The Final Blog for Now

Well the blogging about our journey has come to an end. We will be back into our usual lives in Exmouth for another year. Of course, the blog could always come back to life with a new journey.

As the minor blogger, I would like to say "Thanks Phil!"

Phil, the Chief Blogger

For those of you who would like to keep up with some of the happenings at Grace Academy, Zambia, you could visit Elizabeth's blogspot. We had enjoyed reading it before we ventured to Ndola.

http://elizabethkroeker.blogspot.com/

Well that is it for Zambia blogging 2012.....Thanks so much for joining us on our journey. Sue

Leaving Grace

Yes, I had visions of the panic rush before leaving. Our last night was filled with some of the kids making necklaces with beads and the shells we collected; farewells to the Litanas with Gertrude and I in tears; me forgetting to pick up the resident mechanic Philip on the way back to Ndola; pizza for dinner with Sidney (a wonderful guy staying at Buseko and waiting to see if he will have good enough grades for a bursary to university); and a really fun coffee and dessert with Bill and Marcy (American missionaries). The cake was compliments of their 13 year old son Aiden. Bill and Marcy have the most amazing stories of their adventures in Zambia over the past ten years. So it was a great night and well worth not getting to sleep until after midnight. We had a fair bit of packing to do.

Our final morning involved organising Hudson and Gertrude’s doors, taking further pictures of children and me holding a meeting with some school staff and dorm mothers to implement IEPs (individual education plans) for students with reading/English difficulties.

And while it all went reasonably smoothly, there is always that sense of there being things left undone or more that we could have done. Oh well, there is always next time……

Driving in Ndola

This is what it is like in the car hen you get on the dirt roads around the suburbs and compounds.

Iron Age Workers

The guys who make the Hoes and Axes beside the road on the way to Grace always wave and greet us when we drive past. The way they can actual forge steel with a plastic bag and a pipe has been fascinating. We asked them to make some mini hoes and axes for us to take home for souvenirs. They did a great job and made 2 of each sort - 2 hoes, 2 axes and 2 adzes. All we have to do now is get them through the Australian Customs. The guys even burnt ZAMBIA into the handles for them.

I hope the video shows clearly what they are doing. My friend Joseph Obrien will be fascinated by this Iron Age work.

When we put our bags through the X-ray machine at Ndola airport the man came up to me and asked “ Are you checking that bag?” when he saw all these weapons in the bag. 

Zambian Workers

Even though we haven’t worked with the Zambian building crew every day, we have got to know a few of them quite well. Emmanuel worked with us on the doors and locks and the formwork and concreting for the school benchtops. We also had him on the roof to show him how to do ridge capping.

Geoffrey is the welding man and can really make anything you want out of steel. He picks up what you want him to do very quickly and a basic sketch is all he needs, He is making all the steel door frames for the new dorms and Buseko House.

Nyamba looks after the electrical work and the plumbing as well as lots of other things on the construction site.

The guys write a daily and weekly report that gets sent through to John. And though the output is less when John isn’t there the Zambian workers continue at a good pace and keep the construction moving along.

Musonda is the pickup man who goes to all the suppliers and get whatever is needed each day. There are no accounts with suppliers here. Everything is cash. So Musonda often travels with a lot of Kwacha in his pocket. Many of the suppliers have a thing with the pickup people like Mysonda called “topup” – this is where the ask “ Do you want top up?” meaning “ will we add extra to the bill and split it “ – Rekays – the big Indian owned hardware is notorious for this form of corruption. Musonda told John “ did you know the last driver you had always got “top up”. It is good to know that Musonda is an honourable man who can’t be corrupted by the suppliers. Musonda has also helped us with sorting Hudson’s stuff.

Daniel is the maintenance man for Buseko and also does a lot of the driving dropping kids off to the clinic for their HIV check-ups, and taking people here and there. And he painted the external doors of the high school while we were there. It was Daniels house that had a wall fall down while we were there. John had some of the Grace workers go and put in a proper foundation and concrete block wall to fix it.

Hudson and Gertrude Litana

Hudson and Gertrude’s House

Phil and Sam spent Wednesday out at Hudson and Gertrude Litania’s house fixing up some broken windows. For those that don’t know Hudson – He is a Zambian Baptist Pastor who has been to Australia 3 times since 1980. He has been a guest of the Australian Baptists and has been to a lot of churches to minister to Australian Christians. We met him in 1980 and when he returned in 1985 he stayed with us at our home in Kallangur. Our first son Michael was just 2 years old and I have a photo of Michael and Hudson. After his stay with us, Sue started writing to his wife Gertrude and then she would send off parcels of clothes and shoes to them. They had 12 children so whatever you sent something would fit someone.  The tea chests of clothes would take 6 months to get to Zambia. When Hudson came the next time, he told us that school was to start and many of his children did not have shoes to fit them but the day before school was to start the parcel from Sue arrived and there was a pair of shoes for everyone who needed them.

Over the years in our moves from Queensland, we lost contact with them. Last year, we did a bit of hunting around and found out a way to get a letter to him. Because we knew he was in Ndola we thought we would try to find him and do some work at an orphanage while we were here. And that is how after a few googles we found the Canadians and Seeds of Hope.  (I was just thinking that if we didn’t meet Hudson 30 years ago we would not be at Grace Academy and we would not have stayed a week extra and we would not have been here to finish the roof sheeting on the Buseko House – God knew 30 years ago that the roof supplier in Zambia would not get the roofing delivered when he said he would (I would be lying if I said it would be here today – Joke for the Canadians) and someone needed to be here just a bit longer to do the last few things).

Hudson had a serious car crash 2 years ago and is still recovering. When people saw his car wreck and he was not around they assumed he was dead and broke into his house and smashed about 40 panes of glass and broke some doors. When Marcie and Bill helped us to find their house it was obvious that we needed to help fix the windows and doors.

It has been quite humbling to help them as they are such wonderful Christian people – Hudson is the wisest man I have met. He has a deep and certain faith in Jesus and his life and Gertrude’s have been dedicated to serving Jesus. Now even when he can hardly walk and has trouble speaking for long periods he is organising a new ministry to do evangelistic work in some of the churches that are having trouble in Lusaka. They have raised 12 of their own children as well as 10 orphans (1 would go on to be a President of Zambia) and even now they have 3, 4 maybe 5 orphans they are looking after.

When we left their house one day Phil said, “I wonder how they survive – God must just send the money from Heaven.”

To which Sam replied, “Yes well he has sent Australians all the way here to fix his windows.”

They have made us know that God has sent us all this way to Fiwali Hill in Zambia to bless them and that has been quite humbling for us. We love them dearly and have been so blessed to spend time with them.

Hudson said this morning –

“My wife was so worried about the broken windows and doors, and there was nothing I could do – she was saying we should move – this is not a proper house – now her prayers are answered in a way she never expected.”

Gertrude said “It is like a dream – and a burden has been lifted from my shoulders”

This has been a great highlight of our time in Ndola.

Felson House

We have been staying in the Buseko Compound which is in the "nicer end of town". The compound has the big house where the 0-5 year old kids live, a 2 room school building, Felson House where most of the visiting teams live, Samaritan House where 2 young men - Philip and  are staying, a big playground that the kids use in the non rainy season. And all this with beautiful lawn and gardens.                          

Inside Felson House many of the visiting team members have written messages on the walls. It is quite a display. Bible verses, messages of thanks, poems, and some with the dates they have been here. We have to fine a suitable spot to leave a mark,



Driving in Zambia

There are many different rules or practices when it comes to driving in Zambia. Thankfully they drive on the same side of the road as us Aussies, after that it is all different.

You can pass anyone, at any time, on any side of the road you like. Safe passing distances do not come into the decision to overtake. You have to keep a constant watch on the people behind you because you just don’t know what they are likely to do, or what they are thinking you should do.

Flashing your lights can mean

You are going too slow go faster

I am going to overtake you move over

I am going to let you into the traffic

I am not going to let you into the traffic.

Using an indicator can mean:

I am going to turn

I am not going to turn

You can overtake me

That is the middle of the road watch out for me

Using your hazard lights can mean:

I am broken down

Someone in front of me is broken down

Someone in front of me is going slow

I am going to stop here in the middle of the road, watch out for me.

               Tree branches on the road can mean:

I am broken down and this is the best way to let you know not to hit me.

There was something broken down here once

               Driving at night in the rain is the most scariest driving I have ever done. One time the wipers stopped working properly and we could not work out the demister. It is quite acceptable to use your high beams at any time at night, no matter how close the on coming traffic is. There are no street lights, there are no reflectors in the middle of the road, the edge of the bitumen could have a 600mm drop off, or maybe not. People want to pass you on any side and the trucks coming the other way may just move into your lane to get around a mini bus on the side of the road. And of course there is always someone walking along the side of the road, or riding a bike. Seeing a dark skinned person in dark clothes on a dark rainy night is very difficult.

               On the positive side you can pull off at many places and get a car wash. In town you can get a watch and wash (you pay someone to watch your car and when you come back they have washed it as well – up sizing in the car watching business). Under every second tree is a tyre repair shop/place/area. There is a constant stream of blue and white mini busses carting people every which way, chugging out huge clouds of black smoke. Road rage is not an issue – everyone drives crazy so there is no point getting mad with any one person in particular.

Once you get off the bitumen the road become a series of holes connected by some flat ground. Corrugations are not a problem, they aren’t here. Sometimes there is way more hole than road and you weave a twisted trail from side to side looking for the least bumpy way. We do it very slowly, but a good Zambian driver goes just as fast on the dirt as the bitumen.

Masala Markets

We stopped at Masala markets on the way home and Ortency took Sue to buy some Chitngas (sarongs) for the Buseko ladies who have been opening an shutting the gate for us every time we come home, even in the rain.

Sam and Phil had a walk around and ended up buying some mangos, peanuts(ground nuts here), avacadoes and some tiny tiny dried fish (kapenta), and some dried catapillars. Apparently you can get the catepillars as they are or soak them for a while and then fry in some oil. Will try before we go. We had some fried termites last week and they were good. Tasted like charcoaled chicken skin, though there seemed to be some residual grit in them.



The markets are huge and you can get everything there from dries catepillars to lounge suites to pumpkin leaves to a hair cut and clothes and pots and pans and live chooks.

Does an orphan have a mother too?

I have started to listen to some of the children read. I have been given a list of a few children who have been identified as having reading problems. Kelvin is a lovely boy from grade five. On our first encounter, I find out that he is reasonably new to Grace and his reading difficulty is that he has very little solid education and is therefore a beginning reader. So I look through a collection of books and find a few beginning reader books for him to choose from during our second session.

While looking for suitable material, I am ensuring that the text is reasonably large, simple and repetitive. And of course that the book is a little interesting for a child in year five. I find an Eric Carle book with all sorts of interesting animals.



Kelvin chooses this book from amongst the few suitable books I could find. His confidence grows as he reads...aided by the repetition "Does a kangaroo have a mother too? Of course..." As Kelvin's confidence grows, mine begins to faulter. I am beginning to realise where the book is heading. And I am thinking,  "That's right, this kid probably doesn't have a mother and so the inevitable comment at the end about having a mother who loves him could be rather upsetting."

A brief cry for help to God and I continue. We get to the final page. Kelvin has read reasonably well and also been introduced to all sorts of wonderful animal mothers and babies along the way....and as he reads about the animals having a loving mother just like me and you...I give him a big hug and exclaim "Just like Kelvin has Mama Susan who loves him very much!" He smiles.

(Susan Chalkias the co-founder of Grace is called Mama Susan by all of the children.)

Grace Academy

These are the ladies - Ortency and Juliet who have been doing all the cooking and cleaning for the team. They have been working hard to keep the Western food up to the hungry workers.

Some of the guys working on Buseko House roof on thursday. They worked from 7am to 7 pm and almost had it finished. Phil and Sam are completing the ridges and barges.

Having lots of trouble getting the internet to work so it is very hard to upload many photos. We are off to Church this morning at Grace. yesterday John and Peter left and after lunch we went out to visit Hudson and Gertude again. They had a Zambian Chitenga (sarong) for Sue and a Zambian Soccer team shirt  for me and another Chitenga for Sam to use as a wall hanging (it has the photo of the Late president Levi Mwanawasa on it - it is an election Chitenga- Must be Zambian way of political avertising - Levi Mwanawasa was brought up by Hudson and Gertrude.)

And then there were Eight and then there was Five and Tomorrow there will be three

Today was a time for farewells as the first mob of Canadians left at 7am, then the next lot left at 11am. It has been a great time working with these guys. Except for Corry they have all been to Grace before, some of them have been four times. They are really committed to the vision of Seeds of Hope. John was saying that when they first started in Ndola and teams would come to build or minister there would often be children who would die. It was a regular occurrence, HIV children just did not live very long, but now they are able to give the kids the   Antiviral drugs there has not been a child die, or a serious illness since 2005.

Seeds of Hope have a huge vision and believe God is going to use these kids and the workers at Grace and Buseko to make an impact on the nation of Zambia. If you could see how far they have come in such a short time it really is evident that God has his hand on this place.

There is still more building to go. Lots more building. The new Buseko house has to be finished, then there are 4 dorms started, another 4 dorms after that, then a huge 2 storey workers accommodation. Then plans include the Coffee plantation  (which could employ 200 people), then a restaurant and souvenir shop up on the main road, then a  whole village for workers. A proper village with proper housing that the locals can own.

So any time you want see some of Africa and meet some fantastic kids and the people who care for them and at the same time help in a practical way consider joining a Seeds of Hope team. I am sure we will be back. There is a regular building team every January so why not plan to be here in 2013.

 I know Mitch is coming – He promised that if we got back alive he would come next time, so only a few more days to survive.

And if you cant come why not consider sponsoring a child or 2.  All of the running cost for the kids – food, clothing, the dorm mums, the cooks the cleaners is all supported by the child sponsorship. There are always new kids coming and they need people to support them, to write to them and pray for them and of course come and visit.

Contact  sponsor@seedsofhopecm.com  if you are interested. One of our friends has already decided to sponsor one of the new girls. There are plenty more that need support. In Zambia there are an estimated 800,000 orphans – can you get your head around that. 1 in 6 adults has HIV. If all that seems like an over whelming picture, it is so good to know that God is most definitely concerned about the individual.

Sam and Phil have only a bit more work to finish the roof and a few small jobs to tidy up. Sue is still sorting through supplies for the teachers and books for the library as well as the clothes and toys that came in the container.

We plan to go and see Hudson tomorrow and take some of the glass and things we have got for his house. He wants us to meet the Pastors that are coming for a weekend of prayer as well.

The tin has arrived! That is roofing iron in Australian.

Well the Canadians had ordered the roofing iron, or 'tin' as they call it, a couple of weeks ago and we have been waiting for it to arrive. There have been a number of phone calls made and promises broken by the supplier and D day was looming. The Canadians are due to leave tomorrow - Friday and yes the tin finally arrived Wednesday afternoon while we were at Nsobe.

So with one day to go, it was all hands on deck. The guys put in a mammoth effort and the tin is on! Phil and Sam, along with some very able bodied Zambian workers, will need to put in another day to finish things off.

There was the obligatory Christian builders celebration of coke and mars bars all round. We also had a special lunch with Zambian construction workers and will say our final farewells to most of the team early tomorrow morning.

Pictures tomorrow I hope...internet failing and battery almost done...no adaptor at the moment.

Nsobe Game Park

Photos to follow when the internet speeds up

We headed off to Nsobe Game Park around 9am. 13 kids and 16 adults. John did a lot of head counting during the day to make sure we didn’t lose any. It is a big day of excitement for the kids and us as well. John has been taking the kids and teams there for 10 years and over that time the owners (white couple) have become Christians- as demonstrated by the sign at the entry gate.

We had a safari ride on the back of a truck and saw giraffes, monkeys, bush bucks, antelopes and even a goanna. From there we had a walk to see the snake exhibit. They had spitting cobras and even a Black Mumba (you have 20 minutes to live if one bites you and there is no antivenom in Zambia) Then there was a small bird and Rabbit enclosure.

By then we were all very hungry. The staff had made us up tables down by the lake and the kids a chicken nuggets and chips with a bottle of “pop”. The restaurant had a good selection and the adults had some good food, including some “Game Casserole”. The staff had put out some rolls with butter and tomato sauce and some green chillies cut up. Phil had a spoonful and found out it was very very hot. A mouth full of butter calmed it down a bit. The kids started putting it onto their plates when they were finished – looking for more to eat. We were trying to communicate that it would not be a good idea, but little George shoved in a big mouthful before we could stop him. It was quite a sight. I don’t think he had ever experienced anything like that before. The rest of the kids thought it was hilarious, and we had to get the rest of the butter into his mouth to give him some relief.

The biggest excitement of the day was the swimming pool. Now none – I mean none of these kids can swim. There were life jackets tied as best we could around them, but it was a massive effort to keep them afloat. Just as we started one of the new girls “Loveness” snuck through the gate and jumped straight in the deep end. The lady owner of the park was there with her small kids and a few local kids doing some swimming and she was the first to see Loveness sink to the bottom, so she jumped in clothes and all and grabbed her. Loveness was wearing Sue’s swim top and had assured Sue that she had pants on, but in the rescue effort it became obvious that no, she did not have any pants on. The first taste of swimming did not put her off and she had lots of “swimming” – jumping at someone then being held up and sort of breathstroking.

It was a very tired bunch of campers that got back to Grace at 6pm. And the very good news was that the roof tin and valley gutters was delivered today. So we have tomorrow morning to get it on and sorted as the Canadians fly out of Friday morning and tomorrow afternoon is the Team Soccer match against the Zambian workers. Apparently the Canadians have never won.

Who can come to Nsobe?

Tomorrow - wednesday we are going to the Nsobe wildlife park. It it a thing they do with every team that comes. As well as the visits into the compounds and the hospital it is a way to see more of Zambia outside the walls of Grace Academy.

Every  team member that sponsors a child gets to take that child out for the day, so we will have Marron and Patrick with us. It gives us a chance to get to know them better and for them to get to know us. Marron is already quite comfortable and affectionate with us and enjoys a hug and just to hold hands.

A few other children are selected to go as well. There is a big list of who has been and who hasn't and fortunately John and Kerry sort that out. This does not stop the kids from lobbying for the spare places. It is really tough when you would love all them to go and they come up to you quietly and ask " who are you taking to Nsobe? Can you take me". They are so much better off than the thousands and thousands of other orphans but they still miss out on so much. Just to get away from the school and their dorms and have a swim and an icecream and see some animals.

Sam has been a bit sick the last 2 days. Malaria is always suspected when someone is not well and has a fever. If he's not better tomorrow he will be off to the clinic for a blood slide. There has been a few of the Canadians who have been crook as well, but so far no Malaria.

Work continues to progress with only a few days till the Canadians go home.

The roof for the new Buseko house was due last wednesday, , then thursday, then friday, then monday, then definately 11:00 -12:00 today, but now it is 9:00 tomorrow. Seems that is how things go here.

We went to one of the hardware shops today to get the glass ordered to fix hudson litanias windows. Quite an experience. Seems all of the hardware shops here are owned by Indians who have a very complicated way of doing transactions. After finding a man to help, he then went to another man who worked out how much glass we needed, then an invoive was written, then another man checked it, then the big indian lady checked it, then we paid the cashier 1,601,000 kwacha, then the indian boss checked the receipt and gave us the small items we had on the list, then it was out the back shed to another indian man to confirm that we would pick up the cut glass on thursday. Hopefully when we go back on thursday it will be ready - here's hoping.
As we were leaving that store a Zambian man approached us and asked if we needed someone to install glass - either he saw us with the 20kg of putty or he had some inside help, anyway we took his number and I think we will take him out with us when we do it. He told us he was a "professional" and was very courtious.

Then we went looking for a few solid doors for the Litanias as well. Having given the indians anough fo one day we saw some handmade panel doors leaning up on the side of the road. After a few attempts to find out who was really selling them we fould an older Zambian who explained in broken english that he made them and they were Rosewood and 350,000kwacha each. He took us into the building, we went through a heap of empty rooms, out the back veranda where the chickens were roaming, past his dried fish lunch, back inside another door, through a metal grill door (like on a jail) then through a few more rooms and finally arriving at a desk.

Afternoon with Bill and Marcie and Aiden

After the 2 services we went around to Bill and Marcie's house (they were the ones who helped us find Hudson Litania). We all had a relaxing afternoon. The younger guys played many games of crocket on the lawn with their son Aiden.

Bill and Marcie are full of stories and have been in Zambia for 10 years. They both know alot about the culture of Zambians and how the continued extramatital relationships continue to spread HIV. They have library in a small room that school kids and others come to use reference books for exam time. They also run 24 hour "drop in centre for their Nephews - ( boys and yuong men who are on the streets)

This is a link to a video they took of an elephant during a drive to Johannesburg - you have to watch to the end
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la1gVH5Dwv8

Marcie also told us of the reason why we have to use a dryer or iron all of the washing. There is an insect that lives near mango trees and it lays its eggs on the washing on the line. If you dont iron or use the dryer, the eggs will hatch and yuo will get a bite like a mosquito, but 24 hours latter it will feel like you are being stabbed, then yuo have to sweeze the bite an the lavae or maggot as Marcie described it will come out - very painfully.

Superspiritual - Two church services in one morning

8:00 am
We started the morning with breakfast cooked by Andrew and Alex - Eggs Benedict! Alex makes the hollandaise from scratch and boy did we need a decent breakfast as we had a big day ahead of us.


9:00 am
Grace Academy church service. Once again the singing was wonderful. There was a touching moment when John took a photo of twelve children had their photos taken while holding bibles that a six year old Canadian boy had bought with his savings for them. Oh and we all laughed when the girl leading asked for people to come up and give their testimonies and Shane who is hard of hearing was heading towards the front. He was actually trying to find a seat up the front so he could hear better. We all burst out laughing.


10:00 am
After leaving Grace Academy service halfway through the sermon, we head to Elim Pentecostal. Sixteen men and me crowded into a mini bus. This is a church on the outskirts of a compound called which the Christians call Mapalo meaning ‘blessed’. The actual name of the compound means ‘cursed place’ because there was a mass murder in the compound somewhere a few years back. Phil and I were ushered up to the front pew where during the service we were almost accosted by Pastor Reno. He pointed at me and came really close glaring at me asking “Do you believe in Jesus Christ and that He has saved you?” That was no hassle for me to answer “Yes” I replied. Later in the sermon, the pastor was making a point that even though Jesus had never met Zacchaeus he knew his name. The pastor came and glared at Phil “Do you know my name?” He repeated it several times to a bewildered Phil who finally answered “Pastor”. Of course we hadn’t been introduced and there was no way of knowing his name was Reno.
 

We were on much friendlier terms later on in the service when we were all invited to the front along with any other newcomers. The whole congregation including children then proceeded to file past and shake all of our hands and greeting us. And that isn’t where the handshaking stopped…at the end of church you walk outside the building and proceed to shake hands with the line of people already outside. You then stand at the end of that line and shake hands with everyone else when they exit the building.

Once again a big morning with beautiful singing….Zambian style.

Bush School

On the way to Kitwe Markets ( 1 hour drive on a 4 lane highway) we stopped at a Bush school that Seeds of Hope supports. We had hoodies for some students and books and rulers and pens, and a football and basketball. The school is down a muddy track under some high voltage electrical wires. The are 550 boys and 550 girls enrolled. The classrooms have no electricity, no windows and very basic desks and chalkboard. The students either come in the morning or the afternoon as there are 2 shifts. The Teachers take an hour of bus and walking to get to school and spend 9 – 10 hours at the school then walk/bus it home. Some of the kids walk for 2 hours to get to school. ( and it is raining everyday now)

It was very hard to have just so little to give them. The principal had to sort through his list of kids to find out who was the most needy, while we stood watching. Then it was which hoodie would fit which kid. It seemed that everyone needed one but we only had 30? Maybe to hand out. Phil spoke to 4 boys in grade 9 – one wanted to be a doctor, one wanted to be an accountant, one wanted to be a pilot and one wanted to be a mechanic. – What is the chances for them to ever achieve what they want.

We also had some lollipops to hand out. Sam and Phil ended up with the grade 1 class. It was like herding cats. Susan Chalkais could see that some of the kids were running around so they could get more than 1 and we had run out with a few kids still to get one. So she went through them one by one and frisked them. She found one girl – who is in the photos holding her name – Dorcas – had one hidden in her shorts as well as one in her hand. So she took both off her and told her not to steal. But when all the kids had got one she gave one back to Dorcas , so she didn’t miss out. But I am sure she wont forget the day the Masunga frisked her down.

Grace to Grace School

We dropped into the Church at the Compound where Seeds of Hope support a school that runs in the church. There were hoodies to hand out to the kids there and then more photos and balloons and lollipops for the kids. We are going to go to that church this Sunday .