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Saturday, June 7, 2008

Davis Zambia News: May 2008

Hello All,

Sorry this newsletter is late.  We are currently hosting several people from the States and life has been a bit busy.  Our new teammates, Rick, Karen, Matthew, & Lydia Love, arrived about a month ago.  It’s nice to have more permanent workers on the field.  Rick and Karen were former interns of ours in Cape Town so it’s nice to see that they made the decision to return to Africa full-time.  They have been very patient as we’ve tried to help them settle in and also get ready for our big (American) summer work.  We currently have 7 visitors here but we’ve had several who have already come and gone and a whole lot more who have yet to arrive.  Each day we feed close to 20 people.  Brian is the chief cook as he has the organizational skills and is also an excellent cook.  I and my mother are his assistants.  I can’t begin to decide how much food you need to feed a large crowd but I do know how to do what I’m told, therefore, I make a good assistant.  Most of our cooking is being done outside on the charcoal brazier since gas is always in limited supply.  We have used the oven for baking.  I thought it would be a difficult task to feed that many while cooking outside but it’s not been bad.

 

Our well drilling group has already come and gone.  Due to the lateness of our container (I mentioned that last month) most of their supplies were somewhere between the Middle East and Zambia so they had to come up with creative ways to get their job done.  They were able to drill a couple of wells and I think the inconvenience of not having materials was a good lesson as to how life in Africa works.  Despite it all they were a positive and helpful group.  We also have had some agriculture and small business projects going on.  Some of the local people have attended seminars on drip irrigation gardening and others have learned how to make yogurt and start a small family business.  It’s now up to those people to use what they were taught to better the lives of their families.  Pray that they do so.

 

We’ve got four girl interns this year.  Two are from Harding and two are from ACU.  One of the ACU girls is going to marry Brian’s nephew in December so it’s been nice to get to know her.  The boys were especially excited to meet a new future cousin.  All four interns have done well to jump into whatever activity is going on.  I think today’s young women are a hardier group than when I was their age.  None of them seems to have a problem with living in the dorm with no running water or electricity.  I don’t think I would have been so excited about being in Africa if my internship had been like that.

 

Yesterday our container arrived and was unpacked.  It happened to coincide with a sports day being held at the school across the path from our house.  When the truck with the container rolled past, hordes of people ran to the storage area where it was to be unloaded.  Fortunately from past experience we were prepared for that and had the proper security in place.  Everyone was quickly turned back and eventually went back to their own activities.  The container was unloaded in about three hours and the truck left.  I was a happy mother when Brian came home with our two boxes of school curriculum plus an extra reading curriculum given by one of our church friends in Abilene.  Noah wasn’t so sure about it but after we opened the boxes and saw all the great books we’ll be reading this year he said it made him more anxious to start.  Bryson also joined in the fun and even though he’ll only be in kindergarten he wanted to hear all the great stories too.  I assured him that he wouldn’t be left out.  Now if we could just find time for school.  I had hoped to start this month, but I now realize that it won’t be possible until mid-July when our visitors have left and life settles down a bit.  I’m not even sure when I’ll find time to put the books on the shelf, let alone find time to organize, plan and teach.

 

I hope to write again at the end of the month but it may be sometime in July before I find the time.  Between now and then we’ll have another 40 or so people passing through holding several medical clinics in the area.  But more on that next month.

 

Blessings,

Brian, Sondra, Noah, & Bryson

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