5/21 Update from Jill - HIV Education Program

Today was an interesting day for the HIV/AIDS team. We finished at Kantanshi last week and are spending this week at Kulungu Basic School. Basic schools are a bit like special education schools in the US; they're for the children who were not quite smart enough to get in to a secondary school.

The highlight of the trip to and from the school was that we managed to fit 25 people and all of the sound equipment into Dr. T's 8 passenger van- which lacks A/C and in which only half of the windows open. :) The headmaster of Kulungu was much more friendly and accomodating than the Kantanshi headmaster had been, which was very refreshing. He invited us into his office and showed a genuine interest in both our project and the team itself. We appreciated his kindness, but were a bit distracted by the "Beauty and the Beast" queen-sized dust ruffle that passed for his desk cover. :D

After we introduced ourselves to the teachers, the fun really began. We presented to students ranging from 1st grade to age 16 (which in a regular secondary school would mean an 11th grader but at Kulungu was an 8th grader). We started setting up in an empty classroom reserved for that purpose, but found that there were too many students and moved our program outside. After we began, we found that the sound system that we had worked so hard to bring with us and set up was out of commission; we resorted to speaking very loudly and enunciating slowly. :) The kids at Kulungu speak very little English compared to those at Kantanshi, but they did their best to pay attention; Henry (one of the church planters) kindly remedied the situation by voluntarily translating our talks into Bemba.

Our program went better than we expected, all things considered, and I speak for us all when I say we found Kulungu much better all around than Kantanshi. The students are markedly poorer, and there is the slight language barrier, but these kids seem to be genuinely interested and in dire need of someone to care about them. We're all looking forward to how God is going to work in the next few days as we adjust our program for the outdoor venue and the significant age gap. We truly appreciate your prayers, and can feel the blessings that y'all are praying over us as we work for the kingdom.