Orange is the new purple

I thought I cannot be in Africa, and not mention something about nature, as certainly when it comes to flora and fauna, this part of Africa certainly has its fair share. At one time many of the villages had elephants, lions and many other larger animals roaming alongside people. However many were killed or driven out man’s occupation of the land and just hunted. There was also the large movement of elephants and other larger animals by the authorities during the late 1980s and early 1990’s from the populated rural areas to the game reserves, in order to protect man and the animals from each other, as well as to enable increased tourism by creating themany game reserves (Zambia has around 20 in all). However, there are still many animals living alongside the people in this area such as snakes, crocodiles, many spiders and free range pigs! Yes pigs will wander through some villages here, as well as goats.

In the urban areas too though there are also many creatures to be seen. As the season changes and the humidity continues to rise, the colour of Chingola is changing. The skies are still blue, albeit some clouds now too, but the predominance of purple in the tree lined avenues has now changed to orange, as another tree blossoms in the place of the Jacaranda tree. This too will probably only be in flower for a short while before the season changes again.


Photo: Orange trees take over from purple trees!

There is also an avacado tree outside our flat, and it is the time of year for the fruit to rippen and drop off. These things are heavy, and can hit the ground with some force, so it's best not to stand under these trees at the moment.

Photo: Avacado tree in our shared garden

The number of insects and other creatures has increased too, including unfortunately the mosquito, which until now, we have seen very few of. We are also seeing many different creatures including a myriad of geckos and lizards, in all shapes, sizes and colours. Then there is the insect life – generally they are much bigger than anything we have in the UK, and you’re just not quite sure which ones are harmless and which ones will bite you. They are also fast. If you think you can catch them you’ll be mistaken too, as like many of the African sprinters, these things can also run!

Anyway, here's a selection of photos....

Photo: Blue headed lizzard (probably has a latin name too?!)

Photo: Ghecko

Photo: Praying mantis

Photo: Large spider!

Like the change of fauna and flora, we also seem to change by the season too. We might not change in appearance much, but the way we think about things certainly can do. As we experience more of life, and meet different people, our thoughts and views often change too. Every time I visit Africa, I seem to be challenged in my thinking and outlook on life. I guess it’s when we start to venture out of our own comfort zone of the things we are used to, that is when the Potter is best able to start doing the work of moulding us into what we were created to be, and in reaching our full potential.

Next time on the blog.... We go to buy cabbage seed and fertiliser, we visit Kapeshi school to plant the maize, and presidential election fever hits Chingola. - In the last couple of days the 2 major candidates Rupiah Banda and Michael Sata have had their election rallys here in Chingola.

Who is poor in comparison to whom?

Sylvester Malunga is a 40 year old artist, and a couple of days ago we caught up with him at his small house in Chiwempala, (one of the poorer districts of Chingola). Sylvester was just starting to make some Christmas cards using banana twine. As well as a range of paintings, he also makes many types of cards both painted and crafted. He then tries to sell them in the town centre where we first met him, and purchased some of his cards. Of course for most people buying Christmas cards or any type of card, is hardly a priority, so he was glad of our custom, as often he can be in town a whole day without a sale. His beautiful cards and paintings were in stark contrast to the rubbish filled streets of Chiwempala. There’s no refuse collection here, so all the rubbish just gets thrown into the street. This is not dissimilar to many of the poorer districts in this town, and yet despite the mess, there is also a happy vibrant feeling amongst the people as we walked through with the sun beating down on us. We were happy to take shelter from the oppressive sun, in the shelter of Sylvester’s house. He is also helped by his friend Bernard, who has started to make the cards too. Opposite, a few children play in the dirt, and a lady sells tomatoes at her stall. The tomatoes are built up into tomato pyramids, as is the norm here in Zambia. (They just don’t put the effort into their displays back home at Tesco and Sainsburys!) In the distance the hustle and bustle of the main large market can be heard. Here you can buy anything from fruit and veg, meat, dried fish, to clothes, tools and kitchen utensils, and one thing is certain here, it is always very busy.

Photo: Sylvester (left) and Bernard, outside Sylvester's house in Chiwempala

We bought some cards off Sylvester and then made our way by taxi to a fairly new compound that is being built to meet a man named Chimbala. In Zambia you pay per person for the taxi, so you’ll share with whoever else is going in the same direction so the driver can make it worth his while. He gave up a job in the mine to lead a church, but is interested in working in the rural areas and the work we’ve been involved setting up. His house was built around a year ago. Everyone builds their own houses, once they have been assigned a plot by the council. Chimbala's house is very basic inside, although he does have a TV and DVD player, which the people he has an interest in helping in the villages, would not be able to afford in a million years, even if they did have electricity, which they don’t. I guess there are so many levels of wealth. Compared to the people in the villages we’ve seen, Chimbala and Sylvester are so rich, but compared to us they are very poor, and yet in Britain I don’t feel like I’m that rich, because of those that have so much more, but in the world picture I am very rich.

Earlier in the week, Ponde and I went to look at prices of cabbage seed and fertilisers in Chingola, for the support project we want to start with the pastors. Where so many people rely on growing vegetables and other crops themselves, even those living in Chingola itself, it’s not surprising that there were many shops selling seed etc. We also looked at the costs of chicken rearing, as this is another option in the support plan. We saw lots of 1 or 2 day old chicks in cardboard boxes (25 to a box) standing on top of each other making a lot of noise.

Ruth and Jo went with Joel to visit Kapeshi School to see how they were getting on with preparing the fields for the crops they will grow to make the school financially sustaining over the coming years. They took Alice and Patrick through a 5 year plan to see the school being able to support itself.

Photo: Joel (left) and Patrick look at the field the school can use to grow crops

On Tuesday Ruth and I went with Joel to Kanawabatami, one of the villages we visited back in August. This village is some 15 minutes drive from the main road, and goes through a deserted wilderness. – Deserted apart from 1 or 2 goats that is. When we arrived we met one of the leaders who will be coming to the training conference we’re holding at the beginning of November.

Photos: Winding road to Kanawabatami

Photo: Chicken house in Kanawabatami - High up to prevent disease of chickens

Last week the first discipleship courses started in Ipafu with Joel and Ranger, in Sekela with Ponde, and in Kallilo with Vincent and Meshach. In Ipafu 12 people turned up from different churches in the community. After some lengthy introductions (as is the Zambian way) Joel began the session. The next day in Sekela, Ponde led a larger group of 25 people who really enjoyed the first week. Meanwhile around 50 kids played with a football outside, which got a bit too noisy at some points. Caspa started a group this Wednesday in his village of Kameter. We had hoped to go, but with the car out of action we were unable to get there. Hopefully we can visit his group next week.

Photo: Ponde talks to some of his group at Sekela village

Photo: Meanwhile, children play with a football outside (There is a football in there, honest!)

Next time on the blog… The onset of the rainy season brings with it many new insects and other creepy crawlies!

Waiting for the train

It's been a while since the last blog, as there have been some problems with the internet and the downloading the blog. The team are well, the weather is very hot now, and the thought that rains coming would cool things down certainly hasnt happened. Indeed at the moment we're just getting one big thunder storm every 3 or 4 days and then just for a few hours, so the locals are not treating this as the start of the rainy season yet! In other news political campaigning is happening in earnest as Rupiah Banda (acting president, since the late president's death) has had a pop video produced with all his policies sung on it! He is up against Sata - who is planning to change lots of things, and there is mixed feelings about him with some strong support, but others somewhat fearful of what he might do. Although there is no 'n' in his name people are still worried! Another candidate Haikeinda - is also running although people are not expecting him to do well, as they think he is too young and inexperienced, and he's from a tribe in the south, so will only get their votes. Banda also seems to have stopped all the power cuts (or load shedding as they call it) presumably to win support with the election on 30th October, and also because Sata has said that he will give people electricity all the time. Anyway there's your weather and political report from Zambia, now here's the main blog...


....Chingola railway station is not easy to find. Last week I wanted to find out about potential train trips, and the travel agent in town had pointed me in the direction of the station. Although we were given a street name for the station, this was not that helpful, as the streets are mostly unnamed these days, and people don’t even know what they are called anyway. We then found another street which was named ‘railway street’. This seemed promising, and indeed the train station could be spotted for the first time, but a long way over much wasteground and many tracks. So clearly it needed to be approached from a road on the other side of the railway.


On reaching the other side however, trying a number of suggested roads, just took me to the railway track and not anywhere near the building. After trying many roads, and various differing advice, I arrived at the train station. Chingola Station in big letters above the building, and a layby drop off area, and it looked like at one time it had been quite a busy place. It even had a ticket office with a couple of ticket windows, but it was clear by the boarded up windows that no tickets had been sold here for a long time. Then I wandered out onto the platform, which had some old weighing scales, toilets, and various offices and waiting rooms, but no track next to the platform!




Photo: Train station





Photo: Platform and building






Photo: Ticket office


There were tracks further out though and a few wagons on the line, but again I’m not sure when these last moved.






It was very quiet indeed, and a far cry from the frenetic activity of Chingola central bus station. One man was sitting in an office and came out to see me. It turned out that he was the ‘flag man’. His job was one of health and safety it seemed. When a train was approaching he would have to ensure that no people were walking across the tracks, and a great many people did cross the tracks each day. I asked him if many trains came through. He told me, that there was one the day before, but he wasn’t sure if there would be one today, but he would receive a call if there was. So I asked if anyone else worked here. A lady called Mary was the ‘incharge’ and had a large office, but she was at home as only worked a few hours per day and lived just some 2 minutes walk away. She arrived some moments later, and invited us into her office so that I could ask her about the information I wanted. Her office had a number of large armchairs, a sofa, and a large desk, which was extremely tidy, and clear, which indicated to me the lack of work that she had to do there. No passenger trains had run for over 10 years, and freight trains were few and far between. I mused on the fact that in Britain the lack of trains, might have meant closing the station, knocking it down, selling land, and certainly not having people working there, but here there seems to be almost a loyalty to the things built and started by the British, and to keep traditions, institutions etc going whether it makes any sense or not. It made me think about how sometimes we can often find ourselves being too sentimental by holding onto past memories or things, and sometimes not moving on. I know I often keep things in case they will be useful sometime. As I left, I asked whether passenger trains will run in Chingola again, and the answer came back “Yes, I should think so, but we don’t know when”.

Next time on the blog…. Discipleship courses in 3 villages, Ponde and I go in search of cabbage seeds, and we visit Sylvester Malunga, a local painter.

The rains have come

After over 6 months without a drop of rain (2 and a half months for us) rain has fallen in Zambia. On Friday the first thunder storm and rains occurred, followed by a short shower on Saturday. I’d almost forgotten what rain was like. The onset of the rain meant lots of temporarily flooded roads, as drainage is poor or non existent here. It also meant lots of interesting new flying insects which always come with the rains, but more about them another time!

Last week Caspar wanted a few of us to join him at the hospital, as he spoke to the patients about his rapid recovery which meant that no operation was required. The doctors were all surprised, but Caspar was convinced that this was because of people praying and his faith that he would be healed. Jon also spoke to the group of patients. They were also surprised that white people had come to visit a black person in a hospital, as this just doesn’t happen, so they new there was something different about us.

On Thursday evening there was a prayer meeting at the cathedral for the rural areas, and there was a good turn out, with many who had been to the conference last month attending. At the end of the meeting, I turned into a bus driver for many of the people wanted a lift, as public transport tends to have stopped by 8pm. I ended up with 10 passengers plus Vincent’s two young children of 3 months and 3 years old – So a full car! Vincent and his family were staying with friends in Chingola, while they attended a conference being put on over 10 days in Chingola by Barry Illunga. I drove them to a part of Chingola that I’d not been to before, and first into what they call a compound. A compound is a zone where houses are built close together, and generally the poorer people in the town live. There are just mud roads, and at night as I drove through it was very difficult to see where an earth you were going. Occasionally someone would shout “lookout for the ditch” – and sure enough there was a very large ditch at the side of the road (the drainage system), and certainly you wouldn’t want to drive the car accidently down there. (Later in this blog we witness somebody doing this in Kitwe) After going in and out of a few compounds I had dropped off all but 2 of the passengers, and I was invited into Diamond’s house. Yes this man really was called Diamond. Puli – the remaining passenger (and a friend of Diamond) and I went into a small lounge area, and met Diamond’s wife and some of his kids. His wife then proceeded to move through to another room, taking the candle and leaving the room in complete darkness. We had to follow her! We then sat in another slightly larger room with armchairs around a table. Diamond said a quick prayer. I was introduced to the family, and then after a couple of minutes it was time to go again. In Zambia the greeting culture is very important, and the process of being invited into a home, even if you just want to pass on a message is very common. Even if the person you want to see in the house is not at home, other members of the household will invite you in to sit down for 5 minutes, before you go on your way again. In the same way if you want to walk anywhere, you had better allow plenty of extra time for the journey, because if you bump into someone you know, then you’ll be speaking to them for a while. Indeed a quick “hi” and then carry on walking will not suffice. There will need to be a full 5 minute conversation at least! Finally I dropped off Puli nearby, before heading home. Puli had been inspired to do some work in rural areas, and was going to leave his job at the mines to do so. I felt a little bit guilty about this, as yes, I have done the same, but somehow giving up your job, when you’re already very poor seems so much more of a sacrifice, but I guess the passage from Matthew 6 “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body what you will wear…etc” is as true for him as for me.

On Saturday the team headed out to a place next to the Kafue river near Kitwe to relax.

Photo: Ruth and Josh by the Kafue River, with Jude, Ethan and Jo in the bankground

On the way back we got delayed for a while in Kitwe, as a driver had seemingly driven his vehicle off the road and into a ditch. We noted no emergency services on the scene, and there didn’t seem to be any injuries, but there were certainly a lot of people around to help. As we drove past people were tying ropes to the car in an effort to pull it out.

Photo: Van ends up in ditch in Kitwe

All of this meant we missed the beginning of England’s match, but were able to see all the goals in the 5-1 win. The Zambian people in the hotel bar seemed to celebrate each England goal very much more enthusiastically than us, dancing round the room and cheering loudly!

Yesturday we were invited to a morning service at an Anglican church in one of the poorer parts of Chingola. The service lasted 3 hours and was in Bemba, with ad hoc translation of some things in English, including Father Patson’s enthusiastic sermon, where he danced around the pulpit, and sang at points! While this was more entertaining, the service did also include a tedious half hour of notices where they ran through the finances. As usual we also had to introduce ourselves. Afterwards Patson showed us the main project for the church which was a house for the priest to live in. The walls were almost finished, which the roof needing to be put on. He then mentioned that this house with about 6 or 7 rooms and as large as the church building in area, had taken 20 years to build so far, because the people were so poor that it was difficult to raise the money. I couldn’t help feeling that a much smaller house could have been completed years ago.

Photo: St Agnes anglican church in Chiwempala, Chingola with the blue jacketed stewards! (Maybe this should be introduced for the ABC stewards!)

On sunday afternoon, some of the team went to Ipafu to meet the village pastors and continue to discuss how they can support themselves while freeing up more time for the work they do. We talked about a concept where they grow a cash crop such as cabbages, which gives a profit to not only fund a worker to work their land, thus freeing up their time, plus providing money to go into a longer term project such as bee keeping where the profits can go into continuing the rural discipleship and practical work over a larger area, thereby passing on support to others like themselves. In this way keeping them self sufficient so to speak, rather than relying on continued supply from outsiders, which creates an uncomfortable dependency as I've mentioned before. More about the self-supporting projects later on....

Photo: Jo plays roll the tyre with children in Ipafu village

Photo: Ranger has a go at roll the tyre too!

Next time on the blog… I visit the very sleepy Chingola Train Station

Rough guide to Chingola

I’ve been here over 2 months now, so it’s long overdue that I should tell you something about the place that we’ve been living in. So here goes….


My rough guide to Chingola

Chingola, is in the Copperbelt province in the north-west of Zambia, close to the Congo border. It has been a copper mining town for many years and today a large number of the population are miners, though the town has developed a bit with one supermarket, a number of banks, and many markets. It also has much evidence of the British colonial times here such as cricket and rugby clubs and plenty of roundabouts!


Photo: Industrial Chingola from a distance



Photo: Welcome to Chingola


Transport
As with many former colonial towns the black and white curb stones are essential. The streets are all very wide, and although street names and can be seen on maps of the town, there are no actual road name signs, but as there is no door to door postal service or home delivery of any kind this is less important, unless of course you actually want to find a specific road. Many Zambian towns are very much into their speed calming, and Chingola is no exception with humps a plenty, and also of particular interest to any traffic engineers reading, there are a number of roads with speed dips, or hollows, which have taken me by surprise on occasion, as they are unmarked!

Traffic rules – On entry to Chingola a sign states ‘Observe rules’. I’m not sure what all the rules are, but I’m not convinced that everybody is observing them! Giving way on a roundabout depends on the size of your vehicle. HGV’s tend not to stop, as I found out recently, when I just managed to stop in time while I was going round the roundabout. The wide roads mean, that overtaking can happen often in towns, and on either side of you. Essentially it’s a free for all!
Photo: Observe rules



Parking – Parking costs 1000 Kwacha (15p) and is valid all day. Tickets are purchased at manned gates along a number of town centre roads.


Photo: Parking payment at barriers at end of street


Fuel – There are a number of petrol stations in Chingola, 5 within about 500metres of each other, which would appear to be excessive, except that they often wont have any fuel. If they do have fuel, then pump attendents will fill you car up as used to be the case in the UK - (I guess the British introduced this system even), and you pay them while still in the car. You’ll also get your windscreen washed for free, and someone can even check your tyre pressures. Basically it's about giving people more jobs, and with labour being so cheap here, this is replicated all over the town in various ways. Somehow I quite like the human touch and the smile which Zambian's will always give you without fail, an yet it's not a forced 'customer service' smile, it's genuine. Unfortunately in the UK the human touch is rapidly disapearing, as we continue to replace peoples jobs with machines.


Public Transport – There is one bus station in the centre of Chingola, which is basically a road filled with the blue and white minibuses famous over much of southern and east Africa. It appears to be chaos as there are no signs telling you which bus to get, but people just know where to go. On the outskirts of Chingola you find some more bus stations which will provide buses to other further a field places. The main problem with the minibuses is that rather than having a timetable, they wait until they are full, so on a less popular route, you could be waiting a while!


Photo: Bus pick up street

The railway – There is a railway running through Chingola, but this appears to be largely for freight, taking copper and associated products away. These run through the night, and you can often here train horn warning people as it passes through the non-gated level crossings.

Food

The grill – This is probably the best restaurant in Chingola, although they close if there is a power cut – which is unfortunately one of the times when you want to eat out, because you cant cook in the flat. The Mona Lisa – This is more of a bar that serve food, which is ok, although portions a bit small. They do have sport on the TVs, but occasionally have some strange characters drinking there. The Protea Hotel – This is one of the favourite haunts, which has premiership football, nice surroundings but only average food, although the ham and cheese toasty is particularly good. So yes, in general not the best cuisine on offer. However, I cant not mention the infamous ‘Pie City’ of which I have talked about on a previous blog. Many pies of different kinds all with a special code carved into the pastry, just so you know you’re getting the right flavour! …and they actually taste very good.


Photo: Pie City 'Home of the perfect pie'


Power supply – Most buildings near the centre have electricity, however, there is load sharing here, as in much of urban Zambia, which means that in our area there is no power on Monday and Friday evenings and Wednesday mornings. Street lighting is an optional extra which the council don’t choose to power, although there are street lights, which were once powered I presume. This means that it gets very dark in the town in the evenings, and walking is not recommended as there are many potholes and worse still, uncovered drains which would give you a nasty surprise and a fairly bad injury. Which brings me onto the hospitals. There are 2 of these. One for everyone, which is old, fairly dilapidated, in need of a lick of paint, and some windows replacing, but on the whole clean, although cockroaches could be seen running through ward 6 when we visited our friend Caspar. There is also the mine hospital, which is for workers at the copper mines, or for people who want to pay. This hospital looks altogether much nicer with beautiful grounds as well.


Sports facilities include a rugby ground, cricket ground, which so far have been rarely played on, but last week I did notice a cricket match taking place.

Photo: Chingola cricket ground

Shopping Shoprite is the main supermarket, which has narrow aisles, and is always full of people. Supermarket congestion at its worst in fact.

Photo: Shoprite supermarket


They do however have mini trolleys which can fit two baskets on double-decker style. Another great idea, which does help the narrow aisle issues. There is also a ‘Manchester’ isle. Yes isle 3, which isn’t the 3rd isle from either the left or right, but the sign states it is the 3rd isle, sells Manchester apparently, and for reference, Shoprite in Ndola another town in the copperbelt region also has a Manchester aisle. Once you leave shoprite, this is not the end of the ordeal. If you remember that you must show your receipt to the security guard on the way out (if not you will be hauled back in) then you have to get passed the masses of street kids trying to offer to take your bags to your car for money. In the heat, this can be very stressful.


Photo: Shoprite aisle 3 - Shoes, clothing and Manchester!


Photo: Double-deck basket trolley

There are then a great many shops that seem to all sell the same things, but just a random collection of non-food items. Walking down the isle you’ll see soap, mugs, pegs, plugs, tea, a keyboard, chairs…. And so on. Then there is Rekays. This is the shop that is recommended by every other shop if you’re trying to buy anything DIY related. However, when you get there, they rarely have what you want. Banks will have a security guard with a gun, who will make sure customers are safe while drawing the money, but who will not tell you that the machine has run out of money before you go to it. At the end of the month, there are long queues to get money out, and after some time, all the cash machines run out of money.
Photo: Rekays on Kwacha Street

Finally I should mention the Purple trees. Yes purple trees exist here. Not the actual tree, but the flowers in the tree. It’s called the Jacaranda tree, and was introduced from South Africa a number of years ago, and is extremely popular in Chingola.

Photo: Purple trees

I hope this has given a bit of an impression of where the team have been based. It’s certainly not one of the most idilic places I’ve been to, and doesn’t get a mention in the Lonely planet guide, which is not surprising really, but there is no doubt that people are friendly, and there is a positive vibe about the place.

******

Weather update: This week the first clouds were spotted since we arrived! – Locals say that this means the long-awaited (by locals, not us!) rainy season is on its way, possibly around 2 weeks time. Joel has predicted 24th October. If he’s right, we may have to give him a job at the met-office as the 24th is still over 2 weeks away, but then again his name is Joel, so it could be prophetic!


Next time on the blog…. Caspar returns to Chingola Hospital to speak to the patients on the ward he was on, I turn taxi driver for 10 people and discover a whole different side to Chingola, and Jude and I meet the pastors to try and confirm a plan for how they can support themselves while doing their important work in their communities.

Visit to FCE and Casper gets discharged from hospital

When Jon, Ruth and I were in Zambia in March to help with an Alpha conference in Lusaka, we met a lady called Dianna, who lives in Chingola. As well as being a keen gardener, and helping lead a number of small churches, she is a supporter and fundraiser for FCE (Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education). We had met up with Dianna again at the conference we ran, and she was excited about the work we were doing in the rural areas with the Life project, and also felt that a visit to FCE would be beneficial to us.

FCE is based in a place called Masaiti, not far from a larger town of Luansha, and was founded by a group of South Africans, who wanted to help rural communities help themselves by connecting spiritual values with practical skills. Essentially FCE tries to disciple and equip disadvantaged and unreached communities with biblical values, knowledge and skills that will lead to community transformation. Jo and I were accompanied by Dianna, her son Ian, and a new member of her church, Joyce. We were met at the centre by Moses.

Moses showed us around the training centre, where they train Zambians and many other nationalities to be teachers, community workers, skills trainers and missionaries.
The place had a great atmosphere about it. We met Jan, one of the original South Africans to set the programme up, and he is now head of the Masaiti centre. – They also have centres in Northern Province of Zambia as well as Namibia, Malawi, Sudan and India. Jan is a very wise but humble too. He explained how they have had to learn many things about this culture, and while wanting to help the people here, they didn’t want to (and knew it would be wrong to) impose their western culture on the people. Jan explained how while it is true the western world is more developed in material terms, in Africa they are more developed in relationship terms. I felt like I knew what he was talking about here. We rush around building things in the west, often at the expense of our relationships – Simply, we don’t have time for them, because we are doing too much building of material things. Conversely the Zambian culture, and African culture in general, is much more about relationships. They need to be able to trust the people they’re working with and this can take time. The fact that the Bemba language seems to have such a myriad of ways to greet people is testimony to this. People will stop what they are doing to greet someone they know. In the west, it can often be seen as an inconvenience to bump into someone we know, as it will make us late!

Jan also talked about the issues people faced, and the enevitable subject of poverty came up. Poverty he suggested though was not a lack of things, but a lack of knowing what to do with the things you have. FCE try to encourage the local people to make use of what they have. Their community teams go out into villages and spend time with the people, listen to their problems, and try to get the people to think about potential solutions rather than providing them. They do offer some ideas, helping the villagers understand nutrition, and encouraging a balanced diet, by showing that many of the fruit and vegetables around them are good for their diet. In the same way people have been encouraged in the areas of agriculture, and shown that they can farm without using artificial fertilisers which will be expensive, and can actually wreck the soil for future agriculture. However, it can be a long process, as people can be distrustful of new ideas, and only when one person dares to use new techniques and finds they will actually work better, do other people in the village follow suit.

FCE also see education as an essential part of their work. They train teachers at their centres, while also making new schools in the bush, where none have existed before. Their approach has been just to work with the community to start a school, even if no buildings. Near the Masaiti centre, they got the villagers to construct a simple shelter using trees and grass, and started teaching under the shelter. After some time they trained many of the villagers in brick making, and building skills, and have been able to construct some classrooms with the villagers help. The benefits have been people getting skilled and paid for their work, they feel ownership of their school, and their children are benefiting greatly. We were were fortunate to visit the school, met Luke the head teacher and saw some of the classes in progress.

Luke (left) with Moses our guide for the day

After this we went up to the new site which FCE are building. Using the same principles as the school, rather than just building their training centre, and accommodation for the students straight away, they have trained local workers to build the place. This has taken a lot of time, but the result is a beautiful place which the local people can be very proud of and they have learnt so many skills in the process. FCE also have a a lot of land for agriculture, where again local people learn many different skills.

Photo: One of the new accomodation buildings built by local volunteers who now have had to learn building skills from scratch.

As I have mentioned before, it is common at this time of year for the people to burn the grass in their fields as a quick method of clearing their fields ready for planting. FCE have offered money to local people if they will come with the straw, and they can then use this for building.

Photo: Moses shows the straw collected by the villagers for use in thatching the buildings

It was a really good day, and I felt that the centre had certainly changed Moses’ life, because he knew he was exactly where he was supposed to be, helping his people to improve their lives.

***

On Thursday the team headed out to Ipafu again, to meet the guys, who had invited some other leaders from their respective village communities, and Joel had a go at leading them through the discipleship material. One man called Raymonde, was originally from Congo, and spoke French rather than English, but he also spoke Bemba, which is what the study was being done in. I was able to have a small conversation with him in my limited French though!

Photo: The group tries out one of the disciplesip sessions under the shade of the trees

Yesterday morning I went to collect Casper from hospital, as he had been discharged. The doctors were amazed that in the end he didn’t need to have an operation, which they suspected would be the case. Casper put this down to the power of prayer, and had lots of the patients in his ward and the staff asking him about his faith, to which he was glad to tell them, later on in the week when he has begun to feel better. - So thank you for praying!

Next time on the blog… The rough guide to Chingola

A different picture of life

Last Friday, Mark and I went out to Mibila and Milulu, so that he could visit 3 families and take photos of them. Mark had previously visited the families 18 months ago, so it was interesting for him to see what had happened to them during that time. When we arrived in Mibila, the clinic was closed and the place was deserted. However, one man was able to take us to Stanley and his wife and their 2 children, one of whom is called Freda, and was the first baby to be born at the clinic 18 months ago. They could not speak English and the local man who took us to where they lived, was certainly not fluent, but we managed to muddle through, and Mark got his photos.

Photo: Mark gets family photo outside Stanley's house in Mibila

We then went to Milulu, and found Moses and his wife and their six children. With Sunday, as our translator Mark also managed to do a bit of an interview with them. Moses works most of the day in his field, and after a longer than anticipated walk from his house to the field, we were able to see that he was growing a wide range of vegetables and other crops. He explained the struggle that they had without being able to afford much fertiliser, and showed us how many of the crops were suffering because of it. Moses’ son also helped in the field after first going to school for the day before hand. It reminded me of the different lives children lead over here, while kids in the UK are probably playing on the computer or having a kick about with a football, here for this 14 year old there was manual work to be done helping his father.

Photo Moses (right) in his cabbage patch with his son, and Stanley (left)

Later we visited Sunday and his family. They moved to this part of Zambia from Northern Province in 1989, seeking the more fertile lands in this area compared to those in Northern Province. The other advantage is that it is easier to sell crops here because there are towns and markets closer by, whereas in the part of Northern Province that they lived in, it is much more difficult because there are few towns and markets. Prior to 1984, there were no people in this area, Both Milulu and Mibila are relatively new settlements in that respect. Indeed the first people to build houses here shared the land with elephants and all sorts of other wild animals. In the 1990’s the elephants were taken to game reserves instead, and many other wild animals have been frightened off due to the human occupation and subsequent hunting. However, while we were being shown Sunday’s plot of land near to the river, he interrupted Mark’s photo session, to point out a snake. He shouted to me that I should come and see it, however I wasnt able to have the pleasure of seeing it, as it slid away before I got there. I asked whether it was the deadly spitting cobra that Vincent had warned us about. No he answered, it’s worse, this one can kill you, the other one only blinds you. Sunday seemed a bit disappointed that I’d missed seeing this other cobra, but he said, dont worry I can see some when the rains come in a month. Phew, my fears that I would miss the chance to see deadly snakes in the wild in Zambia were put to rest!

Photo Sunday with his wife, baby son and elder son Richard in his field.

Sunday has 4 children, although 3 more had died at ages 18, 16 and 2 years old. Mark asked how this had affected them as a family, and they explained that they were sad, but somehow I sensed there was also a certain acceptance that children do die here and Sunday explained that everyone has their time. Did this affect their faith in God Mark asked. No, their faith is what strengthens them through these difficult times. Sunday and his wife both work at the clinic as volunteers, and also visit many people who are lame and those who are lonely. That’s where they feel their ministry is, as well as this, they attend church, enjoy singing a lot, and still find time to spend many hours working on their land each week. I found them to be a real inspiration, and the next time I’m feeling a little bit sorry for myself or complaining that life isn’t quite how I’d like it, I’ll be reminded of this couple who have so little, but give so much.


Next time on the blog…. Jo and I head off to visit the FCE programme.