Hungry Months

Hungry Months

 

As the rain was coming down again this morning, Christine shared with me that January and especially February are referred to in Zambia as the "Hungry Months."   The maize and mealy meal (corn meal) from the last harvest are in short supply so the prices on the mealy meal, oil, sugar, and salt all go up.  She said as a child she remembers her mother going out and looking for food and having only one meal a day.  So there are 2 big problems, not enough to buy, and too much money being charged for what is available.   The price of charcoal used in cooking is also going up, and when you are poor you don't have the means to pay the cost.

 

Yesterday I decided to walk from our house to the road where Kimberly would pick me up.  The road is so slippery with so much mud that I didn't want her to have to drive to our house. Although, my attire wouldn't look funny here, I would have certainly stood out in America.   If you can picture; wearing a rain jacket, backpack on my back, red skirt down to my calves and rubber boots to about where the skirt ended.  In places it was a challenge not to slip in the mud in the road.

 

As I approached the road, the Green Village is there.  Children came running when they saw me yelling "Che, Che Koolay."   By the time Kimberly arrived, there were about 40 children singing and doing motions with me.  People driving by on the North Road were looking at us as they drove by!   Great Fun!

 

 

 

Busy Place

Busy Place

 

What a busy place our Village of Hope is.  We now have 15 children – wonderful, happy faces.   Work is progressing on the Director/Visitor's house.  Four new cottages are under construction.  One of our guards, who wasn't so great as a guard, is excellent at landscaping.   He is working all around Auntie Rose's house and each day he accomplishes so much.  What a great blessing!  We have 2 large fields of maize (corn) growing and flourishing.  There have been small building projects going on as well, a place for the guards to work where they won't get wet in the rains, an outside kitchen for the 4 houses we already have, a garage and classroom for the Kamau family.   Fruit trees have been planted.  It is a place where new life comes forth every day.

Good News for Matilda!

Goods News for Matilda!!

 

Upon our return, I learned that Matilda, the 7 year old who had been unable to walk in August because of spinal TB, is now taking a few steps with the aid of sticks working like crutches.   The strong TB medicine is working better than the doctors had hoped for.

 

Yesterday I was so excited when the Children's Hospital in Lusaka called to say that a spinal surgeon is arriving for 10 days.   They have asked us to bring Matilda on Monday morning to be evaluated by this surgeon to see if he would be able to help correct some of the damage surgically.  We will keep you posted!

Dry to Wet, Brown to Green, Dirt to Mud

Dry to Wet, Brown to Green, Dirt to Mud

 

One week ago, Benedict, Sena, and I returned to Zambia after 7 very full weeks in US.  What a difference!   When we left almost everything was brown, all the grass was dried up.  Everywhere you went there was dirt and now the mud on the road to our house is like pudding.   Yesterday as we were leaving, I felt like I was riding in a bumper car at a carnival as Benedict had to turn the steering wheel back and forth to keep the car on the road.   Areas where we had walking paths are now overgrown with tall grass.  It almost seems like a different world.  As a gardener I guess it stands out more to me.   I hope to be able to work some at our Village to make flower beds, plant grass and dig while the dirt is soft.  Give me a shovel and garden fork and I am ready to go!