Before the first team arrives

I realise its now over a week since I updated my blog, as we get busier it will become more infrequent especially when the teams are out.

The Sunday before last we (Geoff and I) went to the local church which is based next to the the school on the compound where we live. We arrived on time for the 8 am English service only to be told that this week it would be combined with the 10am vernacular service and start at 9am. So just time to come back and have a coffee. Even so we were the nearly the first to arrive, they had Emmanuel 18 yrs (who will be working with us) on the drums and a couple of guys on guitars so we sat quietly and listened, eventually somebody came up to the front and opened the service and started the singing. It was all sitting down which felt kinda odd but ok. By 11am I think most people had arrived but they were still some drifting in up to finishing time which was about 12.30pm. All newcomers to the church were asked to introduce themselves, as there were about 10 of us that took some time. At the end we were asked to go out first of all and form a receiving line, everybody in the church shakes everyone else's hand, even the tiniest children. Then we were invited to a room at the back of the church for a drink of water which turned out to be bottles of coke, fanta and lemonade. A truly wonderful welcome to the church. This seems to be a common practise in the local churches.

Geoff and I spent the rest of the weekend and Monday catching up with book work.

On Tuesday Emily and James arrived from the UK so now our team is complete. James has just finished an MA in Landscape Architecture (he's just learnt that he missed getting a first by 2 points), he's been studying at Leeds where Emily also comes from. Emily has just finished her A Levels and is on a gap year. She is with us until October then she is off to Old McDonalds Farm for a couple of months.

So the rest of the week was spent taking them around to the projects that we support like the House of Moses where I'd already been and then onto Bill and Bettes (my first visit) where the children who aren't adopted when they are at the House of Moses go onto. Its a much less inviting place, they have a bungalow set in tiny grounds so no outdoor play equipment. The have boys & girls dorms, each filled with bunk beds where they mostly sleep two to a bed. They have one room which doubles as classroom and playroom. They had no larger toys to play with, mostly a few old soft toys. They climbed all over us, desperate for attention. They had one child with learning disabilities and another who wasn't growing properly, otherwise, they all looked healthy. Just two ladies are on duty at a time, doing all the laundry, cleaning and preparing food. As you can image they don't have too much time to play.

From there we went on to EFZ to meet the home care ladies for our training, then on Friday afternoon we went to visit Dorothy as the area where she works will be our first visit when the team arrives. It seemed a strange set up as the school was in her back garden, 4 classrooms with at least 20 in each class – she explained that they operate the usual shift system with the grown up paying a fee which helps to pay the teachers. They usually feed the children at lunch time but their source had dried up so they weren't able to do that at the moment. It turns out that all the children are all classed as vulnerable, they are often the primary care giver in the family, so as well as school they do piece work and care for family. Some were the head of the household as both parents were dead. There families were visited by Dorothy's team of ladies The school was divided up with wooden partitions which come down on Sundays when the school becomes a church. Later in the afternoon Dorothy introduced us to her husband and it turns out that its their church which they pastor. So from Dorothy's we went to the local clinic, this is where folk go to get their antivirals for Aids/HIV and TB along with any other problems they have. They also have a small labour ward with 8 beds. We met the senior registrar who explained how everything works. This compound houses over 40 thousand people and seems to have been built on a very adhoc basis like so much of the housing around. One side of the road had electricity, sewage disposal was only by way of pit latrines and water comes from a small heavily polluted stream which runs though the compound. So illnesses were common. From there we visited the local hospice, a bit like our old cottage hospitals where folk go for short term care. They also operate a clinic for folk needing regular medication. We then visited an elderly couple who live with their 5 children (all are HIV +) and grandchildren. They were a lovely couple, really committed Christians and so thankful for the gift of mealy meal that we took for them. They often don't eat for days on end as none of their children are well enough to work. They hold a cell group meeting in their home every week, where they discuss the last weeks sermon. This seems to be a very common practise and appreciated by everyone, especially those who are unable to get to church on a Sunday.

We then had another drive to visit another house, we meet the lady Esther who invited us in and before we knew it we were sitting down to Nshima and relish (rape leaves) which she had cooked for us. She and her husband are both HIV+, they have three children and one grandchild living with them. They were more stable as the husband was able to do some piece work and they had a garden where they grew veg and had a couple of ducks. Again the biggest problem is access to clean water, they have a well but have to buy in drinking water – its very common to see ladies and girls walking along with great big containers of water on their heads. Esther is a volunteer home care giver and regularly visits everyone in her compound (much smaller then some of the others). She also holds a cell group meeting in her home every week.

It seems that one of the biggest problems is the feelings of guilt folk with HIV/AIDS have, they are so thankful that in Jesus they can receive forgiveness and they really want to tell other people about this wonderful gift they have received. So a hugely challenging afternoon, when we finished Dorothy took us back to her house where the ladies from the church were bringing in food for the Pastors Supper, they seemed to be expecting a lot of folk. Dorothy and her husband are doing an incredible job ministering to the needs of their local community at all levels, spiritual and physical.

It will be very interesting to see what our volunteers make of it all.

Yesterday was another fabulous day, we started at the Fountain of Life Church, they met in a pole barn covered in tarpaulins whilst they raise money for their new church, they have the sides half way up but don't have a roof yet. The service started at 10 and finished at about 1.15pm, they certainly know how to sing. We had to all go up to the front to introduce ourselves we were then led to seats, I sat next to two lovely ladies who translated the songs for me, the talk/preaching was all in English. The sermon was on the credit crunch, the pastor exhorted his folk not to borrow money and to live within their means. He told them to shop around and not just to go to 'Shop Rite' - we enjoyed some wonderful singing, had the opportunity to go up for healing before the hand shaking routine. From there is was a rush over to McDonalds farm for lunch, they are a Scottish couple, she is a doctor and he used to me CEO of Zambian airways, he got out several years ago and now as a shop like B&Q in the shopping centre. They have two children of their own and have adopted 3 or 4 street children as well as taking in another 26 street kids. They are all boys, they've split their house in two with dorms for the boys one side and their accommodation the other. They privately educate about ¾ of the boys and the rest are home schooled until they reach a standard to go to school. They offer short term placements where folk come and stay with them for periods of a month to a year. These guys help with the home schooling and homework as well as getting stuck into the domestic arrangements. A lovely calm place, they have about 5 ac, 3 are used for Farming Gods Way. They have pigs, chickens, goats, ducks, geese and rabbits and grow all sorts of crops, they have 3 enormous poly tunnels and are fairly self sufficient for fruit, veg and meat. They have a guy who helps with the farming who spends about 5 weeks at a time with them. They even grow their own coffee, delicious.

Well I need to get on, so will finish for now. Please do continue to pray for me and the team when they arrive.

Love to you all
Carol