L-R: Charlene holding Rebecca, Erin, Danica, Elisabeth and Miriam
Monday, May 26, 2008
Rebecca Grace
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Turning Chocolates into Donuts
I feel like I have mentioned ‘Needs Care’ school often in my blogging because I find their situation so inspirational. That school truly serves the poorest of the poor and while every other school we know of charges at least a modest fee, this school was created for the children who come from homes that couldn’t even afford $3 per term for their children to be educated. They meet in a partially built church that has a dirt floor and only half of a roof. There are 6 full-time teachers who volunteer 100% of their time and they are incredibly dedicated. Esther founded the school when she saw the number of children in her community who didn’t attend school. Zambian schools typically have a problem with teacher turnover and teachers who aren’t committed to coming to school everyday but Esther hasn’t experienced that problem. She thanks God for her reliable teachers and she says that she prays for each teacher every day.
These ladies are starting the tedious hand mixing process.
When the Mom’s group at our home church in
Here are some of the 'Dolnads' by Needs Foods
A small sampling of some of the finished product (original recipe)
25 kgs of flour
4 boxes of baking powder
20 eggs
1 kilo of sugar
a few mugs of oil
a bucket or so of water
Much concentration is required when shaping the donuts.
We’re still experimenting with the recipe and this afternoon John mixed up a batch of donut batter using his sour dough starter – his dream is that his starter mix will live on after we depart
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Pen Pals
Do you remember having pen pals in elementary school? I do, and ours were from
I had met the teacher in the morning and then found out that the Grade 4 class doesn’t arrive until the afternoon as the Grade 3 students use the classroom in the morning. I returned in the afternoon and entered the class and all the students were sitting diligently. When asked where the teacher was, they responded that she had gone home in the morning because she wasn’t feeling well so they were just sitting and waiting to be taught. I took that to mean that it would be a good time for me to share the letters from
In true
I asked them what message they would like to send to Stefan and they said “Send stee-kahs” (stickers) when I restated the questions to say not what you would ASK FOR but what message would you like to send, a girl named Rebecca said to tell him that “the children of Chimwemwe Trust school love him and miss him very much and want him to come back very soon.” All the students agreed and it was very sweet, after that I pulled out a nice pile of stickers that had been sent from the
Sunday, May 04, 2008
The Last Hurrah!
Our Chalet
Our view of the Luangwa River
Fun in the pool
Our chalet was beautiful and spacious with a second floor balcony overlooking the
An unwelcome and unruly guest at the lodge
After the first day at the lodge we went on a night drive arranged by our resort. Private vehicles are not allowed in the park after dark so we were in a safari vehicle with a driver, a spotter and another couple (who were very nice, and interestingly, he played 40 games for the Florida Panthers last year).
Grrrrrr
The next morning we drove through the park on our own and saw lots of stuff, but nothing very major. It seemed that by about
We decided that since we were out in the middle of the bush, we had to try one last night drive. We saw a bunch of different animals before we stopped for our “sundowner” break at sunset, on the banks or the beautiful
Early the next morning we left our chalet and started our long drive ahead home. It took about 8.5 hours which was much better than the 10 – 12 hours we were expecting. As we drove down the driveway just after sunrise we saw 15 giraffe all lined up as if to say goodbye to us.
Goodbye, dear guests