Confusion

First off, Leah is working on some updates to post soon. All of you waiting anxiously to hear about her medical placement will be rewarded shortly with news from her!

After a week here, I’m still quite confused as to what my purpose is within the teaching project. To be honest, African Impact is often very disorganized. We as volunteers tend to have nightly complaining sessions about all the mistakes we think AI made each day. Nonetheless, the organization has done amazing things in and around Livingstone like building schools, creating HIV education and adult literacy courses, and creating opportunities for afterschool art and sports clubs for kids. The good work of African Impact here cannot be disputed. When it comes to managing and utilizing its individual volunteers, though, AI could do much better.

The whole teaching project in Livingstone is a bit confusing. I mentioned in prior posts that most teaching volunteers are placed into one classroom for the duration of their stay. Ideally, most volunteers help the teacher with grading and lessons and can make time for those struggling with the subject. In reality, though, African Impact volunteers in the classroom just create an excuse for the regular teachers to not show up for work. To be fair, most of the Zambian teachers are also volunteers. However, they would faithfully come to teach each day if AI volunteers were not in the classrooms. As such, it feels as if we teachers are more problematic than productive.
In Zambia, as I mentioned before, standardized tests and rote learning are really the only teaching methods used. Being a trained educator, I’d love to offer better instruction, but feel it’s pointless and actually counterproductive because the students must adapt to learn in the style their regular teachers use. The cultural gap between Western teachers and Zambian students also hurts progress. For instance, I had to teach simple interest to the math students today. These students had never even been to a bank, let alone worried about interest rates.

My concerns are not unlike most other teaching volunteers who are struggling to find a role. I have yet to speak with a teaching volunteer who feels useful and needed in their schools other than to give the regular teacher an excuse to stay home. There seems to be such an opportunity to help with education here. I’m on the verge of requesting an assignment change, but the better option would be to find a way to use my skills and training to serve Livingstone’s students. Perhaps with some patience and prayer, clarity will come my way.

With frustration,
Zac