Hello everyone!
This is my first post of 2019 – a little late perhaps but its taken me some time to get settled again into life and work in Lusaka. For those of you who are not aware I have been in Ireland for 4 months doing deputation for the Presbyterian church – visiting congregations, women’s groups, schools and youth groups. I had a really busy schedule and to be honest I was glad when it was time to come back to Zambia!
While I was busy with deputation, it was also nice to meet up with lots of friends and spend some quality time with my family! I also had a few nice walks in the countryside both in Ireland and the highlands of Scotland! I have just selected a few photos….
Thank you to everyone who hosted me while I was on deputation whether for an overnight stay or a meal, or taking me out for coffee. I am humbled by your kindness. I am also humbled by people who have given me financial gifts after my home in Lusaka was broken into in my absence. I appreciate your kind hearts. May God bless you.
I arrived back in Lusaka on 1 January, 2019. I was a bit apprehensive about coming back to my home after the incident which happened in October. I was pleased that the church had replaced locks, fixed the electric fence and tidied things up again for me, and the sitting room looked the same except for some missing items like the TV and DVD player, and some broken things too!
The most difficult things to lose of course are sentimental and cannot be replaced – a hard drive containing photos of my first years in Malawi, some jewellry which belonged to my Mother and some which had been given as gifts from friends and family. I am amazed that all of my dresses and shoes were stolen – I like to make my own clothes and I only have the couple that I had taken to Ireland with me….so if I see someone wearing my dresses I will have an idea where they got them!!! So now I have to make more….
Getting settled has taken a few weeks – I am now getting back into my work and planning for the year ahead. There is much to do in Early Childhood Development here in the Synod and its almost overwhelming. I have been visiting the one ECD centre we now have in Lusaka at St Peter’s CCAP in Kabwata. They have very few children this year and teachers do not seem very motivated, so I will have to do some work with them in the coming weeks.
There is much to do this year and I am planning to work with either the ECD centres at primary schools, or the ECD centres in Community Schools in Eastern province (which borders the north of Malawi). I am going to visit the schools there so that I can decide how best we can help them. I am continuing to work with the teachers in the ECD centres in Southern Province in Livingstone and Monze. I also have a request to assist with some of our ECD centres in the Copperbelt area of Zambia. All of these areas are a distance from Lusaka and from each other as Zambia is a large country as you can see from the map below!
I hope to assist our Synod in developing a Child protection policy and also a strategic plan for ECD during the coming year. This will take a lot of administrative work but is really necessary if we are going to move forward in Early Childhood Development.
Since returning to Zambia, we have had some really sad news as a church. I attend Mtendere CCAP here in Lusaka and after a very short illness, we lost our Pastor, Rev Gerald Phiri on 26th January, 2019. He was buried on 29th January, 2019 When I came to Lusaka in 2016, Rev Phiri was the Deputy General Secretary. He assisted me to get my work permit, he helped me find a carpenter to make furniture for my house, he helped me to settle into Mtendere CCAP and always made me feel very welcome.
I will miss him as a Pastor (he was an excellent preacher and teacher), as a friend and as an advisor. I will miss his witty sense of humour and the joy that he always had! He leaves behind a wife and three lovely daughters. The funeral was enormous with tributes from the Boys and Girls Brigade where Rev Phiri was the Chaplain. He will be dearly missed in our church and in the community of Mtendere.
I hope to be able to update my blog at least once a month. Please do comment if you wish and sign up to get a notification if you want to know when a new post is published! Thank you for following my blog and I know that God has great things in store in 2019 for ECD in Zambia…so watch this space!!!
Blessings, Diane x
February 4, 2019
Comments
Post a Comment