Bright and early on Wednesday morning, Jen creates a chitenge fashion show on the lawn of Castle Lodge. She elicits input from Chiluba, Faith, and Emily about which colors and patterns “work” and which ones, well, not so much. Even Alex, the owner of Castle Lodge and Eunice’s and Gertrude’s father, joined the fun!
It looks like it rained chitenge last night!
The Castle Lodge staff are asked their style opinions.
Alex puts some chitenge outfits together.
Emily, Chiluba, and Faith from Castle Lodge
Our first stop this morning is, once again, the paint store. This time we are looking for a dark blue to paint the lower half of the walls of the main classroom – something that will hide dirt well. On the way out to Kantolomba, we stop by Theresa’s house to drop off some donated shoes and clothes for the children. She is the steward of donated items, distributing them to those in most need at the appropriate time.
Theresa and Jen peruse the color selections for the most fitting shade of blue for our needs.
Jen meets an old friend, Sydney (used to be the accountant at Castle Lodge), who now manages this paint store.
Theresa and Memory at Theresa’s house. You may remember that Memory is an orphan from Kantolomba. When Memory’s parents died she went to live with relatives and, sadly, over several years, each family member she was placed with died until she truly had no where to go. Theresa, moved by her situation and seeing her great potential (she is quite bright) took her in. She now lives essentially as Theresa’s daughter. Memory is on her way to school but paused to let us take her picture.
Theresa’s bright and cheerful house!
Theresa looks through the gently-used donated shoes that we brought from the U.S.
On our way to Kantolomba Theresa treated us to a quick stop at her mother’s house. We like, periodically, to reconnect with the “gardener” of this entire project. It is Mary Kapenda who planted the seeds of this great venture many years ago when she insisted that her children read and go to school. We are all in her debt. Rebecca is thrilled to meet Mary in person.
Once at the property we find everyone working on their various projects. The men are finishing the shelves for the sewing room, the sewers are sewing, and the cooks are cleaning up after the first round of children have eaten.
Christopher assembles some of the shelves.
Lingson and Reuben (hidden behind Peter) cutting boards while Peter is planning.
Ethel, Susan and Foster are making a shirt-olomba for Sangha Market.
We picked up some nice containers for organizing the sewing room. This one will hold small chitenge scraps. Nothing ever goes to waste here. They use the little fabric scraps and mealie meal bags to make rugs.
The ladies check roll every day to record which children are in attendance. With 650 children in the program, it’s quite a labor of love!
Thomas, Henry, and Macon found Rebecca sorting through photos for the blogs. They loved looking at the dozens of pictures taken of the community. After awhile, Rebecca introduced them to the Photo Booth program on her Mac, and the boys had a ball making funny faces and seeing special effects. Pretty soon, others were drawn in by the laughter and enjoyed playing too!
Looking at Kantolomba photos together.
Their laughter is contagious.
Here’s what they were laughing at – the special effects make crazy faces!
They could have played all day long!
The ladies had fun with Photo Booth too – it’s like being in a House of Mirrors.
Amid the laughter, Veronica and Martha concentrate on calculating a quotation for adding more children. Funny how such a small act symbolizes a next huge step—they are figuring how much it would cost to add the next 150 children to the program. They will pass this quotation to Jen who will bring it back to the U.S. team, and we will do the calculations on our end and see if we can make it happen. The team would be feeding 800 children every day! Astounding!
To get the Main Room ready to paint, we have to tape off where the blue paint will go. We want to paint only the lower half of the room, so we need to measure and mark a straight line on the walls.
Jen and Theresa determine how high to paint the walls.
After they get the measurements, Theresa will show others how to do it.
Back at the woodshop, the men have finished the shelves and are ready to move it to the sewing room.
Jen shows the ladies how they can organize their work piles and fabric pieces. Several remark, “I want to get some of those shelves for my house to hold my belongings!”
After the sewing room is tidied up and organized, it is time to start on the classroom/office where Theresa and others keep their office supplies.
The last step is sweeping the floors.
The classroom/office – before.
The classroom/office – after!
The sewing room – before.
The sewing room – after!
Nellie isn’t always sewing, she’s also a teacher.
This little one, Delight, is quite a beauty.
When driving back to Castle Lodge at the end of the day, we each shared our favorite thing about the day. Theresa said, “Cleaning out the rooms! It feels good to get so much accomplished!” Amen, Theresa!