Day 8

Hi everyone! Today we accomplished many things. We planted 15 trees out by the soccer field, known as the “soccer pitch” out here. We cut down a tree that was being used by the locals as a bridge to cross the river trespassing into the property and we burned a lot of the thatch from the Insaka that we tor down earlier this week. We ate a great dinner consisting of meat loaf and mashed potatoes and we finished off with a class about ACTION Zambia by Megan.
A group of about 30 children are out here everyday with us virtually without any parental supervision. They range from ages 2-10 and they are all very eager to help. Our work area, that looks more like a construction zone out in the bush, has become a play ground for these kids. They are very resourceful, hard working and resilient. Some of them collect bundles of straw that they use for making brooms while others take them home for their moms to use
Among the 8 foot hole we dug earlier this week for the pit latreen, the lumber form the Insaka with rusty nails and the blazing piles of burning thatch, these kids are having so much fun out here. Luckily for us the older ones look out for the little ones. They run and do summer salts on the straw and they sing beautiful African worship songs to us. They are all very musically inclined with beautiful voices and incredible rhythm. They have great names like Gift, Faith and Grand Son. They seem to have grown very attached to us in the short time we’ve been here and we all enjoy their spunky personalities.
Jialos, one of the Zambian caretakers for the farm, stepped on a rusty nail this morning. His foot got swollen and he was in a lot of pain. We cleaned up his wound, gave him some Motrin for the pain and got him a Tetanis shot. Kelly and Grand Son even made him a very cool crutch with spare wood we had from the Insaka. We too have become very resourceful. =)