Before the Rains

Synopsis: It’s the season of bush fires. Bashi Mutale sired – in the village another Nikki has been acquired.

In late August and September, fierce morning winds batter grass roofs, snatching handfuls of dried thatch and strewing it on the sand. Dead leaves snarl and circle angrily in the gusts. Ash from neighbors’ cooking fires is thrown on our freshly washed dishes. The afternoon brings the peak of a glaring sun and stifling heat. Panting dogs laze under shelter of skeletal guava trees, ribcages jutting from under a dull coat with each shallow inhalation. Women sigh and sink under the overhang of their grass roof before placing a baby to their breasts. Only evenings, with a blood red sun sagging wearily and bleeding into the surrounding sky, bring relief.

On the heels of this heat the rains will creep in, replenishing the parched yellow land. But before this happens, the stretches of overgrown dried grasses are scorched.

Campfires are mesmerizing in the way flames flitter about, changing the composition of wood and trapping your eyes in its primordial beauty. Fire can be devastating and dangerous, and part of its appeal is being able to control a force of nature. Bush fires hold the same appeal, but on a much larger scale. Entire fields of dried grasses, shrubbery, and small trees are burnt, the flames spreading ravenously. In theory, it is controlled by creating fire breaks, burning a small strip of land first so that the fire doesn’t have fuel to spread beyond the confines of where you want it to. But wind is a variable, and I’ve seen a defiant fire set at the school devour a teacher’s grass bathing shelter and fence. If fire breaks fail, teenage boys grab leafy branches and begin furiously beating the flames.

Bush fires start with a crackling as loud as a thunderclap, which can be heard for as far as a kilometer away. The black smoke billows out into the sky, drawing birds of prey that circle overhead, dining on the emerging exodus of grasshoppers and song birds.

I don’t know why the bush is burnt. Bush fires are often spoken about in relation to kapanga, the rats that burrow in the bush that people eat. But you can find bush rats without burning an area first. Chief Munkonge decreed that the bush should be burnt early to avoid damaging the rainy season sprouts that caterpillars, another bush food, eat, thus diminishing the caterpillar population. In the end, burning the bush might be as pointless as chitimene, or the slash and burn agriculture that’s also practiced. It might be done because the ancestors practiced it, with no regard for its effect on the environment.

I’m kind of a big deal among the under-five crowd. Malama, Juliet, Charity, and Purity, particularly, the toddlers that live closest to us, openly adore me. If we’re returning home after a short absence from the village, they shout “Ba Nikki! Muli shani?” (How are you?) then enthusiastically cheer “Ba bwela!” (She’s returned) for the next five minutes. If they acknowledge Chris at all, they also call him Ba Nikki.

So in late August when Bana Mutale gave birth at home to a tiny and perfect little girl, older sister Charity immediately declared her name to be Nikki. Her amused parents asked for my approval. So now ka (small) Nikki joins ka Chris and Shaq as a legacy of Peace Corps in our village (The previous volunteer, a basketball enthusiast, was asked to name a newborn boy).

Pre-School Updates

• From September 13 -18, three volunteer teachers from the village were trained in early childhood education. The workshop was funded locally by the Kasama Pre-School Teacher Training College and also by a USAID grant. Topics included the history of pre-school education, its importance on a child’s development, making teaching aids using locally available materials, first aid, creating lesson plans, sample syllabus, songs and dances, and child developmental stages and development. The teachers seem like they learned a lot and are excited to implement this new knowledge.

  

Ba Allan Mwango, Ba Catherine Chisha, Ba John Bwalya Kandeke, and I after their graduation.

• $921 has been donated towards the pre-school construction in just a few weeks. We still need $2872. Pleas e, please spread the word of this project. If you’ve already done so, please continue to do it. It’s pretty difficult raising publicity for what I’m doing when I’m in the village without access to any form of modern communication, so I need help. (Special thanks to Sue and Tim, Rick, Kate, and Sarah). Again the link is https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=611-061

Videos

Project Explanation
Narrated by Nicole Barren and Allan Mwango
Shot at the location of the pre-school, the center of the village often called the station because it's where people hitch rides from. Hopefully it gives you a feel for the atmosphere. Unfortunately, it's very windy on September mornings.



Sukulu Yaliwama
Words: Po po umwana wandi
(Po po my child)
sukulu yaliwama
(school is good)
nokulemba nokubelenga
(and to read and write)

A song about the value of education may seem superfluous in the U.S., but in the village, parents are often uneducated themselves and thus the importance of school is not impressed upon children as firmly as it should be. The students' parents and caregivers, however, are supportive of the pre-school. In addition to educating their children, it also gives overworked women, some of whom are also burdened by chronic illness, a small break in caregiving duties.



Mango Tree
A lively call and repeat song that teaches English verbs. The kids LOVE it.



Donate to the pre-school construction at https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=611-061
Or www.peacecorps.gov, then click 'Volunteer Projects' and search by my name or country.

Donate to the Pre-School

The Peace Corps finally put my project up on their website, so we can start accepting donations.
Please, please, please give the blog or that link to everyone you know. I've lived amongst, loved, and laughed with these kids for the past year and a half; they've taught me the Bemba language and accepted me as their friend. I came to Zambia with the intention of helping people, but the biggest change has happened inside of me. Ba Allan introduced us recently to a visiting relative as "These ones aren't Americans anymore. They're real Bembas." That inclusion into our adopted tribe has been repeated by other people too, and as a Peace Corps volunteer whose goal is assimilation, it gives me a great sense of accomplishment. But all the credit goes to the people we live with, who've taught me how to be strong and happy no matter how hard life may be, who've taught me Bemba songs, dances, cooking, and work. I've learned a lot from their children, too, my peers as far as language goes. In the beginning, they'd come to our house to stare because, well, not many white Americans jabbering in a foreign language make it to the village. Now they come to ask me to informally teach them, to play soccer and monkey-in-the-middle, or just because they're bored and want to talk. I wish I could take all of them to America with me when I leave. I like that village life is simpler, safe for children to wander by themselves, and close-knit. But I can escape it, I don't have to deal with most of the hardships. I want to save them from their futures; alcoholism, HIV/AIDS, early pregnancy and baby after baby, a 45-year life expectancy. But I can't. What I can do is build them a pre-school, which is sorely needed, to thank them for allowing us to enter their lives for two years. The most critical years of a child's development are ages 1-6. Pre-school gives them a good foundation and prepares them for grade one, gets them used to attending school regularly, fosters in them a love for learning. Pre-school education puts them at an advantage years later; children who attend pre-school are more likely to pursue adult education and adhere to development programmes. They have a head start at basic school, and a better chance at becoming literate. Short-term, they're going to be able to learn more effectively in a better-suited classroom and take even greater pride in it. This can make their lives a little bit better, put them a little bit closer to escaping the lives of their grandparents and parents.

I wish you all could come to the pre-school and see the looks of pride on these kids' faces when they write a number correctly, their smiles when they sing, and their eagerness when their hands shoot into the air to be called on. I hope the pictures can convince you to take an interest in these kids and help me help them. Even if you can only give $10, that's fine. $10 may not seem like a lot to you, but it's a very sizeable sum in the village; it can buy 100 heads of cabbage, piles of tomatoes, or bundles of greens, enough to combat malnutrition in an entire family for a very long time. It can almost buy a 50 kg bag of cement. Please help us out. And continue to check the blog; I'll update on the project's progress regularly.

The website is https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=611-061.

Alternatively, you can go to peacecorps.gov, click on 'Donate to Volunteer Projects' and search for Nicole Barren.

I also made flyers that I can e-mail by request (nicolebarrdette@gmail.com). For further information and pictures, look at earlier posts. Chris posted a whole facebook album of pictures of the pre-school at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=211887&id=713467480&l=94dff03873.

Donate to the pre-school