A Busy Day

Today has been a full day in Lusaka, Zambia. Our morning began at 6:30am with breakfast and then school to follow at 7:15am. Sounds pretty normal, right? Well, it gets better!

We had planned for another visit to the World Child Care center in Mutendere East this morning. Matilda helped me prepare the juice to take for the snack, and we loaded the 2 vehicles with all our "stuff". I was taking the Drummons with me to visit the children at the orphan school. Justin Drummons is a missionary in Kaputa, Zambia, and his parents are visiting from Alabama this week. Ricky ended up having to stay at the guest house while me, Coby, Kelsey, and the 3 Drummons went to share at the school. We stopped on the way to pick up Pastor Phiri, who was going with us to the school.

Sondra is getting ready to teach the Bible story. (Sorry, Bill, you didn't make it into the photo...Coby is taking the pictures!)
The school kids were so excited to see us again. It has been almost 3 months since we've seen them, but they remembered Coby - who could forget Coby Cook? Sondra and Bill had never been to a "real" Zambian compound in Lusaka, and I think they came back with a change in their hearts. Sondra told the story of baby Moses, using one of Kelsey's dolls as the baby. In the meantime, Justin and I got the snack ready for the kids. These kids usually come to school without having eaten anything, and they are starving while they are there trying to learn. Imagine trying to fill over 75+ cups of juice and handing out cookies to each child as they lined up outside the doorway. It was such a blessing to see their faces light up with joy after having a drink and snack.

We learned a little more about the school while we were there, and it seems that the landlord is wanting the school to purchase the property they have been renting. The leaders of "Amazing Voices" would like very much to purchase the place so they can expand the school to enable more students to come, but without the funds available, they are forced to remain renting and hope the landlord does not sell the property. Justin and I urged them to find help with a NGO in Zambia that helps schools get the funding needed to complete such a project. Please pray for this school and the funds to be made available for purchasing a permanent place. The majority of the kids are double orphaned, and many cannot afford to go to government schools. If they don't have money to pay for school, they end up spending their time on the streets. World Child Care offers free education to those who are orphaned or vulnerable.
Kelsey is helping to fill the cups.

After returning from the school, Coby & Kelsey got back on their home schooling. Austin arrives home from his school to announce that he has a basketball game in one hour. He rushes to find some lunch and then heads back over to the school to get ready for the game. Ricky then leaves for an errand to the airport while I get the cameras ready and head over to the school to watch the game. Coby is somewhere outside playing with some kids staying at the GH. Kelsey was still finishing her school, so I asked Sondra (a retired school teacher) to come sit with Kelsey as she finished her work. I think Sondra loved it more than Kelsey!

Anyway, I get to the game and (shocker) the game has not started on time. TIA! After 30 minutes, the other team finally shows up and then they have to go change clothes. The game finally started 45 minutes late. I am videoing and taking pictures, AND I was the only parent at the game! I'm texting Ricky every 5 minutes with updates from the game.

Ricky gets back to the GH and finds someone wanting to get into their room because their roommate was not there with the key, and they were sick and needed to get into the room. Oh, the joys of running a guest house! I was waiting for Ricky to come to the game, and by half-time he had not showed up yet. When I called him he told me everything that was going on, so I came back to the house to help with the chaos. Once we got everything under control at the GH, we returned to the game to find it over! Oh, well!

After this, Ricky heads out for another errand and I take Sondra and Bill shopping at the market. I have called this my "gift". I love to shop, and what better way to serve others than to take them shopping for gifts from Zambia. I have made some friends at this market in town, so we go straight to my friends' shops. As soon as we get started shopping, it begins to rain. It was fun to shop in the rain because we didn't have to leave the shop we were in. If we wanted to buy something, we just told them what we wanted, and they went to find it and bring it back to us. Sondra and Bill got some good items for some really good prices - I was the negotiator, they were the shoppers!

We ended our busy day with a nice dinner at the Marlin. Oh so good! Guess what tomorrow is? Our 1 year anniversary of living in Zambia - Yahoo!