AKCLI - Villages of Hope News

AKCLI (All Kids Can Learn International) is a 501(c)3, IRS approved, Christian ministry dedicated to rescuing orphans and raising them as disciples of Jesus Christ for their own nations. AKCLI is creating Villages of Hope, self-sustaining settings in which we provide orphaned children with quality care, education, Christian discipleship training, vocational training, and employment settings in which to grow and thrive.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Caroling and Cookies in Zambia

 

Yesterday (Sunday) was the start of some special Christmas activities in our village.  Each day one of the houses will decorate Christmas cutout cookies.  Another house will go caroling to all the houses, ending up at our house for the cookies and juice. 

 

So yesterday I went to Mama Anne's house with dough (made the day before by Isha and Sena), rolling pin, flour, cookie cutters and colored sugar and sprinkles.  It was a wonderful time.  The kids took turns, and were so pleasant and sweet about it all.  At the end I gave a pan of cutouts to Anne to decorate, who hadn't ever done that before even though she is in her 40s. 

 

Then around 7:00 I could hear singing coming from the houses behind us.  There was clapping and excited noises.  Eventually the children came to our verandah.  I had all the lights out except the colored ones on the tree, and candles on our table.  Everyone got a few cookies and juice and we sat around the table.  Then we sat near the tree and I read a story.  To end the evening, we turned on the lights and Sena brought out the 10 puppies for the children to hold and pet.  With 10 puppies, no one was left out!!!

 

I'm looking forward to the next 3 nights when we will repeat last night's activities with another house.

 

 

 

Sunday, December 20, 2009

More animal stories from Zambia

 

There are always interesting things happening with bugs and animals around here.  I am constantly amazed at the beautiful bugs, moths, and other small insects I see.  Their colors and the designs are so beautiful.   The Hamelrycks have a chameleon they keep in their house, and now the Kamaus have one too.  They have sharp claws, but otherwise are very gentle.  They don't bite and it is fun to see them change colors and to see their eyes moving in different ways. 

 

After our shopping trip to Lusaka on Monday, AnnRachel came home to 2 birds that one of the workers had brought for the children to buy.  They wings were clipped so they wouldn't fly away.  Since AnnRachel had bought a live tree for their Christmas tree, the birds have a great place to be.

 

Roman wanted to show me how he can catch the little yellow birds that are making lots of nests in one of the trees outside our windows.  He hasn't brought one to me yet. 


After church today the excitement was a green snake. Sharon J. had seen it in the morning.  Benedict went and got his gun we have for killing snakes.  The guard came to help.  Finally it was shot, knocked out of the tree and the head crushed.  Most of the children were there, looking for it, screaming when they saw it, and it was very interesting. 



 

 

 

Visit by some of the Relatives

 

Yesterday (Saturday 19th) we invited the relatives of the children to come visit.  The children presented the Christmas program that they had done on the 1st.   There were about 15+ folks who came.  In addition the mothers and aunties were there for the program.  The children knew the program so well that we had just one practice before the actual program and they did it fine.  One addition was that whenever one of the children spoke in English, another child interpreted into Nyanga what was being said.  There were some very old grannies, with weathered and wrinkled faces that came.  Benedict saw one grannie wiping tears away.  Idah, who came about a month ago, has a mother who is very sick.  The mother came for the program.  Miriam heard Idah say that she didn't want to go home with her mother.  She thought maybe that would happen.

 

A lunch was catered by the restaurant – shema, rice, vegetables (mainly cabbage), and mixed cuts meat from the oxen who quit working, was mean, and so was butchered.  He has been much more useful in death than in life.  The ladies from the restaurant were dressed in their uniforms and chef hats, and they used the shiny new chaffing dishes for serving the food. 

 

Some of the grandmas introduced themselves to me and said who were their grandchildren.  It was a special day for all of us.

 

New Children Arrive

 

On Friday 6 new children arrived.  They join Kenny and the second Mary in the house with Mama Exildah.  This is the house that the Lusumpa family was living in and is directly behind our house.  So now in that grouping of 4 houses there are 33 children counting the Hamelrycks.  The first afternoon, after the guardians left, one little girl was crying.  But yesterday, all of the children seemed very happy.  It was very sweet to see the way that the other children were helping the new ones and showing them around and how things are.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Christmas Shopping in Lusaka

 

On Monday Kimberly, Ann Rachel, and left for Lusaka at 8:30 am.  We pulled back into our driveway at 9:00 pm.  We had a great day and said that now we feel like Christmas.  Our car was loaded with bags and green stuff, including 5 rose bushes, and a live tree for the Hamelryck's house.  We had a lovely lunch together at Sandy's Creation which is a beautifully landscaped place that sells garden plants, shrubs, and trees.  We stopped at one store where we all got brown sugar, since many of our usual grocery stores rarely have brown sugar.  There were also a couple of other things that I don't usually see at the other stores.

 

We went to both malls as well.  Ann Rachel picked up small gifts that we will be giving to the aunties and mothers.  Kimberly got a tree, and I got a variety of stuff.  So it was a great day.  When Paul went to unload the car the next day, he said that maybe we needed to get a truck for the ladies.

 

A Sadness

 

Yesterday afternoon, one of our workers died.  Timothy had worked in the accounting office and he was pretty young.  For several months he had been getting sicker and sicker.  He died at Liteta Hospital yesterday afternoon.  I don't know when the funeral and burial will be.  They are waiting to see when relatives who have to come from a distance will be able to make it. 

 

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Sing Noel

Last Tuesday night we had our end-of-the-year concert and play for the
Village and some visitors. We had planned all along that we would use
candle light. It was a good thing because the electricity was out the
whole time. It was beautiful, although it is a little difficult to
see the expressions on such black little faces.

There was singing, 2 and 3 part rounds, "Go Tell it on the Mountain,"
"Amen", etc. One group did a kind of exercise routine to Felix
Navidad. Selita and Terrance shared what Christmas is about. Then we
had a play. During the week Mama Anne, Mama Rose M, and Auntie
Zandile had been sewing like crazy to make the costumes which we will
save for other years. We set up 2 sewing machines in one of the
classrooms and they worked so hard.

We had really practiced and it was well timed and even with costume
changes the program moved along nicely. After the play the children
sang "The Little Drummer Boy" with Isaac playing the drum and coming
from the back.

We had several guests from the community including people from the
social welfare department, Patrick Schimwa from Liteta school, Aunt
Harriet from Nyrienda village, and some others.

Afterwards we had refreshments on the verandah. I had told the
children that they needed to be polite and let the guests get their
refreshments first. So they all sat so nicely and waited til the very
end. We all were very proud of them.

Words, Accents and Misunderstandings

In working on the workshop for teachers, I was struck by how people
can speak the same language but yet it is so different in the
pronunciation, speaking, and even spelling.
• At one point, Patrick, who was planning with us, corrected my
spelling of honor, saying it should be honour – they use English
spelling
• For weeks Susan and I both thought that Patrick was saying "Insert"
which we took to be a variation of inservice. However, he was saying
"Inset"!
• A "student" here is a person in college or university. Children in
school are "pupils."
• They don't have principals. They have "head teachers."
• For her phonics workshop, Susan became very aware of how vowels are
pronounced very differently here than in the US.
• As some of us went out to dinner on Friday night, some of those with
us from the US were surprised that I really meant that fillet is
pronounced "Fill it" here.
• I can't even write how they say "successes" (Ask Susan if you know
her and live near her. She does a good imitation.), and many other
words. It makes for lots of fun and laughter.

Thanksgiving in Zambia

Over a week ago we celebrated our US Thanksgiving here in Zambia.
Susan Lukaart from MI was here and we invited Erna and Johan Bosman as
well as Pastor and Mary Zulu to join the Kamau family and our family
in our traditional meal. We shared with them all the traditions
around this holiday and it made us think about it more. Of course the
main event is the meal. Those of us from the US all had different
things that "had" to be part of the meal. Susan always has squash.
Kimberly always has macaroni and cheese with their meal. We talked
history together, both US and South African.

After our meal, we then joined the Hamelrycks and Pattys for desert.
Our visitors couldn't believe all the different kinds of pies –
pumpkin, apple, pecan. It was a very blessed day for all of us. It
was made especially meaningful by having people present who had never
before been part of a traditional US Thanksgiving meal.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Exciting Day!!!
Hello everyone!

It is early on Friday morning. Before we head off to the second day
of the "Liteta Zone Inset Workshop" I wanted to give all of you an
update.

First of all, our children shone. They came for the opening and sang
the National Anthem. They processed in dancing and singing a song as
Isaac and Shaibu played the drums. They then sang the National
Anthem, followed by a 3-part round that was part of our Tuesday night
program. Then they left singing a song about teachers, doing their
little step, and the drums drumming. All day long we heard comments
from the participants that it was amazing. "Not even children in our
government schools can sing the Anthem that well. And they did all 3
verses!" They have been invited back today for the closing ceremony
to once again sing the National Anthem and to do a few other songs.
They all had their red shirts, boys with new navy shorts, and girls
with the chitenges that they used in our program. They were also all
barefoot!

Second, our school shone. Erna is doing a terrific job with her
workshop. She had been reluctant to do it, but you can tell that she
is really enjoying herself. She set up her room so nicely. Of course
Susan is doing a great job and will speak at the final session.
People seem to be appreciating my session as well. Our teacher are
also presenting themselves in the workshops as very professional
teachers.

Third, the Chimwemwe Ladies shone. They helped with the making and
serving of the food. AnnRachel and Karen (who traveled from DE just
to help with this, her church took up a collection to pay her way!)
have done a terrific job of planning and purchasing the materials for
the breakfast and lunches served. We have officially "opened" our
restaurant and this is the first big event, catering the conference.
So we have the serving dished and chafing pans. Karen brought "gospel
aprons" from the states for each of the Chimwemwe ladies to have.
AnnRachel and Karen have roses on the serving tables, table cloths,
candles all around the meeting room (which is not well lit).

Finally, Village of Hope is shining. Lots of our workers and
missionary team are involved with helping to pick up people, setting
up, driving back and forth with food and supplies.

All of the participants/teachers are so excited. A few teachers told
Susan that it should last a week! They say they are getting so much
out of it. There is joy all around, in the faces and conversations,
etc. Patrick Schimwa who planned it with us is very pleased.

I will write some more later sharing some of the interesting things I
have learned and experienced in this whole thing but I have to go get
ready for Day 2.

The day for Karen, Susan, and I ended with Benedict taking us to our
new school site and we got to see the walls being built. How exciting
and encouraging!

I'll write more on the weekend! Kathleen