After a good night’s rest (as much as 11 hours sleep!!!), we got the wonderful news that our luggage arrived and that Theresa was on her way to pick it up. She also had a lovely surprise for us on arrival – both Rose and Veronica were with her. After some big hugs, it was straight to Kantolomba for our first visit to Living Compassion. Always a great moment!

The team (Jen, Rose, Theresa and Veronica) at Castle Lodge, posing with big smiles for the camera.

We arrived at the property just after lunchtime. Most of the children had left, but many of the cooperative members were there to greet us. There was some sad news – Priska, a member of the team, lost her husband on Saturday in a car accident. The women were gathering together to attend his funeral. It is moving to see the compassionate support they offer one another at these times.

The Living Compassion site

The team greeting us on arrival.

Naomi and Jen say hello and catch up. Naomi’s twin sister, Docus, is also doing well!

The women gathering to leave for Priska’s husband’s burial.

After more hugs, we sit in on a class Charles and Ethel are teaching for children after their government school is over for the day. They teach “extra lessons” to help supplement the education from government schools. The students each introduce themselves in English, and some of them can spell their names in English too! One young woman is still learning, and Jen heads over to help her with her pronunciation. After the class was dismissed for the day, we gathered to discuss the next phase of the English program, currently titled, “Living English.”

Greeting the older students in class.

Jen helps a student learn how to spell her name in English.

As we gathered to discuss the Living English program, Rose ate her lunch. She asks if we are going to take a picture of her while eating. When we respond that we were not planning on it, she demands, “Why Not?” and we quickly jump to it!

Often it takes a few days to get warmed up on a trip, to start the wheels turning, to begin to set off in the next directions. Not so this time. This very first discussion of possibilities for the new program was extraordinary!

The basic idea of the program is one Rose suggested a couple of years ago—to expose the children of Kantolomba to wider experiences by taking them on field trips. So, to start the meeting we asked Rose to speak to why she suggested this. “When we are in this place (Kantolomba), not out, we are just focused on what we see in Kantolomba. But if we can see other places, our mind will be expanded and even have big visions. Visions only come when you see things.” She then stated that if the children were exposed to new experiences, and take interest in what they are seeing, it gives us the opening to discuss the importance of education in achieving opportunity. She called it an “Education Tour.”

There was grand enthusiasm for the idea. Each person in the room spoke about their childhood and the factors they felt made a difference for them. We noted that there was some reason each of them was sitting in this room, achieving a level of success that just about all of their peers has not. They shared stories of experiences and mentors that had modeled a possibility for them and of the support they received for staying focused. Each story proved the point: in order to be lit up about a possibility, one has to know it exists! AND, there must be support for nurturing that enthusiasm.

Once we were all clear that the basic idea of the program was great, we moved on to how we decide to whom we will offer the opportunity. We spoke about the importance of having students who really want to learn. Perhaps we start with a small handful of very dedicated students. Charles added an important perspective when he said that many of the children in Kantolomba assume they will spend their whole life here. They don’t even know what is possible, and therefore won’t necessarily have the motivation to express interest. To find the motivation in themselves, they need to be exposed, then they may start suddenly growing. Rose followed up with this by sharing the familiar expression: when you sow seeds, you don’t necessarily know which will grow, so it is important to plant them all.

With this, we realized that perhaps selecting a larger group of children first, then seeing which ones want to grow, might be a direction to go in. We had been in the meeting well over 90 minutes and decided to sit with that overnight and see what Life dropped in. We will reconvene tomorrow. As it was Sreedevi’s first time in Zambia and at the site, Theresa and the team then took her on a tour of the grounds.

A beautiful sign.

Veronica posing for us under a tree.

This is the dirt just below the drip line from one of the tin roofs. We thought the holes drilled into the dirt would give you a sense of the force of the rainfall. If we could take home with us just five minutes of one of their daily torrential downpours, California would be in good shape!

We stopped by to say hello to the carpentry team, Pascal and Peter, diligently working on an order for a bed from a local resident.

This was our attempt at getting an interesting shot of the over- photographed water tap. How’d we do?

Ruben (member of the cooperative who died last year) and Joane’s (current cooperative member) children come out to say hello! Ronika, Michael, Philip.

As we leave the site for the day, the sky and clouds provide us with a beautiful portrait and a moment of appreciation for all that is.

 

After the tour, we ran some errands in Ndola, including purchasing some new chitenge for possible pantalombas, and then retired back to the lodge.

It is always a grand pleasure to have practice waiting for one at the end of the day. The zafu, the recorder, the quiet of our rooms—these are tremendous, portable practice supports. And now all that’s left is, hopefully, to put another significant dent in our jetlag. Ahhhh…