Newsletter

Zambia March 2006

Dear Friends,

Cherie and myself have done an other trip to Chipata.
We spent 4 full days getting acquainted with this beautiful town surrounded by mountains and forest.

Our main aim this time was to let the authorities know that we are serious about starting Kondanani in Chipata and to meet with more of the authorities involved in the decision making of the district.
In an African setting this is very important. We do the same here in Malawi.

Our first port of call was as before, the District Commissioner who had made various appointments for us.

We missed the District Welfare Officer last time we where there, and he is going to be one person we will have to work with on a regular basis.
He was a very happy man to meet with us. We will be able to assist him where he had no help before and felt very helpless with babies who are suffering because of the loss of their mother.
We liked him at once and feel that he will be a good man to work with.

The Director of Health for the Province was our next appointment. It was great for us both to sit down with this doctor and listen to his plea, although no one has any accurate figures to present to us as far as the survival of babies, who go back to the village after the death of their mother, we do realise the need is very great.
He sent us with one of his staff to a rural village clinic, (the roads by the way are so bad, I would not be able to describe it).
About 60 km of the main road, it took us ages to get there. We found a very busy clinic, loads of people all waiting for medical attention and no doctor only nurses. I looked at the small children and all of them had orange hair, all the hair or partly, this is a sign of malnutrition.
We spent time with the sister who showed us her book of mothers who are about to give birth and how many of them are HIV positive. It was quite clear to us, that there are going to be several babies with no mother. We looked at the books of one zone of this clinic, there are 8 zones belonging to this clinic and there are 40 rural health clinics in the district.
She begged us to come soon because in this one zone she has 5 orphaned babies and she does not know how long the babies will live.
We are used to a lot of pain around us, but when we left there we wanted to weep. At the same time it frightened us a bit because we realised that there is such a need, how many babies are we going to have in record time, we have to increase our capacity almost immediately. Just as well we have a big God, who will and can do beyond what we can think or imagine.

We spent time with the Executive Director of World Vision. This was also a positive time of discussion and they are going to work together with us.

We had an appointment with the Chairman of the Pastors Fraternal. We told them what we where planning and that, when we come back we will contact him in order to draw staff from the various churches, as that way we can have people who can come with a recommendation from their pastor.
We also would like to get to know some of the pastors, some may be suitable for our Board of Trustees.
He was very cooperative.

We went to the local hospital where last time we met with a doctor from Ukraine.She is willing to help us check the babies on a weekly basis.

The Town Clerk was the next step.
Although in between all our appointments we went and looked at houses we knew that he would be the one to find what we need.
We had a very productive time with him, a nice man and a person who will go out of his way to help us with accommodation and other areas where we may have needs.

The last but remember not least was the Ngoni Chief.
We went with the District Commissioner and the District Welfare Officer to have an "audience" with His Royal Highness.
We would be going to the "Palace" in the bush.
I questioned our host regarding the Palace, I have been in Africa for 40 years so I sort of know what to expect, but I was told it was a palace. Anyway after going once again over disastrous roads we arrived at the "Palace" which was a dilapidated little house.
Cherie and I decided not to look at each other incase we would laugh. The DC went to find out where H.R.H. was and he was found digging in the garden so we had to wait in his office until he wad had a was, fair enough, although we though it so funny.
I kept on having this picture of Prince Charles doing the same thing.
Before we left we where told that we had to take a chicken, I refused to have a live chicken in my car and get it all messed up so we went and bought a frozen one.
Anyway we had been told how to behave and when H.R.H. arrived we stood up and bowed and said "my Jere, My Jere" and sat down again.
He was a wonderful man spoke English very well and was widely travelled. He was exited about being with us and spoke about the time he ascended to the throne,about his Kingdom and how much land he would give us.
The time now came to present H.R.H. with the chicken. I said to him, your Royal Highness we are so grateful that you have received us, we now would like you to receive a gift we have bought.
Off Cherie went to the car to get the chicken, which in the mean time was beginning to defrost, so here she comes with the dripping chicken, kneels before him and hands him this dripping chicken. He took it in his hands and said "Oh this is a chicken", he probably thought you dumb women a chief like me should have a live chicken.
We will be back there in July to sign the lease for a house to start in and to interview staff, set up the charity, get everything ready for September when we hope to start the work.

Thank you for your support.
Blessings Annie Chikhwaza.