Sunday was a delightfully quiet day. All business comes to a halt on Sunday (stores close at mid-day on Saturday), and people turn their attention to rest and relaxation. For us it's a time to catch up on chores such as laundry (all done by hand), list-making, receipt tallying, and cleaning--all those things that are so hard to get to on a busy day.
Eunice and Cheri just before Sunday lunch out on the lawn.
Monday morning we met plumber John at Kantolomba to go over next steps in that department. Our goal is working toilets in the building by the time our guests arrive on Thursday. It's hard to describe, but everything here happens in slow motion. What we think will take a couple of hours takes a day. A morning's plan may stretch into two days. When we spoke with John on Friday about having everything ready next Thursday it seemed to all of us, John included, a very manageable time line. Not so much.
Jen, John, Theresa checking out the plumbing at the back of the building.
We brought John back to the hardware store--keep in mind that transportation is one of the big issues here. Very, very few people have cars. Taxis are prohibitively expensive for average folks. Mini-buses, the affordable mode of transportation, stop a good long walk from where we are in Kantolomba. Most people walk. Everywhere. Good exercise but very hard on productivity. When you combine poor or absent nutrition with walking miles to and from work, there can be less time and energy for work than one would wish. It would take John all day to make his way to town, buy the supplies, and return to Kantolomba. As it was, with a car, it only took half a day!
We loved finding 3! women working at a local hardware shop.
Through Eunice, we've met Sanjay, the proprietor of one of the hardware stores in town. What a blessing this connection is for us! Not only is Sanjay able to provide us with just about everything we need from tiles to toilet seats, he is an invaluable source of information and advice. We have the great good fortune regularly of meeting people who are both talented and savvy. Believe me, when you're considering whether to get the ten or fifteen horse power, diesel or electric hammermill, finding someone who not only knows about the machine, but also where you should buy it, is a great gift.
Cheri and John at Sanjay's (behind the counter) shop.
Back in Kantolomba we met with Gibson, Foster's husband, who will be foreperson for the "finish the building" crew. Walking around, we made plans to finish the floor in the largest room, finish tiling the partially tiled bathroom, get doors up on the bathrooms, get the toilets operable, and construct the little house for the hammermill. After the tour everyone gathered behind the kitchen building to make a plan. Josephine will arrange for the bricks for the hammermill house, Charles will order the sand for the floor project, and Christopher will see to the wood delivery. "Who wants to learn to operate the hammermill?" The first hand to go up was Brenda's. Everyone laughed, but we projected Brenda was confident, or at least optimistic, since ours is an equal opportunity work place. "Okay, who else?" Charles volunteered. We announced that we had received the money for the loan to buy the hammermill (thank you, generous benefactor), and a cheer went up.
Cheri and Gibson checking out the tiling in the shower.
At the meeting. Josephine volunteering to go get a quotation on bricks for the hammermill shelter.
While we were gathered there, Theresa introduced us to Memory, one of our first students to pass her seventh grade exams (a very big deal!), whom Theresa has invited to move into her home while Memory finishes her education. Memory's grandmother, aware of the child's potential and frightened of peer pressure, begged Theresa to take the girl under her wing. Theresa of the giant heart and endless willingness to help immediately said yes, and arrangements were made for Memory to make the move.
Memory and Cheri, holding Deborah.
We also got another chance to hold Deborah, two months old and completely engaged with life, watching, smiling, and "talking" constantly. Our challenge is to focus on tasks when there are so many cute kids to play with. And, it is beyond inspiring to realize the far better chance at a long, full, healthy life these new children have. John has stated that the mortality/morbidity rate has sharply declined. Perhaps we can get a sense of how far we have come from the "7 in 10 children die before the age of 5" statistic. What we can see is that the community looks robust and sounds healthy.
Holding hands.
Then it was time to prepare the building for a new floor and a couple of finished bathrooms. The women jumped up and begin hauling out into the yard lumber and pipes that had been stored in the empty rooms. As usual, the men hung back, finding ways to stand around trying to look inconspicuous as the women did the work. As usual, Cheri nagged them--good naturedly of course. We've talked to enough Zambians to have it confirmed that this men-sit-around-and-get-waited-on-while-women-do-all-the-work mentality is a holdover from colonialism and has nothing to do with their native culture. The structure they currently follow is how society looked from viewing the British. The men give orders, underlings and women do everything that gets done. Much women's empowerment and men's pride education needs to happen. We didn't come here to contribute to oppression.
The women jump in first to do the heavy lifting.
Amid a flurry of activity, we slip away to return to town and the shops for more supplies for the big project start day tomorrow.
No need for those old flip-flops? How about a gate hinge?