Family Vacation: Part I

Eating breakfast on Grandpa's lap: Life is good.

The Great African Dueck Vacation: Part I (July 16 – 23)

On Wednesday evening, July 16, Peter and I and the boys drove to Ndola, an hour away, to pick up my parents, Kevin (my brother), Rhonda (my sister-in-law), and their children ,Justin, David, Adam and Grace. It had been a year since we had seen them and we were all excited to be together again. We had arranged to use an MCC truck in addition to our MCC car so we were able to transport the twelve of us around during the vacation. Somehow we managed to fit all their luggage into the back of the two vehicles. To be fair, at least three of the suitcases were full of things for us!

This first week was spent mostly in Kitwe. The family had time to get over jetlag and just relax a bit. Brendan and Jason finished their last two days of school and everyone got to visit their school to see what it was like. We made several trips to Shoprite for groceries and to the market for fruits and vegetables as well as souvenirs. Peter gave everyone a tour of MEF and the kids had a great time playing together both inside and outside. Much to the excitement of Brendan, Uncle Kevin helped him build a proper treehouse in the front tree. Now it is a bit higher and much more safe than the initial structure that the kids built using termite eaten boards from around campus. The treehouse was a big hit and all the kids enjoyed eating lunch up on the platform.

Neighborhood kids came to play and all joined in a few games of soccer.

In the midst of all this, Dad and I were busy with a few events related to the African Indigenous Christian Counseling trainings that I have been conducting and that Dad helped develop. A formal partnership was drawn up between Fuller Seminary and Theological Education by Extension in Zambia (TEEZ), the organization through which I have been doing the trainings. Dad and I kicked off a training led by Rev. Chimfwembe. That was a bit of a fiasco but it gave Dad a sense of how these trainings happen. Dad was asked to give a devotional and then I was going to lead the first session. Rev. Chimfwembe called to say that he would be a bit late (one hour as it turned out) and that we were to start without him. But the DVD equipment wasn’t there so a few of the students went in search of something we could use. Rev. Mabuluki arrived with a video projector unit but it was giving him problems so it took even more time to set up. Two hours after our original start time, we actually began the session. Welcome to life in Zambia!

Visiting while waiting for the glitches to be worked out

Then we were also part of a morning chapel for the United Church of Zambia Theological College to hand out the certificates and books/DVDs from the training I led a few weeks ago. The participants were thrilled to receive the certificate from one of the authors of the project and Dad was excited to see how the materials that he had worked on for so long were being used and appreciated.


We had two outings that first week that were great experiences in completely different ways. One day was spent at Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, the chimpanzee refuge where we went on my birthday a few months ago. We had such a wonderful experience there that we really wanted to take the family. Once again, the workers there were so knowledgeable and they helped us understand more about these amazing creatures.

Then another day we went to a ministry in Ndola called Seeds of Hope International Partnerships. This is an organization begun by Kirk Schauer and the Vineyard church in Santa Maria, CA and has really taken off in the last five years. They have a number of different projects but the one that we focused on was their desire to provide clean water for people in very poor compounds. They drill wells so that residents don’t have to walk several kilometers for water.

They also repair handpumps that are already in existence and train residents to do the repairs themselves in the future.

But one of the big projects they have undertaken is making biosand filters to purify water for drinking. They showed us how they make the concrete structures and how the different layers of sand can take out 97% of pathogens in the water. This has greatly reduced the incidence of cholera and giardia and other diseases in these compounds. Pastor Francis, the pastor of the Mapalo Vineyard Christian Fellowship, is a delightful Zambian who really has a heart for these people in compounds that are so often neglected. We learned so much by listening to Pastor Francis and Kirk and visiting one of the compounds that is benefiting by the wells and filters. This ministry is doing great work and it was a privilege for us to witness it.

In this first week, I think my family began to get a taste of our lives here in Zambia. We had power cuts on a few occasions, once when we had invited all our expat friends at MEF for a dessert open house. Of course the power goes out when there is a full house and you would really like electricity but candles provided a nice ambience! Kevin and Rhonda were attempting to book tickets for something in London on their return trip but discovered how incredibly slow our internet connection is at MEF. It sometimes takes more than five minutes just to load a page. Such is life here. We couldn’t host everyone in our home so some had the added benefit of experiencing less than satisfying showers in their accommodations. But I was extremely impressed with how flexible everyone was. Travelling long distances with four in the back seat of each vehicle, eating whatever was offered, playing with fewer toys than usual, being patient when waiting for the next thing to happen . . . everyone took things in stride. The kids played so well together and did their best to absorb this new culture even when jetlagged and out of their comfort zone. It was a huge blessing for them to witness our world and participate in it, even if for just a short time. We were encouraged by their reflections and perceptions, which helped us see what has become familiar with new eyes once again. With no power the morning of our departure, we packed up, said goodbye to Kitwe, and embarked on the second phase of the Great African Dueck Vacation.