Zambian Ways!

May 9, 2016
We've had a great few days.  Yesterday was Sunday and we got to experience church in the village.  We attended Living Hope Church which was a very small but vibrant collection of individuals in a small concrete hut on a back dirt road in the bush.  The church service was a little over two hours long and you stood for the majority of the service.  When you did get the chance to sit it was on a small wooden rickety bench.  The singing was amazing and the people at church were excited to be there.  Approx. 35-40 people attended and the total in the collection plate was 23 kwachas (equivalent to $2.30).
After church Wayne Costley, the Head Master of The Esther School took us on a back road (very bumpy) tour of some of the homes the children at the school live in.  The roads are so bad that they almost shouldn't be considered roads.  The sanitation conditions of the homes we saw were hard to see.  Families of 6 (sometimes more) children are living in straw huts with virtually nothing.  Families are struggling to feed their children and many have suffered the loss of a child to malaria(from unclean water).
Most of the children that attend the school are walking between 2-8 km one way to attend the school each day.  We're having a difficult time with knowing that these children walk themselves to school and home each day.  One family has a child in JK and Grade one and they walk by themselves to and from school each day - 8km/one way!  At home I find it difficult to get our kids on the bus each day at 7:45 am.  Most of the kids that attend the school are at school between 7-7:30 a.m. and they have already walked many miles before they arrived.  What's even more stunning is that they all arrive happy!!!
Today was the first day of school and during breakfast the children were already peeking through our windows to see the new 'white people'.  Joe is busy laying tile in a new building that is being completed to house work teams that come.  I helped in some classrooms and our children got to attend some classes.  We got to eat with the children at lunch time and try sheema.  Sheema is a filler food, it looks like potatoes but tastes rather bland and tasteless.  It's milled corn and you roll it in your hands (which are always dirty) and eat it without a fork.  It may take us a bit to get use to it.  Our Sam thought it was great and he can't wait to have more tomorrow.  The teachers work hard.  They don't have a photocopier so every paper they want to give the kids they have to write out.  Today I got to help write out 25 science tests that were each 2 pages long.  That's 50 pages of writing just to administer one science quiz. This evening we had dinner with the teachers and got to connect with them a bit more.
Looking forward to tomorrow!