Saturday - not sure of the date!

Hard to believe in some ways that we've been gone for a week but because we have seen so much and have done so much, it seems much more than one week!

 

Today, we returned to Grace Academy (it's about 36 km away) to complete some painting and making 15 bookshelves and to assist with the Village children Outreach program.  Each of us does something a bit different and it is amazing what gets accomplished!  It doesn't get accomplished as quickly as it might at home because timing of things in Africa are different.  We have become quite accoustomed to using the phrase TIA (This is Africa).  Today we got pulled over by the road vehicle inspection police and had to pay a fine.  It was $145,000 kwtchas ($36 Can) for something or other.  Apparrently, it is a way to make some tax revenue monies from people who they feel can afford to pay additional taxes.  They don't fine the trucks carrying 20 people in the back of the truck because they know that they cannot afford to pay and if they didn't get to the market to sell their good, they wouldn't have food to eat for their families.  So, in a Zambian way, it kind of makes sense!

 

We had a great time with assisting in the outreach program, singing, playing games and then providing them with a full meal of M'sheemah, sausages and vegetables.  We later met some of these children in their homes because Carley, the Canadian Dorm mom, has made friends with many of the women in the nearby fields.  Grace academy is way out of the city and is in a rural setting.  So she took us on a long walk in the tall grasses following a narrow path that led us to a few small brick huts that had families with young women with many children.  Carely calls them her aunties (common term of respect for adult women who become friends) and so we met 6 different aunties.  We did a bit of a health check on one young mom who recently had a baby who is still jaundiced.  The mom is a bit jaundiced as well and had been loosing a lot of blood shortly after she delivered.  But she and baby appear to be recuperating.  She has very little food to eat and she has 3 other children to feed so is not getting much rest either (she is 22 years old). 

 

These women were charming and welcomed us into their home settings.  Only one could speak English (she had grade 7) but we had taken some of the older Grace girls with us and they interpreted the Bemba into English.  Carley has agreed to teach these women and some of their childrren school starting next week (they cannot afford to send their children to school!). They so look forward to Carely coming and talking to them and playing with the children!  She is an amazing young women who has embraced the Zambian culture and goes beyond the expectation of what a dorm parent would do.

 

The Grace girls love going into the village areas and helping their people as well.  It is such a loving and friendly culture!   We are truly learning more of what it means to show God's love through the Zambian people's actions  than we ever anticipated that we would learn!

 

Till later!

 

Love Kathie