A very fun start to our day—we gave Muyunda his new computer. We had given him a very basic, old machine last trip as he has expressed a real interest in IT. He has spent a great deal of time learning his way around the old machine, So, with our idea to have him join the team as someone who can send us project news, we decided to get him a brand new, low-cost netbook. He was delighted. When we sat down and looked at the computer with him, explaining why we want him to have it, he was speechless. We think he has secretly known all along that his perseverance and loyalty would win him a position with Living Compassion, but to have it now a reality seemed a very big deal. “I can’t wait to go home and tell my wife.”
Our eager student, Muyunda learning how to use his new notepad
A little later, when we stopped by Aquavita to pick up more water, we saw our old friend Sylvia. We inquired whether she had had malaria this year, commenting that we hear it has been a very bad year for malaria. “Not in my neighborhood,” she noted. “I stay in Itawa.” Indeed, less population density and clean homes, as you would find in Itawa, make a huge difference in preventing the spread of malaria.
While we pick up our supply of safe drinking water at Aquavita, Jen and Sylvia share a laugh.
Through a contact Cheri made at a Social Venture Network conference, we have been in touch with a fellow from the UK who is managing iConnect, an internet company in Zambia. We have been in conversation with them about using Wimax technology to get internet to Kantolomba. We stopped by the Ndola office to make local contact. The woman at the office arranged for a meeting tomorrow in Kitwe, a nearby city that is the technology/business hub of Zambia, with the woman in charge of iConnect in the Copperbelt Province. We are all excited to take a little field trip.
Inquiring at the iConnect office in Ndola about next steps in our efforts to get internet in Kantolomba.
One more stop before lunch: we go into a shop that sells all kinds of pesticides. The stench is enough to ward you off yards away, but we are determined to investigate every angle of malaria prevention. From the research we have done here as well as via the internet, spraying for mosquitoes seems to be by far the most effective method. There is some controversy, of course, as things like DDT are essentially poison. The US and other western nations apparently used DDT to successfully eradicate malaria in the 50’s, and later decided it is not a good idea to use it. But, then again, people dying of malaria at an alarming rate is not good either. We are looking into everything.
Our investigation into malaria prevention brings us into a pesticide shop for a briefing on insecticides that are available locally.
We had an excellent lunch meeting with Muyunda and Theresa. At one point in the discussion we got to explore a bit about how the voices in our heads try to keep us from realizing our dreams. We asked Muyunda why he seemed so able to stay on track and work towards a better future. He shared his feelings that people only change their habits when something large happens in their lives and they feel motivated to make a different choice. He has lost both parents and talked about suddenly getting it one day when the cousin he was living with was moving to another city that he needed to start taking responsibility for his own life. In asking where this motivation comes from, he replied “If you feel for others, then you can change”.
Presenting Theresa her Mother's Day card at lunch before meeting with the larger group.
Arriving in Kantolomba, we see one of our loyal water customers who drives 20 minutes across town to fill all his containers with Living Compassion water!
When we arrived in Kantolomba after lunch, Mukonda was leading a lesson in HIV. They were all troopers and kept right on with their lesson as we listened in.
Today was the last day of a four-week program on HIV taught by Mukondu.
The group was divided into 4 clusters, each having a focused area to explore and then share the information with the larger group. Thursday is the day the leadership team (seven members of the cooperative who have been appointed as leaders) holds their weekly business meeting. They had agreed that we could sit in and just observe. We felt like a quantum physicist realizing that being there and observing was changing the result, but it was certainly fun to see the process.
After the meeting, Tracey went to check in with the sewing team to bring them supplies we had purchased for the baby blanket project, while Jen met with Mukonda. Mukonda has been a great gift to the project in the time she has been there, and we were all realizing that the fit may not be just right. Turns out we are not ready for a full-time nurse—we need to get clearer on our medical care goals, get our budgets for supplies in place. Also, Mukonda’s husband is taking a job in Lusaka, and she will almost certainly move there soon. Jen and Mukonda met and worked out the details for her departure from the team and agreed to stay in touch. And, as tends to happen in life, a next possibility for healthcare has already presented itself. Theresa ran into Rose, a woman she likes very much in her community, who is a nurse and is eager to do community work. We may talk to her about being involved with the project.
The sewing team creating patterns out of rolls of paper for Jasmine's baby blanket project.
Meetings now all sorted out, we had the enormous pleasure of presenting the Mother’s Day cards to the women on the team. For those who may not have been following along, during our gift card season for Mother’s Day we offered folks the chance to buy a card for one of the mothers on the Living Compassion team (they are all mothers so everyone got to be included). It was fun to see their delight as we explained the cards and passed them out. We were touched that each woman, whether she could understand English or not, wanted us to come and read the greeting in her card for her. We got the sense these cards would go home and be displayed in a place of honor. Huge thanks to all of you who made that happen!
Theresa reading the Mother's Day card to the group after explaining the holiday in Bemba.
Reading the Mother's Day cards.
The team basking in delight after receiving their Mother's Day card
Muyunda not wasting any time in his new task as our project reporter.
A few late arrivals for the lunch program
In the car on the way back to town, we hatched our plan for an outing tomorrow. We all agreed that spending much of our day at a police post on the side of the road was not a good use of our time and decided to find a car Theresa could drive. Since the police all recognize Muyunda as an unofficial taxi driver, the chances of getting pulled over by a road block are great. Muyunda thought of Martha, our accountant, who has a car, and Theresa called and asked her if we might borrow it. Martha graciously agreed. A very nice thing about life in Africa is that we need each other—no one can even have the illusion of being able to make it alone. No way!
Before returning to the lodge for the night, we stopped again at a sewing store we had been to yesterday. We had sent Muyunda and Theresa in to inquire about prices (Zambian prices are generally better than musungu prices), and had been told they did not have any Singer machines—the ones recommended to us by several local tailors. However, Nancy, the store’s wonderful owner, was there today and told us they have Singers and several other brands in stock. We stayed and chatted for quite a while, benefiting from her many years of wisdom on various machines and their qualities. Nancy swears by her Juki, a brand we had never heard of. More research is needed, we can see.
Nancy sharing her sewing machine wisdom with us and showing off her beloved Juki brand industrial machine.
At the end of a long evening of communicating with the home team, doing finances, downloading photos and blogging, we realize we have no energy left to get on the internet and research Singer versus Juki machines. Ah, never fear, we have a fabulous team halfway around the world that is just waking up. It really does take a “village.” Thanks home team!
As the Zambia team heads for bed, the Monastery team begins the sewing machine research