Denver, CO waiting to board
Just settling in for the 40+ hours of travel
Catching the bus from Lusaka to Ndola
On the bus
In transit
Sunrise on the bus
Food comes to your window at stops along the way
Entering Ndola
Downtown Ndola
Shoprite - the walmart of Zambia
Buying provisions
Seeds of Hope guesthouse where we stayed
Our mosquito net bed
Wish the boards were a little closer together
Look at that laundry water
Here is our dirty laundry out to dry
Sanitation training begins - week 1
Theme verse
Example of the kind of lessons we taught
Pocket chart in use
Soils lessons
Percolation test lesson
Making good friends
More good friends
Graduation after 6 days of classes
Papaya
Week 2 focus
Compounds are basically slums. They contain lots of people, like 50,000-65,000. They have no sewer system and limited clean water supplies. Many time we observed the young taking care of the younger. Aids has devastated the population. Lots of kids but few parents to take care of them.
Gardens just outside a compound
Making dinner
Look at the shadowy wall, this latrine says "Don't worry, be happy".
This picture illustrates the sanitation problem in compounds. Due to the high population density, latrines are much too close to wells. The ground water is only about 6 feet deep, so latrines are dug into the water table. Infection is transmitted from feces into the water.
The longterm solution to this kind of polluted water is a sewer system, however its unlikely that in unplanned compound areas these will ever be installed. An immediate solution to create clean water for each household is the distribution of biosand filters which effectively filter about 98% of the harmful pathogens from the water making it safe to drink.
Seeds of hope has created this biosand filter contruction yard. They can make 2-5 of these concrete filters a day.
The filters are filled with sand and gravel. This contraption is a bicycle powered sorter which is key for getting the right size sand particles so the filters work most effectively.
A finish filter which will supply clean water.
Currently Seeds of Hope is better at producing these filters than distributing them. There are over 100 filters waiting for distribution.
Sadly Seeds of Hope only has one truck to distribute the filters and it is only available on saturdays to do distribution.
That is because during the week the truck is used to support two drill crews. These crews are drilling wells in communities that need a source of clean water.
Beautiful flowers in Ndola
Our day in Lazaro, an incredible rural village full of thached roofed huts, goats, pigs and chickens, and lots of kids.
In Lazaro our participants from week 1 taught a series of lessons they learned the week before. Our meeting was under a giant fig tree.
Flavia, one of our participants, explaining the lesson. Take a close look at the interesting trunk on the fig tree.
A villager explaining how using insecticide to kill flies can break a disease pathway.
Darcy writing in her journal and taking notes. It was such a fun day she didn't want to forget anything that happened.
The ultimate transfer. Darcy's pocket chart being used in the village to teach sanitation.
More of the pocket chart in action.
Lunch inside a mud walled baptist church.
The white stuff is nshima, the staple food for all Zambians. Its corn meal cooked so that has a thick texture. It tastes more or less like cream of wheat cereal or grits however it more stiff than either of these. We really liked it. Zambians eat with their hands using the nshima to pick up the vegies or the fish in this case. I got the fish head in Lazaro, it was good to see that nothing went to waste.
Bananas
Buluba Basic School. Grades 1-9. 1300 students. 10 teachers. 4 latrines. 1 well.
Students only go to school half day either in the morning or afternoon. Even still class sizes are generally more than 60 students.
In younger grades (education is free until grade 7) the class sizes are even bigger, sometimes in excess of 100!
This building contains 2 of the 4 latrine holes for the students. Seeds of hope is working with the school to help them get materials to build more latrines.
Bamboo
Our last Sunday in Ndola. We are with Francis and Flavia Feruka who pastor the Mapalo Vineyard church.
Mapalo Vineyard, just outside one of the neediest slum areas. The church is less than 3 years old and was planted in this neighborhood specifically to meet the needs of its many young people who are growing up without the ability to learn a trade to support themselves and often without parents.
The singing was incredible. We attended church here 3 different sundays and it was really hard to say goodbye. The praises to God were so joyous. Each sunday the singing seemed to continue until the stick used to beat the side of the biggest drum had broken too many times to be reused.
There is no nursery at Mapalo vineyard.
Greeting time. This is an extended time when you pretty much shake everyone else's hand. People are really valued in Zambia. All meetings of any kind have an introduction time so everyone learns who each other are.
This is the well just outside the church that Seeds of Hope drilled to provide free safe drinking water to the community.
In an really God orchestrated turn of events. The Mapalo Vineyard and the Boise Vineyard are working together to build a training center on the church grounds. While we were there the foundation was completed
And the slab was poured. To learn more about the connections between our Boise church and the Mapalo Vineyard see our old blog entry located at http://whenyougottago.blogspot.com/2007/07/from-cursed-to-blessed.html
After 2.5 weeks in Ndola it was time to start heading home, but not before spending a week in and around Livingstone, Zambia. Just outside Livingston is Victoria Falls, largest waterfall in the world and one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.
This is like 1/10 of the width of the falls.
It was breathtaking
Rainbow bridge
The falls are over a mile wide. Its impossible to see the whole thing with out flying over them.
The bridge in this picture was built in the early 1900s as part of the Cairo to Capetown transAfrica railroad. Today you can (although we chose to watch) bungee jump off this bridge. Its a 110 meter fall.
We spent 3 days on the far side of the Zambezi River in Botswana at Chobe National Park. We started the safari in this boat for a half day safari. Since it was the dry season lots of animals came right to the water providing some excellent viewing.
After the boat we joined Jackson, our guide, in a Land Cruiser to see animals on the land.
Hippo, the deadliest animal in Africa. More Africans lost there life each year to hippos than any other animal. Hippos love gardens and tend to invade them at night. People get killed trying to get them out of their garden.
15 ft croc sitting on the shore
another big one
This elephant swam across the river right next to our boat before getting out on the far shore. There are over 60,000 elephant in Chobe. We saw so many of them. Big ones, little ones. Lots of families. We loved watching them.
Kudu
At this location we actually saw 16 giraffes at the same time.
Cape Buffalo
Antelope
Pregnant momma
Lions are not vegetarians. This one was with 8 others and together they had taken down this young buffalo.
Vultures waiting their turn
Baobob tree with full moon
Fish Eagle - the national symbol of Zambia
Looking over the Chobe river flood plain at sunset. Elephants in view.
Sunset
Back in Livingstone we took a half day elephant riding safari. This is Danny the leader of the troupe. If you ever ride an African elephant I'd suggest stretching out beforehand, as their bodies are really wide. Its like riding two horse at one time.
Our last full day we risked life and limb to raft the Zambezi. The rapids were huge, the water was warm and we had a blast. We got the best seats right at the front of the boat.
Keep in mind we are the two at the front! The boat nearly flipped once and Darcy fell out, but her nearless husband rescued her in short order and the guide rescued her shoe which had fallen out while she was desparately trying to keep her head above water.
Zambezi sunset.
