In Water There is Bacteria - Benjaman Franklin

Since I am pretty certain that Benjamin Franklin never visited the Western Provence of Zambia, this quote must have been generated from his understanding of the great need of good, clean water.

Today is Kara's birth date, October 17.  A bitter sweet date.  She came and she is gone.  No one could have ever told me that on this date in 2013, I would be pleading for water, clean water in a most remote part of the world because of her coming into this world.  This date from my perspective should be celebrating her favorite day of the year along side of her.

Kara, a severe diabetic for 15 years taught me the critical need for water, if life is to continue.  A simple swallow of lake water while swimming,  a 'clean lake', put her suppressed immune system into crisis, on the brink of death and in ICU for several days.    She was most blessed to be taken to an incredible hospital (very far from our home), she had team of doctors who fought to keep her alive and medicine to help fight the germs that ravaged her fragile body.

In the Western Provence of Zambia, water is a luxury, clean, fresh water a rare option even during the rainy season.  People bathe, drink, cook and wash in the same stream or bucket.  Germs that cause dysentery, typhoid fever, cholera are in every cup of water that is not taken from a clean well source.  They become too sick to work!  The mom's can't care for their families!  The kids cannot go to school!  The mom's are sick too. They do not have medication to cure the illnesses!  The truly sad reality is that they do not have to drink bad water, we can help.  You can help!


Today's blog is in memory of my daughter Kara Dawn Erickson.  Her life was short but profound.  She taught me many things about life, living and death.  Traveling to Zambia and seeing how hard it is to get water, then harder to get clean water, and realizing that we can do something to help those who cannot help themselves, I snapped.

They must have clean water! 

Kara's legacy for us as a family, will be to get clean water to as many people as we can.  Many parts of the world need water.  However, I am focusing on one tiny, remote corner of the world that most people choose to ignore.  I can monitor where the water goes.  I can see and have seen the health and benefits it brings. I know that every penny raised for a well, will go to a well.  I know a young girl like the one above, does not have to die because of bad water! I have seen first hand, in two short years what clean water will do for a village (800-1000 people) and how it changed their lives!

Hands of Hope (www.handsofhope.org)  wants to place 10 wells by years end.  The people in 10 villages will have a chance to live and thrive.  One simple well costs $5000.  $5.00 per person is all that it costs to keep them with fresh, clean water.  $5.00.  That is one Starbucks drink forgone for another to live.  Giving is that simple.  Would you like to remember a loved one with a well?  Each time one from a village goes to get water they are reminded that someone cared about them.

   I must make this message heard.  These people must be given a chance in life and clean healthy water is where it begins.  To ignore a need, going about the business of life pretending that what

I do does not make a difference, is to live a lie. 

This is water from a new well, 2013!

 Happy Birthday dear, sweet Kara! 
 

Gift someone you love by giving life to another!  http://www.handsofhopeonline.org/giftcards.asp#well

When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.

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When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure. ~Author Unknown
 
September 13 the anniversary of my Kara leaving this earth for eternity.  That day I was forever changed.   I am not the only mother who has lost a child.  Many of us are in that ‘club’.  No one wants to become a member but even as I type this blog, another member is initiated.   I do not know that new member but I know her pain.

Today, a dear  and special man, Ron Jones is being remembered and then laid to rest.   He was not my child but he was a grandfather, father, husband and a friend to many who knew him.  God created him, his life was valuable and he cared for others less fortunate.  He is now gone from this earth, and those who knew him and loved him do not want him forgotten.  Why, because life is important, valuable and a gift.  All life should be given value and hope not just here in the United States.   Life something  for us to treasure.

When you lose someone you love you desire that they are not forgotten.  Tombstones serve that purpose and they have for time memorial.  Family names thread one generation to another.  Family trees and genealogies are treasured as we try to figure out if we are related to someone important or very bad.  

But I imagine each of us want something more than a tombstone as a remembrance. I imagine most of us want more than a bouquet of flowers that wither and die as our remembrance in flowers is left at our grave. Deep down we want some legacy, some story, and some ‘thing’ that we can to pass on to our children or grand children. Our brief time on earth (and it is brief) should be remembered at least a generation or two.  Unmarked graves are sad statements of a life lived.  No one cared. All of us want someone to care.

As I ‘blog’ my journeys in the Western Provence of Zambia, I keep a resounding message and perhaps even today a resounding plea to help give life to those children who do not have to die early or to live poorly, because they have bad water or very little water.  We cannot control the number of our days but we can bless others who cannot help themselves by providing clean and accessible water.   Just simple, plain, clean water. 

As you drink your clean, sweet, fresh water today, will you think about helping one or perhaps a village who have never tasted it.  http://www.handsofhopeonline.org/giftcards.asp#well As you think about how to honor some one you love that you want to be remembered for a long time, give a gift of water in their name.  As you turn on your faucet to brush your teeth, wash your hands, fill your very large bath tub consider blessing someone who would be thrilled to just fill their bucket with clean fresh water.    The giving on our end is quite simple the gift of fresh clean water in the Western Provence of Zambia is life changing and giving.

As we continue to miss Kara and to keep her memory alive, we will work to place wells.  The well in her honor is blessing a village and giving kids health, something she longed for.   Each well placed whether it has Kara's name on it or it is a collective effort of many,  the well is a gift of life that gives and gives and keeps people alive with hope.  

This little girl has a chance to live because she now has clean water! Thank you! Hands of Hope!  Thank you!

This little girl, her family, her village were gifted with a well! 

This awesome lady is blessing a village with fresh water! 

 

 

 

 

 

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. ~Thomas Fuller, 1732

A gift of life! Like Kara this little girls life depends on water!

The week of September 13 changed me forever when my daughter died.  No one should die at 25 but our world is unfair, our circumstances are not ours to control.  Mothers who loose their children are changed forever.  Oh, we go on but a piece of our hearts are torn and the hole is never filled.  The scars remain and all scars hurt from time to time. When they hurt the pain of remembrance reoccurs and we always must decide what to do with pain.


 My choice has become to provide water to those who cannot get it on their own.

Kara was a Juvenal diabetic.  Her journey through life was atypical. Too many days her blood sugar levels were high and she required water.  Her thirst was insatiable and water was a critical part of her life line.   Water, that simple element we take for granted.  We have water available to us in all forms, tap water, fresh spring water, purified water, flavored water, mineral water, vitamin water, well water, sparkling water and probably more I have not listed.  We are blessed and for most of us we do not think twice about this most critical thing we need to live.  We brush our teeth while water runs freely into our sinks, we flush our toilets without a second thought that this is a luxury.  We wash our clothes and our dishes without thinking of a secondary use for our water.  We bathe with the ease of turning our showers or faucets to fill our tubs, we can choose the temperature and the water levels without any extra effort.  Our norm is a foreign concept for most of the world.

Because someone cared this little girl lives!

As my eyes were opened to the need of water around the world, the lack of good, clean fresh water something with in me snapped.   I thought of the other mom's who wanted nothing more than to get water for their babies.  Mothers who could not care for their families because their water source was miles from home. Mothers who served dirty water to drink because that is all that available.  Mothers who watched their babies die because of water.

Today's blog will be short because I want those of you who read to take mental note of the part water plays in your life.  How would you feel or function without it?  If the day to day water use were pulled from you how much would you give to get it back?

Kara loved children!  Kara needed water!  Kara's memory is shared in place that is no longer forsaken. 

Will you consider a donation?  A village in Western Zambia is waiting for someone who cares enough to build them a well?  My goal through HANDS OF HOPE, Barrington, IL    (http://www.handsofhopeonline.org/giftcards.asp#well) is to get 10 more wells placed in 2013.  One well is only $5000.   Check out the link above and purchase some "Well" Cards as a gift of life for someone you love.   Would you like to dedicate a well in memory of someone you love?  The gift of water gives life and hope to those who have none.

Proverbs 3:27
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it

School Lunch

I live in a very nice place.  I have very nice neighbors most have jobs and good incomes. The children in my community go to very nice schools, both public and private.  I was part of a conversation recently where 'school lunches' were the topic of the young moms.  Each citing what their kids liked or did not like, each citing what they desired the 'lunch programs' to look like and no one quite happy with the offerings. That is our luxury though we probably do not view it in that light.

Mawawa the village community that Hands of Hope has been working with the longest is starting to thrive. The beautiful gardens that our economic development has provided are giving fresh and bountiful food for most of the families.  Limited by our standards but miraculous by theirs.   "Malnutrition is gone" shares a school spokesman.  I saw no extended tummies on the kids and that alone is noteworthy and something to celebrate.  Not all families are equal in what they can provide or own for that is the way of life but things are improving!

I have lots of things that I want to critique and change in this part of the world but that is not my task or calling.  I can work within the boundaries set before me and do my best with what has been given to me.   If change were as simple as my wish list being fulfilled we would not be in this remote part of the world making a difference or any other place for that matter. :)

I love to cook and to feed people. I am intrigued with food from other parts of the world. The outdoor kitchen, a campfire stove, a pot or perhaps two grace the kitchen of each hut.  This is how the meal is prepared. The supermarket is foreign to most of these people, if they have been in one they could not afford to buy anything.  The prices were outrageous even to me.  They live off of the land and Nshima is their food.

My awesome journey to this part of the world focused in on a small, small place on the earth.  Mawawa, the village where there is now a school and a well and school lunch program!
As we toured the school they proudly showed me the 'kitchen'!  I lagged behind the group and was blessed with new insight into this community I am coming to love.  The incentive to get kids to school is that they will get a meal!  Let me show you the kitchen!

The first photo is inside the 'cook hut'.  The size is probably 6 X 8.  One side is for storing and 'counter' space the other side for cooking.  The floor is the same sandy soil that is out side. It is very well made and the mud walls are firm and secure.  The thatched roof is angled so during the rainy season the water runs off. There are windows to vent out the smoke from the fire and the 'cooks' can work rainy season or not. 

  The main staple is ground maize, Nshima.  For some it is a once a day meal, thus the incentive to come to school and be fed.  The kettle below cooks the Nshima over a fire. This is standard fare for all of Zambia.

Large Kettle for cooking Nshima!  The fire is lit below.

    If purchased this how a Zambian would bring their Nshima home.  Many grind their own from crops they have grown. (Another blog story)  The recipe should you want to give your children a lesson in gratitude or you just want to see what a large part of Southern Africa eats daily is:

American Style Nshima

4 Cups Water
2 Cups plain corn meal
Method: Pour 4 cups of water into a medium size cooking pot. Heat the water for 3 - 4 minutes or until luke warm. Using one tablespoonful at a time, slowly sprinkle 3/4 cup of the corn meal into the pot while stirring continuously with a cooking stick. Keep stirring slowly until the mixture begins to thicken and boil. Turn the heat to medium, cover the pot, and let simmer for 3 to 5 minutes.

The two men below are the school cooks.  They were delighted to show me the kitchen and how they cooked the meal. :)    When the food is cooked they 'plate' it and set them on the counter (above) until lunch time.  Several children eat from one plate. Fingers are used to scoop it up.  It is interesting that even in restaurants our Zambian guides, interpreters and even the pastors used their fingers as well. If a family is not destitute they may have one other thing to eat with their Nshima, fish, meat or a vegetable.  Generally in these poor communities Nshima is the meal.

School Cafeteria and cooks!

Daily meal.  No choice options except perhaps the plate design.

School Lunch Aid

Dish washer

Lunch time moms

Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world. James 1:27 (Bible-Message Translation) 

Back to School

It is the second week in August.  In our part of town, school will not begin for a couple more weeks.  Last minute vacations or fun trips are planned by families.  Parents here look for activities to keep the kids busy and them from going crazy.   The chain stores have the isles stocked with the required school materials and each is offering incredible prices that scream 'come shop here'.  The weekly advertisements show pictures of the newest trend in school clothing, back packs, lunch totes and the lists do not stop.  Buy me, shop here, stock up and be fresh and ready for this next school year.  Each parent and student feels the pressure to have the 'right' and 'most popular' of items.  The gathering games begin.

As a child I loved getting new crayons, notebooks, pens and pencils.  I loved to gather those new fresh items and then place them in my desk or as I got older my locker. Even as a child I understood the fresh new start that a new school year offered to me.  (I always needed a fresh new start :). )  My family had little money but I always had something new to wear as I begin each year.  It was a badge of honor and privilege that delighted me. I lived in the USA and education was my right and I was expected to go to school.

Though hard to see this little boy's notebook is news print cover with a few sheets of paper.  

 

 

  Our children in the Western Provence do not know such luxury.  Going to school is the honor and luxury few get to experience.   Those from villages in the bush do not come from families where education is the norm, survival is the norm.  Being healthy is not the norm.  Having enough food is not the norm, new clothes are unheard of, each family member is wearing the only clothing they own. School supplies ... what are school supplies?  The governments task is to provide the needed items but they do not do it well. 

Hands of Hope has gifted these students with a school, desks, chalk boards and housing for teachers.  This is a magnificent gift for these are people who felt forsaken by God and their own people.  No longer is this true!  They called out to God and He answered their prayers.  God kept His promise. If you were to talk to them they would attest to God's provisions.

You will seek me (GOD)  and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah (Bible) 29:13

The Teaching Style is very British and Formal.

Text books do not exist at this school so the black board is the main teaching tool.

These boys were delighted to have us change the course of their school day. This is Mawawa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mawawa and Luntende are the two villages that we have built schools.  Luntende being the newest.  Over the next couple of blogs I am going to take you through what school in the bush looks like.  It is simple by our standards, basics that we would demand are luxuries unheard of.  However, these schools represent hope for a better life, HOPE because someone (perhaps you) cared.

Education is critical to allowing these students to escape from poverty and to have hope of a better life.  Thank you Hands of Hope for helping this become possible.
 
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” ― Nelson Mandela  

The Motorized Ox Cart

Each time I decide to blog about Mongu and the remote villages we serve outside of Mongu, I struggle with reminiscing with you the reader about my adventures, reporting facts about the poverty, the people, the broken lives, the hope, the miracles I see God performing and sharing the awesome changes we are seeing take place before our eyes from the work of Hands of Hope.  I blog because I want others to catch the vision of what a few dollars can do when collectively gathered and used solely for the economic development in the Western Provence of Zambia.   In essence teaching them how to 'fish' not just be fed.

It has been said a picture is worth a 1000 words.  But even pictures cannot convey the smells, the sandy grit that covers your feet, the flies on the beautiful faces of the children, the smell of smoke from the grasses that are being burned off, or from the fire outside of the huts cooking the maize, that permeates everything.  So with each blog I will post, the desire is to give you adequate word pictures allowing you to imagine 'you are there'.  A daunting task :). 

Yesterday, I extolled the virtues of the cabbage.  In past blogs I have written about the remote villages we have chosen to work with.  This blog is about miracles and blessings. What my blog and pictures cannot capture is the area surrounding each garden.  With out the wells and the daily attention to watering this is a barren waste land.  The only green for miles, comes from the beautiful gardens our farmers are growing. (or perhaps a green shirt)

The work of Hands of Hope in Zambia for the past 4 years has been under the radar.  We were just another NGO that chose to work in a 'forsaken' desert.  Garden by garden, well by well, school by school, project by project miracles have unfolded. The success of what is happening is becoming known and causing others to take note!  Hands of Hope by the grace of God has taken the proclaimed impossible and seeing the impossible come to life!  

Last year an organization from Europe decided they wanted to partner with us.  They are much older, larger and felt they knew best what we needed to help our farmers. Our farmers crops were producing great vegetables but getting them to the market fresh was impossible.  

The normal method of getting produce to their market, is an oxcart.  Because of the hot sun and the very long distances (10 + miles or more)  their produce wilts and making it harder to sell.  The 'older, larger'  organization that wanted to partner with us and 'help' our farmers was to get a motorized oxcart. (This quite funny to me in that this is an oxymoron - pun intended). We responded with "thank you" but "no thank you".
  
The vision of those over seeing our farmers and business growth for the Western Provence was grand. It seemed liked too grand of a plan for this poor part of the world.   We needed a truck!  We needed a BIG truck.  

Last year 2012 we got the truck!  It was a former military truck.  The really delightful part of the story is that the BIG truck was purchased in another African country.  It was painted camouflage for military purposes.   Our director picked it up and drove it to Mongu.  No one stopped him. Border by border they waved him through with salutes; no stops, no harassment, no fees or taxes to pay, just a clear sailing trip to its new home.   No one messes with the military.

This motorized oxcart has transformed our remote farmers lives.  The word is out! Our cabbages are big, beautiful and fresh!  Those buying them travel a great distance home, so to start out with fresh produce gives them a wonderful edge for coming home with fresh produce.   

Our farmers have secured loans from us.  They are given help in planting and growing their produce.  Wells are part of the package for water is critical in growing crops.  They are learning to make this a business. The success of their hard work and willingness to be taught have paid off on so many levels. Each farmer is charged a small fee for the delivery service and though they have only known the oxcart as transportation for 100's of years, they are experiencing the blessings of this awesome gift - The Motorized Oxcart.  

This big green truck has caused a 'stir' among other farmers who previously were sought out as first choice providers. Our farmers can now compete.  Our remote, out of the way farmers are now in the game and winning.  Their lives are changing. Their produce is the best.

 Just after our return home to the states we were told that the other farmers who had been 'trumped '  by our farmers are asking how they can be part of the produce pick up.  I do not know how this will play out but God took the impossible and made it possible, the least likely people to succeed are!  

Vicky Wauterlek enjoying the success of the Big Green Motorized Oxcart.