How Does It Work?

I guess some of y'all may want to know how it works here in Namwianga.  We live on the mission in a house with running water and kitchens.  My house has a thatched roof and barbed wire around the back door.  The mission hires several local people to keep it running, so someone (Harold) makes our meals, and we fix our own on Sunday.  We have a garden, chickens and then there is a grocery in town.

 Our house

There are several schools on the mission, an elementary, a secondary, a high school, and a college.  We are about 3 miles from Kalomo, Zambia.  The schools are private, but run by the Zambians.  Most teachers are Zambian, but there are a couple who are foreign.  Just today another here and I helped a high school girl with a project for developing figs into pills to take to the villages (they really do live in huts) for medicine.  

The Haven has 3 houses for little ones.  Haven One is tiny babies and toddlers, Haven Two is older toddlers, and Haven Three is for the sick babies (TB, HIV-Positive, syphillus) of all ages.  Typically, they are returned to their family (they are usually at The Haven because their mother died and the family can't afford to feed them and/or has no one to watch them) when they are ready to go, but if they family can't or won't take them back, then they go to Eric's House and are a part of the family who lives there.  

We eat breakfast at 8 am and go to the The Haven at 9-9:15.  Most of them walk the road, but I like to walk the paddock path (about 3/4 of a mile) through the brush.  Sometimes I have to drive Khaki Jacki, the 9 passenger Land Rover, to The Haven to take the supplies.  We come back for lunch about 12:15-12:30, go back to The Haven until 4:15-4:30, and then have supper at 5, so that the employees can go home to their families.  

The Paddock Path

In the evenings, we have movie nights or game nights, or play on the internet.  On Fridays, we go to Eric's House for a bonfire and singing time.  Last night, one of the local missionaries took us out to the middle of the mission to see the stars without lights around.  AMAZING.  I love finding the southern cross.

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The street where The Haven and Eric's House are located.

We do have electric blackouts sometimes, and sometimes the water is out.  But for the most part, it is very very comfortable.  

From the road back to the schools and where we stay.