This blog was written by Tinkani Ngoma in Kitwe, Zambia, between 19th and 25th July. She is a Peer Health Educator supported by Cecily’s Fund. I have added brief explanations or translations in brackets where necessary. You can read more about the Peer Health Education programme which Cecily’s Fund supports on our website
Sabita
Introduction
My name is Tinkani Ngoma. I am a seventeen years old. My father died three years ago in March when I was in grade ten. Ever since then, my life has been very difficult because my mother struggled very much just to pay for my school fees, provide me with the school necessities. (Cecily’s Fund helps children in Tinkani’s situation by providing them with shoes, uniforms, books, pens and help with school fees.)
My mother manages to look after the family by renting out one of the rooms of the house. On Sundays she goes to a certain lady whom she helps to do house chores and after she is paid she uses the money to pay for my young brother’s and sister’s school fees and some she uses to buy food.
Recently she decided to rent out the whole house. I decided to stay with my aunt so that I could keep my job, if I shifted with my mother it would have been very difficult for me to reach the place where I teach, it would have been a very long distance. My aunt also looks after my other cousin.
I am going to tell you how I will live my life and what I will be doing for the whole of this week from 19 to 25th July 2009.
Monday 19th July 2009
This morning I left home at half past ten for my teaching session at Mindolo Basic School. My partner and I (peer health educators run workshops in pairs) found our contact teacher who directed us to the class. We taught the pupils about tuberculosis (tuberculosis is very prevalent in Zambia, partly because of HIV which destroys people’s immune systems). The students posed many questions as they were eager to find out more. The session ended by 12:35 pm. By the time I reached home, it was half past one. I had my lunch and rested a bit. At 3pm, I decided to go and visit my friend. On my way, I met an old school friend. We talked and talked until we found our separate ways. Unfortunately, my friend was not at home, so I decided to go back home. Before going to bed, I read about ‘Life Skills’ in preparation for Tuesday’s class session.
Tuesday 20th July 2009
I woke up around 7 am and cleaned the bedroom and the entire house. I ate nshima (a thick paste made of corn flour, the staple diet for most Zambians) for breakfast because I did not want to eat sweet potatoes. I was at my Auntie’s place around 9 am. It was then that my mother called me and told me that she had decided to shift back to our house in Chimwemwe because our tenant was not taking good care of the house. My mother had decided to go back and rear chickens for selling. I was actually very happy because I miss her a lot. At nine thirty hours, I took my bath so as to prepare myself for work. My partner came to pick me up at around ten o’clock and we started off to work. Today, I had planned to have a lot of pupils and teach them a role play. Unfortunately, there was a parade in school and not many children attended my lesson. Despite having fewer pupils in class, I enjoyed teaching the grade eights because they were active and responsive in class. By 16.22 pm I am at home and planning to go to the salon to get my hair plaited. I returned home by quarter to seven, and we have just had load-shedding (a process for managing electricity flows which causes electricity cuts). Since supper is ready, I planned to eat and then prepare for tomorrow’s session.
I believe that tomorrow is going to be a nice day because I will be teaching a good topic; “love and relationships”. I know that the pupils will enjoy it, they like talking about such things, to do with love. When we teach them such topics they open up and ask questions like when is the right time to fall in love? What is love? Why is it that when a boy develops feelings for a girl they turn to feel shy? Is it possible for a boy or girl to be just friends?
Wednesday 21st July 2009
I will start my session by noon and am told will reach out to a large number of pupils. By 10.30am I am ready for work- waiting for my partner to come and pick me up for work. We reached the school premises hoping to find a large number of students; however we were met by a class that we were not scheduled to meet that day. We decided to see the deputy so that he could write a report for us stating the reason we could not teach the required students on certain days. We were then told to go home because of the situation.
When I reached home I relaxed and helped with some household chores. By this time it was already 17.00 hours. I decided to sleep for some time as I was tired. When I woke up I had some supper and that is how I ended my day.
Thursday 22nd July 2009
Today I am going to spend the entire day at home. I finish sweeping and take a bath after my breakfast at 10 am. I have just received a phone call from my friend saying that her brother’s wife is seriously ill. I feel bad because she is a good person. At 3pm I left for my friends house. I did not find her at home, so I decided to wait for her. After about fifteen minutes, my friend came and informed me that her brother’s wife had passed away. I was shocked as I did not expect that to happen so soon. She booked a taxi and told me that she would drop me off close to my place. I asked her if I could go to the funeral with her. She said that since there were a lot of people willing to go with her to the funeral, she would come and pick me up the next day as the funeral was being held in Chibuluma, a small township on the outskirts of Kitwe. I reached home and told my sister and mother about the sad news.
Friday 23rd July 2009
Today was a busy day. I woke up early in the morning, did the washing and prepared myself for work. When I got back from work, it was about 1pm and I had to get ready to go and attend the funeral in Chibuluma. Once I was back home, I went to my mother’s place from my Auntie’s place. It has been a long and hectic day.
Further reading
Cecily's Fund Peer Health Education programme
Cecily's Fund AIDS in Zambia
Funerals and Burial customs in Zambia
Thank you to Tinkani for writing this charming and informative blog for us. We are waiting to receive further blogs from our colleagues in Zambia and the young people that Cecily's Fund supporters are helping to educate. These will include a teacher in the community school at Bwafwano, a Contact Teacher (nominated teachers in each school who provide a link between us and the children we support there) in Kitwe, and more Peer Health Educators.
If you would like to support the work we are doing in Zambia to help young people like Tinkani, please visit our website for suggestion of what you can do to help.
http://cecilysfund.org/
0 comments:
Post a Comment