Final Thoughts

Although the malaria pills are done, I just can’t seem to get Africa out of my system.  I imagine that it will be a long time before my sentences will all stop starting with “In Africa….” Being there really made me think (beyond Lumosity) and touched my heart in so many ways, I am sure my friends and family will be sick of the stories before long and our team will have to adopt some kind of secret handshake to acknowledge that we’re thinking about it….oh, wait – we do have a secret handshake already – Africans go beyond the simple shake of a hand.

Some final thoughts

While we traveled as a “mission team” we were not there to convert people or preach.  The organization that runs the orphanages (Childreneverywhere.org) that provides 24 hour nursing care to pre-mature and high risk infants, a crisis nursery, and provides free primary education to over 2,500 children from grades 1-7 and 365 children in grades 8-12, is not political, dogmatic, denominational or partisan.  They are, however, dependent on the support of churches and individuals from the US.  Their faith is unapologetically strong and a part of their everyday lives-if anything, they ministered to us rather than the other way around.  Their faith goes well beyond the wall of their churches.  No bulletins, BYOBibles, no Hymnals, no organ, reused collection envelopes dropped into buckets, they truly believe that God will take care of them, and it seems to be working.

An embarrassment of riches

Comparatively speaking, the schools and churches that I have visited and worked in the US have an embarrassment of riches.  In the schools we visited in Zambia,  children are eager to go to school and participate – after all many times school is where they will be served their only meal and be fed new information – Zambian TV!  It is easy to say, in comparison, that American kids are spoiled, bored, impatient, and unappreciative (and some may say that is true of all Americans), but you can’t compare apples to oranges.  Being immersed in a different culture is eye opening and fascinating…not everyone gets to (or wants to) have that experience.  Africans (right there I am generalizing because I only visited ONE country in Africa-we tend to think that the countries on the continent of Africa behave like the states in the US -which truly also do have their own culture, but I digress), have one foot in the 21^st Century and one foot steeped in great cultural traditions.  The women administrators where we lived all wore very nice “American-style” business attire and carried a chitenge (the traditional cloth skirts).  The people who came to pick up food at the milk and medicine stops had cell phones!  

(Hold on a minute folks, don’t be quick to judge about money and priorities, etc.  These people, without the infrastructure to have lines for electricity and land lines, for the first time, thanks to wireless communication, have the opportunity to communicate with each other that does not require a multiple mile hike or bike ride – they have families, needs, etc. just like us.  All cell phones are prepaid and many have to go to charging stations to keep them going – do you really think they should stick to drums?)

SIDEBAR:  We were very curious as to why those that were dressed American-style, many times had a chitenge over their clothes.  We asked some of them and they really did not understand what we were asking.  It turns out that there were so many reasons for having one, they could not understand how we could go without.  They wore them for modesty over their street clothes, as an apron over their work clothes, they served as a backpack when they carried their babies or packed up their groceries in them (and put them on their heads).  The social worker said one reason she had one was you never know when someone is going to give birth.  We each got one as a gift from the local church, and our young teen girl learned how to carry a baby (although we worried when she came through doorways with their little heads peaking around).  When we got home, my sister and I were going to talk about the trip with our church and brought ours.  We discovered a new use, when a bat appeared in the vestibule – it served as a nice blocker to keep it from getting into the church. 

Our way

We have to be very careful not to “judge” other people by our own standards and culture.  You have to be careful to not think of your way of doing things as superior. One of the first things we were told in our House of Moses orientation was to “Please do not try to make suggestions about how to change the workers activities” – you can imagine that we could have easily said “we do it this way…..” all day long.  Who are we to tell them how to take care of their business?  What if they changed these kids every minute of the day?

Babies come first

One thing we could not argue with was that “At the House of Moses the babies come first.  What that means is the house may be noisy at night, visitors come and go, the water pressure may be bad and hot water may run out, or there may at times be no water at all.  Please remember that we cannot control power failures and other matters that call for patience.”  We would not have wanted it any other way. (BTW – we did have a generator there, so when the power went out, and you were thrown into complete darkness and I mean complete darkness, with a bottle in one hand and a wailing baby in another, also dark, with no way to figure out where to stick that bottle, it only lasted a few minutes before the lights came back on.)

We were so privileged to be able to get a glimpse into the everyday lives of so many people, from the staff at the House of Moses, into the communities and schools we visited, in their churches, stores, malls, markets, streets, villages, parks, etc.  We tried to be respectful to the people, their families, lives and culture and at the same time record what we saw to share with people back home.  At the same time, they were curious about our lives and sought out information on things like the best computer programs for the high school, even medical issues. 

I have gone through my 700 pictures every night, (and Janet’s 700) in search of the perfect picture that “says it all” – I have a few, but as I look at the pictures, there are a lot of things that remain unsaid, too. 

If you know me, you know that little is left unsaid

“Do not use tap water other than for bathing.  Watch that you do not open your mouth in the shower.  Use bottled water to clean your toothbrush…do not rinse under the tap.” I threw out my toothbrush after the first night.  What most people don’t know is that travelers to the US are given the same instructions, it is not that the water is dirty, it is that it has different “stuff” in it.

Little goes to waste in Africa and yet there are piles of garbage (and sometimes kids picking through it) throughout the compounds.  There is no garbage pickup in the villages and compounds.  If they threw out the amount of garbage that we do in a week, they would have been buried long ago.  Most of the waste is plastic bottles. 

They understand that education is the key to moving their country forward.  Public education is “free” but requires that you buy uniforms and supplies that puts it out of reach of many.  If everyone could go to school, they would not have room for them all anyway.  As it is, they do split sessions. All property, private and businesses are surrounded by walls and metal doors, most of those walls have ads on them.  Lots of them have “public service announcements” about health issues, AIDs, breast-feeding, child abuse, etc.  They are not hiding their heads in the sand.  These issues were also being covered in the classroom.  Teachers always had objectives on the board and a board filled with information or questions.  The information that I saw covered very real and relevant health issues, agricultural issues, political issues (like corruption).  The teachers are teaching.  No watered down curriculum.  Almost all kids are ESL – English is the official language, but they are taught their tribes language first.  No excuses.  There is no one saying, I can’t teach this because I don’t have a … (fill in the blank).

The population here is young, we did not see a lot of older people.  Because we were dealing a lot with families with children, we saw mostly women.  Thanks to education, women are starting to see many new opportunities to help themselves, their families and their communities.  I think they will be key in moving the country forward.  That is not to say that the men are not hardworking.  In the city, there is a lot of hustling, a lot of competition.  You could buy a poster map, a plunger, cell phone time, chips or a banana right through your car window in traffic.  Artists and farmers hawked their wares along the road side in the city and through the villages. There is no doubt that people were working hard to make a living.  In most places, we saw “a woman’s work is never done” as endless cooking and washing chores, combined with walking to get the water and food, took up their entire day.

Transportation and the transport of goods amazed us everywhere we went.  Chickens on bikes, sofas in wheelbarrows (we have delivery trucks, they hire someone with a wheelbarrow), truck beds full of people, crammed vans, stuff on their heads.  All of these modes of transportation share the same roads, most not paved. 

Kids are Kids 

 

Before we left, we tried the lessons that we were going to do in Africa with kids here.  What we learned was not how different the kids were, but how much they had in common.  As Linda would say “kids are kids” – from the kids in the most barren of schools, to the kids in Shangri La (MOMS), to the two kids that traveled with us.  All of the kids liked to laugh (particularly at us!), they liked to interact with each other, they liked distractions from their regular class, they liked video games and electronics, they were curious about each other (We made trading cards I the US to take and in Africa to bring home – they loved looking at them -particularly boy/girl), and they had big hopes and dreams.

Just one more thing…let me assure you that the clothes and shoes that you “cast off” and donate to the Salvation Army, etc. are making it all the way to Africa.  Most of the people that we saw were wearing American T-shirts – sports, pop culture, PE shirts, you name it….they are wearing them!  For some, those cast-offs are a way that they can begin to support themselves and their families.  I can only speak for Childreneverywhere.com, when I say that I know your money is going directly into the care and feeding of the children in those pictures!  I am going to try and get some schools involved in sharing with the schools that I visited, even if it is only a sharing of ideas, it is all good.  Keep giving!  

Zambia is a peaceful nation with a lot of hope and potential in their children.  Most of our time was spent in the capital city of Lusaka which just gives one side of the story.  There are plenty of people living their lives in far out villages, those kids go to school (often far walks and share the same hopes and dreams of their country.

The animals also seem to have one foot in the 21st Century and the other foot in another, as they go about their business (sometimes literally) as we drive by in our souped-up jeeps.  Watching them as they swim, play, run and eat is just an indescribable privilege.

There are a lot of words that will elicit a smile and a story from us:  let ‘er buck, head’s up, George, Louis, Catherine, Bob, Peek-a-boo hippo, pretzels, caterpillars, sprinkler, Yeaaas, no, no, no, no, chickens, the bridge, googly eyes, Simon Says, French toast and tacos, kwacha, speed bumps, malaria pills, happy plates, WD40, the Charleston, purple balls, peanut butter, pompoms, scrum and TIA!  There’s more but that’s another whole blog all together!