Melvillesworld

We are home!

2009-06-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, we made it back safely and are now back in our adopted home town of Morgan Hill, California. The Sunday before we left we had tearful farewells as we attended our last service at International Baptist church. The folk there have become so dear to us and that congregation will be one of the things that we miss most about Zambia. Our team also put on a farewell get-together on Sunday afternoon and many pastors that Graham had taught came along as well as other friends. It was a very special day and emotionally draining but absolutely fantastic.
We went home that evening to find we had no hot water and the next day there was no electricity for nearly 10 hour so we had back to back, the joys and trials of living in Zambia!
After a few more tears at the airport we had a nightmare check in. It took an hour and a half and we were one of the last ones on the plane because the check in clerk insisted that we had one more bag than we really did. She was as unhelpful as she possibly could be and needless to say the experience was somewhat stressful. After that thought the flight was great, we had a restful night at Heathrow and had no hassles with immigration at San Francisco which was a huge answer to prayer and a great relief!

We are staying with our friends the Swings who have kindly let us stay as long as we want and it is great to hang out with them again and with other friends here - our church family here have been just that, a family who are taking such wonderful care of us. The hard work of moving our stuff back into our house was hard work but also so much fun with a group of friends that just made it a great day! There was a pot luck at our church here, West Hills Community Church, yesterday at which Graham spoke and loads of people attended.
So we are getting used to driving on the right hand side of the road - it was SO weird being driven back from the airport on the 'wrong' side! We both have valid CA licenses again and are concentrating hard to make sure we stay on the 'right' side of the road now we in charge of a vehicle - so far, so good...! We hope to move back into our place tomorrow and get reacquainted with our neighbours. It is good to be home. We would still ask you to pray as we sort out jobs and schools and get some much needed rest, especially Graham. Once again, thank you for journeying with us, its been a wild ride!

Hello from Lydia

2009-05-31T12:52:00.000-07:00

The last update on Lydia we talked about her walking. She continues to improve in her walking but without sight it is a little limited on where she can go. In the township/ compound where she lives, there are no regular roads or side walks, just rough and rocky dirt roads. We visited for a last time before we leave Zambia, and the progress in her speach was amazing. Before she would only speak when spoken to with very limited vocabulary. When she was asked to talk, would say "I have nothing to say, you talk". Now she talks non stop! She has also become very "touchy feely" wanting and more emotionally. She has a message for all who have been supporting her which is in the video below.

She still cannot see, so please continue to pray for her sight. She is also still cofussed in her long term and short term memory. She get facts muddled and thinks she remembers things that haven't happened. She has put on a little bit of weight, but still needs building up. Her physiotherapy continues to help her a lot, so thank you for the continued support.

At our leaving get together, her father reiterated his thanks to you all.

For those in California, see you soon!

Our last week

2009-05-26T03:18:00.001-07:00

Yes, we have just a week to go and in the last few days have seen the best and worst of Zambia. Last week I took some toys and activities to an orphanage here in town that looks after older kids. The man that is in charge is a wonderful guy - a great Christian, works hard, does a fantastic job and he told us that a few days previously thieves had stolen the water pump. Then just this last weekend we heard of another theft, this time from a family that looks after street boys, who lost half of their chickens that provide much needed income. Zambia is so wonderful and so frustrating!

On a lighter note we were driving to the airport a few weeks ago and saw this sight - yes, the police truck appears to have parked in a wall! The funnier thing is that just a few doors down is located 'The Careful Driving School', maybe the driver of the truck should sign up...

Easter play

2009-04-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

On Easter Sunday the children at our church put on a play depicting the Easter story. They had been practicing for some weeks but had never had the opportunity to rehearse in the church itself! It went really well and we enjoyed seeing our kids perform with their Zambian friends. Philip (yes his hair has got very long at the moment - he loves it!) was Jesus for the first half of the play when his fellow missionay kid friend, Daniel, took over. They wore the same toga made out of one of our bed sheets to make sure that no-one was confused! Rachel was the high priest and also sung a duet with Kamryn, one of the other children with Action Zambia. They were all fantastic! After the service we had a lovely lunch at the church, catered for by some of the church ladies to say goodbye to another missionary family - Daniel's. The Shaws have been great friends to us here as they have been serving with the Southern Baptist mission and in saying goodbye to them it reminded us that it will soon be us saying farewell...

Lydia Starts to Walk

2009-04-09T10:57:00.001-07:00

Lydia is walking!

Yesterday (April 8), we went to visit with Lydia and her family and were amazed at how much progress she has made. She wasn’t in the living room when we arrived and it brought tears to our eyes to see her walk in the room albeit somewhat shakily and with mom very close by. We cannot tell you how much better she is doing compared to when we last saw her a couple of weeks ago. Her parents told us that she went to church with them for the first time on Sunday and Lydia told us that she liked going. This time is also such a boost for Ernest and Laikah – they looked much less tired and a lot happier, obviously so encouraged by their daughter’s improvement.

This is not to say that there is a long way to go. A physiotherapist is coming to the house three times a week which is possible only because of your generosity. He was there when we visited yesterday and we were very impressed. It is a huge blessing that he comes to see her in her own environment and without the stress of travelling to a clinic. While he was working with her we could hear her crying because her muscles have stiffened up so much the past few months. It is one of those situations where you have to be cruel to be kind although it was hard to hear her upset. We were also told that her drug regime has been reduced and this is undoubtedly helping her as she was a lot more responsive and stayed awake most of the time we were there. She has got very thin but over the last few days she is eating more and she is starting to feed herself with some foods

There is no progress yet with her sight. Please pray for this and that she will gain strength in her muscles and confidence as she learns to move around again. Do also pray that she will gain more appetite and put on weight. God is good!

From Sarah

2009-03-31T09:11:00.000-07:00

The heavy rains here are supposed to finish in Feb, but this year we have continued to have some heavy downpours. Here are a few video clips taken on my phone when we got caught in a downpour. The way the rain turned the grass into a pool in a few minutes was amazing. The road outside has a large deep drainage ditch by that was over flowing in places in a little over 10 minutes of rain. Rain like this causes missery in the "compounds" which are where the very poor live often on less than a dollar a day.

The photo (which won't upload right now!) is outside our church where the cars are parked on a Sunday, you need four wheel drive to get in and out some weeks!

Our Garden

2009-03-25T01:52:00.000-07:00

We will miss our garden when we leave Zambia this June. The colours of so many of the trees and flowers are beautiful. This picture shows one of my favourites. This blossom looks so delicate and yet it really endures, it almost feels waxy - it hung on through all the rain we have had recently and we have had a lot! One thing that we will be happy to leave behind though are the odd snakes that turn up outside. This one was killed by Richard, but as you can see from the photo its skinny body had a big lump in the middle. Well in typical boy fashion, especially one who loves science, Philip wanted to see what was inside!
It was revolting (typical girl response from Rachel and me) as the snake writhed a lot even though it was dead, and once it was cut open a small rodent emerged - dead but whole.
It would have probably kept that snake going for a long while had he not met such an untimely end!

Economic woes hit Zambia too

2009-03-11T22:09:00.000-07:00

The news is full of the world wide economic turndown. It concerns everyone - we are not looking forward to Graham having to find a job in the current climate! But here in Zambia the impact of this crisis is so much more devastating than back home. That is not said to detract from the difficulties that anyone reading this blog might be facing. It is just that unemployment here was already so high and when people lose jobs here the results are often a lack of food for the family, children not being able to go to school or being sent to relatives where parents cannot care for them, an inability to pay for medical care when needed and malnutrition. The local currency, the kwacha, has fallen in value very dramatically. Around August/September last year you got about 3200/3300 kwacha to the dollar, yesterday it was around 5600 kwacha to the dollar. There have been a few articles on the news recently about Zambia's economic woes - check these out: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7920469.stm about the collapsing flower industry here in Lusaka; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7920945.stm about the crisis in the copper industry which is probably the biggest issue in the Zambian economy right now and http://www.lusakatimes.com/?p=8525 which highlights the increase in malnutrition amongst children under the age of five. Please be in prayer for this nation.

Update on Lydia

2009-03-08T05:28:00.000-07:00

I realize that the last update I meant to email out on Lydia didn't go, so instead I am posting a combined update to the blog. Lydia was a young teacher at one of the community schools we work with and before Christmas got sick with what turned out to be TB Meningitis. It was left for a few weeks and then when I returned from the UK and found out about it, Action Zambia got her a CAT scan and operation. When she was finally operated on, the pressure in her brain had reached 71cm H2O; most people die at 40 cm H2O so it was already a small miracle she was still alive. We had to take her quite some way to get the CAT scan and take her to a private hospital for the operation, for which her family are very grateful, as this was only possible because of the generous donations that many of you have sent. The recovery is very slow. A couple of weeks ago when I visited I was quite disheartened as I could not see much progress. She was still paralyzed on one side and not talking or seeing. However, last week I went for a visit with my parents who were visiting and she is doing much better. She managed to say hello, but then could not get any more words out although she was trying hard. She has full movement back although the feeling to her right hand is only just beginning so she finds touch almost painful. She blinked when the flash went off on the camera, so there is something there although she is not seeing properly. She had responded to her parents before we arrived that she remembered who I was and I was a white man. She is at home now but needs physiotherapy twice a week which costs, so although we hope there are no more major expenses, it look like there will be weekly medical bills for quite a while to come. She sleeps a lot which we hope is helping with the healing process. She is still on liquid / mushy food. The neurosurgeon says it can take two years for a recovery and there is no assurance as to how much of a recovery she will make, especially because there was such high pressure on her brain for so long.
Please pray she will continue to improve, for her sight to come back, that she will be able to walk soon and that she can eat normally by herself. Pray for her parents as they look after her and wash her etc.

Pastors learning

2009-02-19T00:53:00.000-08:00

Graham's parents are visiting at the moment and so we invited some local pastors to our home so that Randolph, his dad, could teach them from the book of Revelation. Here is a photo of some of them under the carport as they discuss various questions that have been raised on this particular afternoon. It is great to hear them sing and then see them listening eagerly to the teaching and taking this opportunity to learn more of God's Word.

Graham's discipleship class continues too. The men are now starting to run the same course (Navigator's 2:7 ) in their own churches. So now they meet twice a week. Once continuing with the material themselves, and then also to meet and discuss how they are doing in their own churches, sharing advice and discussing how they can handle various situations that they are coming across. So from a class of 12, many are now going through this excellent course which we first came across more than 10 years ago and which we would highly recommend to any Christian who wants to really grow in their faith. It is our hope that this course would end well for these men and for the classes that have spread from this one, even though we will not be here to see them finish it. This photo shows Graham with some of his class and also with Tracy Singleton, an Action Zambia missionary who heads up the PLD (Pastoral Leadership Development) team.

Kids go bowling

2009-01-30T01:33:00.000-08:00

It has to be said that although Lusaka is a large urban sprawl with maybe 3 million people living in it, it is not always the most exciting place. After we got back from the UK Philip and Rachel still had some time to go before returning to school and the skies were generally grey with frequent rain. Rachel did herself proud as she came up with her own indoor bowling alley! She set up the pins - large yoghurt pots (emptied and clean I might add) - at the end of the corridor that the bedrooms come off. Down one side was a piece of piping she had found so she could roll the balls back to the player. The bowling balls were dried 'monkey balls' used here not to eat but decorate. She put a blanket at the end so the balls wouldn't crack (although a couple did anyway), got a small whiteboard to keep score and we were away. It worked a treat and we all had a lot of fun. So necessity really is the mother of invention (I confess we do have one bowling alley nearby so the kids haven't been deprived totally but this was a much cheaper option!) and Rachel's imagination and inventiveness certainly proved themselves.

Storm!!

2009-01-15T10:35:00.000-08:00

It is rainy season here at the moment but in general it has not been as wet as this time last year. Often it has felt humid, as if rain was due. Yesterday evening though it did not feel at all stormy but boy, was there a storm. Many locals are saying it the worst storm they have known and I think it was the same for us. The rain was so intense and went on and on and the thunder and lightning were unrelenting. The thing that amazed me was how long and loud the thunder-rolls were. Every time I thought it was calming down and I started to doze off, it started up again. The real downer is that we woke up this morning, looked out of our kitchen window and saw that a large stretch of our wall that goes around the garden had collapsed. We rushed out to check the dogs but thankfully they were around the front and hadn’t noticed, as they would have been all over the neighbourhood causing chaos... There is a servants quarters at the bottom of the garden which is used for storage and they were full of mud. It really was a mess - you can see the tide mark on the wall just above Grahams boot. To make matters worse, the belongings of one of our missionaries are currently in storage in one of these rooms but thankfully we managed to rescue most of her things although there is now a big pile of laundry! The 'hole' is about 26 metres long so we are feeling a little vulnerable but in fact you would have to go through the neighbour's garden to get to our place so it could be a lot worse. Unfortunately she just says it is our problem. In fact her property is slightly higher than ours and her wall fell on top of ours (there is a passage way between the two) but she says they are both our walls. The good news is that we hadn't handed over the rent check that was due today as the repair is going to cost around $2000! A number of other properties in the area have had similar problems so we are grateful that we were able to clear the mess and that it wasn't a front wall which would have been awful. Hopefully we will be able to make progress on repairs and get back to normal soon, whatever normal is here...!

Mechanic Graham

2008-12-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here in Zambia you often have to turn your hand to things that back home would be easy to deal with once you had scanned the yellow pages and got the right company out to fix the problem. Since being here Graham has done more work on cars than in the last 20 years and this last weekend turned his hand to mending the washing machine! When it was spinning the noise was terrible and it was obvious that something was stuck under the drum. This meant dismantling the whole machine to disassemble the drum and the offending piece of wire was right at the back of the drum. By this time it was practically dark so he left it in pieces ready to put it together in the morning but it rained. This wouldn't normally be a problem but our laundry room has three walls and a bar gate and so the rain comes in so then everything had to be dried with the help of our one little heater and a fan. So does it work now?
Well first time around he forgot to attach the drum rubber to the front panel so it leaked! Fixed that and also a small leak discovered in the front glass, so for now we are back to normal!

Church building projects

2008-12-07T04:11:00.000-08:00

It seems to us that wherever you live, if you attend a church long enough, there will be a building project! That has certainly been our experience so far and our church here in Lusaka, International Baptist Church (it is actually very Zambian!) announced that it is hoping to move forward with their building plans very soon. It is a very different project to the ones we are used to. Our church here has a reasonable sized building but there is no electricity whatsover and this is one of the things that they want to change. There is a Sunday School room where the children meet but this has no windows and no proper door ad as with all the rooms except the main one, no finish of any kind on the rough concrete floor. The roofs are corrugated metal so it is very loud when it rains! And as for air conditioning during the hot season - well we can just dream....! There are classes for the adults and children before the main service and some of these take place outside as there is just a couple of extra rooms in addition to the the sanctuary. It is however a place we have come to treasure and look forward to coming to every week. The church is so friendly and our pastor has an amazing heart for his congregation - he is also the bursar for a theological seminary so he is a busy man. Every week we come to worship, hear God's word and see friends - no electricity perhaps but it is a wealthy place indeed.

Living Waters School

2008-11-28T23:35:00.000-08:00

This week I visited Living Waters School in Mtendere with Megan, our community schools worker for Action Zambia. It is run by the church and the children there are generally getting a good education. The school year here in Zambia runs from January to December with three months in school and then one month off. So school for most kids, unless they are sitting exams, finishes for Christmas at the end of November. The photo shows them all lining up before classes start. Children in so many ways are the same wherever you go. They are joking, shoving each other, waving shyly at me and Megan and quickly paying attention if the teacher spots them trying to goof off! On this particular occasion we were there as school starts and the sight outside the gates was a sad one. On either side of the 'road' leading to the school/church there are a number of bars and despite limited opening hours they are pretty much open all the time. Some of the men outside them were obviously somewhat the worse for wear even though it was 8.15 in the morning! I had to be careful to take photos surreptitiously! Beer here is sold in cartons, just like milk cartons back home. The road is muddy as rainy season has started and it was strewn with discarded cartons. Probably not the sort of environment you would like your kid's school to be in but we are thankful that the teachers at this school are committed to God, and to the children, so despite the surroundings, the kids here are getting a great opportunity.

The Puppies Return!

2008-11-16T10:53:00.000-08:00

Yes the puppies have returned! Well not all eight of them but the first two that left us have now been back for a couple of weeks. Their new owners had a trip back to the States for a month and asked us if we could look after them. We weren't sure if it would work out. We had the feeling that dogs don't welcome their offspring back in quite the same way as us humans do! But after some initial growling and sniffing things have been going well. Chisomo, the mum, made it very clear who is the boss - she is! Coco wasn't quite sure about sharing cuddle time with these new arrivals (for a huge dog he is the biggest softie!) but they are all getting along very well now and it is fun to have them all here, especially as Coco likes to play a lot so he has playmates for a while. The two pups left our place as Cutie Pie and Fluffy but thankfully were re-named as Buster and Brown. Much more appropriate for two puppies that are going to be as big as their dad ie probably at least 80lbs once they are a year old! So here are some photos so you can see h0w much they have changed from two little mainly black fluff balls at six weeks old to the handsome four and a half month olds that they are now (Buster is the paler one).

Election Fever

2008-11-06T09:45:00.000-08:00

It has been virtually impossible to miss the huge change on the American political landscape as the intense debate and media coverage culminated in victory for Democrat Barack Obama this week.
Zambia has also just emerged from election fever. President Levy Mwanawasa died on August 19th and elections to replace him took place one week ago on October 30th. The electioneering was just as intense. A huge difference to what we are used to was the element of tribalism, particularly in the rural areas where many will vote according to the direction that their tribal Chief gives. There were four contenders but the main two were Rupiah Banda who had been acting President since Mwanawasa's death and Michael Sata. The former represents MMD - Movement for Multiparty Democracy - the party that has been in power since 1991, standing for economic continuity and stability for foreign investors. However, the charges of corruption during Banda's time as vice-president and as he campaigned have been widespread. His closest opponent, Sata, stood for the poor and is hugely popular among the underprivileged population here in Lusaka. He is often accused of being hot-headed and speaking before thinking. So election day came and it was very quiet. The day was declared a public holiday to give everyone the chance to vote and the quietness continued throughout the weekend. Rumours abounded as to possible danger, especially if Sata lost - that machetes were impossible to buy as they had all been purchased and that the army was going to be out on the streets. In the end peace generally ruled other than a few isolated incidents. Sata had the lead until Saturday night when Banda took it and never looked back. The claims of corruption continue and Banda was certainly inaugurated with great speed, just two hours after the final total was announced. As always in politics it is impossible to know the true story but Banda will be president now until 2011 and then who knows what will happen then. If you want to keep up with Zambian politics, check out www.Lusakatimes.com - a great window into what is going on here.

As for elections, I'll let Rachel have the last word. After dinner tonight she looked over her dad's shoulder as he read the BBC and said 'Oh, is Obama in the lead' - so there was one person who didn't know the result.....

Satanism in schools?

2008-10-18T01:59:00.000-07:00

We recently heard a shocking story that highlights how prevelant superstition, witchcraft and animisim are here in Zambia, even in a city like Lusaka. Friends of ours have four children, are strong Christians - the father is a pastor and is well-travelled, they are well educated and committed to strong Biblical teaching and building up the church. Just over a week ago they were asked to come to their youngest son's school, he is 13 years old. They expected it to be about his performance in a particular subject and were surprised when so many staff were there ready for this meeting. It turned out that their son had shared his lunchtime drink with a friend and that this boy had gone home and allegedly suffered terrible dreams which in turn his parents ascribed to the 'fact' that he had been cursed. The curse was believed to have been cast by our friends' son and because it was so strong the conclusion was that the father (ie our pastor friend) was involved too. The worst is yet to come. This innocent 13 year old boy was pressurised into signing a confession by the teachers that he was practicing satanism and had cursed his classmate. Unbelievably, this is not a private school but a government run secondary/high school in one of the nicest parts of Lusaka.

This has obviously been a very testing time for our friends and they are, not surprisingly, moving their son to a different, non-government school. It also demonstrates how in Zambia, as a 'christian country' such evil practices and beliefs lie just under the surface in all walks of life.

Jacaranda

2008-10-12T05:25:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been terribly hot, but beautiful too, as some of the trees burst into flower. The colours here are fantastic and here is my favourite. This is the Jacaranda tree that sits in the middle of the car park/parking lot at the school that Philip and Rachel attend. As we walk to and from school each day the road we go along is lined with these trees that form a beautiful purple parade. Often as you look around in Lusaka there is rubbish by the side of the road, people in desperate straits and the signs of a country where over 80% of the population live below the poverty line but you look upwards and you see the beauty of the jacaranda tree.

The dangers of Bus Travel

2008-09-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

Today there was a meeting of a number of Pastors at our house. One Pastor turned up and had lost his glasses. He was very embarrassed as it meant he could not see people well enough to recognize them. When he explained how he had lost them, it made me thankful I was not with him. The bus he caught to get to us had caught fire. With sparks and flames everywhere, people were rushing to get off. The buses are small, should only hold 14 passengers but often have over 20, the most I have counted including children was 25. Here are a few pictures I took using my Nokia N93 of the inside of a bus last week, I have reduced the resolution for the blog but I think you can get an idea of how bad it was. I was in the front with another man and the driver and was expecting it break down at any point. As it turned out we didn't get very far until the police stopped us and impounded the bus - but not for the condition it was in but for having too many passengers. We joined the line of impounded buses and thankfully we got a refund to get on another bus. We then had to walk along to the front of the line where an empty bus picked us up - all of us - so overloaded we carried on on our journey.

Pastors at Lusaka Theological College

2008-08-24T11:51:00.000-07:00

I have been teaching on Tuesday nights at a small college in Kanyama - a township/compound in the south of Lusaka (it was the one that got badly flooded) It is called Lusaka Theological college and is set up to be a low cost college for pastors in the local area. I have just finished teaching them a 12 weeks course on Galatians and Romans and last week gave them back their assignments and their final tests. The nights usually end up, and sometimes start, with no electricity so we end up using candles. It is a bit of a dangerous drive back after dark in the compound, especially going through the city market at night. The traffic jams up as there are no police out at that time and every mini bus driver thinks only of himself. I once got stuck for nearly one hour trying to get through and felt very conspicuous as the only white. Fortunately it is still early enough so the drunks are mainly just merry! I started taking a long detour around, but that means either going over a very risky mud bridge that is only just wide enough for my four wheel drive, or going through the heart of another compound on a very narrow mud road. So, partly as a treat for them and partly for me, we held this last class in our office in town and had pizza and a fruity drink. I had sent out a text message saying we would be having pizza, so they turned up smartly dressed because they thought I sent them a message saying "I would take their picture"!!! I worked it out after a while where they got the idea of the picture, when I realized how few had seen pizza. As it happened I did bring my camera and here are some a few pictures. I started with 14 pastors at the beginning of term, but one died a few weeks into the course from a stomach ulcer. A few were traveling as it was the summer holidays so there are just eight of them here.

Here they are singing a few songs at the beginning.

The last photos are them posing with their papers, results and a copy of Wentworth Pikes "Sharing The Bread of Life" which Doug Nichols from Action International had sent across previously.

President Mwanawasa Dies

2008-08-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

Ever since the President suffered a stroke at the end of June and was transferred to France for treatment, there has been rumour and discussion as to the state of his health and whether he would ever be able to act as president in the future. No photos were shown of him in hospital and the government came under attack for their tepid comments on the issue. Well now that is all at an end. Today it was announced that President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia died around 10.30 am local time. Seven days of mourning start today although exactly what that means is unclear. Zambia has only had three presidents since it became an independent nation and Mwanawasa is the first to pass away. Constitutionally presidential elections have to be held within 90 days so the coming weeks will be vital ones for Zambia. A poor nation, Zambia has nonetheless been stable and peaceful and economic progress was being made. Please pray for the country's continued political and economic stability and for peaceful elections.

Visitors

2008-08-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

We have had a great time this summer (well winter here of course) with visitors coming out to see us in Lusaka. Sarah's mum was out just as school finished and treated us to a fantastic helicopter ride over Victoria Falls! It was lovely to get out of Lusaka for a couple of days and return to Livingstone which we last visited back in 2004. Next our friends and neighbours, the Klingenbergs, came and we enjoyed spending time with them. Philip and Bernard practiced their catapult skills in the garden and Rachel loved having Aleah and Hayley to hang out with. We took them to our friend, Ernest Sitali's, church which proved to be a very Zambian experience and enjoyed shopping with them as they looked for chitenges and other momentos of their trip here. Last but not least, Sarah's brother Stephen and his mum, Claire, arrived on Stephen's 18th birthday. In true Zambian fashion we had a punture on a dirt road within 15 minutes of leaving the airport as we travelled to a lodge to celebrate. We managed to soak him in water (the thing to do to people on their birthdays here), get him photographed right next to an elephant and to end the day he was presented with a wonderful cake accompanied by a fantastic rendition of 'Happy Birthday'. The college where Claire works has adopted our community schools this year as their charity, so it was great timing that Megan was running teacher training workshops during their visit which Claire had the opportunity to attend and meet all the teachers. It was a flying visit - just 5 days in all and we wish that they could have stayed longer.

It was great to spend time with friends and family, to cuddle our puppies, to share some of what we are doing here, introduce them to some of our Zambian friends and customs as well as just enjoy their company (OK - and the goodies they brought with them!). We really appreciate everyone's support whether it be financial, an encouraging email or turning up on our doorstep - thank you all for coming!

2008-07-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

The Puppies Arrive

2008-07-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

June 28th 2008 was a crazy day! We had friends over to celebrate Graham's birthday (which was the next day), my mum was visiting and we had three other overnight guests. To add to the excitement, soon after dinnerr (this is all the day before we went on our long journey to Livingstone,) our German Shepherd Cross started to give birth. Then some time later the next one arrived as you can see from this photo. Quite soon it became quite a spectacle and our over night guests took their seat at the event! Megan was doing all the hard work of helping Chisomo, having done this before and she kindly looked after them all while we away. Eventually by 6am the next morning our 'old lady' had produced 9 puppies! Sadly we have lost one but the other eight are going strong. To see some more photos including some of Graham getting soaked on his birthday then check out Meg's blog on: http://zamchic.blogspot.com. Why would he get wet? A birthday tradition here in Zambia - you throw water over the birthday boy or girl! So Graham got hit with water balloons plus a couple of bowl fulls courtesy of our team leader and a local pastor!