Tuesday, March 19, 2024

A Jembo student garden with no yield

Cory will be having class Tuesday with the Bible students, his last one of this term as they have finals next week before and then a month off.

Corn, peanut and sunflower
Last week he didn't have his Tuesday class as the country celebrated International Youth Day, so he's already prepared his lesson on pest control and herbicides. 

We generally attend student led chapel on Tuesday and Friday mornings however Friday, March 15 was International Women's Day-also a holiday so chapel was not held for 2 in a row. 

We're working on some travel plans for a trip in April, 'Fall Break' for Fritz and a chance to see some more of Zambia and hopefully visit a church or two. 

Cory worked hard on putting together a video update for a couple churches while Fritz and I worked on our studies. 

The 'power shedding' times started last week Sunday night. 

Early planted corn with small yield. Some of the
new hybrids are very tough.
The 24 hours in a day are divided into 3 different time zones: 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.; 2 p.m. -10 p.m.; and then 10 p.m.-6 a.m.

Theoretically you can go on-line to find out for your area what times each week that your power will be turned off..and it should be the same time daily for the week.

Well the first week the power was off for 8 hours-a different time each day. 

Then we got a bit of rain and the hours dropped to only 5 off and has been rather random.

Not just fruit trees that get cut by the termites.
Our adjustment is making good progress: remembering to fill the drinking water containers and buckets when the water pump is working; charging all electronics: phones, batteries, computers, Kindles, router, and more; making sure not to open the refrigerator much when power is off; and trying to remember not to leave lights on before going to bed to avoid a bright random wake up [this one is the hardest]

The discussion of maybe getting solar power for the Bible college is on-going even as we continue to pray for more rain.

For an average year there would only be about 2" of rain left for the rest of the rainy season, then dry until November.

While it is too late for much benefit to the field crops like corn, sunflower and beans, the gardens can still benefit; as can the grazing pastures for the livestock; and the water levels of the wells. 

We have had just a little more than 1" of rain since we arrived two months ago.



Thursday, March 7, 2024

Blessings and sorrow..


Here's a bit of what I wrote on a thank you today:

"My gratitude comes tinged with a large amount of grief due to intense situations I’m praying for at this time.

    • I’m thankful for living in a peaceful country, as I pray for the horrible situation that continues to spiral downward in Haiti.
    • I’m thankful for plumbing and safe drinking water, while praying for rain as Zambia declared a national disaster this week due to drought conditions now near the end of the normal rainy season. 
    • I’m thankful for health while praying for those fighting cancer, disease, and illness.
    • I’m thankful for inner peace even as I pray for those struggling with anxiety, depression, unforgiveness, bitterness, fear, and so much more.
    • I’m thankful for my faith even as I pray for those who’s faith unraveled or never yet has grown."
 Living between worlds can be a very hard, very blessed, and very confusing place to be.

I'm very aware of the severe drought that Cory blogged about last time and its effects:
  1. People need water to drink to live. The water levels in the wells are already dropping. I'm thankful
    we: have running water; have a UV purification system; can store water when the power is on.
  2. Gardens and fields need water to produce food. I can afford to buy food even if harvests fail because we can't water the trees and plants. We can afford to buy a drum to store water to protect the trees in the nursery.
  3. Water in bathrooms. Our house has running water. I'm thankful Cory could buy some parts to get our shower running again. I"m always surprised at how little water I can shower and wash my hair with when limited. I praise the Lord when turning on the faucets. [And I smile when I think how one of our children didn't know until college that most folks in the USA didn't take 'navy' showers {turn on, get wet, turn off, soap up, turn on, rapidly rinse off, turn off].
  4. Increased prayers. I pray for rain, the well, water table, and power.
  5. Most of the electric in Southern Zambia is provided by hydropower....therefore we anticipate soon having scheduled 8 hour daily times without power. While I"m very aware that needing electricity is a '1st world' issue I'm grateful for the power and again getting in the habit of making sure computers, kindles, phones, battery back up, internet router are all charged when the power is on. 
So the adjustment continues...grateful for what I have and adjusting to life without some of my USA accustomed blessings. 

Learning to lament and acknowledging the whole range of my feelings.

Always ending in praise to my heavenly Father for His faithfulness and the hope and peace I find from trusting Him in all things. 


Friday, February 23, 2024

Drought! by Cory (also a reason chocolate prices are up)


El Nino is hitting SW Zambia area with drought and NE area with flooding, most of southern Africa (red shaded in map) with abnormal heat and the yellow area is abnormal dryness 
"Climate Prediction Center's Africa Hazards Outlook
For USAID/FEWS-NET 22-28 Feb. 2024
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/international/africa/africa_hazard.pdf

Jembo is at the blue dot between the "2"s.

We haven't had any rain since our arrival a month ago and the past few weeks have been mostly sunny with highs in the low 90's and humidity percent in the 30's. 


The climate center says rapidly worsening conditions are likely to continue across much of southern Africa for the coming week.

Closer to home for most of our friends, this shows at least part of the reason for record high cocoa prices since west Africa grows most of the world's chocolate and they have also been somewhat dry.

I went with the dean of students to a mill in Choma to help get wholesale priced cornmeal for the students.

Crowd at a cornmeal outlet in Choma and stores will
be busier next week from end-of-month payday.
Many Zambians are struggling with their food budget because last year the harvest was poor from a short rainy season and this year is worse.


Farm prices for corn are about triple a year ago and the wholesale cornmeal is only about 22 cents per pound, which shows how low the cost of their staple food usually is.

We heard on a video recently about the firm corn porridge "nshima" which is "like a religion for Zambians, who eat it at least once a day and say nothing else will fill them up".

The first shop only had 15 of the 55 pound bags, half of what we planned to buy. 

They said to go quickly to the other mill outlet because they may be out also soon.

There was a big crowd (the government recently started selling corn reserves at a reduced price) and the sales person said to go direct to the mill.

Corn fields on the way to Choma

We arrived before noon, waited, and after showing a school letterhead they let us in, weighed the truck and directed us to the warehouse.

At 1pm we were about to be served and the employees went on break until about 2:15.

After a large truck was mostly filled we finally had all the cornmeal about 3pm - in hindsight we should have bought the 22 pound bags at the first shop for a slightly higher price.


Please join us praying for good rains!

Also that the school well keeps working, which also waters the new trees - we planned to check with a well company about flushing the sand out of the well but ran out of time.

The pump flow is slowing so it runs all day, most of the student vegetable gardens can't be watered, and we can't keep raising the pump as was done last year as the borehole slowly fills with sand.

Many of the fields I saw on the way to Choma are beyond recovery.

Jembo is a bit less sandy than the Choma area but most of the corn here is also rapidly losing yield potential or completely failing.

Zambia usually exports corn so the surrounding countries will also suffer, especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the northern border.

The first outlet in Choma

Corn prices were many times higher in their cities so Zambia increased the farm price by 55 percent last May, at least partly to reduce smuggling (like corn under sand in dump trucks) and recently our local market price has doubled.




A slow drive home


Jembo student sunflowers and corn at sunrise Thursday morning.

A late planted field at Jembo


Corn on walk to church Sunday morning


Saturday, February 17, 2024

Maambo Well Visit Feb. 10th

Mary Ellen, we finally made it to Maambo!

Mary visited years ago for the dedication of a well project and had asked us to visit, however it just didn't happen last time.

So we made it a top priority this time to arrange for a visit.

Saturday morning we picked up the head master of the school and his wife who live near the Jembo church and we headed down the road.

It took longer than predicted as the dirt road was crowded with small groups of cattle [10-20 head] being driven by boys, dogs, and men to their weekly anti-tick dip.

Maambo Wesleyan Church, next to the school

The drive only covered 4 miles and we had been past the sign before, but hadn't turned into the school.

The first well we saw had been capped in November because it needs to be flushed. 

The well on the other side of the school had been capped shortly after that as World Vision is working on a project that will provide most of the homes with a working faucet near their home.

Working on a solar power pump it will not require manual pumping, however the last part of the project is waiting for a truck they were told is currently in Northern Zambia and they do not know when it will be returning.

So for now the folks in the area need to walk at least 10 minutes for water at a third well.

The school includes high school with a total student population of 505. 

After a national school delay secondary to a nation-wide cholera outbreak, they started back this week.

This is also compounded by the fact that although we are still in the 'rainy season' there has been no rain for almost one month. 

Crops are also suffering so we pray that the Lord allows the rains to fall and the wells to be working soon. 

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Choma Day

 One week ago, Feb. 7th we headed to Choma, about 90 minutes down the road for a day of friends and shopping.

During missions services we'd meet the Howells a couple times at KCC and knew they also worked in Zambia.

At their invitation we headed out early enough to join their team for praise and prayer Wednesday morning at Poetice. It took us a bit to find the location which surprisingly was a couple doors down from the Wesleyan campus. We enjoyed our time and then headed for some shopping.

Cory walked the hardware section of town which consists of many small shops. Fritz and I stayed in the truck reading a Choose Your Own Adventure book. 

After only finding a couple items on our list we stopped at the grocery store and then headed back to have a nice lunch with the Howells.

We got to know the family better and found out where we should head for some of the household items on our list. Fritz elected to remain with them while we headed back out for more shopping. We visited the open air market on our way to the Easy Home store. 

Here we crossed several items off our list: large trash can, laundry baskets, some towels, nail clippers [lost a part from ours right after arrival!] and more....

Back to Poetice for a tour, meeting several of the staff, and seeing first hand their Wed. afternoon Youth ministry. Poetice developed out of Central Wesleyan in Holland Michigan, so a strong West Michigan link that not only includes KCC but HOPE College and we met a Calvin graduate as well. 

Fritz really enjoyed hanging out with the missionary kids; playing soccer on the field; and joining in with the Bible study that followed. About 60 neighborhood young teens participate in this weekly time together. We plan to try to make Wed. our shopping day when needed so that Fritz can join in with the fun.

We grabbed some supper to eat from the Hungry Lion, Fritz's favorite fried chicken restaurant here to eat on the way back home. We also returned to Easy Home to buy a small freezer since the US$ is so strong here for now (it is significantly erratic). 

This will come in handy not only for us but others on the compound. The one that was in our house did not work so the guys moved it out.

I was able to phone in and enjoy part of the women's Bible study my mom leads on Wed. mornings back in Michigan. We also stopped for some roasted and some boiled corn on the cob.

By the time we made it back we'd been gone just over 14 hours...a long day. A good day.