A long summary of the last week in May

Firstly, I am still having trouble putting pictures on this blog. So... plan C is to stick them in a word document and send them to everyone on my Zambia E-mail list. If you don't receive any pictures and would like to, just send me an e-mail at youvegotmail@ncol.com.


Well, it’s been another super-busy week.

On Sunday, I Chris and I walked to church with the Sharon (the pastor’s wife and a teacher at the school) and Haniel (their son). I was really excited when I got there because a bunch of the grade four kids at the school had walked a long way from their homes to get there. It was so encouraging to see them. When we got home, Tanya had also returned home from their weekend away, Leeland had left for his trip up North and David had returned to the States. I went to the market for a while with Tanya and after that we all headed off to youth group. Basically, Youth was a question and answer time where the kids could ask questions and talk about challenges in their lives. Some of the hard things that those kids go through are really heart breaking! Two of the girls (who were part of the group that came to church that morning) had been sexually molested on the way to church. They said that they had been “rude” to the men telling them to leave them alone. They were wondering if that was wrong to have responded that way. Their culture tells them that they should never disagree with an older person (and that includes going to other adults for help) even if you are being abused. That was pretty tough. We assured them that they’d acted properly and that they have the right to defend themselves from being exploited.

Monday was a holiday from school. In the morning, Chris and I enjoyed hamburgers at the mall (that were amazing, but incredibly gooey- like…even more than the White Spot mushroom burger!). We also had a good time at the market with me teaching him how to bargain. Then Tanya and him headed off to the airport to pick up our new guests: Lisa, Chrisy and Paddy. They had arrived from Virginia and after all their stuff was brought into the house we headed out for dinner at a really nice restaurant called Rapsody (which Tanya had talked about before, and I’d thought was called “wrap city”).

Tuesday we went back to school again. I’m working so hard with my grade fours on where to use capital letters in a sentence. I’m really proud of their hard work.
That night, Pastor Chiza, Sharon, her sister Precious, and Haniel all came over for dinner. All the food was in the oven and ready to bake and the power went off. TIA- so we prepared for Plan B, and whipped together another meal that didn’t need to be cooked. After dinner we looked though the amazing amount of supplies that these ladies had brought for the school. They are all homeschool moms and love learning and teaching. It was really exciting to see all the things.

On Wednesday, one of the exciting things was that another one of the rooms was finally getting cement put on the mud brick walls on the inside. All the kids went off to the waterhole and brought water back to the school. Of course, this work meant that two classes were squished into one classroom. The kids were very good though. In the afternoon was clubs day and I taught them “Go tell it on the mountain”. In the drama class the kids did a drime about the dangers of sex outside of marriage (can you imagine doing that in a public school here!), complete with STDs and pregnancy. I didn’t know what it was about the first time I saw it and I was pretty confused! That evening we ate our dinner from the night before (which we were now able to cook). Boy, electricity is awesome! We were even able to watch TV. There’s no VCR or DVD player here but we have satellite and we watched a drama called “Ladies in Lavender” about music and love and getting old. Very girly and slow, but it was a movie—and hence, enjoyable.

On Thursday, the excitement continued with the grades 1 and 2s stuck together. Today they were pretty wild. I need to make a serious effort to learn the nianja for “sit down”, “listen” and “look”. I’ve really gotten into a good routine with my kids though. That afternoon, the drilling truck came to finally drill a borehole for the people in the village. So far they have been getting their water from a mud hole in the ground a 10 minute walk away from the village. Getting this clean water is an amazing gift that has been funded by Tanya’s church in Virginia. When the truck came in, all the kids were watching it, but the first time it started up they all ran away from it on mass. It was pretty funny. The men from the village brought stools to sit on and watch and woman came out with their babies and all the kids gathered around. It was quite the show. A long show—where I got very sunburnt on my face. It was nice though, because I got to spend a lot of time with the kids, just sitting with them, holding them and having them jabber off to me some story of which I only understood two words: something about a white person and a flip-flop. That evening we went out for Indian food, and when I came home I got to talk to my dad on the phone. Skype is a beautiful thing.

On Friday, we were able to take all the kids to a place called Munda Wanga. It’s a zoo, but it’s also got a botanical garden, a playground and even a pool with a waterslide. It was like a trip to Disney Land with these kids!! Some people from Patty’s church had donated the money for the kids to go on the trip. We’d only thought we had enough money to bring the kindergarten, grade ones and twos, but with an extra $50 we were able to bring the whole school. As they drove into the zoo they were all singing at the top of their lungs “Oh when the Saints go marching in”. They had so much fun playing at the park and at the pool. Chris, Sandra and I were asked by some film people to do some shots for a commercial (so I may be on Zambian TV one day!). Tanya went down the waterslide in her clothes, and people were impressed- “Wow! Look at that woman! How old is she?!” Watching the kids play was a lifeguarding nightmare with people going down the slide too close together, diving into the pool, bazillions of children gathering onto the playground equipment. I was so happy that no one was injured.
After that all the kids ate. Sharon had done a lot of cooking the night before, and two moms came and cooked some chicken on the grill, and the kids were really happy (chicken is their very special occasion food). Because we had brought the two extra grades, the older kids had been told that they wouldn’t get chicken because there wouldn’t be enough, and they were just happy to have been able to come. But there was enough food for everyone! And after taking the kids around to see the animals being fed in the zoo they were even able to come back and have seconds. And then there were two chickens left over to give to the moms as a thank you for helping out that day. It was like the fish and loaves and bread—there just kept being more food. It was so cool. It was a pretty special day for them, and it was really neat to be a part of it. The kids were amazingly well behaved. At the end of the day many of the little kids were tired and it was so cute to see all the bigger ones pick them up and carry them around and help them with shoes and what-not. They have so many negative role models in their village, and it’s really touching to see them all taking care of each other.


Last week I was starting to get the feeling like my honeymoon period of being in Africa was coming to a close. The work at the school can be very tiring, and I’ve really been missing my family. Having these ladies come though has been such a wonderful blessing. Their excitement and energy is contagious. It is a privilege to be doing this work, and it has been refreshing to see it again with fresh eyes. It’s actually a lot like a week-long ladies retreat (and you know how I love ladies retreats). They have been so fun to talk and laugh with, and they have really recharged me. It’s been rewarding to be part of all the excitement of this last week.