Hello everyone,
I realise I haven’t written a blog since January and we are now in April 2020! Its been quite a year so far. I will do a recap of what has happened since then and tell you how I am coping in isolation here in Lusaka! At the end of January I went to South Africa and spent a week with my good friends Nicky and Barry. It was such a relaxing time – they are blessed with a beautiful garden and a pool and I literally spent my week relaxing in the garden, watching the birds and swimming in the pool!
After my lovely break in South Africa, it was back to work. I began working with the teachers in Kabwata here in Lusaka, to remind them of some things they had forgotten and to help them to plan better for their children. We had some fun days with the kids – I love working with the children in the classroom and seeing their look of wonder as they realise something for the first time!
I had the privilege in March to go and see the work that my neighbour is doing with the African Education Program in Kafue. It was inspiring to see so many children being fed each day, being helped with schooling and even children with special needs having one to one assistance. I had a great time with the young children – I did a class of counting and colours using some play materials they had on hand! Hopefully I will have a chance to work with their early years teachers at some point in the future too.
I managed to visit our centre in Livingstone and a new one that has been opened in Mazabuka in early March. I was supposed to visit Monze too but unfortunately they had taken the week off for their mid term break! I had a good visit to both centres. It is encouraging to see how Livingstone is developing. I look forward to working with the new teachers in Mazabuka as they begin to develop their centre too. The teachers are busy doing rote learning but hopefully with time they will understand that children learn through play!
Of course being in Livingstone, I had to pay a short visit to the Victoria Falls. This year, Zambia has experienced heavy rains and in fact right now the falls are amazing, the only problem is that due to the present state in the country the falls are closed to visitors! I have the privilege of visiting them any time I am in Livingstone if I have the time!
On 15th March Naomi arrived from Northern Ireland as a volunteer. She was going to be with me for 6 weeks! However, we did not know God’s plan when she arrived! Just as she arrived, the Covid 19 across the world started speeding up. She was only here a couple of days when I had a message from her parents that we needed to change her flights and get her home. So, we managed to change the ticket and she left again for home on 20th March! Such a short visit but I hope that she will be able to visit in the future again! Even though she was only here for a few days, we managed to visit Kabwata ECD centre a couple of times, and had a visit to the Elephant orphanage too!
So, on Friday 20th March, I took Naomi to the airport. Then it became apparent that if anyone wanted to leave Zambia to go back to their country it would have to be soon because air space in countries around was closing and flights were becoming scarce. I did not know what to do. I was advised to return to UK and tried to get a flight – this was proving very difficult. Kenya airways stopped taking new passengers, South African airways had stopped flying to Lusaka, Ethiopian flights were full! So, I contacted a travel agent who managed to get me a flight on Monday 23rd through Johannesburg to Dubai and then London. I quickly packed up, said good bye to some people and off I went to the airport only to find that the flight from Johannesburg to Dubai and onwards had been cancelled! I really felt such a peace because had I gone to Johannesburg, I would not have been able to return to Zambia because flights there had stopped coming to Lusaka! So I trusted that this was God saying I should stay!
I came home (having given away all the food I had previously stocked up), and went to the shops to stock up on food again! How quickly things change. I was now self isolating and have been for 15 days now.
I do manage to get out for a walk most days (usually at sunrise when there are not too many people around). I have been doing some work, some cleaning, some sorting out and am generally kept quite busy. I can speak to my upstairs neighbours to make sure they are also okay.
Zambia today 7th April 2020, have no new cases. We have had 39 positive cases of Covid 19 with one death. Most of them were travellers returning to Zambia from other countries, while a few came into contact with those travellers. Zambia are trying their best to advise people on how to stay safe by staying home, only travelling if necessary, wearing mask when in crowded places. In fact, even before we had any cases they were doing screening temperatures at the airport and each traveller had to fill out a form of travel history.
I am thankful – I have a home where I feel secure, I have soap, I have food, I have sunshine every day. I am thankful to be able to take photos of the beauty around me. Many of my Zambian colleagues and friends do not have the luxury of having extra soap or food in their homes as they live from day to day. Please pray for them that God will keep them safe and that they will have enough food during these days when they cannot do the usual work they would normally be doing.
Our churches are closed – pray for our pastors too as they will not receive any income due to the churches being closed. It is a difficult time for many people. Our economy is suffering, our people are suffering but we are told our help comes from the Lord. It is only to God we can turn in such times. May God keep you safe and healthy.
Blessings,
Diane xx
April 7, 2020
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