Church and State

On Sunday we visited Mabumbu Church, a bush congregation about 25km from Mwandi. The Church is another traditional daub and wattle and thatched affair. We went with Dorothy, the Consistory Chair for the Woman’s Christian Fellowship. Ida was preaching, it was Mothering Sunday and she talked about Women in the Life and Teachings of Jesus (Gen 1:27 & Mark 16:9). She closed by exhorting the men to love their wives as Jesus loves the Church and to encourage and help their wives to participate fully in ministry throughout the Church. This was met by a loud and heartfelt 'AMEN!' - from the women’s side of the Church!

We were invited to lunch in the vestry afterwards. Another traditional building with sacks and buckets of maize stacked around the walls. It had been Harvest Thanksgiving last week and from the amount that has been offered it is clear that there has been a good harvest this year. The meal was village roasted chicken, kail and inshima, followed by sour-milk, the leftover inshima and sugar mixed together to make a favourite Lozi pudding. It is an acquired taste admittedly but nonetheless we enjoyed wonderful hospitality. We were sent on our way spiritually and physically fed and with the gift of a pumpkin as well.

Such generosity from some the most materially poor of this earth, but some of the richest spiritually.

As regards school the most recent pre-occupation has been the preparations for building the next 1x3 classroomblock for the High School under construction and funded by CEVAA, the French Church. Work should start on that next week, as we will sign the contract with the builder on Wednesday. Through the help of Synod we have procured the cement at factory prices and minus VAT which has helped to reduce our costs.

Last Friday there was the trip to the quarry to order the 30m3 of crushed stones for the foundations and slab. This was paid for with a brick of cash withdrawn from Livingstone the day before. There is not a stone to be found at Mwandi and nothing between Kazungula and Sesheke. The quarry is 87km away from the school and the cost of the fuel to transport the load is twice as much as the cost of the stones! On the other hand builder’s sand is much less of a problem in Mwandi!

The investigations at the Ministry of Health rumble on with more arrests and court appearances. Both the teachers and nurses nationwide have been on strike in a pay dispute. The staff at our Hospital and School continued to work. While they supported the actions of their colleagues in the urban areas because of the greater effect industrial action taken there would have, they felt striking here would only harm our people.

The Hospital itself continues to survive financially by the Grace of God. There has been no Government Grant for the Hospital since April, but by careful stewardship and eking out our meagre resources we have managed to run the hospital, feed our patients and run the ambulance up until now. In these financially straitened circumstances the Hospital is gratefully accepting payment in kind from patients: maize, beans, chickens, etc.