Zambia

Things Fall Apart

Yeats' "The Second Coming" has been much on my mind of late. Partly this comes from reading Things Fall Apart and its later companion No Longer at Ease by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, the former of which draws its name from the Yeats. The books taken together bridge the colonial era in Nigeria and by…Read more Things Fall Apart

What I’m Doing, Part II

This is Part II. I'd recommend reading Part I first. The close of July marked the end of two weeks of teaching. A week ago, when I first drafted this post, I closed with the following paragraph: You will never meet a class more enthusiastic to be in school, even if 'school' is more enjoyable…Read more What I’m Doing, Part II

What I’m Doing, Part I

If you asked me what I would be doing before I came to Zambia, I probably told you some of the following: Teaching preschool Teaching elementary/middle/high school English Teaching adult ESL Teaching literacy Teaching elementary school math and/or science Teaching middle school math and/or science Teaching sex ed or, as it was delicately put, "reproductive…Read more What I’m Doing, Part I

Thursday, July 16: Firsts

There were riots yesterday. We left before 0900 for Munyaya, the village where the school is located. Heading west on Mosi-Oa-Tunya Road, Livingstone's main street, the first sign of trouble was traffic coming toward us in the wrong lane, treating the four-lane highway as a two-lane road. The reason: taxis blocking the two lanes opposite.…Read more Thursday, July 16: Firsts