I cannot thank you all enough for your prayers. It was truly a blessed trip!
First, on Saturday, I flew to Chicago. Flights from PIT to ORD don't always have the most desirable options, so I spent an hour looking at this:
Exciting, right? After an hour, Korean Air morphed into Virgin Atlantic. And Mikhayla landed, so we were able to hang out in the airport. Later the group driving down from Minnesota would meet with us. But only after we got Chinese in the food court!
We flew from Chicago to London, landing on Sunday, and we had a long layover so...
Our group, minus Jed who had to work, took a 6 hour tour of the city. Here we are outside of the Tower of London. And yes, I'm holding fish and chips! We also saw the Tower Bridge (what people think is London Bridge, but is actually Tower Bridge), Buckingham Palace (this was interesting as there was a bike race that day and made things a bit complicated!), Big Ben, St Paul's Cathedral, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square and went to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Then, finally, we flew from London to Johannesburg, landing on Monday, and on to Ndola.
I was pleasantly surprised when we landed at the airport and my dear friends Blessings was there to pick us up! We worked together in Kitwe two years ago and it was so good to see him again! Of course, once we got back to Kachele I was reunited with many dear friends. We spent a night at the farm and left Tuesday morning to drive to Lusaka, where we would stay for two weeks. Finally on Wednesday we went to the Chisamba care point. We met the amazing Service Center staff, Care Workers, and of course, the kids! We were split up into groups and went out into the community to go on holy home visits.
Holy home visits are exactly what they sound like. We go into the homes and visit with the families living there. I don't think there are ever two home visits that are exactly alike. Obviously, you start by walking into the community. This always gets me, especially since this was my first visit to Kabwe. I'm sure there are many things similar between the landscape of Kabwe and the landscape of Kitwe, but I am always drawn to the differences. They aren't always things you can identify, but there is something. I wish I could convey exactly what it was like to be walking down those roads: clear sky, bright sun, open spaces just beyond the construction sites. I can't really do it justice. At the first house we went to we met a gogo sitting in her backyard in the shade of a large tree. We (Peter, Donna and I) sat facing the gogo, our backs to the house. There was a very large layer of corncobs off to the right side. The dried kernels would be taken off of the cob, they would then be milled into cornmeal to make nshima, and the cob saved to be burnt later. Corn is both the food and fuel source in these communities. The tree was behind me to the left and in front of it was a makeshift well, surrounded and covered with rocks. They would use the water for washing, etc, but there are only three wells with safe drinking water in the community.
We walked in the community on our way to another house. It was then that we saw something that was new to me: a metal barrel with dried corn husks gathered and sticking out of the top. I asked Peter and he explained that it was a sign that there is alcohol ready. They mash corn and ferment it into a traditional beer that is potent enough, it can supposedly only takes two teaspoons to de-worm you. yikes! Later on, in the following week, we would hear stories of young children going to buy this beer for their fathers/uncles/care givers and admitting to drinking some. The challenges and temptations these children face!
Friday we thanked the care workers for all of their hard work. We let them do crafts we would be doing with the kids the following week, we took their photos and printed out pictures for them to have. (Making a picture frame was one of the crafts. Each person got a picture of themselves to keep - a special treat!) Finally we treated them to a meal. We bought the ingredients, they cooked because #1 they are much better at making nshima and #2 they probably didn't want to take the chance of us making lumpy nshima. We bought chicken and oranges (both are too expensive to have very often when you're feeding 100 children), Coca Cola and Orange Fanta. Let me tell you, they love Orange Fanta! The really special part of it all was when Pam presented them each with a book. Her entire family has been involved with supporting and praying for the community of Chisamba, and she has a wonderful, huge family! Pam invited her family to submit a photo, write a bit about themselves and how they're praying for Chisamba, and she put everything together in books so they could keep them. Can you imagine how amazing that would be to receive? I think about those care workers, and how many difficult days they must have, and I think being able to pull out that book and see pictures of the people that are praying for you and being able to read their stories - it must be such an amazing encouragement!
Our team was together 24/7 but we still set aside time to debrief about what we were experiencing. Our weekend in Zambia, we took a break. Well, maybe minus Jed who was the (un)lucky person who got to drive all the way from Kabwe to Livingstone! He is a trooper! When I was in Zambia in 2013 I didn't do any sightseeing, and four of our group had never been to Africa before, so naturally...
We went to Victoria Falls!!!
Just to clarify, this is the DRY season!
And there are baboons everywhere! One even stole our bag of apples, but a young African stole them back (we did not ask him to!)
While at Victoria Falls, we stopped at the local shops to get some souvenirs. You either have to be prepared to bargain or pay up, which can be challenging if you aren't comfortable and walk into the wrong booth - but I think we were happy with what we got.
And we went on safari. First we drove through a safari park:
And later some of us went on a river safari. I have to say, it met my expectations!
The next morning we went to a church close to where we were staying, before driving back to Lusaka.
Then we had final preparations for our kids camp! Each day we had a skit, a craft, a memory verse, along with songs and games. It was a great time, but it was also very challenging. By this point Prag and her team of youth leaders had come to be with us. They were such a blessing: they could step in to translate and they could comfort the kids in a way we can't with the language barrier. Prag and her team got the older children together and split them into groups where they could pour out their hearts about the challenges they were facing. It's hard to hear these stories, but its important for them to be addressed so they can work through them.
One of our teammates joked that I was loving on a different kid every time he saw me. This isn't entirely true, but I did make a few special connections!
Aren't they BEAUTIFUL?! By the way, in case you're wondering, scroll up to the pictures of children with food. The white stuff is nshima: finely ground cornmeal cooked similarly to grits, but thicker. Some people compare it to mashed potatoes. Everyday at the care point the children get nshima, relish (a vegetable - normally cabbage, pumpkin or rape leaves cut and stewed with oil, salt, onions and tomatoes) and a protein (normally beans, sausage or soya mince. Soya mince is good! its so meat-like some of our team didn't realize what they were eating wasn't meat.) During the kids camp we also fed them breakfast. Normally they only receive one meal a day. Our breakfast was simple: two pieces of bread with either butter or peanut butter and tea. Most of these kids had never had breakfast before. Some of these kids were so full from eating breakfast that they didn't have room for lunch. Talk about perspective!
We had a great time with these kiddos: over 100 came to our camp! It was challenging and heartbreaking and tiring and inspiring and I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!
After the kids camp we went back to Luanshya, to the farm. Half of our group rode back with Jed. The boys and I rode back with Prag and her team on the bus. Typically these buses have a Nigerian movie (or music video!) that they play over and over and over again BUT we lucked out and had not one, but three American movies. About 7 hours later, we made it to Luanshya and got dropped off at the roadside. Literally on the side of the road. The bus pulled over and I told the boys it was our stop. With some disbelief they followed. Once we got off the bus, Laurel gave me this look of protest and asked what I had talked him into. What can I say? TIA #wheninAfrica Matteo was waiting for us, honestly, not too far down the road and drove us the rest of the way.
Back at the farm we had a braai with the volunteers living at Kachele and I got to soak up more time with my dear friends who live there full time. It was SO good, but far too short!
The next morning I was saying my goodbyes. I literally turned around and standing not more than two feet away from me was Clement! He is another friend I worked with in Kitwe two years ago and I had assumed our paths wouldn't cross. It was a happy coincidence as he needed to be there for a meeting. Not very long after, it was time for us to load up. Bryan from Canada took us and we were able to stop for coffee before heading back to the airport to retrace our steps. This was fun because we had long layovers again, aka we had more time to look in the souvenir shops. This was not fun because I faced 40 more hours of travel time. But by the grace of God, with the help of your prayers, we did it!
