Last few days

Sept. 17 2011
Returning to Chikumbuso, we are welcomed by the women.  We flock to the handmade bags crocheted from recycled plastic bags, all unique in different colors and patterns, while the women in the other room watch us - hopeful that we will pick their bag.  The sale of every bag supports families affected by HIV, and a portion goes to the artist herself.  After purchasing my bags I seat myself on the floor against the wall among the women.  The woman next to me says they have been weaving bags here for approx. 7 years since Chicumbuso opened in 2005.  She tells me she is very happy working here and grateful to Chikumbuso for supporting her. 
They start singing together - I'm not sure if its for us - I get the feeling they sing often while they work.  In perfect harmony their voices blend together in an orchestra of strength; forming a shield of spiritual protection from the storm of HIV they face every day.  They take turns getting up and doing a little dance, giggling with every move.  After each woman finishes dancing - celebratory hoots and hollers follow.

Sept 19, 2011
This morning I walked to Birdland School from our hotel - about 1 mile away. With presidential elections tomorrow I can feel the energy in the air - - excitement mixed with anxious concern over whether the voting process will be fair. We spoke to Mrs. Mumba upon arriving at Birdland about the elections and she said she is very concerned about the ballots.  They discovered in the past week that the quality of paper does not hold ink well and when folded, becomes illegible.  This is a problem as ballots mist be folded to fit into the ballot box.  Could be another ploy by the government or simply an overlooked issue and lack of finances for good paper. 
I explained to Olive I had come to meet the girls we sponsored, Zelesi, Betty and Lisa.  Since I'd already met Lisa, she called Zelesi and Betty out of class.  I chatted with both girls who were very timid, it was probably intimidating for them to meet their "sponsor", but they were happy to take a photo with me.  Zelesi, who is 7th grade, loves math, English and science, while Betty's favorite subjects are English and social studies. 

A perfect ending to my trip!  Now I'm ready for my 30 hours of flying, and can't wait to sleep in my own bed! 

Your Donations to Birdland School

September 14, 2011

Dear friends and family,
Arriving at Birdland school today I met with Olive Mumba the principle and founder of the private primary school in Lusaka.  Olive is an inspiring woman who as an educator is committed to providing a quality education to Zambian children no matter what their background or needs.

After three weeks of touring many different schools and organizations in Zambia, I have chosen Birdland to be the recipient of our donations of $750.00. I met with Olive today and proposed my idea - to use the money to help underprivileged girls with their tuition.  I specifically asked her if any girls have withdrawn from the current school term due to finances.  After thinking for a moment, she decided on one girl named Zelesi Mwanza.  Zelesi is in the 7th grade and was preparing to take her exams which will determine what secondary school she will begin next year (high school.)  She is a bright student, and determined to learn despite her recent family hardships.  Her father has passed away and her mother is now a widow with very limited income.  Zelesi is considered an 'orphan' now since her father has passed, and Olive is pretty sure the mother, Mrs. Mwanza, is also HIV positive.  She withdrew from school this past Fall (our Spring) and did not return to school this term - which started last week. 

Olive phoned Mrs. Mwanza in front of me and told her the good news, that "a good samaritan" had just offered to pay for Zelesis's term this year as well as last year's term which they still owed as well.  I could hear Mrs. Mwanza crying on the phone from across the room.  Then, Olive handed me the phone to say 'hello.'  I could not understand a word she was saying because she was crying and thanking me in a mixture of Chinyanga and English :) I told her we were happy to help her family and also explained that my friends and family had donated the money - I was just the messenger.  Olive herself had tears in her eyes - it was such a magical moment.  Olive had no remaining scholarship resources this year to help them and so it meant a lot to her to be able to give this news to Mrs. Mwanza.  She finished the phone call - telling her to send Zelesi to school tomorrow, that everything has been taken care of.  After hanging up the phone, she asked if she could hug me! 

Olive then took a few moments to think of another family in need.  She called a student named Lisa out of her fifth grade class and asked her to run home and bring her mother.  The poor child looked scared to death from being called into the principle's office (!)  She must have lived close because her mother arrived within 5-10 minutes.  Before she arrived, Olive explained to me their circumstances - Mrs. Katebe's husband was a butcher and lost his job and has had a difficult time finding work since (Zambia's unemployment rate is 90% among young men.) So Mrs. Katebe has been forced to work selling vegetables to support the family.  As a young woman in her twenties, she is struggling with working in addition to raising her kids.  She is beautiful and appeared so closed in age to me that we could easily be friends (despite her lack of English!)  And so Olive proceeded to explain to her that both of her daughters' school fees for last term and this term were going to be paid by 'this woman Emily.'  Another heartfelt thanks as we hugged and held hands.  Olive explained that Mrs. Katebe's 12 year old daughter Betty had stopped coming to school since her parents could not afford to pay fees, while Lisa the 11 year old is "headstrong" and kept coming! Both girls were invited to attend school tomorrow and for the rest of the term.

I hope have captured the moment well enough for you to imagine their faces and grateful tears as I presented your donations.  I wish you all were here to see it!  I plan to return to school tomorrow afternoon to meet the three girls and take a photo with them to share with you all. 

Thank you on behalf of Olive Mumba and Birdland School, and Mrs. Mwanza and Mrs. Katebe, for your generous donations. 

Love,
Emily

Mfuwe Secondary School Opening

Sept 5, Mfuwe
Today we attended the opening of Mfuwe Day Secondary School.  We helped the leaders of Project Luangwa - Karen and Dave - set up for the opening ceremony.  Project Luangwa is an organization of local safari hotels that donate proceeds to local projects in the village of Mfuwe.  This particular project was to build a much-needed secondary school (the students were continuing to attend the over-crowded primary school classrooms.)  It was a hot day and a dust storm coated our bodies with dirt.  To top it off - we had nowhere to privately eat our sack lunches with all of the neighbor kids swarming about us - so most of our group ate in front of them - a big no-no in Zambian culture.)  I waited and ate mine behind a tree unseen, it was just too awkward to eat in front of very hungry kids who usually go without lunch.
Today was a hard day on everyone physically with the heat and dust (90s here), but the celebration went without a hitch and the Zambian minister of education was in attendance.  It was a great success for Project Luangwa.  We were able to speak to many students who were also in attendance in their crisp new uniforms about their excitement to finally have their own separate school.  Out of 600 students about 100 are girls so there is a huge push here to get more girls into school to avoid early marriage and pregnancy.

Sept. 6 Mfuwe
Today we visited three schools around Mfuwe.  First was a preschool sponsored by Project Luangwa, where 3-4 year olds were learning to count in English.  They then serenaded us with song, "How R U today? FINE!" and shared their lunch! (Which we traded them cake from our packed lunches.)
Next was an orphange which acts as a day care/school for 3-7 year olds.  They were learning mathematics when we visited.  Both of these schools are sponsored by Project Luangwa - a collaboration of  Safari camps from the area and guest donations.
Finally, we visited a very rural school with no school teachers and over 600 students.  There were many nice building in rough condition - paint needed- but overall good infrastructure.  Our guide, Karen, explained how teachers will not come work for schools unless they are provided housing, and it is difficult to raise money from donors for teachers - most people only want to donate money for kids.  Another interesting perspective in the world of international donors for education.

SAFARI

Sept. 2 Mfuwe


After a bumpy three hour drive we arrived in Mfuwe a dream come true, I can't believe we are here!  Hippos are snorting in the river nearby while monkeys spy on us from the trees above.  We have to lock our tent so the monkeys don't get in :) (they will actually unzip your tent!) and call someone by shining a flashlight as a signal to escort us from our tent at night because the hippos and elephants are everywhere.  It is truly amazing that we are sleeping in the middle of this savannah of wildlife.

Sept 4.  Luangwa National Reserve
Today we finally saw lions on safari both on the morning and evening drives.  We found three male lions and one female napping in the shade with full bellies.  We pulled up less than 20 feet from them...truly amazing.  Then in the early evening we four females and one male snoozing after hunting their catch lying dead nearby - a huge buffalo.  Happy kitties!  I will post my amazing photos when I get back.  Some other animals we saw:  Hyena, Leopard, Croc, hippos, elephants, giraffe, warthog, mongoose, African Sea Eagle, huge Owl killing something...and the list goes on!  Back to work tomorrow...

Katete/Mfuwe

The next day in Katete we road ox-carts to Benson's house (the chef at Tikondane and friend of professor) who is a fabulous cook.  Imagine 2 oxen attached to a wooden cart with two car tires with a car frame/axel underneath - very clever.  We watched the sunset as we bumped along on a dirt road.  While riding, Leslie pulled out her polaroid camera and took a 'now now' shot of Benson's son who is in his twenties.  When she showed him the polaroid photo he giggled, and couldn't stop.  It is one of my favorite moments during this trip so far.  He'd look away from the photo for a moment, then when glancing back down at it would uncontrollably giggle like he had never seen a photo of himself.  We laughed along with him (me crying I was laughing so hard) and there went the ox cart full of giggling Mzungus down the dirt road to Benson's house!
About 100 small kids greeted us as we pulled into Benson's village, holding our hands as we swung them between us as we walked around the village.  After our tour we returned to Benson's house where we sat outside in chairs wile the kids surrounded us sitting on the ground and sang to us many children songs (loudly!) We were then expected to perform a song for them in retrun - so we sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "UR my Sunshine," "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Row your Boat."  It was pitch black the whole time, we couldn't see a thing, only the shapes of the sea of children in front of us in the darkness. Turning our flashlights on seemed to hurt their eyes, so we let our eyes adjust to the dark as their eyes have.
Next we had a FEAST.  The food was tons better than what we've had so far, because it was made with love and care, with a nice table setting and fresh cold water (!) It is hot here (80-90 degrees)

After dinner we rode in the ox cart back to "Tiko" our lodging, admiring the huge black sky above us with more stars than I've ever seen.  It is amazing when there are no lights obscuring the view from the ground.  We prepared for our last day in Tikondane that evening, the community is throwing us a party in the afternoon.  I saw the dead goat in the kitchen so I will NOT be partaking in that part of the celebration!  We are expected to perform so we've created a skit to the "Lion King" song (In the jungle the mighty jungle...the lion sleeps tonight...) It's super cute and will not doubt make everyone laugh.  They are big on performing here, and we dance for every occasion!

Some photos!

Greyas Village

I would like to apologize again for the lack of photos, there is no way any of us can upload photos here so I will post photos to go with this writing as soon as I return! 

Also during our stay in Katete at Tikondane we walked 40 minutes (in 85 degree heat) to pay a visit to Greyas village.  Headman Greyas (the local chiefs are called 'headmen') gave us a tour of his village which was full of thatched roofs, pigs, chickens and dogs running around freely.  We saw a lot of struggling people and animals here.  The water pumps/boar holes were both broken - with no maintenance plan from the donor agencies who installed them (in this case Rotary Intl.)  a common problem here in sub-Saharan Africa.  The chickens in the coop are killing each other (because they're not used to being in a coop) which was implemented as a request by Tikondane - trying to impose western farming techniques.  Most of the pigs had also died as a result of putting them in pens, from sanitation issues and lack of food (they usually graze on their own and people cannot afford to buy food for them.) 

On our way back we saw a very sick little toddler sitting by herself on the side of the road trying to crack a nut to feed herself.  Her older sister (no more than 5) was sitting nearby, clearly unable to take care of her. She had a fever and no adults were to be found.  I had an orange in my bag which we gave to her. 

Overall an intense experience seeing so much poverty, illness and limited access to food and water.  As I later found out in our travels, Greyas village is lucky to have the best hospital in the country located within an hour's walk and support from Tikondane.  Our next stop Mfuwe revealed much more of a rural setting with much less access to health and education...