Colin Duke derived so much pleasure from contributing to the HealthEd Connect JAR at church today that he took his time s-a-v-o-r-i-n-g every moment of his generous disciple experience. Fortunately the other children waiting with their contributions were ubber patient! The Woods Chapel children chose HealthEd Connect as the honored JAR recipient 2 years ago. Since then significant contributions have gone to help the kids in Zambia.
After 41 hours in transit we made it home last night only to find our house had been invaded. To add insult to injury, the brazen intruders were still there having tea at our dining room table. We strongly suspect our granddaughter, Kali, was an accomplice to the crime!
t's pretty sobering to see how much some developing countries depend on tobacco crops. On our way back to Lilongwe yesterday, we passed truck after truck loaded with tobacco bails. Lackings Banda said Marijuana is also beginning to flourish as the demand rises. Why can't world demand change to spinach or carrots???
Our last morning in Malawi at the 1-star-minus Crown Lodge. In spite of the less than stellar accommodations we had a 5 star experience. We struck up a conversation last night with two other guests and found we had much in common. We had breakfast with the gentleman in the picture, Mr. Muwake, who is president of the Teachers Union of Malawi as well as president of the Malawi Council of Trade Unions. He had a meeting yesterday with the VP of Malawi. His companion is a physician specializing in palliative care (how about that Jeff Manuel!). They are both very involved in work with the handicapped. We discovered a sad and extremely difficult deformity while we were in Mzimba that they promised to help us with. One of our Sinkhani has a child with a serious problem. I'll tell you the story in a later blog.
The Sinkhani proudly wore their new t-shirts to church today in Mzimba. Since they all stayed together at the church last night, they organized a little choir complete with choreography. They had fun performing for church and we had fun watching them. The service lasted 3 hours with 2 hours devoted to 6 different choirs. I was more than happy to stand occasionally since the benches were designed with 2 inch slats separated by 2 inch gaps. Oooooh....Absolutely no way to get comfortable!
Many of our Sinkhani healthworkers live in humble little homes like these but that doesn't keep them from living full and joyous lives. Our training today was on taking blood pressures. They were good students and had lots of fun laughing at their own mistakes as they learned. Many hours of practice lie ahead before they are proficient but they're on their way!
We arrived in Malawi last night. We are now passing through the countryside on our way to see the Sinkhani weigh babies.
Over 50 caregivers turned out for a PTA meeting under the tree in Zamtan. When Jac asked what their dreams were for the school, they said water, classrooms, toilets, electricity and a school to grade 12. Community schools only go to grade 7 so the last one is not on our strategic plan but all of the rest match up perfectly. At the end we did a little drawing to give away 10 ballpoint pens. The whooping and hollering in celebration more than paid for the pens!
Calling all Amazon shoppers! Here's a great opportunity to effortlessly make a donation to HealthEd Connect. Sorry about the extra info in this email...I'm not able to delete on my phone :-(
So excited. I was able to post this on our Facebook. Hopeful we might get some folks to join in.---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Amazon.com <store_news@amazon.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 9, 2014 at 10:33 AM
Subject: Make Dad Smile and Earn $5 for Your Favorite Charity
To: "juliec.heide@gmail.com" <juliec.heide@gmail.com>
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Please note that this message was sent to the following e-mail address: juliec.heide@gmail.com--Thank you,Julie Heide
The indefatigable Kafwa took us home visiting today. Before we took off Jennifer, Elizabeth, Maureen, Joyce, Janet and Jenny posed for a picture on the steps of the Kafwa Center. We walked 3 miles (I know because I had my pedometer on) and they said this was the near-by clients!! One we visited was Evans who has AIDS. With the Kafwa's encouragement he visits the clinic regularly and is taking the ARV drugs. He seems to be holding his own.
The Kafwa said if persons stigmatize themselves and refuse to acknowledge their status, they usually want to die rather than admit they have AIDS.
The sewing machine saga goes on.... the good news:we finally received the 4 sewing machines ordered in January. The bad news: they sent a cheap Chinese model instead of the Singer models we paid for. Getrude, the manager of the Castle Lodge where we are staying, went with us to the Kafwa Center this morning to begin giving sewing lessons for the Kafwa. We decided to use the Chinese machines until they are replaced with the Singers. Unfortunately parts were missing, the drive belt didn't work, etc. So the Kafwa sadly put the machines back in the storage cabinet. They were so disappointed. We have an appointment with the big boss of the store in Kitwe on Tuesday. Send good thoughts our way!
Email has been out all over the country for 3 days. It's back up at least for the moment so here's the scoop on our exciting day. Our Young Peace Makers School hosted a very formal quiz day for 5 area schools with around 150 kids and numerous dignitaries in attendance. While the team of 4 representing each school worked under pressure to answer the posed question in science, math, or social studies, the rest of the kids (shown in picture) wrote what they thought was the correct answer on a piece of paper and then cheered when their team answered correctly. Lots of friendly competition for over 3 hours!
The rainy season is over so the folks at Zamtan repaired the roof of the temporary classroom that caved in during the rains and moved the 2nd graders back outside. You can tell by their faces that even humble surroundings are school sweet school! We are hopeful water can be provided in the next few weeks and construction started on the permanent classrooms.
The rainy season is over so the Zamtan community repaired the roof of the temporary classroom and moved the 2nd grade class back into a place of their own. The smiles say it all. No matter how humble, it is still school sweet school. Hopefully the water will be installed soon and construction can commence on the permanent new classrooms.
Our travel group just doubled in size! After many hours of travel, Paige Robino (middle) and Kylie Bassett (right) arrived safely albeit tired in Ndola last night. They have good things to say about the three-day World Service Corps training they shared in just prior to departure from Independence, Missouri. They are well prepared for this adventure. It is an understatement to say the locals are happy to see them!! The Kafwa in Zamtan are especially excited about the possibility of their teaching a conversational English class.
This is what makes thirty-six hours traveling, two nights sleeping on airplanes, missed lunches, living out of a suitcase, and endless meetings in Bemba, all worth while. Isn't she adorable?
I hope you can open the short attached video to share in a bit of today's Kafwa excitement. We were able to purchase and have delivered 5 tables with folding chairs for the Kafwa Center. The large multi purpose room will now be considerably more functional. Talk about excited!! The video says it all.
