By solar powered light

Things were winding down for the evening when we spoke to Ashlee today. She was reading by the light of the solar powered light I recently sent to them . It has several different settings and they have found that on the middle room illumination setting they were able to able to use it three nights so far in a row without charging it. She said that the highest setting is actually too bright, so that is good to hear. I have been working with the manufacturer to try and their village to the list of recipients of their Buy One Give One (BOGO) program. Unfortunately they can give to afford to ship the lights to Zambia with the current purchase price, but have agreed to sell them to us at the discounted rate they give to not for profit organizations. I am working out the details to start fundraising for the purchase of these lights so that we can possibly take them with us when we travel to Zambia in May. Ashlee was very excited about how well they work and the possibility of starting some kind of program where the lights would be the incentive. She said that one of the problems the students have with school is there is no way for them to do homework in the evening. Have a solar light in the home would allow the students to help their parents after school and do their studies in the evening. As soon as I have more details I will do a posting.
Andy had already retired for the evening as there were storms the whole previous night which kept him up most of the night. Ashlee said that unlike Missouri where the weather typically comes from the West, they had a three storms today that came from three different directions. She said there may have been hail last night because it was extra loud like drums banging on the roof all night.
They area already making plans for Christmas. They will go to the doctor's family in Kasempa for dinner and to spend the night. Ashlee said she visited them a few weeks ago and swam in the pool. She said it was so wonderful and the cleanest she has been in months. Daren and Alyssa have become good friends and they enjoy having some American friends nearby.
The decided to be a bit adventurous and try to make it to the village by a different path. They started out in the direction of the village and followed the path as it winded through many small villages that were completely off the grid. Many of the villages being along a small foot path off the main path. They saw children who watched them with curiosity as two white people on bicycles with helmets on rode their bikes along the narrow foot paths. At one point they came to a river and Andy had to carry their bikes across. Another thing for the children to wonder at. Zambia if finally in bloom and Ashlee's said it is an amazing transformation. She said there are 4 or 5 kinds of orchids that have come to bloom in the village. Purple and other vibrant colors. She said there are some many things in bloom that her sinuses are completely blocked, but it is very beautiful.
They have been working on their garden and have just started to see things popping through the soil. They were starting to wonder if anything was going to grow, which was making them look bad since they are there to teach agriculture. But once the rain started their garden immediately started to grow and so has the grass around their house. So far they have green beans, beets, cucumbers and green peppers starting to show. Right now there is very little food in the towns and they have been relying on the goods we have sent them from the states. She said the government comes around to make sure the villages have food but the only thing they measure this by is the corn meal or sheema. They call the rest of the vegetables and side dishes relish and sometimes there is nothing but the sheema to eat. There is little to no understanding of a balanced diet. The main foods that are available now are mushrooms that are in season that the people gather from the forests and are the size of a larger platter, and fish and crabs that are starting to be more abundant since the recent rains have raise the water level in the river. Dried beans are a way to get a bit more protein in their diets during these times, but it is difficult as they really need to slow cook all day and if the people are working in the fields there is no one to keep the fire going. There is always cabbage, but Ashlee said she doesn't care if she ever eats cabbage again in her life. The mangoes on their trees area bout three weeks from being ready to eat, but the locals have been eating them for a while now. She said she broke down today and ate a green one and if kind of tasted like mango. She can't wait for them to be ripe, along with the bananas. The plantain trees that they thought had died have been growing with the recent rain and she said they are growing a couple of inches a day. Another common protein source during this time of year is caterpillar. Ashlee has opted for vitamin supplements, but Andy occasionally dabbles in the local meats.
Their neighbor and motherly figure, Doris, was telling Ashlee a story that she shared with us. She heard a squealing from her front yard and she went out and found a spitting cobra constricting around a small rodent (Ashlee wasn't sure what kind, but it is larger than a rat, but smaller than a pig). She killed the cobra with her hoe and took the creature home and fed it to her family. She was quite proud of herself. Ashlee says she is quite the statuesque figure but she could envision her our in the yard hacking away at the snake. She said Dorris has become a dear friend. Sometimes she shows up and tells Ashlee, "I think we will eat together tonight". Last week when their boss, Don, was in town and spent the night she brought over sheema and relish because she knew Andy and Ashlee's mill for grinding corn was broken and it was important for Don to eat well.
The people are telling them at the rains came hard and early this year, so they are relieved to know that what they are experience is atypical. They have been having trouble sleeping even with their ear plugs. They are getting excited for a family visit. Every conversation usually ends up on food and the mass quantities they plan to consume when we are visiting. That is fine with me. I also like to eat!