Micro-financing Program for GEMS Counselors

So have you been wondering how I could fill a week here in Zambia without the rest of my team!  Probably the best way to tell you is with a few pictures.  Besides doing some cleaning, laundry and moving beds around and making more room in the bedrooms.  I sorted t-shirts by sizes, and colors.  I counted bread pans and put them with the measuring spoons and cups.  I have enough for over 30 counselors.

Then we had the shopping to do for all the flour, sugar, oil, baking soda, vanilla, and eggs for the micro-financing program!  That in itself was a large feat!  We took a taxi to the store, and got most of the ingredients, only they didn't have the small bottles of vanilla or the baking soda.  So we had to go to another area where they are building and it is so crazy to drive into that area.  We try to avoid it by all costs!  BUT we needed those missing ingredients.  By the time we got all the first ingredients into the trunk, the car was hanging, and rubbing on the tires when we hit a small bump.  Ooops! Oh, and I didn't mention that we also got our groceries for the week, while we were there.  We try not to hire a taxi anymore than we have to!

Sophie pulling one of the three carts, with the 28  bags of flour and sugar!

Then there were the 22 dozen of eggs!

First we brought everything into the back bedroom, and then I bagged it all in bags for each counselor.

Every bag had 2.5kg of flour, 2 kg of sugar, a bottle of cooking oil, a bottle of vanilla, a package of baking soda and 8 plastic bags.  The bread pans, measuring cups and spoons with 8 eggs tucked into the pan!  The 24 banana's were in a separate bag!

The next step was filling in the paper work and making sure that they understand the terms of the loan and how and when it needs to be paid back.

Then packing it all up and carrying it out on their heads.  Marjory with her son on her back, her bag on her arm and her box on her head is as happy as anybody I've ever seen!

Here I am with just three of the six boxes of 1,356 bananas!  Fresh from a banana farm on the way to Chongwe. They came complete with some really BIG spiders!  The ladies just laughed as I grabbed my sandle and swatted away, jumping around and trying to kill them.  They said those were some of the best moves they had seen me do!  But.....I just need to wiggle my hips more!  Never will be African in that regard, I just don't move like they do!

The sign up and collecting of supplies was on Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday we did a baking class.  One of the counselors, Agnes is a professional baker and she wanted to help the women learn how to bake the bread.  At 10 hours on Wednesday, the class began.  The counselors were given their cookbooks, with recipes from the AC's & LT's in North America and put together for them at ACTS Training the weekend before we left for Zambia.  They found the Banana Bread recipe and Agnes began her class.  She has a very quiet, sweet spirit and she did a great job teaching.  She had some of the ladies mashing the bananas, some mixing the dry ingredients, some adding the liquid, while one greased and floured the pans.  The first loaf went into the oven, the second loaf went unto the brazier.  We used our biggest pot, filled with about 2 inches of sand in the bottom, and while the ingredients were being mixed, Agnes had the pot on the brazier heating up the sand.

The pot with the sand in the bottom.

The loaf of banana bread in the pot just before the cover goes on and it bakes for an hour.

Agnes with the finished loaf of bread just out of the pot on the brazier.

It is my prayer that God uses this program to help the counselors help their families.  One of the counselors was sharing her story with me this morning.  Both of her parents died in 2002, and they were caring for her sister's two children who were orphans.  With the death of her parents, her sister's children became her responsibility.  When she returned home from burying her father, her husband said we cannot take in these children.  If you continue to keep them here then I will leave you and he did.  He died in 2006.  She continues to care for her two nieces as well as her own two children.  She said this program will mean

she can keep her children in school.

That was just one story, I'm sure if I went around the room, there would be a similar story for each and every counselor participating.  May God bless these women as they participate in this micro-financing program.