“Love each other as brothers and sisters.” 1Peter 3:8

It’s still unbelievable to me how fragile life is here and that the loss of life has become an every day occurrence. I asked Foster how many siblings he has, and he simply stated, “Once we were seven, now we are three.” It’s just the way it is. I imagine that’s why the extended family is so very important here. I learned that in Zambia there is no word for uncle, aunt or cousin. If the uncle is older than your father he is your “big father”, if he is younger he is your “small father”. The same is true for aunts. Your cousins are your brothers and sisters, and your nieces and nephews are your sons and daughters – and there is no difference in status. Your nieces and nephews (most especially if they live with you) are treated exactly the same as your children. That’s the origin of the saying “In Africa there are no orphans.” When your brother or sister dies, their child is automatically your child. I sometimes forget that life expectancy here is a mere 32 years of age. I see older people. But I also forget that most of the time their appearance is not an accurate reflection of their age. Someone may appear to be seventy years old, when they are actually only fifty years old. And the reverse is true for children. Because so many are malnourished, they are smaller and appear much younger than they actually are. I don’t think I’ll ever forget Steven, a small boy we saw at the clinic in Mansansa. He was the first patient I treated in wound care with Rusty and Jon. He had a severe burn on his left arm, a result of being epileptic and falling into a fire during a seizure. He was sweet and gentle, never flinching as we treated his burn, and had the most beautiful big brown eyes. I thought he was around eight years old. He was fourteen.

Then there are cases like baby Frederick. We saw this tiny little miracle today. His mother brought him to George for a visit with us, making the long trek from Dag Hammarskjöld. The first time we saw him, about a month ago, he was so weak and malnourished he was unable to lift his head or eat. Today he doesn’t stop eating! They arrived at lunch time at the project site and the men fixed a plate of nshima and fish for them. Frederick dug in, and ate all the nshima. He picked up the fish head, not too sure about it, and just watched as it dangled from his fingertips. I don’t think I would even pick it up! We were so happy to see him alert, not only eating but feeding himself, and smiling.

We also attempted to purchase books for Teddy’s next term at college. Seems like a simple enough thing, you take the list, go to the book store, and it’s done. Not so. We went to the book stores - they looked on the shelves, they looked on their lists, they looked to see if they could order them – negative on all counts. And it’s not like in the U.S. where you visit the college campus book store, pay an exorbitant amount of money, and walk out with the books. There is no book store on campus. We were advised by the merchants in town that these books are generally available only from the street vendors. Amazing! And too bad. The street vendors have all been chased away by the police force here in Ndola. So, we will continue to search. Typically the street vendors display their wares either on a blanket or a straw mat placed on the sidewalk. They sell everything from food, sunglasses, and books to electric coils for your stove. As you pass by, they call out to you “Madame, see, only 10,000 kwacha.”

Sorry to report that Ron is still not feeling well. He spent most of Sunday in bed, and came home around 15 hours today to rest. Hopefully tomorrow he will be feeling much better.

Thanks again for all the prayers, and we are really enjoying all the comments on the blog. It’s so good to hear from you all. Wish you could all be here! And Charlie, we haven’t seen one drop of rain so far. Come October, after we leave, it will start raining and won’t stop for a couple of months! One more reason we need that roof completed.


There is a new twist in the proceedings here at Setanga Lodge. In addition to our routine power outages, we can now add no phone service periodically (which translates into no internet service), and the water pump has been malfunctioning for the past several days which means no cold water (which means no bath). Oh well, we’re not here for the technology. So far, we have been very, very fortunate. So, this blog was meant to be posted last night, but I’ve come to the internet café this morning to post. Hope the picture will download!