We received a telephone call yesterday morning at five to six from Ruairidh telling us that Fiona had safely delivered by caesarean section a little girl. We are delighted to have our first grandchild and are grateful that all is well with both Fiona and Lucy
Later in the day Ruairidh sent this email to family and friends:
Dear Everyone,
Just a quick note to let you all know that God has blessed Fiona and me with a beautiful baby girl.
Lucy Sepo (Hope) Waddell. Born: 25th February, 2010 (1345 Adelaide Time) Port Lincoln Hospital, South Australia. Weight: 7lb 1oz. Length: 49cm.
Mum and Baby are both fine and doing well. We would like to thank you all for the help, kindness and prayer directed towards us, we have greatly appreciated it and are so blessed by it.
Take care
Love to you all
Ruairidh, Fiona and Lucy
xx
Friday, 26 February 2010
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
UCZ Mwandi High School
After 3 years of pushing and patiently waiting, the High School opened on Monday for lessons. Last week registration took place and we now have our complement of 43 girls and 41 boys (2 Day Classes) plus a class of ‘externals’ who will attend afternoon lessons. The cost is K170 000 per term about GBP25 and GBP30 for the externals, similar to what is being charged by the other High Schools in the District for Day Tuition.
As I taught my first lesson to Grade 10A on Monday, History –“ Bantu Migrations before 1800”, I was thinking a more appropriate local history lesson might have been “Mwandi Children’s High School Peregrinations before 2010”!
If children were fortunate enough to have parents who could afford it or could find sponsors for a variety of reasons, the three main options were 70 km away to the west at Sesheke, 120km in the bush to the north at the RC Mission at Sichile or Livingstone 140km to the east. Many of the better-off Civil Servants based at Mwandi sent their children to Mission Boarding schools in Southern Province, Lusaka or even further afield as there were few places and schools available in Western Province.
Some of the other educational statistics for this year are encouraging. For the first time in many years, the Western Province Grade 9 Examination results were higher than the National Average: 54.3% to 51.96%. All girl pupils who passed were also offered places in Grade 10. On the other hand in 2009 there were only 22 High Schools to serve a population of over 800 000. The termly grant allocated by the Province to each High School was also below average in comparison with other Provinces.
We offer at present these subjects: English, RE, Geography, History, Silozi, Mathematics, Biology, Science, Civics. We are at present using 2 of the classrooms, the third is still being used as a store by the builders of the second classroom block and we are using the presently-unused second laboratory as an administration building.
The community last weekend helped to dig two emergency latrines while the more permanent structures are being built. The pit for the first double one has been dug and the bricks are now being moulded. We are unable to make use of the borehole well that has been sunk as the parts are not available in Zambia and have to be imported from India! The teachers have also approached the local MP to see if the school could qualify for help as part of the rural electrification scheme. Electricity and running water would make our lives and those of the pupils and builders so much better and easier.
We have also spent time on other matters as important in their own ways as the infrastructure. A Code of Conduct for the pupils has been drafted and approved, the uniform –maroon shirts and blouses and black skirts or trousers for the day pupils and green blouses and shirts for the externals have been chosen.
Time was also taken to design a badge and motto. The blazon is gyronny argent and gules: in other words, a skewed to the right red maltese cross on a white background in an African shield. Red and white are the Lozi colours but also liturgically they stand for the Holy Spirit and the redemptive work of the Church. The arms of the cross are also like rays of light, the light and life we receive from Christ.
Superimposed on this is the Ichthus symbol, appropriate as both a symbol for Christianity and Mwandi. Mwandi means the fishing place and ICHTHUS the Greek acrostic is also a good reminder of who Jesus is and what he did for us. Underneath is the Motto: Mamonyi Aman’ata, Liseli Lililin’wi (Many lamps, one light)
A High School should disseminate light. God’s revelation is often portrayed as light or illumination. Each individual lamp contributes to the one light as witnesses to that light. It also points to the individual pupils with their individual and their collective identity as part of the school. Finally the motto also speaks of the many different parts of the Body that have contributed to the building of this school to God’s glory.
As I taught my first lesson to Grade 10A on Monday, History –“ Bantu Migrations before 1800”, I was thinking a more appropriate local history lesson might have been “Mwandi Children’s High School Peregrinations before 2010”!
If children were fortunate enough to have parents who could afford it or could find sponsors for a variety of reasons, the three main options were 70 km away to the west at Sesheke, 120km in the bush to the north at the RC Mission at Sichile or Livingstone 140km to the east. Many of the better-off Civil Servants based at Mwandi sent their children to Mission Boarding schools in Southern Province, Lusaka or even further afield as there were few places and schools available in Western Province.
Some of the other educational statistics for this year are encouraging. For the first time in many years, the Western Province Grade 9 Examination results were higher than the National Average: 54.3% to 51.96%. All girl pupils who passed were also offered places in Grade 10. On the other hand in 2009 there were only 22 High Schools to serve a population of over 800 000. The termly grant allocated by the Province to each High School was also below average in comparison with other Provinces.
We offer at present these subjects: English, RE, Geography, History, Silozi, Mathematics, Biology, Science, Civics. We are at present using 2 of the classrooms, the third is still being used as a store by the builders of the second classroom block and we are using the presently-unused second laboratory as an administration building.
The community last weekend helped to dig two emergency latrines while the more permanent structures are being built. The pit for the first double one has been dug and the bricks are now being moulded. We are unable to make use of the borehole well that has been sunk as the parts are not available in Zambia and have to be imported from India! The teachers have also approached the local MP to see if the school could qualify for help as part of the rural electrification scheme. Electricity and running water would make our lives and those of the pupils and builders so much better and easier.
We have also spent time on other matters as important in their own ways as the infrastructure. A Code of Conduct for the pupils has been drafted and approved, the uniform –maroon shirts and blouses and black skirts or trousers for the day pupils and green blouses and shirts for the externals have been chosen.
Time was also taken to design a badge and motto. The blazon is gyronny argent and gules: in other words, a skewed to the right red maltese cross on a white background in an African shield. Red and white are the Lozi colours but also liturgically they stand for the Holy Spirit and the redemptive work of the Church. The arms of the cross are also like rays of light, the light and life we receive from Christ.
Superimposed on this is the Ichthus symbol, appropriate as both a symbol for Christianity and Mwandi. Mwandi means the fishing place and ICHTHUS the Greek acrostic is also a good reminder of who Jesus is and what he did for us. Underneath is the Motto: Mamonyi Aman’ata, Liseli Lililin’wi (Many lamps, one light)
A High School should disseminate light. God’s revelation is often portrayed as light or illumination. Each individual lamp contributes to the one light as witnesses to that light. It also points to the individual pupils with their individual and their collective identity as part of the school. Finally the motto also speaks of the many different parts of the Body that have contributed to the building of this school to God’s glory.
Friday, 5 February 2010
Mene Mene Tekels and Parsins
Our first visitor each morning usually calls at around 7 hours. It is Julius, the cheery cook and purchaser from Kandiana, the old folks’ home. He comes with a list of what he wants to buy. Today it is dried fish. Fresh fish is not available at the moment. There is a two-month ban on catching over the breeding season. The dry fish will be simmered and reconstituted in water to make a stew. Onion, tomato and cabbage are needed to make a vegetable relish. A case of cooking oil for frying and a case of sugar, mostly used to sweeten tea and the cold nshima* and sour milk pudding that is regularly eaten are also on the list. Money for firewood was also requested and some money to buy some spare parts for his bicycle. Julius uses his bike to transport the maize, meal and all the other purchases. It is quite a work horse and has seen better days.
The Government allocates K2m per month to feed the residents GBP 285. There are approximately 7000 Kwacha to the Pound at the moment. That works out at 60p per day. The fish costs K100,000 about GBP15 and that does two meals for 16 people. The vegetables cost K70,000 around GBP10 and lasts the same length of time A case of cooking oil 12 x 750ml bottles and 20kg sugar costs around GBP30. That lasts about a month. Firewood costs K30,000 GBP5 for a scotch-cart load (sic). Generally two are needed each month. All cooking is done over an open fire.
The 16 residents, 12 men and 4 women, are looked after well in comparison to other destitute and vulnerable old people who are increasingly being left to ‘the care o the craws’ as HIV and Aids takes its toll on the traditional extended family care structure. The Church of Scotland helps by giving towards the salary of Catherine, a UCZ WCF member, who works as a more than full-time carer. Churches in Scotland and the US also contribute to giving the residents a monthly bag of necessities to top them up and allow them a bit of independence.
After signing for the money for today’s shopping list, Julius and Keith then make sure that the receipts from yesterday’s purchases match the list of requests and the account balances.
Yesterday, 20 ‘sacks’ of maize were bought for K1,100,000 and the Reverend Silishebo asked me to check this out with Julius. It is cheaper and better for the local economy at this time of year to buy maize and mill it at the hospital rather than buying commercially produced mealie-meal to make the staple - thick maize porridge called nshima* in Zambian English and buhobe in Silozi.
We entered the store-room and there was a chaotically untidy stack of bags of assorted sizes and colours, holding the purchased maize. I counted the ‘new’ bags and my heart sank as I counted only 13 ‘sacks’. There were two extremely long ones which would hold about 90kg each I guessed.
So before I tried again, I asked Julius if he knew what the total weight was? No, he replied, they used a bucket to measure, and he pointed to the old-fashioned galvanized ‘Oor Wullie’ bucket standing in the corner. This is the standard measure for maize in rural Zambia. These buckets are ubiquitous, most households still use one to lug water around in, so the bucket makes more sense to people here than stones, kilos or bushels. It is only Government officials and over-specific Westerners who bother about the exact mass of anything. Very few people have scales, Weights and Measures staff who check calibration are few and only found in the urban areas. Various sized containers are used to measure different things for sale. For example, tins are often used to sell beans and kapenta * like dried whitebait, tomatoes are bought by the crate and dried fish by the negotiable bundle! So there are conventional and socially-agreed standard measures and prices for most commodities on sale at the markets, but don’t expect scales or many pre-packed and priced goods from the stalls.
Some quick mental Arithmetic was required. There were 8 sacks holding 4 ½ buckets, 2 sacks holding 10 buckets each and 2 sacks of 3 buckets plus the sack of 3 buckets he had milled earlier this morning. This gave a total of 62 buckets. I then used long division - no calculator was available - to calculate the cost of a bucket. This is one of the few times I’ve needed to use this practically, after all the blood, sweat and tears spilled in Primary 6 & 7! The multiplying and dividing brought me back to all those Wheaton’s Arithmetic’s Social and Commercial Problems we ploughed through!
Anyway, it worked out that we paid almost K17,750 per bucket. We got discount apparently for a bulk order as the going rate at Mwandi Market is K20,000 per bucket.
And no, I still don’t know the weight of a bucket of maize because I don’t really need to know. A bucket of maize weighs a bucket of maize!
The Government allocates K2m per month to feed the residents GBP 285. There are approximately 7000 Kwacha to the Pound at the moment. That works out at 60p per day. The fish costs K100,000 about GBP15 and that does two meals for 16 people. The vegetables cost K70,000 around GBP10 and lasts the same length of time A case of cooking oil 12 x 750ml bottles and 20kg sugar costs around GBP30. That lasts about a month. Firewood costs K30,000 GBP5 for a scotch-cart load (sic). Generally two are needed each month. All cooking is done over an open fire.
The 16 residents, 12 men and 4 women, are looked after well in comparison to other destitute and vulnerable old people who are increasingly being left to ‘the care o the craws’ as HIV and Aids takes its toll on the traditional extended family care structure. The Church of Scotland helps by giving towards the salary of Catherine, a UCZ WCF member, who works as a more than full-time carer. Churches in Scotland and the US also contribute to giving the residents a monthly bag of necessities to top them up and allow them a bit of independence.
After signing for the money for today’s shopping list, Julius and Keith then make sure that the receipts from yesterday’s purchases match the list of requests and the account balances.
Yesterday, 20 ‘sacks’ of maize were bought for K1,100,000 and the Reverend Silishebo asked me to check this out with Julius. It is cheaper and better for the local economy at this time of year to buy maize and mill it at the hospital rather than buying commercially produced mealie-meal to make the staple - thick maize porridge called nshima* in Zambian English and buhobe in Silozi.
We entered the store-room and there was a chaotically untidy stack of bags of assorted sizes and colours, holding the purchased maize. I counted the ‘new’ bags and my heart sank as I counted only 13 ‘sacks’. There were two extremely long ones which would hold about 90kg each I guessed.
So before I tried again, I asked Julius if he knew what the total weight was? No, he replied, they used a bucket to measure, and he pointed to the old-fashioned galvanized ‘Oor Wullie’ bucket standing in the corner. This is the standard measure for maize in rural Zambia. These buckets are ubiquitous, most households still use one to lug water around in, so the bucket makes more sense to people here than stones, kilos or bushels. It is only Government officials and over-specific Westerners who bother about the exact mass of anything. Very few people have scales, Weights and Measures staff who check calibration are few and only found in the urban areas. Various sized containers are used to measure different things for sale. For example, tins are often used to sell beans and kapenta * like dried whitebait, tomatoes are bought by the crate and dried fish by the negotiable bundle! So there are conventional and socially-agreed standard measures and prices for most commodities on sale at the markets, but don’t expect scales or many pre-packed and priced goods from the stalls.
Some quick mental Arithmetic was required. There were 8 sacks holding 4 ½ buckets, 2 sacks holding 10 buckets each and 2 sacks of 3 buckets plus the sack of 3 buckets he had milled earlier this morning. This gave a total of 62 buckets. I then used long division - no calculator was available - to calculate the cost of a bucket. This is one of the few times I’ve needed to use this practically, after all the blood, sweat and tears spilled in Primary 6 & 7! The multiplying and dividing brought me back to all those Wheaton’s Arithmetic’s Social and Commercial Problems we ploughed through!
Anyway, it worked out that we paid almost K17,750 per bucket. We got discount apparently for a bulk order as the going rate at Mwandi Market is K20,000 per bucket.
And no, I still don’t know the weight of a bucket of maize because I don’t really need to know. A bucket of maize weighs a bucket of maize!
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