Still no solution for high speed Internet connection so it has been another couple of weeks since I was able to do a posting. Things have continued to go well and I have been having a busy and productive time. Apart from daily work for the farm I have been taking our English friend, Ann, to visit different aspects of the SPF project.
One of the highlights was a visit to the Chilunga area - another section of the community. It is across the Mulungushi river which bi-sects the community and the river is running too deep at the moment to cross in a vehicle. So we had to park at the river, cross on a wooden foot bridge made from poles cut from the bush and then walk the 4 km to the school which is the focal point of the community. The school is a community school which caters for children on that side of the river from Grade 1 to 7. There was only one teacher (out of 4) with a small class of about 12 kids in session so we sat in on the lesson. Apparently a lot of kids - and the other teachers - were unable to get to school that morning as there had been a heavy storm during the night and other rivers in the area were flooded. Anyway it was good to see the place again and we enjoyed the walk there and back in the sunshine. On our way back, at a village near the river, we were presented with a live chicken - to be taken home to eat ! Ann was thrilled and got to carry it under her arm back to the car !
We also visited some of the people that have benefitted from the micro loan fund - always good to see how they are doing with their small businesses or farming as a result of being able to borrow money to get started. That evening we had supper with Banda and Tsitsi who had cooked the chicken we had been given - it was very tasty with the sadza/nshima !
Ann flew out of Ndola on Sunday January 30 to head back to UK. She thoroughly enjoyed her stay in Zambia as a whole and particularly at Kakulu. She is sure that she will be back sometime in the near future to do some actual project work with SPF. It will be great to have her as part of our UK "team".
Three young men - Kody, Ryan and BJ - arrived safely from Canada today. It is great to see them here and the community is going to be very excited to see them moving around exploring everything and inter-acting with the people. They are here for most of February so it will be a busy time.
