Fiona (SA) in Zambia

Fiona is serving in Zambia as an Associate in Mission. She writes: It’s been raining quite a lot here in Mwandi and we have already reached the rainfall average for the year. The river is rising and it will be interesting to see how high it gets this year. The harvest of maize is looking promising for the community and shall start in the next few weeks. A few animals are enjoying the river are a hippo and baby that I saw the other morning just out the front of my house, as well as quite a few crocodiles floating up and down the river over the past few weeks, and they have been big crocs.

Mid Jan we had a visitor from the States who came to look at the water project at the OVC. Our friend Greg and the Livingstone Rotary Club had worked hard in sourcing the money for the bore hole, water pump, tanks and fittings. We had a Sunday afternoon visit by 6 Rotarians from Livingstone and they were impressed with the Project. I hope that we are able to work together again on many other projects.

The OVC project recently received a container full of dehydrated lentil food mix to add to the menu for the feeding program. The meals are high in protein and the children are enjoying the different taste and texture. The Mwandi UCZ mission received 4 containers all up and the food has been distributed to many people in Mwandi and outlying villages. It has been a great relief for families and we hope that it may continue in the future.

My dear friend, Heath, the hospital lab technician, was married here in Mwandi the last week of Feb and it was an exquisite ceremony. The service was at the UCZ Church and the reception was at Simba House. There was a lot of dancing from a few tribes. The chief was the guest of honor at the wedding. This meant that if you walked in front of where the chief was seated you had to kneel down and clap to respect him. The food was good, the music was fun, it didn’t rain and the couple was very cute. I managed to have a nice chat with the chief at the wedding as I had not seen him for a long time. He was very complimentary on how the OVC project is going.

We have quite a few visitors here at the moment from Australia – Bevan and Sandra, and Chris and Nicole. Sandra and Bevan came to Mwandi last year for a few months and they couldn’t keep away from the place. Bevan has been hard at work on many different projects and Sandra has been doing many different things to help at the Drop in Centre. Nicole is a professional singer and she will be working with the children at OVC, with the Church choir and at the school with the music classes. Chris is an actor and he will be working with the OVC feeding kids, Anti-Aids Club at the school, drama classes at the school and some odd jobs around the mission. Both Chris and Nicole will be spending time with the kids with sports. They are extremely talented. Last night Nicole sang for us and she has an amazing voice.

The feeding program is going well and we now have 97 children registered on the program. (Six of these are under 1 year) Fruit has been added into the menu (when I can get the quantities in Livingstone). Over the past few weeks all the children have been going for the health checks at the hospital. We can only send over 5 children per day to be screened. We have a few that are HIV/AIDS positive.

Muziba is a changed child. He was so weak before that he couldn’t even lift his leg up to get inside the Centre and I hadn’t heard him speak for a few months. Now he talks all the time and is running around playing soccer with the other boys. It’s just awesome to see this little boy having fun and able to enjoy eating a different, healthier diet. The children have been receiving milk three times and week and they love their milk. It’s the only calcium in their diet and we feel that it is a very important part of their diet.

I am delighted with the way the community is responding to volunteer help with the feeding program. The Churches have been bringing firewood for the oven and ladies have been coming to clean the surrounds. Because of the rain the grass has been very high. We have recently planted some lawn and flowers at the front of the Drop In Centre for the children to play on. With this rain it has taken off really well and it will certainly brighten up the place instead of the sand that is seen everywhere.

When I was in Lusaka, on the way home from Malawi, I purchased some hula-hoops. You can imagine they have been a huge success and the kids are forever playing with them. They will wear out in no time. I just love to see the kids get so excited and having fun.

This week we employed a full time Gardener/ Handyman at OVC. We have tomatoes planted and they are growing well, but insects ate our other vegetables. We want to grow many more vegetables. Because of the rain and insects nothing has been able to grow, but in the next few weeks we should be able to really get things into full swing. Over the weekend we shall start a nursery and we aim to grow onions, cabbages, tomatoes, peppers, beans, rape and Chinese cabbage. He will look after our fruit trees, which are doing very well.

Bevan is currently making a tank stand for our water tank for the garden program so we are able to store 5000ltrs of water. With water and manure we should be able to have a wonderful garden to sustain the feeding program and sales.

The pre-school has a new teacher called Giblet and he is doing well. There are 131 children at the pre-school each morning. Kalpelwa is the teacher helper. Both the men are very encouraging, and the kids are learning new things each and every day. Giblet is a local man trained in Lusaka at the National Pre-school Association. We hope and pray that he continues to teach the children and love them. He spends time teaching them correct behaviour and general health issues and other general information. Most of the pre-school children need a lot of guidance as they are orphans and don’t have that parental guidance and teaching.

We have been receiving many books from friends all over the world. It is overwhelming. We have so many incredible books now and most afternoons in the week we have silent reading. Once we start Saturday feeding they will be able to spend more time reading.

Next week we are starting to make the cement blocks for the bakery at OVC. All the community will participate in the block making and we shall be able to start building the bakery at the beginning of April. We have an architect here at the moment in Mwandi and he has designed a very practical bakery for the community.

I was able to collect our Project mini bus while I was in Lusaka a few weeks ago and all that we are waiting for is to register it as a Zambian mini bus taxi and then we are able to start generating some income for the Project. We hope to do runs between Livingstone and Sesheke a few days a week and see how that goes.

The Education Support aspect for the OVC Project just has been amazing this year. We have 66 students supported in Sesheke High School, 40 in evening classes at Mwandi and 270 in Mwandi Basic School grades 1-9.

Some days I look at where we are now with the Project, and it humbles me. Knowing that the children are receiving support from all our programs their hope for the future is bright. I thank God for guiding me and being there with me each and every minute of the day.

Lots of Love

Fred (Fiona).

For information about the People in Mission program, Kathy Periera, People in Mission Coordinator, Ph 02 8267 4230, kathyp@nat.uca.org.au