Zambia is plagued by aids, cholera, typhoid, malaria, and other epidemics. According to the dictionary, an epidemic is a rapid and extensive development or growth, usually of something unpleasant. On this trip to Zambia, there was one defining moment for me, and it was more of a redefining moment. Reading will redefine the word epidemic in Zambia. The definition will be transformed into the rapid and extensive development or growth, but of something great. June 23rd, 2011 the reading epidemic began. The origin? Shine Zambia Reading Academy. On our last full day at the school, Mal and I began to tackle the cabinet that housed some of the books donated by A to Z. After lessons finished for the morning, we sifted through book, flooded the floor with a sea of literature, and the students dove in. One child after another stepped to the back of the room asking for a book. In the midst of sweat, dust, spider webs, rat droppings, and books, I stopped and looked up. What I saw was the newest Zambian epidemic. Reading! Students stumbling over each other to get to a new book, shouts of excitement as they flipped to the next page in the story, the screech of fingers on paper ensuring no two pages stuck together, heads squished together so three and four students could see the page. This is the just the beginning. The students now have the bug, and resources, and it is time to let this beautiful bug infect the culture. A rapid and extensive development or growth, of reading: the reading epidemic.

One of our goals on the trip was to explore other schools for A to Z Literacy Movement to help. One school we visited was Mango Grove Community School. It is a group of three small buildings plus a church erected by sticks and mud to form grades K through 8. Including the headmaster (principal/teacher), there are 8 teachers who walk 30 to 45 minutes each day to educate the youth of this compound. As we toured the school, we saw several things you would expect to see in any great classroom including: teachers grading on their plan periods, anchor charts for phonics sounds, science facts, and math concepts, students playing after being let of school, and rows of children eager to learn. This well organized yet struggling school is hoping for support in any way available. If we truly want the reading epidemic to continue to spread we must also be willing to spread out and reach more schools, staffs, and students. Mango Grove is the next area waiting to be infected with literacy love from the A to Z Literacy Movement.

So as I cut pastel-colored paper into long strips this morning, Kalan taught a lesson about making connections using a book she created with her own students from Bernotas Middle School. We had the students write connections to the story on the strips of paper and the strips were then turned into a paper chain, the perfect symbol for connecting to text. As the chain hung in the back of the room, I stood there and wondered if the other teachers thought it was wasteful. Here we had perfectly good sheets of paper and I cut them to make a silly chain. The question “what’s important to us?” popped into my head. Kalan and I have been utilizing all of the teaching supplies we so carefully packed and feel the big paper for modeling has been useful, the sentence strips helpful, and the markers fun for the kids to use. But what’s important to us isn’t always what’s important to the teachers here at Shine. We love to showcase student work on the walls, but sticky tack and tape costs money, money teachers at Shine don’t have to spend. Yet, we all have the same common goal and that is to create successful and writers in these children.