The Wielers Come Back From Africa

We're baaaack! Sorry for the long delay between posts, but it has been a busy time getting ready to go home, actually travelling, and then getting home and trying to get reoriented. What a whirl. Here are a few highlights:

Getting ready to leave

We spent the last few days in Lusaka packing up our suitcases and saying goodbye to the many good friends we made in Zambia. This is always the hardest part of moving, but we hope to see some of our friends again some day. We said goodbye to the Zambia MCC team, a lot of whom will have also left Zambia by the time you read this.

The Zambia MCC team

We will miss our partners, the dedicated Zambians like Aaron and Josephine at Chisomo Drop In Center, Esther at Needs Care (and Needs Donuts), Pastor David at Chimwemwe and Aisha (Uncle) Boniface at Aisha School.

We received a nice going away gift from "Uncle" Boniface

Our Zambian partners are incredibly hard working and have great hearts for their communities, and were an incredible inspiration to us. We wish them God's greatest blessings as they continue their often difficult work with Lusaka's most vulnerable people.

We will miss our friends from church, people like Ken and Charmaine, Eckhard and Margriet, Dave and Amanda, PJ and Cynthia, and the many others who made our church experience such a great blessing for us. Once again God has shown us how the message and love of Christ is a universal gift that proves its validity despite geography, history and culture. Thank you dear friends for offering friendship and providing fellowship.

The final few days were a flurry of activity. Particularly noteworthy was the delivery of the high efficiency rocket stove to Needs Care for the donut making business. The donut project picked up a lot of steam in the last few weeks, with a slight change in the business model which saw smaller batches of donuts being made and sold on the same day. The rocket stove is supposed to reduce the fuel costs for the project, which will increase profits. As of this writing I don't exactly know if it is working up to spec, but we will be trying to follow up with the MCCers who are in Lusaka now.

Esther shows off some of the kitchen equipment that FGMB Mom's Group bought for her

Making smaller donuts in the new kitchen (with concrete floor!)

Satisfied customers, look out Tim Horton's

We also said goodbye to some of the normal day-to-day activities. Charlene went to the vegetable market every Tuesday and made some good friends among the vendors.

Our regular fruit lady

Our regular helpers, Joseph (on the left) was also a neighbour

Goodbye Zambia, we will miss you!

European Adventures

On our way home we stopped in Europe for a couple of weeks, so we could show the girls something completely different. We spent the first few days in London, travelled under the channel on the Eurostar train to Paris for four days, took another high speed train to Amsterdam for a few days, and eventually arrived back in London after crossing the channel 0n a ferry. It was a great time, we saw lots of museums and galleries, ate some good food and met some really nice people. Going to Europe just whets our appetites for more travel, there is just so much to see and to do.

In front of Buckingham Palace

The Queen was nice, if a little stiff.

In front of the Louvre

Arriving Home

Finally, on July 15, we touched down in Winnipeg and were met with raucous cheers. It was a wonderful homecoming, and it was great to see our family and friends again. We are in the midst of getting settled back in, shopping for some clothes (no Salaula here, unfortunately) and getting back into a sort of routine. It has to be said, everyone is feeding us great amounts of good food. We moved back into our house on August 1, and John started his job mid-August.

We've been welcomed home with open arms and heart-warming and humbling generosity.

In some strange way, it feels like we never left. Winnipeg and our friends and family haven't changed that much. On the other hand, our whole world view has been altered, and we are guessing the effects of our time in Africa will continue to be felt well into the future, and in ways that we haven't anticipated.

We have heard that it will be a while before we can really gauge the effects of our three years in Africa, but for now we just thank God for the opportunity we had to serve. We also thank you, our dear readers, for keeping up with the blog. This is probably the last entry, at least for this blog, but don't hesitate to contact us directly.

Love,
The Wielers