Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Rainy Season challenges

You should have seen us walking to the school yesterday! What a sight with 12 multi colored umbrellas bobbing back and forth as we jumped mud puddles, back tracked, looked for other possibilities less muddy, etc. etc. It poured down during the night for the last two nights. Mornings have been less intense but the mud roads still have the multiple challenges. It is about 1.5 miles to the church and we usually pass no more than one vehicle along the way. Everyone is on foot. We presented the pictures made by the children in Des Moines as well as the notebooks made by the children in California. The Zambian kids thought it was great! We explained that all of the pictures the children sent were focused around a 'good character' trait such as Responsibility, Compassion, or Courage. We hope they will begin a similar program with the children here.

Today we began making the rounds of the government offices trying to get official guidelines of everything from contracts to school organization guidelines. We successfully connected with officials on the Province level but still need to meet with those on the District level. This was extremely helpful!

The SIFE students have been marvelous! Totally on board and congenial. Those of you back home be assured you are not forgotten. A phone call or email is a BIG event! They talk about home a lot. I strongly suspect they will have a new appreciation for ever so many things previously taken for granted. The new bicycles for the Income Generating Activity should arrive tomorrow which will be a major event. The Child Support Specialist classes are beyond expectations. The participants are freely opening up about their own bottled up feelings and beginning to see how knowledge about themselves can be used to better understand and help the orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs).

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