On Tuesday, July 15th, I spent the day with Nancy Writebol. Nancy and her husband, David, are the directors of the Rafiki Village here in Zambia. She and I spent the day doing a number of different things including stopping in Chongwe and Lusaka checking on children who may eventually come to the Rafiki Village.
We started our day in Chongwe, a small town about 10 miles from the Rafiki Village. We stopped by to pick up a local Pastor who accompanied us on our first stop so there was an African individual accompanying us. Nancy told me that there was a woman who was taking care of her twin nephews (age 2) and her niece (age 4) in addition to her own several children.
To get to where this family lives, we had to leave the main road and travel along a very windy dirt road. Then we had to park our car and walk down a hill about 50 yards through a corn field. Their home consisted of a few small buildings without access to water or electricity. Dogs, goats and chickens freely roamed the entire dirt area of their home. They brought a mat, normally used for sleeping on the ground at night, and placed it on the ground so I could examine each of the twins one-by-one.
The aunt had to hold each one for they did not like me examining them at all. Nancy had already given each one a piece of candy as a peace offering. While I sat on the ground in the morning sun examining each child, chickens ran along the ground beside me. To say it was the most unusual setting in which I have ever examined an individual is an understatement! It turns out that the 4-year old girl was at preschool, and we decided to come back later in the afternoon to see her.
Nancy then drove us into Lusaka to make a couple of more stops. Lusaka is the capital of Zambia, and it has about a million people. We stopped at two different “compounds” in Lusaka. A compound is a collection of dwellings of various sizes and shapes. In the states, I believe we would call it a neighborhood of a city. The first one was called the Presidential Compound although Nancy told me that the President of Zambia doesn’t live there. What struck me is that some of the town homes were quite new and even had landscaping. We stopped by to see a young boy about 4 years old who may be coming to Rafiki within the next week. When Nancy got out of the car, he ran and jumped into her arms!
The Presidential compound was much different than the compound we saw after lunch called Gombe. This compound was extremely crowded, dirty and not maintained in any way. Nancy met with a Pastor and an elder from a church there to check on some children for possible adoption by Rafiki. The most heartbreaking moment of the day came when a man stopped by and basically begged us for 30 minutes to take his son because he was too ill to care for his son. The father said that he had some joint problem and could only do odds jobs. As a result, he was only able to feed his son once a day if that. He also shared with us that his wife died from malaria leaving him alone to care for his child. Nancy explained to the man that the policy at Rafiki is to only take children who have lost both of their parents so as to not separate children from their parents.
While we were still there, an elderly grandmother stopped by to see Nancy hoping that her 5-year old granddaughter could be adopted by Rafiki because she was trying to care for several of her grandchildren without any money or help from other relatives. Nancy said that she would have to check with the Rafiki home office but that it might be possible for Rafiki to adopt the little girl. As they walked away, the little girl began to cry because she could not go home to Rafiki with us that day.
After we left Lusaka, we drove back to Chongwe and picked up the Pastor as we returned to the rural site we’d visited in the morning so I could perform a physical exam on the 4-year old girl who had been at pre-school earlier in the day. Unlike her twin brothers, she was perfectly behaved and never cried as I examined her on the ground with the chickens running around. She was quite a beautiful young lady. The one thing I found, while doing her physical exam that afternoon as the sun was setting, was that she had a number of enlarged lymph nodes in her neck on both sides. Nancy told me that she would return later in the week with a local nurse who would draw their blood in order to complete the medical examination. Nancy decided that it would be best if I did not attempt to draw blood on a potentially malnourished, screaming child (like the twins that morning). I agreed with her that that was a good decision!
Even two days later, I continue to process all the things we saw on Tuesday. The poverty and disease are overwhelming; yet despite this, many of the people we met appeared to be truly happy proving that the owning of “stuff” does not bring happiness to one’s life. In every area, children ran though the streets playing with one another whether it was a real toy or one that they’d created out of the objects in their lives. It was also great spending the day with Nancy. She is amazing! She is part doctor, nurse, social worker and negotiator. Throughout the day, it was obvious that Nancy loves what she does at Rafiki. She took some amazing pictures of me examining the children, and I will post those once I get a copy of them from her.
I continue to feel extraordinarily blessed to be here in Zambia at the Rafiki Village. I have learned so much in just a short time, and I am already looking forward to the next opportunity to return to Zambia to serve again.
We started our day in Chongwe, a small town about 10 miles from the Rafiki Village. We stopped by to pick up a local Pastor who accompanied us on our first stop so there was an African individual accompanying us. Nancy told me that there was a woman who was taking care of her twin nephews (age 2) and her niece (age 4) in addition to her own several children.
To get to where this family lives, we had to leave the main road and travel along a very windy dirt road. Then we had to park our car and walk down a hill about 50 yards through a corn field. Their home consisted of a few small buildings without access to water or electricity. Dogs, goats and chickens freely roamed the entire dirt area of their home. They brought a mat, normally used for sleeping on the ground at night, and placed it on the ground so I could examine each of the twins one-by-one.
The aunt had to hold each one for they did not like me examining them at all. Nancy had already given each one a piece of candy as a peace offering. While I sat on the ground in the morning sun examining each child, chickens ran along the ground beside me. To say it was the most unusual setting in which I have ever examined an individual is an understatement! It turns out that the 4-year old girl was at preschool, and we decided to come back later in the afternoon to see her.
Nancy then drove us into Lusaka to make a couple of more stops. Lusaka is the capital of Zambia, and it has about a million people. We stopped at two different “compounds” in Lusaka. A compound is a collection of dwellings of various sizes and shapes. In the states, I believe we would call it a neighborhood of a city. The first one was called the Presidential Compound although Nancy told me that the President of Zambia doesn’t live there. What struck me is that some of the town homes were quite new and even had landscaping. We stopped by to see a young boy about 4 years old who may be coming to Rafiki within the next week. When Nancy got out of the car, he ran and jumped into her arms!
The Presidential compound was much different than the compound we saw after lunch called Gombe. This compound was extremely crowded, dirty and not maintained in any way. Nancy met with a Pastor and an elder from a church there to check on some children for possible adoption by Rafiki. The most heartbreaking moment of the day came when a man stopped by and basically begged us for 30 minutes to take his son because he was too ill to care for his son. The father said that he had some joint problem and could only do odds jobs. As a result, he was only able to feed his son once a day if that. He also shared with us that his wife died from malaria leaving him alone to care for his child. Nancy explained to the man that the policy at Rafiki is to only take children who have lost both of their parents so as to not separate children from their parents.
While we were still there, an elderly grandmother stopped by to see Nancy hoping that her 5-year old granddaughter could be adopted by Rafiki because she was trying to care for several of her grandchildren without any money or help from other relatives. Nancy said that she would have to check with the Rafiki home office but that it might be possible for Rafiki to adopt the little girl. As they walked away, the little girl began to cry because she could not go home to Rafiki with us that day.
After we left Lusaka, we drove back to Chongwe and picked up the Pastor as we returned to the rural site we’d visited in the morning so I could perform a physical exam on the 4-year old girl who had been at pre-school earlier in the day. Unlike her twin brothers, she was perfectly behaved and never cried as I examined her on the ground with the chickens running around. She was quite a beautiful young lady. The one thing I found, while doing her physical exam that afternoon as the sun was setting, was that she had a number of enlarged lymph nodes in her neck on both sides. Nancy told me that she would return later in the week with a local nurse who would draw their blood in order to complete the medical examination. Nancy decided that it would be best if I did not attempt to draw blood on a potentially malnourished, screaming child (like the twins that morning). I agreed with her that that was a good decision!
Even two days later, I continue to process all the things we saw on Tuesday. The poverty and disease are overwhelming; yet despite this, many of the people we met appeared to be truly happy proving that the owning of “stuff” does not bring happiness to one’s life. In every area, children ran though the streets playing with one another whether it was a real toy or one that they’d created out of the objects in their lives. It was also great spending the day with Nancy. She is amazing! She is part doctor, nurse, social worker and negotiator. Throughout the day, it was obvious that Nancy loves what she does at Rafiki. She took some amazing pictures of me examining the children, and I will post those once I get a copy of them from her.
I continue to feel extraordinarily blessed to be here in Zambia at the Rafiki Village. I have learned so much in just a short time, and I am already looking forward to the next opportunity to return to Zambia to serve again.
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