Chipata, teaching and accidents…..
Hello all
I spent a week in Chipata as our GAC (General Administration Meeting) for CCAP, was being held there. So I left on 27th August with our General Secretary, Rev S Kabaghe. We arrived in Chipata mid afternoon and went to check the accommodation that had been booked for us. However, when we saw it, we declined and went to the backpackers where we had stayed last time we passed through Chipata.
The venue for the meeting was actually in a Girl’s Secondary school an hours drive into the bush (literally)! On Monday we went to check the venue and make sure everything was ready for the meeting. Tuesday was arrival day and at 12 noon I went to the Malawi border to pick up Rev J Wilson from the Presbyterian Church of Australia who was a guest at the meeting. Took him back to his accommodation in Chipata and then headed out to the venue. So for the week, I travelled back and forth to Chipata each morning and evening (sometimes late in the evening) on an extremely challenging road even for an experienced driver…which I consider myself to be having driven so many years in Malawi!
Some of the girls were still at the school and on Wednesday morning they were being collected to go home. As you can see the cars were quite overloaded!!
Unfortunately during the registration my camera fell off a chair onto the cement floor and seems to be smashed! The insurance does not cover it as they say I was not watching it when this happened!! Now for those of you who know me, my camera is like an extra part of me – it goes wherever I go! So I am devastated and lost without it. However…such is life in Africa! There is no Nikon outlet in Zambia so I can’t even have it fixed, if indeed it is fixable! So photos on this blog will not be of the same quality as usual!
The main meeting began the next day and for three days there were discussions and deliberations about issues in the church. Each day for an hour there was a break and Rev Wilson did some teaching about leadership which was really good. We had good food – nshima and chicken or fish or meat with vegetables and beans! I did my ECD presentation on Friday evening and had a few questions but because I had given everyone a copy of the paper in advance, many people had already asked me questions before hand which was great!
Saturday, we made the return journey to Lusaka and unfortunately arrived just as the national Football team had won a match and people were getting out of the stadium – it took a long time to get through the jubilant crowds – they were singing and dancing and banging on vehicles – thankfully they didn’t climb on top of mine!! At Luangwa bridge, we stopped to buy some fish!
The following Monday I had a week of teacher training with teachers from 2 schools – Chilenje and Kabwata (6 teachers in all). Two of the teachers were new so I had to do a bit of a recap to help them to understand the basics. It was a good week – we did some theory but a lot of practical work – reading stories, presenting circle time to the children, making activities that children can do in their play areas! We had a lot of fun and teachers did a good job.
On Saturday I woke up feeling dizzy and this continued over the weekend! I realise it is exhaustion as I have not stopped in 3 weeks! However as the new term is beginning I need to make sure that schools are doing okay so no rest this week either! I will be mainly at Kabwata this term as last term I spent with Chilenje. Both schools began well which was good because on Tuesday I got a bout of food poisoning and was grounded for 2 days! Maybe this was God’s way of saying – have a rest!!!
Kabwata nursery school had absolutely no play materials so it will take time to collect some things for them!
Am feeling much better now and much more rested too! So that’s all for now. I value your prayer especially for driving in Lusaka and for patience. I get frustrated when the traffic holds me up and I am late for things!
Please pray that I might find a way to replace my camera or fix my camera whichever it needs to be.
With much love,
Diane x
September 17, 2017
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