We arrived at the school at 9am and immediately started our respective tasks for the day. This was the first year that we not only taught lessons, but did some work experience.
The teaching proved challenging, but nonetheless very enjoyable for all and something which was very new to the majority of us. It ranged from teaching addition and subtraction, to listing wild and domestic animals, to differentiating between nouns and verbs. The nursery and reception class also involved the children dressing up and acting out their roles in various professions.
The work experience differed for boys and girls, as jobs tend to be very gender-orientated in Zambia. One male job was transporting and selling charcoal to the locals, which entailed pushing heavy loads on a bike. Three Cranleigh boys struggled to do this but a man single-handedly does this on a day to day basis (with double the amount!). Other male placements included watering a plot of land and washing a car. The female jobs included hand-washing a heap of dirty clothes, selling vegetables on the streets, and working on a stall on the local high street. It was a very thought-provoking experience, that enabled us to consider what our prospects and lives would be like if we had grown up in this area of Zambia.
We also helped with jobs around the school; some of us painted the new toilet blocks. Tess got carried away and ended up with her face covered in paint (a lovely new moustache and goatee thanks to Jamie and Joe). Another group also helped make and serve the lunch, which proved much harder than we had expected.
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