BOMA Church Training

BOMA Church Training

23 April

Tuesday in Lundazi was again quite warm, 91+ in the BOMA church where I trained. The 3 top trainees from last summer arrived on time eager for training. The other 5 had not learned of the training. We discovered 1 of the 5 left his village and could not be reached.  Kondwani phoned the other 4 who amazingly dropped everything and made their way by car, bicycle, or bus from their respective villages to Lundazi. The result, however, was a disrupted training day. I reviewed materials and training expectations with my first group of three, Muzipasi, Dominic, and Grace (MDG). You heard a little about Muzipasi from my visit to his village the day before. Dominic lives at the BOMA 3 months out of the year and is studying to be teacher in Chipata (2 hours south of Lundazi) the other 9 months. Grace also lives at the BOMA and is a business woman who travels to nearby Malawi where she imports goods into Zambia. These three formed the backbone of my training in Lundazi and I was grateful to have them. Three other trainers arrived at noon and the final one at the end of the day. I reviewed what I could with the others and relied upon MDG to translate for me. We arranged who would teach what topics or so I thought.

I learned that only Muzipasi completed most of the Strengthening Children curriculum. Children in his group did not narrate their life story. The other leaders noted because non-governmental organizations have paid children and adults to participate in programs, the guardians of the children in their groups expected the children to be paid or receive money or a 25 Kg bag of maize meal for their participation. Since the children were not paid, the guardians would not let the children participate in the program.

Peace, Bob