The occasion was the Coffee for Kids fundraiser on April 17, with free coffee for every customer. Beside the cash register sat a big glass jar filling up throughout the day with green dollar bills, donations to Capitol Hill's Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences (SAAS) 6-year-old Zambia Club program.
Besides money, the teenagers collect mattresses, computers, school supplies, textbooks, medicines, clothes, shoes and more to either ship or take with them to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Every summer the school sends a contingent of roughly 10 students over for a one month service and educational visit.
For the last two hours of Coffee for Kids, parents, teachers and friends gathered around tables at Kwik Cup chatting and listening to student travelers describe their experiences in Zambia. SAAS high school junior Charlie Mohn said he went on the trip after his sophomore year and fell in love with the place. He wants to go back again after his senior year. In fact, he is looking for a college program in international studies that would include a longer stay in Zambia. Although people were very poor, Mohn was awed by their generosity.
"They laid out the red carpet and wanted to help us in every way," he said. He noted that prior to the appearance of SAAS students, many of the Zambian school children had never seen anyone from the world beyond their land-locked country.
The student travelers concurred that the openness and love of the people was the most educational part of their trip.
"People in Zambia look for ways to be happy. Here people look for ways to be unhappy," said senior Rebecca Kleinberg. "They don't have a lot of stuff, but they are spiritually rich."
Everyone agreed that the month in Zambia taught them to value life and to appreciate the many privileges they have always taken for granted.
Even though the annual itinerary includes field trips to wildlife refuges and to the spectacular Victoria Falls, each of the students sited personal interactions with children and youth as their most meaningful experiences.
Breanna Jefferson told of her visit to an AIDS hospice. The teenager said it was the first time she had seen the devastating effects of disease, yet people were cheerful and happy. She best remembered Peter, a 14-year-old boy with spinal tuberculosis who had been abandoned by his parents. The family had moved away and left Peter behind. Yet the boy was happy and grateful for his treatment at the medical facility and for any help he had received. One of the Zambia Club's ongoing projects is to continue funding Peter's care and education.
Eleventh-grader Lizzie Kaplan recalled a conversation she had experienced with a fourth-grader named Esther. She said Esther, who was HIV positive, was never-the-less "hopeful and easy to make happy even though she had a very hard life." The child lived with an elderly grandmother. Her father was in jail for having killed her mother after she had given birth to a stillborn child. Yet Esther had high hopes for the future, even dreams of growing up to be famous.
Seventeen-year-old Mackenna Lewis recalled children yelling greetings that could be heard from a distance as SAAS students entered Birdland School compound in Lusaka. The visitors were welcomed with joyous cultural exchanges where Zambian children danced and sang for them. Mohn recalled teaming up with another SAAS student to perform a clown act for the children.
In more pragmatic moments, the students helped to set up computer labs and to teach children reading and keyboarding. In 2006, the club raised enough money to build a block of new toilets for the school which previously had only one toilet for more than 200 children.
Back in Seattle, Zambia Club members and SAAS friends continue their efforts to gather supplies and funds for four Lusaka schools. A special highlight is the shoe drive. Foot wear is particularly important because although public education is provided until the seventh grade, Zambian children are not admitted to school without shoes.
Besides learning about Zambian life and culture, SAAS student visitors gleaned information about the economy, which is typical of trends in the developing world. Mohn said 68 percent of Zambians live below the global poverty line. People in the countryside are engaged in subsistent farming.
However, a large percentage of Zambians dwell in cities whose economy is based upon mining, especially copper. To mine its copper Zambia, like many other developing countries, incurred an exorbitant amount of debt which had to be repaid in accordance with dictates of the World Bank. Almost all economic activity was then involved in servicing the debt rather than providing the country with needed infrastructure, hospitals and schools.
One of the trip's chaperones, faculty member Tanya Nielsen, believes Zambia's economy may now be somewhat on the mend. She said the price of copper has been rising and the World Bank has forgiven at least a portion of the national debt. Perhaps future SAAS students will witness evidence of these changes as they return to Zambia in the coming years.
Freelance writer Mona Lee can be reached at editor@capitolhilltimes.com.
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