From Livingstone

From Livingstone

Hello everyone from Livingstone! Yesterday we drove about 2 1/2
hours to Namibia. We
went to the immigration post in Zambia to sign out of the country.
Then we walked to the post in Namibia. To take the car would have
been very expensive. So we checked into Namibia immigration. We were
probably some of the few white folks that walk from one border to
another! Dave Walker, who is
temporarily in charge at Children of Zion village, met us there and
drove us to the village. (This is the first orphan village Benedict
was involved in and is supported by our church in MD.) It had been 4
1/2 years since we had been
there. Of course, little 2 year olds that Sena had taken care of are
so big now and don't remember her. The newest arrival, a 2 month old
little girl, was loved, held, fed, and changed by Sena. The older
kids remembered Benedict. They have a school we had never seen and they
have now built a transitional living house that will probably be
occupied in the next month.

Of course I was interested in their school. I asked lots of
questions. They are doing things differently than we are, but it
was interesting to see.

After about 4 hours, they took us back to the border and we walked
back into Zambia and picked up our car.

This morning we went to the Livingstone Museum. It is a wonderful
museum that I am going to recommend to folks who come here. It covers
history, natural history, political history, etc, etc. I want to go
back sometime. This afternoon we get picked up at 3:15 and go to a
Sunset dinner cruise on the Zambezi River. Tonight is also the first
night of about 3 when there is a moonbow. That is when the moon is so
full that you see a rainbow over the falls made by the moons light.
Don't know that we will see it - it is a bit cloudy and don't know
when we will get back from the cruise.

It has been a lovely 3 days of R&R in the midst of our busy visitor season.

The First President of Zambia

The First President of Zambia

Last Thursday we were invited to a ground breaking/tree planting near
Fringilla where they are going to be building a rehab center for
persons with disabilities. The invitation was last minute, but we
were able to take all the kids and were able to sing the National
Anthem. Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, the first president of Zambia spoke.
There were also a couple of performing groups. A big group from UK
were there who are supporting the project, also the District
Commissioner, and a number of young men in wheel chairs who did a
play. It was a great amount of things to take in. So on Friday,
Period 4, we discussed all that we had seen and learned. It was a
great time of sharing, and the kids missed nothing – from the flowers
around, to the performers, to what the president said, to the
bodyguard, to police cars, etc. etc.

They behaved so wonderfully – sitting on mats on the ground, in the
sun (it started out rather cool so that was ok for a while), to being
patient when the program started almost 1 ½ hours after they said it
would. We were the first ones to arrive. So we had lots of hungry,
hot, thirsty, and tired kids – most riding in the back of the pick-up
truck going home. I think they will always remember this event and
seeing their first president.

Broken Arm #3

Broken Arm #3

 

Our study at school this term is "What makes a good soccer player?"  With the World Cup in Africa for the first time, it is an exciting time to be watching the games.  We have been talking so much about soccer.  So on Monday, a national holiday, a bunch of our kids were playing soccer in the field we use for the games here in the village.  In the midst of the game, Sharpie fell and broke and dislocated his arm.  It always seems to happen on weekends or holidays.  So Kamau and Mother Anne took him into Lusaka.  He and Anne spent the night at the hospital we go to for such emergencies.  They were back on Tuesday afternoon.  He stayed home from school today, but he told me this afternoon that he will be coming to school tomorrow.

 

 

The Gift of the Restaurant

The Gift of the Restaurant

 

For those of you who read this blog regularly, you know that I haven't written much lately.  Part of that is because one of our teacher's has been gone and so I have been teaching her class.  The other part is that we are now in the full swing of volunteers.  Right now we have 10 volunteers and there are 5 members of Paul Hamelryk's family who are also visiting.  In a week we will have 21 folks staying here.  It is a great blessing to see folks who didn't know each other before, working and living together and caring for each other. 

 

Now that we have the restaurant, it is very helpful.  Rachel, our chef at the restaurant, prepares lunch which is served there.  Since this is the cold time of year, she makes a wonderful pot of soup that is more like stew everyday, along with her delicious homemade rolls.  In addition people can get meat or chicken pies, somoosas, fried chicken, French fries, and a few other things that the restaurant serves.  Then Rachel and her helpers make dinner which we pick up and transport to our Visitor House/Our House and we all eat the meal served buffet style. 

 

Those who come will tell you that they sure aren't loosing weight while they are here.  Rachel is a wonderful cook.

 

Plays

Plays

 

Today we had a special performance for the visitors who are here and the mothers and aunties.  The three reading groups of the oldest class had each prepared a play.  The first was "The Three Billy Goats Gruff."  Terrance was the mean troll, Roman was the narrator, and Sharon S, Precious, and John were the 3 billy goats.  All of their lines were memorized. 

 

We have some very wonderful risers that were sent over on the last Michigan container by the Education Leadership team.  So we used 2 of them to form the bridge that the goats were crossing, and where the troll stopped them.

 

The second play was "The Boy who Cried Wolf."   Moses was the boy, Selita was a sheep, Brighton was the wolf, and Sharon J and Prudence were the townsfolk.  Originally I was not planning for this group to do a play.  But they saw the other 2 groups working on plays and so they prepared their play in about a week.  Again the risers came in handy to form the hill where the boy had the sheep.

 

The last group did the play of a Korean folk tale, "The Swallow's Gift."  Namakau was the swallow, Nelson and Paul were the 2 brothers, Mary S. was the mother, and Isaac was the son of one of the brothers.  This time the risers were the family's house. 

 

The children had costumes adapted from some of the Christmas costumes as well as material that we have in the office.  Everyone had lines to learn and they did a great job.  We expect to do these plays at least one more time for more volunteers that come this summer.

Ant Map

Ant Map

 

The other day, Prudence was helping to pump water at the school.  She came calling my name and asked me to come out of the office to see something.  What she had to show me was a line in the dirt, made by ants, that resembled the continent of Africa.  She was very excited about this.  And I was excited that she knew about the world enough to recognize an ant map on the ground.