Mosquito net finished at last hooray

Middle of May


Six weeks after moving into this lovely house, we were told by the Bishop that there was the possibility of a new Principal coming.  We invited her and her friend to stay after their visit to Chodort, and the general concencus was that she would not come until after September, so we will still have room for our very exciting and eagerly awaited family visit, phew.  

Some of the cards in the window
 (still more in other window)

The Zambian choirs came from miles around to attend,
and find it impossible not to dance when singing

The Bishop's wife and their adorable daughter Rhoda

The Bishop's Reception
The middle of May brought this big event at St Stephen's, the Bishop had been appointed shortly before our arrival, and the celebration was still to come.  Preparations had been under way for some weeks; the flowerbeds had been tidied up and planted with marigolds, the tarpaulin was put up over the grassy space in the courtyard and then filled with chairs and a great big sofa out for the Bishop and his family.


We were told the service started at 8am, although the sheet said earlier, and so we were shown to our seats in one of the rows facing the congregation - scary.  Visiting choirs took their turn, each of them completely loving it and giving their all.


By around noon we decided to wander home for a coffee, since wandering in and out of the service appeared to be the norm.  We came back and lunch was being served in a very jolly party atmosphere, and we enjoyed a chat with some people and admired the wonderful outfits. 

The washing up under way - Paul
and Billing not a great help

Edward (volunteer from Bangladesh)
The Bishop in traditional dress
although he said the flour on his head
isn't, Jane in very acceptable long skirt

Reminiscent of Fishbourne Fete

Paul's news from the site

The water tower, the water tank and the surrounding wall - essential kit 

The first two houses on the site are now well advanced, one all decorated ready for the kitchen to be fitted and the other ready for second fixing. These houses will be rented out and the income used to help finance building the next ones still to be commenced; seventeen in all.  As the income increases over time, the proceeds will then be further used to build a new and bigger college. The scope of courses available and the amount of disadvantaged youths able to attend will then grow as the college grows. It’s a long term project and we are in at the beginning. We won’t see the end in our two years here!!

We are also putting in a proper drainage system with a septic tank and soak-away that have been designed and calculated to work correctly and connected to drains and manholes from each house. We are trying to raise the standards in this important area of sanitation and we’re all learning a lot! We have ensured that the septic tank is positioned well away from the water supply to avoid contamination.

kari

Welfare facilities for the workers on site have been enhanced and basic safety equipment introduced as a way of lifting standards. This is appreciated by all and the comments to date are very positive with everybody keen to advance forward. As time goes by we will make other improvements.

It’s all good stuff. The present college trains youths in carpentry, tailoring and IT. The trainee carpenters can then become self employed or possibly work in the attached joinery shop, which makes furniture, kitchens and building components on a business basis. Some of the students that have graduated work on the site and gain experience in all the various trades. The present students also gain experience this way. They make the roof trusses and fit fascias and doors.One of the great things about being here is that you meet like-minded people from all around the world and also make friends with locals. It opens your mind and you really get to know what makes other countries and cultures work. 

There’s usually a reason behind the way other people do things which at first seem strange to us. This can be because of cultural differences, weather, local conditions and customs.  For instance, I wanted to order timber recently to make kitchen units, but was told there would be a delay because of supply shortages. This was because all the forest workers leave their jobs at this time of year and go to work in the fields harvesting maize for themselves and as a cash crop to sell.  I assumed at first that there would be timber stock-piled to meet needs but this is not the case and you just have to be patient.  Once I considered this further, I could see why the workers looked after themselves and their families by taking advantage of different occupations at different times to meet their needs.

Everyday Choma

Descaling - you're welcome to
take over

Our friend Famke (VSO Belguim) came to visit and brought us some frozen Kariba Red Bream for a BBQ.  Never phased, we set to and descaled and gutted said fish.  Took most of the morning.  In the end we decided each of the 5 of us should experience every process - before we could actually eat the things.

Bring back fish fillets ....

Stage Two of the Bream Processing Plant















                                                                            

Bream ready for the BBQ
(Think I got all the scales out of my hair)

Three little pigs - but these ones were
still squealing

The usual traffic 

  








































We had offered Famke a lift back to Sinazongwe as we has wanted to see it, and being our wedding anniversary seemed a good place to go - a village on the edge of the beautiful Lake Kariba.


We popped in to Choma on the way to find the usual shopping going on.
















The first part of the road was tarmac, but the latter 17 km was not.  Busy traffic, mostly made up of oxen and carts, cattle, goats, donkeys and chickens, not to mention lots of local people going about their day.

Batoka market

A quick stop along the way to restock with fruit and vegetables - best prices.

This photo was worth one banana each

These two little girls had been running across the road, barefoot on tarmac, collecting plastic bottles, which children also do in Choma.  They can sell them to market stallholders for a few kwacha.











                                                                                       


Fishing is an important industry on the lake, and capenta are very small fish that remind me of whitebait.  They are eaten fresh or frozen, but we mainly see them dried.  They are for sale in the markets, and we have not tried them ... 


We had a lovely lunch in a restaurant by the side of the lake - Kariba bream, naturally.  


Our Birthday

Thanks for the fairy cake birthday candle -
Angie and Cyra!

It was my turn to host the painting group, so the 7 of us enjoyed lunch on the verandah, and Paul and I shared out first birthday cake of the day with everyone.  I had made another for Paul to take into work which was enjoyed by all - not something they are used to.  

Birthday Sunset

We made a quick visit to a little craft shop outside Choma which had always been closed every time we'd been in the past.   Lovely young man there took our photo.

Our evening birthday cake -  Ben's speciality Chocolate Cola Cake (don't ask)

May

Oranges from our African garden

In May Paul achieved the water supply to the site and got the drainage well under way, and Jane was volunteering somewhere different every day of the week - except for one - a painting day ... hooray ....

There are impala grazing at the dam I promise -
 the view from one of the painters' homes

Painting group
On the 2nd I joined the art group.  Choma is  small town with  different communities interacting, and word was out that someone new was in town who liked to paint. I had invitations from two different people, so it was meant to be.  The group are mostly white Zambian farmers wives who are a close network of friends - although not in the distance sense - and they meet at each others houses.  A drive of over an hour is the norm for them; all have lovely homes in stunning locations, down long sandy unmade tracks through the bush which extend for 20/30 kilometres off the tarmac road.  Everyone is very kind in offering lifts each week, depending on which direction we are headed out of Choma.  So I am very happy to be painting - don't we just need a specific day - and make new friends (no, not too many A&C!)

An average weekday lunch time -the three of us on the verandah -
Sooty takes relaxing to the max
 

The Site
Paul comes home for lunch every day as the site is just up the road, a short walk or truck drive, and our house is mid way between there and Chordort. The first house is being fitted out and the water supply and drainage are being installed. Nixon's tower was up and awaiting the water tank on the top, and the pump, which would take water from the borehole across the site to the first two houses to begin with. 

The orphans watching a 1970s BBC Childrens
Programme at Ann's pre-school

Orphans' pre-school
Our friend Anne is from Newcastle with the  most wonderful, if incongruous here, Geordie accent, runs a preschool which I went to visit.  I was looking for places where I could volunteer regularly, although sadly this is too far out of town for me to be able to get to each week.  It is in a converted house on a farm with plenty of light and airy space. Ann runs a pre school for the white farmers' children in the mornings, and then a free one there for local orphans in the afternoons, so that was when I visited.  The children were so keen to learn, very well behaved, and have an excellent teacher in Ann.  It was so good to see them having a structured time there, along the same lines as a pre=school in the UK.

Just testing the Library prizes

Mochipapa Road School Library

Jane and Rahem established the visits to the library each week, and are working our way through the whole school.  We have two sessions and read two books to a group of 12 or so each time, then we all talk about the story and ask them questions.  As ever, some are as bright as buttons and the same child puts up their hand with the right answer, and some are so shy they can barely look at us.  They seem to enjoy it all though - and the books we have are full of lovely pictures which has them enthralled. We do have a language barrier with the smaller ones as they are only just learning English as they begin school, so the illustrations are invaluable.  Ann has given us some stickers and small prizes to give out, so they had to be tested them out with great hilarity in our kitchen.

Trip to Masuku

Traffic on the road to Masuku  - oxen, donkeys, goats

Definitely taken from inside the car

Subi Thomas (the accountant at Chodort) had to deliver a computer (he's one of two IT teachers too) to a school in a very remote area, two hours down a dirt track from Choma.  He knew we would find the drive interesting, as well as the school, so we took off together one Friday.  

We eventually stopped at a mission clinic to collect the young Revered Oscar.  We were invited to look around the clinic, which was in a sorry state.  The ward had tall metal beds with no mattresses - if you or your child needed admission you would have to bring your own.  The building itself was crumbling and dilapidated, and full of people waiting to be seen. Frankly, it was shocking. It requires complete renovation and refitting; we have thought about it since and would love to find a way to bring the clinic into the 21st century, at least.  

We thought we had arrived at our destination, but we had collected Oscar to be our navigator to the school, so we set off again down narrower and narrower tracks with 6 foot grass growing down the middle.  

I started talking to two little boys ...

... to be joined by the rest of the class

Masuku School is too remote to have electricity, so we did wonder about the usefulness of a computer. However, the Australians sponsored the supply of solar power some time ago, so that was the answer.  It was in a wide open space, sunshine abounding, so a life changing innovation.

I was told that the little boy on the left of the photo was deaf; had I not been told initially I would just have thought him very shy as lots of the children are.  When we were joined by the others he obviously found it difficult to know what was going on.  There is a school in Choma for those with special needs including the blind and deaf, but he could never travel there.  

We were shown around the other classes in operation, made the children laugh at our attempts at Tonga, and looked through their exercise books.  There is a great deal of copying from the board in Zambia, this is still their learning tool.  

Subi, Reverend Oscar, daughter, father and mother, Jane talking to child behind them all

On the way home to Choma, as well as Revered Oscar we stopped to give a lift to a young woman who was hitching a lift; she was going to return to her teaching job in Lusaka.  We stopped the car for her to visit her family and say goodbye to them for a while, and we were introduced to them.  Wow.  We met her father and his three wives, told of the thirty children they had between them and the 28 grandchildren.  When they asked me how many sons I had and I held up one finger, they laughed hysterically ...   Not very impressive, and they didn't even ask about daughters.  Anyway, in the photo you can see the thatched kitchens belonging to each wife, and they each have a bedroom opposite their kitchen.  One happy father!

They are a pretty organised rural family, as with all those children and grandchildren they have had lots of workers to work their land.  The brothers and sisters of the teacher we met all have similar jobs in Lusaka or other towns, and we feel are very unlikely to return to the rural way of life.  The rural life seems a lot easier than town life here, with plenty of land to farm and a clean water supply.

 

Oh well, that's the beginning of May - plan to finish May on Monday - will go to press for now ...