Hi-H…Hi-Ho…It’s Off to Work We Go

 

 

Well as most of you know, we have been under a lot of construction lately. Since the last update on the school,  the FL helped us get the roof on and it is almost finished. With most of the roof on, the builder was able to go in a start plastering. He is almost finished with that and installing all the window frames. Once he has shined the walls and finished the frames, we will be able to pick out wall colors and start painting the classroom and store room. The next project up there will be to put shelves into the store room and bring all the school supplies from the library here up there to be organized and stored.

While we were busy on the roof of the school house, the builder was busy on the brickwork for my house. He and his crew worked very hard for two weeks; all day; to finish the brickwork so we could start putting a roof on. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to work on it with the team that was here from FL, but the good news is that it is ready for a roof as soon as we are able to get the materials for it and make time to put it up!

In between the school house and the brickwork for my house, Jako had the builders pour a cement floor in his workshop. Not only is his whole workshop enclosed with brick, it now has a nice solid floor for his new (metal) work table and soon the rest of his tools and supplies. I know he and Charles are eager to get shelves on the walls and organize everything that he has!

On a smaller scale, we have worked very hard to finish up the shelves in the library, put in a second toilet in the  house, fix the generator, and adding shelves in the home office. We are hoping once my house gets finished and the storeroom up at the orphanage, then we will have a break from construction projects and Jako, especially, will have more time investing in the lives of the locals with training, discipleship, and leadership classes.

Florida in the Bush

 

 

Just a few days into the month of June, we had a team of ten people join us from Florida. It was a team composed of mainly young adults, and their pastor, from a Baptist church that has been supporting Amber and Jako for many years. They came out here eager to put a roof on the school house and to organize and set up the library, in addition, to other ministry that we had planned for them. To our surprise on our way back into the bush, Amber hurt her foot chasing after Jakob in a friend’s yard. She thought it was just sore, so we took off for the two hour ride into the bush. When we got back to camp, it was very late and dark. For the first time in two hours we checked Amber’s foot and found out it was quite swollen (looked like she had a tennis ball under her skin). The next day we decided to call our health insurance and they confirmed that it was probably a fracture or break and that she needed to come to Livingstone for x-rays. By God’s grace, they got clearance for her to be airlifted out of the bush to the general hospital in Livingstone, where her brother Josh met her with the car hours later. It turned out she broke the bone on the outside of her  arch and had to get a cast put on. They were gone for the first two days of the trip and thankfully Amber and I prepared all the food plans for the week, so I was able to step in a help organizing the meals every day, in addition, to helping out with Jakob for the time she was gone. Once she got back, we encouraged her to take it easy, but we all know Amber and how she can’t sit still for long…

After things settled back down, the team jumped right in and started to work. The men got right to work making fourteen a-frames for the roof of the school house. It took them almost two whole days just to get the frames done. Once the frames were up and ready, the hard job of leveling came next. Surprisingly enough, the guys let me hop up on the roof and help level the frames so that when we put the roof sheets on, there won’t be any leaks. The leveling took an entire day and I think the locals were amazed to see a girl on the roof, working in a skirt! I have done many roofs on mission trips, but this was the first one I have done in Africa in a skirt :o) Interesting experience… We finished leveling everything late in the evening on the team’s last day in the bush. Jako realized that if we just left it with no roof sheets on, then the sun would warp everything and we would have to start over again; so Jako, Mark, Steve, and I stayed up until 2 am putting up the roof sheets on both sides of the roof…man it was a cold night!!

While the men were diligently working on the roof, the women were helping me in the library organizing the books and labeling them according to the dewy decimal system. We had piles and piles of books all over the floor and the shelves. When all the books were organized and on the shelves, we realized that there wasn’t enough shelf space, so we arranged to have more shelves put in. While they were here, Jako and I were able to put in one wall of shelving, which helped us get more books up and organized. The library isn’t completely finished yet, but after a few more days in there, it will be ready! The team even bought us a scanner and computer program to inventory all the books and we are praying that the next team that comes at the end of this month will be able to scan and enter in all the books. These women also took on the huge burden of preparing most of the meals, doing the clean up, helping with laundry, and organizing clothes and other donations.

God really used the young women on this team to encourage me and lift my spirits. It was so nice to sit in the library day after day, just chatting with the girls about anything and everything (i.e. God, moments of joy, moments  of sorrow, food, books, struggles, encouragements, scripture, marriage, singleness, embarrassing moments, and so much more.) God knew how much I needed that and he sent just the right women to come along side and befriend me. It was the most enjoyable part of the trip for me. I will miss them dearly, but I am excited to keep in touch with them through emails and hopefully see a lot of them back next year :o)

After their time in the bush, we headed to Livingstone for a couple days before they flew out. The first night we got there, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset cruise with a small meal. That same night there was a full moon, so we went to Victoria Falls and saw a lunar rainbow, one of the few places in the world you can see one, and to our surprise, it was the same night as the solar eclipse! We got to witness two rare and spectacular events in one night at the falls…what a beautiful experience/memory to share with this team.

Number 14

  

When God gives, he keeps on giving. Nchimunya was our 13^th child in the orphanage and just a couple weeks after him, a beautiful girl was brought to us…Otervia. Otervia is 8 or 9 and HIV positive. She is much smaller than the average 8 or 9 year old, but she definitely has the spunk of a young girl that age. Her father passed away shortly after she was born in 2002 and then her mother died this past August both from HIV. She also had two brothers that died at a young age, shortly after birth, from her same parents. However, her older brother is still alive and living with her mother’s father. He is older and able to work, so the grandfather appreciates him. Otervia has been living with her aunt and step-uncle since her mother died last year and just recently has been diagnosed with a positive status of HIV. With the burden of medication and another mouth to feed, the aunt and uncle decided they couldn’t keep her. They heard about our orphanage and brought her for an interview. We learned that Otervia’s aunt and step-uncle already have four children they are caring for and we find that HIV positive children are often neglected and poorly cared for allowing the HIV to take over their bodies. We know that with Otervia here, she will constantly be on ARV’s, will receive good nutritious meals, clothes, shoes, a warm bed, daily baths, and an education. Where she was previously living, they were not taking good care of her. Now that she is on the ARV’s regularly, her skin is beginning to clear up and her strength is returning. She is unable to make the walk to school for now, but we pray that soon she will be strong enough to go with the other two children in the afternoon to Grade 1. She had attended a community school years past, but after a couple months of Grade 1, the school shut down and she hasn’t had any education training since then.

We love having her around and all the girls, especially Milium, have taken to her and made her feel right at home. She just started the same reading program all the other children are on and also math, writing, and English lessons on the weekends. We hope that she and Milium will get caught up enough to enter Grade 1 in January and pass with flying colors. With Otervia, we now have 14 wonderful children living in the community orphanage!!

From Trouble to Normal

 

Praise God we received a new baby boy at the very end of May. His mother passed away a day and a half before he was brought to us and his father is unknown. One of our house moms, Belita, was at his mother’s funeral and overheard the aunt and uncle wondering what they would do with Mapenzi, so Belita suggested they come here to the MOL Community Orphanage. His aunt and uncle brought him unable to provide care for him. Because of his mother’s illness, Mapenzi had been surviving on goat and cow milk for the first two months of his life. Amber and I checked over his body and reflexes and he was surprisingly strong and healthy in spite of the circumstances he has been exposed to. The aunt and uncle already have three children they are caring for and had lost two younger ones to starvation, so caring for Mapenzi was not something they could do properly. Thankfully God has blessed us enough to be able to take him in…that same night we gave me new clothes, a warm blanket, and some formula. Mapenzi is a popular name for children out here and it means “trouble”. We don’t think any child should be named that, so we asked the aunt and uncle to rename him. Mapenzi also had two siblings that passed away with the same name, so they changed it to Nchimunya meaning “normal” in the hopes that he would be normal and live. About a month later, Nchimunya is still doing great and we are awaiting the results of his HIV test. They said his mother was not positive, but the way she passed away, we are almost certain that it was related to HIV.

Nchimunya makes 5 babies total and we know how much time the moms already spend on babies each day, so we  prayed about hiring one of the part time moms on as a full time mom in the time being. Belita graciously accepted the offer and what a delight she is to have around all the time. She encourages the other two permanent house moms and really lives a life of faith; a great testimony to the older children. She also loves caring for Nchimunya night and day!!

Visit to the Schools

 

Since being here and helping the children with their education, I have wanted to visit their schools to find out how teachers generally teach and to speak with them about the children’s strengths and areas for improvement. Mission of Love had some brand new soccer uniforms donated for the schools, so Jako and I decided to kill two birds with one stone. We took a day to go to Nguba, the government school where a lot of our children attend, to give the new athletic uniforms and to visit with the teachers. The headmaster and athletic director were very thankful for the uniform donation. They said that their team would now win every game because they would be the best dressed team. We hope to be able to catch a game at some point and see our kids playing, as well as, the other children in their new uniforms.

The headmaster was very excited that I came to visit and asked that if I had any suggestions on how they could teach better, to please inform him and they would make the changes. It surprised me that a headmaster was asking me for advice for his teachers…but I figured if I saw too many red flags I could offer some input. So Jako and I sat in on a class for a couple hours to observe the teaching styles and how the children respond to everything. The teacher did a great jo involving the students and teaching in English; however, I can see how one student can easily get lost. First of all, they don’t have near enough benches or desks for the children, half of the class is on the floor and the rest are squished together on the few benches they do have. The other problem we observed is that the teacher shows the work on the board and asks the children if they understand. The children never practice on their own in class having a chance to get help if they aren’t able to remember how to do it without the teacher holding their hand. This shows in all our children at the orphanage…when I look at their school books all the work is correct, but when I ask them to do a new problem they don’t always know where to start or how to fully complete the problem. However, the teacher did give us great insight as to why some of our kids scores are so low…he said that the children often understand the material, but all their exams are in English and they don’t frequently understand the questions. Our goal is to work with them to improve their English so they can better excel in school.

Later, we headed the opposite direction and visited the community school, Nampiyan. It was quite a different experience. The headmaster just happened to be on a holiday, but thankfully he wasn’t far away, so they were able to get him to come receive the new uniforms. We gave the uniforms to the athletic director and the headmaster…he brought all the children out to the school yard and explained where the uniforms came from and asked all the children to say thank you. Their soccer team hasn’t been practicing since they didn’t have a ball, so the blessing of a new ball ad uniforms will get them back in the game. The teachers at this school weren’t as eager to have us observe the classes, but the headmaster was able to give insight to our children who are attending school there. He confirmed all of our observations and we were content with that!

 

I am glad God gave us the opportunity to visit both schools and I hope to go back and visit more regularly in assisting with our children’s education.

Tonga…English…Tonga…English

 

Mwabuka bhuti (good morning)! One of the biggest challenges I foresaw coming her was learning the local language. The people in the villages we work with speak a language called Tonga, one I had never heard of until visiting Zambia. I have always enjoyed picking up various African languages in the countries I have visited, but I knew this time it is far more important that I learn as much as the language as I possibly could. Thankfully God had a plan long before I did…these past couple months I visited the orphanage frequently tutoring and working with the older children. As the moms saw me come and go each day, they decided they wanted to learn too. Ennie was the first to grab me and say “teach me English…we want to learn.” Well English was never my strong point in school, but I figured I could whip something up for them they might enjoy. Amber and Jako had a primary English book that teaches basic communicative English…I know the moms know a lot of vocabulary, but need help on making complete sentences and spelling English words. After the first couple of classes it dawned on me that while I am teaching these women English words and spelling, they can be teaching me Tonga. So I started bringing chalk boards with me to class and had the moms write out the English  word/description and then the Tonga. I have been copying all the Tonga into a notebook and try to use phrases they teach me as frequently as possible. The moms love the idea and enjoy when I am able to speak Tonga with them. Through this process I found out they don’t know how to spell all their Tonga words either, so it behooves them to discuss spelling and word meanings as they are trying to learn the English equivalent.

Twice a week, while the children are in school, I get to go visit with the moms and teach them English. Usually all four moms are there (Ennie, Belita, Rachel, and Sylvia) and I was so happy when Charles’ wife Brenda expressed an interest and now joins us every Monday and Thursday! I must say, these twice a week meetings are becoming one of the highlights of my weeks. My hope is that as the moms become more comfortable with their English they will speak it more to the older children and the babies…we will see how that goes :o)

Leza Amumaleke-God Bless!

4 x 12 = ??

 

By grade three, most of us would have known the answer to this math question without even thinking about it. To my surprise, the older children who are working on fractions, division, and more advanced math, don’t have any solid foundation to stand on. Each time we try and do a simple sum of two fractions, it takes them 20 minutes just to change mixed numbers into improper fractions and to find common factors to simplify the numerators and denominators. They haven’t been taught to memorize their times tables to make more advanced math easier. Every time I am up there explaining fractions or long division, they get lost because we always get hung up on multiplication. I have given them flash cards, a multiplication chart, and play games with them; but they seem to lack the discipline to just sit down and memorize the tables. As time has gone on, they are much farther along than they were when we first started, but I am praying for patience and other techniques I can introduce to them to help them understand multiplication. I also need wisdom in how to guide the moms to spend time with them on studies, apart from the babies.

Another area all the children need help with is English. Most all of the children are very bright and understand what they are being taught; however, all their exams are in English and often they don’t understand what they are being asked, so their marks don’t always reflect their level of comprehension. So, in addition to mathematics, I have begun English classes with the children. The reading program helps a lot with word recognition, comprehension, and pronunciation; while time spent with me teaching helps them gain confidence in their English speaking abilities. The moms say that the children understand and speak English much better, so I will continue to pray that God keeps blessing us in this area. Hopefully as their English improves, so will their marks on their report cards.

The youngest children are working very hard on their letters, numbers, shapes, colors, and writing skills. It is always a challenge with limited teaching tools to help the younger ones develop the necessary skills to be successful in the primary grades; but God-willing we will find a way.

The amazing thing about all the children is that they are eager to learn and improve. As I sit there with one of the older girls, the three younger girls are sitting and watching learning everything I am teaching the older one. I hope that they remember all they are picking up and it will benefit them when their teachers introduce it in the future!

All the children really love the idea of earning kwacha and they get very excited any time they are rewarded for their learning. With the team coming in the month of June, the children did not have as much opportunity to earn kwacha, but I am hoping to have the first sweet store open in the next week, then the children can really reap the rewards for their effort in reading, math, and English. I have also set up a critical thinking station where I give them a problem or question each week and they have the whole week to write down ideas on how to solve the problem. For each unique idea they put into the box, they are rewarded K100. Every Saturday I open the box, read the ideas, reward them, and then put up a new problem.

I praise God when I see the children improving on what little I feel I am teaching them…I feel completely inadequate to be teaching such a wide range of ages, but God has faithfully given wisdom and knowledge in the moments I have needed it most. One way that He greatly provided assistance was providing the money for me to go out and buy school books for every subject of every grade. I now have the complete set of books from Grade 1-Grade 8 only missing two books. They definitely come in handy when the children ask for help in a certain subject. Thank you for your prayers and support in the children’s education. If you have any advice or ideas, please feel free to shoot me an email…guidance is always welcome :o)