ZAMBIA TRIP THURS 18 OCT 07
MEETING FAMILY
Ken and I packed and piled into the car with Simba. We managed to fit in just about everything – our clothes, and gifts from many at Holy Trinity, to our link parish in Lunchu, Eastern Diocese in Zambia We had pencils crayons, toys, soaps, tea towels, bible stories, knitting needles, cards and money collected to buy things out there that are needed etc.!
We left Nailsea and stopped in Maidenhead for a cuppa with my brother, Andrew and his wife, Eve and their family. Andrew is going to Malawi on Saturday, the day after us, with his daughters, Rachel and Lois. The charity side of his company is involved with education, using handheld computers, solar powered or wind up. The amazing thing is that the lessons are all in the local language. He has been out several times to Malawi and the schools, parents and government are excited about what is possible. He first trailed it in 10 schools, and then expanded to more schools, as it was so successful. This time he is taking his 2 teenage daughters and building a classroom to use his technology. Rachel and Lois will take some lessons. Their flight stops briefly in Lusaka!
We arrived at Pam and Peter’s just before 8pm. Peter is my cousin and he and Pam have very kindly said they would have Simba, and our car, while we are away for 10 days in Zambia. Peter had a finance meeting in his study (he is the treasurer at their local church!) and Pam was at a Guiding meeting! She had kindly left some stew in the oven for us. Rachel, their daughter, had just got home from work, and welcomed and fed us. It was so lovely ‘catching’ up with my goddaughter, as we hadn’t seen her for ages. Later in the evening when Pam and Peter had finished their meetings we all watched ‘Question Time’ on television, as Eve’s sister Rosie Millard (‘Fuzzy’) was on the panel! Simba very quickly seems very much at home with Peter and Pam in their home.
FRIDAY 19TH OCTOBER 2007-11-16
Peter took Simba for a walk, and then we all had a leisurely breakfast. Later in the morning we walked to their church and newly built church centre, and had a look around. A lovely crisp sunny day, with Autumn colours and lots of leaves on the ground. When we got back we sat in the sun for a coffee. Lunch was bangers, mash and beans. I spoke on the phone to my sisters, Ruth and Jane and also Mum and Dad and Mary, Esther and Zoe, before flying, to say ‘bye’. I also managed to phone Mulilo, as Jenny Humphries (World Mission Advisor for Bath and Wells Diocese) had given me prefix tel nos. to enable one to have cheap overseas calls! The call to a landline is only 2p a minute and to a mobile phone it is 10p a min. We arranged that we would phone Mulilo when we arrived in Lusaka, and try and meet up with him, Chiko and Malele. They are my cousins on my father’s side of the family. His sister, Mary Poore (nee Ashe) had a daughter, Rosemary who married Patrick, a Zambian. Their 3 children, Malele, Mulilo and Chiko are now in their 40s and have families of their own. Ken and I are very excited to be able to meet them! Last time I met them they were small children, so that’s quite a number of years ago!
Peter very kindly drove us to the airport where we met up with Bishop Peter Maurice and his wife, Liz. The booking of the seats was a bit of a disaster, as unbeknown to us you had to book your seats online 24 hours before departure. We had booked our tickets back in April, but the travel agent hadn’t imparted this rather vital bit of information, so we found we weren’t sitting next to each other. We all tried to make a fuss, which worked with Bishop Peter and Liz – it must have been his purple shirt! – but Ken and I were a long way from each other! The food on the plane, amazingly was quite edible – chicken curry, cheesecake, kitkat, and a ‘superfood’ healthy drink. I passed the hours watching films and chatting to the neighbours on each side of me. On my left a young lady, a teacher from California, teaching at an American school in England near Thorpe Park. She goes to Romania 2-3 times a year helping with an orphan project, and next March she is going on an expedition to Antarctica, with about 70 others in leadership/teaching roles. The man running the expedition is Robert Swan, who is very interested in the whole subject of global warming and is keen to educate others. He takes an expedition each year. He has been to clear up other people’s mess that previous explorations over the years have left behind. On the other side of me was a lad (over 6’ tall!) who had just done his GCSEs at a school in England. He was born and brought up in Zambia and his family own several large farms in Central and Northern Zambia – growing such foods as maize and soya. When we arrived at Lusaka airport he said ‘ There are my parents on the tarmac, and that is our plane, the blue one, that I will go home in’. He wants to go to university in America. His great grandfather was one of the first missionaries to Zambia, ‘one of Livingstone’s ‘side kicks’ he said!
MEETING FAMILY
Ken and I packed and piled into the car with Simba. We managed to fit in just about everything – our clothes, and gifts from many at Holy Trinity, to our link parish in Lunchu, Eastern Diocese in Zambia We had pencils crayons, toys, soaps, tea towels, bible stories, knitting needles, cards and money collected to buy things out there that are needed etc.!
We left Nailsea and stopped in Maidenhead for a cuppa with my brother, Andrew and his wife, Eve and their family. Andrew is going to Malawi on Saturday, the day after us, with his daughters, Rachel and Lois. The charity side of his company is involved with education, using handheld computers, solar powered or wind up. The amazing thing is that the lessons are all in the local language. He has been out several times to Malawi and the schools, parents and government are excited about what is possible. He first trailed it in 10 schools, and then expanded to more schools, as it was so successful. This time he is taking his 2 teenage daughters and building a classroom to use his technology. Rachel and Lois will take some lessons. Their flight stops briefly in Lusaka!
We arrived at Pam and Peter’s just before 8pm. Peter is my cousin and he and Pam have very kindly said they would have Simba, and our car, while we are away for 10 days in Zambia. Peter had a finance meeting in his study (he is the treasurer at their local church!) and Pam was at a Guiding meeting! She had kindly left some stew in the oven for us. Rachel, their daughter, had just got home from work, and welcomed and fed us. It was so lovely ‘catching’ up with my goddaughter, as we hadn’t seen her for ages. Later in the evening when Pam and Peter had finished their meetings we all watched ‘Question Time’ on television, as Eve’s sister Rosie Millard (‘Fuzzy’) was on the panel! Simba very quickly seems very much at home with Peter and Pam in their home.
FRIDAY 19TH OCTOBER 2007-11-16
Peter took Simba for a walk, and then we all had a leisurely breakfast. Later in the morning we walked to their church and newly built church centre, and had a look around. A lovely crisp sunny day, with Autumn colours and lots of leaves on the ground. When we got back we sat in the sun for a coffee. Lunch was bangers, mash and beans. I spoke on the phone to my sisters, Ruth and Jane and also Mum and Dad and Mary, Esther and Zoe, before flying, to say ‘bye’. I also managed to phone Mulilo, as Jenny Humphries (World Mission Advisor for Bath and Wells Diocese) had given me prefix tel nos. to enable one to have cheap overseas calls! The call to a landline is only 2p a minute and to a mobile phone it is 10p a min. We arranged that we would phone Mulilo when we arrived in Lusaka, and try and meet up with him, Chiko and Malele. They are my cousins on my father’s side of the family. His sister, Mary Poore (nee Ashe) had a daughter, Rosemary who married Patrick, a Zambian. Their 3 children, Malele, Mulilo and Chiko are now in their 40s and have families of their own. Ken and I are very excited to be able to meet them! Last time I met them they were small children, so that’s quite a number of years ago!
Peter very kindly drove us to the airport where we met up with Bishop Peter Maurice and his wife, Liz. The booking of the seats was a bit of a disaster, as unbeknown to us you had to book your seats online 24 hours before departure. We had booked our tickets back in April, but the travel agent hadn’t imparted this rather vital bit of information, so we found we weren’t sitting next to each other. We all tried to make a fuss, which worked with Bishop Peter and Liz – it must have been his purple shirt! – but Ken and I were a long way from each other! The food on the plane, amazingly was quite edible – chicken curry, cheesecake, kitkat, and a ‘superfood’ healthy drink. I passed the hours watching films and chatting to the neighbours on each side of me. On my left a young lady, a teacher from California, teaching at an American school in England near Thorpe Park. She goes to Romania 2-3 times a year helping with an orphan project, and next March she is going on an expedition to Antarctica, with about 70 others in leadership/teaching roles. The man running the expedition is Robert Swan, who is very interested in the whole subject of global warming and is keen to educate others. He takes an expedition each year. He has been to clear up other people’s mess that previous explorations over the years have left behind. On the other side of me was a lad (over 6’ tall!) who had just done his GCSEs at a school in England. He was born and brought up in Zambia and his family own several large farms in Central and Northern Zambia – growing such foods as maize and soya. When we arrived at Lusaka airport he said ‘ There are my parents on the tarmac, and that is our plane, the blue one, that I will go home in’. He wants to go to university in America. His great grandfather was one of the first missionaries to Zambia, ‘one of Livingstone’s ‘side kicks’ he said!
No comments:
Post a Comment