June Potpourri - By John

There are many miscellaneous things to post about this month.

PYP Exhibition

Yesterday we were privileged to see Erin’s PYP exhibition. The PYP (Primary Years Program) Exhibition is a result of a whole years worth of school work. The focus of the Exhibition this year was “Global Warming”. During the Exhibition the students put on a play, sang songs, rapped and showed off their special projects and posters, all having to do with Global Warming. It was an impressive display and you could really see that a lot of work and thought went into it.

Erin presenting part of a play

The whole class singing an "Anti Global Warming" song called "SOS from Earth"

Ngombe Sports Day

This morning was the sports day for the Community Schools in Ngombe Compound, just down the road from us. I (John) was invited to watch by some of the teachers at Aisha school, one of the schools that MCC partners with. It was only about 12C this morning and there was a cool breeze blowing the dust around, but that didn’t dampen the high spirits of the students as they gathered on the local dust bowl/sports field/football pitch. There was the usual happy chaos at the start, but eventually things were organized and the races were begun. The students all ran good races and a great day was had by all.

I was struck by the enthusiasm of the children. Despite having old or no shoes, running on dirt and rocks, and wearing whatever clothing they happen to have on at the time, they all were having a good time. It reflects a lot on my western ideas that "things" are required to do something, i.e. material possessions are a pre-requisite to activities. I suppose sometimes they are, but I also keep learning that a lot of the time in Zambia you don't need "things" to do "things", if that make sense. It's a good lesson to learn!

The Excited Spectators

And off they go...

Ndubaluba

Danica has just spent the last five days at Ndubaluba, an outdoor training camp for youth. It was a busy and activity packed week, Danica and her classmates had to spend a night outside, cook their own food and participate in a variety of outdoor survival activities. Danica had a great time on the rope course and in the bush race, where her team came from behind and won. More information on Ndubaluba can be found here.

Danica, ready to depart

Five days later, we're happy she's home safe and sound

Needs Food Donut Making Resumes

Zambia has just come out of a big sugar shortage, and after a break the ladies at Needs Care school are back in Donut production mode. They have relocated their premises and sharpened up their business model, so that some level of profit will be more likely. The ladies are also trying to diversify, by introducing a new product: The Cream Filled Donut. Well, it’s sort of like a “Long John” filled with a kind of frosting, but is apparently very popular and will sell well (we hope). Fort Garry Church has raised funds to help with Needs Care school, and those funds are going in part to help the ladies get their Donut business off the ground. A big thanks to the FGMB Mom's Program for your help.

The current "Bakery"

The "New" Bakery, not quite finished

Getting ready to go home

It’s only a couple of weeks until we leave Lusaka and head home. We will spend some time in Europe on the way home before landing in Winnipeg in mid July. We are very much looking forward to seeing everyone again. I am pleased that I will be working for IMT, a Winnipeg based Engineering and Consulting firm (http://www.imt.ca). In the meantime, we are busy wrapping up and starting to say our goodbyes. We will have to have a longer post to reflect on our experiences here, but needless to say we have learned a lot, experienced a lot and grown a lot, and God has been good to us.