This Week

Kelitah's birthday was this week, so we had another party. The children danced and sang for her, chased balloons, ate cupcakes and of course poured water on her. Although she was a real trooper, I don't think she particularly liked the water part as it was overcast and a bit cold.

It has been a fairly normal week, although our work truck is pretty much out of order, and that puts us down to one vehicle. The Tidwells left today for Livingstone with the team, so we are without transportation. Of course, if we really get in a bind, there are lots of people with vehicles in the area that we can call on.

Other than the river story (last post), nothing much has really happened around here this week. Our storage shed is coming up nicely (as they say here). I've been going through files from our previous ministry, dumping things I know we will no longer need. Wes has been doing a little of this and a little of that. He is down at the second orphan house working on screens as I write. 

Today would normally be our day to teach, but it is a holiday and the kids have the day off. I did do tutorials on Wednesday, and had a good time with the kids. They are really starting to learn English.

I will try to add some pictures to this blog, if the internet will cooperate. If not, this is my update for "this week."

The River

New Day Orphanage is in between two rivers that, during the dry season have little to no water, but during the rainy season, can be a real problem. Even it doesn't rain where we are, if it is raining in other parts of the country, the river can fill up and flow over the bridges trapping us in.

Yesterday was one of those days. We had planned to go to Choma to buy groceries, but our plan was not God's plan. When we came out onto the dirt road, we saw a busload of people standing around.  Our first thought, a broken down bus, But when we looked to the right, we saw that the bridge closest to New Day was covered. The buses often sit all day waiting for the water to go down.

We had two options, to turn left and go to Choma via Pemba or to go back home. We asked the bus driver, assuming he had just come from Pemba, if we could cross the second bridge? He said yes, and off we went. About 20 minutes later we arrived at the second bridge. To our surprise, the bridge was covered and the water was moving fast. Lots of people were standing around, and when we looked more closely at the situation, we knew that something had happened.

Mulenga, who was with us, saw someone he knew so he went to inquire about the situation. Sure enough, a vehicle, about the size of ours, had attempted to cross and had been swept away by the current. From what we were told, three people had died and two had survived. The passengers had tried to convince the driver not to cross, and an argument had followed. The driver would not listen, and so the others finally gave in. It breaks my heart to think of the families that have lost their loved ones because of the
stubborn attitude of the driver.

This story reminds me of how stubborn we can all be at times--refusing to listen to the Lord because we think "we" know best. We get ourselves into so many problems when we don't listen to the voice of caution that warns us to stay away from sin. My prayer is that I will not be like this stubborn man, refusing to listen to the voice of wisdom.

Back in Touch

I wrote this post last week and have been trying to add pictures for days, but have only had success with a few. I guess I had better go ahead and publish it before it is too old. I'll keep trying to add pictures.

We finally have an internet system through the phone company that seems to be working—we will hold our breath! Blu put up a pole outside our house(not too pretty but necessary), and Mulenga climbed up the pole and attached the antenna. Wes stood at the bottom and listened through the window as I watched to see when we had enough bars on the phone to get a good connection.  So far the new system is working fairly well (when the electricity is on), so I hope to update my blog more.


Wes is doing the hard part, making sure the ladder does not move!

 Here are some of the things that have happened around New Day since my last blog.


Margaret, the mother for the Luyando House had a birthday on Monday, but we celebrated on Sunday when things were less busy. Of course the usual custom of pouring water on the birthday person was part of the fun. I think I will escape somewhere when August 1 rolls around.

Margaret seemed to enjoy her first New Day Birthday party!

She was even a good sport about the water tradition.

With the coming of our two American teachers, Diana and Carolyn, we implemented a new teaching strategy. We have divided the children into four groups instead of grades, with the hopes of catching the children up to the level at which they should be working. We have teamed up our two Zambian teachers, Hildah and Abby with our two American teachers, and they are concentrating on the main subjects: Reading/Phonics, Math, Science, Social Studies, Handwriting and Tonga. The rest of the staff here at New Day are helping with the extra subjects like P.E., Bible, Art, Music, and Tutorials. Wes and I teach on Friday mornings. I forgot how much work is involved in teaching.


One of my jobs is to teach the Art class. The children did a great job of creating pictures out of shapes.

Wes attempted to teach the children kickball for the first time. Cambree decided it was too hot to play!