Zambia Immersion Journey: Day 4

Zambian Immersion Journey: Day 4

And so it is day 4 of our journey into the margins and a wonderful journey it is too.  All of the group have now arrived (collected 'Mr Mark', Adam and Matthew at the airport yesterday) and thoroughly enjoying their immersion experiences.  Friendships are being established both within our group and with the communities we serve that will last a life-time.  Watching the students and staff interacting with children and carers in the Home of Hope is truly uplifting.  Paddy Linden has a group working with him putting wood preserve on decking for a play area for the street children and there is another group painting and really brightening up the Home of Hope.  Brother Jacek is delighted not simply with what we are helping to provide but especially the fact that our students are working with these most vulnerable of children together to create a wonderful environment that is rightly called the Home of Hope.   

In the slum of Misisi the St Catherine's Centre is indeed a beacon of hope in conditions that, frankly, are shocking and a crime.  Peter Tembo (the community leader who died tragically last year) always said that his dream was to provide a path for a child from Misisi to go to university.  And Project Zambia has certainly been hugely influential in this.  The foundations for the school hall started to be dug today and building materials arrived on site.  Busy days ahead.

On a totally personal note I was delighted to be visited today by an old woman who I had met on numerous occasions in the past.  She was one of the grandmothers who sit at the side of the road breaking down stones into building materials.  They receive 70 pence per day for 12 hours hard work in the blazing sun.  The reason they do it is to provide for their orphaned grandchildren.  This old woman and I (and her grandson) used to laugh together every morning (not understanding a word each of us said) as I would stop off with her at the side of the road near the St Lawrence's Centre.  She went from that place a few years ago and I always asked the local people about her.  This morning a woman brought her to meet me in the Home of Hope.  The old woman had heard that I had come back to Lusaka and asked this other woman to bring her to me.  Her son is now in Grade 11 (A-level)!  I was blessed today by an elderly widow from the slums!

 God bless

Aidan