Muli Shani!    (desperate attempt to speak a word in Zambian Bemba)                                                        

                Even though it’s been over four months since I was in Kenya, time has barely slowed, and SPAN has continued to push forward. Even though I’m not even in Africa, it seems that emails from and about Zambia, Nigeria, and Kenya are what fill my inbox most. And they definitely seem to fill my thoughts most also.

So even though, I am lacking in my own stories and anecdotes from sub-Saharan life, I thought continuing a blog would be one of the ways to summarize (the long into short) what’s going on with SPAN on the other end of the line.

  Expanding SPAN to Zambia has been one of those exciting accomplishments that came together with a year of work with our new Regional Director for Zambia, Kenneth Kasweshi. Kenneth and I met while we were both attending a conference on global prison social support systems being held in Toronto, Canada. Our conversation plunged first off from our mutual interest in microfinance to the work he was doing in 44 of Zambia’s prisons. His work for Prison Fellowship Zambia in the city of Ndola in the southeast of the country, addressed a unique but vital aspect to development. The organization works on a broad scale, from training incarcerated persons with valuable skills to medical support to supporting the families of prisoners, and even to providing microloans to ex-convicts as a way of revitalising their lives and encouraging healthy steps for sustainable reintegration.

                Long to the short, Kenneth patiently worked alongside us staff to answer questions and set up SPAN operations with homestays, contacts, legal and cultural information, and introduced us to several great grassroots organizations. We’re right now preparing several candidates for an expected trip to Zambia in January. So excited to see this happen! It all comes together. Muli Shani (hello) is the only word I know – Bemba being only one of Zambia’s 73 languages, I have a long way to go. but have fingers crossed to get myself to Zambia in the next year to also get in on the action and gain a word or two more.

            When I was in Kenya, I spent most of my time, and lots of my blog writing talking about Baobab Branch: the alternative education organization that I got to co-found with my good friend Amos Otieno (Kenya’s Regional Director). Back when I left, the office was finished design (refer to martha stewart colonialism), and the first students had braved the doorstep. It was just beginning to take off, as I had to also – take off. In the past few months, Baobab Branch received its Kenyan NGO status, and has admitted its first group of students who are receiving their high school degrees where before they weren’t able to afford school. Of course, a big amount of thanks has to go out to the few donors who took to sponsoring these students, but excitedly enough Baobab Branch has also continued to bring in paying students who also want and can afford the services, which is offsetting the costs a lot, and hopefully bringing the organization closer to its goals for complete local self-sustainability.

               Morokoshi Nursery School, another project that fellow board member Kai Staats and I became involved with is also doing great. The founder and ED, Steve Muriithi, is forever sending me excited emails about how the teachers are improving the standards; how the solar panel lights are working out; how students are excelling; and how his crops are growing.

If you skim down to the bottom of the blog, you’ll see the picture of the new desks for the kids (with chairs to come) that Steve raised the funds for – with his addictive market juice stand – that is another big recent step forward for the school, which is still hoping to find a way to build another classroom for January to extend up a further grade and take these students to grade one.

             On the other side of the world – seemingly as far away as you can get from the balmy equatorial weathers of Kenya and Zambia, SPAN is thrilled to have partnered with Canadian high school student Nikita Desai. This Kenyan raised ambitious livewire I’ve gotten to know over the past bit, has decided to use her social group’s efforts to link her high school with Morokoshi Nursery School. Her school benefits from a lot of learning and education about this kindergarten powerhouse in Kenya, and they’re in turn raising funds to hopefully further the scope and possibilities of what is already being done on the ground. Nikita will have her own SPAN blog running soon, so that’s all I’ll say there. You’ll have to read hers to learn more. http://blogs.spanafrica.org/nikitadesai/

        While SPAN as an organization has spent a lot of work over the past while doing website tinkering, readjusting the board to increase participation and involvement, and setting up our plans and direction for the future, the fireworks and excitement of SPAN goings on, we can proudly say is being held up by our local African partners and our volunteers who have continued to do fantastic work in whatever field they’ve been working for. Even though my position doesn’t allow me to interact personally with most of SPAN’s volunteers, I am glad to receive good reports on what they’ve been doing over the past summer for a number of our partners. Well done to you all!

        Rambles turn to drawn on blurs, and my attempts for the short have miserably become long. But I suppose after taking a writing hiatus, and with all that I know has been going on, I ended up having to share it all.

Hope everyone is well!

As internet says to say chau in Bemba:

Kafke Nipo,

Cam