Kasupe Goodbyes

I've been back in Canada for almost a week now but am trying to catch up on posting the last few weeks. So here are some of my friends who I will and do miss dearly already from Kasupe , where I lived for the first seven months.

This is Mrs. Sylvia Sakala, part of the Rural Health Committee I worked with. She lost her husband in October and now stays with her daughter in town. I was able to visit her the week before I left, we had such an awesome time. Wow, what a sweet lady!

This is Peter, who I taught guitar to. He just finished grade 9 and should be off to boarding school soon. He is such a great youth and an excellent guitar student. He caught on really quick and I know he will do great things with his new skill. Here we are at our last lesson with his new guitar.

This is my buddy Grandson. Such an awesome kid. We had general good times climbing trees, looking for snakes/scorpions, learning math, etc. I was able to visit his home and his family my last day out there. It was so good to visit his mom and four siblings (his dad was at a funeral but called me to say goodbye, using precious and expensive talktime on his phone...very sweet). His youngest brother, Matthews was burned badly when a pot of boiling water fell on his arm/hand. All the kids sleep in one room on the floor with no mattress and it didn't appear very much in the way of blankets.

This is Jilos Sakala. I met Jilos four years ago when I came. He is a great man who works for ACTION helping to maintain the farm property. He is also part of his church choir and plays piano who I was able to do a bit of recording for. He lives next door with his wife and two adorable little girls.

These are just a few of the faces that I love and will miss so much!!!

Chikankata

A few weeks ago I went along with the team that was here to a village about an hour and a half south of Lusaka called Chikankata. It poured!! There is a rising river that has washed out the bridge so that now half of the village is stranded on the other side. There is an excellent hospital run by the Salvation Army which these people now are stranded from having access to as well. People were still trying to cross the now raging waters...one even carrying a bicycle. We slept on the floor in a mud hut and helped the local women cook a nshima feast. It took about three hours to make a fire in the rain (us girls held a tarp and inhaled smoke while our Californian bushman worked on the fire)...but once it was going...look out! I admit I had little faith the whole time it was being worked on and became less than amused that I was standing for hours holding a tarp and getting lung cancer. But it worked. I take it all back.

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I took a little tumble on our way back from checking out the washed out bridge.

Chisomo Crew

The word "chisomo" means "grace" in Nyanja and is also the name of the drop-in centre for street kids that I was privileged to work with. Here are some shots of my last day with them.

It's a Sign

A looky into some of my favorite signs around Lusaka...

The "u" vowel is always pronounced "oo" so why waste space with more letters!?

Harveytile is a roofing company that used to come up with these snappy slogans...this is the last of it's kind

This isn't a sign, I know, but it's the norm in scaffolding around the city

Here we make houses out of "Brikes"

Enough said. A "fast" food chain.

Coming Soon...

Perogie Party!

Friends were up from down south and with Anna Maria visiting we decided to whip up some good ol' Perogies.First one must roll out the dough

...then fill the dough...

...which must first be cut......then seal the perogie to be cooked and enjoyed.

Perogie Pals: Steph, Shannon, and Anna Maria

...and here are the bugs and larva we bothered to pick out of the flour...the rest stayed in the dough and we ate them. African Perogies at their best!

Zambia: Real Africa!

Nothing says "Real Africa" like Subway.

Anna Maria Comes to Visit!

I am honoured by the presence of my friend Anna Maria Enfield (front and centre) who, along with Stephanie Brink (pictured left), were part of the team that I first came to Zambia with in May '04. So it was a half team reunion!

...oh the times we've shared.

I Robot

Maybe Zambia's a little more developed than one would think...
...or we are just really into 80's dance moves here and are advised when and where to do specific moves. Coming soon the signs: "Running Man Ahead", "Moonwalk Ahead", and "Sprinkler Ahead".

The Truth About This Year

Here we are in Sinazongwe, about 4 hours south of Lusaka, where my friends Stephanie Brink and Susan Hundshamer are doing medical ministry. Some paint mysteriously ended up all over the new clinic floor. This is really what I've been doing all year...it's been 12 months and they still have us locked in there trying to get the pain off! You can't cry over spilled milk...but you can (and will) cry over spilled paint.

Just Take a Little Off the Top...

Warning: The following blog may not be suitable for all professional hairdressers. Hairdressing discretion is advised. After about 11 months without a blade to my head I decided it may be appropriate for a trim. So my good pal Stephanie Brink brought out the borrowed sewing scissors and went to town on my dry and damaged locks. I know this is probably horrifying to you hairdressers but it was either that or a trip to this little open air shack called "Neat Cutz" on the side of the road. I opted for Steph's "Kitchen Corral Cutz" instead. Don't worry, I've saved a lock for each of you upon my return.

Christmas in South Africa

Click here for the scenic tour

Walkin' in a Water Wonderland!

This past weekend I took all the kids at Chisomo (the centre for street children that I work with) to this water park here in Lusaka called Adventure City for a little Christmas Shindig. And oh, what an adventure we had! We had a blast!!

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Here is part of the gang...there were about 44 youth in total.

They have a couple pretty sweet slides

Masters of Flipping!

This picture cracks me up. There was a football field quite a ways from the slides and pools and these tubes are in high demand so out of nowhere I see Danny and Anna walking across the field in their tubes, sure not to loose these precious gems!

The adventure continued as one of our mini buses blew a tire on the way home and we found this pair of glasses in the mud on the side of the road while we were waiting for the tire to be fixed.

There ain't no party like a Chisomo party cause a Chisomo party don't stop!!

Oh Tannenbaum!

Susan found a spectacular 180cm Christmas tree for cheap...we soon realized why so cheap...Shannon in her newest Christmas Sweater, handcrafted in Zambia

Susan, the tree hunter

And here we discover the problem that both parts of the tree have the same sized "trunk" so it couldn't fit together...

A variety of attempt were made to rectify the situation including whittling a stick. Not sure how we thought that skinny little twig would hold up the tree but desperate times called for desperate whittling.

Somethings not quite right

We found an old piece of pipe in the yard that we molded to fit. Ever since then there has been this water leak in the bathroom, I don't know why...

The finishing touch...

Our star was a bit to much for our little tree

And there you have it. Christmas in Zambia.