Grace Academy involvement with Zambian Schools

During their trip to Zambia, Grace Academy spent several days with two Zambian schools.

Prior to the trip eight Grade 10 students from Christian Vision Academy had been asked to take part in paired activities. These involved face to face discussions where each student asked and answered questions about their life, interests and ambitions, using the opportunity to find out about life in a different culture.

For this activity they used the Bible College Chapel, which also serves as a school hall for assemblies:

While this was taking place, Sarah and Katie, the two English teachers accompanying the group took the remaining Grade 10 Class for a poetry lesson:

If you look closely at the table behind Sarah, you may notice that it is in fact a billiard table! Grade 10 have their lessons in the Bible College recreation room.

Katie and Sarah then took some other lessons in Grades 8 and 9, while the Grace students visited the homes of their Zambian paired student. Many of them live in simple African homes, sharing their bed with several siblings and having very few luxuries. This was an eye opener for the Grace students who realized that even the most humble of English dwellings are quite palace-like by comparison.

After lunch there was a cultural concert, with lots of Zambian and English singing and dancing:

The day spent with King's School in the nearby village of Mukobela was very different. The village has no mains water or electricity, so the students had another cultural experience - pumping water from the village well...

...and carrying it back to school:

We took a couple of assemblies at the school, and the teachers took some lessons:

But the main purpose of the visit to King's was to help paint their newly built secondary building.

Sue, the School Principal, and I had purchased the paint and rollers before Grace arrived in Zambia, so everyone soon got very busy:

Two coats to this main hallway were completed, plus painting a few greenboards (previously, blackboards).

The group photo at the end has some odd light splodges on it, which I think rather complement the many paint splodges on our clothes!

Sue is on the far left of this picture.

On Saturday 26th July, after Grace Academy had returned to England, the secondary building was officially opened, by a friend of Sue's from South Africa:

The guests were then invited to view the newly painted building:

Sue has involved her students and staff in every aspect of this project. They even made the college style chairs:

Of course, most of celebrations took place outside, with the students and their parents:

Grade 12 students wear suits and always look very smart despite the dusty conditions and limited laundry facilities:

I have enormous admiration for the work Sue is doing in Zambia. She has not only built two schools and three churches, she has ten Zambian children living in her home:

Her 87 year old mum was also visiting her - another amazing woman!

On top of the world!

One of the activities in the Grace Academy programme was a bush walk, which included climbing a local outcrop of iron ore, called Sanjay Hill:

It is a substantial pimple on the fairly flat landscape, but nevertheless, gives wonderful views in all directions.

The steep climb took a path covered with loose stones, but we all managed by holding onto overhanging branches for support and accompanied by several local kids from the farm site:

The top is made up of huge slabs of rock, which made a great place to sit, rest and take in the views:

On the hillside there are several interesting features.

A man who lives on the hillside, makes charcoal to sell locally:

However our guide, one of the Christian Vision guards, commented that this practise is gradually de-nuding the hill and making the paths unstable.

The hill's 'resident' sleeps in a natural cave, which provides some shelter from the cold winter nights at this time of year. Penny bravey posed at the entrance to the cave:

Another hole in the hill, is a mine shaft from some old workings. This time our guide refused to go into the entrance, warning us not to go in, as people have entered and not come back out!

We heard recently that Sanjay Hill may soon disappear from the landscape, as its heavy iron pyrite will soon be mined again. A steel works' is currently being built on the River Kafue. When it is complete the iron pyrite at Sanjay Hill will be 'harvested'. This project will have an enormous environmental and social impact on the area.

At present the route to Sanjay Hill is surrounded by small villages with traditional homes...

...and women carrying babies on their backs, gather sticks for burning on small fires:

I feel rather sad that this quiet way of life may go forever, to be replaced by heavy trucks thundering down the road which curently runs through the Christian Vision site.

As we were walking back a friend from a nearby village offered some of the kids a lift to the crossroads, on the back of her truck - it was another highlight and definitely not covered in the risk assessment!

Grace's Game Viewing Opportunities

During their 12 days in Zambia, the party from Grace Academy had several opportunities to view African game.

The first, which was not strictly 'Game Viewing' was at Kalimba Reptile Park. Besides lots of snakes, there are enormous breeding crocodiles:

On this trip we took the children who live in the houses near to where the students stayed - a housing area on the site called Delta, so they are known as the 'Delta kids' and they really enjoyed having new neighbours. In the build up to Grace's arrival they helped make their beds and afterwards, helped to clean the houses and move furniture. Here are two of them near to a big female crocodile:

The reptile park is also a fish farm, so quite a few of them fished with African rods:

We caught five bream, which were cooked alongside sausages, which we had brought with us:

'Hedge' found a crocodile tail...

...others swam in the pool...

...but all had a great time!

An unexpected game viewing opportunity, happened when we visited the Zambian Parliament. Within the grounds are a herd of impala and we saw them leaping and running through the manicured gardens...

...before we went into the chamber, where the game was of the stuffed variety!

This is the closest I'll ever get to a leopard:

The hour journey into Lusaka passes close to a small game park called Parays. We had a school trip with Grade 10 class and saw Buffalo...

...zebra...

...and several kinds of antelope, like impala and bushbuck.

Another unexpected and rather unwelcome game encounter happened on the day we travelled to a village called Mukobela. During the football game, a boy brought a snake he had just caught - it was still alive, but stunned:

The final opportunity for game viewing happened in Livingstone, right at the end of the trip. It was a very cold morning, so Sarah and Katie, teachers at Grace Academy were trying to keep warm:

Here we saw warthog...

... and lots of giraffe...

...including some baby giraffe...

The national park at Victoria Falls only has one rhino, which is guarded all the time:

The only elephant we saw was drinking beside the Zambezi River...

...but while we were watching him, he decided to move onto the road we were on. We travelled behind him and then he suddenly turned and started to come towards us, trumpetting, with ears flared:

This photo shows how close he was, but doesn't convey the speed of the elephant, the truck reversing, the fear of everyone on board, or the screams!

It was a scary moment, which everyone enjoyed - after the elephant had moved on, of course!

Grace Academy to Zambia

I was shocked to realise that it had been five weeks since I posted anything on this blog! Where has the time gone? The answer to that is in this posting's title - Grace Academy came to Zambia for twelve days, from July 10th-22nd, so I am just recovering from the hectic weeks prior to their arrival and of course, their time here.

Although the planning had been going on for many months, the pace increased as the arrival date approached. We had had a busy two months with many visitors coming through, with its accompanying hospitality, so I think I was already in a low state. Ten days before Grace arrived my body reacted and I came down with laryngitis, finally going to the doctor two days before the due date. I had lost my voice completely, so on 10th July, when I met the party of 12, plus a film crew from Christian Vision's Creative department, the sound coming out of my mouth was very strange indeed!

Nevertheless, it was a group of very excited young people who were ushered into the VIP lounge at Lusaka Airport, while their visas were being prepared. We had hired a bus for the various trips, but it was rather a squash to get all the luggage on board:

This is one of the first group photos I took, with one of the Zambians:

The eight students and four staff from Grace Academy, Solihull, UK, had been fundraising for many months for this trip. A packed programme was about to unfold. After some rest, they had a welcome braai where they met the senior managers, and had their first taste of Zambian food and vibrant song and dance.


An early morning tour of the farm on site was an eye opener for them. Most had never been to a farm before; they didn't know how maize flour (to make nshima, the staple food of Zambia) is milled...

...or hadn't ever been up-close-and-personal with a herd of bulls:

From the farm we moved to the school on site, called Christian Vision Academy (CVA). It was Sport's Day; a wonderful way to break the ice. Besides all the usual track events there was the sack race...

...the egg and spoon race (unboiled eggs)...

...the water race...

...the bottle race...

The Grace students were split between CVA's houses, so they were competing against each other. This is Elliot with his relay team:

Tall 'Hedge', whose name is also Elliott, was popular with younger children:

The winning team was a delighted, Joshua House:

It was a wonderful start to the trip...