Observations about Privilege

Naturally, our adventures have been wrought with educational moments and realizations about privilege – ours and otherwise. Some big, some small, some expected, some genuine educational moments. We thought it would be important to share some of these moments with you from our time at Chishawasha.

Picky Eating

We knew we’d be in for an education when it came to food. Every night we eat with the families and they have a rotation of set meals each night. Each dinner includes nshima and usually lunch does too. If asked what their favourite food is, most of the children will reply nshima. Nshima, as we’ve experienced it, is usually served with some vegetable (cabbage for the most part given it’s the end of the dry season – sometimes pumpkin leaves or sweet potato leaves or cassava leaves), a form of protein (beef, dried fish, beans, or chicken), all topped with some form of gravy or relish. It’s been delicious and very filling. We’re told that if you serve a meal without nshima, your guests will come home saying they haven’t eaten – because a meal without nshima is not a meal, and a home without nshima is not a home. This lesson was courtesy of Miriam the teacher =). But when people (usually shocked that we had never previously eaten nshima) ask us ‘What is your staple food in Canada?’ we have no real answer. Some families may stick to meat and potatoes, others various cultural foods, but we have come to appreciate the diversity of our food and the choice. Choice is such an incredible thing – and we often take it very much for granted. One day we were cooking a pasta lunch on a weekend. We had bought it because it was one of the cheapest things for us to make. We realized then that what is one of the most ‘affordable’ meals at home is still expensive by standards here. Why buy pasta and a can of sauce when you can get a bag of mealie-meal (corn powder used for making nshima) that’ll last a month when combined with leaves from the vegetables in the garden and some simple additions like tomato bits or ground nuts? And just so you know, the children here eat very well. We’re told some of the children from the communities around that also come to school here, may or may not have eaten since they were last served lunch (which is provided to the students and staff at the school each day – usually with nshima). So you can imagine that even the regular rotation of meals at Chishawasha may seem like a diversity of food compared to the regular diets in some of the subsistence farms or villages nearby.

Oh, and one other small moment about food. We bought some 2% milk - which was hard to find (they usually use pure milk or long life milk). We were all excited for our Maize Flakes (a local no-name cornflakes) and we discovered our milk was bad before its expiry date. We were sad and had a moment of silence as we poured the milk down the drain. When we told Philip about it, he explained their use of milk and then got excited as he asked what we did with it. Right then we knew we were in trouble. We abashedly told him we poured it out and his eyes widened in horror. Note: Never throw out food – however bad or gross you may deem it without consulting a local first! Apparently one of the tribes (of which a number of the children and a few staff belong to) love to have curdled milk chunks with their nshima. We felt so wasteful – we really should have thought to ask first. Philip got a good laugh out of it though =).

Movie

On Friday night (two Fridays ago, actually), we had the opportunity for a special treat: Philip’s and some of the kids’ church was holding a movie premiere fundraiser for youth development camps (an important experience for the teenagers here), and we attended it along with several of the oldest children from Chishawasha. It became clear how rare and precious an opportunity the outing was for them when we saw how carefully they chose their outfits and groomed. Later, they all told us that it was their first time ever seeing a movie in a theatre – how cool for them, and what a revelation for us, who see movies whenever we feel like it. The movie was “Surrogates”, which is about people using robots essentially to replace them in all of their daily tasks for safety purposes. No one ever left their homes. It’s a disturbing concept, and we could tell that the kids had been pretty affected by it when they asked us if we had robots like that in Canada. We assured them that no such thing existed, and we hoped that it never would! They were very relieved.

Gadgets

One evening in the second week of our stay, a group of children came to visit us, and we had a great time playing music and games with them – as we often do on the weekends here. They really enjoyed trying out our guitar and drum, and when we pulled out our cameras, they got even more excited. They absolutely loved taking pictures – of each other, of the landscape, of anything, really – and we think it’s pretty awesome that some of our pictures will show how the kids see their world. At the same time, it’s yet another illustration of how something we take so much for granted, like taking pictures, is such a novelty for these children. The point was driven home even more strongly when a few of them followed us into our room when we went to put our instruments away. Until this point, none of the children had been in our room - we weren’t thinking. Our belongings were strewn about all over. One girl first noticed the velvet bag that our engagement ring came in, and she asked if she could have it. Although we certainly wouldn’t mind parting with the bag, we realized that we couldn’t give it to her because it would be unfair to the other children and would very likely create conflict. Unfortunately, the situation escalated from there. The children were examining our belongings – before we realized what was among our mess, they were looking at or playing with our iPods, cameras, Game Boy, and other simple things like decks of cards and our travel-cribbage board. Taking the first girl’s cue (which was innocent enough), they began to ask if we’d be leaving some of our toys with them when we depart – which soon turned into half-joking comments like ‘I’ll take this’ or ‘you can leave this with me’. We had done such a good job of being sensitive – culturally, economically, etc. And here we were having to tell them ‘no, that’ll be going with us’. We couldn’t help but wonder what this must look like to the children. This incident really threw us for a loop. We’d been very careful until that time so we hadn’t had too many ‘foot in mouth’ or ‘ignorant tourist’ moments. Our collection of things must have looked like extravagance in their eyes, and we are realizing that, in fact, it really is. It was an uncomfortable realization for several reasons: first, how superfluous a lot of our possessions are, and second, what kind of impact this moment could have with the children. Now, certainly they recognize that some people have things that others don’t – one child has managed to work enough doing side jobs here and there to save enough money for a PSP and a number of the older children have cell phones. Still – this moment definitely betrayed our ‘low profile’ and certainly could have changed the way some of the children saw us. Our biggest worry was that we may have alienated ourselves or, worse, that the children might want some things that they just couldn’t have. Fortunately, in the end, our actions speak louder than our possessions and we’re pretty confident that it was a fleeting moment. Needless to say, we’ve been a lot more careful about our room and our belongings since =).

Education

We all ‘know’ that education is a privilege, but our time here has shown us just what that means, in a number of ways. Every single child here recognizes that education is one of the most incredible things that they have here at Chishawasha. When we ask what their favourite thing about living here is, many of the children reply immediately ‘education’. And many more anticipate the end of holidays so they can get back to school the way the kids in Canada anticipate summer break. To see students appreciate their education this way is humbling. For these children, education is more than a means to an end. Most of these children recognize that education is not only about a better future but also about safety and citizenship. It appears that the education Chishawasha is offering is very good. There are a number of stories of students here going to other schools and being placed in higher grades. There are also a number of high-school students who are succeeding very well academically and have gotten themselves into excellent private schools and some, like Thokodzile, John, and Wisdom are even prefects.

The impact of education here is deeper than we could have anticipated. Even in Zambia, where public education is largely ‘free’, something as simple as paying for a school uniform can be prohibitive for many families. And for teens the pressure is especially complex. A number of the teenagers have expressed the difficulties that many of their peers have. They talk about an ‘old mindset’ that people have – the idea that wealth is shown by how many children they have – and so many people will have more children than they can support (we heard similar things in Zimbabwe). The students explain that some people think that if they have enough children, the children will take care of them and they won’t have to work. True or not, the pressure for a teenager to bring home an income is very real. At very least, many report that if you are a boy and are a teenager then you are expected to provide for yourself if not for the family. Where does that leave a 16 year old boy who wants to go to school if he can’t afford his own uniform? School or subsistence? They have night schools for older young adults or adults who wish to catch up with school, but even that is only semi-functional. If you are working to bring home dinner and then have to go to school, how much can you really concentrate and learn? What if you have children – which it seems many older teens and twenty-somethings have? And with the significant scarcity of jobs in Zambia, how many teens sell things on the street or have to turn to crime? Maybe this seems dramatic but hearing it from the children and seeing it on our occasional trips through compound areas to town have made it all too real. And so education is more than about getting a good job. It’s about learning a new way of thinking, an alternative way of life. It’s about learning life skills. And so Chishawasha is so much more than an orphanage with a school. It’s a family, a community, a sanctuary and a privilege that these children both understand and cherish. It is truly moving.

Much Love,
-Jimi and Jenny