Hello everyone,
As I write this morning, its a beautiful day in Lusaka - sunny and warm, but we have no electricity - most of this last week we have had no power. Its rainy season here and the first bad storm of the season caused a lot of destruction all over Zambia. It was really frightening - there was so much lightning and the power of the wind is incredible! Here in the property I live on we had trees down, a boundary wall down, the electric transformer blew up, the garage roof came off, lightning struck one of the outhouses and blew up the power to the borehole which meant we had no water! So it was all a bit dramatic. We had another bad storm but thankfully only the electricity is out this time!
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| the beginning of the garage roof coming off.... |
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| tree down.... |
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| the capacitator for the borehole.... |
One of the electricity poles on our property was dislodged by the storm and had to be replaced so we spent more days with no power as we waited for the job to be done!
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| Ready for the new electric pole |
No sooner had we started the clean up after the storm when we woke up to find that the water pump had been stolen in the night! The good news is that the thieves left us the ladder they used to get over the wall!! This is the second time this has happened!!
And to crown it all, when the truck was bringing bricks to rebuild the wall, the driver didn't negotiate the gate and broke down the pillar....so the guys in the picture below had an extra job to do in rebuilding the pillar! Never a dull moment in the rainy season!
Ndola is a town on the Copperbelt region of Zambia - its is about 320kms from Lusaka and yet takes a good 6 hours because of the state of the road. The large copper trucks are so heavy that the road is badly rutted as you can see in the picture below, so over taking becomes a very risky business, and there are hundreds of trucks on the road! Patience is key....
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| rebuilding the gatepost..... |
On top of all this drama, I also had a job to do! I travelled to Ndola with Rev Kabaghe to discuss the possibility of building an ECD centre at Kabushi congregation. We had a good discussion about water, ideas for planning and if the place would be good for such a construction. We are praying that God will guide us as this would be a large project for the church.
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| Rev Chilembo (the Parish minister at the site), Rev Kabaghe and Rev Mwale after our discussions |
It is watermelon season here and there were hundreds of stalls just like this one as we travelled - I wonder how many of them are wasted....
We had a visit from the General Secretary of CCAP Synod of Livingstonia, Rev William Tembo - he was in Lusaka for a meeting and it was good to spend some time with him and find out how things are in Malawi! He preached in Chawama CCAP on Sunday morning and then came to my house for lunch!
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| Rev W Tembo and Rev S Kabaghe, the two General Secretaries! |
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| One of the choirs at the service.... |
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| Back row: Rev S Kabaghe General Secretary, myself, Rev L Mithi, deputy General Secretary Front row: Rev F Kapakasa Moderator and Rev W Tembo, General Secretary Livingstonia Synod Amidst all the storm and chaos of the last few weeks, it was really nice for me to be invited by some of my friends from USA to have a thanksgiving dinner with them! We had a wonderful meal, played a crazy game and had a prayer time to give thanks for all that God has done in and through us. I am blessed to have such good friends! |
December will continue to be a busy month as I have teacher training after schools close, and an ECD Board meeting. Of course, these will depend on the ongoing advice in the country about holding gatherings due to the new Covid variant. In Zambia we are fortunate to have very few covid cases right now and Government are putting in place measures quickly so that hopefully that will not change. Flights were cancelled as soon as the new variant was announced and many people who had hoped to travel were stranded! I hope to travel to Malawi at the end of December for a wedding, so am praying that the borders remain open and that our Covid numbers will stay stable!
I am still taking lots of photos of nature around me here in Lusaka and it was a real joy to find this beautiful Spotted Eagle Owl a few days ago - an enormous bird who just spent time looking at me and posing for his photo!!
Even with all the storms battering us there is still beauty all around us in the flowers and the small critters! Mind you there are many critters in the house these days that I could do without!!
Blessings,
Diane x
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