Day 9

Day 9
Friday, September 26, 2008
A five o’clock start for the long drive northeast to Lake Tanganyika and the city of Mpulungu. We are accompanied by Sister Sabina for the day. Baptista drives the Land Cruiser, skillfully avoiding the thousands of potholes on the highway. Those she can’t avoid we go over veeerrry slowly. What does this country do with their road taxes?? Probably spends them fixing the roads that carry more than a dozen cars an hour!
Our first stop is at Mbala where several Sisters live who work in the government hospital there, as well as doing home care visits to parish families. They fed us breakfast at 7 a.m., and we visited with Sister Theresa, now retired, who helps keep the house running. A brief visit to the Cathedral across the street is impressive. A concrete parabolic roof gives the acoustics a marvelous three second reverb time. I was tempted to break out in songs. Wish I had my quartet there.
On to more potholes and to Mpulungu where those forest service roads they choose to call streets got Baptista lost (she hasn’t been there in years), She had to ask directions at least three times. Finally we arrive at Stella Maris Convent School. There Sister Barbara introduced us to the school and all the classes. They currently have 428 students but they began in 2000 with only preschool children ages three or four. They have steadily added one grade each year until now they teach through grade 7. They may add additional grades as funds become available. We visited each of the classes from 7th grade through preschool. In every class the routine was the same: as we entered the entire class immediately stood and said in unison, “Good morning, Teacher Barbara. How are you today?” Sister Barbara would respond, “I am well, and how are you?” To which they would respond: “We are fine, thank you.” Then Barbara would say, “I am not alone today. I have brought some visitors.” At which the children would say, “Good morning. Visitors. You are welcome. How are you today?” We would say we were fine and ask them how they were. They would say, “We are fine, thank you.” Then they would be invited to sit down. We would tell them our names and they would repeat them back. We would invite them to ask any questions, then take a picture (and walk through the room showing them the picture, which totally amazed and delighted them), and then go on to the next class. A charming and decent way to treat your guests, don’t you think?
We had brought a couple of footballs and two Aerobies but didn’t have a chance to try them out since the students were all in class. We saw the playing fields for the boys and girls, rocky places mostly level, but found that there was no place for the preschool and reception (kindergarten) classes to play safely on that rocky hillside. We talked to Barbara about developing a plan for such a space, without promising anything.
Moving on we went down to the shore of Lake Tanganyika where we visited the fish market. What an experience!! This is a major market for the nation with wholesalers coming from as far away as Lusaka and Livingstone to purchase the small dried fish which the population enjoys as a major protein source in their diet. Millions and billions and trillions of fish along the lake shore, drying, being bagged in large 100 kg bags, being sold to individuals for their own consumption. The Sisters were shopping for fish for several of their projects, and we came back with 10 of the large bags and a few others. Needless to say the mini bus we borrowed (just for the trip to the fish market) was packed. And reeked of fish!
We then took all the fish back to the Convent, unloaded and enjoyed a pleasant lunch. During lunch, chatting with Sister Barbara, we discovered to our surprise and amazement that the school had no water at all!!! They have to transport water in containers twice a day from the Convent to the school. How in the world can you run a school of 428 students with no running water? Very creatively it turns out – and pit toilets for kids and staff alike! They have a plan to get water piped from the government well across the street, including signed permission letters, contractor estimates, etc. All they lack is the money.
The school gets no government money and is completely independent. Of the 428 srudents about 100 receive some kind of scholarship aid. So you can see that it’s going to be a tight budget any way you look at it. One of the interesting aspects of student life at each of the schools we visited is that students all have cleaning assignments related to the maintenance of the building and/or the managing of the school garden which supplies much of the food they eat while at school. When we mentioned that students in the US don’t have such assignments the startled response was, “Well, what do the students do???” That, among several other differences in our educational systems, gives pause for considerable reflection.
The long drive home was tiring for Baptista so, after a few minutes of dodging pot holes, she turned the driving over to me. This was my first long distance drive on the left side of the road and I managed it without killing all of us and without blowing out any tires on those miserable pot holes. Paula managed to stay amazingly sane during that whole drive home.
Bruce and Paula