40! - by Charlene

Well it’s been nearly a week and I am now officially 40 - hard to believe, I know. I had thought that moving across the ocean from my place of birth might somehow negate my birthday but it just ended my 30s 8 hours sooner than it would have at home. While I did miss the traditional turning 40 birthday party with our dear Winnipeg friends, we managed to celebrate on our own. My family planned a great day for me that began with fresh peach crepes with whipping cream, we took an afternoon safari in Kruger Park and then had a fantastic dinner at home later that day. On Wednesday we had a prawn braai with some friends and Friday night John and I went out together while the girls were at a sleepover. I feel very well-celebrated at this point. With the average life expectancy at birth in South Africa being around the mid-thirties due to the HIV/AIDS crisis, growing old is not something to complain about but celebrate!
Here are some of our favorite Kruger park animals wishing me a happy birthday.

Movin' On - By John

As you know from reading our previous posts, we have wrapped up our work at C4L and have been trying to figure out what’s going to happen next. Well, today we can tell you that we have accepted a position to work with MCC in Lusaka, Zambia. We will be working as MCC Consultants with a variety of local partners, helping to do organizational capacity building, maybe a little technology-related help, and pretty much whatever comes up. We will be in Lusaka till the end of our term, summer of ’08.

Last week Charlene and I flew to Lusaka for meetings with Siggy and Lois, the MCC Country Reps. It was very interesting! Zambia seems quite a bit poorer than South Africa. We had a chance to visit some “compounds”, which are sort of slums. In the compounds we visited some community schools, which are schools that have been set up by the folks in the compounds, not by the government. The conditions were pretty bleak, but the kids were very polite and friendly and eager to learn.

This is a school - how does it compare to the one your kids go to?

We also visited a drop-in center for street kids. These are kids that are as young as six years old, and they essentially live on the streets, due to a variety of circumstances. The Chimoso drop-in center tries to give the kids a safe place to go and something to eat, and ultimately tries to re-unite the kids with their families where possible. They are doing good work, and in that setting the kids seem comfortable and free to act like kids should, goofing off and playing around.

From the “what are the chances” file, my cousin Chris, who works for World Vision and whom I haven’t seen in a long time, happened to be in Lusaka at the same time we were. We spent an evening together reminiscing and having a fine dinner on World Vision's tab. I guess Sally Struthers or Alex Trebek will have to make more informercials to cover the tab.

Here's Chris and I. Thanks World Vision!

Just before going to Lusaka we attended the annual Church Family Camp, at a place called “Bambi Resort”. It was a lot like family camp at our church in Winnipeg, except the speaker went on and on which was a little rough. There were "Survivor" style team games, Danica and I were on different teams and had to compete against each other.

Here's Danica and I, still friends after the brutal competition.

Finally, the weather is getting hot and we are fortunate that we can use our landlord’s pool. The girls are in the water almost every day and frequently more than once. We will miss this when we move to Zambia.

Erin the Aquanot