First day of classes!

First day of classes, decapitating a chicken, meeting new friends, playing soccer with Zambia Children, and Brynn got her hair pleated-What a busy day! The day started off with an enthusiastic attitude. The night before everyone talked about how we are looking forward to begin classes. Breakfast was at 8 o’clock cooked by the dream team of Ellie Powers, Charlie Herman, and Josh Armstrong himself.  They prepared something I had never heard of before – toad in a hole. (It’s just a fried egg in toast.). From there the dish crew went fast to work because the first class began at 9 am. In the meantime mama Katendi was getting fast to work for our lunch, to do this she slaughtered a chicken. I think Katy will be forever scarred.

After this the groups split up. The health group planned to get a thorough tour of the health clinic in Zambezi, the computer class began at 9 am, and the business class prepared for there first class at 10 am. Me and Ellie split up because the education group would meet the staff of Zambezi boarding a little bit later. Ellie went to the hospital and I helped Lucia and Emily with their business leadership class. They were a little nervous but they pulled through and from my outsiders perspective it was a great success. They had a larger than expected attendance of 14 students and everyone was thoroughly engaged. In the lesson they used a classic CLP exercise – the marshmallow challenge. This challenge splits people into groups with only spaghetti straws, marshmallow, and string to build the tallest free standing tower possible. While the groups who attended may have stretched the meaning of “free-standing”, the lesson demonstrated the team building values Lucia and Emily were aiming to teach. 

Upon return from the lesson Emily, Lucia, and I found Charlie. His lesson was a good success. We promptly began a read along of the health reading we were assigned. We laughed at the goofy names in the article and realized a group of non-health students was not the target audience for this reading. After this was lunch where we ate delicious Thai Chicken from mama Katendi. Rest in peace chicken. We talked about our favorite and worst professors at Gonzaga. At lunch we also met with Josh’s second mom – Mama Josephine. She along with Mama Katendi and Mama Kristine taught us our first Zambian song. It was truly delightful. 

From there the second round of classes for the day began. At this point Jeff Doud took me and Ellie to Zambezi Boarding to meet the staff we will be working with. We met a number of great people here such as Daniel Phiri, Andrew Ng’ombe, and Mercy Ng’ombe. We also got a better idea of how we will be working with Zambezi boarding. We will be going in four days a week after school to work with the after school programs like debate, drama, and literacy. We will also go into class a couple of times a week to attend regular classes in the morning. After Zambezi Boarding Jeff drove Ellie and I back to our home in the convent. 

I made a quick turnaround from here to head to ZamCity FC with most of the group. Here Jackson, Ana, Katy, Ani, Charlie, and I went to war- I mean played soccer with kids from around Zambezi. The game was constantly back and forth between the two teams. We played with a goal that was the size of the soccer ball itself. This made the game intense because puppy guarding the goal was quite easy (I’m looking at you Jackson). Even though Ana says I was a “Brick wall” on defense, I think it is safe to say soccer is not my sport. While all of this was going on Brynn, Julia, and Josh talked with Eukarya. Brynn even got her hair pleated by one of the kids from ZamCity FC. I think we all agree – she ate that. 

After ZamCity we returned to the convent for another delicious dinner from Mama Katendi and Mama Kristine. At the end of the day the dinner with our class was a very nice way to wind down. We ate a hearty meal of sausage and potato. I personally sat right next to Mama Kristine and she told me this was her favorite meal to cook. At the end of the day I can say today was one of my favorite days in Zambia yet. 

I wanted to acknowledge a couple things before I end today’s blog. Firstly today Chris had her surgery. We want you to know that we are praying for you. Secondly, special thanks to CLP class of 2027 for writing Charlie, Jackson, and I letters. They cheered me up greatly, and I can’t wait to see you all again next semester. To any other friends reading this blog, thank you for following along and I hope to see you soon. To end this blog, just wanted to say I miss you mom and Dad. “I am missing you already”.

Will Kelly, Class of 2026