Africa Freedom Day - May 25

Schools were closed today because of the holiday, Africa Freedom Day.  In Lusaka there would be festivities, speeches, singing and dancing but here it’s just another quiet day in this small town. 

Hot water heating for morning "bathing" as its is called 

My day started as it does on many days with a trip to the fire where the water is heating outside. The host at the guesthouse pours hot water and cold water into my shower bag and helps me hang it in the shower area. 

My handy shower

Thank goodness for REI where I purchased my camping shower, mosquito net sleeping tent, and travel washrag and towel. 

I love my mosquito net (and clothes closet)

I am also thankful for my daily dose of Via coffee since real coffee is almost non-existent here. (Thank you Mr. Valencia!) When we spend the day in the field Mabuchi and I make peanut butter sandwiches with real Zambian peanut butter plus or minus bananas but today there is no need for such.

Mabuchi and I met and planned for the training we will hold on Monday and Tuesday.  I took the next few hours to get all my ideas on paper.  Needing a break and some fresh air Mabuchi and I met up in the afternoon to collect materials for demonstrating math games. 

Since we need to use whatever teachers have in the villages we limited our options to no cost/low cost items. To demonstrate addition with regrouping we will use sticks for the tens and could use stones for the ones.  Not wanting to collect a lot of stones and wash them we decided to use some beans we have and bottle tops.  It might be something teachers would not think to use.  We went to the corner bar and asked if they would collect bottle tops for us over the next few days, which they were happy to do.  And yes, many villages have access to bottles with bottle tops. We then wandered through the market and found some egg trays which will work nicely for demonstrating the concept of multiplication.  

Here are some other Zambian delicacies I learned about while visiting the market. 

Caterpillars and dried fish - good source of protein

A different kind of caterpillar and beans

Dried eel anyone?  Mabuchi doesn't care much for it.

I suppose the lack of food I find appealing is one of the greatest challenges of being here for me.  I really miss raw green vegetables and a variety of fruit.

This evening like many evenings we walked by the "pitch" and watched a bit of soccer.  I'll include a couple other photos from today.

I get plenty of stares from adorable children all the time

And sometimes I'm just a little to scary to look at

Tomorrow we are back in the villages observing teachers.