Prayer time​

Prayer time today was led by Jonah Sialuamo who shared a very well delivered message from Hebrews.  Carole, who is continuing to make progress with her health, and Mr Gondwe, who performed Carole’s duties while she was on sick leave, attended  too, to share in a special ‘end of the visit’ service.

Tying Up Loose Ends

Mr Gondwe reported  that the Naanga School dining room roof was on. When he next visits Naanga, Robbie will go with him as well in order to measure up for making tables.  In the meantime, Robbie will continue to mend wheelchairs, and then carry on with the gardening and planting.

Mr Gondwe’s next job is to collect the cooking pots for Muumba School from the vendor in Monze market.

Once the vehicle was packed and ready, Jute, Robbie and Alistair, driven by Felisitus, set off on the slow and tedious journey to Lusaka. Congested roads meant that traffic was often at a standstill.

Alistair and Robbie were given 4000 kwachas each to purchase the items they needed for their work as well as K50 each to buy lunch in Lusaka.

Alistair jumped out of the vehicle near a trading estate where she would be able to purchase the necessary underwear and fabric for the Menstrual Hygiene Project.

The next stop was at Zamleather, and an hour later, 6 hides chosen by Robbie were purchased for K1800. 

Homeward bound? Not Quite!

At 1500hrs, they arrived at Kenneth Kaunda Airport in Lusaka.  After saying final farewells to Felistus and Robbie, and settling down to wait for the flight, Jute was told three hours later that due to the pilot being unwell, the flight was cancelled.

There are more photographs in the gallery under Muumba.

Muumba School is flourishing!

There are 239 children in the school, 126 girls and 113 boys. Clubs in the school include chess, art, poetry and child to child.  Mr Bbilika was very pleased to receive £100 from the Mother and Toddler group at Hope and Market Church, Merthyr Tydfil. He will use it for the preschool group.

Hunger

Mr Bbilika really appreciates the funding for food.

School would have had to close without it because of hunger. No government funding is received to help feed children. The children have cabbages, soya pieces, nshima and tomatoes.

Children bring their own plates to school and the parents cook food voluntarily. They needed 4 large saucepans which we purchased for K 400 (£25). The children need to pump the water in their break time to water the cabbages.

Sanitation

Mr Bbilika is having a septic tank built so that the pit latrines can be converted to flushing toilets. The pit latrines cannot cope with the number of children now in the school.

Pipes, a 5,000 litre tank and possibly a solar pump will be needed and Mr Bbilika will provide a full estimate.

The Classes

The reception class was lovely, and the children sang a Tonga song. The Grade 6 class was learning about swimming and swimmimg pool maintenance including chlorination.  

Visited the recording studio where I met Sydney ( keyboard and guitar) and Luckson (sound engineer), both of whom are blind.  They are working on Lazarus’s latest album ‘A Long Journey’. The music can be heard as and when the electricity is available.  Lazarus himself had gone to Lusaka until Sunday to sing in a Christian festival.  Luckson explained that Piracy is a huge problem in the music industry and there is no legislation in place to tighten things up. They do make money, but they ‘swat’ in one part of the recording studio and make music in the other.  As accommodation, it seems very basic, but the two blind musicians are quite content.  And, more importantly, the recording equipment seems to work.

We were greeted by head teacher Mr Zulu, and Deputy Mr Hansangu as well as various female teachers and carers.

Nanga children were happy and excited to see visitors.  Felisitus, Chairperson at HHZ Trustees, has a good relationship with them and they were delighted to see her. She had brought small bags of crisps as a treat for the 40 children.  We had also brought millie meal for the builders as well as cement and door frames.

Naanga Dining Room

Builder boss ‘Isaac’ reassured us that the roof would be completed by next week.  Windows, glazing, door frames and doors will all be in place before the rains start.  As they work weekends, all should be complete by the second week of November.

The new builidng has two smaller rooms within it, one for cooking and one for storing food. For dining purposes, four tables are needed with 40 chairs, (10 at each table.)

There is an intention to make the dining room function as recreation room for watching TV and also maybe for using a computer. Solar panels will be very useful.

See more pictures in the Gallery - Naanga School

The large room, which was formally the container goods storage room, housing wheelchairs, tools, electrical items and other equipment donated by our supporters,  has been transformed this morning by keen Gospel church members into a completely different place. This is in readiness for tomorrow’s worship and it looks very swish indeed.

This transformation happens every week and, as well as providing accommodation for the Sunday service, is another form of steady income for HHZ.

Prayer time

 At the start of each day, HHZ staff meet in the Prayer Room for morning worship.  Today an appropriate Old Testament message was shared by Adam about Jonathon’s son, Mephibosheth,  who, although disabled was worthy to be at the palace.

 3 The king asked, “Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?”  Ziba answered the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan; he is lame in both feet.”

7 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.”                             2 Samuel 9 v 3 and 7 

Oct 31st Ntambo 
After prayer time loaded up the vehicle with millie meal, beans and other provisions for Priscilla.   (All funded by HHIUK in the monthly allocation, although JW did purchase some extra toiletries).

Bellyward called in for wheelchair maintenance. Robbie managed to do work on this one without the need to replace it. Robbie is so willing to work and be in HHZ morning to night and yet he takes home only K500/ £31 a month. 

Printers at HHZ 

Ellis- the printer- cycles into the compound looking well and smiling. Nice to chat with him and to be informed that the printers are doing well.  Followed Ellis into printing dept where Kelvin, Muluti were busy. They are making an income, banking profits with Sanaco bank and they have orders from local businesses and Monze Mission Hospital. 
Mr Gondwe told me that he had intervened with some council organisation and that meant that the printers had some special dispensation ie not paying something because of disability. This has resulted in them having more profits.

Ntambo – Mr Gondwe, Felistus (Chairperson) and Jonah. 

Extremely dry and barren land scape. Priscilla delighted to see us. Gave her food and toiletries. Mother, father there too and her friend with a baby. Priscilla’s room in the house is organised with bed, mosquito net, wheelchair and some clothing. The parents sleep in the other two room. 
Gave Priscilla a Tidings so she could see her story and she carefully looked at all the other articles, sympathising with Carole’s plight too.

Baby’s name is Isaiah. 

Another update from Jute has arrived:

29th October -Monze 
Left Chipata at 05.00 and arrived in Lusaka at 12.30. Wifi on the bus enabled emailing. 
Felisitus (HHZ Chairperson) found me in Lusaka bus station. Very kind and respectful greeting. Victor (?) driving HHZ vehicle which was clean and well presented. 
Travelled to Monze. Hot and much greater evidence of drought in Southern Province than in Eastern or Lusaka Province. 
Arrived in HHZ compound 17.30. Mr Gondwe dived into the car to greet me and Carole was waiting too. She looks much better and considerably healthier than in recent pictures. Mobility with zimmer. 
Tawanda gave me a warm greeting too.

Outside surrounding grounds do look dry.
BoreHole -RS50 
 Bore hole is not visible above ground as it is under the driveway in a small concrete chamber where there is a ‘submissive’  pump (i.e. submersible - at the bottom of the borehole due to the depth).  The larger tank is filled, and there is plenty of water in taps, toilets, vegetable planting has begun, and water bottles were filled for all those coming in seeking help.  Grateful thanks to RS50. It is a huge improvement and the staff/trustees are delighted with the improvement it has made to all their time in HHZ. 
Guest Room beautifully presented and bathroom/toilet clean and mosquito nets over bed.
Electric working on arrival. It lasted about 30mins. Enough time to make a cup of tea. 
Electricity resumed at midnight.
30th October 

We've now had Jute's reflections on the first part of her odyssey.

25th October -Arrived in Lusaka with all the medical items in cases complete. John Phiri [who HHI put through medical school] arrived at the airport and thanks to the loan of a Zambian phone with Zambian chip from Deana, I managed to contact him. I also sent Carole a message to say I had arrived. 

I stayed in ‘Esteem Resorts’ for one night while John stayed with his brother who lives in Lusaka. 
Esteem has air conditioning (sometimes), WiFi, water and breakfast. Cornflakes with hot milk! No water shortages in Lusaka. 

Evening meal with John and his brother, Evan (very Cymraeg) in restaurant - Indian / Lebanese food and pizzas all served in the same place. £20 for three meals and water. 

Discussions with John about the newVubwi hospital.
Vubwi Hospital. 
    • Built by Chinese, 
    • One new Congolese doctor appointed- remaining staff will be clinical officers. 
    • No oxygen online - all appliances needing oxygen will plug into cylinders. 
    • Contracts given to Chinese by Zambian Government because they complete work on time and at cheaper rates than any other bids. 
26th Oct -Travelled to Chipata. 7 hours' drive through Lusaka Province into Eastern Province through Katete and arrived at John’s home by 21.00.  John’s wife and family delightful. (Martha, Wala, Norah and Faith or Tailo). Received ‘Zambian Welcome Cake.’ 

Discussed CPAP options with Dr Martha Phiri / Nampungwe.  She will discuss with her staff; she has the received the information we received from Global Health and seemed excited by our involvement.

She explained that there is a huge lack of resources in her hospital where she is the main paediatrician. 

Jute arrived in Zambia a few days ago.  First port of call was not Monze, where we have our main base, but Chipata - the other end of the country.  She went there to see John Phiri's new hospital, and to take the equipment that we had bought for it.  She writes:

Dear all 

I have completed our mission in Chipata . Some pics attached but when I have WiFi in Monze ( fingers crossed) I’ll send a more detailed report on my few days with John and family and the hospital visit. I’m currently on a bus which left Chipata at 5 am and will be in Lusaka at 11 am. It has WiFi. I'm supposed to be met by Felisitus ( HHz chairwoman) in Lusaka bus station. 

The smiling guy in the pic with the nebulizer is Dr Patrick Muzos . He is the newly appointed doctor for the Vubwi hospital. In the other pics you can see John handing over the defibrillators too. So many officials that I can’t begin to tell you their names or positions. The handover took place in the health department of the Vubwi administration building where they will be kept safely until the hospital opening. We have an official receipt. 

More about the hospital and pictures in the Chipata report which I hope to send soonish if I don’t lose the will to live on this bus journey.!

Jute 

We'll keep you in touch with things as they happen!

Iain's book has been so successful that he has had to order a second printing!

Iain is an experienced mountaineer as well as a much valued worker for HHI.  He has climbed every Munro (mountain over 3,000 feet) in Scotland three times, and is on his fourth time round.  He has documented some of his climbs in his book, along with wonderful photographs and information about the climbs.

The book costs just £25, and £10 of the sale price of each book will be donated to HHI.

Just what you wanted for a Christmas or birthday present!

Books are available from Iain - contact him at iain@rhonadale.co.uk