Out for our morning exercise, we discovered a new email cafe--what a find! Bright, open, airy, and spacious, we would move in if we could.
After a hearty breakfast of cereal, yogurt, cheese toast, hazelnuts and canned fruit--and believe me, each time we sit down to one of these meals we redouble our intention to do our best to assist everyone to have such nourishment–Carol came by to pick up some books we've published that we brought over for her. Carol, the sister of our dear friend Agness from St. Joseph's, is a social worker who is vitally interested in human development and self-awareness.
While we met with Carol about the creation of a curriculum of life-skills for the people of Kantolomba, Fabian, the real estate agent, called. We asked Carol if she would accompany us as we went with Fabian to look at houses. She agreed, saying that after being off work for two weeks, her chores were completed and she was feeling a bit bored. By the time we were ready to go, Theresa and Pauline showed up so we put the boys in one car and the girls in the other and headed out.
The places were awful. Unattractive yet way over-priced. We thanked Fabian, told him we'd be in touch, and took off for town for a chitenge run. The town closes up at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday so we needed to hurry. Since we were going from store to store anyway, we began a search for a bedside lamp, not an easily accessible item. Lighting here is a bit of a challenge. The rooms have one overhead light only and might be bright in part of the room, but the rest of the room can be pretty dusky. Reading is not an option for any except those of strong eyes. Finally, in the last store we checked, we found a little beauty. While we were out and about we ran into Jacob, the fellow who filmed the CNN clip. Very fun to see him. This really is becoming a very small town for us. We don't go a block without encountering at least one person we know.
Jacob
It was lunchtime, and the troops were all gathered so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity by calling a luncheon meeting. A staff lunch at the Starscape Cafe has become a Living-Compassion-in-Ndola tradition. We asked Carol to tell Theresa and Pauline her ideas for the life-skills curriculum and explored some possibilities for business training in preparation for micro-loans. Right after Pauline's divorce, having been left with nothing but her two kids, she went to the Salvation Army for assistance and received a loan along with a short training course on money management, repaying loans, saving for the future, and such. She is very enthusiastic about developing such a course for Kantolomba. Theresa suggested we have a focus group to include the Kantolomba folks in the conversation about continuing education. We will set that up for later this week.
Left to right: Dave, Jen, Carol, Pauline, Theresa
Next we were out to Kantolomba to take our "before" pictures. Folks in the U.S. had expressed concern that we are moving so quickly on these projects that we will lose our opportunity to show people what Kantolomba was like before we began. Dave got on the roof of the future temporary kitchen building to do a panoramic sweep of the property.
Dave's first step to the roof (a homemade rebar chair).
Dave on the roof.
We marked the site for the new well, played with a lot of really cute kids, and then reluctantly made our departure.
The site of the new well.
The only mud hut that didn't collapse in the rainy season.
Our new security guard, Ronald, and his son Edward.
On our way home, creeping through the potholes, we heard the unmistakable flop, flop sound of a tire gone bad. Sure enough we had a tire to change. Dark rapidly approaching, on a busy road, Saturday night, vehicles flying by, and we're trying to get the lock off the spare. No owner's manual for the car. Hearts pounding. Finally the lock gives way, the jack is in place, and we tackle the lug nuts. Won't budge. We're standing on the lug wrench and still nothing gives. Theresa says, "Let me try it," and steps up on to the wrench. One down. We continued, Theresa in her little sandals stomping those lug nuts loose. Nothing to it.
Back at the Guest House for a left-over casserole meal and more planning. (People can't believe Dave can cook AND that we can all change tires.)