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Dear All,
Perhaps some of you, like me, absolutely HATE receiving 'newsletters', but I hope you will bear with me, and understand
that this is the easiest and most effective way of keeping you all 'in the Zambian loop', so to speak.
By this time, you should have received my previous email in which I mentioned the deprived children who live in our area
and with whom we are becoming very involved. I mentioned that we were taking them out to the boating club in Luanshya, and
I can now report that the day was a roaring success. We left Ndola at about 9am, arriving at the boat club about 45 minutes
later. There were 18 of us all together: Pete's dad and his wife; a Zambian friend of ours and her two teenage kids; Pete,
myself, our two, a school friend of Amanda's, and the 8 kids/young people from our area. We set up 'our spot' with a lovely
view of the water. The kids we took immediately made a bee line for the swimming pool, although it looked VERY suspect indeed.
I doubt that it had been cleaned for ages and, though it's not a deep pool, you couldn't see the bottom because it was so
dirty. However, that sort of thing does not bother the local people, and the pool very quickly filled up with bodies until
it resembled a tightly packed sardine can! I stood on the sidelines, keeping a VERY close eye on my 'brood'! It was so
lovely to see them all laughing and happy. Pete's Dad put his small sailing boat in the water, and took several of the young
people out in turn, which they thoroughly enjoyed - it was the first time any of them had done such a thing and they considered
it to be VERY exciting! It was a bit too dangerous to take the little ones out as they can't swim very well, but they paddled
and swam around in the shallows of the dambo and watched their older siblings in the sailing boat. Our friend, Chishala,
and her daughter, Henri, took the boat out single-handedly and managed to capsize it! That was the real exciting highlight
of the day! No-one was hurt, thankfully, and after Pete's Dad had swam out to them, and righted the boat, they finally sailed
back in to shore looking sheepish, but grinning from ear to ear! All in all, it was a great day, and the kids absolutely
LOVED it, which made it all worthwhile.
Some of you may remember that, last month, we (as a church) visited a small, but very poor shanty township situated just
outside of Ndola, called Sekela. We took bags of clothes and food to each household, and spent some time talking and praying
with each family. The conditions they live in are appalling and we were so struck by their dignity in the face of such grinding
poverty - it was a very touching experience.
Well, this morning (Sunday), we made another 'church' visit, this time to the Ndola Central Hospital. So many patients
there have no relatives or friends able to visit them and they spend days, weeks or even months alone there. We decided
to distribute bottles of fruit juice and spend a little time with each patient, talking and praying with them, in an effort
to bring them a little comfort and alleviate their loneliness for a few minutes. As we walked onto the first ward, (a woman's
ward) we heard a man crying and wailing from one of the side rooms - we discovered that a member of his family had just that
minute died in the room and he was in mourning. When we next passed the room, about two hours later, the body had been covered
with a sheet, but was still there, in the company of two other living patients.
I know many of us complain about the level of care in our local hospitals in the UK, Cyprus etc., but we have absolutely
NO idea just how terrible the situation is in hospitals in third world countries. We decided to visit the 4th and 5th floors
which are, apparently, the worst of all. These are non-fee paying wards, and the situation is appalling. They don't have
enough beds, so many patients lie on makeshift mattresses on the floor. Many have no bedding, and the mattresses are disgustingly
filthy and stained from previous patients - cockroaches running amongst the mattresses is a common sight. The hospital receives
little funding and, consequently, is not able to administer the necessary medicines to patients.
We split up into groups of 2 or 3, and made our way around the wards. One lady my particular group visited was suffering
from severe vomiting and diarrhea, and should definitely have been on a drip as she was terribly dehydrated - there were many,
many others like her, but the only ones fortunate enough to receive this kind of treatment are those who have relatives able
to afford to purchase the necessary items / medication from a pharmacy in town - the rest are left and everyone hopes for
the best.
The only food on offer is the local diet of ground mealie meal (nshima) which resembles a thick, stodgy porridge. Again
.... those patients in need of a special diet are not catered to - there simply isn't the facility or the funding. As a
result, some patients have even died from malnutrition in the hospital itself because they are not able to digest this particular
food.
Another lady we visited had meningitis, and was terribly weak and delirious. We tried to talk with her, but she was too
delirious and seemed to drift in and out. She, too, was badly dehydrated, and the only way we could get her to drink was
to feed the juice to her with a spoon. However, finding a spoon or any other kitchen 'equipment' was almost impossible, although
we did, finally, locate a single teaspoon, and one of our group managed to get a fair amount of liquid into her. When everyone
had been visited, we spent a little time in each ward on those two floors, singing to them, before we finally made our way
back downstairs. As we sang, some of the patients who were strong enough to stand, came and stood and sang with us, albeit
weakly and with shaky voices. Some cried .... some held our hands .... some asked not to be forgotten.
It affected Jeremy deeply and, though he managed to 'stick it out', he broke down as we were singing, and had to leave.
He says he doesn't think he can cope with seeing this type of need and suffering on a daily basis, but I had this to say
to him: if we are to be effective and useful, we NEED TO carry the pain and the burden of it .... it is that burden which
will spur us on and drive us to give of ourselves and of our time and of anything else which is needed. If it doesn't really
affect us, then we can walk away from it and not have to feel.
God bless you all.
Salwa
Letter 4
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