The College at the Falls

This article is a to-do list for our College at the Falls (working name)

Begin thinking of possible names for the college

• A name should communicate both to Zambians and foreigners
• The name should be memorable.
• The word “Falls” may be good to include
• “Lumwana Falls” or “Muwambeji falls” perhaps? Maybe named after some characteristic plant or animal of the area
• Or maybe “Tembo Falls” hahaha Because this is our big “Tembo” and also because when we do something revolutionary we will cause a Tembo to fall down… double meaning hahaha - what do you think of that name?

The Tembo story

A hunter left his village early one morning to look for game. As he set out, he paused to pray to the great God to give him good fortune in his hunt. After a couple hours of walking through the forest, he came into a clearing, right in front of him, by sheer luck was an enormous injured bull elephant. Ordinarily an elephant is too big and powerful for a hunter to kill with only a single spear, but this situation was different, the animal was not able to fight back or run away, the best thing to do would be to kill it quickly and harvest the meat. There would be enough food for an entire village to eat meat for weeks! Running quickly, the hunter gripped his spear with both hands. With all of his strength and weight the hunter thrust his spear deep into the Elephant’s heart, killing it rapidly. As the hunter caught his breath he took a step back to look at the giant as it died and realized the enormous task that lay ahead - how would he be able to skin and process this great beast he had killed? How would he begin to carry even a small portion back to the village? He would need help. Excited at his good fortune, he sang to himself as he ran back to the village.

Tembo yetu; "Our elephant"

“We have gotten an elephant! Come quickly!” he shouted as he reached the village, “There is meat for everyone! Bring your knives, axes and baskets, we have a lot of work to do!" Excitedly the villagers gathered the tools they would need and began to follow the hunter, thinking of how full their bellies would soon be with the abundant meat they would be eating. Even the children came along carrying baskets and large calabash containers to fill with meat. Excitedly one of the children began to sing tembo yetu! tembo yetu! "our elephant, our elephant!” Soon everyone was singing as they hurried along.

As they entered the clearing, everyone gasped, what amazing luck! This elephant was enormous! They would be working all night, skinning the animal - hacking off large pieces of meat with their axes, cutting the meat into thinner strips for drying, loading the baskets, guarding the carcass against wild beasts and carrying baskets of meat back and forth to the village, while trying to keep everything clean. The task ahead was large but they began their work. One family began working from the belly, another beginning to work on the head while others began to cut into the different legs.

Tembo wandi; “My Elephant"

As the entire village got to work, the hunter stood back with satisfaction to look at the scene. Tembo wandi, “My elephant” he said to himself. He began to think about how this would change his life. As the people worked, he walked around and began talking to himself: "I can sell the meat from this leg for so much money, and from that leg I will make this much… now that I have gotten tembo wandi “my elephant” I will be a rich man. As the people over heard the hunter muttering to himself their mood suddenly changed, “My elephant?” they said “we thought it was 'Our elephant'. if it’s not Tembo yetu, 'our elephant’ than you can cut and carry it by yourself.

Sadly everyone picked up their tools and slowly headed down the trail, back to the village. Nobody would be eating meat after all, "tempo yetu" - had become "tembo wandi” and now it would rot in the forest and be picked at by the wild beasts.

When God gives you a tembo to deal with, it must either be Tembo yetu, “our elephant” or it will rot and be wasted. Build your “we”.

Begin to articulate the vision in writing

• First, tell others the vision many times until you yourself are saying it in a good way
• Begin to write it down AND recruit others (whom you have told) to write it down independently as well
• (We can compare these different versions and keep the good parts of each one)
• We need text written by Zambians as well as others.
• If there is a gap in the text - skip over it for now - we can fill it in later
• Don’t worry if you can’t answer the “How?” or even the “What?” but focus on the
• “Why do we need this?"
• Store all writing about the college at College description text

Research influences and write about how they relate to our college

• Educational Institutions Influences
  • Nkuuli - read about Deep Springs College - research online
  • Also read about Namwianga Mission School here
  • Saint Johns College in the US found here
  • The Putney School
• Architecture and Design Influences:
  • Jollyboys Lodge Livingstone [1]
  • Trevor and Monica’s house outside Lusaka
  • Deep Springs' Campus
  • Green School Bali

Begin making a list of people who can advance the vision of the college or can serve as a network for us

• We need an international team including:
  • Architects, Designers and Builders
  • Communicators (people who can talk, write, imagine, make images and do web)
  • Administrators (those who can calculate labor money materials needed and define a timeline of tasks)
  • Funders who can invest money
  • Future faculty and staff
    • Long-term professors in: Math/Accounting, rhetoric/literature/writing, general science, Bible/theology
    • Staff (these people support and train the students and should also assist in character development in:
    • Agriculture/Livestock, Mechanics (shop and auto), Facilities Maintenance, Cooking/food preservation, Administration
    • Short term professors in many fields
    • School President and VP (the serve at the will of the student body)

• General friends of the college
  • Jacob Burton - software & business
  • Andy Zenz and Joshua Cook - Design, Media and Photography
  • Steven Kluck and Ian Oster - Permaculture and site design
  • Mundemba Kyembe - construction and campus design
  • L. Benedict Schwartz - software, business and networking
  • Ed Ingve and Kevin Riordan - business and network
  • Dr. Phillip Mundemba - Leadership and theology
  • Christina Raines (Administration, curriculum development and writing)
  • Anthony Tako anthonytako@gmail.com