World Book Day

The Book Bus Road Show was in for a special treat today at Sonning Common Primary School! We were met at the gate by McGonagall  from Hogwarts and treated to school lunch surrounded by Spiderman, Cinderella, The Artful Dodger, Harry Potter, Wally, numerous princesses and a host of other characters from the children's favourite books. This was World Book Day in action, if only everyday at school was like this!

Today's special topic was the Galapagos Islands, Isabel from Galapagos Conservation Trust showed us where the islands are and how important it has become to conserve their unique wildlife. We discovered that the population of 30,000 islanders receive 200,000 visitors every year who come to view the wildlife and admire the spectacular island landscapes The Book Bus project on the Galapagos works with 3 schools on Santa Cruz Island to help the children improve their reading and English language skills; this will improve their future job prospects within the flourishing tourist industry where literate and bi-lingual candidates are a much sought after resource!

Our whistle stop tour of the world continued to Zambia where we made Skype contact with project coordinator Monica and the children at Musonda Community School near Kitwe. With great whoops and much smiling and waving  the children enjoyed seeing how each other's schools looked. The Book Bus gave the children at Musonda a supply of valuable books and spent the day reading and drawing with them.




 After a day in the company of so many colourful and spectacular children, Book Bus George chugged out of the playground and trundled back to base. What a great day it was!

When Lightning Strikes

Teaching children from Nankufi about lightning safety

The much needed rains have finally arrived in Malawi and local people breathed a sigh of relief as they planted their maize to ensure they have sufficient food for next year.

The rains are often accompanied by spectacular storms including deafening thunder and lightning that lights up the sky for tens of kilometres in the distance.

I was at the Book Bus home in Malawi, Fisherman’s Rest when the first storm stuck southern Blantyre. We had just arrived back from another fantastic day at Mpemba school. We had read a story from Kenya about a shepherd boy who looked after his herd. The children loved it as they could all relate to the responsibility of looking after their precious animals. I had already prepared the lesson for next day sitting in our Book Bus Matilda, and was walking back to my room as I looked out over the Great Rift Valley. Enormous dark and menacing clouds had gathered and were moving quickly across the sky. Large sheets of lightning flashed across the horizon followed by the deafening roar of thunder. I hurried on to my room and sat watching nature at its fiercest.

The storm lasted for about an hour and as I stepped out I could see floods of water streaming down the road, branches of trees hanging off trunks and stones upturned.

It wasn’t until the next day that we heard the tragic news that two children at nearby Mbame school had been stuck and killed by lightning during the storm. We were all really shocked and deeply saddened.  After some investigation we found out that there was little information in our local communities as to what to do to help people stay safer in a lightning storm. The Book Bus has strong working relationships with schools in the communities we are based so we approached the Head Teachers to see how we could help.

The volunteers on the Book Bus along with colleagues from Fisherman’s Rest put together a short information drama with five simple actions that might help children stay a little safer during a lightning storm.  Using simple props and puppets from the Book Bus the children learnt not to shelter under umbrellas or trees, not to carry water on their heads, to take shelter in fields in a ditch and not to shelter under metal roofs if they are not earthed. We then had a quiz to test whether the children remembered the key facts. The children did really well in the quiz and we asked that they share this information with their communities back in the village.

Hundreds of people die every year in Malawi during lighting storms. Cascading information using community networks is a powerful way to get a safety message to as many people as possible.

By mid December the Book Bus volunteers had visited seven schools reaching over 3,000 children. Schools broke up in December so the information sessions will continue after the holiday period.

The Book Bus isn’t just about bringing books, arts & crafts and games to schools. We’re very much part of the community we operate in so where we can help share information from school to school and village to village, we are delighted to do this.

Education comes in many forms and with our 'mphenzi' safety dramas we hope we engaged the children as well as getting them to remember crucial safety tips.

Marian Forkin 

Seasons Greetings!

A BOOK FOR CHRISTMAS
25th December 2013

It's Christmas time and this weekend the project in Kitwe decided to partner with the Talent Community Club to celebrate Christmas with the visually impaired and their children.  This club focuses on building skills and encouraging the visually impaired and their children to move off the streets and make a living by using their skills. 

The visually impaired women and men whom we invited for Christmas lunch live in the corridors of Kitwe town begging for money and help from passers by. Most of them have children who are affected by their parent’s disability and have to sit by their parent’s side the whole day directing them to a better spot to sit or to walk them to a car to beg for money. The sad part of it is their children and their children’s children have become part of this street life.  About two thirds of the 40 children of the visually impaired go to school but their classes are often interrupted by their parents or grandparents need for a guide on the streets. Christmas is about sharing and we decided to share our day, love, smiles, fun, and food with these precious children of Kitwe to give them a Christmas to remember.
 

The children seated alongside their visually impaired grandparents.

One of the highlights of the day was a visit from Zambia’s first ever Track and Field world champion, Samuel Matete. Having grown up in a small township in Chingola he encouraged the children to polish up their skills and talents to attain greatness just like he did. 

 

Zambia’s first ever Track and field World champion, Samuel Matete visits Book Bus Charlie

After all the fun and games and eating the children took time to talk about the importance of school and knowing how to read and write.  It’s during these interactions that I asked the children “do you know what a library is?” one answered “it’s where they park cars” none of the children had the correct answer or any clue what so ever. With that we took them on a tour of Book Bus Charlie. The children felt extra special to have Charlie come out on a Saturday just for them to have a fun reading day and for those who couldn't read they still felt encouraged and happy to be part of Book Bus day. Some of the children go to school and were extremely proud to have a book as a Christmas gift; one could easily see the smiles on their faces, the excitement to own a brand new book and their visually impaired parents and grandparents were pleasantly surprised.  Some of the kids were eager to show off their reading skills. This Christmas lunch and the Miles Kelly Books are probably the only gifts they will get this Christmas.

 

Children of the visually impaired reading their new Miles Kelly books

One of our favourite things to do as individuals is cooking and the book bus team and talent community club all got together for a big Christmas lunch cook out. 
Happy Christmas and New Year  from Kitwe to all of our supporters around the world!
Monica (Kitwe-Zambia).

Doc cutting up vegetables for the master stew he was cooking for the children of Kitwe Christmas lunch (Doc is part of Book Bus and has been driving our bus Charlie for years)

 

Ethel volunteered to help with the cooking

 

Time to eat

 

The Children of Kitwe waiting to say a prayer before they eat their food.

The Book Bus team make sure everyone gets a plate full

 

Drinks anyone….?

 

Our youngest reader enjoying her meal

Charlie in Kitwe, Zambia

After a week of working in Kitwe, the book bus has become popular and we have received requests from a number of schools to visit them. This week in particular, I am excited as we are going to visit a small community school called Manyando Community School which was started in the year 2000 in a compound called Bulangililo. The school has a total of 310 pupils and has grades 1 to 7, with only 3 class rooms and one block of toilets. Located in a highly populated area, the children who attend school here can barely afford basic education. The community school is free. The pupils are expected to wear a uniform but most of the children come from poor families and cannot afford to buy the uniforms.

Manyando Community School children.

The teachers are all volunteers and are not qualified but have been trained in basic education through workshops held by the Ministry of Education. The community school runs their operation solely on the donations received from a charity named Blessed to Bless Australia that supports the school. The donations are used to pay the teachers a basic subsistence allowance.

This community school is a rundown block of three class rooms, but of the three rooms two rooms are subdivided to make them into two classrooms using a curtain. The picture above shows a broken wall which marks the division of one of the class rooms. Otherwise these classrooms are used as a prayer hall at the weekend.

The picture above shows the children at Manyando
community visiting the bus for the first time.

 These children have never been to a library and The Book Bus Charlie was their first feel of a library. When we arrived at Manyando Community School and had our first interactions with the children they were very reserved and one would assume they don’t speak a word of English or the local language. And so Charlie went back every week to visit the children who were free to take part in reading, singing, dancing and doing other crafts and drawing.

In the third week of our visit the children came enthusiastically to the bus and were saying “we have come to learn to read please give us books” you could see the smiles and they were talking this time around.

Children drawing their favourite characters from
one of the Tinga Tinga books they love.

On this day the children had excitedly suggested they would tell us about the stories we had been reading over the past weeks and decided to draw what they liked from the Elephant Book. This made us proud, the children had been paying attention and with each visit they had become more and more self-confident.  The children had over a short period of time transformed from being reserved to confident girls and boys who could tell us about the stories they read and explain why the liked the characters from the books they read.

It’s time for the holidays in Zambia and our Zambian school calendar starts in January and ends December. For Mayando School we went in the first week of December to say bye to the children, on this day we gave away 110 Miles Kelly Books to the children who had come for The Book Bus to take home with them. Oh… the children were happy and they sang and danced with us.

Three boys reading their new Miles Kelly books.

 You could see the joy in the children’s faces when they got a book each. One said “wow, a book of my own” and he sat down reading through and shouted in our local language “Monkey” then he looked up and said it in English “teacher Monica my book has monkeys”. This boy had learned the word monkey on one of the book bus days when he read a Tinga Tinga Tales book “Why Monkeys Swing in theTrees”. And with that we said good bye, happy holidays to one of our schools.

- Monica. (Kitwe-Zambia)

Breaking the ice in Malawi

It took us about 40 minutes to drive to St Paul’s School in the Nankumba district. We had to use 4x4 vehicles as the road to this remote school is narrow with steep hills, dried-up rocky river beds and isolated villages to navigate through.

Despite the fact that this was the first visit of the Book Bus to the school, we were warmly welcomed by Head Teacher, Jonathan Siliya.

St Paul's sits at the foot of a mountain overlooking the beautiful Shire Valley. Despite its remote location, more than 650 pupils (or learners as they are known as in Malawi) attend the school. Up to two years ago the school buildings were shacks, bamboo and grass shelters, like so many of the other rural schools the Book Bus works with in Malawi. Funding for a brand new brick school came from a Swedish Community that included new airy classrooms, teachers housing, a kitchen to prepare porridge for the children and even a Pre-School nursery currently attended by more than 50 under 4’s.

We were shown into the Head Teachers office so that we could give him an insight into the Book Bus and how we might be able to assist him, his teachers and pupils.  Mr Siliya was delighted with our suggested programme and personally set us up under a shady tree whilst he went off to collect the children.

A few minutes later we had 20 learners sitting on the reed mats with us. Our programme usually lasts about one hour and we try and deliver about three sessions in a morning.

The children were a little shy at first  - the school is so remote that it rarely receives visitors  - never mind a whole team dressed in bright yellow t-shirts carrying red bags full of books, puppets, glitter  and all sorts of other goodies!

Singing and dancing usually helps break the ice so we launched into ‘Shake, Shake, Shake Banana’.  That proved a great hit and the kids eagerly awaited what was next.

Children attending in rural schools in Malawi rarely have access to books so we try and ensure every child in our groups have a book each so they can follow the story, look at the illustrations and turn the pages as we progress through the book. The Loin Hunt was a great hit and soon every child created their own lion mask with paper plates, crepe paper and lashing of glue!

As we cleared up I could hear chants of ‘I can do’ in the distance. This is the Malawian version of ‘Simon Says’ and a great way to introduce new English words into the vocabulary.

“The Book Bus has made so many of my pupils happy today,” said Head Teacher Mr Siliya. “I can see them proudly showing their beautiful artwork to their friends. I know their families will be so impressed when they take these back to the village. This is a real treat.  I hear their friends asking when will the Book Bus be back so we too can read the books”.

“Soon we hope, soon” I said.

As the Jeep climbed up the first hill out of the school I looked back and the pupils were still waving us off.

It’s a wonderful privileged to be working with the Book Bus and to see the joy that reading and bringing stories alive mean to the children of Malawi. I can’t think of a better project to volunteer on.

- Marian Forkin

Keep those wheels - a - rolling

We travelled to Chipepwete School in the Nankumba district today.

Matilda, our faithful and trusted bus is back on the road after some minor repairs.

International volunteers Andy and Sarah were delighted, as it’s their first trip out on the ‘real’ BookBus since they arrived at the weekend. Andy even played his guitar to us as the bus climbed up the hilly terrain towards the remote mountain school we were visiting.

Chipepwete has around 440 pupils (or leaners as they are known as here in Malawi), with Standard 1-8 being offered. The school is run by Noel Lunguja a Head Teacher with more than 19 years teaching experience. The school faces many difficulties: poor infrastructure, few teacher or leaner resources, no electricity and it’s water pump is now broken. This means leaners have to walk more than 2kms to get fresh water.

Despite its problems, the learners of  Chipepwete are engaged happy and eager to learn.

The BookBus crew were welcomed at the school assembly with the Malawi National Anthem. Each day we all try and remember a few more words so by the time we are going home we can sign it correctly in Chichewa. It has quite an emotional at the end with all the children curtsying.

We split into three groups and each found a spot in the shade.

Sarah’s book choice was ‘Monkey Puzzle’ which was a real hit with the kids from standard 4.

Andy’s group read, “Wheels on the Bus’ (in celebration of Matilda’s return)  and the children were then wowed by Andy’s guitar playing whilst singing the infamous ‘Wheels on the Bus song’. Almost the whole school looked on - a record crowd of over 500 for Andy!

Andy singing wheels on the bus in celebration
of having Matilda on the road again!

My group were engrossed in an African fable called Moonshine - a tale of why the moon is silver and cold.

We were all supported by our wonderful local translators Barnes and Chip and even BookBus driver, Douglas also gave a helping hand. Although some children can read English, very few understand what they are reading so translators are essential.

As we work with small groups, we always try and play games at the end of the school morning to involve all the children. Today’s game was goats and hyenas where the hyenas have to catch the goats running around a large circle. The whole school erupted with joy as a pupil from Standard 6 outran Andy and Sarah (he was VERY fast). Eventually the game was won by Sarah and Andy working together as a team!

Chipepwete is a great community school, where teachers, learners and the local community work together to provide the best education they can with what they have and help improve the lives of their children.

The BookBus makes regular visits to the school and we are always welcomed as old friends.

“You’re part of our community, “ said Head Teacher Noel Lunguja “We look forward to your visit and so do all the children. They are always asking me “when is the BookBus coming?’”

As he turned around he had a calendar in his hand so we sat down to plan our next visit…..

- Marian Forkin

Another fun fortnight!

The final weeks of holidays in Livingstone saw many activities on the Bookbus. We spent 3 days at Sinde parked up in the centre of the village, with more and more children coming each day to read, play games, make art and learn new things. The older children spent a day learning about volcanoes and then did a science experiment making their very own exploding volcano; Which had to be re-enacted at the end of the day for all their younger siblings.

We also spent 3 days at a new village, Delevu, about 1 hours drive from Livingstone. Many of the children here don’t have any formal education as the nearest government schools are too far away. There is a small community school, run out of a small church and when we arrived the first time the children piled out of the church to see what was going on. They were quite shy the first day but they soon got into the stories and the activities. The loved playing with our homemade parachute, they all have a look inside the Bookbus and joined in with all our favourite songs.

 

And each day we arrived the line of children running behind the bus got longer! On the final day we gave each child their own book to take away and they were thrilled, waiting in a very orderly line for their turn to get their name written in their book.

 

 

It is also a great pleasure to see them engrossed in their books, even if they aren’t able to read. You can see there is a real sense of pride in owning their very own book, something that without the Bookbus is almost unobtainable in these rural villages.

 

 

On the way to these rural schools we are often lucky enough to spot elephants, giraffes, impalas or zebras. This week we saw a whole family of sable antelope, which is very rare. It was just a taster for our weekend safari in Chobe National Park, Botswana. We all spent the weekend being amazed at the sheer number of animals, there were literally thousands of zebras and impalas and hundreds of giraffes and elephants. We also saw lions and in the evening a leopard, which was pretty close to our overnight bush camp.

 

Two days each week we went and spent time at Lushomo Home, in Livingstone, a refuge for young girls that have been sexually abused. It was a big contrast to the big groups of noisy children in the villages but it was a fantastic experience getting to know these girls. They love to read and do crafts and it was obvious they rarely have the opportunity to do these things. They grew more and more confident each day, their shy smiles turning into genuine laughter and huge grins. We also left them with their own books, which I know they will treasure, share and keep on rereading.

Kelly September 2013