Our New Home

After five months in the states, we are back in Zambia at our new home at "New Day Orphanage." Although we have lived in Zambia for 13 years, we have never lived in an area as rural as the one we are living in now. Our last home in Gwembe was a rural village, but there was a lot of English spoken there, at least half the homes had electricity and running water, and we would see an ocassional vehicle pass by our home. But this is not the case in Mapanza, Zambia, where the orphanage is located.

New Day is off the main road, which is a dirt road, about a mile. It is completely surround by rural villages. It is not the prettiest place in the world with all the tall grass, red dirt and thorn trees everywhere, but the sunsets are amazing, and the skies on a clear night are brilliant.


On the first morning after our arrival at New Day, I began the process of unpacking boxes. When I reached down to open up the first suitcase, a small rat jumped out, touched my hand and ran off. Surprisingly I didn't scream. Such critters are part of rural life in Zambia.

Another part of rural life is DIRT! I've lived with dirt the last thirteen years, and even before that in Zimbabwe, but Mapanza dirt is different--it is red. I don't think that we will wear too much white at Mapanza. Amazingly, however, the Zambia women who come to wash our clothes by hand are able to get the clothes remarkably clean.


Probably the most challenging part of life at New Day is the lack of electricity. New Day has been waiting for the electric company to finish the work so the electricity can be turned on for over a year now. In the meantime, a generator is used to pump water to the houses, to keep the food in the freezers cold, and to provide lights for a few hours in the evening. Sleeping is a challenge, but at least we have battery fans. One good thing about no electricity are the sounds--birds singing, roosters crowing, and cow bells, are just a few of the sounds that we wake up to in the morning.


Our new home is like a BIG village. We are not alone by any means. The Tidwells live next door and soon we will have a completed guest house which will house some volunteer teachers. Also on the New Day property are two staff houses, one orphan house, and a multi-purpose building (school/kitchen/dining hall). We can get good excercise walking from where we live to this area as it is about....


New Day also has a new church meeting temporarily on the property at what we call "The Shelter." The shelter is a round open hut (or rondavel). It makes a nice place for the new believers to meet each Sunday for worship. We call the new church, "New Day Baptist Church."


Well, this is just a preview of our new home. We have a lot to learn about life at New Day, but one thing we already know--there's no place like home no matter where you live! We thank the Lord for our new home and our new family.