My sincerest thanks

Thank you! Thank you to all our supporters whose gifts make mission trips like this possible. And especially, thank you to everyone for your prayers. They were answered with abundance – I stayed healthy, travels went well (if you land safely somewhat around the planned time and your luggage shows up on the carousel, it has been a good trip!!), and all of the projects in both France and Zambia were even more successful than I had hoped for. A lot got done in a very concentrated lapse of time. Your partnership has been appreciated. Thank you. And, please do continue to pray for the outreach of God’s people in France, in Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean as the Lord brings them to mind. I hope that through these updates these people now feel a little more like members of the same Body to you – after all, they are!

Out of Africa!

Monday, Feb. 8 –

The day we leave Zambia is the only day without rain. In fact, the sky is perfectly clear, and the weather is sunny and breezy – actually rather hot. Those of us flying back to France left Lusaka at 1:30 pm for Johannesburg. I had a window seat. I could see the African landscape glide by under the wing: alternating patches of green and reddish brown appear on the terrain that rises and falls; muddy-looking rivers snake across the land; no roads are visible except in one area that appears more developed; we cross an enormous lake – probably on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe (it is on the river that forms Victoria Falls); one area looks like it is totally deforested with squares of bare ground … It is really rather hard to learn much about a country from an airplane. At that height there is little indication of human presence or activity. It gives no hint of the joy or misery, of the meanness or heroics that could be happening on the ground so far below.

After a layover of a few hours in Johannesburg, we left Africa via another overnight flight from Johannesburg to Paris. We landed in Paris at 6 a.m. It was pitch dark, 32°F., with a cold, misty rain falling. Welcome back to winter!! I’m glad I kept my coat in my carry-on because I needed to pull it on when we were transferred to our flight to Montpellier via bus. Brrrrrr!

Frigid weather has not spared Southern France this winter. The area is experiencing some exceptionally rigorous cold and snow similar to the East coast in the USA – although the amount of snow that has fallen is minimal in comparison. I spent nearly 3 days in Montpellier, welcomed by one of the French pastors that had been a close collaborator during our time here. In spite of the weather, it was great fun to get back to “our old stomping ground” for a few days and all the places that are so familiar. I took care of a few administrative questions left over from our move last summer, visited some friends, and took advantage of an Internet connection to update this blog. I then went to Aix en Provence for a last meeting, this time at the seminary where I was a member of the board of directors for many years. After the Sunday service in the historic Reformed Evangelical Church in the center of the city (a plaque on the wall commemorates a letter of encouragement that John Calvin sent this congregation during the years of persecution), it is time to close the suitcase one last time and head back to the USA.

Thank you for accompanying me on this journey. I do hope that you have enjoyed your virtual visit to Zambia and France through the eyes and words of this “interpreter”.

Back to the capital

Farewell to Kabwe. After an early lunch, we got back in the UCZ’s minibus (sticker on the rearview mirror: Don’t rush – Jesus traveled by a donkey) and took the 2 ½ hour drive back to Lusaka. This time the weather was clear and I was awake so I could appreciate the scene along the road and the variety in the countryside. Central District where Kabwe is located is very poor. The people are obviously on a subsistence level and little of the land is developed. In the neighboring district, there are a number of very large, probably industrial, farms and the economic level is a notch higher. There were some newer housing units and some places had flowers in front of the homes and side roads that were kept up well.

After passing a number of small communities that were just a collection of shabby homes along the road, it was clear when we started getting near Lusaka. There began to be buildings and people and cars and trucks and little blue-and-white buses everywhere. The buildings and gardens became bigger and more elegant. And, we rediscovered traffic lights and billboards.
We are housed for our last night in Zambia in a Catholic guest house. The facilities are lovely with manicured landscaping and comfortable rooms. But, the food and service are not the same quality. For that we miss the UCZ’s Diakonia Center in Kabwe.

Since we arrived in Lusaka early in the afternoon, our hosts from the Zambian church offered to drive us to a shopping center that has a traditional African market on the premises. We spend 2 hours browsing and buying in the stalls of beautifully done crafts, jewelry, carvings, and the most splendidly colored cloth items. This shopping trip was the first time I have gotten uncomfortably hot since arriving. Here in Lusaka today it feels like summer.

Sunday in the local church

Ah! Sunday was the day I was waiting for. We were going to attend a service of the United Church of Zambia in Kabwe. Another heavy rain shower started at 6:45 am. This meant the bus was late coming to pick us up for the 8 am service. When we got there – all rather wet – the service had started and the lay leader was saying a prayer of confession that was a complete presentation of the Gospel. The building was packed, with people in the vestibule. They had saved places for us in the first row. I was in the chancel with the Cevaa General Secretary and President since I would be interpreting for the sermon. I found out after the service that, because of the heavy rain that morning, there were only about half as many people in attendance as there usually are. On a normal Sunday the courtyard outside the church is also full and people follow the service on loudspeakers.

An elder gave 30 mn of announcements. Taking so much time was necessary because the parish is divided into 15 sectors and there were announcements of activities for each sector as well as for the youth and women. In addition he recognized all visitors and people moving into Kabwe, everyone who was going to be traveling and leaving Kabwe, read a list of the sick, and gave information on the special activities that had been held the previous week (including all the winners and prizes won at a fund-raising drawing held by one of the church organizations!) The introductions of everyone involved in our seminar came at this time. The UCZ General Secretary again gave me some very generous compliments.

The church service was in English. There are 72 different languages in Zambia, and Kabwe is a large enough center that people come there from all over the country. So, English is the language they all can understand. There is a second service later in the morning that uses the local language. There were 2 choirs that sang during the offering time. The first sang in a local language with a very “African” style. I took a short video of this group. The other choir sang in English in the style of an American choir, with 4-part harmony, different voices coming in at different times, and metered rhythm.

The Cevaa president from French Polynesia preached the sermon on Luke 5:1-11 and I interpreted for him. After the service, all the Cevaa representatives exited first and, since the rain had stopped, lined up outside the church. The whole congregation came and greeted us one by one, in a line: “good morning”, “welcome”, “bless you”, “journey mercies”… Most of them shook hands, and a few gave the 3-part African handshake: handshake, grip thumbs, handshake.

The women’s group then invited us into the church hall where they had prepared hot drinks and some lovely little cakes. The first thing we all did was line up to have our hands washed as one of the women poured warm water over them. After a couple of hundred handshakes, we appreciated their thoughtfulness!

visit to the town of Kabwe

The seminar work finished on Friday afternoon so Saturday was a free day. We all climbed into one of the local blue and white minibuses that make up the transportation system and spent a couple of hours in Kabwe. This was the first morning that it didn’t rain at all so we were able to wander around freely. People, people, people everywhere – crowding the sidewalks, standing in lines, gathered at the open market, walking down the sides of the street. My first problem was that of knowing how to cross a street. Traffic comes first from the right and then from the left – and my intuition is to first look left, then right. I had to hop out of the way of a small truck turning into my lane from the right as I was just stepping off the sidewalk!

The Zambians are respectful and friendly. I, as the only white woman wandering around town, obviously felt that I stood out. There were a couple of merchants that would call out “Madam, Madam!” as I walked by, but there were no “beggars” and I was never hustled. Three little girls about 7 to 10 asked me to take their picture when they saw my camera. After I took it, I showed it to them and they were pleased, but didn’t ask for money.

There were several of us walking around together, I being the only white person. Near the market one man asked me if we were with the government or something. When I told him we were with the United Church of Zambia, he immediately relaxed and his attitude changed to one of welcome. One of the men selling vegetables asked who we were, wandering around like that! When I said we were with the UCZ, he pointed to his partner and said, “he is a UCZ member”. The partner and I then chatted for a few minutes. The UCZ is an institution in this country and apparently commands much respect. For me this morning, pronouncing the name of the church was like having access to a “magic word” that opened friendly conversation with total strangers. There are several churches in Kabwe. Just in the little we have moved around the area we saw a Presbyterian Church, an Independent Baptist Church, an Anglican Church, and a Seventh Day Adventist Church. There are probably others as well.

Generosity

The Zambian church members worked so hard to welcome us and make sure that the seminar functioned well. Then, after the closing worship service on Friday afternoon, they were thanking us for honoring them by coming. They had even prepared individual gifts for each of us. They presented them one by one to the administrative leaders who came, the delegates from each church, “and last but not least, to the lady without whom this would not have been possible: our translator, Diane, who built bridges between us.” We each received a typical Zambian cloth wall hanging and a clock set in a metal base in the shape of the country of Zambia. They will be wonderful souvenirs of a wonderful people! I am always a bit embarrassed by these closing ceremonies because everywhere I have been, the third-world people come with gifts for everyone. It is usually something representing a craft from their country. I never know what to bring from the USA that would represent the same level of artistry and craftsmanship. The things the USA is known for – think, Coca-Cola – just somehow don’t seem quite appropriate in these circumstances.

Big questions, and, life doesn't stop

The subject of Migration is one that concerns all of the Cevaa member Churches, whether it is South to North migration, or South to South migration. Some countries are losing their young people to migration (usually illegal), while others are having migrant populations that either pass through their country or try to settle there. From my contacts with the Cevaa in recent years, I was familiar with what some of the churches are doing to carry out a ministry of helping the “weak and wounded” in this area. So, I was taken totally by surprise when the subject came up here and it was said strongly that the immigration problem that these African and island countries are now facing is from the Chinese! For most of them, the problem is with Chinese companies that are moving into their countries and bringing in Chinese workers instead of hiring local labor, as well as taking over some traditional forms of small business. So, this is a problem of "elite" migration rather than poverty-based migration. Going into Kabwe we drove by a textile factory that had been a Zambian-Chinese joint venture. It was enormous. Only, now it is closed and the work is gone. The Chinese are not appreciated here right now. Welcome to one of the downsides of the new globalization!

Packed into the 5 days of this seminar were the high’s and low’s of life. Four of the people here celebrated their birthday this week. Each one was a time of light and happy bantering. But, the day of his birthday, one of the men that had flown with us from Montpellier got a call from his doctor that he must return to France immediately since a blood test he had taken last Friday showed a very serious condition that must not wait for his normal return. On Thursday one of the delegates from Mozambique was feeling ill and saw a local doctor for treatment – something which is always distressing in a country and a language that are foreign to you. He received medication that helped him recover quickly. Then, we had just returned from the festive evening at the restaurant when the head bishop of the Zambian church learned that a young sister-in-law died suddenly that evening right here in Kabwe. She had just left her 13-year old son at a boarding school here when she collapsed and died. Quite a shock for the bishop and great sadness for all of us. The same evening, we learned on tv news that a cyclone was bearing down on French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean. The Cevaa president from Tahiti is here with us and went through a worried 24 hours trying to get in touch with his family back home. We were all relieved to learn that the cyclone had not hit any of the major islands and that all of the president’s family was safe. Our morning Bible studies for those two days were from Jeremiah 20 and Job 1. We had the feeling we were experiencing immediate practical application of what we were reading in God’s Word. Life doesn’t take a break, even for important seminars.

My responsibilities

Interpretation is something I enjoy very much. This is a small group of around 15 people at the seminar. All of the French speakers except one are bilingual and understand English (and some know multiple languages), so my translation is mainly from French into English. I am interpreting for 6 people. For a small number such as this, we do not have earphones and other equipment. So, the group for which I am interpreting sits closely around me in order to hear. The difficulty comes from the fact that all the English speakers have a different accent. I am the only one for whom English is my mother tongue. For all the others, their mother tongue is a tribal language and English is an acquired language. So, we all have to adapt to the way each one speaks. Sometimes it takes quite an effort to understand what is being said even though the person is using English. And I am sure that they are doing the same when listening to my strange version of English, which is neither British-based nor has the tonality of a tribal language. I try to speak slowly and to carefully pronounce all the consonants – which we do not normally do in American English!

Hmm -- I think I prefer the rain!

We had two afternoons in a row with clear skies and sunshine. I decided that maybe the rain was preferable because when the rain stops the bugs come out! The first clear afternoon, ants took over the floor of our meeting room. I guess they hadn’t been able to get out and look for food for several days during the rain and were all out scouting. That evening we also had the first mosquito in our studio apartment – fortunately there was only one and I was able to swat it. But, I did more carefully tuck in the edges of my mosquito net when going to bed that night. After all, this is a malaria region. On the evenings that it wasn’t raining, someone would come by our studio apartment and spray the bedrooms thoroughly with insecticide about an hour before we went to bed.

our brothers and sisters in service

Churches:
The people at this conference represent churches that are very different in many, many ways. One church consists of one congregation on an island (Mayotte) which is 97% Muslim. Our host church in Zambia counts 3 million members and the church in Madagascar has 5 million. Some are located in heavily Christianized countries, others in countries where the Christian presence is insignificant. Some profit from stable political regimes, others are in a continual state of tension with civil wars and coups d’états. For some, the biggest challenge is HIV-AIDS; for others it is ministry in a Muslim-majority culture. They are here to get to know each other’s situations better and to define areas in which they can share resources, experiences, and help each other. The following are some quick looks at these churches and how they live out their faith.

Lesotho –
Lesotho is a small, mountainous country completely surrounded by South Africa. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, they call themselves “the heart of S. Africa”. Their large neighbor does, in fact, depend on them because all the water in South Africa has its source in the mountains of Lesotho.
Lesotho has been called “the Switzerland of Africa”. It has breathtaking mountain perspectives. Because of its localization, it is neither too hot in the summer nor too cold in the winter. It doesn’t have to worry about earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, floods, or droughts (the people from Lesotho see weather as one of the “violence factors” in the USA!). Anyone up for a ski trip to the mountains of Lesotho?
In the 1800’s the king of Lesotho was tired of conflict. He so wanted to find a bloodless way to bring peace to his country. Hunters from his country met hunters from a country further north and brought one of them back home with them. When the king spoke of his desire for peace, this hunter said there were people who could bring peace to a country without bloodshed. They were the missionaries that were first coming to Africa. The king learned that missionaries from France had landed in South Africa with the intention of settling in Rhodesia (now Zambia). The king gathered 200 cows to take to the missionaries to try to convince them to come to his kingdom instead. The cows were all stolen on the way, but the messengers continued until they found the Frenchmen and succeeded in convincing them to accept the king’s invitation. This was the introduction of Christianity in Lesotho. One of the missionaries, Eugene Casalis, served as the king’s personal counselor. He also produced the written form of their language. When European countries began dividing up Africa, Mr. Casalis counseled the king to make a treaty with the British, who were Protestants, rather than the French who were Catholics and less accommodating to Protestant missions and churches. This explains why the church in Lesotho is still part of a French reformed mission organization even though it is in an English-speaking country.
The church in Lesotho faces some huge challenges. HIV-AIDS has devastated the population. This means that an isolated and fragmented population is further weakened, and there is great poverty. Working along with the government and international non-governmental organizations, the church has long-term projects in AIDS prevention and care. This is part of pastoral ministry. The church runs dozens of schools throughout the country and has three hospitals. It is also involved in reforestation and farming projects in order to protect fragile resources and help people produce their own food. They have their own radio station and are now working on getting national coverage. It will then be more effective in evangelization as well as in disseminating HIV-AIDS prevention information. The church is present in all aspects of society.

Mozambique –
This Portuguese –speaking country is one of the largest in Africa (around 1200 mi wide), located on its eastern shore. After its independence from Portugal in 1975, the country had a Marxist government that made life for the church extremely difficult. Most church property, its schools, its hospitals, etc. were taken over by the government. That situation started to change in the 1990’s. Now the government is looking to Christian organizations for help and has actually invited missionaries into the country. However, the church is very weak and is struggling to rebuild. This does not prevent it from trying to meet the needs of the people. In contrast to Lesotho, Mozambique suffers from multiple kinds of natural disasters: recurring cyclones, floods, and droughts – which keep the people in a constant state of poverty. Now HIV-AIDS is added to the mix. One of the church’s projects is to have “family training” for the generation of young adults that were born after 1975 and had no Christian or family-living training. These adults are now in their 30’s and taking on responsibilities in society. This is an important need that has been identified by the church. Because of the devastating effects of recurring natural disasters, they are also very concerned about climate change (which increases the intensity of storms) and how they can help the people prepare for these situations.

Madagascar –
Madagascar is a very poor country, but the church there is very large and influential. This influence has recently created difficulties for it. The elected president of the country was accused of mismanagement and disposed in a contested popular coup last year. The ousted president was an important member of the protestant church, actually serving as its vice-president. The man who installed himself as president after the coup is a Catholic. The situation remains unstable. It was used politically to discredit the protestant church and the church is now working along with other Christian groups on the island to try to have a unified, politically neutral voice in the conflict, demanding that justice be carried out. In the meantime there is unrest and an increase in criminality that is perturbing the church’s ministries. They need much humility and wisdom in knowing how to use their size and influence to advance the Kingdom of God and not just the interests of one political position.

Reunion Island –
This island is a little piece of France in the Indian Ocean. It is a French “department” and functions just as any other part of France. It has the French educational system, laws, medical system, etc. – because it is part of France. The island was originally settled by Europeans who brought in slaves from Africa and Madagascar. After the abolition of slavery, workers also came from India and China. All of these populations are still present in Reunion. On this island which has a strong Catholic majority, the protestant church was “imported” from the Reformed Church of France and still functions as such, even though the largest percentage of the members are from Madagascar. An independent Malagasy church has actually split off from the French church, and a pastor from Madagascar is serving the French church which, until just recently, was a mission extension church. The church has two parishes, one in the capital in the north of the island, and the other in the south.

Mauritius –
This tiny island had a history paralleling that of Reunion until the British won control of Mauritius in a conflict with the French. Mauritius has a natural port which the English wanted to use as a stopping point on their way to India. Because of immigration from India, the population is now 57% Hindu. The Creole population is mostly Roman Catholic. Even though the Presbyterian Church of Mauritius is recognized, along with the Catholics and Anglicans, as one of the island’s historic churches, it is a very small group with only 5 parishes and 5 pastors, some of which are part-time. Its size does not keep it from carrying out some ambitious ministry and training programs. For instance, the church organizes a weekly worship service in the capital for homeless street people and prostitutes. They have a regular attendance of around 150. They also run a pre-school and have a prison ministry. They are in the process of training laypeople in ministry so they can open several new parishes in the next couple of years.

Zambia –
Our host church, the United Church of Zambia, is the daughter of 4 missionary efforts. In the 1800’s four different missionary societies began work in 4 distinct tribal areas: the Scottish Presbyterian Church, the British Methodist church, the London Missionary Society, and the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society whose outreach was an extension of the church it had already founded in Lesotho. Zambia became an independent country in 1964. A few months later, early in 1965, the four missionary churches joined together to form a church that would cover the entire new country. This was the origin of the United Church of Zambia. Today there are around 2300 UCZ congregations regrouping nearly a quarter of the national population. Since there are only 340 ordained pastors for this huge church population, the local functioning depends on a cadre of trained elders. Sixty percent of the population is rural and lives in abject poverty. The church continues to expand through evangelization, but as the church grows, the demands for its ministry and care also grow. It employs around 200 professionals to carry out its programs of mission and evangelism, community development and social services, education (it runs 14 schools), health (it runs 2 hospitals and 2 clinics), and communication. It is always expanding its institutional capacities but, as you can imagine, its financial situation is always precarious. Its biggest problems stem from the overwhelming poverty of the people, most of whom lack basic services. The church is organizing sanitation and water projects in several areas. Human trafficking, malaria prevention, and HIV-AIDS are other challenges they are presently facing. The UCZ is an essential part of the social network of the country. It is both highly committed and highly involved. Because of its wide representation in the population, the government often turns to the church for help in carrying out important projects for bettering the peoples’ lives. I was very impressed by the carefulness and quality of the church’s organization of this seminar.

I learned of 2 rather small needs in the UCZ that some of you may feel called to help with. The UCZ church in Kabwe that we attended on Sunday has a large and active women’s group that carries out various social projects. Since the majority of their women are poor and have no means of transportation except walking, the women’s group has a project for purchasing a minibus to use as transportation. Let me know if you would like to contribute.

The Zambian girl that was in charge of logistics for our seminar is a member of a choir. She asked if I knew of any choir in the US that had choir robes they weren’t using any more. Her choir would be glad to have them. Of course, the cost of sending them would have to be taken into consideration.

Food and drink

It is refreshing to be in a low-trash society! There are no trash cans in the studio where we are staying. There are none in the conference room or the bathrooms. There is one out in the courtyard and, surely, some in the kitchen. But then, there isn’t much of anything to throw away either – except plastic water bottles. And there are a lot of them! We only drink bottled water; I brush my teeth with bottled water. That means that each of us uses 3 or 4 750 ml bottles per day. Cold drinks are only taken from sealed bottles and cans. So they make up the essential part of what is thrown away. For hot drinks, we add boiling water to powdered coffee, tea, or chocolate.

All of our meals are served buffet style. Breakfast consists of cereal (hot or cold, depending on the day), slices of white bread, sausages, bacon, eggs; butter, jam, and peanut butter are available on plates on the tables. Lunch and dinner offerings are similar: soup, white patties made of finely ground maize, rice, potatoes, three different vegetables, and three different meat choices (beef, pork, chicken, or fish in various forms). Once in a while there is a dessert. Other than milk in the morning, there are no dairy products and we haven’t had any fruit. I prefer the meat that has been cooked in a sauce since it is usually tenderer than the individually cooked pieces. The cooked vegetables are wonderful (tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, cabbage, sweet potatoes, carrots, green and yellow beans, sweet potato greens, zucchini…) There is a certain variety and the food at the center is both good and nicely presented.

On Thursday evening the regional synod of the Zambian church (United Church of Zambia – UCZ) treated us all to a meal in a restaurant in Kabwe. The center in which we are meeting is nearly 2 mi out of town, so we had not previously gotten out anywhere. The UCZ pastors working here were invited to the meal, along with the officers of the presbytery and regional synod. Before eating, the chef told us about the various typical local foods being served. It was again served buffet-style by a staff in white uniforms and chef’s bonnets. Some new varieties of fish and meat were offered and a couple new vegetables. I found the cooked pumpkin leaves very good. However, with my taste buds already being challenged by so many new things, I decided to pass on the fried caterpillars. One of the seminar members who ate some reassured me by saying that they were much too salty!

Mutual understanding and, where does the water go?

This seminar groups church representatives from 7 different countries. With those of us traveling here from France, there are 11 different countries represented. This means there are significant cultural differences and different ways of “being Christian” in widely varying contexts. Yet the group is here to see how they can work together. Their main concerns and potential areas of cooperation are in: theological training, women’s and youth programs, interreligious dialogue, advocating for peace, the migration question, and the fight against HIV-AIDS. Of course, the “how-to” of communication underlies all of these subjects.

Discussion in such a varied group is interesting. Each of us obviously understands life based on our culture and its perspective. I was amused to listen to a Frenchman who came from Reunion Island and hear his approach on some issues that was so franco-French! Really now, how much of our way of interpreting the Bible, our way of doing church, and our way of deciding what are important values is based on what our culture has taught us rather than what the Scriptures really mean? Meetings like this, where people of very different backgrounds try to come to decisions, are very valuable. They strip away those cultural tendencies by making each on look at issues through others’ eyes. When listening to the depth and seriousness of Christian commitment in other places in the world, the superficiality of much of Western (and American) “Christianity” shows up glaringly, even those weaknesses of our own circles. Maybe it is time we ask our Christian brothers and sisters from elsewhere how they see us and what they think we could or should do differently. Do you think it would be possible to ask them to counsel us in the choices we have to make? Could their outlook on how Christian belief relates to life help us to see our role in witness and service more honestly and more clearly? Could they help us perceive Christian values we are maybe missing? It seems to me that that kind of outside perspective from genuine believers from “elsewhere” is invaluable. It surely has helped me over the years in refining my thinking.

Tuesday evening there was a tremendous rain that fell for an hour between 5 and 6 pm. It was so strong that we could hardly hear each other around the table. Rainstorms here are not like the ones I know. First of all, there is not a whisper of wind. There is no thunder and lightning (I did hear it thunder once, with a quick storm that came through at noon on Friday). The air is perfectly still and the rain falls straight down. In such a rain, you’d think no one would go outside. To my great surprise, a choir group of 25 young people came into our meeting room during this downpour – many of them carrying lawn chairs and three girls with babies tied onto their backs. A worship service was planned for 6 pm and the choir was to sing. The rest of us thought no one would show up in such a downpour, but there they all were!

Question of the day: where does all the water go? The downpours are impressive and an equally impressive quantity of water must fall. Where does it go? There is still water sitting in potholes and depressions in the courtyard and on the dirt road (the potholes lead to some creative driving!). But the rest is gone. The door of our meeting room is on the level of the courtyard, with no step. In spite of all the heavy rain, none came into the meeting room. So, it must drain away quickly. This afternoon the sky was clear and sunny for a couple of hours, so during our break I walked outside the center a short distance. In spite of steady rain all morning, the middle of the dirt road running past the gate had dried off quite well. Across the road is a garden with furrows between the rows. The furrows held no water. The soil must really act like a sponge to absorb so much water so often.

By the way, the choir was fabulous. I’ve rarely heard such strong, well-harmonized voices. They sang several-part harmonization and appeared to thoroughly enjoy what they were doing. I was impressed. I took a couple of short video clips with my camera, but the sound doesn’t do them justice.

Are we there yet?? - First impressions

Africa is a big continent. We flew overnight for 10 ½ hours, leaving Paris at 7 pm, arriving in Johannesburg, South Africa, the following morning at 6:30 am. During this time we flew back across France, crossed the Mediterranean Sea, flew over the expanses of North Africa and the Sahara Desert, then toward the equator and the countries of equatorial Africa where we passed into summer, continuing further south across central Africa and then down nearly to the tip of southern Africa. I am used to flying overnight in the East-West direction, crossing multiple time zones in the process. This time it was a multi-hour overnight flight North-South, crossing dozens of countries, but only moving one time zone –- South Africa and Zambia are only 1 hour later than Paris. We then got another flight, going 2 hours back north, to Lusaka, Zambia.

By “we”, I am referring to the four of us that traveled together from France. We presented four different passports at border crossings: a colorful collection from Switzerland, Benin, Tahiti, and the USA. Although we lacked an Asian in the group, we were in some aspects the face of modern worldwide Christianity. The people with whom I traveled are the President, General Secretary, and an Executive Secretary of the Cevaa mission organization.

We also moved from winter to the southern summer. When we landed at 6:30 am, the sun was already high in the sky and the temperature was very agreeable. All the capitals of southeast Africa are located at high altitudes. Johannesburg, for example, is on a plateau at 5,750 feet and Lusaka at 3200 feet. This gives very moderate summer temperatures.

Johannesburg was rather dry, but Lusaka is in the summer rain zone. The plane had just taxied to a stop when a heavy rain fell for about 5 mn. The people here say the rain usually starts in December and this year it didn’t start until January, so they are glad for the rain. It doesn’t rain all the time, often there are short, heavy showers, but the most useful object I brought with me is my umbrella. The rain falls quite steadily in the morning, followed by occasional showers mixed with sunshine during the afternoon. What surprises someone from the northern hemisphere is that the rain is WARM, so it doesn’t matter as much if it falls on you or not. The main inconvenience is that whatever is not paved quickly turns to mud. There were few sidewalks in much of Lusaka, so the side paths were now paths of red mud. There are parts of the country that are totally inaccessible during the rainy season because any side road that is not hardened quickly turns to deep mud. All this makes it surprising that the church conference Centre where we are meeting is so impeccably clean! Young women in attractive blue uniforms are continually wielding mops to clean off terraces, entryways, and floors. The cleanliness is impressive.

After landing at Lusaka International Airport and paying for our entry visas (“in US dollars, please”), we met up with other members of the group that had arrived earlier and were all treated to a meal at an Indian restaurant. That was the first indication of Africa’s multiculturalism. As the bus made its way through the streets of the capital, I saw signs that a street renovation project was sponsored by the Japanese. Further on, all the signs around a construction area were in Chinese, with a placard indicating that this project was sponsored by Taiwan. (More later on the Africans’ feelings about the Chinese)

One of the first surprises was that Zambia uses the British system of driving – vehicles drive on the left side of the road – another reason to be glad I don’t have to drive myself anywhere.

This part of Zambia may be at a relatively high elevation, but it is not mountainous. On the 2 ½ hour bus ride from Lusaka to Kabwe, we crossed a flat plain dotted with grass and trees, some densely packed, others quite scattered. In just a couple of places we drove past big fields of maize or soybeans. I didn’t see any animals of any kind anywhere along the route, not even a dog.

The road was nearly perfectly straight. Several times we went over a series of 5 speed bumps to slow down traffic, and we drove by 3 police checkpoints where we were waved through. When I asked, the lady beside me said these were used to find drivers that were on the road without a drivers’ license and to verify other legal papers.

The thing that impressed me about the road were the number of people that were walking along it, everywhere, not just in the cities. There were groups of schoolchildren in their uniforms, groups of young men, some families, women with children… But, for the whole 2-hour ride, it was only in the most isolated places where there were not people walking on the apron alongside the road. For the most part, the homes along the road consisted of a one-room square made out of cement blocks with a corrugated tin roof. In a few places, I also saw groups of round, stucco-like huts with thatched roofs. An alignment of numerous one-room square buildings would appear from time to time with colorful signs painted on the fronts – the shopping center! Otherwise, we went through no “towns” as such for the 100 km (60 mi) drive.

We had wondered ahead of time if we would have Internet access at the Centre. As it turns out, we are fortunate when the electricity stays on. The bus arrived at the Centre around 6:30 pm on Monday Feb. 1, as night was falling. The person in charge then started a generator so they would have lights allowing us to check into our rooms and eat supper. I got up in the middle of the night and found the lights were off again. The generator must have been turned off. The electricity came back on, without the generator, around 7 am. For the first few days, there was some period every day, usually during the morning, when we were without electricity. The Zambian bishop explained to me that these blackouts are voluntary. There is not enough energy and infrastructure to provide electricity to the whole country at the same time, so there are regular rolling blackouts. And I was thinking there might be Internet! Everyone communicates via cell phone. Land lines are hard to install so everyone jumped directly to cell phones, which seem to work well.

The conference center we are staying in - Diakonia - can handle quite a few people. Housing is in a series of “flats” consisting of a living room, bathroom and two or three bedrooms. Each bedroom has 2 single beds. There are 12 flats in all, in addition to housing for the personnel. The dining room has tables set up for 48. All of this is found in one large U-shaped unit that is quite spread out. The conference room is in the center of the “U”. A team of young women clean all of our apartments every day, as well as the meeting room, reception, offices and other buildings. There are two young men that work in the reception office and several people for cooking and serving the meals. It is clear that this Center offers employment to young people from the town.

I'm back!!

I’m back – in France. I arrived early this morning. There was no Internet access at the church conference center where we were meeting, well away from the capital of Zambia. I made notes during my stay there and will start posting them now. They will appear in the form I wrote them during the week. My stay in Zambia was great and the people there were wonderful! I hope you enjoy learning about them over the next few days in the following postings.