Introduction to Lusaka!

On our first full day in Zambia we had quite the introduction to Lusaka and the community hosting us. When planning our trip we decided to make our first few days less busy so that we could adjust to the time change and recover from travel, and we are so glad that we did!

One of the Zambian Jesuits, Mark, picked us up to drive us to mass at 8:30 am. The Jesuits in the Zambia-Malawi Province have a green van with “THE JESUITS” emblazoned on the back. This has been our ride since we got to Lusaka.

Mark gave up most of his weekend to chauffer us, and we couldn’t have asked for a better tour guide. First, he drove us to Mary Immaculate Parish, run by the Oblates of Mary, which is the parish of Josephine Lungu, the principal at Leopards Hill.

The liturgy was inspiring and beautiful (Ms. Felice took lots of notes on ideas to take back to Liturgical Musicians). Fr. Vincent gave a thorough but accessible homily on how we should never tire of doing good. That was a helpful message for our group who was still tired, but eager to do good. The music was a mix of English and local languages, but the mass was all in English. Most Zambians speak both English and one or more tribal languages.

Near the end of mass all of the visitors were called up to the front of the sanctuary so the parish could welcome us. Some of the group was blushing from the attention, but we won’t say which members. Ms. Lungu spoke about why we were there, and Mr. Huynh did a great job introducing the group and telling everyone how excited we are to be working with the students and faculty at Leopards Hill.

Michael, the head of the social science department, met us at mass, and he got into the van with Mark and the rest of us to come along on our tour of Lusaka. Both Michael and Mark are native Zambians so they could give us great history lectures as we toured the sites. Since Michael teaches history we learned even more.

Zambia will be celebrating its 50^th anniversary of independence in October, and many of the significant historical sites have to do with Zambia's history since becoming independent from Great Britain. We saw the house of the first president, the tomb of the second, and the major buildings for all three branches of government: the State House (executive), Supreme Court (judiciary), and National Assembly (legislative).

After our tour Ms. Lungu hosted us at her home for lunch and conversation. We were joined by three more people from the school, and had a wonderful afternoon talking about everything under the sun (including the rooster, hen, chicks and pigeons who populate Ms. Lungu’s backyard!)

Even though we were faculty from two schools half a world away, we were interested in talking about many of the same big ideas. Conversation turned to politics, psychology, pedagogy, and culture.

This was a perfect way to get to know Lusaka and a few of its residents before we dive in to meeting the students and faculty at the school. We’re all still a little tired, but feel even more ready to get to know the community at Leopard Hill School when we make our first visit.