Amano Christian School Zambia

Paul and Linda Kalbskopf are members of the fellowship here at Sheldon Road Church.  In 2013 they decided to take sabbaticals from their UK jobs and travelled the 5,000 miles to Zambia to work at the Amano Christian School near Chingola, Zambia.

Amano Christian School is located 10km from Chingola, which is in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province.  Zambia ranks among the countries with highest levels of poverty and inequality globally. The school was set up in 2004 with the aim of teaching from a Biblical worldview in order to impart the wisdom of God, thus helping prepare students to face the challenges of life with faith and assurance.  Amano means wisdom in the local Bemba language. 10% of the students are local orphans and are funded by sponsorship.
 

The location of the school and it’s layout.

Here is an account of their visits to Zambia [plus latest updates below].
 

2013

Paul and Linda spent seven and a half months at the school.  Paul was involved in supervising the building of a classroom block, which was designed for teaching Design and Technology. Linda was teaching in the Primary School, her classroom being a shipping container!  Linda: " It was refreshing to have a class of children who really wanted to learn and were so responsive and respectful! Also refreshing was going back to teaching without the use of technology".   Paul:  "The workers on the building site were surprised that Paul (the white boss man) was prepared to get his hands dirty, but engendered good working relationships and mutual respect.  On the down side, at the builders' merchants, when requesting a commodity, you got used to hearing, 'Sorry, we don't have' ".

The work progresses……	Further work with the roof…….	Almost done….Paul inside

And on the teaching front……….

Here is an excerpt from their Blog:

You know you are in Zambia when….

The power goes off, just when you want to use the hair dryer.
You sweep the floor and have to do it again the next day.
The ditches at the roadside are ankle deep in plastic bottles and litter.
Even big trucks go off-road to avoid the pot-holes.
People greet you and ask you how you are.
The ATMs have run out of cash.
The sales assistants are in no hurry to serve you.
In a 12 hour journey, you pass through as many police checkpoints.
The shop next to the one you have just left, also doesn’t have the commodity you couldn’t find in the first.
You wake up in the morning and know the sun will be shining.
8 out of 10 cars on the road are Toyotas.
No one is in a hurry to go anywhere.
Every evening you are amazed at the sunset.
You are served nshima for lunch – again.
You go to a pre-arranged meeting at a fixed time, and 30 minutes later, there is still no-one there.
You need to wash your feet – again.
Everyone in church sings like they mean what they are singing.

2019

Six years later in 2019, Paul and Linda returned to Amano School and spent a month there.  In her own words, Linda described the experience:

“We were amazed how quickly it very soon felt like home again.  It was good to renew friendships but there were lots of new faces too and they all made us very welcome. It was especially heart warming to be so warmly greeted by the students of Linda’s old class and by the local workers who Paul had spent so much time with on the building site”.

“Even though this trip was so short, we wanted to be able to help where we could and we were amazed at how the Lord’s timing was perfect. Paul was put straight to work on a small house that needed completion for visitors. It had been started by a previous volunteer, but never finished. A month proved not long enough to finish the job, due to difficulties with sourcing some materials and also with some of the workmanship which needed improving! Three steps forward and two steps back. Obviously I didn’t have my own class for such a short time, but I was soon preparing the Primary children for their Christmas production; teaching songs, rehearsing lines and dances, sorting costumes, etc.  Also one of the teachers was sick for a week, and without extra staff, they appreciated that I was there to cover her lessons”.
 

Latest Updates

2020
 

Linda: “Little did we think that three months later I would receive  a message from the school asking if I could do some online teaching. Schools in Zambia closed in March too and so, despite the technological difficulties, they have tried to teach their students online.

Further News & Information

For more information about Paul & Linda’s visits, read their blog

For more information, news and a closer look at Amano School, go to the school website.