Remembering Zambia

I haven't posted much lately and I wonder why.  Yes, we are still very busy with full days,

 but I haven't gotten tired of Zambia.  I need to concentrate so I can remember Zambia.

I think things just look normal to me.

I take less photos.

I still have a soft spot for the newspaper sellers.

I love to peek into the family activities as I drive by.

But sometimes I wonder how I would react if someone always took my photo as they drove by.

Colors are a constant pleasure to analyze in different combinations.

I hardly notice when babies are transported.

Life on the streets is pretty open.

Here the economy is helped along as volume is broken down to smaller quantities to increase profit.

Kids continue to play their games.

I don't understand the rules of the challenge, but it is fun to watch.

Water and washing consumes much of the day.

There is plenty of tasty food around.

All the essential plastics are available.

Whatever is currently in season is pretty inexpensive.

Sometimes the rain can hold you up until the heaviest downpour has passed.

There is always plenty of chicken around.

So on the whole I do not have anything to complain about.

In fact, it has become so familiar, I don't want to bore you with just everyday life.

This is the hero's monument with the new Hero's Stadium in the background.  In April of 1993 the Zambia National Soccer team was heading to a game and their plane crashed 500 meters off shore of the coast of Gabon.  Thirty people lost their lives.  They are buried here and remembered and honored.  It was a major national tragedy for the nation.

I peeked out my office window and wondered what Peter, "the garden boy", was doing and where all those blossoms came from.  They are actually mushrooms that popped up after a rain storm.  Peter and the guards prepare a nice relish to go with their nshima every midday.  They are often picking the fresh green new tips of plants that taste especially good to boil and eat.  Jackson the guard also tends a vegetable garden behind the guardhouse.  Life is a constant struggle of some sort, but most Zambians get by pretty well and they would NEVER let anyone starve.

The stone pounders are still at work, every day.

Roasted maize is available almost year round.

I don't blink anymore when I see such a common sight of women carrying loads on their heads.

But then I just turn in the the Manda Hill mall and enter the world of the privileged.

There is such a huge gap in the life styles of the "haves" and "have nots".

The Area President visited the mission and this was the photo of the missionaries in the Lusaka Zone.

I took this photo below of the senior couples in Lusaka after a lunch with Elder and Sister Carl Cook on the upstairs mission home patio.  From the left that are the Humpherys, Binghams, Skidmores, Cooks, and Ericksons.

Beer is cheap here and mostly made from corn or maize.  I worry that someone in the dark will stumble into the road in front of our truck and get hit.  This fellow made it to morning to sleep it off.  Most sleep it off in private.

This little girl was a charmer selling bananas as I headed for work.

So my life has become sort of routine and these are the sights of a pretty typical week.  As I drive down the street I have to remind myself how different this is from Clayton, California.

I am certain I will miss these sights that now seem so common place. 

We have our plane tickets and will be departing Lusaka the 6th of May.  We will have been away from home three weeks short of two years.  I am trying to collect these mental pictures to take some of Zambia with me.

LDS Meeting Houses in Lusaka, Zambia

I thought I would post what the LDS chapels in Lusaka, Zambia looked like in 2015.

The word has reached us that in March the Lusaka District will be transformed into a Stake.

No one is happier than the Mission President because at that time the responsibility for the local members in Lusaka will go directly to the new Stake President who will report to the Area Seventy just like the Mission President does.

Below are some of the missionaries who have helped make that happen.  We just sent thirteen home after serving two years or eighteen months for the women.  This photo is of their last day in Lusaka.

Here are Elders Johnson, Van Arsdale, Blanchard, Moya, Barnard, Hunter 

and Sisters Lyon, Jones and Scott at the Mission Home.  Four of them missed my photo.

This is the Chainama Chapel.  It is a home that is converted into a church.

Out back a large chapel was constructed to accommodate everyone. 

Here is an old sign that Elder Humpherys had the legs sawed off and then he took it to Botswanna to use for a chapel there.

Below is the Libala/Woodlands chapel.  The two branches meet there on Sundays at different times.

This is Elder Ketchum playing for choir practice (with a little help).

The Libala Choir will be singing at District/Stake Conference in March.

Here is the Aaronic Priesthood class in the Woodlands Branch.

Below is what the chapel looks like between meetings.

Here are Elders Ouma and Ketchum heading out after church.

The chapel is very nice now that major repairs have been made to the electrical and water systems.  A borehole was added this past year so now there is water all the time.  What is now needed is the construction of a cultural hall addition.  Hopefully it will come now Lusaka will become a Stake.

I never miss an opportunity to have my photo taken with pretty girls when asked!

This was Sisters Ruth and Nxele's last Sunday at the Woodlands Branch.

Below is the Lusaka Chapel where the Lusaka and Munali Branches meet.

Inside there is now a "self reliance" centre where members can learn job hunting and educational skills.     It is not only for creating a resume and internet job search, but can open the door to many educational and entrepreneurial opportunities.  Soon this will also be used as a Family History Centre. 

The Lusaka building has had a few structural changes lately.  A High Council room was created and the District President's Office was moved to where the storeroom for the Distribution Centre was.

Below is a new outside door created to be the new entrance to the Distribution Centre.  This change will make Sister Teke, who runs the centre, more accessible and the building more secure.

Sister Teke is almost ready to move in.  This will be the display room and behind a storeroom.

The Lusaka chapel is in a very nice and handy location but will prove to be a little small in the future for Stake Conferences.

Below is the Matero Chapel gate.

  

It is also a rented house that is converted to accommodate  Sunday meetings.

It is large piece of property and the owner is starting to build three more houses there.

Inside is fairly roomy.

Here are some basic guidelines for smooth operation.

Around the corner from the rented house is a large plot that is owned by the church.

Authorisation has been given to begin building here this year 2015.

Matero Branch also has a Group that meets in this house because many members live out on the outskirts of Lusaka.

Bulletin boards are crowded, so big green felt ones have just been installed.

Primary rooms look about the same in each meeting house.

Below is the sign for the Lilande Branch.

The large gate is opened on Sundays but during the week most people enter the grounds through this little gate.

This is the rented house where the Lilande Branch meets.

It is another house converted for church meetings.

Meetings get a little crowded and several classes need to meet outside because of lack of space.

The last church building in Lusaka is the Mission Home.  It is also a rented house.

The offices where Kristi and I work are upstairs and the Mission President and his wife live downstairs.

So that is what an LDS District looks like in Zambia.  Lusaka has seven units and most likely five of them will be made into Wards and two will remain as Branches for now.  We will see what happens on the 15th of March.  Many decisions will be made that weekend.

 To make it clear, the Zambia Lusaka Mission is comprised now of five separate Districts and soon one of them (Lusaka) will become a Stake.  The Copperbelt was one District and it has just been split into two Districts to make administration of the units in that area more manageable.  In Malawi approval has been given to create a District in Lilongwe.  This will relieve the Mission President of much personal training by him and now the District leadership can train under the direction of the Mission President.  Blantyre, Malawi is the other District in the Mission.  So the work goes on.  There are really four separate areas in the mission that are separated by five or ten hours of driving between each area.

Ten new missionaries arrived this week and are now being trained by their new companions.

The work moves on!