The Book Bus Blog

In Memory - Cowboy Cliff

2011-11-28T05:45:00.000-08:00

In Memory - Cowboy Cliff. 25th November 2011

Anyone who has been on the Book Bus in Livingstone in the past 3 years will know of Cowboy Cliff. Either through our visits to his preschool and/or through his informative and much loved cycle tours. Today there is some very sad news, Cliff passed away this morning at the age of 41. He will be very much missed by his 2 children, his family, his staff, his community, by me and by everyone who was fortunate to have met him.

I have known Cliff every since I have been in Livingstone. He always welcomed me and our volunteers with open arms. He was well known throughout the town, not just for his famous hat, that gave him his nickname, but also for the tireless work he did for his community.

I have always said if there were more people like Cliff in African societies, then they would probably not be as much need for foreign aid. He was honest, reliable, big hearted and always thinking about his community before himself.

It was him who founded the preschool because of lack of education for young people in his area. It was him who helped to bring piped water to his compound. He started the solar cooking project in Livingstone and organised a team to help educate people. He was always smiling, jovial and busy rushing off to do some good somewhere and I will never forget his “killer” handshake!!

He was passionate about his school and realised how vital it is for children to get a good start in life through pre-school education. He was a big supporter of the Book bus and I feel I can say that every volunteer who had the privilege to visit his school will have fond memories of the times spent there, of the dedication of the teachers and the active participation of the pupils. Thank you Cliff.

I will never forget the times we spent together at the preschool, on amazing bike rides or on other projects, like the time we took the whole school and parents on a boat cruise on the Zambezi. It was his son’s birthday but he wanted to share the occasion with as many people as possible – typical Cliff.

Cowboy Cliff will be sorely missed by me and everyone who knew him. I hope that his good work and generous spirit will live on even after his death.

Kelly. 25 November 2011.

Book Buses, Crowded Buses & just Plain Crazy Buses!!

2011-11-28T05:13:00.001-08:00

September 2011 Livingstone, Zambia to Mangochi, Malawi.

The last week of Bookbus in Livingstone coincided with the general election here in Zambia. Campaigning, which mostly seems to involve driving around in cars with “bad quality” speakers on top, shouting (something Zambians are very good at!!) at people to vote for you, has been going on a while at all times of day and night. The ruling MMD party has been in power for 20 years and lots of people think it’s time for change.

The actual election was held on a Tuesday and this basically meant lots of teachers and pupils took it as an excuse to have several days, or even the whole week, off school!! . In fact LOADS of things stopped working because of the election. The whole of Livingstone ran out of bottled coke/fanta, you couldn’t post a parcel, and buses were cancelled. Basically anything that wasn’t working that week was blamed on “oh, it’s because of the election”!!

Everything finished well with Bookbus, our last morning was at Cowboy Cliffs preschool and we took some bread, jam and orange squash and had a little picnic! As always it was sad to say goodbye. We finished up with an impromptu disco courtesy of our taxi drivers radio. Even the eachers and taxi driver were bopping away with the kids and the yellow t-shirted M’zungus to the current Zambian hits!

Now I was meant to travel to Malawi on Friday night with Claire and Bella, 2 Bookbus volunteers, who were joining the project in Malawi, but all buses were cancelled because of the election result being declared! (…Because of the election!!!) The opposition won.

Anyway, we finally set off on the first leg of the journey from Livingstone to Lusaka on Saturday night. We had really loud music for the entire 8 hours even though it was the middle of the night, I kept wondering why no one else was getting annoyed but it wasn’t until the last 20 minutes that I realised that it was ONLY our speaker that was working, the rest of the bus was in silence!

The next step involved changing at Lusaka at 3 in the morning and was, as always, an adventure. There are always so many people clambering to help you, to carry your bag, to show you right bus etc all in the hope of a small tip! And of course 3 m’zungu girls look easy prey but I’ve done it so many times now, I know how to go about it, as soon as you answer them in their language they know you belong and the crowd around you thins out a bit!!

The next bus was Lusaka to Lilongwe and it was literally falling to pieces. It was scheduled to leave at 5am but didn’t move an inch until 7am! It was packed and the aisle was full of crates, baggage and kids. It smelt like dry fish and halfway through the journey I found out why…as a bag of dried fish fell from the overhead racks and landed tail first on my hand as I was dozing. I have 2 nice small scars from where the fish tails cut me! A kid next to us was sick and generally it was just pretty funny…but only because there were 3 of us! We amused most of the bus by taking only one of the three free fantas we were entitled to and sharing it! That’s because we know loo stops are rare or non-existent on trans-African buses. Any food we need is bought through the windows at any opportune stop. Local people with baskets of fruit, chips, roasted corn cobs or even fried baby birds are encamped at any place a bus needs to stop, e.g. any police road block and as soon as the bus stops they crowd around holding up their wares. All transactions are done through the window at the top of your voice!

We pass miles of empty bush, cross the Luangwa river, drive through villages and small towns. The side of the road is always full of people walking along to the markets, to collect water or just going about their daily business. In towns there are markets with people selling all kinds of things from used clothes to fried goat, form bike tyres to flip flops! In Malawi they are very inventive with naming their shops. “No farming No life Shop.” “No money, No friends Hardware” or my personal favourite so far “Let them talk, such is life Grocery”. It can be a good way to pass the time trying to find the funniest title!

One boarder crossing and 11 hours later we arrived in Lilongwe. We spent the night in Lilongwe and then got ANOTHER bus which was meant to leave at 7.30am but left 2 hours late! If we thought the other one was crowded then this was extremely crowded...dictionary definition of “packed like sardines”! Hundreds (well dozens!)of people in the aisle!! And it stopped at EVERY village on the way and it was always the one woman at the back with 10 bags and the chicken that needed to get off and nobody thought that leaving a bit of space in the aisle was a good idea!! We had to all get off twice for police but then everyone piled back on, usually the aisle people first and then nobody could get to their seat! CRAZY! Another bag fell on my head but thankfully no fish!! We finally arrived after 8 and a half hours….it was meant to take 4 and a half!!! There was a bit of a sense of humour failure after about 6 hours but we rallied by playing 20 questions and “seat dancing” to our iPods and that earned us a lot more stares!!

We are finally reunited with the Book bus truck which is based at lake Malawi, right on the beach, and seek out the bar for a cool drink, without having to worry when the next loo stop will be!!

African Bus Journeys….there’s always a story in them! I wonder what will happen when I retrace my steps on my return to Livingstone?

Puppets, Shakers & Chopsticks!!

2011-11-28T04:55:00.001-08:00

September 2011 - Livingstone. Zambia

The last few weeks on board the Book Bus have really demonstrated that a great variety of skills are welcome and a bit hit with the children and the project. We have had a professional puppeteer as one of our volunteers and the rest of the group have been “roped” in to various plays and performances! It has really been great fun for all involved.

We did an amazing (if I say so myself) puppet version of “The Rainbow Fish” for the grades 1&2 at Maanu Mbwami and a repeat performance at Cowboy Cliffs. All the characters were made from materials found on the bus and the “stage” was a reed mat decorated with blue and green crepe paper fronds…(sea and reeds...of course!!) The book was narrated whilst the action was going on. There was much laughter backstage, I have to admit, especially at the thumb piano music attempt and I think we had as much fun as the children and teachers!! The children were enthralled; I really don’t think any of them have seen anything like this before. They especially liked meeting the puppets afterwards! This is really bringing a book to life. This is making reading enjoyable and associating books with fun – this is what the Book Bus is about!

There was a lot more puppet fun during the fortnight, as you may imagine, as well as musical interludes, drama and plenty of action songs! The children respond well to almost any type of fun activity, if they haven’t seen it before they may be shy and take a while to get into it but rest assured they will soon be singing, jumping, shaking or bopping alongside side their Book Bus teachers!

We used old water bottles with some gravel (Grubby’s drive is now a little less gravelly – sshhh!!) inside and covered with material to make homemade shakers. What a simple activity but such fun. The kids at Cowboy Cliffs, Lubasi and Zweilopili are all proud owners of fun but noisy shakers! I wonder what their parents said when they got home?!! The following week at Zweilopili some of the smaller children who hadn’t been in the class had their own shakers. They had obviously gone home and copied the idea and been amazingly creative to get around the lack of glue. We had glued the fabric to the bottles but they had used strands of thin plastic taken from the maize flour bags to make a rope to tie the fabric on!! Using their initiative and being creative – another aspect of education the Book bus tries to develop! It’s so great to see this kind of thing in action even after we leave!!

Of course there were plenty of conventional lessons going on too. Many volunteers this year have brought books about themselves and their lives back home. This is a great ice breaker and the kids love to see photos of family, friends and places visited. One volunteer had visited china and had a page in her book with pictures from China. One photo showed people eating with chopsticks. She had brought dozens of pairs of disposable chopsticks from home and when the children had read and learnt about China, they got their own set of chopsticks and had to try and pick up various sizes of pompom!! That lesson was a great success!!

To be a Book Bus volunteer what you need is a passion for helping these children. Some initiative, a willingness to get stuck in, a sense of humour and a degree of flexibility (as T.I.A This IS Africa!!) will help you along the way. As we were driving along to school one day, with all the children running alongside, shouting, smiling, laughing and waving, one of our young volunteers looked out the window and said “These children are just like anti-depressants”! I couldn’t have said it better, it’s not just us “giving” to them, they are also giving back something...the smiles and the welcome that you get everyday from the pupils is so rewarding and I think every Book bus volunteer will agree, it can’t help but make you smile too!!

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2011-11-25T08:43:00.001-08:00

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A Book in Every Hand Campaign - The Final Chapter

2011-10-24T02:53:00.000-07:00

My reunion with the books in Malawi felt surreal. I’m rarely lost for words, but as David Gordon (Chairman of The Book Bus) and I stood looking at the 63 giant boxes of books delivered – not a single word was spoken for what felt like a very long time. That was a reflection of our emotion.

David asked me to coordinate the Book in Every Hand back in March this year, with the aim of sending 5,000 books out to Malawi and I just happened to be blown into the office one day looking for a new voluntary project.

Of any projects I’ve experienced, this project has been a journey of epic magnitude, a real roller-coaster ride. I’ve been humbled by the gift of outgrown favourite books from school children in the UK and overwhelmed by the generous donations from bookshops, publishers and previous volunteers.....

The effort and management needed to pack and organise the books leading to the shipment brought many challenges and obstacles but by golly it was worth it – giving the books out to the children in Malawi made it absolutely worth it.

We handed the books out in six schools, an orphanage and a pre-school. We set up libraries in four schools. The first school we began the book handout was fantastic. We didn’t want to just give the books away; we wanted to introduce a book swap day to the learners hoping that by sharing their books they would have access to a much larger pool. The head teacher received a healthy stock of books for the school library and then supported the book handout, writing her own posters, fixing them to the trees around the school site and promoting the book swap day with heartwarming passion. It couldn’t have gone better.

What was my favourite memory from the first book handout? I have so many, two to share…

We gave the books out at the end of each storytelling session. The Book Bus volunteers would explain to the learners that these books were theirs to keep. I heard so many lovely stories of the children’s varied reactions from the volunteers, all positive. As a group of three teenage boys walked away with their books, they were discreetly comparing each other’s books only to place them in their back trouser pockets. I don’t know why I liked it so much – but I did. It was very natural, understated.

A group of more animated girls were delightfully chatting about their books, and one quieter girl placed her book on her head and walked on to her next lesson. I loved that!

As I stood looking at the children holding their books in Malawi – I felt a peaceful euphoria ‘we did it!

Your books and kind donations make a difference to the children of Africa. Thank you to everyone involved along every step of the journey and I hope you’ll join us and support us in 2012 on our next target as we aim to send 10,000 books to the Meheba refugee settlement, Zambia.

You can be part of this! Donate a book, organise a book collection, do some fundraising or why not experience this first hand…Why not collect books and then volunteer on the Book Bus from June to August in Meheba and be part of the book handout.

I look forward to hearing from you.

diane@thebookbus.org

Book Bus South Luangwa National Park.

2011-09-27T06:09:00.000-07:00

Wow is the main word that springs to mind whilst in South Luangwa National Park. I know of no other place on earth where hippos and elephants weave between your tents and munch grass by your ear at night! Thw wildlife was abundant, the safari highlighted that, and all in all it felt like 'the real Africa.'

As for The Book Bus, we had a lovely time with small classes full of polite and enthusiastic children. Books were read then lion masks, dancing giraffes and butterflies were made and the kids fascinated us with stories about the wild animals that visit their villages. It's part of daily life there to be on constant alert for dangerous encounters with lions or elephants it seems. That's their reality and we got to experience that briefly so can now really empathize!

Everyone said the place exceeded their expectations and had an amazing and unique life experience there, and lucky Glen gets to go back soon with the next group!

Jackie.

Book Bus at the Lake of Stars Festival

2011-09-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

LAKE OF STARS: Yellow Flip-Flops!

Yellow. When you see bright yellow at this year’s festival, it’s likely to be one of the Book Bus team and you can join in. Leading up to the festival we’ll be giving out 10,000 books to the children we work with in Malawi and to celebrate this, the Book Bus will be at the festival with activities and events for you to join in with.

Swap your Flip-Flops. Instead of taking that extra pair of flip-flops, bring a couple of children’s books or some art materials. Donate them at the stand and we’ll be able to pass them on to the local children.

Get arty. We’ll be making puppets, painting boxes for reading corners, sewing story sacks, creating books out of recycled materials; lots of treasures that we’ll be able to give to the local schools to get the kids reading.

Chill out. In the cool of our canopy, make a friendship bracelet, send a postcard home, listen to stories and enjoy some local children’s performances.

We look forward to seeing you there. Just remember yellow flip-flops!

My time on the Book Bus in Zambia by Barbara Egglesfield

2011-09-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

Gosh! Where to start? It was such a wonderful, rewarding experience.

Camping in tents in a secure site (Grubby’s Grotto!) 15 minutes taxi ride from Victoria Falls, I met just two other volunteers on my first week (normally there should be 8) so we were under strength. But as the schools had just returned from their 4-week break, not all the pupils had arrived back: many would have been staying with relatives.

With Sunday to recover from the long flight via Johannesburg, and Monday to prepare a few classes and sort out the bus, we went to Nakatindi Basic School on Tuesday as the schools had used their first day back to clean the classrooms. My first class was a Grade 4 group (age range 11-12) and, after introductions, we read Handa’s Surprise, discussed it and played a game I had prepared. I was relieved to find the children to be pretty responsive and friendly. Nakatindi is one of the poorest schools in the area, receiving no grants from the government, and has recently had a water pump installed for school and village use.

1 in 5 children in Zambia have HIV/AIDS but this was far from my mind when I was with them. All the children I met in the 5 schools seemed so eager to learn, so full of laughter, never ‘bored’ or inattentive, even though under-nourished and often without parents. They would ask for a pencil, or even a clean sheet of paper, and to have given it would have delighted them (and me) beyond measure. But we were warned not to give anything as everyone would want the same, and other children may have taken their gifts away. (However, several pencils did discreetly manage to find their way to the children!). I also found it sad that living so near to one of the 10 natural wonders of the world, so few of the children had even seen Victoria Falls.

Each morning followed the same pattern: breakfast at 7.00, an hour on the bus to prepare, arrive at a school for 9.00 - the children started at 7.30; the teachers brought us classes of 30-ish to divide between us. We rarely knew in advance what grades or ages we would be getting, so had to have a plan for any from Grade 4 up to Grade 7 (16 and 17 year-olds). Usually we had three or four groups for an hour each, and then other children would gather round in their break times and we would let them read the books too. We sat outside on rush mats, in temperatures of up to 40C, finding shade where we could - under cool leafy mango trees at Dambwa School. Anytime after 1.00, we returned to the campsite, fairly exhausted, and ready for a refreshing shower, a salad sandwich lunch and maybe dabble our feet in the pool.

Travelling in the spectacular bus is a very public affair - it has to go so slowly that people on foot overtake us, to shouts of ’m’zungus!’ (white people) and much waving.

The Bus is stocked with books for all ages and abilities (however, the abilities are far below what we would expect in England) as well as lots of paper, pencils, crayons, glue, coloured paper, art materials, including the ever-popular glitter. Depending on class sizes, we took a selection of all these - although the activities worked better with smaller groups of up to six - and we usually read/discussed for 30-40 minutes and then did drawing sessions. I found most of the children were quite good at copying single pictures, but not at all used to drawing a complete picture or scene, using their imagination.

We visited Limbala School on Wednesday - very little shade, some disruptive boys but some very responsive girls. Good - as I had begun to feel that perhaps teaching was not my forte!

By Thursday I’d improved my technique and felt the lessons went better at Linda Basic Community School which had a better reading ability all-round and quite lively pupils - they were used to having visits from the Bus.

In the afternoon we visited the Lubasi Home orphanage where they try to involve all the children in their own care; the older ones care for the younger ones and are encouraged to live independently as they get older. Sister Brigitte told us they are currently raising cash for a new building to house the oldest girls.

Some schools we had to visit by taxi, the Bus not being able to get down the dirt roads, as we did each Friday, going to Cowboy Cliff’s pre-School for 3-6 year-olds. I was very impressed with this lovely school: it was started in 2003 and funded entirely by one man and his bike-hire enterprise - originally to educate his own two children and then three neighbours’ after his wife died of AIDS. Now he has 100 children in the school and 50 bikes for hire.

There are 3 classrooms - each class sang us a song, and we of course had to reciprocate. The staff are really caring and it was the only school where I saw a desk and a chair for every child. There was food, too, prepared by the mothers, and cooked outside using solar power – fascinating!

On Saturday, our numbers were swelled by the arrival of 3 more volunteers which meant that we would then have smaller groups and could do more intensive activities like making butterflies and stars, decorating with glitter, cutting out fish shapes, etc., and on Sunday we again planned the following week’s work.

In our ‘off-duty’ time we had the opportunity to indulge in some of the tourist pursuits: white water rafting (some of the best in the world, ‘though not for me!) bunjie jumping over the Falls, etc. but I opted for watching the lunar rainbow over the Falls at full moon (sadly it proved too cloudy), an elephant-back safari, walking with lions, and a horseback ride along the cooling Zambezi where we found a 6-month-old giraffe and her mother, and some zebra. All these were amazing!

Although we were self-catering, we occasionally ate at the local restaurants which were reasonably priced and once sampled the famous afternoon tea and cocktails at the Royal Livingstone Hotel just to watch the glorious sunset over the Zambezi.

And so the Book Bus goes from strength to strength and now visits Malawi and Ecuador.

The Holiday Fun Continues!!

2011-09-02T07:17:00.000-07:00

The second two weeks of holiday club have been just as fun and rewarding as the first two. For the third week we visited Zweilopili Centre of Excellence. This is not exactly a school but a centre where children can come and learn for free, they can get tutition or do revision. It also caters for those who have dropped out of school for getting pregnant. We first started coming here last August holidays and it continues to be a big favourite amongst volunteers. It has grown from a couple of grass classrooms to 3 grass and 2 mud and straw classrooms, in that year. (Thanks Bookbus volunteers!!) It is the determination of its founder and the dedication of the volunteer staff that makes it such an inspiring place to come.

We began the week with about 100 kids and ended with 200! I don’t think that any of the volunteers want to see another lion masks, spirally snake or crown again for a very long time!! 180 crowns…that must be some kind of record! The chaos was always present but in a “sort of organised” way. Lots of kids would make something in the first session, run home, take off their name tag, leave their creation and run back and try to be selected for the third session by claiming they only just arrived!! It’s amazing the motivation some paper, crayons, scissors, glue and wool can have!!

The older kids read, did maps of Africa, made books about themselves, wrote stories and hung out on the truck, really using it as a library....which is great to see. The children here live in one of the poorest compounds of Livingstone. Most houses have no water or electric and they are crammed together in small narrow streets, so unlike the children from last weeks school in the village there is much more malnourishment and illness evident here. There is a Zambian saying that you never go hungry in the village and it seems to be true. They may not have water or electric either but they have plenty of land for farming or keeping hens and goats. They don’t live in such close proximity so disease doesn’t spread and sanitation seems to be better, probably simply because toilets are further from living and eating areas. So living in town isn’t always beneficial.

Talking to the teachers and children we realised that many of the children had never been to the falls and this despite living only 10km away. We decided to plan an outing for 35 of the children, funded by a volunteer who left a donation and told me to do something “fun and exciting” for some kids. So on Tuesday 35 pupils aged between 7 and 17, 5 teachers and 4 Book bus volunteers set off on a trip to the falls! It all started very Zambian with the bus being 1 hour late for picking us up, but hey ho Zambian Time is what you live by when you live in Zambia and anyway it gave Claire and me time to have our hair done!!!

Firstly we went up river and the children just jumped straight in…I’ve never seen children so happy to be near water. They were laughing and splashing and genuinely having the best time. This is understandable when you think how precisous a commodity water is and they have to pump and carry every drop they use. Some just stripped off to their underwear, others went in fully clothed. There wasn’t a towel to be seen but nobody cared, they just dried off and we walked to see the falls. Some were scared, some impressed, others speechless when they finally saw the Mighty Mosi O Tunya and the walk across the knife edge bridge was certainly memorable for them all! Finally we took a photo of each of them in front of the falls with a huge rainbow and these we will print out and give to them as a souvenir of this fantastic day!

This fourth week of holidays we have been going to Lubasi home. This has been perfect with there being just four of us on board. The atmosphere is calm and relaxed, completely different from the past 3 weeks. The children here are used to Bookbus and always welcome us with open arms and big smiles! They cant wait to see what’s in the red bags. It’s nice to see how the children have grown over the 2 years I have been visiting. There is another home on town, called Lushomo, which is run for sexually abused girls. The 12 girls have been joining us all this week and it’s been really great to get to know them as well, they have become more open as the week has gone on. All the children have their own personalities and characters and they all know what they like to do. Some it’s just reading, others drawing, some like to chat and ask questions and the young girls?... they like anything pink and shiny!! It’s been another great week with the kids at Lubasi!

Time for Holiday Club!!

2011-09-01T04:55:00.000-07:00

Now it’s school holiday time in Zambia we are doing week long holiday clubs and so far the first two weeks have been amazing. The first week we went to a school, called Chilileko (blessing) right on the outskirts of Livingstone that we have been visiting since the beginning of this year. About 120 pupils turned up everyday which was a great turnout and we had lots of fun, its nice for he volunteers to really get to know a group of kids well, which you can’t do when you are doing a different school everyday! All the teachers came everyday too which showed great commitment as the school is very far from where they live. They were joining it with the crown making, cutting paper people chains and chatting to the volunteers! We set up library corners for the children while they were waiting for their lessons and it was great just to watch them absorbed in the books. Paper maiche made its debut at the school, the older kids really enjoyed it but the little ones just wanted to pinch the balloons!! We had the longest lines ever for a game of “over and under”, thought it was never going to end! And on the Friday we got the glitter out!!! Everyone was covered in green sparkles!!

The second week we went to a brand new school about 20 km outside Livingstone, it was right in the middle of some “real” African villages and we had the best week ever. The way I came across the school was quite bizarre. I was stood at the airport about 3 weeks ago waiting for some new volunteers and holding my Bookbus sign and a woman came across to me and asked if I was in charge of the Bookbus here and so I said yes and she told me about this school that she had helped set up and thought that the kids there would love the things we did and if there was any way that we could visit? It sounded exciting so I arranged a trip out the next week. The lady, Oriel, told me to go to her small lodge first as it was easier to find than the school, so myself and our disco taxi driver, Lungu, took a trip out there. We passed a huge herd of sleeping buffalo on the way!

The lodge is right on the Zambezi river and was beautiful and extremely peaceful, it felt a million miles from the bustle of the city but was only 15km. She them took us all in her landrover as she didn’t want to damage the taxi. About 5km of the main Livingstone to

Botswana

road is an area known as Sindi, which comprises 5 villages with a population of 1055 split among 111 households. (that’s over 9 people per house on average and the houses are tiny!!) This is REAL Africa. Straw and mud houses, one water pump for everyone to share. Dusty tracks and dry elephant grass, an empty market place and several beer halls!! But surprisingly there is a brand new 5 classroom school and a beautiful preschool with a colourful playground. We decided to hold our week holiday club outside the preschool as there was plenty of shade and the ground was sandy. Quite a few inquisitive kids turned up just as we were looking round but who knew what would happen on Monday morning?

When we arrived on the Monday there were about 100 kids all standing still in small groups just starring at us, there didn’t seem to be an adult in sight, although we had been told we would be met by at least one teacher…as we dismounted from the truck we were just starred at even more intently and all the volunteers were asking, what do we do why aren’t they being friendly like all the other kids? It didn’t take long..we put all the mats down and I invited the kids to sit down which they did and we began with Giraffes cant dance and from then on, they were with us!!! One of the teachers took us on a short village tour on the Monday and it was great to see how these children live day to day. The “market” was 2 tables that sold cabbage, dry fish and peanuts. Everyday the children got more lively and welcoming and they would greet us a km down the road and then run all the way with us, it was so amazing to see the transformation from the Monday morning. We ended up with about 170 kids on the Friday and they all seemed to genuinely love us being there. It’s weeks like that which make this job so rewarding…I still LOVE it!! Bring on the next 2 weeks of holiday club!!

On a sunny afternoon in Meheba

2011-07-20T02:27:00.000-07:00

A report from Aurore and Julia - 2 french volunteers currently in Meheba.

After a full week of advertising, we’ve finally managed to set up and organize our afternoon English and French classes for adults. School C’s headmaster had very kindly agreed to lend us somes rooms for our classes. We now have four regular students, coming every afternoon, even though they are not as punctual as we would like (see “Being a refugee”).

Of course, we wish we had more students but due to the particular circumstances of a refugee camp, organising english classes has proven difficult. The main reason why people wouldn’t show up to our classes is that Meheba is a very large camp, meaning that the refugees would have to walk for around two hours to get there. This amount of time travelling is often not compatible with peoples work hours or familly obligations.

In a sense, it shows the dedication of our students; Fiston, for instance, has to walk 8km every day for a one or two hour lesson, while Prosper lives in block G, the furthest part of the camp. Cornestone, who is fluent in English and 5 other dialects, has come to us for French classes in order to communicate with the newly arrived Congolese, while w cxe have given our last student, Jean-Jacques, seven English lessons so far. He has improved exponentially in the last weeks considering that he started with no knowledge of the English language.

It is wonderfull to see their progress, from week to week and their willingness to learn a language that might help them to improve their futures.

Apart from the adults classes, we have also set up additional afternoon classes for kids, where they can draw, read some books or play different sports with us. They absolutely love it and hardly ever miss out the “fifteen hours” (3 o’clock) appointment at their school, next to the anthill.

It was absolute chaos at the beginning, and our few swahili words – acha kelele! apana kuiba! hakuna kupigana – were pretty useless since we learned a few days later that most of the kids spoke 3 or 4 different dialects, but not swahili.

Children stealing pencils was also impossible to avoid as the classroom’s windows have no glass, so the kids were constantly running away with our supplies! But at the same time, it is understandable given the fact that the cheapest 10 pencils box costs about 10 US$.

However, after a couple of sessions, the kids seemed to understand the rules and the classes got more and more disciplined. We have witnessed that, after several drawing afternoons, the children were becoming more and more creative (which is not encouraged in Meheba schools) and some of their drawings were remarkable.
It’s quite amazing to see how these over-excited children can suddenly be absorbed by their creations.

Thanks to those afternoon extra classes for the kids, we have met a bunch of adorable children who are always thrilled to see us, they even made up a song for us! We have been noticing the dual nature of these children, one the one hand they are bursting with energy and are almost uncontrollable, and on the other hand, they are always looking for tenderness and attention, always jumping into our laps and giving us hugs. At first, some of the very young children were afraid of us “muzungus” because many had never seen white people before, but they got used to us quite quickly and now sometimes take a nap in our arms.

To read more please see their blog - http://actzambia.wordpress.com/

Through the eyes of a volunteer

2011-07-19T01:22:00.000-07:00

zaA volunteers story by Helen Davies.

I volunteered with the Book Bus in 2009. The project was in its early stages then but it is now in it’s 4^th year running and Kelly, the leader is in her third year and has really helped the project to move forward, establishing lots of links within the community.

On a day to day basis you visit schools and occasionally orphanages. When there we would read books with the children and do activities around the books ie; if we read a book about a butterfly we might make butterflies, that kind of thing.

The project brings a lot of joy to the people of Livingstone. You will never get tired of seeing the smiling faces of the children, waving and shouting hello as you make the trip along the dirt tracks to school. It is the most wonderful feeling when you step off the bus on your first day and the children swarm you!!! I smiled so much, my face hurt!!! The children are so grateful for your attention and time. They are often jam packed into a classroom so receive very little one on one time from the teacher. Working with the Book Bus really helps the children to build their confidence, allows them to be creative and gives them access to books that are fun and engaging. I've done quite a bit of teaching and youth work over the years and from my experience, children learn much better when learning is 'fun'!

The children have such a thirst for knowledge. When I was there, the teachers went on strike for a couple of weeks. However, us and the children still went to school and they waited for their turn with the Book Bus. I was walking past one of the classrooms, when one of our little girls, Monde, called me over and said 'Helen, teach us, we want to learn'. I've never forgotten that. I don’t know if you’ve done any volunteering before, but I think that you learn as much from the children as they do from you!

I made some fantastic friends when I was there who I still keep in touch with and we have regular reunions. The ages ranged from 9 (there was a family with 2 young children in our group) up to ladies in their late 50’s/early 60’s. Then there was a whole mix in between - 18, 23, 29 (me), 37, 45! We all got on really well and had a fabulous time!

Daily life follows the same pattern usually in the week – get up around 6.30 am, breakfast at 7am, leave at 8am. School – usually teach 4 lessons per day, with a break for lunch. Then it’s back to camp around 3pm. Then the afternoons are free to do some of the tourist activities, or catch up on your emails at one of the internet cafes in town, or just relax by the pool or on the veranda with a cool Redds (cider), Stoney (ginger beer) or Mosi (real beer)!! Dinner is usually prepared by a few members of the group (unless you go out to dinner) and you rotate chores – so some days you will be cooking, some days washing up and some days keeping the bus tidy! Everyone pitches in!

You stay at a campsite called Grubby’s Grotto and you stay in a tent. A good roll mat is always good!!! The temperature can drop at night so a good sleeping bag is always good! Staying in a tent is great as you don’t really get mosquitoes or bugs in a tent, like you would in a dorm or room! I miss my tent! The showers are usually hot and they have western toilets! Bringing toilet roll is always useful! Bring a fleece. When I was there in May the temperature dropped quite a lot after dark, however I think it’s warmer in July but a fleece is always useful (even if you just use it as a pillow)! A wrap or scarf is always good too!

There's also plenty to do in Livingstone when you're not working. There's seeing the mighty Victoria Falls (water levels will be lower at this time of year but you will still be able to get a good view), white-water rafting, elephant trekking, lion walks, microlight flights over the falls, bungee jumping, afternoon tea at the Royal Livingstone, pasties and milkshakes at Wonderbake!!! Livingstone is a really great town. As with most places, be safe, don’t walk alone after dark (I would say that in any place though – not just Africa). I felt really safe and at home there. Try out the local restaurants, there’s some great ones serving both Zambian and western food.

Then further afield, but still within easy reach - there’s Chobe National Park in Botswana which is close enough to visit for the weekend. Chobe is famous for the great abundance of elephants that live there. Or there’s South Luangwa in eastern Zambia which was one my favourite African National Parks and either a short flight, or a day’s drive away. Then only a few miles away, just across the ZimZam bridge is Zimbabwe. I haven’t been but I hear Vic Falls town is lots of fun! The great thing about volunteering there, is that you will see a different side to the country than the average tourist who will just see the fancy hotels and national parks!

In terms of do’s and don’ts here’s what I can think of:

· Do check with the Book Bus before you take books or equipment out. Some books the children just won’t understand as certain things just aren’t part of their culture.

· Do take glitter, the kids love it.

· Do take lots of sun cream, a hat and mosquito repellant!

· Always carry toilet roll!

· Do take a head torch. A head torch is the single most useful piece of kit you can take!!!!

· Do try nshima (the local staple food).

· Don’t take too many clothes. You’ll wear your Book Bus t-shirts Mon – Fri and you get grubby so you will end up wearing the same things. But do bring a couple of nicer outfits for dinner out and the Royal Livingstone.

· Don’t go expecting to change the world. You can’t, but you can make a difference to the Livingstone community by giving your time. You will also make a difference to yourself which is important too!

· Don’t carry loads of cash and valuables around!

· Take a camera!

· Most importantly – HAVE FUN!

Our 2 New Contrasting Schools

2011-07-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

Written June 2011

So the 2011 season is well under way and we have already established some close links with the 2 new schools that have become part of our program this year.

Mondays now see us visit Libuyu community school. This is a school similar to that at Linda which used to be Mondays destination. It is in the heart of one of Livingstone’s busiest, nosiest and poorest suburbs. It’s close to a huge market and health centre and driving there you get a real sense of African everyday living. It has around 400 pupils from grades 1 to 7. The teaching takes place in one large hall (it used to be some kind of depo) There are some plywood partitions but you can just imagine the noise when there are 5 classes taking place at once.

The staff here are all volunteers, except the head, who is a paid government teacher. Mr Matenga is a quiet, smiling man who beams when he talks about his job. He is absolutely thrilled to have the Book Bus visit his school and he always comes walking around, hands clasped behind his back, seeing what we are doing, praising the students and offering encouragement. He is one of the most involved heads that I have met during my time in Africa. His staff also have an obvious and open respect for him.

Classes here are relatively big and we start our week off teaching an hour each of grade 4, 5, 6 and 7. Volunteer numbers have been relatively low for the past few weeks so we are getting experts at what works well when you have 20 kids on your mat!! (Top tip – avoid glitter (oh -and sequins!!) Quizzes have become very popular with the older groups. It ensures that they have to read through the book, because with so many you cant listen to them all read individually and they love working in teams and competing with their classes mates. Although there is an obvious rivalry they always conclude with a “clap for the winner!” Here in Zambia the pupils always help each other if someone is stuck and they rarely seem to make fun or laugh at the less able students.

The pupils also love having us and now they are used to this weekly ritual, even suggesting which topics they would like to do next week and regularly asking why we can’t come everyday! We teach outside in a small courtyard with fruit trees as shade, although chasing the shade still does occur. The soil is a deep shade of terracotta and we always climb aboard the bus exhausted and covered in red sand....who has the dirtiest feet is often a topic of conversation on the way home!! (another top tip – don’t wear white trousers!!!)

On Tuesday, in direct contrast, we visit Chileleko (Tonga for Blessings) Community School. We drive right through Libuyu and exit Livingstone and, although we are only a few kilometres from town, it feels like we are really out in the bush. It is so peaceful here. There is no electricity or water in the area (which is called Mapensi – most Livingstonians don’t even know where it is.) and people live mostly in traditional mud and thatch houses The school is situated right next to the Maramba river, which eventually flows into the Zambezi and we teach outside, behind the school, under trees with views of nothing but wilderness.

There are about 280 pupils here and they come from surrounding villages. The children here are the politest I have met during BookBus, this comes from the head teacher and founder of the school, Emmanuel. He and his brother, James, run the school which has 6 teachers, all of whom are volunteers. Emmanuel and James are both trained teachers but they have refused paid government posts because they want to continue working here. Emmanuel hopes that one day the position of head teacher of Chileleko will be recognised by the government and will attract some kind of salary (as is happening in more and more community schools). It is rare to see such sacrifice and dedication to a cause and when myself and other volunteers complimented him on the behaviour of his pupils, he smiled and said, “Hearing things like that makes all the hardships worthwhile.”

We teach grades 5, 6 and 7 and it really is a pleasure to be here. The pupils, the teachers and the setting all make for a relaxed morning. And just for your information the soil here is light brown and although you get dusty (especially with the wind that doesn’t seem to reach town blowing the dust around) it doesn’t generate the same type of feet related conversations on the way home as Monday!!

It is a great feeling to have found two such worthy schools to continue the Livingstone Book Bus in 2011. I’m sure you will be hearing more about them from me as the season continues.

2011 - The year of giant origami!

2011-07-16T13:08:00.000-07:00

Written May 2011

So after a 3 week break in UK I find myself back in Livingstone, Zambia with 5 days to prepare for the 2011 Book Bus season. The truck is back from Malawi and after a good wash and a new alternator it’s almost ready to roll, there is only the mammoth task of unpacking all the books/supplies left from last season as well as the huge stack of boxes we picked up from a container in

Malawi

. When I open the truck I had forgotten how many boxes there were, no floor space to be seen and only me and the new, but very obliging, guard at the grotto, Chris to plough through them. Unpacking new supplies is always exciting and 3 days of starting at 6am to avoid the unseasonably oppressive heat were very well spent. We have also had some enormous thunderstorms and torrential downpours which are also rare for this time of year.

On Friday Edward, our driver, and I put up the new tents that had finally been released from customs in Lusaka airport and they were promptly christened with a thunderstorm that afternoon. I was expecting no rains once the volunteers arrived but that was not to be, we had rain over the arrival weekend, and I’m sure that I annoyed everyone with my constant, “it shouldn’t rain at this time of year” comments! It feels great to be back leading the Bookbus and introducing people to “Real Zambian life.” It has been nice going around the schools and telling them that the project is back on and seeing the positive reactions! Coming back to Livingstone really feels like coming home now and it is so friendly and welcoming, something which is even more evident after a few days in London!!

So week one of project we are visiting Lubasi home again! I was surprised to find a number of new children when I visited to arrange the program. I leant that they are Congolese children of people caught attempting cross the border illegally. The parents were detained in jail and the children were brought to Lubasi. They range in age from 2 to 9 and speak French, Swahili and other Congolese languages but they are all intelligent and quickly pick up some English and Nyanja – the Zambian language most commonly used! Unfortunately nobody seems to know what will happen to these children or their parents and after a few days one little girl is missing from class and the others tell us she has “gone back”.

We divide the children into 3 age groups and do an hour long session with each group! The children are so happy to see the truck again and each day they await us more eagerly! Our first group is a real mix of ages and experience but we get on fantastically and have great times together at school and in our free time! After a week you can see the attachement of the volunteers and the children in their small groups. We even visit on Saturday afternoon to play football and just “hang” out with the girls. They are delighted to see us even with the Book bus and it’s cargo of entrancing supplies.

Some of the funniest moments that I can ever remember happen in this week, including some amazing games of “the saucepan game” which have altered the images of Nelson Mandela and Spiderman irreparably in the minds of those involved, confused Captain Hook/Cook, introduced us to some bizarre Pianist that I still don’t remember the name of, made “Gollum” a one handed gesture and proved that nobody actually knew who Hans Zimmer actually was!! (this will only make sense to those who were actually there – sorry but I had to include it for historic value!!)

Origami has been the hit of the week at Lubasi, with penguins, flowers, birds, frogs and ball being made after reading books of these themes! Only when the kids decided that they wanted a lily did things get complicated, so one free session it took 3 of us “adults” to finally make a lily! But so impressed were we with our efforts that that night after dinner we got out the big sugar paper and had a “Giant” origami evening! I must say it has to be one of the most surreal nights in Book bus history and I think the other people on the campsite thought we were bonkers! But we are known as the “Librarians” by everyone thanks to Grubby, so I think we are known for doing “strange” things that wouldn’t usually be found on a campsite in the heart of Africa!!

Over 10,000 books for Malawi!

2011-07-01T04:17:00.000-07:00

Whooosh! Yippeeee! Cabooom!

We did it! We did it! We did it!

Over 10,000 books are packed and are now beginning their journey to

Malawi

(10,118 books in total)

Many thanks to the recent donations from publishers Autumn Publishers, HarperCollins, Random House, Templar Publishers and Usborne Books for their very generous gifts.

Many thanks to staff and customers of Warwick Books and Kenilworth Books who have given generously throughout the appeal – I shall miss skipping over the Market Square to pick up boxes of books.

And many, many thanks to the children and staff of Coten End Primary School (Warwick), St Mary’s Immaculate School (Warwick), St Nicholas C of E School (Kenilworth) and St Pauls C of E School (Leamington) where the children gave their own books towards the appeal. We look forward to visiting the schools in the autumn term to share the stories of where their books have gone.

A big thank you to all individuals and groups that have contributed… DHL and The Book Barn International (Hallatrow).

A very special thank you to one individual - I very nearly fainted when we received an unexpected donation which covered the entire costs of the shipment. A miracle!

Next stop is

Malawi

Whooosh! Yippeeee! Cabooom!

Diane Maybey

Meheba UNHCR settlement

2011-06-20T04:14:00.000-07:00

The Book Bus arrives in Meheba UNHCR refugee settlement. The Book Bus and its volunteer crew will be marking "World Refugee Day" today in Meheba where more than 17,000 refugees from Angola, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Somalia are housed by the UN in preparation for repatriation or passage to a new home. Whilst conditions within the settlement are reasonably comfortable by African bush standards, opportunities and education are severely limited. You can imagine then the joy that the Book Bus brings every time we visit Meheba. 2011 marks our third year of cooperation with UNHCR and Book Bus coordinator Jackie Wigglesworth and her crew of volunteers will be providing reading assistance and story telling sessions at 5 schools within the camp. Living in the settlement presents its own challenges - some of the crew will be spending 6 weeks there under canvas with few of the domestic amenities that we all take for granted at home. The project runs form 20 June until 29 July 2011, follow their story on Facebook and on this Book Bus Blog.

Great week for the Malawi book appeal!

2011-06-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

An extraordinary week for the appeal; thanks to an enormous donation of 2,700 story books from Allen and Mark at The Book Barn International www.bookbarninternational.co.uk the total now stands at 4,544. It’s amazing! I felt very emotional packing the books, knowing that we were so close to our target. As a huge thank you, The Book Bus held a fun-filled storytelling event and invited local children to paint a mural on the café wall. A big thank you to The Period House Shop, Warwick for matching the paint supply, we wouldn’t have had enough. If you’re in the local area to Hallatrow, Somerset – a trip to the Book Barn is well worth the visit; millions of books, a coffee in the café and friendly staff.

We have 456 books to go. Locally in Warwickshire the children of St Nicholas C of E Primary School in Kenilworth and St Paul’s C of E Primary School in Leamington have joined the appeal. At 10.30 and 11.15 on Saturday 25^th June we will be holding storytelling sessions at Kenilworth Books, Talisman Square, Kenilworth.

456 books to go! 456! We can absolutely meet this target and more so than before every single book given will bring us closer.

Malawi Book Drive - latest news

2011-05-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

We’re almost at 2,000 books!

The last two weeks have been very exciting. The children from Caerleon School, Newport gave over 200 books and kindly donated their pocket money – an amazing £100 towards the appeal. A really big thanks to teacher Suzanne Price (previous Book Bus volunteer) and the delightful children – it was a real pleasure to meet them.

We visited The Book Barn, Hallatrow www.bookbarninternational.co.uk which was an extraordinary experience; the UK’s largest second-hand bookshop, wall to ceiling, stacks and stacks and stacks! The owners have agreed a donation which is going to boost the numbers! On Wednesday 1st June we’ll be holding a children’s storytelling event from 11 – 12.30 and painting a mural in the Book Barn café in the afternoon. Join us if you’re near!

The deadline for the shipment is drawing nearer, 1st July. Any support given will make a difference. Almost half way and time is ticking.

I need your help people! 3,000 to go – whoop-whoop!

Diane Maybey

BISEE Book Bus Update

2011-05-24T02:26:00.000-07:00

BISEE Book Bus Update, from Jenny Ávila, Volunteer Co-ordinater

The BISEE Book Bus continues working for the improvement of life through stories and fairy tales. Children really enjoy the visits of the bus to their schools. In April we had a few days in the Interactive Museum of Sciences. This involved two Saturdays reading to 150 children and 150 young people. It was an interesting experience, new to us but we had a good group of enthusiastic volunteers.

During April we also read at SEK School. We had about 40 children writing their own stories and reading to younger ones of the same school. They are going to donate these stories to the BISEE Book Bus.

In May we started to build reading corners in the schools we have worked with in the last 3 months. The headteachers of the school were very grateful. We also had a young writer who offered to train teachers or the person responsible for the corner, how to use the books and get the best of them.

Last weekend we had “Maratón del Cuento” a reading event dedicated to young children. For this event we recreated the BISEE book bus. For the first day we collected a little bit of creative material and children donated their drawings. The second day our stand became a real reading corner. We had families reading together and we let the children choose their own stories to read or have someone reading for them. It was such a wonderful experience and a really good opportunity to let people know about the project. We had one of the most popular writers of Italy, Anna Lavatelli reading on the bus for a few families that joined us. It was also very exciting to meet a boy, 7 years old, who visited the bus with his mum. After listening to the stories of the bus and the history of it he told us he wanted to be a volunteer that moment and we gathered a group of families and Erick (his name) read for them. He is willing to come and volunteer again if we have another time reading in Pichincha. He also wanted to come with us one of the days to help us with the reading corner. The weekend was so busy that we had the visit of about 2,000 children and their families.

Last week writers from different countries got together to share their experiences and we had the chance to have them all on our bus. They donated their books and were incredibly happy to know that this book bus is present in Ecuador. We met 2 writers carrying out a similar project. One was a Spanish writer who has a book bus in the Sahara and we were delighted learn about his project. He gave us great insights to improve and develop more things about the project.

In June we will continue the reading in the Museum. We are also going to have the British embassy doing the reading corner this month together with one of the tour operators of Quito. We also contacted some skilful children last weekend to join us to make the reading corners together with their families.

This is so far all what we are doing with the BISEE Book Bus.

Book in every Hand Appeal - update

2011-05-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

The books are slowly gathering up in the attic space above the office in Warwick. It’s amazing to see how a single book given adds to a pile, and each pile then contributes to the target of 5,000 books that we aim to collect for this year’s ‘A Book in Every Hand’ Malawi, appeal. Whether it is one book or 100 books given, it is making a difference and is symbolic of the individual impact these books will have when we give a book to children in Malawi.

The public response has been very positive, over 1,267 books collected so far. We’ve received donations from previous volunteers on The Book Bus. The Federation of Children’s Book Groups gave generously at their annual conference. The customers of Warwick and Kenilworth Books have been very giving, with owners Frances and Keith and staff supporting the collection.

This week we have written to all schools in Warwick, Leamington and Kenilworth to invite our local school children and school communities to contribute to the collection. Many thanks to Barfords a local removal firm (www.barfordsremovals.com) who have generously provided over 30 boxes ideal for the packing, DHL are supporting the shipment, so really excellent support.

If you have 1 book or 100 books to donate, I can assure you that it will make a difference. 5,000 books – we can do this!

For further information see our Book in Every Hand appeal

Diane Maybey
Office Volunteer

BISEE Book Bus at Quito's Interactive Science Museum

2011-03-16T06:05:00.000-07:00

BISEE Books and Quito's Interactive Science Museum (MIC) join forces to promote literature and reading in the cityThe BISEE Book Bus was invited to attend as guest of honour at the inauguration of "Quito Lee" at the Interactive Science Museum (MIC) on Saturday 12 March 2011. "Quito Lee" which translates in English as "Quito reads", is a literacy programme aimed at encouraging children to read at least one book a month. The museum is promoting the programme in association with the BISEE Book Bus which will be parked on the museum site every Saturday to encourage children and families to climb aboard and enjoy reading our fantastic selection of children's story books.

Rainy Season in Zambia & Roll on April 30th!!

2011-03-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

Life carries on much the same in Zambia during rainy season, the only differences are: the roads are much worse, people are even later for things than usual and they have a new excuse “the rains”,and the landscape is completely transformed. Everything bursts to life, the bush is every imaginable shade of green, and people are growing maize on every available spot of land. If you have only visited in the dry season when everything is brown and brittle you would be amazed at the difference. It is hard to believe it’s the same place, the road to the falls is unrecognisable and there is no chance of spotting game crossing the road, there is enough food and water everywhere so they aren’t forced to traipse down to the river.

Next week I will get to see plenty of this greenery on the 3000km round trip from Livingstone to Blantyre to collect the truck. The first 1500km will be by public bus – the joys of only stopping once on a 9 hour journey and then only for a matter of minutes, when the driver honks you have about 0.2 seconds to re-board or else!! If you are super- unlucky you get a driver who plays his favourite tape at full blast on repeat for the entire journey!! It will be great to meet up with Douglas again and at least on the journey back we will have full control of toilet/snack stops!! I’ve promised to take Douglas to see the Victoria Falls this time, as when he was here in 2010 I was slightly uber-busy and he missed out!

The falls are always green because of the spray but at the moment all the rains mean that the water level is slowly rising. They are very spectacular at this time of year and not quite at their fullest so you can get quite close without getting soaked! The spray blows with the wind so sometimes you get a covering of fine waterdrops, but with temperatures in the 30’s everyday this is cooling and very pleasant.

Tourism at this time of year is very low, but in my opinion it’s a great time to visit. The rains are not debilitating. It generally rains for an hour or in the afternoon and before and after the skies are brilliant blue. It’s hot but not unbearably so as in October, the nights are warm and you can sit out, so not cool, like June and July. There are few other tourists so you can get good deals on hotels and on activities there are no crowds. The only downside is that it can be harder to spot game because of the greenery and the fact that they don’t have to travel to find scarce water. This saying I went to Chobe last month and saw some of the best game since I was in Africa. There was a whole herd of elephants in the water right by our boat and the youngsters were all playing, it was amazing sitting and watching them play-fight, just like human children!

Since I’ve been back in Livingstone I’ve visited most of our schools several times! It’s great to come back and be genuinely welcomed by the teachers and the pupils. I’ve spent quite a lot of time at the community project in Zweilopili. They have built new grass shelters and been able to put tarpaulin on the roof to keep the rains out, thanks to the generosity of some 2010 Book Bus volunteers. They have also constructed a toilet and are planning another classroom block. Mr Mwiya, who has recently retired as deputy head of Nakatindi, is an inspiration to everyone with his dedication of starting this project and funding much of it himself. At the moment he is trying hard to encourage girls who dropped out of school because of pregnancies to come and take free tuition classes so they can get back into education. (I've just noticed below - I've even started wearing yellow in my freetime!)

Going to Lubasi is always a highlight and I had a great afternoon the other week playing with the kids. They have completed the building of their chapel whilst I was away, so once a month now on Sundays they have their own service at the home. Last month they had a fundraising Zambian meal. The staff dressed up in costumes from different provinces, and prepared food from those areas. There were about 70 tourists and locals who all paid an entrance fee and the money is going towards the upkeep of the home. It was a fun afternoon with lots of singing and dancing and a chance to try the famous caterpillars that the Luvali people from the north western province enjoy eating! Its great to see that the home is using it’s initiate to raise money and not just relying on donors.

This season we will be including 2 new schools in the Book bus program both of which I have recently visited. One I discovered the first year I was here, but with the bus visiting would be difficult but now we have the truck I thought it was time to give it a go. It’s called Chileleko, which is Tonga for Blessings and the teachers and pupils are very excited about our impending visits. They still remembered me from my one visit in July 2008!!

The other is Libuyu community school and again the bus couldn’t visit but now in 2011, here comes the truck! It’s always a challenge to begin at new schools because it takes time to get organised and to get teachers and pupils used to what we do, but it is rewarding when you can see the improvement in the kids week by week!

I can’t wait to get started…roll on April 30^th!!

Book Bus in Quito

2011-03-03T19:41:00.000-08:00

The Book Bus is proving to be a big hit at schools in and around Quito. Our volunteer crews this week have included members of the South American Explorers' Club, the Peace Corps as well as our regular crew from Ecuador and the UK. The Bus will be guest of honour at the forthcoming launch of Quito's new Science and Humanity Museum. Children from our Quito schools have been working hard to produce a collection of artwork for display at the event. Masks have been a popular option whilst Peace Corps volunteer April produced a mini-theatrical event using puppets hand-made by the children.

All in all it's been a fun week with some excellent results. Keep it up crew!

Raise funds for the Book Bus climbing Mt Toubkal in Morocco

2011-02-18T07:08:00.000-08:00

Do you fancy a challenge but don't have the time (or inclination) to scale Everest?

Then consider The Book Bus's charity trek to the summit of North Africa's highest mountain....you'll only have to take two days off work!

The Toubkal trek is an extended mountain walk that lasts 3 days. There will be full support from local staff: tents, backpacks and all expedition equipment will be carried on mules. You will be carrying a daypack whilst walking. Walking days involve 6 to 8 hours on the trail; climate, altitude and remoteness may play a part in the challenge.
Previous trekking experience is not essential but you must have a good level of walking fitness.

The details

22nd September - 25th September

This trek is presented at “cost” of £485.

Each person who joins the trek pledges to raise a minimum of £500 (there is no maximum!) to help fund the Book Buses. You may either pay your own trek cost and then raise £500 as a donation to Book Bus.
Or Charity Commission rules allow you to raise £485 + £500 in sponsorship, so long as you make it clear to your donors that you are doing so..

For more information - Toubkal Charity Climb

The Book Bus with Lake of Stars

2011-02-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

This Sunday - 20th February, The Book Bus will be at Market Club in London town.

Market Club is a new kind of free event for the leading East London Arts Centre that will brighten up your Sundays.

The finest festival team in the world (Lake of Stars) are kicking off the New Year moving their Wednesday night sessions to monthly Sunday celebrations of art, music, film, markets and Olympic sports. Live music comes from rising indie-folk star Sam Sallon plus reggae/dub outfit Scubaroots with DJ sets from Fabric’s Ali B, Jamie A, Kid Blue and Young Offenders.

Sundays in Shoreditch are alive from Brick Lane, Spitalfields and Columbia Rd markets – get indoors with the Market Club’s mini market selling everything from books to music to a sample sale from Fenchurch.

If you find yourself in the eastend of London this Sunday..pop in and say hello!

Market Club
RICH MIX
35 - 47 Bethnal Green Road,
London, E1 6LA

The Book Bus in the Press

2011-02-10T12:03:00.000-08:00

Wanderlust magazine journalist Ed Stocker spent 2 weeks on the Book Bus in Ecuador last year. You can read about Ed's experiences in the February issue of Wanderlust available at WH Smiths and other large stationary stores.

The Book Bus in Zambia features in a Guardian article by Sarah Gilbert. Click here to read about her time on board the Book Bus in Livingstone

A tale of understanding from Ecuador

2011-02-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

The Book Bus in Píntag

A smile from a child that has been beaten, a smile from a child that has lost 
his mum, a smile from a child that hasn’t had reason to smile in years is what 
the members of the BOOK BUS need to feel good. For a moment a smile from a child 
with dirt in his face and a sparkle of sadness in his eyes might steal a tear 
from the BOOK BUS volunteers. A small school in Píntag, a small town close to 
Valle de los Chillos, was the school that invited the BOOK BUS members to have 
this wonderful experience. Small beautiful smiles to bigger ones were present, 
all ages from 3 to 13, all sitting down with their heads up showing a lot of 
respect and humbleness. Their faces were like carved by the hands of god, they 
had eyes that had a hope and plead of some love. Each member of the BOOK BUS had 
a moment to read and have a pleasant moment with these children. The way how the 
books have a connection with the children is something that no scientist or 
doctor can explain. Their imagination bursts and gives away a dream, monkeys, 
fishes swimming in the dark seas and eagles overflying the clouds in a cold 
winter are some of the images that these children get in their small and curious 
minds.  Juanita Neira the godmother of the BOOK BUS shared this moment with us. 
An activity that incorporated all the students and the BOOK BUS was something 
that showed how a story can be made from our hearts. This experience made us 
open our eyes and see the reality of how many children right next to us need a 
book and also some love to have a smile painted in their faces.

Jaime Andrés Durán (Year 12)
Jaime is a pupil at the British School in Quito which participates in the 
BISEE Book Bus school2school exchange programme in Ecuador

The Book Bus makes a splash in London

2011-02-07T04:04:00.000-08:00

The Book Bus mounted a stand at the recent Destinations Travel Exhibition in London's Earls Court. This was our first exposure at this type of event and, because many of the visitors to our stand had never heard about us before, we were able to spread the word to a whole new audience. Accolades ranged from "Wow!" to "best travel event I've seen at the whole show". Clearly the concept of travelling to support a worthy cause grabs the imagination and we look forward to welcoming some of our show stand visitors onto the Book Bus in the near future.

As ever, it's the efforts of our volunteers who keep the Book Bus wheels turning and we're grateful to those who supported us on the stand during the show. A big thanks goes to Jean, Vicky, Hillary, Raquel, Glenn, Ellie, Kate and Seth.

The Book Bus Ecuador

2011-01-26T11:57:00.000-08:00

Launched in March 2010, the BISEE Book Bus Ecuador has already worked with over 1800 children in 4 provinces: Manab’, Chimborazo, Napo and Pichincha.

During its first year, the bus has proved extremely popular with pupils and is always greeted with lots of smiles, waving and shouting! We have been working with primary school children (5-12 years) in small groups, reading stories together, letting children choose their own story to read alone and doing activities to improve children’s imagination. Imagination, creativity and curiosity are essential for children to get the most out of the stories, and are sadly lacking in rural parts of Ecuador visited by the bus. Although the literacy rate is quite high, children have no access to story books; their teachers don’t like reading and see no benefit in reading to the children. Next year we hope to work more closely with the teachers so that the children continue to benefit when the bus has moved on.

As well as working with the schools in the mornings, in the afternoons the bus is parked in the street and opens its doors to any child who wants to come onboard and read with us. We often get the same children come every day; these children have chosen to give up their free time to come and read stories, rather than having to as part of their school day.

In Chimborazo, when we found some children weren’t able to come some afternoons because they had homework to do, we decided to help them in the bus after reading. A lot of children in this area live with grandparents (who are often illiterate), as their parents have moved to the cities to find work. These children have no help with their homework, and one boy we worked with had failed many school years because he had no extra support. He was 11 and could barely read and write. it took a while for him to trust us enough to feel able to bring his homework as he was used to being laughed at for being so behind. In the month he worked with us his confidence soared and he started playing with the other children who came on the bus, who stopped making fun of him when they realised he was trying to learn.

Another girl we worked with also lived with her grandparents. She needed 8 sheets of plain A4 paper to do her homework, it only cost about 20 cents but her grandparents didn’t have the money; they were hoping to get it the day before the work was due in leaving her one evening to do all 8 pages of work. When we offered to give her the 8 sheets she needed the look of joy and relief on her face was amazing.

These are just two stories from two of the children we worked with this year. Every child has their own story to tell; when you walk around the market and see hundreds of children working to sell food or clothes you realise that every one of those has a different story. The only way out of poverty for these children is education, and if the Book Bus can inspire some of them through reading, we can really make a difference to their futures.

Annelisa Sadler
BISEE Book Bus volunteer 2010

Helen's Book Bus experience in Zambia

2011-01-18T09:03:00.000-08:00

My name is Helen, I am 29-years-old. I volunteered with the Book Bus in May and June of 2009. The Book Bus is a wonderful project based in Livingstone, Zambia. We visited five different schools in the Livingstone area, one for each day of the school week. The Book Bus is a Livingstone icon - everybody knows the Book Bus!  

Volunteering with the Book Bus is such a rewarding experience. I remember one of my fellow volunteers commenting after my first day that she had never seen anyone smile so much! The children are amazing, so keen to learn and so happy that you have taken the time to help them. They are often packed sixty to a class so any individual attention you can give them is really appreciated.    In a typical day I would take four small groups for an hour each, grades four to seven. The work was also challenging at times as we would work with 8-year-olds who had excellent reading skills as well as 16-year-olds who could hardly read at all. Creativity, flexibility and patience are great skills to have as every group is different. In the lessons we would usually read together, talk about what they had read and do an activity based around the story and themes of the book, usually arts and crafts (drawing, making masks etc) or play games to further their understanding (football, netball, word games etc). Sometimes we would work on little projects together that would continue over into the next weeks lesson! The children especially liked 'The Banana Song'!  

One of the best things about volunteering with the Book Bus for me, was the wonderful people I met. I made some great friends, my fellow volunteers, the teachers and of course the children. The support I had from the Book Bus and VentureCo staff was great, both pre-departure and whilst in Zambia.   Zambia is a wonderful country and in our free time we explored the lovely town of Livingstone and the surrounding areas. There are so many things to do - see Victoria Falls aka Mosi-o-Tunya (‘the smoke that thunders’ - and it really does), go white water rafting and kayaking on the mighty Zambezi river, pet lions and cheetahs, walk to the Devil's Pool, bungi jump 111m from the Zim-Zam bridge, the second highest bunji in the world (if you're brave enough – I’m not), see hippos and giraffes on a sunset cruise, take high tea at The Royal Livingstone and visit Chobe National Park in Botswana, the elephant viewing there is amazing!  

I can’t wait to go back again!!

HELEN DAVIES

Wanderlust Magazine February 2011

2011-01-12T17:25:00.001-08:00

Wanderlust Magazine have published an article on volunteering in their latest issue and The Book Bus in Ecuador stars as one of their chosen features. Wanderlust journalist Ed Stocker spent 2 weeks on the Book Bus as it visited schools in the Amazon and coastal regions of the country. You can follow his story on pages 112 to 115 of the February issue of the magazine which is available from WH Smith and other newsagents.
http://www.thebookbus.org/index.php/book-bus-help-as-volunteer/join-book-bus-volunteers.html

Book Bus Journal - Ecuador 26/07/10

2010-12-17T05:05:00.000-08:00

Book Bus Ecuador in Puerto Lopez

A warm hello to all of you from Puerto López. The Book Bus is spending 2 months here. We started the volunteer work this past week and had two girls on the team. There was a school break so, we gather children form anywhere and everywhere that want to in join with the activities and the reading. Here's a brief rundown of the the week:

Monday we had 27 children 3 to 11 years old in El Tamarindo, a very poor area made up of a few families.

Tuesday we were in Machalilla where we gathered 21 children from the school. We all fell in love with this place, Children participate and were willing to hear the stories of the the reading we did.

Wednesday we went to Puerto Cayo and had 54 kids a bit too many for the three of us but at the end all went well.

Thursday in Puerto López we gathered 6 children we did just one group and the children were very keen to listen to the book we chose for that day.

Friday we were in Agua Blanca and had 21 children, we have wonderful drawings of this group.

It was a very interesting week, because we gathered children that wanted to participate and there were many joining us. There is so much to do here. It is difficult to motivate people to read. We are trying to find a way to get teachers involved in the reading and we are thinking of leaving a book to be read during the scholar year and, spend 5 minutes reading a little bit of the book. If the coordinators and volunteers share with us ideas will be useful for the future work here.

Children here loves drawing and representing stories. We noticed that they need to develop their creativity, there were children drawing the pictures of the book or copying the drawing of other kids. To motivate the reading is a bit difficult because the education level of the teachers is low. They don't have much criteria and formation to have a better formation of the kids. Unfortunately there is a culture of just getting things they need but not working to get it. We have to read and at the same time to plant a little seed in them to care for the environment and their school.

It is a wonderful challenge but here we are on the book bus bringing the magic of reading.

The volunteers say hello to you all and soon you will hear from them. they will share a little bit of their experiences of the last few days.

A big hug and we are in touch with all of you.
Love
Jenny

www.thebookbus.org

Book Bus Journal - Zambia 18/07/10

2010-12-17T04:59:00.000-08:00

Botswana Road Trip & the Bus is back!!

The bus is back in service! We have had the bus raised and now it can pass some of the Zambian potholed roads and reach the schools we are visiting this year! We have been using it again the past 2 weeks and the kids are pleased to see it!

Life at schools is very settled and we met the mayor at Nakatindi on Tuesday who was very impressed with our work! We have been lucky to receive a new shipment of books from the UK. This was very exciting! There are mostly non fiction books but these have proved a real hit in the last week, because as well as reading the children are also learning new facts, from how sunflowers grow from seeds and caterpillars turn into butterflies to how children around the world live in different kinds or homes and have different types of hair!!

At Maanu Mbwami the desks and teachers tables/chairs that were funded by 2 of our Bookbus volunteers have started to arrive from the local carpenter that is making them! The children, teachers and parents are so grateful. The Bookbus has become a huge success story at this school. After only 8 weeks, I can see the difference in the confidence, individuality and imagination of the kids. The teachers have also said that there is a marked improvement! At this school we are teaching from grades 2 to 7 so we have a broad spectrum of ages and abilities. This proved to be very trying in the first few weeks but the response we have gotten has proven that sometimes the most difficult challenges provide the most rewarding results!

I have also been talking to the teachers and community members about the best ways they can help themselves and we have come up with some interesting ideas for future projects! This school is going to be one place we visit during the school holidays. The first week we will be running holiday workshops and I imagine attendance will be very high! My job over the next week is to finalise the other projects we will be running during the school holidays, which are fast approaching!

The truck has now departed for Meheba but not before a quick trip across the border to Botswana to stamp its vehicle passport and to fill up with cheaper Botswana Diesel. On a 400 litre tank it makes the journey worthwhile!

We had time to make a quick visit to Chobe National Park, arriving at our accommodation about 5 minutes before our afternoon boat safari was due to leave, so perfect timing!! The wildlife we saw was amazing; especially the elephants emerging from the river, and the sunset was stunning! The sunrise safari at 5.30 was one word…freezing!! 6 layers of clothes and still we turned into icicles and unfortunately the lions we were hoping to see didn’t materialise! We then had to make the return trip and arrived in Livingstone without any hiccups and in time for watching the Worldcup final!! We went to watch in the theatre and the atmosphere was electric! About 3 quarters were for Spain and the rest for Netherlands although I doubt anyone in the building had visited either! I can say from first hand experience that Vuvuzelas are VERY loud!! Unfortunately we were rooting for Holland but nevertheless it was a cool experience!

Kelly Geoghegan

www.thebookbus.org

Book Bus Journal - Zambia 29/06/10

2010-12-17T04:51:00.000-08:00

Wintertime, The World Cup and Our Timetable!

Zambian winter is here again! Temperatures at night are plummeting but everyday dawns bright and clear. The sessions at school now take place in the sunshine as the shade is far too cold! Daytime temperatures are still between 25 and 30C so we can’t complain too much! The Bookbus truck is now fully recognisable as it’s been painted with our logo. We have had shelves custom made, it looks like a moving library. So we aren’t just greeted with cries of m’zungo but also “give me one book!” and it’s now well known all around Livingstone.

The interaction with the local people is much more than in the bus because of the open sides and the volunteers can get a real feeling of local village life as we trundle by on our way to school! Most houses have a small stall outside where they are selling a few items, usually surplus things they have grown themselves, but also firewood, charcoal and mealie meal, for making nshima! Most Zambian households spend most of there time outside, cooking, eating, bathing and washing are all done in the yard. On the routes we take to school we are now well known and are greeted by children and adults alike. Scores of children often run alongside, laughing and waving and, of course, shouting!!

The world cup is playing a big part in African life here and this despite the fact that Zambia didn’t qualify! We have been watching the England games in the old cinema in the centre of town, a very cool atmosphere but far removed from your traditional UK pub crowd! The first England game we took some of the older boys from the orphanage to watch and they had an amazing time, even though we only drew! Sunday, unfortunately, saw our last game but the now we are getting behind Ghana, the only African team left, as is the whole of Zambia! They are certainly proud to be African and when Ghana beat the USA the sounds of vuvuzelas and celebrations could be heard all over town!
Life at the schools continues as usual, with each and every school having its own particular charm to make it somebody’s favourite! On Monday there is Linda with the polite and reserved, but ever eager to learn, children and also the fantastic teachers that always make us welcome and want to see what novels we have for them to borrow! As we do our lessons outside, near the market ,we are well known by many of the local people and there is a great sense of being part of the community!

On Tuesday there is Nakatindi with the large classes of boisterous pupils in their blue uniforms. The groups here are always very vocal but always smiling and waiting to get their hands on anything shiny or the football!

Wednesday brings us to the huge Libala school! So different from anywhere else we go. There are always large audiences of pupils crowding around the mats, wanting to watch the lessons and wishing it was their turn! The atmosphere here is always highly charged and vibrant with never a dull moment and the use of glitter in any session is seriously discouraged because of the riot potential!

Thursday is the newest addition with Maanu Mbwami and the children here are still very quiet and reserved, almost shy. They still have that wide eyed look of amazement when we arrive but I can certainly notice the difference and the rise in confidence in the 5 weeks we have been visited. They are slowly becoming used to the yellow shirted m’zungos! The teachers here are so grateful that we are visiting their school and they tell me so every week. Thay also call every Wednesday just to make sure we are still visiting the following day!
Fridays is the variety day. Mornings at cowboy cliffs, to be welcomed by the “welcoming song” and then entertained by dozens of very cute kids all wanting to hold our hands, make things and play games. Then afternoons at “Lubasi” where the children eagerly await our arrival and are just pleased to spend time with us.

Every week brings new surprises, smiles and heart warming stories but also frustration and disappointment at the education system in Zambia. Children are so willing to learn, they see education as a way to better their lives. Most children want to be doctors, nurses, judges and accountants but if they still struggle to read at grade 7 then this is never going to be possible. There are so many amazing and dedicated teachers out there, especially in the community schools, but they are fighting a losing battle against high class sizes and next to no resources. Everywhere we visit values the project and insists that it is really helping the children we spend time with! If we can make a difference to a handful of children then it makes everything worthwhile!

Kelly Geoghegan

www.thebookbus.org

Book Bus Journal - Zambia 05/06/10

2010-12-17T04:42:00.000-08:00

New school, Nshima and Zimbabwe!

So the schools are now in full swing as is the Bookbus project. We are visiting 4 of the same schools as last year but one we have changed and the Maanu Mbwabi school is fast becoming a favourite amongst the volunteers.

There are 320 pupils from grades 1 to 7 and these come from some of the neediest communities around Livingstone. Many of the children have never had access to the kinds of things the bus is equipped with and text books are almost non existent. It’s great to see that even after only 4 weeks that the children are becoming more confident and are starting to slowly come out with their own ideas and preferences. According to the teachers, Thursday is now the day with the highest attendance! The teachers working at small community schools like this are not paid by the government; they are basically “volunteer” teachers who rely on donations and the goodwill of the community. However, throughout my time in Zambia I have see that these tend to be the most committed teachers and the ones that really strive to give their pupils the best start that is possible. Unfortunately without resources, desks or even the most basic books they are fighting an uphill battle but the commitment is there are clearly visible amongst these valuable members of society.

As our truck rumbles through the outlying compounds to reach the school we are greeted with more enthusiasm each week. We are also treated to views of “real” Zambian life as it happens. Most dwellings along the route have a small stand outside selling the surplus products they have grown. Huge paw paws and sweet potatoes are the most prevalent at the moment. We drive past markets, schools and churches and are constantly greeted with shouts of “m’zungu, m’zungu!” and the double handed waves and dances that the kids seem to think we warrant!

The bus is in the garage being raised so hopefully this will then allow it to access more places. It is a necessary alteration as the roads this year are in a much worse state of repair than last year. Potholes everywhere, even the Zambians are complaining! Meanwhile the truck is having some alterations made to make it more “library-like” and hopefully when the illustrations are applied it will look just as striking as the bus!

At Libala school last week some of the grade 8 girls cooked a traditional Zambian lunch for us. There was, of course, the staple N’shima and this was accompanied by fried rape (a kind of spinach) with tomatoes, cassava leaves and ochre with groundnuts. We ate in one of the classrooms with some of the teachers and they were very keen to see the m’zungo technique for rolling n’shima and using it to pick up the rest of your meal. Everyone had a great time, the food was excellent and the experience really something to write home about and not a knife and fork in sight!

Some of us took a day trip to Zimbabwe to see the falls from the other side. Both countries seem to think that they “own” the best side of the falls! All I can say is that you get equally wet on both sides at this time of year!! Quite a bit of historic rivalry there. No visit to Victoria Falls would be complete with a trip to the terrace at the world renowned Victoria Falls Hotel! This place is a world away from the rest of the town and you can just imagine royalty sitting and admiring the view 100 years ago. Unfortunately the town is in a poor state of repair. Walking around, it felt like a ghost town. Lots of boarded up building, empty petrol stations and, bizarrely, families of warthogs walking around town, looking very surreal crossing the roads!

Kelly Geoghegan

www.thebookbus.org

Book Bus Journal - Zambia 17/05/10

2010-12-17T04:26:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday and Wednesday we went to Linda community school and were given our usual warm welcome. The kids and the teachers were so happy to see us back and we began our usual 1 hour lessons with grades 4 to 7. The children at Linda now look very smart as the entire school has been donated uniforms by a local church. Attendance was quite low on Tuesday but when word spread that we were back Wednesday the numbers had grown. It was great to see the World Food Program delivering food again and hopefully this will improve attendance too.

Thursday, we ventured out to the Libuyu compound and the Maanu Mbwami community school. This is one of the schools I discovered last year on a bike ride but it was inaccessible, now we can reach it with the truck. There are just over 300 pupils in grades 1 to 7 and these are some of the neediest children in Livingstone. The school was started by Pastor Smoke Chewe 7 years ago and it has slowly grown to today’s numbers. The teachers were super enthusiastic and welcoming. The children had never experienced anything like what we were offering and this is an amazing feeling. Although attendance was low, we are assured that Thursday will now become the favourite day of the week! All the volunteers agreed this was exactly the kind of school that the project was aimed at. We look forward to working with the pupils and the teachers at Maanu Mbwami (vernacular for Knowledge is Power!)Friday we returned to our old favourite, Cowboy Cliffs preschool where we went on a bear hunt and did the animal bop!

We have been busy in our free time too with sunset cruises, tea at the Royal Livingstone, bike rides with Cliff coming back with lots of local produce from the markets…including caterpillars! And on Saturday we went to Maramba Stadium to watch the Zambian National Football Team! As the match was free it was completely packed and we actually got turned away at the gates but managed to sneak in a back door after following a group of Zambians that were determined they weren’t going to miss this! The game ended 0-0 but the atmosphere was great and the little girls walking around with blocks of ice on their heads to keep cool were the highlight!

Book Bus Leader: Kelly Geoghegan

www.thebookbus.org

Book Bus Journal - Zambia 08/05/10

2010-12-16T15:14:00.000-08:00

Back to Lubasi!

So the first volunteers of 2010 have arrived and our first stop was a visit to the spectacular Victoria Falls. The Zambezi River is very full after the rainy season and at the moment the falls really live up to their local name “Mosi O Tunya” – meaning the smoke that thunders. Whilst I have been away the government have doubled the entry fees but without warning and any given reason, it’s a very controversial topic locally. Locals pay much less than tourists but their reduced fees have tripled!!
We walked down to the boiling pot at the base of the falls which has a micro climate much like a mini rainforest because of the constant spray from the falls. There are plants and flowers here you can’t find anywhere else in the area. The climb up again was tough but then we went to see the falls close up from knife edge bridge and got absolutely soaked by the spray…it was like somebody had thrown us in a swimming pool but good for cooling off!

This week we have been visiting the Lubasi home as schools are still on holiday but both the volunteers and the children got so much out of spending consecutive days together. It’s great to see the trust building and the kids becoming more confident! All the children aged 3 to 17 joined in with our sessions and read a huge variety of books and partook in crafty activities afterwards, masks and friendship bracelets were the favourites with the youngsters. The children delight in showing us what they have been up to; be it learning to write or doing amazing back flips. Each day they would eagerly ask “are you coming again tomorrow?” Friday was hard; having to tell them we wouldn’t be back for a week. We are already looking forward to next Friday afternoon!

One afternoon we visited the colourful and ever vibrant Maramba market which is just opposite the home. You can buy almost anything here, from chickens to tyres and from material to taps. The food market it an assault on all your senses, especially smell! This is the “real” Africa where locals go about their daily business and we are a novelty walking around in our yellow t-shirts!

We have also watched the excellent local dance & culture show “Dancing around Zambia” performed by Livingstone Performing arts foundation at the Zambezi Sun resort. Inspired by the dancing the very next day the girls all attended a dance workshop to try and learn the moves! The Lubasi children were then treated to a demonstration on Friday which they found “interesting!!” And last night we went for a traditional Zambian meal, where knives and forks are banned!!

Overall it has been a very successful first week despite the bus still being “grounded” due to the road condition and everyone has enjoyed the week spent getting to know the Lubasi orphans and the real Zambia!

Book Bus leader - Kelly Geoghegan

www.thebookbus.org

Book Bus Journal Entry - 01/05/10

2010-12-16T15:08:00.000-08:00

Return to Zambia!!

Returning to Livingstone I was expecting sunshine and blue skies....what i got was...

Returning to Livingstone I was expecting sunshine and blue skies. What I got was a gigantic storm with extraordinarily heavy rains which washed away many roads and surprised all the locals as storms are usually unheard of in April. Since then it has been windy and cloudy but at least no more rains, so fingers crossed that is it for this season. The river is at an all time high and from the plane the falls looked magnificent, I shall have to pay a visit this weekend but with the prior knowledge that I will be getting absolutely soaked!

This week I have been busy preparing for the imminent arrival of the first of this year’s Bookbus volunteers. The bus has had a spring clean and service, although owing to the state of the roads it won’t be moving anywhere for a while. The tents are all up and the kitchen has had a make over. The grotto is as tranquil as ever (well at least at the moment as there are no overlanders!) In fact town is incredibly quiet; there don’t seem to be any tourists around at all.

The schools are currently on holidays so next week we will be paying a visit to our friends at Lubasi home for 5 days. I visited yesterday and they are very excited to have us back, both the children and the carers. A visit to the ministry of education brought us to their attention once again and we will be carrying out our programme with their blessing. We are hoping to arrange that some student teachers from Livingstone can join the bus for a few days a week. This will not only benefit the students but also our volunteers, who can then work aside local people.

This year the first week feels much more relaxed than last time, that is probably because I know where everything is, how things work and know to expect that nothing runs smoothly or on time!! The countryside is green and thriving thanks to the recent rains and this week I have seen baby zebras, a huge water monitor lizard and a very cool looking chameleon, which local people are afraid of because it is associated with witchcraft!

Kelly Geoghegan, Book Bus Leader