Vacation time!

Saturday, April 12, 2008
The holidays are almost over for the boys and Peter is heading into a very busy season with teaching and Africa Peacebuilding Institute coming in May and June. So we thought it would be a good time to get away and have a bit of a vacation. We started our break by going to Lusaka. In July, we will be losing the Wielers as well as the Holzhauer-Braun family (our MCC Reps). We wanted to see some of MCC’s partner organizations in Lusaka before they left so John and Charlene took us around to a few places.

We started with a place called “Needs Care” which is a community school started by a woman who saw that there were children in the Ng’ombe compound who were so poor they couldn’t afford the uniform or the K10,000 ($3.00) needed to attend the basic school. All the teachers are volunteers. Although Zambian schools are on holiday for the month of April, the children come to school anyway, so the teachers come too. The children greeted us and sang a few songs for us. I got to hold little Chi-chi, the daughter of one of the teachers, who was just adorable.

My cooking show aired this past weekend with a rerun on Monday and since even the poor have televisions that are constantly on, some of the children recognized me from the show. I’m a national celebrity! Jason recently moved into the next size clothing so we had a bag of clothes that he had outgrown that we gave to the teacher. I told her that she should take what she needed out of the bag and pass on the rest to the children at the school. Even though she too has little and is a volunteer she said that she would give it to several of the small children who come from HIV+ homes since “they are the ones that really need the help.”



There was also a health clinic happening on the other side of the building. The health clinic comes to this center once a month. Primarily they weigh the babies so they can track the baby’s weight gain. It is hard to get mothers to come consistently so this day the mothers who brought their children were given a free bottle of chlorine. A good incentive to keep coming. John pointed out the half-finished roof, which is a big improvement since there has been no roof for the last few years.

Weighing babies

We also visited the Chisomo Drop-in Center for street kids. Last year, when we attended the MCC Relief Sale in Fresno, we were asked to greet people at the Penny Power Booth as the money collected there was going to this very same drop-in center in Zambia, the country where we were heading. It was exciting to see the place where that money went. This center has about thirty kids, ages seven and up, who normally live there but on the holidays, all the children who have been sponsored to go to boarding school in the bush return to the center. The staff had to find room for an additional thirty kids, causing many to double up on the bunkbeds. We took a tour of the center and were shown a huge vat of nshima, Zambia’s staple food. Chisomo also received cans of turkey from MCC and a dehydrated vegetable soup mix to supplement their diet. Chisomo provides shelter, food, a place to do laundry, access to a clinic, and a school. They also run a reunification program for those street kids who have a home to return to that is an option. But there are many who are orphaned or who ran away for a good reason, such as abuse. One staff member told us that sometimes it is hard to get the kids to stay, even though the streets are violent and cruel. For some, the freedom of life on the street and the chance to get their own money through begging outweighs the benefits of having safety, regular meals, and care. I told him about my incident in Kitwe last week and he advised me to give to organizations who help street kids but don’t give to street kids themselves because it only perpetuates the problem (or ploblem, as I hear so much around here).

The next day we headed for the dentist since our reps know of a good one and we thought a check-up was in order. In the course of two hours, all four of us got check-ups, x-rays, and cleaning. There was a swing and trampoline outside where the boys could safely play. The Chinese dentist was a very friendly woman who went outside to play with the kids while the hygenist cleaned our teeth. When we finished, both boys asked, “When can we go back to the dentist??” Odd, but nice.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day with blue sky, sunshine and a breeze. It was slightly on the cool side unless you were in the direct sun. We decided to go to Munda Wanga, the local zoo. We were told about a great café near the zoo so we stopped there for lunch first. When we reached “Sandy’s Creations” it felt like we had returned to North America. It is a new establishment with manicured gardens, two amazing play structures (very unusual here), and a lovely café with homemade donuts for dessert. It truly felt like we had been transported to North America for two hours, a mini-vacation. When we reached Munda Wanga, we were abruptly brought back to the reality of Africa. The place was run down, overgrown, with just a handful of animals. I must say though, the lions were truly impressive. I didn’t realize they were that big! The boys have been spoiled by really good zoos. They ranked the zoos they have frequented in the following order: the Prague Zoo, the Fresno Zoo, and the Los Angeles Zoo. But they maintained good attitudes and said they had a nice time and found some things interesting, but they would be fine not returning.

We stopped by Spar (a grocery store that we don’t have in Kitwe) to stock up on some hard to find items. Two Scandinavian guys came up to me and said, “Hey, we saw you on the cooking show! It was you, wasn’t it?” I am coming to realize that ZNBC is on constantly in Zambian homes. Several of the kids around MEF were eager to tell me that they saw me on television. And since this was a national show, these people in Lusaka, four and a half hours away, also watched me mixing up my Almond Squares. John and Charlene took pictures of the television (!) when the show was on since they couldn’t tape it. I still have not seen the show but I hear there was a close-up of my foot and a zoom-in on my chest so that they could see Hero, our Kitty, who was in my lap. I am so embarrassed.

We departed Lusaka and made our way to Nsobe Game Camp, a small game reserve about an hour and a half from Kitwe. It was our first real vacation here as a family and it felt good to be away together. MCC provides vacation time and an allowance to spend, knowing that service workers need regular time away to be refreshed. We rented canoes and paddled around the lake. The guys continued canoeing while I went and got a massage. When I returned, the guys had bought bamboo fishing rods and were busy catching small fish in the lake. We had dinner and then settled into our chalet, which was rustic but comfortable. The boys were thrilled that they got to sleep up in the loft.


Jason was up super early, as was Brendan, so they went out and did a bit more fishing. They ran out of bait, worms sold by little boys on the way into the park, but that didn’t seem to matter. Brendan just put his hook out and continued to catch fish!



After breakfast we went on a safari walk. The safari truck had broken down that week so there weren’t any game drives being offered. But the staff told us where the giraffes usually hang out and so we set out on foot. There are no predators at this game park so it was perfectly safe walking around. The boys were beginning to get frustrated at not seeing anything and wanted to head back when Peter spotted the giraffe. There were four of them, a male, a female, and two smaller ones. We walked forward quietly and their eyes never left us, watching our every movement. We got quite close, about 40 meters away Peter guesses, and it was amazing. I think giraffe are beautiful, graceful creatures and it was amazing to get to be that close to them in the wild. What a treat.


Upon reaching camp, we went canoeing again and discovered vervet monkeys along the lakeshore. There were several nuns having a picnic and the monkeys were quite interested in their group. The nuns kept scolding them and calling them “naughty monkeys.” The boys are eager to come back to Nsobe because we all had a good time. Next time we need a vacation, I’ll have to ask them if they would rather go to the dentist, Sandy’s Creations, or Nsobe. My guess is they would choose Nsobe but the other two are great options too!