In the summer of 2015 having booked to go and visit my sister and her family in Zambia, I got in touch with Katie at World Vision to chat about the possibility of visiting Gift, our sponsored child. I was told that usually the process to arrange a visit like this, takes three months but she pulled out all the stops, sent forms to be filled and signed and made our visit possible.
On the 19th of August, two days prior to the proposed visit, Rachel and Eugene, two of the World Vision Zambia staff came to visit, to make contact and to make sure they knew where we were staying. They arrived on the day of our visit with a team of three other staff, Mia, Sandra and the regional manager, Wilbroad. My daughter Bethan, her boyfriend Max from Wales and I accompanied them to the office. We got to know other staff members over coffee, were given an itinerary and signed another couple of forms all necessary to ensure the safety of the children we were visiting and their families.
On the 19th of August, two days prior to the proposed visit, Rachel and Eugene, two of the World Vision Zambia staff came to visit, to make contact and to make sure they knew where we were staying. They arrived on the day of our visit with a team of three other staff, Mia, Sandra and the regional manager, Wilbroad. My daughter Bethan, her boyfriend Max from Wales and I accompanied them to the office. We got to know other staff members over coffee, were given an itinerary and signed another couple of forms all necessary to ensure the safety of the children we were visiting and their families.
After praying for our journey and our time together and taking a few photos, we headed off to the Lufwanyama community where Gift lives. Having, the previous week, experienced the roads in Zambia with their many pot holes and police stops, we were pleasantly surprised by the smooth journey, which I'm sure was due mostly to Eugene's excellent driving.
We arrived at the community where our sponsor child, Gift, lived and were met by another World Vision staff member who spends a lot of time running projects and caring for the children there.
We arrived at the community where our sponsor child, Gift, lived and were met by another World Vision staff member who spends a lot of time running projects and caring for the children there.
We were greeted with smiles, music, dancing and celebrations.
We said hello to each of the ladies and children (the men were out at work) with a shake of the hand and the phrase “Muli shani” (Bemba for 'how are you?') The reply was “Bwino' (fine). We remembered to use our left hand to hold our elbow as we shook hands as we were told this is to show that there is no sword in our hand!
We were humbled and honoured as we were asked to sit in a specially decorated shelter covered in streamers and balloons together with Gift and his mother, Margaret.
Rachel was an excellent translator as we got to know each other a little. Gift was somewhat overwhelmed meeting strangers and was quite shy but livened up when we gave him a football to play with. The first letter we received told us he liked dolls but the African one we brought was rather overshadowed by the ball! Margaret gave us three beautiful locally carved wooded pots, one of which had my name on.
The children brought out the Jembe drums and took turns playing and singing. Gift played football and we played with him. The children sang the Zambian national anthem for us then we played a few games with them, sang 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes' and learned a version of 'rock, paper, scissors' where the boys and girls were divided and could choose to either be an antelope, a hunter or a wall. The hunter shot the antelope, the antelope escaped over the wall and the wall blocked the hunter's shots. The boys were jubilant in their success! Small groups of children showed us their playground games involving hand clapping. Max played football with the older boys.
We were invited to join a feast in Margaret's house which consisted of maize porridge known as 'nshima', cabbage, fried chicken, tomato and onion sauce, rice with tomatoes, ground nut sauce, mushrooms and a root vegetable which was ground to produce something like tofu in gravy. We washed our hands in what I feel is a lovely act of service, someone holds the bowl under your hands for you and pours water while you wash. They then hand you a towel and move on to the next person. We sang a grace together and were invited to pray with the family before eating. All of it was delicious. There was a lot of food left which was given to neighbours to enjoy.
Rachel was our lovely efficient time keeper and informed us that we had to move on to see some other projects World Vision have set up, so we reluctantly said our goodbyes after a few more group photos.
We visited a school which was having some work done on it while the children were on their summer break. At the Women's Clinic we were given a demonstration by the women from the Mother's Union on how to prepare nutritious food for children who were being weaned. Mothers who regularly brought in their children for check ups were taught this and the recipe used local foods which were fairly readily available; local greens, ground nuts, maize flour, dried fish, oil, sugar and salt. They demonstrated the process making sure that their hands were clean, that the utensils were clean and that the food was properly cooked over the charcoal stove which is commonly used by most families. After it was cooked it was given to some of the hungry children waiting for it.
The children brought out the Jembe drums and took turns playing and singing. Gift played football and we played with him. The children sang the Zambian national anthem for us then we played a few games with them, sang 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes' and learned a version of 'rock, paper, scissors' where the boys and girls were divided and could choose to either be an antelope, a hunter or a wall. The hunter shot the antelope, the antelope escaped over the wall and the wall blocked the hunter's shots. The boys were jubilant in their success! Small groups of children showed us their playground games involving hand clapping. Max played football with the older boys.We were invited to join a feast in Margaret's house which consisted of maize porridge known as 'nshima', cabbage, fried chicken, tomato and onion sauce, rice with tomatoes, ground nut sauce, mushrooms and a root vegetable which was ground to produce something like tofu in gravy. We washed our hands in what I feel is a lovely act of service, someone holds the bowl under your hands for you and pours water while you wash. They then hand you a towel and move on to the next person. We sang a grace together and were invited to pray with the family before eating. All of it was delicious. There was a lot of food left which was given to neighbours to enjoy.
Rachel was our lovely efficient time keeper and informed us that we had to move on to see some other projects World Vision have set up, so we reluctantly said our goodbyes after a few more group photos.
We visited a school which was having some work done on it while the children were on their summer break. At the Women's Clinic we were given a demonstration by the women from the Mother's Union on how to prepare nutritious food for children who were being weaned. Mothers who regularly brought in their children for check ups were taught this and the recipe used local foods which were fairly readily available; local greens, ground nuts, maize flour, dried fish, oil, sugar and salt. They demonstrated the process making sure that their hands were clean, that the utensils were clean and that the food was properly cooked over the charcoal stove which is commonly used by most families. After it was cooked it was given to some of the hungry children waiting for it. 
We met a little boy, James, whose grandmother told us that her son's wife had died in childbirth and that James had failed to thrive when she was first taking care of him but, with the help of World Vision who trained the women at the clinic, she was now educated in how to provide proper nutritious food for her grandson. He demonstrated his love for food very willingly and looked very healthy on his diet. 
We were shown the gardens where much of the food the clinic used was produced, and saw the building which will become a shelter for women about to give birth. As with many other building projects, it was awaiting money to be raised for the next stage to be completed. The centre offered inoculations and testing for HIV and offered counseling for sufferers and for rape victims, something that sadly is still a problem here.One last visit was made to a vocational college where sewing skills and agriculture are taught. I met the seamstress who teaches a class of 70 or so, she said they had a mixture of electric and mechanical sewing machines, the mechanical machines are very useful when the power is off. They always welcome more machines to help set up women in business. This reminded me of the saying: 'Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to catch fish and you feed him for a lifetime'. It was wonderful to see so many Zambian nationals teaching and working at the projects and we were privileged to have a window into the lives of this community. My daughter and Max, at 17, will benefit from what they have seen and experienced and these experiences will, I hope, affect their outlook on life giving them compassion and a desire to serve others, knowing how rich they are by comparison with many.
It remains for me to say thank you to all of the wonderful team who looked after us and to you Katie for setting up this visit. We hope to be in a position to support World Vision for many years. Thank you for all you do to care for children and families around the world, as a demonstration of God's love for all his people. 
