Blog

Today we spent another day at the school reading and playing with the kids while the staff got organized for us to visit the second village. This time we set out in a car and had to drive over to our destination. The roads in Ndola are some of the worst we have ever seen, but these roads had the deepest potholes and rough surfaces that you can only imagine. We have sworn never to complain about Chicago roads. This village is in a valley and last year during the rainy season the wind become so strong it took almost all the roofs off of the houses. Once we arrived we were surrounded by children who followed us from house to house. We found the homes as good/bad as the first village and the people were very sweet and appreciative. Ten nets, ten pictures, ten homes and two hours later we were on our way back to shower and change to meet Rich and Joann from Spark. They arrived at 3:00 today.

We have kept this a secret in order to surprise Rich and Joann. The power to the orphanage is now on. The electric line was attached late Tuesday and the inspector approved and turned on the power late Wednesday. Knowing this, it was decided to move the children in time to surprise Rich and Joann and have our farewell/welcome dinner at the new orphanage. David had been helping clean out the new building on Wednesday and help with the move on Thursday. It just took three truck loads, you will enjoy seeing the pictures to follow. The house mother and the kids, with our help, arranged the house, set up the beds, installed mosquito nets all in 24 hours. IT WAS SO AMAZING SO SEE IT COME TOGETHER! Charles attributed this good fortune to David. He referred to it as the power of the Israelite. In Africa there is a saying that an Israelite will bring an African good luck. Charles kept thanking David saying that they have been waiting for months and once David arrived they had power within 48 hours.

By Friday, the orphanage was ready for the children and its guests. Rich and Joann were picked up for dinner and were told by Charles that they were going by the new school, which is directly across from the new orphanage. As they arrived, Charles was so excited that he blurted out the truth to them. Dinner was served in the children’s new home.  Nancy brought chopsticks for the kids to eat with as well as some of the adults. We then spent some time teaching the children how to use them. It was quite fun and we got a lot of laughs from the group.

Our farewell dinner was attended by all of the children, school and office staff.  We each received a present and the children sang their goodbyes to us. Our trip was really just about over. We have tried to enrich the children’s lives this week. We know that our lives have been enriched even more. Tomorrow we will make a quick visit to the orphanage and then off to Cape Town.

This is the end. More pictures will follow. We thank you for reading this and hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have. Please remember that Spark is having its second annual wine tasting on February 18, 2010. We hope see you there.

P.S. We are now almost landing in Johannesburg. As our new Cape Town friends have explained, we are now entering civilization. We are seeing beautiful homes, trees and swimming polls. We are getting excited to see Cape Town.