Birthdays, Chicken Feet, and Trips to Lusaka

 

Monday night we had the Kamau's, and Miriam and Rose (the 2 housemothers) over for dinner.  It was Kumani's 9 ^th birthday.  Had fried chicken and mashed potatoes.  Since I don't have a mixer, the "cake" was more like a brownie with chocolate frosting – good but very sweet.   We had a nice time together, including sitting around the table just visiting and sharing about ourselves.

 

The thing I have found in Zambia to be the "grossest" has to do with buying a chicken at the grocery store.  In the US they will put the liver, gizzard, and maybe neck in the cavity of the bird.  Well here, they usually put at least one foot.  You look in the cavity of the thing and there are the claws of the foot sticking out.   Yuck!  I haven't gotten use to that yet.

 

Monday was also Sena's first day of school.  She has now had her first week at an African school.   There are 20 girls in her 8^th grade class.  The daily schedule includes "tea" in the morning after the 4^th class. She is one of the very few who are not boarding.  

 

Sena is Ms. Congeniality in the area.  She loves to go visit with some of the workers who live behind our house.   She loves to go up to the Araloosa village and play with some of the children.  She loves to get a soda at the shop at the Nyirenda Village and sit and talk to people who are hanging around that area.   All those social things are much more interesting to her than school.

 

At the market, we continue to do very well.  What a great location we have.   People driving by on the Great North Road will stop and buy big bags of potatoes, or oranges, or onions.  This was pay week for many around here so we sold the last of the 125 chickens we had and had to get more.  

 

The "chicken run" will be finished today behind the market so that we can start raising our own chickens to have to sell.   It takes about 6 weeks from chick to pot!

 

Work has begun on the food processing building – the 1^st construction project going on right now.  It is like the cottages we are building for the children with some changes to the inside layout.  There will be a cold storage room, and a place to put the "Vitagoat" which makes soymilk, peanut butter and more.

 

Work has also begun on a "house" for one couple who are working for us – the second construction project.  Christine is my househelper and her husband, Whiteson, has become our head welder.  There are no places available around here to rent.  So we have decided to set aside an area of the farm to put up houses for workers as needed.   Their's is a 2 room structure made out of the block that we are making on the property.

 

Next week the 3^rd construction project will begin – the Director and Visitor house.  When Aaron was here, he and I worked on a floor plan for the house using 2 cottages end to end.   It will have a large living/dining/kitchen area with room for large gatherings.  It will also have 5 bedrooms so that visitors and volunteers will have a place to stay in the children's village.   We have determined the location of this house and will begin to build the foundation and begin pouring footers next week.

 

My first job here has been to help with some of the organization.  I keep the minutes of the senior staff meetings, lay out work assignments for the week taking into consideration how many workers are needed for each job.   I try to maintain an overall picture of what is being done and what needs doing.  So we are making progress in this area and it should help us become more efficient and productive.

 

Thursday Benedict and I went to Lusaka for a meeting with the 2 folks overseeing the "Rapids" program.  Bruce, the director, hosted Laura Bush on her recent trip to Zambia and was telling us a little about that visit and the first lady's reaction.  We were then updating them on the progress we are making here.

 

The rest of the day in Lusaka we went places that I wanted to go!   In Lusaka you find areas selling or doing the same thing.    If you want to go to a hardware store, there will be many on the same block.  If you want car repair, there will be several garages next to each other.   We went to a shopping area where they sold cloth, and some housewares.  As I think about planning for the house being built at our farm, I was looking for curtain and upholstery material for the future.   There will be so much to choose from when the time comes and there are wonderful prints with African themes. 

 

I had lunch at Subway – the only "fast food" chain here in Lusaka.  Made me a little lonesome for the US.  

 

Weather is warming up here with October being the hottest month of the year.  This is also a windy time of year, and the wind whips up the dust on the roads and fields.   This is also the time of year where there are a lot of fires.  But it is amazing to me that only a short time after a field has burned, you will see green grass growing.   You wonder how that can be since they last rain was back in March.  The cycles God has planned and how He created nature to rebuild and replenish itself is very amazing.