Extracts of feedback from Willie and Maryke Swanepoel

Friday, 6 August 2010            Last day of school

The children went to the nearby market to get a few pieces of clothing still needed to look less "I own only one shirt" and more "I own three shirts". Their bargaining skills were awful and duly noted for the trip. The excitement levels were rising in anticipation for the unknown. In the late afternoon I fetched them and all the children slept at the farm institute so we could leave early the next morning.

They were all tired and went to bed early. I love working with these children who exhaust themselves with excitement. No patrol needed to keep the boys and girls separated.

Saturday, 7 August 2010       Travel to Lusaka

For many of the children it was their first time to travel for longer than 2 hours in a vehicle, and to see large commercial farms. “Large” got a new meaning.

In Lusaka we drove past the Supreme Court and the State house. We also stopped at the grave of the previous president, Patrick Levy Mwanawassa, and prayed that God would bless Zambia with good leadership in the elections of 2011.

Sunday, 8 August 2010          Travel to Livingstone

Again the large sugar farms that we passed on our way at Mazabuka impressed the children just in their vast seize. As we travelled, all of them followed on maps that I gave them to help them understand how big their country was and to have a greater understanding of how maps work. This was also the night that we introduced our four friends whom they had to show around Livingstone.

These were four blown up beach balls that we gave faces and names.  They were Sapesa (“someone who doesn't comb their hair” in Chichewa), Ubufila (“lazy” in Lamba), Poepsie (Afrikaans for “a small release of gas from the stomach”), and Indoti (“dirty” in Bemba). We oriented them that night about behaviour in certain places, dress code and a few other practical things

Monday, 9 August 2010                    Museum, Town and NMC

Left camp at 9:00 am to go to the Museum. They have some very good exhibits of the village (was very funny when our guide explained to us life in the village seeing that that is where we are coming from), city, natural history and David Livingstone. They also have a strong focus on evolution and keeping the culture (basically saying that the traditional culture is all good and everything western is all bad). Our guide did not come off his practised script easily, but did admit that he did not believe in evolution although it is history and history is true (I did not get his reasoning with his explanation).

After the museum we dropped them in town in small groups with the following mission: Buy a craft of K5000 (that is equal to R10 or US $1) and lunch. After leaving them, or creating the illusion that they are alone, we circled back and followed them. This was a good experience for them to work in groups, make independent decisions and bargain a little.

Tuesday, 10 August 2010                  Victoria Falls and Sun International

The day the children looked forward to the most had finally arrived.
We would be seeing the Victoria Falls. The waterfalls stretches over a length of 1,7 km and its local name means “the smoke that thunders” because of the mist that is pushed upwards from the gorge into which it falls. Usually in August it has less water as the dry season start to kick in, but when we arrived we were amazed to see that it still had a lot of water. As the group crossed the knife edge bridge we all got soaked in the mist. We went down to the boiling pot and could also see people bungy from the bridge that crosses over to Zimbabwe.

After our encounter we left to relax at camp and to freshen up before we visited the two Sun International hotels that lie next to the Zambezi River. The one is a three star while the other is a five star hotel. I did not really know if the children understood what it meant for them to have a cocktail on the sundeck of the five star hotel, but I did know that when 13 of them came to the end of their cocktails and started to slurp up the last bit through their straws, I could clearly see the gap between rich and poor. Besides seeing zebra and a giraffe on the terrain of the hotels, the single most impressive thing of the hotels for the children was the toilets. I do hope that this impression will have an impact on theirs at home.
           
Wednesday, 11 August 2010             Train station, Museum and Protea hotel

After our high of the previous day, Wednesday was slow paced and the longing of home really kicked in. We started our day with a visit to the train station and for many of them it was their first time to see one and climb into a passenger coach. After our tour we went back to the museum, but this time without a guide and in small groups with a questionnaire. It all got a bit too academic, but the value of the museum will kick in when certain aspects of the school curriculum is taught or revised later this year or next year. We ended our morning session with lunch in a park and then went to the three star Protea hotel in town. Their tour was the best one of all the hotels and the children got a good idea what a huge operation the running of a hotel could be. Our guide, Michael, a Zambian, was excellent.

Thursday, 12 August 2010                 Hydro station and Jolly Boys

The day that I looked forward to the most finally arrived. Visiting a hydro electricity station in the gorge after the Vic falls is a truly wonderful experience. Even if you are not at all interested in the academic side of things the beauty of the surroundings is awe inspiring.

After being taken to the intakes for the water we headed back to the control room at the top of the gorge in readiness for the lift that would take us the 100 or so meters to the bottom of the gorge where the electricity is made, only to find out that the lift was temporarily out of use. Instead of using the steps to go down, they suggested we take the TROLLEY!  To form a picture of what this means, just imagine one or other theme park's rollercoaster doing its first downhill at about 2 km per hour. This gives you the chance to really appreciate the surroundings and of course to scream as much as you like and find that you are not yet half way. When we entered one of the rooms where they have generators we found that they were busy replacing one of the 10 mega watt generators and we could all see the insides of it such as the electromagnets and the copper wire. A wonderful tour ended with doing the TROLLEY backwards.

 Later the afternoon we went to visit Jolly Boys backpackers where we were shown around by Faith. On our way home, close to a petrol station, we found a herd of 10 or more elephants. Amazing!

Friday, 13 August 2010                      Mukuni village and Zimbabwe

Leaving from Mukuni we headed for the border. It took me the whole week to try and organise for the children to cross the border for a day without passports and even when we arrived the border official was reluctant to let us pass. But through God's grace he allowed us and the Zimbabwe side had no problems either. As we crossed the border we walked past a few warthogs, and kept a good distance between them and us. After filling up the stomachs we attacked the curio market of Zimbabwe. Each child was armed with K10 000 (US $2 or R15) to see what they could barter from the market. After 2 hours at the market some of the children were able to buy some really good bargains while other was content to just browse. Suddenly other currencies and the conversions of it made sense to the grade 7 class. After a long day of walking we headed back home, showered and ended our time in Livingstone with a pizza, another first for most of the children.

Saturday, 14 August 2010                 Travelling home

Waking up at 4 am was not easy, but it had to be done in order to reach home at a decent time. We were able to pack up everything and left more or less at 6:30 am. We finally reached home at 20:20 after a long day’s travel and the children were extremely hyped to be back home. One of the other teachers took them to their respective villages and I could just climb in bed and SLEEP.

It was a great experience for all of us. In total we were 13 children and 5 teachers. Please continue to pray for these children as not all of them are following Jesus and all of them struggle to find the freedom that He brings.