 Tyler Stutzman (right) works with some of his students in a 10th grade chemistry class. Photos by Mark Neufeld, a fellow MCC SALT participant in Zambia. |
by Phil Richard
Imagine teaching high school chemistry, physics, and biology to students who don’t have textbooks. The renovated chemistry lab lacks running water or Bunsen burners. Your class of 50 to 60 students is cramped into a brick room with a tin roof, furnished only with wooden desks and a blackboard.
Since late August 2007, that’s the environment for Tyler Stutzman at Sikalongo Secondary School near Choma in southern Zambia. He’s serving a one-year term with Mennonite Central Committee SALT (Service and Learning Together).
Originally from South Hutchinson, Kan., Stutzman graduated from Hesston College in 2005, then earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in May 2007 at nearby Bethel College, North Newton, Kan.
“I didn’t want to go work in a lab or continue school,” he explains, “so I decided it would be a good time to go abroad and experience something completely unfamiliar.”
Sikalongo Secondary School, located in the bush of Africa some 28 miles from the nearest town of Choma, is home to 750 students from all over Zambia. Since it’s a boarding school, boys and girls dorms are on opposite sides of the campus. The school was started by the Brethren in Christ Church, which also started a clinic and a seminary on campus.
Stutzman, who played basketball at Hesston as a freshman in 2003-04, coaches basketball. “I started going to the basketball court in the afternoon and playing with the students,” he said. “Since the former coach had left, they asked me to teach some things before a tournament last fall.”
The school participated in a tournament at Choma Secondary School in mid-February. “Our school took boys and girls soccer and basketball teams, boys volleyball, chess, and girls netball—like basketball, but without dribbling or backboards and played on a grass field,” Stutzman explained.
 Tyler Stutzman writes at the blackboard for a 10th grade physics class of students in a classroom equipped only with wooden desks and a blackboard. Photo by Mark Neufeld. |
“Unfortunately, our first game was against the good team, which beat us by about 40,” Stutzman recounted. “However, we did win our second game 31-29. With only three teams, second place wasn’t good enough to qualify for the next round, so boys basketball is over until May.”
The Sikalongo girls team defeated the other girls team that came 14-10. “We were propelled to victory by our monstrous eight-point fourth quarter,” Stutzman said. “I wasn’t planning on coaching the girls’ team, but the coach couldn’t make it, so she asked me to fill in. With our win, we qualified for the quarterfinals March 8.”
Dallas Stutzman, vice president of Alumni Relations, and Dan Harrison, Hesston professor and former president of the alumni association, collaborated to send 10 Hesston College Larks basketballs to Tyler Stutzman this year.
Stutzman says he’s often thought of Hesston College’s slogan, “Start Here, Go Everywhere.” “Before going to Hesston, I never would have guessed I would be a teacher in the middle of Africa,” Stutzman said. “But at the college, I encountered a Jesus and a Christianity that was different than what I had grown up with. The Biblical Literature class made the Bible much more interesting, as I began to see how the stories I had learned in Sunday school were connected.
“The course that influenced me the most was Peacemaking and Justice taught by professor Marion Bontrager,” he continued. “I never would have come to Zambia without taking that class. In that class, I found a Jesus who was not just concerned with the spiritual. Instead, I was introduced to the Jesus who came to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and free the oppressed, a Jesus who came to establish the kingdom of God at a real time in history.
“With my new understanding of Christ, it became clear that salvation isn’t simply going to heaven, but becoming a part of that new creation in which there is no slave or free, male or female, Jew or Greek—where all relationships are as God intended.
“Thus, my mission became Christ’s—to feed the hungry, heal the sick, free the oppressed...and teach Zambian kids about science...or at least be someone who cares enough about them to come halfway around the world and get to know them, try to learn their language, and live like they do.”