zambia is a little different than ours. First they don’t have a big summer break like in the US, they go to school for three months then have a one month break, plus national holidays off. So they have the month of April, August and December off. Which I think is a great school schedule! 

In Zambia grades 1-7 are free from the government but grades 8-12 the parents have to pay for. This can be very hard for the parents to do, so often times you’ll find people who don’t have higher then 7th grade education. The cost of the school varies in my area, it’s anywhere from 650-1050 kwatcha (Zambians currency) that is about $65-100. Plus the school several hours away so you have to pay room and board as well. Unfortunately this is impossible for many parents to pay. What happens is children go to school when their parents can afford it. So, there might be several year break between grades 8 and 9, for example. One of my host brothers is almost 22 and in 11th grade. He is a very dedicated student, which I am really impressed by. There probably is a lot of pressure to do well because such a large portion of your families income is devoted to your schooling and the fact that many families can only afford to send one child at a time. 

I am hoping that all of this feeds my passion to help the Community School. Also, that it is a project that I will be able to accomplish in two years time.