Day 2

Today we went to a village about an hour outside of Lusaka. This day we learned more about the everyday life of an African family. The average life expectancy for male and female is 33 years old. 25% of all Zambian children are orphaned. And the most shocking is that in Zambia there is a 90% unemployment rate! It was one thing to hear these statistics, but it was quite different to see first hand where people live and their daily struggles. There were two types of homes, lucky homeowners had a mud house with thatch roofs, but the majority of the houses are made of thick sticks. To perform ordinary household tasks requires so much extra effort. They walk 15-30 minutes to carry water for cooking, drinking and bathing. They share a community bathroom which is composed of straw walls and consists of a tiny hole in the ground. I had the privilege of personally experiencing these bathrooms. My husband, Chris, has a bunch of dumb, corny sayings, one of which is “Never pee on flat rocks”. As much as he said this, it did not sink in until I tried it myself and it does not work!! He was right, it splashes. Anyway, very few of the children had shoes and that particular day I wore sandals and my feet were torn up after just walking and playing. They wore tattered and torn clothing and their faces were just filthy. They were so cute!! When we got to the village, the children just came running to greet us and they sang to us as we existed the bus. It was so beautiful. The children rubbed my skin like I was covered with a white paint and played with my hair.

I had the unique opportunity to teach at their school while in the village! It was one of those amazing experiences were I felt like I was sent there for that moment and could touch those little souls. This specific village was so far out and so remote that they spoke no English. That made for a very difficult twist on “teaching”. I was able to collect many school items from Rochester and brought materials to make animal masks out of paper plates. The children were so excited to learn anything we had to teach them. Mothers Without Borders (MWB) brought them a great chalk board that was secured on their homemade brick wall. The school was for children ranging in age from 3 to about 16 years of age. They sat on homemade bricks on the dirt floor. The school had no windows and one door. It was dark and stinky in that tiny one room school, but it was all they had, and it was great!!

So I taught them step by step how to cut and color the different animals and then Webster (an amazing local who helped us so much during the trip) translated for me! The children were so smart and eager to learn. It was amazing to see their faces as they experienced these things for the first time. They were so excited as they realized that those little colored sticks, crayons, would put the same color down on their plates!! They were so funny with the scissors, as they had no idea what they were and what they did, and they struggled to get the coordination to make them work.

I loved the chance I had to teach these beautiful children of Heavenly Father in that humble school! I got down on their level and told them with my eyes and gestures that I loved them and that I was proud of them!!! I knew that they could not understand my words but I told them how proud I was of them and how much I loved them!! I felt like I touched their hearts and souls. They definitely touched mine. Many of these children did not have mothers and for an afternoon I could teach the wonder and amazement of colors and art!! I knew those mothers were looking down from heaven saying thank you for being a mother to those sweet innocent children! I knew those children at one time and I could see their potential. It was an amazing experience to see those children as our Heavenly Father sees them.

We made a total of 83 masks that day!! The children loved them so much that they did not take them off for the rest of the day. They were so proud of themselves and the things that they had done and learned!! They showed everyone and anyone. It was something so simple and small, yet it meant so much to them. As we sat there in that room there was an old grandfather sitting in the corner just watching us out of the corner of his eye. At first I was a little annoyed at his presence because he seemed to be judging me and what I was doing: a rich American who was just bringing these silly masks to the children of that village! But suddenly he stood up and slowly inched his way up to me! He said something really fast and did not look me in the face. I looked to Webster for a translation and he said this man would like to make a mask!! He was so shy and embarrassed. I handed him the materials and he got right to work. I watched him as he tried to cut the eyes and mouth out awkwardly with two hands and then grasp the crayons with his old stubby fingers. He just came alive!! His face lit up as he actually cut the holes himself and saw the colors of the crayons. After he was done he came right up to me and proudly showed me his childlike mask of no identifiable animal at all. He could not stop smiling. He became my friend from that moment on. It was an experience that showed me how lucky we are for the little enjoyments in life!! Crayons. This simple, humble, old man learned to enjoy life for two hours because of crayons.

After I finished in the school I wandered outside to see what the rest of the team was up to. I got this huge, amazing panoramic view of the village. The entire scene was full of energy and activity. They had kites in the sky, a parachute full of color and jump ropes going in circles. There were games and activities every where I looked!! The women taught the village women crochet and sewing skills. I just loved seeing all the good things going on!!!

We also taught our “values” that MWB had given us to prepare before the trip. We were given topics like health, education, and hard work to teach in each and every situation we found. My group had hard work and we taught the story of the little red hen, a song and team games. The children have no media entertainment so they use what they call skits to teach and use their imaginations. I know that not all the children understood or got everything out of our values but someone got something out of our lessons. I do know however that if one child understood that using safe sex practices saves lives that was worth all the hard work and heart ache!!

Throughout the day I interacted with more than 300 children. I could not tell you their names or even remember all their faces but I looked them in the eyes and told them I loved and cared for them. I hugged and kissed their dirty faces and held them like they were my own!! I knew that I could not change their situation or that they were hungry. Not one of them ate lunch that day! But I knew that I left them with love and they knew that I loved them!! I cried when we left and prayed that Heavenly Father would tuck them in that night and hold them when they were scared! I was also blessed with the eyes to see them as children of God. I saw how these people live and how hard life is for them! I felt great gratitude for the life and privileges that we have! Heavenly Father knows these children by name, by each and every struggle and every hunger pain. I got to see them in His eyes.

“Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”
- Nelson Mandela

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
-Romans 8:16-17