Chongwe and Visiting the EOH Children

This morning was another, gray overcast morning. I keep learning things here in Zambia, some meaningful, some profound and some just kind of crazy. This was the second morning in a row, that I was awakened by a buzzy ole fly, flying around my head. The crazy thing I figured out is…..that the mornings the sun is shining the flies go right to the window to sunbath in the warmth of the sun. Cloudy mornings they have nothing to do but buzz around my head!



This morning we traveled to Chongwe, home of the GEMS Esther School. It is about an hour’s drive out of Lusaka, it was raining some as we made our way to Chongwe. There was no rain when we got there. Our first stop was at the site of the first teacher’s residence at the Esther School. This building was constructed first, so that work teams from NA will have a place to stay when they come to help build additional buildings for the Esther School. Oh, how it had changed since my visit last August. The first major difference was the road. Once we left the main drive just past the new Catholic Church that is being built, we began scanning the area for the drive up to the house. Siwali said this isn’t right, I said I’m sure it is, because we drove right along side of the new church in August. When the rainy season begins and the rains come, the ground totally changes; green grass and weeds pop up everywhere. Stephanie had been there just three weeks ago, and she said the driveway was totally visible. We drove on very slowly the bottom of the car rubbing on the growth of weeds and grasses. Finally I spotted the long tree branch that marks the corner of our property with a flag on the top, we going right, the house will be just beyond the marker. We couldn’t see it because of all the bushes, but as we drove just a little further there it was.

The ground flourishing with new growth right over the drive

 

We jumped out and cameras started clicking, recording the progress of the building and changes a few weeks of rain makes in the surroundings. Two of the workers, stopped to let us in and watched as we checked everything out. We walked around and down to the septic and checked the progress there. It was exciting to see it coming along, and so close to being completely done.

The Teacher's Residence at the Esther School

The kitchen and door to the patio

Bathroom door straight ahead, bedrooms to left and right

Grass growing up around the house

The septic system

Our next stop was at the Every Orphans Hope homes; currently there are two duplexes that house eight children in each side, for a total of thirty two orphans. Four mommas and one house has both a momma and a dad caring for the children.

Every Orhpan's Hope - My Father's House - Chongwe

The kids checking our Stephanie's picture

Bianca

James

Blaston

Catherine

Girls just being girls!

Stephanie has been there many times since she arrived on October 1st to Zambia. She knew the children’s names and special things about them that she had learned when she had come to interview them on previous trips for the video she is making. Some were really glad to see her and some just a little shy, but after a walk to check out the chicken run EOH is building, they were all following her like the pied piper! When we got back to the yard, she wanted to ask a few more questions for her video, but without an interpreter, that didn’t go so well. She ended up playing games and singing with all the children in a big circle. Now even the most timid were joining in and laughing and having a great time. The one question she did ask earlier and got a great response from was….What makes you happy? “Being able to live here.” These children are all double orphans, no father or mother; some have extended family living in the bush, which they are able to visit occasionally. When you look into their faces, what are their stories, what unimaginable things have they experienced in their young lives. Think about where they would be without EOH and the orphan homes, who would be caring for them, feeding them, clothing them, and teaching them about Jesus. Their Heavenly Father who will never leave them.

Informal interview

Playing games with Stephanie

Girls on a teater toter in front of the church as we drive away

Soon it was time for them to have lunch and we headed back to Lusaka. As we traveled the very good tar road back, we see a myriad of people walking along the road. Many students in uniforms, either coming from or going to school. The government schools are so overcrowded that they all run two sessions a morning session and an afternoon session. The numbers are staggering, 800 students per session to 18 teachers, for less than 4 hours a day. Not what we would consider a quality education by any standards, but they are just thankful they can go and that they can afford the school fees and uniforms. We also see boys with bikes loaded with huge sacks of charcoal. Some have eight or ten bags tied on; some are being pushed for there isn’t any room left to ride. This is not a flat stretch of road, it is up hills and down, and they just trudge along. We see women with babies on their backs walking to market; we see goats and cows being herded along the roadside. We see bikes of charcoal parked and a tired young man lying in the grass resting. I see rows of women working in the fields near the road, they are cultivating the ground with just a handmade hoe. It is time to plant maze, it grows very fast during the rainy season, and the ground is more pliable because of the recent rains. When we’ve been here before in August and tried to drive in stakes for volley ball poles, it was like driving a hole into the cement it is so hard and dry. It is an hour’s drive that passes unbelievably fast.

Handmade hoe

Land cultivated with the handmade hoe

We make a stop at the ATM and for the first time, since I‘ve been trying, I actually get money from the machine! Hooray, now I will have money to purchase more fabric and batting for the ongoing Hand’n’Hand project!

We head back to the Service Center for some lunch ourselves. Just as I am finishing my first half of my grilled cheese (that’s right I said grilled cheese and not PB&J – we have been quite spoiled this trip, living here and being able to cook for ourselves.) When there was a knock at the door, and one of the Club Coordinators, Emelda stopped by to say hello to me. We sat and talked, when we were here last April, Emelda was not able to be at training because her husband was sick. Then when Jan and I returned in August he was still sick. Well, he had surgery last Thursday to repair a hernia, did it really take them eight months to diagnosis a hernia repair. He came home from the hospital yesterday, almost a week and went to his father’s house, where he will be till he recovers in a month.


Emelda and I had a great talk, we shared about our families and she told me about her GEMS club and we prayed together for her husband. That’s what being here is all about, the relationships!


We lost electric early, today before 4:00, but it was only off for about an hour. Then the power came on and the water went off!


We had our supper, no baths without water, and then the power went out again. Glad the battery on my computer was totally charged allowing me time to journal this day’s events.


Today, I compared Zambia to North America, and all the differences. Where do I begin?

Window screens – no screens. Water - no water. Power outages only during storms or from auto accidents – power outages almost daily for always an undetermined amount of time from 45 minutes to 3 or 4 days, usually about 2 hours. (Healthy parents – parents dying of AIDS. Families – orphans. An abundance of “stuff” – not even the necessities. Cars creating no pollution – cars, trucks and mini buses burning oil and leaving long black trails of pollution. Trash and rubbish pick up on a weekly basis – dumping trash and garbage on the road. No bugs in the house - Bugs I’ve never seen before and flies, mosquitoes, ants and spiders in every room every day. (So far no really big bugs.) Sidewalks and well manicured lawns - Dirt and mud everywhere. Homes with every conceivable appliance and electronics – homes without roofs, doors, or windows. Tables where food is tossed into the garbage just because – tables with only one meal a day or perhaps nothing.

I could go on and on, every part of every day, I am reminded of all I have, of all I need to manage at home, and the comparison of the simple lives without all the stuff. The question I keep asking myself is….. who is really happier?