My thoughts swirl about as I want to say so much, but don't quite know where to start. Zambia is so very different than home. Such a mix of things I don't understand. Some humorous, like their many road signs with funny ads. Such as: "Yesterday's meals on Wheels" (on a sanitation porty potty truck), and "Hot or Not restaurant" and "A Man's Meat is a Woman's Choice" and finally "Women, It's Time to Take Back the Remote Control". The first one made Sherry and I laugh until we almost peed our pants!!!!!
The food here is SOOO different from home. They eat Nsheema (a very thick porridge like substance made from maize) at nearly all meals and will eat a small amount of stewed cabbage or spinach, along with fish with it. I really did try the fish (the small hard ones as opposed to the bigger slimy looking ones), but simply couldn't do it. In South Africa I kind of liked the pap, but not so much here. The first day in community Logan was one of the first to get a plateful, poor guy, his eyes looked a bit terrified. I saved him though by telling him it was okay to give some back to the cooks. Frank ate a total of 30 or so, and Rayna actually liked them! Rob did his fair share also. Way to go team! Tonight we are heading to Sukai and James' home for dinner. They are local Zambians who work very closely with hands and often have volunteers for dinner. I am excited. They have 9 children, so will be loud and fun! Hoping for rice and not Nsheema!
Today we went to a new community called Chabuli. It is a rural community with about 23 careworkers, all organized by an amazing Zambian woman named Jean. They are a well established CBO with about 150 kids they care for. They are the first community of Zambia hands to establish a garden. Let me paint you a picture of what this involves.
Presently, they have 17 rows around 125ft long that house onions. In winter, they plant beans in those same rows, along with an additional 12 or so extra rows. They also plant popcorn fields and maize in a large plot across the road. Those crops work better with more rain, and so produce better in summer. To keep these onions healthy, they water them daily; careworkers on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and the children Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. They hoe the rows with a small hand held row with which we bent over and tilled the land in between plants, and hand weeded (done 3 times a week). To water the plants requires so much more than we do in Canada. We hand pumped water (back breaking work for us soft Canadians) into buckets, then carried the buckets row by row to gently pour the water over the fragile plants. On days that the pump isn't working, they walk a quarter mile to the well, and carry the buckets extra far. To say this is hard work doesn't do it justice! A careworker told me it takes 8 hours to finish the job daily. Wow!!!! I hope will never grumble again about having to water my plants with my hose daily. This puts me to shame!!!!
I walked with Jean, Christa, Logan, Kwynn, and Alexa to Judith's home. It was a walk on a narrow path through bush and weeds. Judith is a 64 yr old woman caring for her 12 yr old grand daughter, who has lived with her since she was 2, when her mom died and her dad left them. Recently in May, Judith's husband died after 9 long years of illness (lying under one shade tree after another during the long days). She has been doing all the work for the last 9 years. However, now that her husband has died, she feels very lonely. Other than neighbours, she is only with children. There mills about her home many children who seemed to come and go. They are neighbours' children whom she watches while their parents work in the fields. She asked for prayer re comfort in her loneliness, and the ability to care for her grand daughter. She has another 10 children in neighbouring communities, but expressed sadness that they do not visit her. They did build her a home in 2010, when her home collapsed in the rains. She allowed us to look inside. To see inside some of these homes astounds me. I wonder what they think. Do they feel judged by us? I hope not. They are very likely completely unaware that anything like our homes exists. Esp given the fact that Jean asked us if we had similar trouble keeping our cooking fires burning when the wind was blowing hard like it was today. At any rate, the filth and smell and dirty broken stuff everywhere saddens me. Why people have to live as such. But by other standards, Alexa commented to me that she showed pride in her home (which we complimented her on), had a roof over her head and sometimes food to eat. Hmmmm.....different perspective.
A thought about Judith's situation weighs on my mind. Here is a recently widowed 64 year old woman living a life of extreme loneliness; having lost her companion and best friend. I cannot help but contrast her with my mom. At 64, she too has recently lost her best friend and companion and feels lonely. However, the big difference is that my mom is surrounded by support and friends to walk her journey with her. To be with her and talk and laugh and cry with her. Judith has no one but her grand daughter to walk with her. To cuddle with her at night to stay warm because they don't have enough coverings. Such a huge contrast. Glad for my moms support network; will pray for Judith and her situation.
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