Chikumbuso in Zambia

Group on safari!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Today will be a very busy and exciting day for us.  I cannot sleep and arise early to shower & get ready for the day.  We gather near the pavilion for a breakfast of cereal, left over chicken from last night’s supper, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, and hard-boiled eggs.  We have no hot water for tea, so Helmut goes to the restaurant on the premises & returns with a plastic bottle of boiling water for tea & coffee.  It tastes great because Linda W. had packed us some milk and sugar for our tea.  We all agree she is a great woman!

After breakfast we board the bus that Boniface will drive into the Mosi-Tunya Park for a safari drive.  At the gate we decide a guide would also be a good idea even though it will be an extra 45,000 kwacha.  As we drive along we are wondering if our money was well spent because we are all looking for animals & the guide is reading the newspaper.  He does give Boniface the directions on which roads to take and we soon come upon a male impala with a herd of about 30 females.  The males have long curled horns and females do not.  The guide says that 1 male will impregnate all 30 females and so they travel together.  We are on the lookout for large animals, but are not sure if we will see any.  I ask about the white rhinos that we saw 3 years ago.  I knew that one of them had been killed even though they had been guarded by armed guards 24 hours per day.  The guide tells us that he does not know if we will see any rhinos because they have imported 4 new ones from South Africa & they have been in hiding.

But we are not disappointed about what we see for shortly there after we spot some giraffes across a big field eating from the tall trees.  We drive around and are able to get very close to them and watch them eat the leaves by sticking their tongues out and stripping the leaves off the branches.  Soon we come upon a hippo who is sunning himself on the edge of a watering hole.  He is mostly out of the water, but we cannot see his head, unlike most of the other hippos whose bodies were submersed in water and only their heads or eyes were sticking up out of the water.  We are all quite excited.  And them we come upon a wildebeast standing in the middle of an open field.  He stands there quite proudly as we take his picture.  Shortly after the wildebeast sighting, we come upon a heard of zebra who are actually standing amongst a group of wildebeasts.  Apparently they get along very well.  The guide tells us that the zebra & the elephants do not get along very well though.    We are so excited, because we also see a group of about 5 or 6 giraffes in the same area.  One of the giraffes is said to be only a few months old.  We watch him spread his front legs as he tries to reach some grass on the ground.  Their legs are so long that it is difficult for them to get a drink of water or to eat anything from the ground.  It is much easier to reach leaves in the trees.   As we finish out tour & head toward the exit we also see a flock of marabou storks wading ina watering hole and a few more giraffes right near the side of the road.  Christine actually saw a crocodile slide into the river but it was so quick that none of the rest of us saw it.

We return to the Waterfront to get into our bathing suits and the big event of the weekend-VICTORIA FALLS!!!!!  Americans pay $20 each and Zambians pay 7,000 K which is about $1.50.  The Zambian children pay about $1.  We can hear the roar of the falls as we approach!  Everyone is getting very excited.  The first area to see the falls is very impressive, so we think!!  We take many photos of each of us, thinking this is it!!   Wow!!  Were we mistaken.  As we approach the next lookout, Helmut says, “Why did we stop back there?  This so much better!!”  So we take many more photos again.  Each stop closer to the knife bridge has a better view and we are beginning to get wet.  The excitement grows.  And then we begin to get soaked.  Everyone is giggling and laughing so much.  THIS IS WHAT WE CAME FOR!!!!   By the time we get to the knife bridge where people usually get wet, we are soaked.  Crossing the bridge is like walking under a continuous pouring of buckets of water on your head.  We are not even able to open our eyes as we cross.  Helmut & I are the last to cross & we just hold onto each other and the railing on the side that is covered in algae because of the constant warm “rain” from the falls that land on it.  This is he most amazing rain shower I have ever been in.  The children, Andrew & the widows are screaming with joy.  Our next stop is the real “rain storm”!!!!  It just doesn’t get any better than this!!!!!!

Girrafes in a field. The baby is only a few months old.

Christine & her "family"

Sunday-April 11th

We arrive at Chikumbuso at about 6:30 am to pick up Trudy & Maureen, 2 of the widows at Chikumbuso, as well as Andrew, the 5th grade teacher & 3 students-Agrippa & Christine (our sponsored children), & Mary (Linda Coats’ sponsored child).  We are headed to Livingston where we will go on a driving safari and see Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World!!!  All except Christine are waiting for us.  Andrew assures me that Christine will be coming because she dropped her bag off at Chikumbuso yesterday, which was the day we were supposed to leave, except the bus wasn’t ready.  I guess Christine never got the message that we were postponing for a day.  After about 30 minutes, Christine appears through the gate with her ex-step-aunt, her cousin and her step- mother’s sister.  We greet each other and I thank the aunt for helping Christine out by taking her in when she was sent to the village by her uncle.  She tells me a bit about the story, but as we try to leave, the aunt asks me for food because she has none at home.  I fill 3 cups with cereal & milk and they find a spoon in Trudy’s house at Chikumbuso.

We all board the bus and are off!!  Everyone is a bit quiiet at first.  I sit with Christine and we chat along the way.  Everytime we pass some huts, she comments that this is like the village where she was taken.  She asks me if I would like to go to the village & meet her mother’s sister.  I tell her I don’t have a car so I will have to check with “Mama Linda.”  The ride to Livingston as we are told is to take about 6 hours! It actually took us about 8 hours counting our 2 stops along the way-one in Choma Village for lunch & one to get gas.  Christine & I work on a bit of her math which she had difficulty with.  She has some long division that we go over, but I find that she does not even know any of her multiplication fact, so we practice a bit of those.

Christine asks if she can read to me from the new Bible I gave her.  She is a faith filled young girl who knows her Bible very well.  She finds her favorite verses and reads them to me quite fluently.  After she reads, she highlights the verses with her new yellow highlighter.  Christine has a beautiful voice and sings in the choir at the New Apostolic Church.   She begins to sing a song that she is writing.  It is beautiful, & I tell her she must finish it so that I can video record it and show the video to everyone at home. As we travel Christine begins to move closer to me in the seat and puts her hand on my knee as we close our eyes to rest for a bit.

In Kafue, we stop along side the road to buy Agrippa a drum from a local drummaker.  He seems very please!

Buying Agrippa a drum.

Agrippa has been sitting and looking out the window the entire time.  I wonder what he is thinking.  He seems to be taking it all in-every sight & every sound.  Helmut teaches Andrew & Agrippa how to play Gin Rummy and they taught Helmut their version of Poker.  They also enjoyed a few hands of “War.”  After 5 hours of driving we arrived at Choma Village for a picnic lunch.  We used the bathrooms which cost 1,000 kwacha to use.  This is about 25 cents.  We decided not to go into the museum which was centered around the Tonga tribe in the area.  We felt that we needed to move along to Livingston.

Agrippa chooses his drum!

We arrive in Livingston at about 3:30 or 4 pm and check in at The Waterfront Campground.  We hurry to the bridge at the falls because we hope to see someone bungie jumping, but suddenly the sky is turns dark & we get a slight mist.  We make our way to the bridge between Zambia & Zimbabwe.  They are all excited at the first sight of Victoria Falls, even though there is a lot of mist & you can hardly see the actual falls.  Unfortunately there is no one jumping today, but Andrew was quite excited to step over the border to Zimbabwe.

By this time we are all famished, so we make our way into the downtown area of Livingston for an evening meal.  The restaurant offers chicken, pork, fish , etc. but all of the Zambians, except Trudy, order nshima and chicken.  They all try some of Helmut’s onion rings, but are quite happy to eat the nshima.   They ask if it is okay to eat it with their hands, we say yes, and soon the waiter comes by with a pitcher of water & a bowl for them to wash their hands in.  They roll the nshima in their right hand to dip in the “relish” (chicken)and keep the other hand clean.  the meal is enjoyed by all.  For Christine, Mary & Agrippa, this is their first experience in a restaurant.  There is also live music by a swing or blues type band, and a TV can be seen at the bar.

Agrippa & Christine at a restaurant for the 1st time!

Although our main focus is Chikumbuso, we have been enjoying getting together in the evenings with a lot of very interesting people from around Africa & the USA.  One night was spent having dinner in Dave Neuschwander’s back yard under the stars.  He is the Director of Operations of World Bicycle relief and lives here in Zambia. He left his very lucrative position as an investment banker in Chicago 3 years ago to work with World Bicycle relief delivering bicycles to aids care givers working for World Vision in Zambia.  The menu at the dinner party included nshima, pumpkin leaves, polenta, beef bourginoin (?), green beans almondine, and chocolate lava cakes with ice cream.

Another evening we spent at a cocktail party with a group of very influential women from World Vision, the Center For Infectious Disease and Research in Zambia, a journalist writing about women in Zambia, an author writing a book about land grabbing & inheritance rights of women.  It was a fascinating and inspiring night!!!  Women are really doing amazing things!!!  One story was about a Zambian woman who wanted a loan to buy some chickens.  The organization was a bit skeptical about loaning her the money; however, she started making a profit selling her eggs & chickens and now runs a hotel & conference center.  She had promised to give back, so is planning to open an orphanage.  The stories here are amazing and a little money goes a long way!!!!!!!

Tabita & her twin sister Tamara.

Thursday & Friday were also spent at Chikumbuso getting to know the children better.  Thursday morning I taught a lesson on multiplication to Gladys’s 2nd grade class.  She has 40+ children in her classroom, 12 who have disabilities.  I learned that Tabita who is in 5th grade has a twin sister Tamara who is in Glady’s second grade class.   Tamara is almost completely blind.  She had malaria when she was young (she is now 11) and was given some medication that damaged her eyesight.  She can now only see light & dark, but her eyesight continues to worsen, and eventually she will be completely blind.  Gladys says that Tamara wants to do everything all the other children are doing even though she cannot see.  Tabita wants to be a doctor, and when asked Tamara says the same.  Linda Wilkison said that there is a doctor coming this summer who she is going to ask to look at Tamara to see if there is anything that can be done for her.

Christopher Kabulwe who is also in Gladys’s class has been following me everywhere.  Every time I turn around, he is there smiling at me or waving at me.  On Thursday I sat with him and wrote a bit about him to report pack to his sponsors, the Chikumbuso Club members at PMS.  On Friday he brought a letter for me to take back to PMS.  When I asked him to read it to me, he fluently told me what it said, but it was none of the words that were on the page!  Christopher cannot read!!!! He had told us his favorite book was Peter Pan, so we found a copy at Linda’s house to give to him.  Helmut read it to him as a large group of children looked on.  He was so proud to have the book, but was still willing to share it with those who asked to see it.  When we were saying goodbye to everyone for the weekend, Christopher ran aver to Helmut, threw his arms around him and began to sob!  We told him we would see him next week, but he was still very sad.  These children are so starved for attention.  It is going to be very difficult to leave this time because it is not just Chikumbuso we will be leaving, it will be Christopher, Tabitia, Christine, Agrippa,……. the smiling faces we have come to love!!!!!

Helmut Reading Peter Pan to Christopher.

Helmut & Christopher

Burundi drummers at the Wilkinson's dinner party! Fantastic!!!

Tonight the Wilkinson’s hosted 20 people from Zambia and the USA for dinner.  Many were from organizations who raise money for organizations like Chikumbuso all over the world.  Dinner was served out under the stars at a very long candlelit table.  We had the very special treat of hearing an African drumming group from Burundi, Africa.  They were fantastic!!!!  There were also 3 children who danced as the men drummed.

Greetings from Zambia for now.  I must get some sleep!!

Easter Weekend

We arrived in Zambia Friday night & left for the Lower Zambezi River early Sat morning.  After a 3 hour drive, a broken axle on the boat trailer & a 4 hour wait for the boat to arrive at the river, we arrived at the Chongwe River Camp.  It is a very, very nice “camp” with outdoor dining and so many animals around that we had to have a guard walk us back to our tent after dark.  At night we could here lions roaring and the hyenas laughing across the river.  Hippos come into the campgrounds to eat the grass at night.  It is totally amazing!!!!!  We went on a jeep and canoe safari where we saw impalas, water buck deer, hippos, and crocodiles!!!!!   During lunch on Easter Sunday an elephant decided to cross the river and enter the camp and graze by the pool!!!  Can you believe it????

Can you believe this? this elephant walked right through our camp!!!!

Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday

We have spent the past 2 days at Chikumbuso.  It is amazing the changes that have taken place in the last 3 years!!!!  We got a tour of the 5^th grade classroom, the new kitchen, the children’s playscape, the water wheel, the safe haven for homeless children and the new art room. I have spent time with Christopher Kabulwe & Tabitah Daka both whom are sponsored by the PMS Chikumbuso Club.  They are very thankful for all that Pawcatuck has done for them.  I will share more with you when I return.  Today I sat in on Christopher’s second grade math class.  Tomorrow I am going to be teaching a lesson on multiplication in the same second grade class.

I have also spent time with Christine and Agrippa.  They have both grown so much in 3 years.  Christine is still troubled by her home situation, but for now is staying with an ex-cousin in law.  They have been taking exams this week but will be off from school on Friday.  We will be traveling to Victoria Falls (one of the 7 natural wonders of the world) on the weekend with Agrippa and Christine (our 2 sponsor children) and Andrew & Trudy (2 of the teachers).  We will be camping and going on a safari drive.  We are all very excited about the trip.

Our first meeting with Agrippa & Christine our sponsor children.

Today, Wednesday,  after classes were over, we spent time with Linda Wilkinson and the widows.  They sat around and told stories of how their lives have been changed by Chikumbuso.  The stories were all very moving and many a tear was shed;  however they ended each story with a song or a song & dancing.   Even though they have faced many hardships, they are very thankful for all that they have and for those who have helped them along the way.  I must also add that the whole time the widows spend at Chikumbuso, they are either cooking for the children or crocheting bags from recycled plastic bags.  They are always finding interesting patterns & new designs to make the bags more interesting.

Andrew's classroom.

Tabitah wearing PMS Chikumbuso Club chatenge!! Thank You Pawcatuck!!

Christopher with his mother who is a widow at Chikumbuso. Thank you Pawcatuck Chikumbuso Club!!