Hello there,
I hope you all had a blessed Easter as we celebrated the risen Christ! As you will see from the photos, we had a wonderful time. Palm sunday was a walk through Mtendere compound carrying palm branches and singing, followed by a service in church. Then Easter Sunday was a communion service, followed by baptisms, and ‘blousing’ of an Umanyano member (Presbyterian women) and some ties given to Christian Youth Fellowship members in the second service, followed by lunch. The whole thing lasted about 5 hours!!
Church activities over Easter are very busy. During holy week there are services each day in some congregations and then from Good Friday to Easter Sunday there are activities with people even sleeping in the churches.
Work in early childhood still goes on and I was delighted to receive some money from the Embassy of Ireland here in Lusaka to purchase some books, puzzles and other materials for two of our ECD centres based in Lusaka.
Rev Wezi Ziba (pictured below) is with Miyanda, the Head Teacher of Chilenje ECD as they receive the materials for the centre. This centre also received a hand washing tap bucket so that children can wash their hands when they come in from the playground, after using the toilet and before and after eating. This is especially important after the cholera outbreak that we had earlier in the year.
Rev Prince Nkhoswe (left) and Mr Willie Mtonga (Committee member) collected the materials on behalf of Kabwata ECD centre. In the picture are the two teachers at this centre, James and Nancy.
In order to help the teachers do things in the centres using play, we have themes each week which they make activities around! This term, one week had a sports theme, and the kids had such fun with the home made bean bags….
We had creativity playing doctors…
and some children beginning to match letters which is a lot of fun when they get it right!!
In an exciting development, one of our centres is creating an outdoor play area for the children with swings, a climbing frame, slide, see-saw and tyres!
So, although there is still much work to do, at least I am seeing some development in our centres and both children and teachers having fun!
Rainy season seems to be coming to an end now, we still have rain but only every few days! Amazing skies in the morning and bird song to wake up to helps me to remember the awesomeness of creation, as well as the amazing blooms in my yard.
However, even though we had much rain this year – kariba dam is high, the Zambezi is flowing rapidly… for about 4 or 5 days in a week I have absolutely no water in the taps at my house! Apparently the water board are doing a massive project which involves half of the city having no water for long periods of time. So, I have buckets all over the place so that at least I can drink water, cook and bathe! As soon as water comes on, there is a mad rush to fill buckets!!
When cholera was so bad in Lusaka, the army did a massive rubbish clean up campaign…now that the epidemic seems to be almost over, people are still throwing rubbish in the streets. Probably this is due to their being no litter bins! Anyway, I was coming home from work one day and I noticed that someone had literally dumped their rubbish on the main road outside where I stay, so Blessings (who does my small garden), helped me to pick up a full black bag of rubbish off the road! Every little helps!
Thank you for your continued support and for your prayers! I will be in Ireland from mid September until end November to do deputation, so I look forward to seeing some of you then!
Until next time….
Blessings….
Diane x
April 8, 2018
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