Muli bwanji! (How are you?)
Just thought I would start with a photo of me to prove that I am actually out here in Zambia! I know that some of you, who have seen photos on Han’s Facebook page, have been wondering! This blog is primarily to let you all know that we have uploaded a bunch of photos onto our website – click here. As you may have gathered by the length of time this has taken and probably by a couple of random blog notifications received via email, this has not been easy or straight forward! I think I need to acknowledge at this point, that my Dad (who is looking after our website) is doing an amazing job! The problem has been to do with my lack of technical ability. So…I hope you all get to see some pics and can get a feel of what we have been up to and the environment we live in! Enjoy.

Just to let you know, the photo in this blog was taken yesterday at Kondwe Preschool, a place that looks after 90 OVCs. This is both a common and sad acronym out here which stands for Orphans and Vulnerable Children. Many children are orphaned due to losing their parents to AIDS and other live with chronically ill parents. This school is owned and run by our neighbour across the road – an incredible woman, who turned her bar business into a place to feed OVCs in the local compound called Ngombe. This vision has grown into a preschool and in more recent times, an orphanage and a primary school with over 200 children.

In our spare time, we have offered to help out where we can, so yesterday Han and I took the girls down to the preschool to help serve porridge for breakfast. We made a good team, me pouring porridge, Isla giving out bowls and Amba handing out the spoons! After this, we were then informed that one of the teachers had recently resigned, so next minute Han and I were teaching a class of 20! That’s how things go here – never a dull moment and often being called to step out of your comfort zone! At the end of the morning, all the children gathered to receive clothing from some guys who dropped by from World Vision. The children also received a brand new pair of TOMS shoes, such an amazing concept and business!

There is so much need here, it’s difficult to get your head round it and this can make living here very hard at times! On top of this, we are learning lots about the Zambian culture which deserves a blog in it’s own right (another time!). This has led to some difficult times and some tricky moments but as a friend here said recently – ‘who said adventure would be easy?’ But as many of you know, we put our faith in a faithful God who loves us and wants the best for us. This has not always fixed the problem immediately but it has definitely helped ease situations. As the good book says:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
(Proverbs 3:5-6)

Despite these moments, we are loving it here. The people here are amazing – so friendly and accommodating. The girls are happy and we are settling in by the day!

Bye for now

Sam, Han, Isla and Amba
x

Hi all,
I know that many have been asking after Amba and her nursery situation so we just wanted to up date you. We have decided to take Amba out of nursery and re-look at things in Sept. It’s been a good move (so thanks to all who have been praying!), Amba is much happier and Isla is also thriving at nursery. We didn’t realise that Amba’s unhappiness at nursery was having such an impact on Isla. As a result, we have rejigged our work schedule, alternating the childcare, for Amba, between us. Occassional though, this means we have a new recruit for our team when we both have to attend certain meetings! We are currently waiting for an induction at EFZ (now that our work permits are through!!) so in the mean time, we are cracking on with some research of other organisations working in the field of child protection. Yesterday, this took us to UNICEF to meet with the Chief of Child Protection. I can honestly say, there won’t be many times in my working life where the business meeting is interrupted by the words ‘I NEED A POO!’ – no, in this instance, it wasn’t Hannah making that statement, but Amba at full volume!! Needless to say, despite me missing most of the meeting assisting Amba, it was a productive meet and there are more NGOs in the pipeline.
Will talk more about our work and the scope of our project once we have our job descriptions completed!
Bye for now
Love Sam and the team!

Success! I have managed to upload a photo as part of a blog or at least I hope I have! I won’t go into the story of getting to this point of sucessful photo uploads but suffice to say it’s taken several hours and involved many people, hours and patience. So I thought I would celebrate with a photo of my gorgeous daughter, Isla. This picture was taken in our garden. It was one of those moments when all was quiet (for too long) so I went  looking for her but was glad to see her really enjoying the art of hand washing with Shika. Fortunately, we have a washing machine so there won’t be to much of this for us! On top of this luxury, we now have hot water! No more cold showers which is a relief. Last of all, we are nearly there with mosquito frames being fitted to all our windows. All in all a fairly productive week so far!

Hope all is well back in the UK and the rains stop soon!

Love Sam and family

Hope you all had a great Easter.?  We have now been in Lusaka, Zambia for 5 weeks and this week we moved into our new home.  After amazing hospitality shown by people we have met in Zambia, it really feels like we are flying the nest as we begin to set up home on our own.

Our house is in an area of Lusaka called Kalundu, 10 minutes walk from the school that the girls go to.  We live at 5640b Lafubu Road, but there is no postal service so not quite sure the purpose of the address!  We share our home with a lovely Zambian lady called Christine, who has kindly rented half of her house to us.  We live on the edge of a large compound (shanty town) called Ngombe where 90,000 people live.  Yesterday we walked through the area and were once again humbled by the way in which people live.  Seeing people walk through sewage on the paths put into perspective our own concerns over our lack of hot water, problems with our electricity and limited furniture.  Just having access to a clean toilet in our own home is a total luxury here.  Being the only white people walking through the local markets was a little daunting but gave us a refreshing feel for true Africa and the community in which we now live.  The conflict will always be in our minds as on the opposite road to where we live is a Western shopping complex called Arcades.  Living in this parallel way can feel strange and we are not yet sure how we will continue to adapt to this.  Being western we have been exposed to a lifestyle people live here  in which you can remain protected from engaging with poverty yet our heart is to be involved but in what way we are unsure as of yet.  The only way we know how is through relationship and getting on a level with people regardless of who they are.  Stopping and hearing people’s stories and asking about people’s lives is how we are coping, showing an interest rather than blanking people who are begging and asking for money at road junctions and red traffic lights, knocking on our gate, stopping us on the way back from school and when we are buying fruit and vegetables from people’s stalls.

We are loving life out here in so many ways.  We love walking to school with the girls, we love sharing our marmite sandwiches with kids in our street who are selling sugar cane and saying they are hungry, sitting in our garden getting to know our Zambian landlady, learning how to cook rape and chinese leaves.  However, we are not sure we would go as far as to say that we will ever get used to having cold showers – not sure what Sam is moaning about as he doesn’t have to wash and condition his long hair!!  But having got hold of a fridge freezer we are now on the other hand loving a glass of cold water!

We aim to start work this week and although are still awaiting permits before entering the office, we are starting to prepare our training at home.  Pukuta, the Director has our first training session lined up this month. Should be interesting!

We trust you are all well.  Thanks for the ongoing support via text, email, facebook and blog comments.  Please continue as it is great to get this contact.  Finally please don’t bother texting us on our English numbers as we forgot the chargers.  Our Zambian numbers are +260974069685 (han) or+260974069686 (sam).  Also for those of you with smart phones, you can download ‘WhatsApp’ and we can message for free.

Love hannah and Sam

Well where do I start? Since we last wrote, so much has happened. The first thing I need to say is that some of you may have heard that we have had a bit of a tough week. Just to reassure you, all is well here. Han broke her toe last Monday but we went to an orthopaedic clinic in the city and got very good treatment. Han is now hobbling around with her toes strapped and a crutch! On top of that, we (or should I say Isla) had a tough lesson in Putsy fly bites! If you are like me, then many of you may not know what this means so I will explain briefly. This particularly fly grows under the skin or animals and humans. Eggs are laid in damp clothing and when this comes into contact with the skin, they hatch and the larvae buries into the skin. It then grows into a maggot inside it’s host – cat, dog, small child, adult….

In our case, we discovered 2 bites on Isla that over a period of 4 days got bigger and bigger. We had heard about this fly so took her to a doctor who misdiagnosed the bites and prescribed her some antibiotics. On Thursday evening, I was convinced the bites where Putsy fly bites and tried some home remedies. This did not work so the next day we took her to hospital. The doctor then removed one of the maggots but said the other one would have to wait. Unhappy about this, I visited a friend of a friend who showed me a way of getting these things out without hospital intervention. I now have a pot of Vaseline added to the first aid kit! This is spread over the site of the bite, suffocating the worm which causes it to poke it’s head up above the surface of the skin. At that point, pressure is applied to the site and out comes the worm – simple but pretty grim! For those with a morbid fascination, go to Google images or Youtube!

Although the maggots need to come out, this is not a serious problem and is a common occurrence. Isla has been very brave and we are so proud of her. Isla is now walking around with a shiny ring on her finger, an award for her courage! To avoid future bites, we have to ensure every item of our clothing is fully dry and ironed. Next on our shopping list is an iron!

Apart from our health, all is going very well. We are hoping to collect our employment permits tomorrow and move into our new home on Friday! The girls have had 2 taster days at their new nursery and they are enjoying the set up very much. In fact, they love it here and are often signing songs about Africa!

I hope that you are all doing fine back home and look forward to hearing from you, either as a comment to this blog or an email or through Facebook or Twitter!

Love

Sam and the girls!

I’ve been set the challenge to link their Blog updates to both Facebook and Twitter.

Don’t worry, if you are happy with receiving updates via your email there is nothing you need to do!

The changes i’ve just completed are for those of you who already use Facebook or Twitter,
you can now use the links on the right hand side of this page to link to either their Facebook or Twitter pages or even both!

In Facebook if you click on the ‘Likes’ button then you should get a link to ‘Project Tehila’ appearing on the left hand side of your Facebook page.

nigel x

Hope you are all well and enjoying the English spring time? Most of this week we have been looking for somewhere to live, which has proved a great deal easier said than done!  We, or rather Sam began the week purchasing newspapers every morning and visiting different local shops to look for advertisements for housing.  Meetings were arranged with various agents to visit different accommodation.  However, what initially appeared to have been a relatively straightforward task has been very interesting!  Accommodation we were told was free, we couldn’t look around when we arrived because the tenants didn’t know we were coming!  One day we planned an appointment with an agent at 11am which did not take place until 6.30pm!  Meanwhile other accommodation we have liked and then discovered it has been given to someone else!  Sam eventually ditched the agent route and resorted to knocking directly on people’s doors to see if they have a property to rent!  After speaking to 15 random Zambian people in the area we want to live and knocking on 30 doors, he met an elderly Zambian lady, Christine who welcomed him with open arms inviting us to share her home with her.  After some thought and prayer we have decided to accept as it is a lovely home, only 10 minutes walk from the girls school and in close location to EFZ.  The plan is to divide the home into 2, with us having half of it. Hopefully we will move in by the end of this month. We will keep you posted.

Despite some of the frustrations in finding somewhere to live, it has been an adventurous week.  The girls have been fantastic, tolerating the 36 degrees heat whilst sitting in the car going from house to house!  We have met some wonderful people who have gone out of their way to help us and some of whom have offered us to stay with them until we move into our home.

Lots of love

Sam, Hannah, Isla and Amba xxx

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Sam here:

I woke up Wednesday morning full of nerves but prayed hard and handed over my worries to God. I have always believed that this is God’s will for us as a family but my personality tends not to think about things too much until they are upon me. So the morning of our departure seemed a good time to start thinking about what was ahead of us! This led to a knotted feeling in my stomach (similar to the morning of my wedding day which was another big decision in my life – fortunately a very good one!). I couldn’t eat much breakfast but that was ok as I’d had an Indian take away the night before. Come to think of it I was just as worried about the repercussions of last night’s chicken curry as I was about to share a rather cramped  four hour minibus / taxi ride with Han’s parents to terminal 5. Fortunately, I later discovered there was good air conditioning, so I was in the clear!

Terminal 5 was quiet, calm and orderly – just how I like it. No chaos like previous trips to Heathrow and Gatwick, which was a good thing as I had plenty of that in the form of 2 little, overly excited girls, who wanted to stretch their legs after a long taxi ride. This entailed lots of running around and NOT listening to Daddy, Mummy, Nana or Grandpa! Eventually, things settled down – it’s amazing what a few spare luggage straps can do! Penny Lander met us at the airport with our bags  and it was great to see her (Alan and Penny – thanks so much for all your help and your kind words in your card! We love you guys and value you so much).

After saying our goodbyes to Graham and Rachel (thanks mum and dad for all your help and support – we will miss you heaps), we headed through security and had my Swiss army penknife taken off me. How will I survive now? We then headed for a final bite to eat at Giraffe (getting into the African theme) – a bowl of chips and for anyone who knows us well, the compulsory Heinz Tomato Ketchup! (Not so African!)

The flight was a success, added to by the great surprise of sitting in Business class and having room to stretch my legs (thanks to a good friend – thanks mate, a superb touch!).  Both girls slept the whole night whilst Han and I managed to catch a couple of hours!

Over to Han…

Well after quite a manic last few days in England dealing with unexpected and planned last minute bits & pieces, we arrived in Lusaka on Thursday morning. We were met at the airport by 2 English couples that are living out here in Lusaka – Val and Tony and Elizabeth and Chris.  We have spent a great deal of time with them over the last few days and they have welcomed us into their homes and lives.  They have brought around food for us, invited us for meals, driven us to places and even allowed Sam to drive their car!  We are staying at a lodge which belongs to Val and Tony where we hope to stay for the first couple of weeks whilst we look for longer term accommodation.  The lodge is becoming a haven, with a beautiful garden and great outdoor space for the girls to play.  It is a real blessing as it allows us to have some down time and relax for a few days after what has been an intense and busy time.

The first day was a bit emotional as it dawned on us the enormity of what we are doing.  A whole year can feel a long time when there are so many unknowns.  The responsibility of bringing our girls to Zambia suddenly felt big, the change in their lifestyle, the lack of facilities around for them, leaving nursery, friends and the familiarity of their lives.  I began to panic that I would have no structure in my day, with no friends with other children to easily see and do life with.  Not being in a church yet and the amazing community that this brings.  Financially reliant on others rather than ourselves, no car or means of transport, unfamiliar place and no idea where shops or amenities are!  But after connecting with God, it is amazing how He renewed our strength and hope as we focused on him.  Just before we left, a special friend Ant spoke to me about Isaiah 35.  In our insecurity we can be still and know that God is our rock and strength.  In times of weakness we can be strong and hold on to God’s promises.  This is a lovely promise that really helped me, that “The desert will blossom with flowers and singing and joy! The deserts will become as green as the mountains….Say to those who are afraid, Be strong and do not fear” Isaiah 35.

The last couple of days have been better as we have now slept well and recovered from the long flight.  We have been getting to know the people around us – the Zambians are so friendly.  The girls are loving life as usual, enjoying the outdoors, warm weather and the fact they can wear their summer dresses and run around outside. The Zambian people stop to say hello to the girls and they love this!  The roads are a little hairy as there are no footpaths so it has been a bit nerve wracking going for a walk particularly as Amba wants to walk in every direction but forwards!  However, I am sure this will be something we crack in time.

We continue to have so much to be thankful for.  Today Pukuta, the director of EFZ (the organisation who we will be volunteering for) has informed us that we can use one of his cars and they are mending one for us to use long term which is fantastic!  Our plan over the next few days is to continue to settle in and begin to look for accommodation.  We meet with him tomorrow so we may have a bit more of a sense of our role etc.

But for now, I trust you are all well and take care

Hannah and Sam, Isla and Amba