31 August 2008

When we spoke to Andy and Ashlee they were stuck in Solwezi because the recently deceased president, Levy Mwanawasa, body was making the rounds to the cities and villages for viewing and so all the traffic was coming into Solwezi but not out. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7570285.stm So they stayed a few extra days at the provincial house on their way back from a week of training in Lusaka. They were curious to see how the country would react as this is the first elected official to pass away. So far everything has been peaceful. They are very interested to see how the election process works in Zambia. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7607444.stm Ashlee was telling my how the mourning period is 7 days and there is hour upon hour of wailing.

They enjoyed their training where they learned about grafting trees so provide a variety of fruit types. They were grafting oranges on to lemon trees. They also had training in growing bananas and business planning. They will hold weekly classes on business planning with the village.

Ashlee said that she had 7 chickens hatch from her chicken Ethel, but 4 had already been killed by hawks. Hopefully they will be able to keep a couple of them alive. An epidemic has been going around that is killing the chickens so they were going to find out how to get vaccinations for the birds.

Ashlee has started a knitting club and met with the town council to get it approved. That will be a valuable skill to teach the ladies. Ashlee said she has started to work out a lot of different patterns including socks to teach them. Mom’s knitting club has been sending Ashlee needles and yarn to get started, as well as yarn to do the rag rugs. Mom found a pattern online for making a loom out of a cardboard box so they should be able to figure out a way to make that work.

They have befriended a boy from the village whose father lived in Lusaka recently died of TB which is a result of HIV. His family would not let him leave the village to attend the funeral and now he has been left to fend for himself with his education which is nearly complete. Andy and Ashlee are going to sponsor him (10,000 quatra which is only a few dollars) in return for work around their house for this year, but are trying to find a sponsor for him for the next year. He is the cousin of the boy that does quite a bit of work for them now at their house.

Ashlee said that she had received a letter from Christi, her high school friend, who has recently traveled to Russia with her acting group to teach the children about playwriting. They think that it may be possible for her group to visit Africa in the future for a similar program. Ashlee was very excited about this prospect and hopes they can get the details worked out.