Bush School

On the way to Kitwe Markets ( 1 hour drive on a 4 lane highway) we stopped at a Bush school that Seeds of Hope supports. We had hoodies for some students and books and rulers and pens, and a football and basketball. The school is down a muddy track under some high voltage electrical wires. The are 550 boys and 550 girls enrolled. The classrooms have no electricity, no windows and very basic desks and chalkboard. The students either come in the morning or the afternoon as there are 2 shifts. The Teachers take an hour of bus and walking to get to school and spend 9 – 10 hours at the school then walk/bus it home. Some of the kids walk for 2 hours to get to school. ( and it is raining everyday now)

It was very hard to have just so little to give them. The principal had to sort through his list of kids to find out who was the most needy, while we stood watching. Then it was which hoodie would fit which kid. It seemed that everyone needed one but we only had 30? Maybe to hand out. Phil spoke to 4 boys in grade 9 – one wanted to be a doctor, one wanted to be an accountant, one wanted to be a pilot and one wanted to be a mechanic. – What is the chances for them to ever achieve what they want.

We also had some lollipops to hand out. Sam and Phil ended up with the grade 1 class. It was like herding cats. Susan Chalkais could see that some of the kids were running around so they could get more than 1 and we had run out with a few kids still to get one. So she went through them one by one and frisked them. She found one girl – who is in the photos holding her name – Dorcas – had one hidden in her shorts as well as one in her hand. So she took both off her and told her not to steal. But when all the kids had got one she gave one back to Dorcas , so she didn’t miss out. But I am sure she wont forget the day the Masunga frisked her down.