The container being off-loaded from the truck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4mjR66_Ifo

HOME BASE CARE FARM IN KALOMO

Some of the Homebase carers and clients

No electricity on the farm so the water is pumped manually

Kitchen where the cooking is done

The tractor donated from Action Zambia

Two mother hens and their chicks

Storage shed

The chicken house

The farm house and kitchen in the back

Piggery

This is the farming project funded by Misean Cara out of Ireland to help the Home Base Care program in Kalomo be self-sustainable. People from Misean Cara came to Kalomo to inspect the project last week. A number of the carers and clients came to greet and thank the representatives from Ireland. These are photos I took during the project inspection. Misean Cara is a government program in Ireland that provides resources for missionaries.

ACTION ZAMBIA CONTAINER BEING UNLOADED

An Irish group who started a project called "Action Zambia" shipped a container to Kalomo with a very large number of items to assist the community. There were many items for the hospital, the Homebase Care farm project, the parish, 100 computers for the schools and police station, clothes, sports equip, and much more! I get 15 computers to start a computer training lab to teach the police, teachers, and others who want to learn computer. THANK YOU ACTION ZAMBIA FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT TO THE PEOPLE OF KALOMO! Here are some pictures of the container being unloaded.

ZAMBIAN SAFARI

A few pictures of our small one day safari near Livingstone, in the southern province of Zambia. A group from Action Zambia in Ireland came for a couple weeks of service and at the end of their trip we joined them for a couple of days enjoying Livingstone.

TENDON SURGERY

I've been staying in Lusaka for a number of days. I spent two days attending an HIV / AIDS workshop hat the diocese offered for the different congregations ministering in Zambia. It was great updated information on the current state of the disease in the country.

After the workshop I went in for surgery on two tendons in my thumb and wrist that had been causing a lot of pain. It was an interesting first hand experience of health care in the developing world. I was certainly feeling more vulnerable than I do in a hospital in the US! The surgery went well, but it was done under a local anesthesia and the wrist area still had quite a bit of feeling as the cutting was done. I felt a lot of pain and almost passed out on the table, but I survived and the healing seems to be coming along well.

A baby was going in for surgery after I finished and he had curled hands and feet, so he reminded me that I didn't have it so bad. I hope his surgery went as well as mine did!

PICTURES OF THE HARVESTED MAIZE ON BAKITA FARM FOR WIDOWS

Harvesting Maize on Bakita Farm

Bakita Farm is a farm that Sr. Numba helped to start for some of the widows around Kalomo. These are some pictures and video of them harvesting the maize. It was a great crop this year. They even had to used a room in the house to store some of the cobs!

The two Zambian Sisters I live with (Numba & Teresa) and I checking out the maize stored in the shed.

FISHING PICTURES AT BAKITA FARM DAM

We stopped and visited a family that was fishing for supper on the dam. Soon after we got word that their father died. The mother died earlier this year, so the children are now orphans.

THE ANIMALS ON BAKITA FARM

THE PATH WE TAKE FROM BAKITA FARM DOWN TO THE DAM

FISHING ON BAKITA FARM DAM

DOING ACTIVITIES WITH SOME OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THE MENTORING PROGRAM

NEW MINISTRY IN KALOMO

Things in Kalomo seem to be falling into place for me!!!! I have begun to do some youth ministry and am doing a Christian Life Training course with the young adults. I found a wonderful resource that has a lot of practical life skills for African young people. I'm excited about the material and am greatful to have discovered such a valuable resource!!! I've started meeting with the youth executive committee so I can be in on the ground floor of planning youth programming.

I've also started a youth mentoring program to help some of the orphans that we sponsor (however, new students show up everyday who hear about the program...so it is already broadening...lol). This program will help with challenges that students have in school subjects. Students are only in school about three hours a day, there are so many students that they don't all fit in the school at the same time. Another issue is that schools have almost no books nor other resources to use which makes teaching more challenging! The mentoring program will also provide activities and accompaniment for students during out of school hours.

The third project that is underway is setting up a computer teaching lab. A very generous group from Ireland is sending some computers and when they arrive I will begin teaching computer classes.

There is a building on the parish grounds that has a room available for me to use. The parish counsel has been meeting to figure out what kind of security needs to be done to keep the computers secure and also the electrical work that needs to be done. The challenge is to figure out how to make the computer program self-sustainable. It will be a big challenge for the parish to figure out how to pay for the preparations that need to take place and the continued cost of electricity, etc.

We had visitors from Ireland in Kalomo this week: two sisters (who work for the Presentation Global Education project) and two teachers, who teach in one of the Presentation schools. The two teachers will be returning next year around this same time to bring 10 students to Kalomo for a service trip! The end of June we will have another group coming from Ireland to do numerous projects...busy, busy, busy!

HANGING IN LUSAKA

After the assembly meetings many of the sisters traveled to Zimbabwe for more meetings, so I've just been hanging out in Lusaka.  We will be heading back to the village on Tuesday or Wednesday.

This morning before going to Mass we woke to several decapitated and partially eaten rats on the front porch...the cats were showing off their kill from last night...very gross! I was invited for lunch to the home of a doctor and his wife from India. We had great indian food!!! They even talked me into trying the cow tongue. It wasn't bad but I couldn't get the image of the cow also chewing as I ate it...lol!

ASSEMBLY IN LUSAKA

I've begun to settle into my home in Kalomo after cleaning and unpacking.  I am now in Lusaka for several weeks.  The sisters had their assembly meetings and I was invited to participate.  The topic of the meeting was reconciliation and intercultural living.  I gained great insights and awarenesses...and also had the opportunity to get to know the new sisters that arrived in Zambia since my last visit.  There are three sisters from India and one from Ireland that were not here when I visited last year.

I ARRIVED BACK IN ZAMBIA

I arrived in Zambia late last night.  Sr. Teresa drove into the city from the village and picked me up from the airport...Sr. Sheila came with her.  The sisters all stayed up at the house to welcome me back with sandwiches and tea.  Today I've been running around doing errands and tomorrow I will drive back out to the village with Teresa.  It's good to be back!

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!!!!

I'm at a hotel in Bismarck, ND tonight and will take a shuttle to the airport to fly out at 8am.  The next time I update this blog I will be back in Africa!  From the time I fly out of Bismarck to the time I land in Zambia I will have been traveling about 30 hours.  I will actually be in the air about 22 hours...it's a looooooooooooooong way from home!

Packing up!

I'm in Mobridge for my final weekend at home.  I start my 22 hours of flying time on Tuesday morning.  My route will be Bismark ND, to Minn MN, to Washington DC. to Johannesburg, South Africa, to Lusaka Zambia.

I'm excited!!!  It sounds like the hospital is going to give me special permission to allow me into NICU to see my new great, great nephew before I leave!

baby Zachary Christopher Taylor

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My return to Zambia!

I finally received my work permit to return to Zambia...and will be flying out on March 30th. I will be returning to live in the small village of Kalomo in the Southern province. The plan is to begin posting to this blog again on a regular basis.

The photos above are of Presentation Sister Numba's widow farm near Kalomo. Numba is a young Zambian Presentation Sister living with us in Kalomo. She is a teacher and teaches in one of the local schools. When she first arrived in Kalomo 4 years or so ago, she started a grief support group for widows in the parish. There were a good number of them. This grief support group gradually talked about their needs and one of them was how to get land to plant maize and vegetables so they could feed their children. Over the years Numba has purchased land to create a farm, and together the women work the land and then share the produce. They call it Numba's widow farm. It is amazing.

ST. THOMAS MORE PARISH, BROOKINGS, SD HELPS ZAMBIAN FARMERS

THANK YOU ST. THOMAS MORE!!!!!!!

When I left my ministry as Youth Formation Director at St. Thomas More parish in Brookings, SD...the parish gifted me with a donation of several thousand dollars to help the people of Zambia. Right now the greatest need for the people is food. Everyday people tell us that they have nothing to eat, so a portion of the STM donation has been used to purchase maize (corn) seed and fertilizer for some of the local farmers in Kalomo, Zambia. The maize seed is ground into mealy-meal (flour) and from this they make nshima, which is the staple food of the Zambian people.

This is part of a sustainable farming project that was begun to help local farmers produce enough food to meet their needs. This group of farmers in a a small village near Kalomo have had poor crops the last two years because of drought the first year and floods the second year of the program. However, they still returned 100% of the seed they owed back to the project to keep the program going. I was saddened to discover that even though they returned their full share...there was no seed or fertilizer available for them. They had plowed their fields by hand and were waiting with much hope that some how they would get seed to plant. And thanks to the generous people of St. Thomas More the people of this small African village have planted their crops! The people were overjoyed when we went to them and announced that we brought seed and fertilizer for them.

All of the farmers benefiting from this donation of maize seed are living with aids. They are part of a support group that gathers regularly with Home Based Care workers. They support each other in their illness and in life survival skills. Sr. Teresa Malloy, PBVM is a nurse and gathers with several support groups each week to consult with them about their health and survival needs. I've been going with Sr. Teresa to meet with the support groups around Kalomo for several weeks.

A large portion of the STM donation will go to the village of Kaoma to build a mill for grinding maize seed. This will create a new business in the community and the people can grind their maize seed locally.