First rains of the journey!

Ever since we arrived in Africa, everyone has been telling us that the rains would be starting any time now. You can feel the tension and heaviness in the air during the days leading up to the first rains, and the resulting anticipation is unlike anything that Canadians experience. We’ve seen clouds roll in, then dissipate again several times, so that on many days we’re asking ourselves and everyone else, “will today be the day?” There is no weather forecast to let us know, so we’re left to guess (and the children are left to make bets about when it will rain!). The rains change everything here – the temperature, people’s moods, and the entire diet here at Chishawasha. The community is partially self-sufficient, so they grow much of their own produce. During the dry season, especially at the very end, pickings are slim (cabbage twice a day), but we’re told that once it’s been raining for a while, there will be a selection of fresh fruit and vegetables, and everyone is very much looking forward to that!


This evening, as usual, we were enjoying some nshima, cabbage, and beef with one of the houses, and all of a sudden we noticed that the children were all outside running around, playing, and yelling. We’d never seen them so energetic just before bedtime! Then we noticed that a wide variety of animals seemed to be furtively insinuating themselves into the kitchen where we were washing dishes. Something was clearly afoot. Then, a little later, as we were hanging out in the yard telling stories about Canadian winters to some of the more curious children (one particular character named Charles told us that if he came to visit us, he would eat all of the snow in Canada – we warned him to avoid the yellow snow), we thought we felt some sprinkles. A debate ensued about whether this was really it (and the requisite arguments about whether Charles or Monica had won the bet), and then the first drops of our first African rainy season hit us. (The spirited Charles insisted that it was not officially raining yet, and that Monica had not actually won the bet.) It was a pretty amazing moment, both for how beautiful it felt and for the children’s joy. They were so happy and so excited about everything that the arrival of the rains meant for them – from fresh mangoes to the best sleep they’ll have had in a long time. Sharing that moment with them was such a unique privilege.

Otherwise, we’ve been very busy and having an amazing time running leadership and personal development workshops for the older children here. First of all, we’re just really excited about the fact that we have the opportunity to contribute – let alone do leadership development (which we both love so much) with the children here. Beyond that, though, leadership is such an important part of these children’s lives, whether they’ve ever thought about it or not. We’re realizing more and more that many of them have incredible skills and potential as leaders already – some of the high school students earned their places in prestigious schools through stellar academic performance, and have been chosen as prefects in their schools. All of them live in houses with at least eight children and as many as 15, most of them under 10 years old, so the roles they play as older brothers and sisters are absolutely crucial to the younger kids’ growth and lives. We’re so thrilled for the chance to help further develop their potential.

Facilitating sessions that involve a lot of discussion has been a significant learning curve for us. The children have a wide range of proficiency in English, so some are much more comfortable than others with discussing their thoughts and feelings. We also have to be very conscious of the terminology we use, and of the fact that our style of teaching is completely different from much of what these children have ever experienced. We’re getting the sense that they are not often asked to share or discuss how they feel about different ideas – so exploring personal development is quite a new experience for most (if not all of them). So progress happens slowly sometimes as we break down concepts and expand the way many of the students think about topics such as personal risk taking and developing trust. We’re constantly reassessing our approach, but it has been amazing to see the way some of the children have responded. We’ve often been thrilled by their insights and how eager they are to engage with the topics, and for a few, our sessions have quite clearly been really inspiring. There have been plenty of moments of silence, head scratching and clarification but there have been equal moments of ‘ah-ha!’ and epiphany and big smiles as some of individuals grasp new ideas and discoveries about themselves. It is such a privilege for us to be a part of this and it is clear from the feedback that we’ve been getting (students, teachers and mothers alike) that these are important skills for the children to develop. But we’ve only been running workshops for two days, so we’re confident and excited that the best is yet to come - stay tuned! It sounds like there has been a lot of discussion at the houses about our workshops because the mothers keep telling us how much they’re looking forward to next week’s staff sessions (definitely a taller order for us, so we’ve got a lot of preparation to do!), so hopefully we can pull off something that will live up to the hype! But in general, we’re pretty thrilled with our situation right now – we’re spending our time with wonderful people, in a faraway place, and on top of it all we have been offered a chance to do what we do best and realize how much of a privilege that is in and of itself.

So here’s to hoping for more rains! We miss all of you, and we wish you could be here to share this experience with us.

-Much love, Jenny and Jimi