Dear Friends, Many of you know that Jessica, Maarten and Joan Addison are in Lusaka, Zambia for the month of October. I'm passing on their e-mails for you to enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone - Helena
Zambia Visit October 2007
Pics from Jess Oct. 24
Here are the latest smiles from Zambia. Jessica is enjoying one last week there before arriving home on Nov. 1st.
Thanks everyone for all your interest, thoughts and prayers. Maarten, Jessica and Joan have had a wonderful trip and our Zambian partners are very grateful for all the Canadian support for their ventures. The schools are thriving, the children are being fed, and the clothing and school supplies were very welcome. We will keep you updated on our "African Education Project" as we near the beginning of the Zambian school year in January 2008. H.
Jessica writes:
Here are a variety of new photos for you. Some explanations: Mary Banda is the tailor at Flying Angels and she and Alice have made 100 bags for us to sell.
The Kondwa graduates waiting for lunch are just a few of the students who come to Kondwa every day to be fed. There is very little food at home. Philimon (the little fellow who wants to be a doctor) is in the front... in the beige shirt that is slightly ripped - and Maggie Banda - one of the girls who accompanied us at Flying Angels last year - is beside him. Eunice and Memory are both in grade 5 and had come to the clinic to get checked out. While they waited, we took glamour shots of them in my sunglasses. Next time I come - I have promised to bring sunglasses for these two. On Tuesday, Dad and I stopped in at Mwamba's house on the way back from Flying Angels. In the livingroom, his Grandma Jennifer has a framed picture of me holding Mwamba - taken last year when I was at Kondwa. After seeing me at Kondwa last week, Mwamba told Jennifer that Jesca, his boss, was back! This new photo will be sent to Jennifer as soon as I get home.
On Tuesday I brought three sticker books for Mary Martha and Sarah, Benard's three little girls, and made sure I distributed them when it was only the 4 of us together. However, what I didn't think about was that after the girls got the books, they would want to show them to all 702 students. For the rest of the day, every child, regardless of age or gender, came to ask, "Jesca, and don't you have a book for me?" Looks like it is always best to bring something for everybody at every visit!
Jess
From Maarten Oct. 22
Here is Maarten's last and final e-mail. Jessica remains in Zambia until the 31st and hopefully will continue to be able to send us some news and pictures.
We're back from Livingstone. This morning, Joan and I walked up to Flying Angels and purchased 90 bags for subsequent resale at the church Bazaar, etc (the sewing machines at Flying Angels have been running steadily to produce Zambian crafts for sale here in Canada).
Victoria Falls is, in my opinion, best seen later in the season. You get a better idea of the immensity of the chasm into which the Zambezi drops. Hopefully the pictures will capture this. We took a walk around the same route we went on last year, and then Jess, Joan and I ventured forth onto the riverbed above the falls. So - I went wading in the Zambezi, and Jess and Joan paddled their feet in it.
Chobe National Park in Botswana was also quite good. This time, the hippos were swimming around right at the park boundary, we saw two crocs, a whole herd of Cape buffalo, and gazillions of elephants and lots of elephant droppings. The land looks blasted due to the lack of moisture. The highlight was the group of lions snoozing under shade of a tree. A short distance away, a 4x4 Safari Jeep got hopelessly stuck in the sand. We pushed it out, and did not lose anyone to the lions. The sand was hot.
The six hour trip home started at 12:20 p.m. By the time we finally arrived in Lusaka, it was dark, Jessica was worrying about our luggage, and a very voluble woman from somewhere was arguing and gesticulating with the conductor about the huge quantity of bags, boxes, etc which she was offloading. Even the bus driver was beginning to wonder what was going on before we finally drove the final few km to Cairo road and reached the Lusaka bus station. Nothing got lost, nothing was stolen, and we made it back to Zebra guest House by 2030 hr.
Benard was as good as his word. When we went to Flying Angels this morning, a huge pot of porridge was bubbling over a wood fire, and half a sack of porridge was leaning up against a post. It would seem that the schoolchildren are, once again, being fed. Those little people are as cute as always, but we are still definitely a curiosity in N'Gombe - cries of Muzungu abound. Mary (one of Benard's children) wanted me to pick her up this morning, so I did. Little Benard is finally getting over his shyness. The dust, garbage, and extreme poverty contrast sharply with the paved roads, walls and steel gates of Kalundu (the location of the guest house).
On our way out, we met Evelyn and Ronald, two of the community visitors that have been hired as part of the new clinic, who were busy doing their rounds. Give it time... [Maarten, Dr. Brian Kongolo and Benard are planning a new medical clinic to service the destitute of this community.]
Tomorrow, we are having a braai (B-B-Q) with Angela, and then it is off with the wings of Man to London, Amsterdam and finally, home. Joan and I will be leaving on Zambian Independence day. They are celebrating their 43rd anniversary.
Maarten
An Interesting Little Movie...
Here is the most amazing little movie - you will need to turn up your sound. It was sent to me by a friend in Northern Newfoundland, in response to Maarten and Jessica's e-mails of the last two weeks. Hope you enjoy it!
Just click on the link below:
From Maarten Oct. 18
Here's the latest from Maarten – a sombre note after a difficult day
From Lusaka, greetings.
It remains hot. Yesterday I set out for a walk in the morning (the clinic did not start until 1400) and I eventually found myself being given a guided tour around the National Assembly of Zambia (the parliament). I was in the chamber of deputies; the library - basically, got a complete tour. That took care of the morning. In the afternoon, we went to Flying Angels. Between Dr.Brian and myself, we saw another 105 people - I saw about thirty; Brian saw the rest. Worms, back pain and chest infections were the order of the day.
This morning, it was off to Kondwa again. Home visits - a man with Kaposi's sarcoma - in pain; unable to work; no food today; wife doing piecework to scrape together money for food; a woman and her child, both HIV positive, on ARV's; husband gone, no food, brother living on the other side of the compound, no contact. Another family, everyone HIV positive, on antiretrovirals. The houses are basic. Total square footage - about 180; 2 rooms, or a single room with a curtain divider for five people. No glass in the windows. Breeze through openings in the wall. Slanted tin roof. The food gets cooked outside; the privy is a pit latrine; water is carried in from water points. In some of these cases, the only thing missing is hellfire. Angela told us there's worse, but did not elaborate except to say that one family whose children had gone to school last year lost their father. All three children then left school, presumably to help Mom make ends meet by selling stuff on the streets.
One of the teachers from last year at Kondwa died yesterday of AIDS. (She did not teach this year.)
Angela has a couple of hectares of land about 4 km from Kondwa. Good soil; contaminated water for irrigation comes from a nearby creek. This is where she wants to build her school. Grew enough maize (corn) last year to feed Kondwa for six months. Has planted orange, lemon, papaya trees; also cassava, tomatoes, cabbage (hundreds ready for harvest now). A gardener lives on the property in a modest 2 room building.
The rich live well in Lusaka. There is, essentially, no middle class. There are the poor, and there are the destitute. N'Gombe represents the last. 50% of the children there do not attend any kind of school.
One of the people we met at Zebra guest house told me things are improving here, compared with what they were like three years ago. It's going to take a little more time...As Angela states "We live on hope".
Teddy bear photos Oct. 17
Thought you might love some pics of the bears.
In the Sakala girls and bears photo we have Mary (age 7) Martha (age 5) and Sarah (9). These are Benard's three daughters - and truly wonderful little girls. The bears in their arms are named: Sharon, Joan, Mr. Kennedy, Doctor Maarten, Jesca, Tom and Sarah. (I personally find the Doctor Maarten one hilarious).
The Flying Angels photo is of a little girl who came to the school this afternoon - probably about 7 (she and Mary were the same size) and she was looking after what appeared to be a 3 month old baby. Can you imagine....
More stories later.....Jess
Maarten & Jessica - a visit to Kasisi Oct. 15, 16
So...yesterday we went to Kafue, where the road crosses the Kafue river. I went on a hunt for the Kafue river gorge, but there was not enough time, so we turned back. After making a left turn into a Kafue compound and bashing the bottom of the rental car on the protruding railway tracks, I eventually (and serendiptously, with Joan's help) found the Kafue district hospital. I talked to the hospital administrator, and we have a home for the sutures. (Surplus sutures from Clinton Hospital- too much to take on Oct. 2nd.)
Eventually we found the Kasisi orphanage. Jessica frankly didn't believe me when I said we could get there from Manda Hill in Lusaka 45 minutes - and she was right - it took an hour! The orphanage is interesting. It was started in 1926 by nuns of a Polish order founded by a Fr. Edmund in 1850 called something like "Little sisters of the Immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary" when one of the pioneering nuns realized that a local custom was to bury live infants with their mother when she died (?while nursing). The nun offered to take the baby, and the orphanage was born. There are now 250 children, who make it their home until they can fend for themselves, having finished school.
There are 50 HIV positive children, including 18 or so infants. Some schooling is done there. There is a dispensary, stocked with the usual drugs - antimalarials, acetaminophen, medication for deworming - all in generous quantities. A doctor from Lusaka visits once or twice weekly. They grow enough vegetables to allow one meal daily for each child all year round. There are nine nuns (I think they're all Polish) and fifty paid staff there. A retired schoolteacher from Ottawa had just arrived to spend three months teaching and helping out. The children were very happy to meet the Muzungas and to have their pictures taken with them. Many little outstretched hands waiting to be shaken by us; great excitement to have their picture taken and to see the immediate result. A sister Janina gave us a 2.5 hour tour of the facility, and then it was off to see the clinic (it reminded me of Red Bay, Labrador).
From there, a visit to Paul Demers at the Kasisi Agricultural training Centre. He's a Canadian Jesuit brother (as opposed to a priest) and has been there 30 years. Every three years he gets three months off. The rest of the time he just works.
The training centre is currently working to develop sustainable organic agricultural methods. The fertilizer and Green Revolution phase ended about 20 years ago when the price of oil spiralled out of reach for the farming community, and seeds and fertilizers became too expensive to buy. Now there is a lot of research being done WRT complementary crops, composting, etc. Additional work is to build donkey-pulled carts (they require no repairs and gasoline) out of local materials. Axles are steel; cart framework is sometimes made of steel; wheels are wood with old truck tires used as "tires" or are surfaced with strap iron. There is a smithy, used to train farmers in iron and steel repair and fabrication techniques; there is a carpentry shop, dormitories and kitchen; they sell milk to the locals from the herd of Jersey and Holstein cows.
By the way, the road to Kasisi is challenging. It was paved at one time...I managed to bottom out only twice, and those times on an incorrect road that, had I not turned around, would have taken us back to the Great East road......likely four hours later...
We eventually made it home at 7:15 p.m. - I dropped off Jessica directly, as she was really starting to fade by that time, and said hi to Angela, who said that she had been able to distribute 30 cabbages to locals. We will see her again on Thursday, and hope to do home visiting then.
Today, Joan and I walked to Flying Angels school to take part in the opening exercises (we made it by 8:00 a.m.) and to teach a few classes. I spent 90 minutes discussing public health issues and answering questions about STD's, malaria, TB and AIDS. The longer I was there, the more comfortable people were and questions started to come. Tomorrow the three of us do another clinic at Flying Angels, along with Dr. Brian, and on Friday we attempt the trip to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls. It's a bit of a snapshot, but it gives you some impression of what we've been up to for the last few days.
Just a little factoid – each of us exterminate, on average, a two inch cockroach in our room each day!
MB
From Maarten Oct. 11
Yesterday was interesting. I walked around the University of Zambia grounds. A certain Effie Jele (who is also staying at the Zebra Guest House) who is with the National Farmer's Union and no fool stated it had been good, but was now a little rundown. It was!
The medications from Health Partners International were put to good use, as we (Dr. Brian Kongolo and I) ran a clinic at Flying Angels. 100 people in 4 hours. Malaria, TB, AIDS - just a matter of course. It was seriously dark when we left. Benard took us back in his automobile; right at the entrance of Ngombe there was a hell of a bang and the car would no longer drive. It was teeming with rain there; I was approached a group of drunk lads who wanted "5 pin, boss" (about 6 dollars). Fortunately, a taxi showed up, along with Mr. Ziemba (the caretaker of Kondwa), and all was well! We returned to Zebra house by taxi; Benard stayed until 2300 hours and got someone to guard the car overnight. The Left front suspension gave out. I was tired!!
We went to the Arcades shopping centre; I indulged in a burger, fries, soft ice cream and ultimately a Mosi beer. By 0300 hour, I was feeling a tad dizzy; today I have had a steady fever all day. It was nice to sit in the hot sun and doze while Joan and I were teaching Jess to play bridge and hearts. Needless to say, she did rather well.
This afternoon, we attended an AIDS networking meeting at Care International. Tomorrow afternoon we are going to do a little home visiting in Kondwa, and we are renting a car at the beginning of the week to check out Kasisi Orphanage and Agricultural Training Centre, out near the airport.
According to Effie, one can exist on 4000 Kwacha daily ($7); a newly hired chambermaid will be getting 100,000 Kwacha per month ($30).
Maarten
Hello on Thanksgiving Sunday
Because I love photos, and because I love these people, here are a few Jess smiles for you.
Hope life is happy. Today was a great day. We spent two hours dancing and singing at Pastor Benard's church. The service was held in one of the classrooms at Flying Angels School. Dad, Joan and I did the sermon.... more of story time than preaching time - but very well received and met with hugs and kisses from the entire congregation afterwards. We talked about thanksgiving and family - and it was truly among one of the best Thanksgiving celebrations I have ever had. This afternoon has been spent spending far, far too much money at the Sunday market... Dad supports every vendor without fail - and will be coming home with jewellery for every person he knows. I am still trying to help him with the bargaining skills! Things here are great. My heart is smiling itself to bursting!
xox
Jess
From Maarten Oct. 9
Here's the Zambian news from Monday and Tuesday . The enclosed photo was taken outside Flying Angel's School after the Sunday Church Service. Benard is wearing a Clinton church t-shirt, and Maarten seems to be wearing a Zambian shirt. The North American "suit" is definitely boring compared with this!
From Maarten:
Pastor Benard hasn't stopped thinking things through yet. The next plan is to set up a medical clinic for N'Gombe. This is where Dr. Brian Kongolo comes in, and that was what we were discussing at lunchtime today. If all these ideas come to fruition, we will have a new primary school in N'Gombe run by Kondwa, an expanded Flying Angels program, and a pretty comprehensive home visiting/clinic arrangement for the community. (Now, all we will need is to make arrangements for Dr. Brian to have courtesy privileges at Clinton Public Hospital and we will be all set.)
Yesterday at the Kondwa Pre-school was unique. About an hour after we got there, Angela received a phone call from Andrew Stock at Freshmark foods, a Zambiawide food wholesalers, asking her to collect some reject produce. So, after Joan and I finished washing up lunch dishes for 160 pupils and graduates of Kondwa, we set off in Angela's Toyota 4x4 to the warehouse, located west of Cairo road. I've never seen so much food under one roof in my life. Then Andrew showed us what we could sort. After about three hours' work loading two trucks and depositing all of it in the storeroom at Kondwa, we had managed to bring in about 400 pounds of potatoes, 200 cabbages, a bushel or so of pears, two or three bushels of apples, oranges, tangerines, cucumbers, broccoli and a few other items of which I cannot remember the names. Cleaning, cutting up, sorting and distributing to needy families in the compound will take place today. In cabbage alone, there is enough to feed the children for four weeks. Andrew Stock, a south African, really likes Angela and apparently lets her do this three times a month. Even Angela thought that this was the biggest donation ever.
Today, at the primary school, three hundred hats were distributed to great excitement. That just about covered attendance for the morning. Joan did a devotion (which went over quite well), and then,following more pictures, we were off to the Roman catholic hospice in Kalingulinga where I spent the rest of the morning working with Brian Kongolo in the clinic. While I was there, I saw about fifteen people. The oldest was a man of 51 with ascites, likely from abdominal TB. The youngest was a really good looking woman of 18 who was HIV positive. One man had severe hypertension; one woman had back problems and a paresis of her lower limbs, and the rest had various opportunistic infections, courtesy of AIDS. I looked at the book of fifty death certificates, as completed by Dr. Brian between July 26 and October 7 of this year. Thirty-three individuals were noted to have died of AIDS or AIDS complications as underlying problems; 19 had disseminated TB as part of the problem; 4 individuals had disseminated Karposi's sarcoma, and a couple of 21 year olds died upon arrival with meningitis or something equally bad (also a complication of AIDS. I reviewed the findings with Dr. Brian, and as far as he was concerned, all but three had died of AIDS related illnesses. It's a different world.
Tomorrow, I'll bring the big boxes of Health Partners medications to Flying Angels and Dr. Brian and I will be running a clinic there. We'll start at 2 p.m. Jessica and Joan plan to come along to help.
From Jessica Oct. 6
Just a quick hello from a hot Lusaka... Dad and I have spent the morning at a 3 km march for Palliative Care in Zambia and are eagerly looking forward to an afternoon of swimming in my friend, Nancy's pool (one of the many perks that come with her lovely home). She is delighted to have us here and is keen to make me live like royalty while I stay with her.
Things here are great. We arrived with all 9 pieces of luggage - the two boxes of meds from Health Partners International have been cleared from the customs at the airport. We had a great, great visit at Flying Angel's school yesterday. All of Benards 23 children (he has 6 biological and 17 orphans under his care) were eager to come talk to JESCA - and I spent most of my day hugging and kissing wiggly, beautiful children, and taking hundreds of photos of the school and the kids and the hot Ngombe compound. Everyone was thrilled to see us - hugs from all the teachers and several hugs from Benard - and we were told over and over and over how welcome we were and how grateful everyone is for the love and care from Canada. Benard was blown away by the Bristol board Clinton United Church hug and plans to get it laminated so it will last forever. We will join him at his church tomorrow and he will wear the new Clinton church t-shirt we brought to preach in. He is just such a happy, beautiful man.
We had a great visit with Angela, the director of Kondwa Pre-school last night – she lives a three minute walk from the Zebra guest house – and spent our evening chatting about Kondwa and how there will always be a need for assistance for the children. Last year she had 15-20 graduates popping in for lunch every so often as there was no food at home – this year she has more than 75... This means that each day she feeds 168 people lunch. The strain on the budget is clear.
We're just about to have a Thanksgiving dinner with Nancy – a chance to celebrate a good life with each other – and remind ourselves why we have so many reasons to be thankful.
Sending you much, much love,
xoxox
Jesser
From Maarten Oct. 6
So far, we are going to dinner at Jessica's friend, Nancy's tonight (also swimming); hearing some speeches at a palliative care rally, doing part of a Church service at Benard's church tomorrow, visting Kondwa Monday, attending a seminar on Tuesday, and running a clinic with Dr. Brian Kongolo in Ng'ombe Compound on Wednesday. We have been invited to visit the Mother Marie Therese Lissen hospice in Mpanshya, (overnight trip) so that is another possibility. We will be going to Livinstone and the falls also.
Joan is holding up just fine.
We had tea at Angela's (Kondwa director) yesterday evening. Her American connection is a bit dodgy - she has been waiting since July for $19000 to start building the schoolrooms. Lots of people came over to visit from Texas, but no $$$ yet. As Angela puts it - "we live on hope". Benard said that if it wasn't for our efforts the Flying Angels project simply would not be able to keep going.
What else? There is a lot, so just a couple of insights...Angela is now feeding about 170 students 2 meals daily, since there is often no food for children when they have graduated from Kondwa. Benard was wearing his best clothes, we had Shima (cornmeal mush) with meat for the afternnon meal. The very best of the little they had. The two suitcases of School supplies were very well received. The gift bags for teachers will be given out on another visit next week.