As we drove in to Kantolomba we saw that ditch had been filled in.
Completed ditch
Approaching the fence around the school we saw the carpenters building the gate.
Alex and Therese went off with the coordinator in search of micro-businesses within Kantolomba.
Weaving a reed mat
Making clothespins
Our plan is to put these products on our Keep It Simple website.
Another team was meeting with Martin to deliver more chitenge for monk bags and shopping at the local outdoor craft market for items to bring back also to be put on the Keep It Simple website to support local artisans. Yet another team was interacting with officials in charge of our NGO paperwork and land leases.
Meanwhile back at the Kantolomba school house, the focus group of a cross-section of residents, female and male: 8-10 year-olds, 13-17 year-olds and adults ranging in age from 23 years to 78 years was underway.
The focus group was one of the most profound experiences any of us had ever had. To be able to sit in a roomful of people who on the surface seem so different from us and to hear that their concerns, desires, hopes, and dreams are exactly the same as any of us living anywhere in the world. As soon as we get home and have a chance to write up the details of the meeting, we will post that on the Living Compassion website.
The school volunteers in their new team t-shirts.
Dave was so in hopes that we could see water coming out through the new pipe and spigot, but alas the whole of Kantolomba was without water. (This is a huge argument for getting these people a bore hole of their own.)
Dave and children walking the length of the new water pipe
Tracey came back to the guesthouse early to fix dinner (she’s getting really good at disguising soya mince) because the evening was a big family gathering with Theresa, Ignatius, Grace, Mrs. Kapenda, all the children, and us. We visited long past the children’s bedtime! It is so fun to feel the relationships growing and deepening. The Living Compassion family now has children, brothers, sisters, and cousins here in Ndola, Zambia.
Living Compassion house kids
Then of course we had another middle of the night visit with all of you on the radio.
