Zwelopili Community Centre

Zwelopili is the Lozi word for "progress". (There are more than 60 local dialects in Zambia, and Lozi is one of the main language groups) This is the place founded by a retired teacher (not the pre-school as I said before) and is built of traditional materials - mud and thatched roof. It has no government support and the children here cannot take exams. They can come from around two or three years old, and the groups we see have the widest mix of ages - so planning a lesson is quite a challenge. The very little ones cannot speak English let alone read, and sometimes get up and wander off to another mat where there is a more exciting activity going on! I read "Cross Crocodile" all about a greedy croc, who wouldn't share the mango tree with the other hungry animals until wily monkey plays a clever trick on him. It is hard to know how much the children understand, especially as many of them are so shy that even if you ask them a direct question, they often don't answer it. Also, they are not used to being asked their opinions about a topic as they usually learn by rote - copying things written up on the blackboard by the teacher. But they seem to enjoy the activities - yesterday we made monkey masks which went down well  though preparing 24 monkey masks the previous day  took quite a while! The headteacher, dressed in an impressive dark brown suit, came round and thanked us for coming. Teachers and especially head teachers make an effort to wear formal dress - shirt and tie etc -  even if the clothes look as if they have seen better days. "The government will not come to us, so we have to help ourselves." he said an pointing to the kids in my group, several with runny noses and dusty clothes: "This one might be a minister one day and this one a doctor."