Thing One and Thing Two eat Caterpillar for dinner
The day started out as a typical hot day where we made a quick trip to the Hope Office and then off to spend the day at the Hope Community School. There was a welcome program which made us feel so glad to have made a second trip to Ndola. You gain a lot of credibility here when you have returned to Zambia for a second time. We got a tour of the new orphanage, which on our last visit had been a shell without a roof on it. Unfortunately, the final step to occupancy is bringing in the electric line to the building and this has been delayed by the government bureaucracy. The good news is that the school is up and running already. There are now 300 children attending the school and they are already tight for space despite now having seven classrooms instead of three. One can only wonder where these children have been for the last two years.
Nancy and I were on lunch duty but I managed to escape the serving of the food and Nancy worked up quite a sweat serving the children. This involved feeding three hundred children plus staff and we were done in an hour and half, using only 50 plates commonly referred to as Frisbees.
We did get a chance to read with kids and play some games including the Hokey-Pokey and London Bridge without it falling down. Next it was the Hopefully Protected project. Spark was awarded grant money to purchase mosquito nets for each child attending the school. We meet some of the mothers and their children at the school. Charles gave them an overview of the project and explained that Hope Ministries would be checking their home to ensure the nets were being used properly and had not been sold. To encourage participation, Nancy and I are taking family photos and printing them out on the printer we brought from home. So far we have 25 done and 275 to go!
Then off to the orphanage where we had a lovely candlelight (read no power) dinner. It was so dark that Nancy almost sat on someone’s lap. Dinner was quite good except for a small fried item. When asked what we were eating we were told it was in fact caterpillar. Nancy was quick to ask could this result in a butterfly flying out of her mouth. Everyone laughed so hard except for us. We suggest those en route to Zambia to skip this delicacy.
Tomorrow it is off to the school to begin distribution of the nets and picture taking. Our goal is to finish this project in two days.
Picture are coming but the internet service here is very slow.