Monday - Day 6

Today was our first day to work at St Francis Secondary School, which is run by the Friary. It was also our first day to have a collision between Canadian and Zambian ideas.

When we arrived, we found that grade 12 students were writing national exams, so the rest of the students were not at school. So, Melissa and Tamara  and Jean were not able to see the students they thought they would. So, being adaptable, they went off with Nancy to sort the donation of books that had arrived to equip a library. Doug started looking at the computers they had, most of which were not working, aided by Ted and Bill.

The idea was to move these old computers into an adjacent smaller room, and prepare the main room for the shipment of computers was on the way. However, the small room had no power outlets. So the guys got to work swapping parts and monitors around until 11 computers were working. The old/broken parts were put aside in the small room, though there is no recycling nor even a land fill to get rid of them. Bill & Ted also looked at an A/C unit that was there, but an electrician is needed for that job. Doug also removed viruses from the head master and assistant head master's computers. Bill and Ted went back to Lifesong to arrange for more lumber for the mosquito screening, and to order a projector screen to be mounted in the cafeteria. They also got back to work with the mosquito screening project, using the bits of wood that they did have. Power went out at around 11:15 so no more computer work that day.

In the library, the ladies got to work sorting books which had been donated and shipped from the U.S. Many were college/university level, and these were put aside. Fiction was put on one shelf and other books sorted by subject. The Canadians wanted to see where the university level books could be donated, and to get rid of those books which were clearly out of date (Doug filled a box of computer books that were very much out of date). The Zambians wanted to keep all the books, no matter what. Meanwhile, a government official from the Ministry of Education was touring the school, and made the comment 'none of our other schools have a library like this'. The Zambians are also reluctant to let students take books out of the library, we believe because they fear the books won't be returned. The Canadians found this idea very frustrating. After a few conversations with different people, we had to step back and remember it is not our library, not our books, and we won't be here next week to manage things, the Zambians will, so we need to honour their wishes, even if we don't understand them.

A frustrating day for us, but we remember that we are guests here, and are trying to help, not trying to impose ourselves and our ideas onto the people here who will continue to work long after we are gone home.