I’ll use the comments on this thread to post some quick updates throughout my trip in Africa.
jeremyduncan.ca
I’ll use the comments on this thread to post some quick updates throughout my trip in Africa.
Day one, took the tube from Heathroe into the city and spent the afternoon wandering through Picadilly Circus in London looking for a pub. Fligh for Lusaka leaves at 7ish pm. Not looking orward to another 11hrs on a plane.
Flew all night into Lusaka. Now we have a 7hr layover until we fly for Ndola. Bought lunch in the airport. 30 000 Kwatcha bought me a ham and cheese sandwhich.
Hmm, lookis like our bags aren’t making the flight to Ndola. The plane only seats 16 so its pretty much carry on only. Presumably our stuff will show up on the next flight 5 hrs later.
Landed safely in Ndola. Met up wit Natalie and Jordan. They took us in to town to buy some groceries and get settled (without any luggage of course).
Then about 5 minutes ago Stan and I went back to the airport to see if our stuff had arrived.
Low and behold, the flight was on time and all of our stuff arrived safe and sound. No one even questioned why 2 white guys without any docunmentation, were taking all the luggage and loading it up.
It will be nice to change… and sleep.
Hi guys
Glad to hear you arrived safely along with your luggage. Give our girl a big hug for us. Can’t wait to hear all the amazing stories.
love and prayers
Lisa and Brian
Spent Sat and Sun at Pastor Jacob’s Easter conference I spoke for a bit on Sunday and then found out I will be filling in for him next week while he is away.
This morning we visited clients with Mutenda Home Based Care. This is a program that has been up and running for a while. It’s incredibly efficient and well organized.
This afternoon we had our first look at Mulenga where we are hoping to start and HBC program. The area is definitely in a rougher state and will needs years of investment but the volunteers are incredible. Many have been volunteering in a similar capacity on their own for some time. The clinic has been encouraging and helping where they can but Hands at Work is now adopting the volunteers to give some more training and structure. It should be good.
The volunteers come tomorrow to stay with us on the farm until Friday for training and then we will be join them back in Mulenga next week.
Also starting tomorrow a few us will start teaching the Better Choices program to a group of students in Lewanshya.
Jeremy also just ate a guava with dirty bloody chicken hands. dinner was just slaughtered.
love,
J&N
And is was delicious!
Three days into the training so far. Things are going well. We do the HBC (Home Based Care) training all day here at the farm and then a few of us head into Roan in the afternoons to teach Better Choices (BC). There are 10 youth leaders in the BC program, all orphans themselves, who will then teach the program to OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) in their communities. The whole point of BC is HIV/AIDS awareness.
Enjoying eating a lot of shema (which I think is pretty good thankfully, considering how much they give us at every meal) and spending as much time outside as possible (though is 45 sunblock on, so I’ll probably come back as white as I left)
Also I got online in town yesterday and uploaded a few pictures to my picasa photoblog and I added a couple to Facebook with my blackberry.
Pastor Jacob left for South Africa early this morning so I spoke at his church again. It was fun. Pulled some ideas from Jesus words in Mt 23 about the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness.
Today the team rests. Training with the HBC volunteers is done. The Better Choices course is over. The students graduation was yesterday so we went down to a lake in town to go swimming (FTR Rich and I were the only Canadians swimming
.
Tomorrow we start visitation in the Mulenga compound with the volunteers.
Also Dan comes up to spend a few days with us on Tuesday.
Tried to post this mid-week but couldn’t get online.
We finished up our last day of HBC visitation today.
Yesterday I met a young girl named Mwamba, aged 7. She was covered in open infected sores all over arms and face. I bathed her and cleaned her arms, and rubbed on some antibiotic cream and skin lotion. Today I went back and she was smiling and laughing. Her arms were dirty again but maybe a little better looking. Cleaned her up again and talked with her mother (probably HIV+ but not tested yet) about the importance of keeping her sores clean. Its amazing what a little physical contact can do for an ashamed child.
Met Thompson. 2+1/2 yrs old. He was smaller than the 7 month old baby beside him. Severely malnurished and dehydrated. His mother died months ago and the father wasn’t around. He was being cared for by a family that knew the mother. We made up some oral rehydration solution for the family and showed them how to make it. Then we fed a bit to him with a spoon. He wouldn’t drink much. The family wasn’t keen on taking him to the clinic for an HIV test but given the way his mother died, and his condition, its likely he was positive. Just a bit of the water, salt and sugar mixture started to bring him back a bit so that seemed to encouraged the family that he wasn’t a lost cause. Natalie and Blessings will come back next week to see how he’s doing and encourage the family to have the baby tested.
Tomorrow we visit some of the Bush Schools in the rural communities. Then we leave for Livingstone Friday morning.
Dan Johns joined us last night as well. Its been great to see him and catch up after 9 months. He’ll be in Zambia for about a week after we leave working near Lusaka and then back to South Africa until he comes home in late June.
I met a young boy. Probably 11 or 12 this week with, I think, autism. Its a tough go for special needs out in the rural communities. Just touching the kid changed his whole demeanor and calmed him down the family and the other kids semed to have him pretty isolated.
The bush schools were fun. I have some pictures of the crazy mobs of kids.
Friday we flew from Ndola to Lusaka and then on to Livingstone.
Sat we check out Victoria falls. You can’t imagine how hard the mist comes back down. I also crossed into Zimbabwe just to walk across the bridge over the river.
Sunday we crossed into Botswana to see Chobe national park. Elephants everywhere. Lions… not so much, though we did see one.
It wa also neat to stand at the intersection of Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
This morning we flew to Johanesberg. 6 hrs layover till our night flight into London.
Tomorrow I have 12 hrs in London, and I already did the easy tourist stuff on the last UK layover, so I’m hoping to connect with a friend who moved here a few yrs ago. (That’s you Steve so come into town and buy me a pint)
Assuming all goes as planned I’ll be home tuesday evening Calgary time.
Steve was flying back into London from Toronto this morning so he picked me up and gave me a great tour of London.
Got back to the new Terminal 5 and then was told it was the wrong terminal. Sux. I was all ready to go to Gordon Ramsey’s new restaurant through security.