Greetings from Idaho-ho-ho

Merry Christmas from the Anderson Family!

To find out what we've been up to in 2011 please read our annual letter available here.

Warmly,

Jeff, Darcy, Noah and Lucy

Or if photos are more your thing... 

You are invited to view Jeff and Darcy's photo album: Best of 2011

Best of 2011 Dec 20, 2011 by Jeff and Darcy View Album  Play slideshow

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Pictures finally out of the darkroom

Today I found time to post a number of our photos to the web on Picasa. If you'd like to check them out please follow this link...

http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffanddarcyanderson/Zambia

What a great experience!

Its hard to believe its been almost 3 weeks since we left Ndola. We did infact survive our adventure filled week at Victoria Falls and a whirlwind tour of London on our 30 hour layover. Thanks to everyone who read the blog, it was important to us to beable to share our experiences. I think its safe to say that our trip to Zambia was a life changing experience; certainly it was for us and we know it will be for the many people that Seeds of Hope will beable to touch in the future as they pass along the education to others. Thanks to everyone who supported us with prayers, emails, support, good wishes and interest.

Here are a few pictures to prove that...

1. It was a thrill to see the biggest waterfall in the world

2. Africa has meat eating lions

3. Riding on the back of an elephant provides a better view then riding in my parent's Dodge van (despite what my dear Mom has been claiming all these years)

4. Rafting on the Zambezi is an adrenalin filled experience, that's us in front!


5. Somewhere in my genes are the dna of a loyal British grandfather

P.S. Sometime soon I will post more pictures to the web and let you all know where they are.

Clean Water

Its our last morning in Ndola with Seeds of Hope International Patnership (SHIP). This past week has been great. Almost everyday we've loaded in the van and visited communities around Ndola looking at their needs through the eyes of sanitation. We met so many wonderful Zambians and were always greeted warmly. The week gave us a chance to bond with Flavia and Obby the two SHIP staff who spearhead the hygiene and sanitation program. We are already missing Flavia and Obby as we prepare to leave for Livingstone. Our last post gave you a feel for village life in rural areas. Another type of community we visited were "compounds", unplanned urban settlements with increasingly dense populations. Compounds are quite large, often 50-65,000 people living in about a square mile or so. I wouldn't quite call them slums, but they're close. In my mind, an African slum has houses built of scraps of wood and plastic. In compounds people live in mud brick homes, most compounds we visited are located in lowland areas often near a seasonal marshland. During the dry season the water table drops a meter or so and allows gardening in the marshes which helps these families survive. The problem in compounds is that they are unplanned, that means no sewer system and no control on how dense the housing can become. Often as children grow-up and start having families, another little house springs up in the backyard and due to there being a taboo against using your inlaws latrine another latrine is built. Due to the lowland location the water table is quite high, often only a couple meters below the ground which means all latrines are dug into the ground water table. Some compounds have kiosks where clean water is piped in and available for about a penny per 5 gallons (20 liters), but many families dig hand dug wells a few meters down to get "free" water. However, as I learned in high school economics, there are "no free lunches" and this water comes with the high price of sickness since these wells are located a few meters from 1 or 2 latrines and the groundwater is badly contaminated. Its impossible to express the sadness Darcy and I felt when we watched children lowering their buckets down these holes. In the compounds there are no low cost sanitation solutions to the groundwater pollution that is occurring, that hurts too. Since they are unplanned communities the government has taken no initiative to build sewers. The solutions our classes taught apply best to rural settings where the population density is lower. There are two solutions that SHIP can offer to provide clean water. One is to drill deeper wells, which hopefully penetrate a deeper aquifer that is sealed off from the near surface aquifer and thus not contaminated. SHIP has two teams that are on the road every week drilling wells. The second solution is the production and distribution of biosand filters. CAWST , a Canadian NGO, developed the biosand filter, which is a hollow concrete box filled with sand that effectively filters water. Each filter is placed inside a home and can service that family plus a few neighbots. Lifewater is also educating partners how to construct these filters. Over the past couple of years SHIP has started distributing biosand filters in compounds as a way to purify household drinking water. Using these two methods changes are being made to people's health. Francis calls them "seeds of hope" since when a family is well its ability to make an income or grow crops is greatly increased. SHIP's biggest obstacles is distributing biosand filters. They have a well run production center where they can produce 2-5 concrete filters per day, however their is only one truck to distribute them and this is also the truck that is used to tow the 2 drilling rigs. Right now there are 100 biosand filters sitting in the yard waiting for distribution. If you'd like to help SHIP get a new vehicle contact them via their website.

Cell phones in their pockets

Today we loaded in the van and set off with three of the SHIP trainers we had as students last week. The destination was Lazaro, a rural Zambian village about 30 minutes outside Ndola. Lazaro was the real deal; our vehicle was the only one in town and there were goats, pigs and chickens running willy-nilly between the huts. The village had a warm feel to it, each hut had a thatched roof and was constructed of the mud bricks. Darcy felt at home because each house had a collection of potted plants on the front step. The path through town was dotted with banana and mango trees. The centerpiece of the village is the handpump well that SHIP installed about a year ago. This well has made a huge difference in the health of Lazaro's citizens and has wiped out the dysentery for everyone that uses the well versus the stream where everyone used to get their water.

About 30 villagers gathered for the sanitation class in the cool shade of a giant fig tree. From the homes and nearby churches the village supplied a few padded, wooden chairs for there guests to sit on. Although there were a few more chairs than our team needed the villagers preferred to sit on the roots of the fig tree, a couple african style drums, and tattered bamboo mats spread on the ground. The only exception was the wife of the village head-man who joined us on the chairs. Men and women sat in separate groups. The meeting began with introductions. When we were introduced as a married couple people clapped and cheered for us. Following the introduction of the Seeds of Hope team each villager introduced themselves. Our favorite was an older man who said "I'm one of the village children even though I have gray hair." It was so cool to see the respect paid to each person, both in how we were given seats of honor and how the village introduced themselves to us. As Seeds of Hope began teaching the first lesson about disease pathways we heard crackling, and found ash falling on our heads. We realized the nearby bush was on fire, but it was of no concern to the attendees as burning the bush in small sections is a common technique of keeping the land clear. Mothers nursed there babies while participating in the lesson from their seat on the bamboo mat. In contrast to this kind of hollywood image of Africa outside the class circle people were making calls on their cell phones. Cell phones are everywhere in Zambia including places you would never guess there would be service. It sort of messes with your mind when you stop to think that you're in a village teaching people about the importance of using an outhouse and these same people have Nokia cell phones in their pockets. The classes went very well and their was lots of lively discussion; including once where the men reported that when they took a poop in the bush they took a shovel to bury it, but the ladies were quick to point out that was a lie. It was great seeing our students as teachers and the message being passed along. Now the 30 people we trained today will spread the message the more than 700 people in Lazaro.

From Cursed to Blessed

One of the main areas where Seeds of Hope International Partnership (SHIP) is concentrating its efforts is in a very poor area of Ndola called Mapola which means "blessed". This is a new name for the area which used to be known as Chipulakusu or "cursed". It's home to about 65,000 people, 40% of whom are under the age of 15 due to HIV wiping out the generation older than that. There are lots of orphans taking care of orphans. The housing density is very high and the majority of homes are simple mud huts with makeshift roofing materials - sometimes tarps, sometimes a collection of plastic bags, or whatever can be found to shed water. Its difficult for these young adults to feed their parentless families let alone pay fees to go to school and learn job skills. Three years ago a man named Francis Feruka left his accounting job at a hospital to start a church in Mapola with the desire to bring hope to this community. Francis has a tremendous heart for people's physical and spiritual existence. He is a person of amazing intregity and patience. As he became involved meeting these needs in Mapola and other areas Seeds of Hope was born. Francis now not only pastors Mapola Vineyard Church, but he is also director of SHIP.

In April, a team from our church, the Boise Vineyard, visited Zambia to see where they could join in helping these ministries. The needs in Mapola spoke the loudest and together with Francis they decided that a training center to provide literacy and job skills (such as sewing classes) would be a practical way to bring hope to the community through the church. Back in the states the Boise Vineyard really got behind the project and raised $25,000 in a special offering to fund the training center. I had the chance to visit the building site this week the day after the concrete slab floor was completed. The slab was a herculean job as everything was done by hand by church members. This means the water was handpumped from a well about 30 yards away, carried to the mixing slab where gravel, sand and cement were stirred together by hand and then shoveled into a wheel barrel. The footprint of the slab is about 30x60 ft with a thickness of about 6 inches. Slowly over the course of three days the entire floor was poured without the use of any machines. The picture above shows me standing on the new slab with Pastor Francis and Kennedy, who is a church member who worked hard to make the slab a reality. Later in August, two teams from Boise Vineyard are planning to come to Zambia to help with the completion of the building. The building will be made out of blocks of compressed soil which is a standard building method in Zambia. To do this the large mound in the background of the picture (which is a termite mound incidently) will be excavated by hand and the soil pressed into blocks using a hydraulic press and the addition of a little cement.

A toilet is life

Yesterday we taught our promotion lessons and students came up with promotional campaigns for sanitation. The campaigns were developed after we did some "market analysis" to determine the highest preceived benefits to latrine use. The class voted privacy and cleaner surroundings the top 2 benefits. We had an interesting discussion about privacy. I generally would think of privacy meaning that no one can see or hear me going to the bathroom (ie 4 walls around me), added to this our students discussed how it includes not being interrupted or interrupting their neighbor who may be sneaking a visit to there latrine. One students told a story about how that very thing happened to him yesterday morning. He said how he enjoys reading the newspaper in peace, so some things are universal.

For the promotional campaign the assignment was to come up with a slogan for the campaign, and a skit and/or song that they could use to promote latrine use. One of the best slogana was "a toilet is life" which the students incorporated into a song. This was all accompanied by a 10-minute skit with some good acting.

Selling Sanitation

Our classes are going really well. Yesterday we finished all the lessons about assessment. These included lessons about the technical assessment that needs to be done when someone is trying to locate a latrine, things such as how deep is the water table, how close to wells can it be located etc... It also included social assessment which relates to what cultural things do you need to be aware of when you are dealing with sanitation. One example we mentioned in a previous blog was the fact the inlaw don't use their children's latrine. Today we really get into the promotion lessons which will be talking about selling sanitation as if it is a product. The goal is to make latrines appeal the consumer hidden in each person. We will be discussing ways to market latrines to people based on benefits they will receive from them. Today's lessons are very fun because we will divide the class up and ask them to come up with a promotional slogan and a song or skit that could be used in a village or in the media. We're looking forward to a lot of laughter today.

Potty Training

Time is going quickly. Each morning we are awakened by the sounds of roosters and clanging church bells and each evening we fall asleep to the barks of dogs. We've made it through day 2 of the sanitation class and there are 4 more to go. Before the first day we were expecting a class of 21. When Monday rolled around we had 12 participants although only 9 came back for day two. As is often the case in Africa students who desire to be in class often miss class for a variety of reasons; some couldn't get a ride from the other side of town, some had sick kids, some had to care for dying parents. Nonetheless we are really enjoying the ones who have made it both days. Today we covered how to locate latrines so that they don't contaminant drinking water wells. It was the most challenging material in the course, but we were really pleased when all the students made there way through the homework questions correctly and with only a few questions. Its helps us know they are getting around our american accents, as they are used to british english. Our class is interacting well and we have had some lively discussions about various sanitation topics. Often its the class trying to help us to understand the situation where they live or work. We learned today there is a traditional belief which says inlaws should not use the latrine or their married children, this brought about much laughter but we never really figured out why. Many in the class have such servant hearts and want to meet the physical and spiritual needs in their community. We have taken time to pray together and it has shown us the seriousness of issues as we hear participants make pleas for God's help. We also have some wonderful ladies in our class who begin singing and dancing at breaktime. Its sounds so good and makes everyone smile.

We made it!

The hours of traveling are behind us and we are settled into the Seeds of Hope guest house in Ndola. Neither of us slept so well on the flight to South Africa, even with the help of sleeping pills. Instead we watched movies and eventually the sunrise over what we figured was the Zambezi as our plane parallelled a long windy river. On the way to Jo'burg we actually saw a little snow on the ground below and getting off the plane that morning we could see our breath! Not a bad trade for Boise at 105F the day we left. Here in Zambia temps are 70s in the daytime but temps dip to fleece coat weather by morning. Its great to be in Africa. The smell of diesel and charcoal smoke, the smiles of children, and the sight of sunrise through the limbs of an acacia tree are a few moments that have brought memories of my experiences in Kenya a decade ago very near. On our bus ride I found it amusing to think about the new things I am noticing - mainly latrines. Driving through the countryside some communities seemed to have them and others not so much. The other new item is the cell phone - everyone seems to have them and every shop sells pre-paid minutes for cell phones. Its great to be sharing Africa with Darcy and seeing the continent afresh through her eyes. She is journaling and hopes to post something here soon too. She is loving it.

We have met many of the fulltime Seeds of Hope staff who have gone out of there way to help us get settled in. After picking us up from the bus stop this morning they took us around to run errands including dropping off the training manuals at the printers, going grocery shopping, exchanging money etc... The 22 manuals for students will cost about 1 million kwacha ($250 US dollars). The exchange rate is 1 USD = 3,850 K. The lottery is giving away 1.5 billion. The biggest bill we've seen thus far is 50,000 K the smallest is 1,000 and there are no coins. Tomorrow we're looking forward to church and then to beginning our class on monday.

Waiting in London

Good day chaps!

We made it to London and all slept really well - thanks to Lunesta. After dinner we took our pills and slept soundly until the breakfast carts started coming around. We saw the Wimbilton stadiums before landing, packed with people watching today's matches. Last night was my best night sleep in the last three nights. Hopefully tonight on our way to Jo'burg we'll repeat that.

Jeff

Excitement

The packing is done. All the lists have been checked. We leave the house in an hour. We are so excited, neither of us have slept much the last two nights. If all goes according to schedule we'll be in Ndola, Zambia on Saturday.

Where would you go?

Our countdown is under 2 days! We have lists coming out of our ears, but its the only way we know to make order out of packing for a month long journey which includes teaching a two week sanitation class and a week-long African safari tacked on the end. Its going to be an awesome adventure!

In our last edition, (some of you probably thought we already left for Africa) we mentioned going to the Annual Lifewater Conference. We had a great time there, saw many friends from our sanitation trainings, and met a whole bunch of other volunteers. It was great to hear trip reports that showed how Lifewater volunteers and partners are making huge differences in many people's lives. The sessions got our minds thinking and hearts feeling as we sought to further understand the world water crisis.

The picture above is part of Lifewater's new "Where would you go?" public awareness campaign. Its desinged to make North Americans aware that 42% of the world's population lacks a place to go the the bathroom. The concept is simple, if you were left without a place to do your business where would you go? The light-hearted and life-sized placards address a serious issue. To be honest it broke our hearts to learn a few stories behind the 42% figure. Sadly, the lack of latrines and bathrooms has the biggest impact on women. We learned that:

• For privacy reasons many women have to wait until night to deficate in fields causing urinary tract and vaginal infections, and chronic constipation
• Lack of latrines at schools oftens prevents girls form attending school after puberty and discourages female teachers from working at schools.
• Having to walk into the bush to find a private place can put women in danger of sexual assault.

These facts put a face on the numbers and brought us to tears. Pray that as a result of our training class our students will change the lives of Zambian girls, giving them health and a chance at an education.

Envision

We're flying to Los Angeles today for "Envision" which is Lifewater's annual conference. To give you a feel for it, here are some workshop descriptions. After the conference we are staying for one more training class which will focus on community based teaching strategies.

Global Water & Sanitation Crisis
This fun and interactive workshop will help participants understand the daily struggle of the many people in our world who lack safe water and adequate sanitation. The workshop will feature stories from the front lines of water development, information about Lifewater’s programs, and practical ways to get involved.

Lifewater 101
What does Lifewater do? This workshop presents the basics of Lifewater’s history, mission, and methodology. Lifewater staff and volunteers will explain the various aspects of Lifewater’s work, including the WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) program, community-based project development, advocacy, and funding.

Development: The Fine Line of Sustainable Transformation
Presented by a practitioner with a multi-disciplinary background in international development, this workshop examines the failures and successes of community development initiatives worldwide, placing you in the shoes of the community. The workshop will be foundational for anyone interested in missions or development work as well as those seeking to improve existing programs in their organization.

Merging the Great Commandment and the Great Commission
Why are Christians called to work with the poor? Why should we be concerned with the physical and spiritual needs of strangers when there is so much need close to home? Does Christian development work look any different from other efforts? Have Christian development efforts actually made a difference? This workshop discusses the holistic approach to ministry and the biblical basis for our involvement in international development.

Hearing from Our Partners
Lifewater is committed carrying out its work by partnering with local organizations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This workshop will feature representatives of several Lifewater partners sharing experiences and perspectives from Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Ecuador. Take advantage of the opportunity to learn from these experienced development practitioners!

Share the Commitment: How to Get Involved
Interested in working with Lifewater to ensure that everyone has access to safe water, adequate sanitation, hygiene education, and knowledge of Jesus’ love? This workshop will offer a meaningful ways for people of all interests, availability, and skills to get involved.

Photojournalism
Enjoy an informal discussion with renowned photographer Gil Garcetti about his experiences in photography. Garcetti has authored Water is Key, a book of photography on the importance of safe water in Africa featuring articles from Jimmy Carter and Kofi Annan. Garcetti will share advice on how to tell a story through pictures and how to respect the people and places in front of the lens.

Appropriate Water Development
There are many ways to get safe water, but not all are suited for rural villages. This workshop will provide an overview of the water development methods that Lifewater has found effective.

Technical Forum on Water Development
Choose water-related questions that interest you, and a panel of Lifewater experts will respond. Topics the panel may discuss include the technical details of well drilling, hand pump repair, biosand filters, water testing, and new technologies that Lifewater is exploring.

I'm the son of a geographer teacher afterall...

My Dad spent his career teaching Afro-Asian geography in Niskayuna, NY which I learned today means "Land of Much Corn". This entry is for Dad and anyone else who is interested in learning some facts about Zambia. Our trip will take us to Ndola where we will teach our sanitation classes.

Zambia:
Zambia is a landlocked country in southern Africa, with a tropical climate and consists mostly of high plateau with some hills and mountains. At 752,614 sq. km (290,566 sq. mi.) it is the 39th-largest country in the world (after Chile) and slightly larger than the US state of Texas. Zambia is drained by two major river basins: the Zambezi River basin, in the south; and the Congo River basin, in the north.

The official language is English (a remnant from British colonization), used to conduct official business and is the medium of instruction in schools. There are seven commonly-spoken indigenous languages including: Chibemba, Chinyanja, Lunda, Chitonga, Kaonde, Silozi and Luvale. These 7 languages are taught in schools and broadcast on national radio and television. There are many more languages spoken by the various tribes in Zambia, in fact a Zambian languages website lists 78 languages.

The country is 44% urban. Most rural Zambians are subsistence farmers. The predominant faith is Christianity which is also the official national religion. Expatriates, mostly British (about 15,000) or South African, live mainly in Lusaka and in the Copperbelt in northern Zambia, where they are employed in mines and related activities. Zambia also has a small but very economically important Asian population, most of whom are Indians. In recent years over three hundred dispossessed white farmers left Zimbabwe at the invitation of the Zambian government and have taken up farming in the southern region.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is ravaging Zambia. Nearly one million Zambians are HIV positive or have AIDS. An estimated 100,000 died of the epidemic in 2004. Over a half-million Zambian children have been orphaned. Life expectancy at birth is just under 40 years

Ndola:

Ndola is the second-largest city in Zambia, with a population of 374,757 (2000 census). It is the industrial, commercial, administrative and distribution hub of the Copperbelt, Zambia's copper-mining region, and capital of Copperbelt Province. Ndola was founded in 1904, just six months after Livingstone, making it the second oldest colonial-era town of Zambia. It was started as a boma and trading post, which laid its foundations as an administrative and trading centre today.

Ndola is the industrial center of Zambia and part of the Copperbelt province which is very rich in mineral deposits. It was the backbone of the Northern Rhodesian economy during British colonial rule, but its economic importance was severely damaged by a crash in global copper prices in 1973 and the nationalization of the copper mines by the government of Kenneth Kaunda. There are no mines in Ndola itself but the Bwana Mkubwa open-cast mine is only 10 km south-east of the city centre. Copper and precious metals used to be brought from elsewhere in the Copperbelt for processing at the Ndola Copper and Precious Metals Refinery. Copper exports provide 70–80% of Zambia's export earnings, making the city very important to the country's economy. The Indeni Oil Refinery in Ndola supplies the whole country, and was repaired in 2001 after being severely damaged by fire in 1999. Ndola is home to one of the country's national newspapers, The Times of Zambia.

How's your hygiene?

Last week we were able to get a little more training ourselves. Kirk Schauer, of Seeds of Hope, and Diane Foss, another Lifewater trainer, were in Boise teaching hygiene lessons to the Zambia missions team at our church. Kirk and Diane are both really skilled using paticipatory method to teach the lessons so the training was alot of fun. Hygiene and sanitation have very close ties, so it was great to learn more. Hygiene is about blocking disease pathways; things like the importance of washing hands, keeping flies off food, keeping animals away from water sources, etc... Sanitation deals with how to properly deal with human waste (poop) by using and promoting latrines. Over the past few years Seeds of Hope has done a lot a hygiene education in the communities were they work. As they take on sanitation, it will be built on the hygiene foundation. We were really glad to get exposed to these lessons. Attached is a photo from the hygiene training. It shows a "tippy-tap" which is an inexpensive hand washing station made from a plastic jug. Typically it is hung outside a latrine and the user pulls down on the lower string to pour water on their hands so they can wash. Kirk is pictured on the left in the tippy-tap photo.

Lesson planning done

The lesson plan is finished! Some tweaking will probably occur as we're waiting for feedback from Lifewater and our Zambian partner. The training will be broken into two parts:

Week 1: Our team of three will be leading sanitation lessons for about 20 people. We'll teach about 30 lessons altogether. Our students will be from Seeds of Hope (our Lifewater partner), other NGOs (non-government organizations) and possibly some government people.

Week 2: We will be concentrating on helping Seeds of Hope staff incorporate the sanitation lessons into their existing programs. We will likely be visiting villages or schools and watching Seeds of Hope staff teach the lessons they learned from us the week before. This will give time to help them through questions that develop etc...

Teamwork

Our lack of posts is an indication that we are busy. This week Darcy (whose on summer break from being a speech assistant) is putting together our lesson plan for Zambia. We are also busy going to hygiene training at our church each evening. The training is being taught by a Seeds of Hope staff member and a Lifewater volunteer who just returned from Zambia. In addition to learning the hygiene lessons, its great to hear about Zambia!

Since we don't have time to write anything we outsourced most of this edition to our team member, Lon whose from Colorado. We thought you might be interested in who's going with us to Zambia. Lon is our team leader and as such is taking care of logistics, as well as, team teaching with us. We know Lon well as all of us went through sanitation training together and stayed together in the home of some fabulous Lifewater staff. We asked him to write a bio, so here it is... Thanks Lon!

Lon grew up in the Air Force. Living in many states, Canada, and Japan, he developed an appreciation for other cultures. In his brief career as an officer in the US Army Corps of Engineers, he learned about building latrines among other things. In his career in the oil business, he learned about drilling wells and pumping them as well as managing people.

Then one day in 2004 while coming out of a church where he had been unable to plug into a ministry, he saw a Lifewater display about drilling water wells. He thought "If God has ever spoken to me, it is now. This relates to my entire background.” He attended Lifewater's annual conference and committed to becoming a volunteer. The next year, he took hygiene training and participated in a trip that Rod Thompson led to Tibet where they taught drilling at a school on a 12,000' plateau.

In June 2006, he attended pump repair training and went to Ethiopia on a trip led by Terry Steinhoff (who first introduced him to Lifewater). They taught pump repair to about 18 students. Half were with Kale Heywet Church, and half were Ethiopian government employees. In February, 2007 he went on another trip led by Rod Thompson to Uganda to teach pump repair. Students were from Divine Waters and JOY drilling.

Having taken Sanitation training with Darcy & Jeff, he is now headed for Zambia with them. His passion of trying to get the oil industry involved in supporting safe water efforts is meeting some level of success – please pray for that support to grow!

Pray with us

There are some items we know we need prayer to help us complete. If you find some time, please pray with us about the following things....

• This week we are preparing our lesson plan for the training. Pray that we would be wise about which lessons to include.

We have another few issues that we would appreciate you ongoing prayer for:

• The ability to teach sometimes awkward material across cultural barriers.
• Health & safety while traveling so we can get the job done.
• Building strong relationships with the Zambians Christians we will be teaching.

Sewing pockets

Zambia here we come. This is Darcy writing. Jeff is the usual blogger. I wanted to update everyone on the task I have been working on. I am currently making a pocket chart. That is a large piece of material that I am sewing pockets onto. It looks like a grid of pockets. This is used to find out a community's current sanitation practices. It allows you to ask a variety of questions across the top and have a variety of answers to choose from along the side. Then, in private, people can go and put a pebble in the pockets of their choosing, like voting. It is great too because you can use pictures to convey the meaning for people who don't read or speak your language.

Thank you to everyone who is keeping track of what we're doing. It definitely makes us feel loved to realize all those who are interested. We're excited to serve and consider it a privilege.

Ta Ta for now.

-Darcy

"Coincidences"

Over the last year we have seen some pretty incredible coincidences. A friend of ours says, “when you pray more coincidences occur.” We started praying about getting involved in Africa for a few years ago. We started the application process with Lifewater before leaving Truckee. After arriving in Boise we eventually found a church home at the Boise Vineyard. Step for step as we got more involved with Lifewater we saw our church becoming more and more committed to the same issues. Sunday messages started to talk about Africa and how our church could impact the world by addressing water related needs and other issues. To learn more watch this: Call to Action (20 min video) featuring our pastor Tri Robinson. As time went on the church made a connection to an organization called Seeds of Hope (who incidently is a long time Lifewater partner) in Zambia. Without knowledge of this Lifewater called to ask if we’d be interested in going to Zambia! To train Seeds of Hope staff!! It gets better… as it turns out our Lifewater trip to Zambia overlaps with our church’s first missions trip to the same city. Darcy and I will be teaching our sanitation class while the folks from our church will be helping build a new training center for Seeds of Hope. Our church's team has welcomed us to attend their team meeting every Sunday afternoon. Each week we pray about what we'll do together in Zambia and for the friends we'll meet there. We are learning about cultural differences and practicing Bemba phrases. These “coincidences” shout that God is doing something in Africa and we're getting to be part of it! It makes us view our move to Idaho in a new way and it shows us again that God is so good. Here's a Bible passage that summarizes how we feel like blocks being used to build something much bigger than ourselves.

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Ephesians 2:19-22

Generosity!

5 minutes - that is how long it took between sending out a bulk email about our blog and for a couple of friends to send in $800 and pay for the remainder of our trip costs!

That is amazing! That is what God's love is like!!! He loves to gives us really good gifts. His gifts are all around us, we just need to pause long enough to appreciate them.

The total cost of our 3 week trip is $8800. Plane tickets alone were $2800 each! And its 100% paid for!!! Take a second. Be joyful with us.

If you didn't get a chance to contribute this time don't fret, we hope to do more trips with Lifewater in future years. In the meantime, if you have some money burning a hole in your pocket and you want to give it away before Starbucks or Bill Gates take it from you, you can still make a tax-deductible contribution towards the sanitation project we will be working on. Please indicate that you a giving to support the Zambia Project that Jeff and Darcy Anderson are involved with (Project: ZM-SHP-052007/06). There are 3 ways to donate:

• Calling Lifewater and making a credit card donation: 1-888-543-3426
  
• Writing a check payable to Lifewater International and mailing it to:
  
  Lifewater International
  
  PO Box 3131
  
  San Luis Obispo, CA 93403

• Or online by clicking here
  
  For online donations be sure to check the volunteer trainer box and then add our names. See example below
  
  

Any funds in excess of the cost of our travel will remain in the Lifewater project account for ongoing project expenses. This will help overseas teams with ongoing project efforts.

Thanks for your generosity!!!

That's the ticket

We've got our tickets! Its a long journey to get to Africa (well not as long as sailing around the horn) but 3 days is a long time to be on an airplane - that's three days without a bed and that only gets us to Lusaka not Ndola which is where we will be teaching. Ndola is another 6 hours or something by bus.

To Africa
SW1667 04JUL Boise to Salt Lake City 1205P - 0105P
SW1846 04JUL Salt Lake City to Denver 0345P - 0510 P
BA 218 04JUL Denver to London 815P - 1210P
BA 055 05JUL London to Johannesburg 705P 650A
SA 062 06JUL Johannesburg to Lusaka 1050A 1250P
Total travel time: 41 hours! not including bus to Ndola

To USA
BA6292 01AUG Livingstone to Johannesburg 120P 300P
BA 056 01AUG Johannesburg to London 815P 620A
BA 049 03AUG London to Seattle 305P 435P
SW 1378 03AUG Seattle/Tacoma to Boise 745 P 1000 P

With a keen eye and a little geographic knowledge you might have realized that we are departing from a different city than we fly into. Livingston is the town closest to Victoria Falls (photo or facts). We are tacking on a week personal vacation on the end of the Lifewater trip so we can experience some tourism highlights. We're hoping to go rafting! and on safari in Kafue National Park! And as an added bonus we have 1.5 days in London on the return journey. Look kids Big Ben, Parliament...

Who is Lifewater?

We love Lifewater and are really looking forward to volunteering with them in Zambia this summer as sanitation trainers. They have a great staff of knowledgeable people who believe all people have a right to safe water, effective sanitation, and improved health. Lifewater is a Christian training organization that feels that solutions to the global water and sanitation crisis come from within local communities as people take the responsibility for their own water sources in an effort to improve community health. The missing link is education. To close the gap Lifewater has trained about 250 North American volunteers (like us) who travel to other countries to train national partners. The national partners take their new skills and education to those who most need them, helping to break the cycle of disease and poverty. These partners are Christians who also share the gospel message of living water with the communities where they work. Partners are most often churches that are demonstrating God’s compassion while meeting both spiritual and physical needs in their communities. Since 1979, Lifewater and their partners have brought safe water to an estimated 1.4 million people. Lifewater trainers generally focus on one of three areas:
• Water – drilling wells, repairing hand pumps, and filtering water
• Hygiene – education on hand washing, food preparation, disease transmission
• Sanitation – proper disposal of human waste
Of these programs sanitation is the newest; we are part Lifewater’s first class of sanitation trainers.

Incidently, if you are interested in learning more about Lifewater, they are holding their annual conference in Orange, CA later this month between June 22-24th and we'd love to see you there.

Why teach about sanitation?

Proper disposal of human waste is essential in curbing water-related diseases. The Bible gave sage advice to the Jewish nation, it taught them to “designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement” Deuteronomy 23:12-13. These same steps can still protect people from illness, but there are 2.6 billion people (about 4 out of 10 people worldwide) that lack access to adequate sanitation. This results in water sources above and below ground that become contaminated and unsafe. Basic sanitation, such as using a latrine (outhouse), helps stop the spread of disease. Lifewater's newly established sanitation emphasis will compliment Lifewater’s existing programs by providing a well-rounded approach to community health. It will assist needy communities through education on disease transmission, latrine construction, repair and maintenance, and social attitudes and behaviors about proper waste disposal. Since sanitation is a new direction there is a need for trained volunteers to teach; while Lifewater has lots of volunteers to cover water and hygiene training, but we are two of their first nine sanitation trainers.