HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We made it to 2013 first! Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for your support and prayers and may God bless you richly in 2013.

Christmas Take 2

Safe Arrival

They made it!!! Thanks to all of you who prayed them through safely to Zambia. For those of you paying attention, you caught my mistake – the second leg of the journey is the long one (10.5 hours). Mom and grandma even got bumped to first class so that the women sitting next to them could nurse their babies (which they were reportedly doing the whole time already!). Apparently, they still have standards, though, because dad had to stay in coach.

We had a warm and tearful welcome and even got to stop at the market for a few things on the way home, which is always a good introduction to the local culture. Now everyone is unpacked and settled in. The weary travelers are resting and we are sorting through all of the luggage and enjoying a second Christmas! After 6 months of trying to get our kids to take naps, they snuggled right in with the grandpa and grandmas and, ironically, decided to sleep themselves on the first day since arriving that we have 3 free babysitters!

Its all a little overwhelming, of course, but we are so thankful for the many gifts, treats and notes that were sent along. We are so appreciative and so blessed. We’ll try to keep you posted during our few days of travel later this week and we’ll warn you when we’re ready to send them back home! Thanks again to all who helped out with this trip and join us in thanking God for safe arrivals.

Visitors!

After a lovely but, needless to say, different Christmas this year and some much needed quiet time and rest, we are now looking forward to welcoming my (Kevin’s) parents and 84 year old grandmother for a few week visit. I just talked with them from the airport in London – they arrived safely despite crying babies on the flight and very little sleep. They should be boarding again soon for the second shorter flight (only 8 hours!) and we will pick them up in the morning. We are looking forward to some real “family time” and a short trip to see Victoria Falls later this week. Please join us in praying for travel safety and health over the next few weeks.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ZAMBIA!!!

Its been an eventful and not-so-eventful Christmas Day here at in Nyangwena. We started with an all day soaker, gifts from under the tree, and a nice brunch with the teachers.  It then cleared up and warmed up while we relaxed and enjoyed our gifts.  Then came a torrential downpour which gave us a great excuse to play a classic game of Monopoly.  When that finally slowed up we walked through the village and to the orphanage, singing some Christmas carols and delivering cookies.

 We’ve enjoyed a wide mix of yuletide activities today and during the past few days:

Some traditional Christmas activities…

Decorating Christmas Cookies

Trimming the Tree

 

Rody putting the star up…

…with some help

Stockings with the teachers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gingerbread houses

…and some new ones this year! 

 

lathering on sunscreen. “You won’t see any sunburn on this kid!” he said

 

 

mountain biking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rock climbing behind the house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Break

We have officially reached Christmas Break and some much needed rest and focused family time.  On the 14th, we had the last day of school for the semester (if you didn’t already see the pictures from the first ever Esther School Christmas Program check them out at http://www.estherschool.org/latest-news/) and Friday we held our Christmas/appreciation lunch for the employees who have been working around campus (post coming soon). 

Yesterday was a rainy day and we took advantage of the excuse to lay low around the house. 

Rainy Day

Today was much warmer and we went to church in Lusaka, then enjoyed a nice lunch with the pastor of the church.  Its hard for us to get fully into the Christmas spirit when its 85 and muggy, but we’ve been doing our best with some familiar traditions.

Overflowing

I was just thinking the other day that I needed to give an update on our water situation. This was obviously one of, if not the greatest challenge and concern that we had in our first several months here and it dramatically altered the experience we expected to have. I really haven’t said much about it since, but am often asked when people are checking in with us.

In short, our situation has improved dramatically. With a few improvements to our system, learning to conserve sparingly, closing off the water supply to campus except for the necessary buildings at necessary times (homes and school when its open), we have had much more success. We also have learned much through trial and error (mainly the latter) about how to best obtain, conserve, and use water. Unfortunately, we’ve had to move away – hopefully temporarily – from the solar pump we had hoped to use and have had to experiment with several borehole/pump/power source solutions until we found the combination that seems to work best.

For the past couple of months, we have been powering a 2HP pump with a 5KW Honda Generator in the newest deepest well (nearly 400 feet!). We monitored this pump time using a very sophisticated method of me (Kevin) climbing to the top of the 30 foot water tower and listening for the sound of water pumping. Then, when it stopped I would wave my hands to Drew who was waiting and watching about 500 feet away down the hill where the well is, and he would shut off the generator. In the beginning this would often mean that we were in position for over a half hour at a time which brought lots of interesting reactions from our neighbors!

We eventually honed in on the window of opportunity and were even able to “train” the well to pump even more so that it currently pumps for about an hour each morning and each night. At this point, supply has been keeping up with demand. In fact, on Monday, while pumping in the morning, I heard a strange sound outside the house and went out to find this:

I’m not sure how well you can see it, but these are pictures of our water tanks. And they’re OVERFLOWING!!! As far as we know, this has never happened before and it’s obviously a big practical and psychological blessing. Ironically, it happened in the morning just as I was leaving to pick up a plumber that was flown here to correct some plumbing issues we inherited. The timing was perfect, though, because we were able to conserve by closing off a few areas of campus that were leaking and he is working to fix them so we can open up the entire system. Now, especially heading into the rainy season, and Lord willing, we should be able to move forward with our water situation.

We’ve got mail!

We wanted to let everyone know that we have set up a post office box and even successfully received our first trial delivery from the GEMS office back home. We aren’t asking for or really even in need of anything, but several if you have asked so here it is. Small packages and mail can be sent to us at:

(name)
C/o GEMS Girls Clubs of Zambia
The Esther School
Box 230
Chongwe, Zambia

That’s it! Again, we aren’t asking for anything to be sent now (although Skittles pack quite nicely 🙂 ) but there it is if you need it. I cant say i have lots of confidence in the process either. After filling out all of the paperwork they informed me that we don’t have an actual PO box as all of them were taken. They did hope to have some more built someday, though, and in the meantime our mail would be stacked in the back office. I saw this office and have no idea how our pile could be distinguished from the countless (and ageless) other stacks of mail, forms and records, but we now know that it is at least possible to receive a package!

Thanks!