Tree of Life

Tree of Life

Last Wednesday and Thursday Rachel and I visited and volunteered at the Tree of Life Orphanage http://familylegacy.com/tree-of-life/.

There are currently about 160 children who live there and are expanding to about 300 children, most of whom have HIV and come from really horrible homes from physical and emotional abuse to prostitution.

The facilities are beautiful, the house mothers and children behave like a family and they have a school on the property so the children even walk to school! We really enjoyed spending time with the kids, they are so happy and welcoming. They sang us songs and taught us some of their native language , Nyanja.

On Wednesday we just spent time with the kids, talking and playing and on Thursday we spent the entire day working to ensure new children got school uniforms and better fitting uniforms for the kids who have lived there for some time. We are planning to go back to create a library for them and do some physical activity with them!

Baby Ellie's or heaven! Welcome to Lilayi Lodge!

Sunday, one of the most amazing experiences of my life!  Sara, Rachel, Ellen ( one of Sara's good friends), and I drove 30min outside of town to Lilayi Lodge, where the Game Rangers International Elephant Orphanage Project is housed just outside of Lusaka.

We spent an hour and a half watching the four baby elephants, the youngest only four months, all of whom were rescued as their mothers were killed by poachers.

We watched them bottle feed, play with each other, get scratches from the game keeps ( Kelvin is who we talked to the most) and just be baby Ellie's!  They were completely adorable and Rachel and I are hoping to go back to the lodge to stay for a few days and see if we can help with them. 

Enjoy the pictures!

Tuesday Produce Market

Today Lindy took Rachel and I to the Tuesday vegetable market.  Imagine about 8 rows of various vendors selling produce, spices, and beans in a long rectangular outdoor barn.  We bought tomatos, pepers, zucchini, lettuce, mangos, guava, pineapple, cantaloupe and that is only a fraction of what was available.  We only got to take one picture of the market because it is frowned upon but one of Lindys friends let us take a picture of her and her produce. 

Street Vendors, is that a duck?

Something I wanted to tell you all about the the street vendors.  They are unlike anything I have experienced in the US.  Everyday at any hour there are dozens of people selling things at each intersection, but what they sell is what is so surprising.  So far typical things that are sold are football jerseys, our soccer, pirated dvd's and cd's, one really pushy man wanted us to buy his Lionel Richie cd and could not understand why we didn't want it.  But my real purpose for telling you all about this is that I have also see a person carrying two live ducks for sale in his arms, toilet plungers, and used children's mirrors.  Sughra, our roomie even told me a story of how she was proposed to by a street vendor when she didn't want to buy his light-up, fish in the center, bouncy ball.  Pictures to come....

Zambian Markets

On Saturday we also went to the "Saturday Market" which only happens the last Saturday of the month.  We spent our time looking around at all of the great things Zambia's markets have to offer.  We didn't buy anything that day because our travels are just beginning but we have a good idea of what we want to get out families and friends now!  We also at Nicaraguan food for lunch which was delicious!  Rachel took these pictures at the market! 

Cheshire Homes Society of Zambia

On Saturday we started our day at an orphanage called the Cheshire Homes Society of Zambia for disabled children.  Nuns care for the children and had them all sit in their meal room when we arrived via taxi, thank you Mark for the lift!

When we walked in they greeted us with a traditional welcome song and it was really uplifting to see these children with various disabilities singing, laughing, and clapping, so excited for visitors.

Rachel, Sara, and I spent the next 2 hours playing outside with the children and we soon discovered the children like to run and play football, our soccer, swing, and slide down slides!  Several of the children were playing soccer with a very old, small ball so Rachel and I are planning to bring over a few new soccer balls for them. 

When the kids  discovered we had cameras every other activity came to a halt and we spend the next 45 minutes having a photo shoot!  All the kids wanted their pictures taken and then to see what they looked like on camera.  Rachel gave her camera to a very small boy named Peter and he was the photographer for the rest of the time, gathering the others for pictures and taking time for more abstract pictures of the flower bushes.  

When we left, some of the kids had a bit of separation anxiety and we promised to return.  When we go back, in addition to taking some new soccer balls, we plan to take them printed photographs of our play day for them to keep.

Below are a few pictures of the kiddos!

109,500 Dinner

Can you believe the cost of our dinner?   Actually, with the exchange rate about 5,000 to $1.00 ( less if you exchange money in the mall like me and then it is 4,100 to $1.00) so dinner really only cost  about $22.00.  

Manda Hill mall, across the street from where we are staying is very westernized.  It even has a new movie theatre that just opened in December complete with a bar and a frozen yogurt place!

What is interesting about the movie theatre here is that it is all assigned seating and there are employees to show you to your leather seat as though you were at a big theatrical production.

Dinner and fro-yo!