Last week we arranged with the Permanent Secretary to be the guest of honor for an official ceremony to recognize the presence of Living Compassion in Kantolomba. Her office suggested that 10:00 a.m. Tuesday would be a good time so we set aside Monday to prepare.
Theresa met us in town, and we spent the morning collecting all the necessary accoutrements: chitenge table cloths, material to make a banner, multi-colored toilet paper to decorate the walls, balloons. and flowers. We were quite curious to see what Ndola would have to offer in the way of flowers. Theresa led us into a shop that carried a most impressive array of fake ones, and we all easily agreed on three purple arrangements. The Living Compassion team in Kantolomba decided yesterday that purple will be our color (we plan to paint the interior building walls purple). When choosing balloons, Theresa insisted we buy the heart-shaped ones since, she noted, we all (she included herself) have such big hearts.
Our flower arrangement.
In the truck with all our goodies.
Everyone got a chuckle out of this one.
When all the little errands were complete, we gathered at the paint store. We had set an ambitious goal to paint the largest room of the new building before the ceremony. After carefully choosing a purple that seemed closest to what the team had described they want for the walls, we gave our color swatch to the paint technician. He looked up the formula and broke the bad news that they were all out of one of the necessary ingredients. Argh! We decided to simply paint it white for the time being and come back another time for the purple coat.
Picking out the paint color.
A quick stop to buy some items from our friend Mathilda at the craft market.
With our car full of goodies, we set off for Kantolomba to meet up with the team there. Most of the musungas got to work painting the walls white. Theresa, Cheri, and Jen met in the insaka to lay out plans for hiring carpenters who will be charged with putting on the 19 roofs made possible through the recent roof loan program.
Luke stirs the paint.
Cheri launches the painting project.
And Theresa is next.
Scott.
Jan and John.
Friday gets in on the action.
While we were painting, the glazier was installing the windows.
Theresa and Cheri enjoy different views from the insaka during the meeting.
Before leaving we made a detailed plan with the women about how the ceremony day would go. We agreed to take care of making a Living Compassion banner and getting drinks and snacks for the guests. The women agreed to get everything decorated and ready to go. We are excited. Can't wait to see how it will go!