Three quarters of us have made it safely to Ndola. Sequoia, the final traveler, arrives midday tomorrow.
Jen coaxing Theresa to come be in the arrival photo.
Alex and Muyunda
Other than one of us missing a connection in Johannesburg and having to spend a night at an upscale hotel at the airline’s expense, the trip was uneventful. We marvel at how 36 hours of travel can almost become routine. Jen’s luggage did not arrive, but we never complain about that as it gives us a chance to check in with Peggy, our now great friend at South African Airlink.
It was wonderful to be greeted at our Castle Lodge home by Eunice, another very good friend and proprietress of the lodge, though disappointing to find the internet problems persist—that definitely has an affect on the trip. But, iConnect, the new internet company in town, promises that the connection will be up and running at the lodge by Monday. None of us, including Eunice, is holding her breath.
Jen greets Kaunda, the Castle Lodge cook and, we think, the owner of the world’s best smile.
We are here for a short time but our plans are big. The three main foci for the trip:
1. Getting the stove project started
2. Expanding the food program
3. Exploring how to shore up and grow the girls’ program
1. If you are a regular blog-reader you know that on the trip in December we made a breakthrough discovery about a far more fuel-efficient cook stove that has the potential to make a large difference for both the health and financial well-being of families in Kantolomba. (To read more about this stove endeavor, read the recent Africa Coordinator update). This trip we plan to launch the pilot for this program.
2. The cooperative is feeding 450 children every day. There are countless others in Kantolomba in need. We are ready to take on a significant increase and will lay out a plan with the team to accomplish that. Very exciting.
3. By all accounts in the world of development, focusing on increasing opportunity for girl children has an exponential effect on the well-being of the entire community. The Living Compassion girls’ program started this last August with 25 girls. We plan to check in with Rose, the cooperative nurse who started the program, to find out how it is going and how we can deepen our commitment to the girls and their future.
There are any number of other details we could attend to and we figure, beyond our big three, they are icing on the cake. Very excited to be here and just about equally as excited to get a good night’s sleep in a horizontal position!
Glad you are with us once again for the journey. More soon…