Working in Zambia

This is an example of the construction taking place at Katungu. These brick walls form the basis of the entire structure.

After all is said and done; more is said. Zambians certainly expect that all jobs will be blessed by a speech—usually many speeches.

And here are some of our fine Zambian (and Zambianized!) workers:

Winnie, Terry, Bob, and Mashell

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! - Tiffy, Tim, Tori, Aaron, Lorraine, Krista, Sharon, Grandpa, Uncle Dave, Dwight, Lane, Nolan, Wendy, Bill, Erin, Kristian, Joan, Steve, Kathi, Ruhtt, Shepherd, Melina, Manuel, Miguel... anyone else?

Hope you enjoy your turkey! I will pull a chicken out of the freezer and roast it so that we have our own Canadian thanksgiving. I don't have any pumpkin, but I do have squash! I have farm milk, but I'm not sure how good I can skim off the top for some cream to make into whip cream--but I should try!

This morning the dogs started barking at about 0520 and wouldn't stop. Finally, we dragged ourselves out of bed to see the cows in the neighbour's yard! It's a good thing we have guard dogs! The temperature this morning at 0620 is 25 celsius; I think it'll be another hot one. We had clouds and rain about a week ago, but the clouds have become less frequent!

Terry is staying home today because he is not well; he has a bad sore throat and we started him on antibiotics yesterday. It's good that I use as much Jik (bleach) as I do! It's hard not to catch bugs here due to the extreme heat, dryness and wind. The guys work very hard Monday to Friday, so it's easy to get worn out!

We watched a good DVD last night "Faith like Potatoes". We've all read the book in this household and now we've finished it off with the video. It's about a Zambian/Scots farmer who becomes a Christian. It shows how life changes for him, his family and his whole community. It's a true story and very moving. It's all about faith and prayer and a solid relationship with Jesus. Things don't just "happen", they happen because God is in control.

Well I best get on with the day and finish a few house chores before moving on to the "list".
Love to all and Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your day off! Enjoy each other!

Poor Richard—So Needy!

Today I need to contact the building inspector to get him to come out an inspect the work on the school at Siabalumbi. I need to take some building materials to Siabalumbi, and I need to get a list of supplies that they need for the next stage of construction. I need to take Gideon, a carpenter to Katungu so that he can give us an estimate on putting the roof on the duplex, and an estimate for the painting and the carpentry work. While at Katungu, builders will be asking for wages, and I need to find out what planks they need for forming and for scaffold. Oh, I must stop in Kalomo before going there to get them more rolls of brickforce wire. I need to stop at immigration to see if we have any better news. Yesterday, we travelled to Livingstone to begin the process for our three month extension, but we can away frustrated and empty-handed. I need to call British Airways to see if I can get a change to the flights of our Calgary bricklayers. I need to call Zamtel back; they called yesterday while we were in Livingstone. I need to check with Omas at the farm and get information on diesel usage for accounting purposes. I need to arrange for transport of the trusses for the school at Siabalumbi. I need to go to the farm and do an inventory of the materials that are in storage. AND WE MUST got the Kalomo High School to follow up on Obert.

Will it all get done? I wonder what Mom has on her list. Each day brings its surprises and what was intended is often left behind. Yesterday, as we entered Kalomo on our way home from Livingstone, we were stopped by Richard Jabinika. His mother had just passed away, and he asked us for help to supply a coffin. We will do that for him. He is also one of our former sponsored students, and he now runs an excellent preschool at the farm.

Well, I need to have some breakfast so that I can get my day started.

G'Mornin' from Rich

Morning comes early over here and some of you may know that I am not an early riser. However, I seem to have adjusted and my day now starts at 6:00 am. I know some of you do that all the time, but this is a change for me. We had a light rain for a little while this morning before I got out of bed. The rainy season is on its way. We have had two or three good rains, and a couple of thunderstorms. It will be interesting to experience the rain, lightning, greenery, and power outages once the rains really arrive.

On Sunday we met Obert. He is a boy about fifteen years old who is one of our sponsored students. We had been looking for him, and asking about him at Kalomo High but had not yet seen him. He was a student at Sinde Mission and apparently was top in his class in grade 9. He did well on the government exam and was given a sport in boarding at Kalomo High in January 2007. However, he could not get the money to attend school, did not attend in Term 1 and lost his boarding place at the school. Later, he contacted Mrs. Mbumwae and was sponsored by Zambia Mission Fund-Canada (ZMF-C) for Term 2. However, he had to attend the afternoon classes and he had to find a place to live. He roomed with a person in Kalomo who was from his village, but he had little time for school because he was required to do many chores at the house. He did poorly in school in Term 2. Then the person that he was living with moved away and he was left with nowhere to go for Term 3. When he finally showed up at our house, we discovered that he is living in a small mud hut, about eight feet in diameter, in Mwaye, one of the shanty suburbs of Kalomo. His hut has a dirt floor and no windows, and he lives alone. In the morning he would look for work in order to buy food, and in the afternoon he would go to school. Under these conditions he had little chance of being healthy and little chance of doing well at school. Poverty is very destructive.

We took him to the head-teacher at his school to try to get him into boarding, but there is no room. Boarding is important because then he will have food, a place to sleep, security, and the opportunity to work at his schooling. The head-teacher said that if he does well on his Term 3 exams, there might be space for him in boarding next year. This poor fellow does not have much of a chance. At least ZMF-C can take care of the cost of his food and school fees, but I don't know if he has much of a chance of doing well on his exams after all that he has missed. We are going to try to find a family for him to live with for the next two months.

And so, this is the story of one boy in Zambia. He is full of potential but has little opportunity. His story is the norm here, not the exception. In fact, many have less opportunity than Obert has. Life, because of poverty, is very difficult and only the most determined survive.

Daily Life in Zambia

I taught Orleen, a college sponsored student, how to bake a poppy seed sheet cake! Her sponsors were here from Victoria and she treated them with her cake!

We've had Bob Bernard and Terry Harkness from Victoria for a couple of weeks, so my days have been quite occupied. Cooking and cleaning take at least twice as long as at home due to lack of a few conveniences e.g. dishwasher, sometimes no water, sometimes no electricity, lack of what I'm used to as far as convenience foods, no bags of chicken breasts, no frozen cut up veggies, ... But, we are still well fed and everyone is patient as I try to figure out how to cook in Zambia. I've learned to pasteurize milk and re-learned how to cut up a chicken (after pulling some missed feathers off). I jik (bleach) just about everything, even my shirt at times by accident. I wash lettuce at least four times - and use jik in one of the washes.

My days start at 0545 because I need to get the guy's lunches ready for Katungu. Bob takes vegetables and fruit and Terry likes sandwiches and fruit. Then I spend about an hour cleaning up before Winnie and the "door knockers' - usually kids, arrive. The Katungu folks think Canadians have strange lunches as they've been told Nshima is the filler and we don't eat nshima!

We're often out the door by 0900 checking on some of our "kids" or doing business on the construction projects. Sometimes we are back at lunch time but most days we are not. By 1600 we try to return so I can get supper ready. The guys clothes are very dirty with sand, so Winnie and I have figured out a washing system so she doesn't have to do much of the washing.

Anyway, I think I'll make some pancakes and see if that will work for a Sunday night supper! Not too creative, but I have lots of eggs and some farm milk. I made rice pudding last night for dessert and the guys really liked that. I noted that Wendy and Richard and a few others wouldn't think it was such a great dessert, but... for some of us... it is "just ok".

Enough for now.

Zambia News - TIA

Namwianga News - (The farm manager) Fred Kalatambala's wife died yesterday. She had been in Livingstone hospital about a week with a bleeding problem and then home for one day. Yesterday she was being transported to Choma hospital to be seen again by a doctors. En Route she asked for an orange to eat and a knife to cut it. She then stabbed herself in the abdomen and died shortly afterwards. How sad! How weird! Perhaps Tebia can help me understand.

Joyce, a young worker who works for Cecelia did a self-induced abortion this week. She overdosed on some tablets and started to bleed a lot. She was hospitalized briefly - how strange is all of that?! How do we relate to all of that?! How do we apply God's love to all of that?!

Rophius, the electrician at Seven Fountains was bit by a cobra this week. His wife was bit the night before Rophius was bit. Yikes, the same snake! Rophius crawled into bed and, lo and behold, since no one had looked for the culprit he was still in the same place as he had been when he bit Irene. Why wouldn't a guy check before crawling in to bed if the culprit had not been caught?! Anyhow, they both will live!

I'm sorry I got so far behind in the blogging, but I've only been able to use the Calder computers for very short times. We've been "moving" about paying fees and getting to know over one hundre of our new children! But now with the convenience of ZMT we hope to be better communicators.

One Month In - This Is Africa!

We have e-mail in the house. This time it is ZTE. The grand plan for the American set up fizzled out a week after it was installed and they're still trying to finds part to fix it. We were unrealistically hopeful that because the Americans were pushing for service that it might actually be repaired. It wasn't and we are way too far behind in communicating with our family and about our work. So we now have Zamtel, fixed wireless. A good idea, but I almost think a satellite of our own would be better. I will price that out.

ZTE is ok, but there is a virus on this computer and it shuts down frequently. Another way to build patience. Bob Bernard from Calgary can probably fix the virus but he needs to download it from a computer without a virus. I cannot use my computer with ZTE because it does not support Vista. Rats!

We are enjoying our days, there is never a dull moment.