Zambia, July 1, 2000

Photos

1 Johannesburg/Zambia (June 29-30)
2 Lusaka, Zambia (June 30, July 1)
3 The challenging trip to Mumbwa (July 2)
4 A day in Mumbwa (July 2)
5 24 hours in Kitwe, Zambia July 3-4
6 On to Malawi - July 4 (part 1)
7 Clinic ground-breaking, Malawi July 5 (part 2)
8 Malawi July 6-7 (part 3)
9 Zimbabwe July 7-8 (part 1)
10 Zimbabwe July 9 (part 2)
11 South Africa July 9

Diary

1 June 28-30 Johannesburg/Zambia
2 July 1 Zambia
3 July 2, Day in Mumbwa
4 July 3-4 At the Pringles in Kitwe
5 July 4-5 Malawi!
6 July 6-7 Malawi
7 July 7-10 Zimbabwe/South Africa

Today we took it easy in the morning resting up from the travel and moving about. We thoroughly enjoyed getting together with Kamani and Shirley Banda last night and getting to know him and his family. Shirley's mother is a member in the Church in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Vivian who IS AN EMPLOYEE at the Palm Wood Guest House where we were staying. . She is a Seventh Day Adventist and asked me why looked so dressed up on this day and asked if we were going to Church. I said yes and that I would be preaching. She asked me about my sermon subject and asked me to give it to her. So, I did. For the next hour we talked and I spoke about the subject

After breakfast we met Vivian who is an employee at the Palm Wood Guest House where we were staying. She is from the Ndebele tribe, who live in the eastern part of Zimbabwe. She is a Seventh Day Adventist and asked me why looked so dressed up on this day and asked if we were going to Church. I said yes and that I would be preaching that day. She asked me about my sermon subject I had prepared for the Bible Study later. It centered on what God really wants from us, and that is our heart, which is the place where our thoughts are forged and where our affections and loyalties originate.

We talked about her and her family. She had been married to an Italian who was killed in a car accident. She lived for some time in Italy. That explained why one of the items on the menu at the guest house was spaghetti. She married again, but this husband was killed by bandits on the highway. She had now been a widow for about 15 years. We talked several times during the four days we stayed there. She was a good source of information and insight into Zambia and Zimbabwe. She talked about the Shona people in Zimbabwe who are from the same tribe as Robert Mugabe, the president. It appears that the tensions between the two dominant tribes, the Shona and Ndebele are on the increase.

She talked to us about the Zambian people and the tribes that made it up. The primary tribe to the east was Chewa which was the same people as those in Malawi. When the political boundaries of Africa were drawn often little attention was paid to where the tribes actually resided. Zambia has 73 languages and dialects in six main language groupings.We would be going out to the west the next day where our church people lived. These people were Ilo. The language commonly spoken in city of Lusaka was Chewa.

Lusaka has a population of 1.2 million. There is a lot of Chinese influence as they have come into the country and helped develop some of the infrastructure. The main road heading west to Angola and Namibia was built and rebuilt by the Chinese. There is also a lot of Russian influence. In the days of the Cold War, the Soviet Union along with the Chinese tried to woo the Zambians into their orbit, especially under the humanist rule of Kaunda.

For our church service we went out to the home of Feston Kamaloni who has a house on the grounds of the Natural Recourses Development College. He is the registrar there. Unfortunately his wife Gloria had to attend a funeral of a relative, but twelve of us gathered together. Kamani Banda led us in hymns and Andre and I spoke.

Before services we toured the campus which was built in part with funding from the United States. The college is to be a sub-regional agricultural center for Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Malawi. They grow a lot of roses for export and competing with the Zimbabwe who is one of the leading rose growing countries in Southern Africa. The roses are air-shipped to Holland where they are auctioned off.

Feston Kamaloni's yard is filled with so many varieties of fruit trees: mangos, papaya, banana, avocado, lemon, sugar cane etc. They are going to be having a special celebration for their upcoming 25th wedding anniversary on Monday. Unfortunately, we will have already left for Kitwe in northern Zambia. We did take them out to dinner Saturday night and helped celebrate this wonderful landmark in their lives.