The Final Stretch

This week we celebrated our sixth month anniversary of being here in Zambia! As I look at the calendar I cannot believe how quickly this time approached itself. We celebrate the length of time we have spent with our Zambian friends and family, but with this celebration also comes sorrow as we will be leaving our home soon. In all things, we remember that God gives both the times of celebration and the times of sorrow, and even in the difficulty we must remember to praise Him and thank Him for all He has done.

During these last few weeks we have been busy with several projects. Roxanna and I stopped teaching about three weeks ago so we could focus more fully on a few projects. Our main focus was on an attendance project. The school has been having difficulty with the attendance of the pupils at the school. Often kids will stay home on account of illness, helping out at home, or the weather. Parents know education is important for their children, but sometimes the needs at home can overshadow it. The attendance project is intended to give pupils a visual of what attendance actually means. Roxanna and I created attendance charts, and if a pupil attends school everyday for one week they get to put a sticker next to their name. The project will hopefully hold the pupils accountable for their attendance and stress the importance of coming to school on a daily basis. We helped implement the project last Friday and both the teachers and pupils responded very positively. Several pupils told their teachers how they are going to attend school everyday so they can have a sticker next to their name!

We have also spent a considerable amount of time at the orphanage with the kids and the house mothers. They truly are a blessing to each of us. The orphanage just received a refrigerator and a DVD player, so enjoying ice cream and movie nights has become a common event for us! This last Monday we had our last birthday celebration, as each month we recognize those who have a birthday and bring a gift and a treat to share. This last celebration was meant for all those whose birthdays we won’t be here for. Two days later when we visited the orphanage, we were delightfully surprised by the kids and mothers, as they presented the four of us with birthday gifts and songs! It was great to see that they’ve all enjoyed those times of celebration enough to share with us as well! Mama Jacqueline has told us over and over how we have planted a seed in the house, and that seed will germinate and bless others. In it’s a reciprocal message, for we know each of them has blessed us and planted a seed in us, which we will share with those around us, and the blessing with which it has!

Yesterday Tom and I took one of our final walks throughout Twapia, where the school, orphanage, and church are. It’s a township just outside of Ndola. We walked through a section called Overspill, which is the poorest area in Twapia. In this area people make and sell an illegal brew, called Kachasu. They then sell it for 500 or 1000 Kwacha, which is equivalent to 10 or 20 cents. Many people, especially men, find it easier to invest in this brew to ease them of their worries, than to buy necessities that will help their family grow. This brew is so strong, that one small portion of it will make a person drunk. That person often becomes violent and abusive after they drink it. The Head Master, Teacher Ng’oma, told me this occupation only breeds hopelessness. Several of our pupils live in this area, and as we walked through the area we saw several homes with the big barrel drums brewing this drink. There are bars and taverns close by, and as we walked by them around lunch time, music was blaring, making them appear to remain open all day. To me, walking through this area and knowing more about it, brings a new meaning to Hope. Pupils come to Hope to receive an education, but they also come there and receive hope itself. Instead of only living in the hopelessness that is being planted, pupils can see a life outside of that and experience the joy and happiness and the potential that their lives have. As Tom and I were walking through Overspill, I heard my name being yelled in the distance. As I turned around, one of our pupils, Helen, came running up to me and threw her arms around my waste. She walked with us the rest of the way, and as usual in Twapia, when musungu, or white people, walk around, they tend to attract a crowd and soon many of our pupils and other kids were walking with us. I know that people see hope through us, and they believe in that hope, I just continue to pray that that hope will remain long after we leave the school and the community.

It is difficult to describe all the things we are beginning to process as our departure date comes closer and closer. God has indeed done marvelous things in us and through us during our time here. We all can partake in the sadness of us leaving, but again, we rejoice for the time God has given us.

As we begin our last week, I reflect on something rather light, on our lifestyles we’ve adapted here, and the things we will have to do one last time!!

1. Buy two-20 liter containers of purified drinking water, to fill our water bottles with every night to place in the refrigerator for the next day
2. Wash my clothes by hand
3. Heat water for a “pitcher bath”
4. Eat our staple lunch meal, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
5. Use hand sanitizer constantly
6. Sleep under a mosquito net
7. Drive on pot-holed roads
8. Drink Coca-Cola with real sugar in glass bottles, everyday

Although these may seem like strains and a stretch from lifestyles at home, we have really grown accustomed to them. In fact, when we went to Lusaka and had showers at our guest house, I almost felt like I needed to find a pitcher to bathe with because I wasn’t getting clean in the usual way! In life, we do what we have to do to survive, and when we look at the end result of these things, the means to them begin to fade away. It all rests in our ability to be flexible and obedient to the means, so the end result will happen!

On behalf of everyone here, we’d like to thank all of you for your continual thoughts, prayers, and words of encouragement during our stay here. We feel completely blessed for all of your support, and know that you have blessed more lives than you know!

God’s Peace,
Amanda