Visiting Friends for Lunch

Thursday 28^th November

Yesterday I was invited to lunch my Mr & Mrs Musika – Obert's parents. Obert collected me and I was treated to village chicken and nshima. This was my first meal of nsima this visit. I sat with Obert and his father talking and eating. I thought three lumps of nsima would be too much, but went back for the final lump in the end. Of course a Zambian meal is eaten with the fingers, not with cutlery!

I enjoyed the meal and the conversation. After the meal we were joined by Luwendo - Obert's young daughter. She is a beautiful little girl. She has a couple of toes missing or deformed on each foot. This seems to be a genetic feature. Obert's brother has similar issues. I don't for a minute think this will affect her progress – especially with a father like Obert.

Obert told me that he went to a school where there were a lot of children with disabilities – though not all the children. He told them while he was there that he wanted to drive a car, but they said it would not be possible. (To remind you Obert has one leg) When he got his driving licence he visited the school, jumped out of the drivers seat and joined them as if it was nothing unusual. He says that his driving has inspired some of the children at the school. He has offered to take me to visit the school – I hope I get the chance to fit it in.

A lady appeared and said that she was the mother of a girl Grace who I helped previously with a little for school fees. She is now about to complete her teaching course, but won't be able to take her final exams if she doesn't clear her outstanding balance. Grace was working as a maid to try to raise the money, but will still be short!

My little friend Nancy appeared. I wanted a picture but she wasn't inclined to smile! Nancy is very small and thin. Her mother struggles to raise enough for food. Nancy walks 4 or 5 Kilometres to school each day and has the potential to go far in life, but how do you learn when you are hungry. I gave a little to pass on to Nancy's mother for some food and a little extra so that Nancy could buy something from the tuck shop. I am sure that Nancy will soon be going to school hungry again.

Mr Musika has just received 200 chicks – they are now 3 days old. If they can manage to buy the feed they will fatten the chickens and hopefully make enough profit to pay the teacher at the pre-school they run from their home plot. They have started to feed the children who come to the pre-school. The numbers are increasing!! It is hard for us to realise what a draw a little food is to the local children (and it really is only a little bit of food). One of the local children has painted the outside of the classroom – I was very impressed.

Each month a group of families who have children with disabilities gather together at the house. They have set up a little business scheme. Everyone pays in a little each month which is invested into chickens or other projects and the profits are shared. It is important to provide opportunities for these families to get together and provide mutual support. Obert said that there were children who came to his school and covered their faces because they were hidden at home and had no experience of mixing with others.

I enjoyed my visit and Obert dropped me back at the Curia in his taxi.

Today I had another unexpected visitor. A lady called Agnes had located me! Apparently I met her six years ago. I think that I am going to have to refuse any further uninvited guests. If word gets around that a rich white man is staying at the Curia there could be queues of people every day – which will not only be a problem for me, but also the Curia!

In this instance I invited Agnes to come in. She started by telling me that she hadn't eaten today or yesterday. At least I could offer her a banana or two. She had written me a long letter telling me that she needed help to grow some maize. The story is the same one I keep hearing. People make very little doing a little business – usually much less than £1 a day in profit - often 20p or less. However, they have access to a little land where they grow maize. This is the way they survive. However, this year they grew no maize – hence they are hungry. She has a friend who is joining with her to hire an ox drawn plough because she isn't strong enough to use a hoe. She also needs some seed. I told her that I would help her this time because we were coming up to Christmas. She promised not to tell anyone that I helped!!

It can be very difficult when you are confronted with a situation where a small intervention can make a huge difference to someone's life. However, I cannot help everyone - and unless we get some more rain soon all the maize seed planted to date will be wasted! But with decent rain Agnes might be able to feed her family throughout next year from that one bag of seed.

Raymond called around this afternoon, arriving with the electricity. I had a cup of tea and he enjoyed some cool juice now that my fridge is working again!

By the way the water is also flowing!

Raymond is busy setting up his own charity. We chatted about the hospital, politics etc for an hour.

While the power was present I headed to the staff room to get on the Internet. The power problems have restricted my Internet access of late. My Yahoo e-mail account wanted verification – probably because of activity in Zambia.

Nothing is quite as easy as in the UK. The Internet operates at a speed which is an order of magnitude slower. Sometimes when I attempt to do something it times out before the operation completes. In addition when there is an issue, verification is often via text messages sent to the mobile. In Zambia it is not practical to use my UK SIM card. I swap for a Zambian SIM and can keep in contact with friends here in Monze at a reasonable cost. Of course this doesn't receive any messages from Yahoo – or from my bank!

Anyway it has been a few days since I accessed my e-mails. I have over 200 in my inbox. It will take at least ½ hour just to delete them and the system will slow further if I don't!!

With 195 left the power vanished!!

If power returns at a reasonable hour I will try to get on tonight – otherwise it will be when I next get a chance!

It is easy for people back in the UK to imagine that those in Zambia can communicate as easily as we can in the UK. Often what seems to us like a simple request can use up valuable hours in Zambia.

Best wishes,

Chris