A Good Week

Greetings from Siavonga, where the weather is mercifully cooling and the kids next door still run around naked. It’s not even just in the morning anymore, actually, they’re naked pretty much all the time now.

It’s been another good week here, even with all the complications and frustrations. I promised you a happier blog this week and I will try to deliver.

The big news from this past week is that I got to make a trip to Lusaka on Thursday to pick up some farming supplies. Munjongo had a few business items to attend to in the big city and our fishing coordinator, Mubita, had to pick up a new ceiling wire to fit on one of our kapenta rigs (it seems like something breaks on one of the rigs every other day, this being one of the aforementioned frustrations), so I got to come along. In order to carry everything we hired a truck driver for the day, which meant I wouldn’t be traveling in the fetal position this time. Imagine my relief.

Since it won’t be raining much at all this upcoming season we figured securing irrigation supplies would be priority number one, so we upgraded on hoses and got a few sprinklers as well. I’ve been fooling around with them for the last few days and have been trying to teach a few of the older children how to work them so that the beds can be watered even if Kebby (the boys’ caretaker and my farming partner) and I are not around. Manga, one of the oldest girls, is very bright and speaks good English, so it’s looking like she will be my point-person with the watering.

We also picked up shovels, garden forks, hoes and more seeds. We started planting on Friday.

Farming is going to be very important for a few reasons. First, we’re planning on selling our vegetables to have some more income for Namumu. More importantly, though, it’s critical that the children learn these skills. We’re in a rural area and many of them could be doing some form of farming after leaving Namumu. We’re trying to teach them the skills they need now so that they’ll be equipped when they leave.

The other businesses are doing fine. We’re looking to hire a new welder to work with Vincent, our young current welder who is good but perhaps still in need of some mentoring from someone with more experience. We’ve interviewed two and should be making a hiring decision this week.

Since I’m usually either working, cooking or cleaning I haven’t had much free time. On nights when I have time I’ve been reading a bit and watching old episodes of LOST on my computer. I hope all you LOST fans back home are enjoying season 5. If you wouldn’t mind giving me a spoiler-free critique of the last few episodes I’d love to hear how it’s going. If you aren’t a LOST fan then all I can say is I’m sorry (for you).

Well, that’s about it for the week. God is good and is still doing wonderful things through his workers at Namumu. Please continue to pray for Namumu and the community.


Since I promised you an uplifting blog I’ll leave you with a true story from the streets of Lusaka:

It had been a long day. We’d been running around the city for hours and hadn’t even had time to stop and eat. The sun was going down and, to top it off, we knew that we still had a three hour drive ahead of us back down to Siavonga. I was dragging. We all were. But then God sent me an angel to give me the encouragement I needed…

As I was walking back to our truck from one of the stores, I saw a younger Zambian fellow point at me, turn to his friends and saw, “Look, it’s Chuck Norris!” I kid you not.

You know, growing out my beard hasn’t always been easy. I’ve faced opposition from friends and family alike. However, moments like this make it all worthwhile. To have been associated with a true American hero like Chuck Norris, all because of my beard, gave me a feeling I can’t quite put into words. What a great ending to the day.