which is the acronym for the College Of Surgeons, East, Central and Southern Africa. The conference wan held in Lusaka this year and was an excellent opportunity to meet other orthopaedic surgeon in Zambia and in Africa. It was held on the 7th to the 9th December at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre. I drove down to Lusaka, staying overnight on the Copperbelt with our Zambian friends, Bruno and Constance Sakaya, who run a guest house. Sadly, Bruno has been very unwell but is responding to treatment. The conference was very interesting and useful for some treatments at Kalene. Afterwards I drove back up to Kalene for three days there before driving back down to Lusaka with Viv and Chris Davies for our return to the UK
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When your children live far away it is always good to hear their voice on the phone and to talk with them – well, almost always. Last night, when I had gone to bed at the guest house in Garneton (Zambian CopperBelt) I had a phone call from Matthew. What a nice surprise I said. Not so, said the tearful voice at the other end of the line. Matthew’s father-in-law, Chuck White, had been exercising yesterday morning when he suddenly dropped dead. Christy and the rest of the family are understandably devastated. Please remember Matthew, Christy and the whole White family in your prayers. 2 Corinthians 5:1-10.
Peter left Kalene when Isla’s mother died to be home for the funeral. Matthew and his wife, Christy, also returned from the USA to be home for the funeral which was on the 7th November. There were a few turbulent days afterwards as Isla’s father started to adjust to the life style changes but, as things started to settle down Isla was happy for Peter to return to Zambia. He had the pleasure of flying out with Viv and Chris Davies who have spent some considerable time at Kalene over the years. We all drove up country together and arrived back at Kalene on the 20th November. Peter is back into work at the hospital and for the North West Zambia Development Trust and Chris is immersed in administration and accounts. We will leave Kalene together on the 14th December to drive to Lusaka via Nyangombe and Chingola to fly back to the UK on the 17th December (snow permitting – Peter did not get home until Boxing Day last year because of flight cancellations due to the snow).
At 22.00hrs on the 29th October, Mary Borland Craig, Isla’s mother, departed this life. She had been ill for some time but had a very strong constitution so the end came quite suddenly. She leaves her husband, two children and five grandchildren who are gathering from all round the world for her funeral. Peter is returning from Zambia and Matthew and his wife, Christy, from America. Christine is already at home with Isla. On Saturdays I have been meeting with a group called the Harvesters. This is a group on young Christians from a number of churches at and near Kalene. The group was the idea of Willian Zulu who works for Zengamina Power Ltd, the company formed by the North West Zambia Development Trust (NWZDT) to run the hydro. William met with Kasongu Muke, Joseph and Royda Chilambe and James and Ruth Atkinson. The idea was to use the enthusiasm for sport among the Lunda to attract people where the Harvesters went and then to proclaim the Gospel. They wrote to the local churches after their first meeting in December 2009 and the Harvesters was formed by the group of young Christians recommended by their Elders. Shortly after the group formed, Rebecca Stitt, a nurse from New Zealand at Kalene joined the leadership team which was initially led by James and Ruth. Now that James and Ruth have returned to the UK and Rebecca has returned to New Zealand, Joseph and Royda Chilambe had taken on the leadership role. It is my pleasure and delight to join the group when they meet on Saturdays. Usually alternate weeks they meet for prayer and Bible study and on the other weeks the groups travels out to various centres, usually at a school. NWZDT has sponsored some of the group to attend a sports ministry workshop in Lusaka. The Trust has also supplied sports equipment and supports the group with the travel costs. The first Saturday I met with them in October they had a prayer and planning meeting. The week later was prayer and I was asked to address the group. Today (29th October) we travelled to Salujinga, about 35km from Kalene where we discovered there was a large group gathered already as Chief Nyakesaya was there. This meant we reversed the normal program so that we sang and proclaimed the Gospel first and then played soccer, netball and frisby. Having left Kalene at about noon we got back to Kalene about 17.00 hours (5pm). When Sam and Raymond and Roger were at Kalene we all went to Musangala (commonly known as Hydro) Church. It was a joy to be there. There is something beautiful about African singing; they seem to be able, with the most amazing ease, to sing in multiple harmonies and different parts and with the richest of tones, a cappella or with just a simple drum for beat. Sometime I will get a recording of them. As expected we were the guests of honour. Raymond opened and closed the service in prayer and Sam and Roger each gave a message. I did not take part as I have been many times before and will be again when Sam, Raymond and Roger have gone. The following weekend, when my comapnions had gone, I was to speak at Denson Kajinga’s church at Sahandu (about 8km from Kalene) but this had to be put off as sadly Denson’s wife’s sister’s daughter had died. She was six month pregnant. As Denson said, there were two deaths to mourn. Please pray for the whole family. It is hard to believe that three months has passed and that I am back in Zambia. I confess I don’t report much when back in the UK as there I continue work as an orthopaedic surgeon in the NHS, much as I did before going part time to spend half the year at Kalene. The journey back to Kalene was much more pleasant than it might have been as I was accompanied by Ray Allen, Sam Phillips and Roger Mullen. Ray, when he is suitably stimulated is non-stop jokes. Sam I have known for some time and is a good friend. I had never met Roger before but what a treat – Ray would be in full swing with the jokes and then, suddenly, out of the blue, Roger would come in with come in with a show stopping one-liner -absolutely hilarious. As the Irish say, the craic was good! Our stay in Lusaka after arrival was longer than anticipated as the Toyota Land Cruiser I was to collect had not cleared all the paperwork because of the Presidential elections the previous week. We got the vehicle on temporary registration on the Friday 30th September and then drove to Chingola where we stayed with the Harry and Rosemary Constantinou as our usual stop with Bruno and Constance was full. We spent a day with Steve and Muriel Studd, went to Bethel Chapel, Chingola on the Sunday morning, in the afternoon saw Ipusikilo street kids work and Amano School. The following day we drove to Nyangombe where we stopped for a day. I wanted to go through WordPress with Gordon McKillop as this is the software running the new www.nyangombe.info site. The others also wanted to see all the work going on there. We finally arrived at Kalene on Wednesday 12th October. While Isla was at Kalene I spent some time with Peter Rea (son of Charlie) who is an IT guru and who also likes Linux (good chap!). We had previously had some discussion about how to help the schools, especially Ikelenge school which has recently had its first pupil accepted to university and which also has a classroom of old computers that would not run current software. The result was that we used one of the computers that had been sent out as a server and set up a network using the old computers as thin clients – that is, they get and run everything from the server. We spent a day setting up the server with Edubuntu and then a day at the school setting the network up and ….. it worked! I went back a few days later and got several pupils on one of the workstations – they and the teachers were delighted. I was also able to visit a local carpenter who was making benches for Musangala (hydro) church. Some funds had been given through the NWZDT for this and I wanted to see the progress. The benches are not what most people in the UK would sit on throughout a 2 to 3 hour service but they are vastly better than sitting on a stone or on the floor. The school next door has had the second classroom built up and the roof put on. The concrete floor needs to be poured before the desks and blackboard are installed. However, when I go out and about to visit my motorbike attracts a lot of interest and is often a useful conversation starter. The NWZDT has a plot of land about half way between Kalene and Ikelenge where the hydro workshops are to be built. The site will also have housing for hydro employees and possibly visitor accommodation in the future. This is completely undeveloped so everything has to be done from scratch, ground cleared, well dug (see pictures) and bricks made for building. One cannot go to the local builders merchant to buy bricks, they have to be made as in the press as in the photographs above. I think for both of us one of the highlights of Isla’s visit was the total eclipse of the moon. The night was a perfectly clear with the Milky Way stretched across the middle of the night sky. Gradually the bright moon was “eaten up” by the dark shadow moving across. Shortly after the photograph above the moon was completely dark. It was an awe inspiring phenomenon and filled us both with wonder at the majesty of the heavens which declare the glory of the Lord. It made us realise how insignificant we are in the vastness of the universe and yet our Saviour Jesus knows and cares for each one of His children. Then came our journey home. We always like driving to Lusaka as we see more of the country and meet with some of our Zambian friends. In Lusaka I treated Isla to a couple of nights at a hotel. It is a nice place to stay as there is a courtyard with a pond where weaver birds nest and there are crocodiles – see the photograph above.
I’m sure you are wondering why there has been such a long time since the last entry. Well, this has been due to the slow satellite internet connection when at Kalene (the speed there is quite variable and sometimes is so slow that it becomes unusable for all but the simplest of tasks) and since Peter returned to the UK the internet connection at home has been worse than at Kalene. This turned our to be a combination of a dying router and a bad BT line into the house. Thankfully this has now been fixed so we will do “catch up” on the news since Isla went to join me at Kalene. Two weeks ago I left the UK to join Peter in Zambia; we have one more week here then we travel back together. On the flight to Lusaka I was seated beside a young Christian man from S. Wales out for a Missions trip; the adjacent seats had some American families out for short term Christian work too. Another couple I knew from Nyangombe (Barry & Rachel Haigh) were further back on the plane so it was a pleasant, though tiring flight. Amazing how the Lord plans out all these things even such fine detail. I was so grateful. In Lusaka there was lots to do – Peter’s ‘to-do’ list was long and several of the errands he was unable to complete; I guess there is ‘red-tape’ in every country. Several of the items were for others so that means more run-arounds for the next person going to Lusaka. On the way up-country we detoured off route to visit Chengelo School at the invitation of Harold and Mary Rea. It was really enjoyable – great school, great setting and then chatting to some of the staff, some of whom were ex Emmanuel Schools Foundation and N. Irish to boot. Further on our journey we stopped off at Kitwe and it was lovely to see Bruno and Constance and stay overnight in their Guest House again. We spent two nights at Nyangombe; I love that place. Thank you, to the McKillops and Whites. Here at Kalene Peter shares Hillview bungalow with Paul and Katy (see previous blog) and, yes, their culinary skills are seriously good. He tries to spend the mornings in hospital and the afternoons doing NWZDTrust work but this is seldom easy to accomplish. I joined him on Friday morning at the Club Foot clinic; it was good seeing him at his work and watching him with nervous parents and their small children. He was training up a local Zambian physiotherapy assistant to remove casts (of plaster of paris) and apply new ones; she will continue this while he is in the UK. I was itching to get my hands in the plaster again (I used to do this many moons ago) but thought I’d better not! With his ‘Trust’ hat on, I have been with him to Musengala School (near the Hydro) and Chinyazhi (about 7kms from Kalene); I walked the bush there (perhaps a little nervously) to see the ‘Trust’ land which has been designated for agricultural test plots, workshops and accommodation. Peter nobbled a visitor from Canada (Peter Rea, Charlie Rea’s son) who has serious computer expertise to accompany him to Ikelenge School and together they set up a computer server which enabled all the school’s old computers (which would no longer run on their own) to run Edubuntu (educational Linux software) as what are called thin clients. The head and the IT teacher were delighted. And so it is almost time to leave Kalene. I am thankful for the visit and for our daughter, Christine, making it possible by ‘holding the reins’ at home and looking after her grandparents while I’ve been away. I am thankful to God for His enabling this trip, I have surely needed it. To our church and other friends, sincere thanks for your love, prayers and support, much appreciated.
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