Monday Library for Living Hope school

Monday, July 4

Bertha, Mary, and Pamela discussed the library plans.

Bennett, the carpenter, went over the plans for the bookshelves with Pamela.

Kate helped unpack and sort the books.

Pamela shelved the books according to their categories. She had labeled each one carefully before leaving home.

This space will hold the library and the new bookshelves after it is fixed up with roof repairs, a new floor, and paint.

Meanwhile, Bennett was supervising the construction of bookshelves for the new library space.

Our youth and trip leaders helped saw the boards.

The boys from the Living Hope transit home helped with the sanding.

Inside, all the books were shelved in the temporary library in Mary's office.

Mary's daughter, Precious, tries out one of the jumbo books. She's a great reader, as you can see on her mom's proud face.

Kate, Veronica, Bertha, Mary, and Pamela.

Tuesday, July 5

Today, the first Tuesday in July, is Unity Day in Zambia. The schools have been out both yesterday and today.

The carpenter worked all morning on the bookshelves while we visited an orphanage. We went back this afternoon to help.

Some folks helped with staining the bookcases.

Time to add the shelves

and the backs.

A snack of bananas, delivered to us.

One bookcase done!

Time for some fun too....

All four bookcases in their temporary location, ready for more books.

Monday Teacher Training

Monday, July 4

Teacher Training at the Guest House
13 teachers attended

Sunday in Zambia

Sunday, July 3

We got to United Church of Zambia at 8:00 and were ushered into the front rows. Looking around at the steel roof and large building, it didn't seem very full. Shortly into the service, after the congregation confessed their sins in a cacophony of angry voices and 4 choirs had sung 2 songs each, we were invited to intersperse into the congregation to buddy up with someone who could translate the portions that were in the local Bemba language and explain what was happening.

I was directed to the front row of the Bethel Women's Choir, red jackets and white turbans, between Lizzie and Ireen. They encouraged me to stand and do the 2 or 3 step with them. I really got off on la, la, la-ing along with them and dancing. Lizzie had a hymnal for the Zambian words, and a Bible on her phone to read along the lessons for the day. I really loved singing with the choir!

The service continued and the church was packed with people sitting on the edge of the stage, standing all around the edges. The minister introduced our group and invited Dick up to the podium to say something. Dick smiled at being introduced as Grandfather and quoted Desmond Tutu and explained a little about Communities Without Borders.

Halfway through the long sermon (45min?) a squad of people showed up with movie/tv cameras and reporters. Edith Nawakwi, one of Zambia's presidential candidates (the first woman to run) was introduced and she spoke briefly about peace. Their election will be in August. She introduced herself to Dick, who was sitting next to her on the stage (with the VIPs), as the "Zambian Hillary Clinton". He reports that she is very progressive and visiting all sorts of compounds during the campaign.

After four hours (!), the service ended, and there was jamming with singing and drums and greeting everyone with the three-step handshake. I felt like a movie star with such a warm welcome. Following the service, we were guided to a back room where the minister greeted us and introduced us to the 30 or so elders. We broke up and were then overwhelmed with many people asking us individually to help with money or sponsoring a trip to America.

We had lunch at the mall and then stopped at the craft market. I spent my 700 kwacha on 4 baskets, 2 cloth patchwork bags, a chitenge (cloth used as long skirt) and 6 meters of a black, yellow and orange fabric. I spoke with several vendors and enjoyed a long conversation with Zambiana Jones about his paper-making enterprise, his 13-year-old niece with some recent behavior concerns, and de-forestation.

Busy days, lovely group, perfect weather and starting to catch the Zambian bug.

-- Kate Mason

PS Kate was sitting in the front row with the choir, and our local friends report that she was seen on the evening news!

Saturday Health Screening and Visit to a Hospice

Saturday, July 2

Today started off a little later than scheduled but no big deal! We woke up, ate breakfast as usual and headed to Garden Compound for some pre-scheduled health screenings. Dick’s friend, Paul Hart, an optometrist, donated lots of reading and easily adjustable prescription glasses. We had about 100 kids show up, and ended up giving out about 30 pairs of glasses to kids who had some vision impairments.

In addition to the glasses, we had nurses and Clinical Officers (like a physician's assistant) from N’Gombe Compound doing a more in-depth health screenings. 

After kids got their screenings done, a bunch of us played with them until we left. We didn’t bring anything to play with so we had them teach us some of their songs. One in particular was sung over and over again by a girl named Susan. She’d swing her hips with her fingers pointed in the air and sing a-tooty-ta.

The kids also had their own games.

Joe made a sweet friend who ended up falling asleep in his arms during the screenings. She was asleep for so long that by the time we needed to leave we had to wake her up!

We wrapped up at Garden a little later than expected. We wanted to make sure we saw all the kids who came. After the screenings we came back to the guesthouse for a quick lunch.

After lunch we piled back into the van and went to visit a hospice about 20 minutes from the guesthouse. I'd attach pictures but they didn't want us taking photos (for obvious reasons). During our tour we learned that Zambia’s hospices differ from the hospices we think of in the US. In Zambia hospice is for patients who are either dying or have chronic illnesses, whereas in the US, hospice is only for patients who are nearing the end of life. Only a few patients were at the hospice when we visited, but our guide, Marilyn said it’s usually quite full but it was a weekend day. Marilyn is the nurse that tends to most of the patients there. She was very sweet and interested in all of the work CWB does in Zambia.  She introduced us to two or three patients; one in particular that stood out was a young girl with a tube in her nose. Marilyn said she suffered from a brain tumor that couldn’t be removed due to the placement of it. In a smaller group, once the tour concluded we talked a little bit about how hard it is to see people in those conditions and why it was so important to visit these places anyways. As fun and exciting as the trip can be, there are also parts of this trip that are very emotional and force everyone to step outside of their comfort zones and really look and some of the inequalities that are so apparent in our world. As hard and as painful as that is, it’s somewhat necessary in order for change to occur. 

Friday Teaching at Garden and a Visit to Living Hope School

Friday, July 1

We had our first full day here in Lusaka.  Our team participated in teaching reading and English at Garden Compound this morning.  We brought 3 fully trained teachers as well as 8 other volunteers.

This afternoon we were welcomed at the Living Hope School with drumming and dancing and a number of skits.

On our side Ryan Park provided some jazz flute music and Gabe Kotsonis played African drums.

Our guests for dinner were Lonnie Hackett and Dee Dee Wei from Healthy Kids Brighter Futures and also Zambian Board member Sekani Nkhata and his wife Namaya.

Looking forward to heath screening and fitting for glasses tomorrow morning at Garden follwed by a visit to a hospice for AIDS patients in Kalingalinga tomorrow afternoon.

Books and Supplies Packed

Thank you to everyone who donated books and supplies for the children in Zambia! On Sunday, we packed everything up. We'll take 32 extra suitcases, most of them 50 pounds!

Day of Service First Parish Lexington

Members from First Parish Lexington volunteered their time and effort to create these gift bags for children in Zambia. The 30 gift bags will go to students who have passed their exams for 7th, 9th, and 12th grade. Communities Without Borders and the group travelling to Zambia appreciate your generosity. We can't wait to hand them out to the children we support in Zambia. Thanks so much!