Read journal entries from trips to Zimbabwe going all the way back to 1994, notes from Elias and blog entry’s from people currently in Zimbabwe.
October 7, 1994
I’m a little disappointed that I haven’t settled into a routine that I’ve loved but the teaching is good and will get better in November. The kids mostly girls dance, sing, jump in circles sometimes in the best songs – the little kids see us arrive and run following the truck yelling and waving, sometimes I take a step back and can’t believe I’m really doing this – I think in hindsight after I’ve crossed ‘that line’ back to Americans-way I’ll marvel at the ways of Chiredzi.
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September 4, 1994
…and at nights as the sun set and the fire rose we sat and talked until slowly we’d fall asleep in the canvas chairs. Elias was there – it was fun to have him there even though Oaks and I could have done any of the work that he did. I sat in the back of the pick-up with him telling him what to expect in his upcoming drivers test and among other things we decided that life was hard but good and we were thankful for what we had – that may be on two different scales but deep down we meant the same thing. I also met his kids Manuel and Honest and his wife down at 17.
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August 20, 1994
We did some serious teaching yesterday – I taught for 4 straight hours going off on tangents given little or no reasons for any wild diversions from the somewhat boring curriculum of reading comprehension – juggling and eating apples at the same time was a huge hit as the whole school ran to watch chanting ‘wangona’ and laughing. The day before, I sang Kasiwai to them as the clapped their hands and sang back. I finished the day off yesterday with Simon Says to the delight of the kids. That’s what I came here to and I must be patient – because really it is incredible to be there in the classroom with w/ 40 eyes glued to you as they reflect every smile and listening intently – the future is bleak for most of these kids – it’s fun to be looked on with such wonder as if by looking harder at me they could unravel and understand who I am and how different my life is – the big difference is opportunity and it’s sad that there is such a lack of it on their part and yet still their thirst for knowledge exceeds any of the schools back home – and I proved a bad example today when I said I’d rather climb trees than do homework, cause they all raised their hands when I said, “who likes homework?”
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