Newsletter

April 2006

Dear friends of Kondanani,

I have just come out of the Rory Alec Clinic, it is such a busy place, we have received 7 babies in the last month. If it continues this way we will soon be out of space again. The last baby came today her name is Esther. I had such compassion for the father (a child is considered to be orphaned in this country when they loose the mother) he had an other 2 children at home of 3 and 5, they where left all alone because he has no family left to look after them, they have died of AIDS. The father will most probably die in too because he will have got the virus from the mother or the other way round, he did not look good at all and he had skin problems, for us a sign that all is not well.

We are so grateful for the donors who enabled us build the extension which we now have occupied. I keep on going there because it is quite amazing how beautiful it looks. I get so much joy out of the very fact that our children grow up in such good surroundings.
The Kondanani colours are yellow, red, green, and blue, all bright, the clinic is painted in these colours, in fact everything else is painted that way.

We have been blessed with finances to buy more toys for the "Myles play room", there is a little swing and a slide, the children are not quite sure what to do with it yet but they will learn.
The name of the play room is derived from a gift received in memory of Myles, who died a tragic death at the age of 29. His parents where the donors and we are very grateful to them.
The children who use the play room are the toddlers who are on Anti Retroviral Drugs, children who are infected with the HIV Virus.
What amazed me though this morning was, that children seem to be so clever these days, or perhaps I have forgotten what my own where like at the age of 1 and a half. Here is our little Wilson, one tikkie high, but he decided this morning that he wanted to wear a black shoe on the one foot and a brown one on the other, well what a performance, he screamed the place down. I thought how on earth does this child at his age know the difference. He did not quite win the battle but he had a very good try.

One of set of twins we admitted 3 weeks ago has gone to her heavenly nursery, we fought for her little life, it is always so sad to see them go, the other twin has been in hospital already but is getting better now.

In the mean time the grade 2 children have moved to their house at Madalo Children's Village. Now they really feel they are big much bigger than the others at Kondanani Children's Village. It is so cute the way they grow up.
Fiona the school principle asked them, how do you know I love you? The answers where as follows: because you call me a banana head, because you kiss me, because you squeeze my hand, because you cuddle me and because you spent time with me. So sweet what a 7 year old sees in all the above is love. The most precious part of it is that they feel loved.
We have now started digging the foundations of our 2nd house at Madalo. We never stop building because the children are growing and we keep on getting more little ones entrusted to us.

The farm has been very fruitful too, 9 piglets and the turkey hatched her eggs, the problem is though that she sat on the guinea fowl eggs and the turkey eggs, we don't know yet which chick is what, we can't see the difference yet, very interesting.
Our banana trees are loaded with fruit and so are the other fruit trees. Every morning we are picking fruit, our deep freezers are full..

The container from "Kondanani Holland" arrived. Did we have fun, it's like Christmas, we can't wait to see what is in the boxes The people in Holland spoiled us. And the best was the tractor and implements. My precious brother spent many hours making sure that it came to us in top condition. The problem now is, how do I get Felix our farmer to stop being a little boy playing with his big toy. He is so delighted that I think I will just leave him play for a while. Men like to play with toys.
An other most wonderful gift was the 4 top quality keyboards. We have sourced a piano teacher and with the guitars we have and some other music instruments we will soon have an orchestra going here at Kondanani.

We are such a blessed people that we actually forget the problems we have, in case you wonder.
The harvest has been great, so much rain that there are bags of maize for our staff, more than enough. Most of the spare land has been used by the staff because we can only do so much and no more.
We won't have hunger in the country, there is a surplus. No more newspaper articles that the country is starving.

One thing I must share with you which has so touched our hearts. A medical doctor from North Wales, a 63 year old young man climbed the highest mountain in Africa, Kenya, the Kilomanjaro. It is 5 kilometres high. All this to raise funds for Kondanani. We so appreciate his endeavour and salute him.
What amazes me more than anything else is that Father God has so many ways to meet the needs of the children.

Cherie and myself have been to Zambia again. If you want to read the report you will find it on the website or request us to send it to you.
We will be going back there in July to find a place for our Zambian babies and to interview staff.

We are exited about the new things God is doing through Kondanani.
If anyone knows of a mature couple who would want to take this opportunity to be pioneers on the mission field in Zambia and are self supporting, please let us know. Just imagine the impact they can have on a nation by bringing up these little ones in the knowledge of God.

We continue to need teachers for our school. Let's put it this way, we need workers who are prepared to do anything.

Warm greetings,
Annie Chikhwaza.