SEFULA 2013 – MCF (WP) Annual Conference

Those of us from the area going to the Men’s Christian Fellowship held this year at Sefula met in Sesheke on Thursday morning last week at the UCZ Church. We departed from there after sharing a late breakfast of Coke and Tennis biscuits at a church member’s shop beside the market, whilst the vehicles were fuelled and we waited for the bus and the Minister from Livingstone. Sefula is about 300km away and our convoy of 3 cars rolled onto the M10 just after 11am. The first car contained the 3 Reverends from Livingstone, Mwandi and Sesheke. We were 6 MCF from Mwandi consistory, 2 from Lipumpu and 7 from Sesheke divided into 2 people carriers.

Participants at the MCF Conference



The first hold-up was at the police road-block at Katima Mulilo where we were directed to park inside the fence at the police post as our vehicles were suspected of being pirate taxis. However, our trip had been cleared as an official Church event by the Traffic Police in Sesheke, so after a phone call and explanation we were brusquely released.

The road from Sesheke to Sioma is now completely tarred. We took a break at Silumbu under a muhuluhulu tree (strychnos coculoides) while friends and relatives living nearby were greeted and visited. Shortly after this our Ministers’ car suffered the first puncture of the day which was quickly fixed at the side of the road. At Sioma we tried to see if the new pontoon at Muziba was working. However, it transpired that one of its engines was broken and a duff replacement had been sent from Lusaka, so the pontoon was still tied up to the bank just gathering dust. It would have saved us so much time crossing here, had the pontoon been working, as there is a good new tarred road on the East bank all the way to Senanga!

 

At Sioma the tar runs out but there is a good graded gravel road now all the way through Nangweshi and Sitoti to Kalongola. The sharp ‘chuckies’ embedded in the gravel road play havoc with ordinary tyres, so after a few hundred metres on the gravel we turned right and took the old sandy low-road that runs parallel to the Zambezi  through Nangweshi and Kaanja coming out at Sitoti to cross the Matabele Plain. This was a very pleasant route through small rural settlements and riverine trees. From there it is an easy drive to the Kalongola pontoon.

 

The name Libala la Matebele (The Plain of the Matabele) commemorates a victory over the Matabele who were ambushed here sometime in the 1840s. A group of Matabele under Nxaba, known in Lozi as Ngabe or Sikwanda, crossed the Zambezi near Senanga looking for the Makololo army under Sibitwane who were pursuing Mulambwa’s sons Imbua and Litia to Nyengo. The Matabele were betrayed by their local guides and fell into a trap. Nxabe hid for a time afterwards in the Kalamba Forest then surrendered. It was considered sacrilege if royal blood were spilled so he was drowned by his captors.   

 

At Kalongola, we were second in a queue of 6 vehicles and to carry all 6 it was necessary to double park on the pontoon. This meant our left front wheel was off the edge usual metal decking on the lower part where passengers normally stand. It had to bump up to get off at the other side of the river. This was enough to puncture our tyre. We managed to push the vehicle up the sandy bank to the top where the wheel was changed.  Restored by fried fish, groundnuts and boiled cassava, the party headed across the plain to Senanga. This is only a distance of 15km but takes over an hour because of the atrocious state of the road.

 

Because of broken and washed away culverts there are three major deviations where you leave the raised embankment and do a loop through sand on the plain. There are several areas where the dry sand is so liquid that without a 4x4 you get stuck and have to push. Here we had a stone jammed inside our wheel hub close to the break calipers. This meant another session with the jack and wheel spanners to remove it.

 

It was dark when we all reached Senanga market for further refreshments. We purred along the still good road towards Mongu for another hour or so, passing through Itufa Muoyo, Namushakende, the Nalikwanda turn-off and finally reaching Sefula safely, where we were issued with our mattresses and were given supper –buhobe and roasted beef.

 

The three day Conference on the first day dealt with three topics, the Prosperity Gospel which actually is no Gospel for it lacks God. Next came the Poverty Mentality and Debt lecture. It was suggested that an opportunity for change is available here as some of this can be self-inflicted and self-fulfilling from unwise lifestyle choices. The last theme of the day was seeking the Church transformed through prudent stewardship. This was a call to look after and use wisely all that God provides for us.

 

On Saturday we started with Man in God’s Picture of Creation, followed by your Gift was meant to produce service. Our gifts are meant for the glory of God and to serve others in love, using our whole heart and soul. The last lecture was on Giving. Giving is a command, a form of worship and an appreciation of God’s love for us. At a meeting in the evening we agreed to give the money we had collected to refurbish the girl’s ablution blocks at the dormitories. This is where we had been sleeping and we could see they were in need of repair. We also took time out to visit Rev Lubasi’s grave and held a short time of remembrance and thanksgiving. Three ZAF jets flew overhead as we were doing this.

 

At the service the next day the Western Presbytery Bishop Rev Sipalo dedicated 12 new members including the 3 Ministers (Revs. Manyando, Sivile and Manda). After a quick lunch we left Sefula at 2pm. A short break ensued in Senanga until we had the new tire put on at Senanga.  All was quiet following the recent arrests and detention of 45 people from Mongu, Senanga and Kalabo the previous day, in connection with allegations concerning the propagation of secession.

 

To avoid the broken culverts this time we took the road behind the prison through the compound and across the plain to join the road to the pontoon closer to the river. The return journey was fairly uneventful, barring a further puncture at Lusu. We got in to Sesheke just after 8pm and reached home to Mwandi at around 2230h.

The cost of a free education

While most of us in the more developed world take universal, free and compulsory primary and secondary education for granted, this is far from being the case in Zambia. This week we heard that the Government has plans to abolish all fees in schools but is hindered by the amount of public money needed to purchase maize through the Food Reserve Agency. After this is achieved, it intends to concentrate spending on education and health to improve peoples’ lives. This will not be possible either, unless, as Kenneth Kaunda pointed out recently, the mining companies raise output and pay their due taxes without equivocation or attempts at avoidance or evasion. Doing this would be a good use of their investment to help grow the economy so that ordinary citizens and their families benefit.

The Government and previous ones were committed to providing free education from Grade 1 to Grade 12, as part of the 2015 Millennium Goals. Goal Number 2 is the provision of universal primary education. To this end the Government has announced the phasing out of the Basic (G1-9) & High School (G10-12) and a return to Primary (G1-7) and Secondary Schools (G8-12). We are still unsure of the timescale for this. Cynics say this makes Goal 2 much easier to achieve. The Government is concerned that learning achievement in the present system is low.

Our High School at Mwandi has been allocated 2 Grade 10 classes this year. Nationwide, 124 333 out of 276 840 pupils will be given Grade 10 places. This is almost 45%. 68 000 boys and 56 000 girls! Not yet gender parity there! 145 000 passed in 6 or more subjects. This is 52%, up from 49% last year. There were 30 000 no shows and 20 000 failed in all subjects.

Related to all this the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection has recently published a paper ‘How free is free education?’ www.jctr.org.zm

We have little Ellie staying with us during term time this year. We have known Ellie since she was born. She was born with a club foot and had to have her right knee amputated then. She goes regularly to the Italian Orthopedic Hospital in Lusaka to have her prosthesis adjusted. She started Primary 1 in January this year. Her family lives and farms between Mabumbu and Sankalonga but Ellie cannot walk the 10km to school, hence her boarding with us during term-time, so we do have some insight into the costs incurred by Zambian families with school children.

In 2002 user-fees were abolished in Primary Schools, this was a welcomed reversal of IMF/World Bank ‘cost-sharing’ conditions in the Structural Adjustment Plan which had to be accepted to gain debt relief. These fees actually did very little to improve or expand education in Zambia. Then the Mwanawasa Government promised free education to Grade 12 and that no child should be prevented from receiving education because of fees.

The paper makes a distinction between direct and indirect costs. Education will never be entirely free and indirect costs can restrict the availability of education to poorer children as much as direct costs. There are still direct fees charged at Primary School through the PTA Levy and also Project Fees can be levied. These can range from K10 000-K30 000 per year. The indirect costs are school uniforms, shoes, textbooks, stationery supplies, transportation, ‘tuition fees’ and food for breaks and lunch. This can easily come to over K400 000 for one child.

Between 2000 and 2004 primary school attendance rose from 71-85%. This still leaves at least 15% or 300 000 children aged 7-13 not attending school who should be there. It is suggested that it is a lack of money that keeps these children away. Also it is girls who suffer most in these circumstances. Bursaries need to be more accessible and available to help the more vulnerable to attend school. In the 21st Century we need to ask ourselves is it right that a child is sent home because they have no uniform or shoes or are unable to pay the fees? Is Zambia really that poor? If we are serious about this then there needs to be higher grants going to schools that serve poorer areas for recurrent costs and rehabilitation. Our Basic School received a meagre K3m last year for 1500 pupils

In many places public education is close to collapse with over-enrolment, straitened resources, decaying infrastructure and a demoralized work-force. The 1:70 teacher to pupil ratio has remained unchanged for 10 years. The shortage of textbooks is chronic. 1 book to 4 pupils is an exceptional ratio and in many subject the teacher has the sole textbook for that class in that subject. State school teachers earn from K1m per month ($200) to around K2.5m ($500) for a Headteacher. In Grades 8 & 9, not being “Primary”, pupils are often charged around K300 000. The cost at Mwandi is K90 000.

High Schools like Sesheke will cost K1.2m per year. Our High School charges K750 000.

Vulnerable families and the schools in Mwandi have benefited greatly from the Mwandi UCZ OVC Programme that sponsors around 500 pupils at the Basic School and 90 out of 220 at the High School. The programme feeds 200 pupils daily. There is another program that helps with direct costs for children from poorer families within and outwith Mwandi with an emphasis on educational assistance for the girl child. It has put 24 pupils through Sesheke High School between 2007-11 and has helped 9 pupils in Grades 10 & 11 at Mwandi High School and others Basic Schools. We are indebted to many individuals and congregations who through their generosity make it possible to educate needy children by helping to meeting the direct and indirect costs which their families otherwise would struggle to afford.

There is an old truism, if you think education is expensive try ignorance and that there are some people who know the cost of everything but the value of nothing. Without good affordable and widely available education there will be no development, no drop in HIV/AIDS rates, no flourishing local commerce and industry, no drop in the unemployment rate and Zambia will risk becoming a stagnating and underdeveloped economic back-water.

We hope the political will is there to address this.

Jesus is good / big / important

This (above) is embroidered onto the pulpit drop at Luanja Church. Silozi uses the same word “tuna” for big, good or important. (You can usually work out the meaning from the context.)

Gertrude Kambole (the Consistory Secretary), Mr Museisei (an Elder), Ida, Mubita and I set out on Sunday. Percy Kaleba, the Youth Pastor stayed to introduce the newly-arrived Minister to Jerusalem Congregation at the Mission. We five went to Luanja on a Consistory visit to encourage the local congregation and offer some outside input. We have been visiting all the rural congregations in turn in the absence of a permanent Minister.

We were warmly received by the congregation, though they had been struck a bitter blow earlier in the week. A young father of five children, and a Church member, who was still under 30 had collapsed and died on the roadside while herding his cattle. It is assumed that it was a heart attack but there are no facilities for a post mortem to be done. Luanja is about 40 km into the bush from Mwandi. They had buried him on the Friday but were still all reeling from the shock, but it is amazing how the Holy Spirit works, and the sermon Keith had prepared on prayer and withdrawing to spend time with God spoke into the situation.

After the Service we were able to visit the home of the young man’s parents and spend time with the family, neighbours and friends who had gathered at the house to offer their support and comfort. We were touched by the quiet, loving and dignified atmosphere in the house, there was sorrow but also joy, not generated by our human effort but as a direct result of the grace of God in the lives of his people.

On Thursday afternoon our new Minister and family arrived in a truck with all their belongings. He is the Rev Wezi Mwanda, and newly graduated from Mindolo Theological College, so Mwandi is his first charge. He has come with his wife, Mary, and young son, Kondwani. He has had a busy time getting to know everybody and visiting all the different ministries of the Church here. This weekend we have a Consistory Meeting where the Interim Moderator, Rev Lubasi, will hand over. All the various Consistory Departments will give their annual report. The meeting will close on Sunday with Morning Worship.

We are at present working to try and reduce the Hospital’s electricity bill. ZESCO, the national energy company, has increased electricity prices for consumers by substantial amounts over the past two years. There was a 40% rise in August this followed an earlier 35% hike in the same year and they will be permitted to raise them again. We are trying to get all areas of the Mission metered separately. The school has already been done and this week the first classroom block of the High School will be electrified.

We know that carbon emissions and global warming are linked, and there are worries here that the rising cost of electricity will force many more people to start using the cheapest source of energy – charcoal. This already is a curse and is being produced on too large a scale and is leading in many areas to serious deforestation. It is totally unsustainable as there is no re-afforestation to replace the trees cut down. You can clearly observe the effects on our road from Livingstone to the Western Province border at Kasaya, where recently a number of settlements have been established. The forest alongside the road is being cleared at an alarming rate and the resulting sacks of charcoal are piled high at the roadside for sale. Fotunately, our Chief is enlightened and has banned charcoal production in his District.

We are now in the middle of our rainy season and there appears to be a more extreme rainfall pattern emerging according to local people. For 10 years from the early 90s our area suffered from regular droughts. For the past five years we have had more than average rainfall for the area. The Zambezi too has reached record levels over the past few years suggesting that there has been more run-off rather than the rain sinking through the ground cover into the groundwater. Deforestation would certainly have contributed to this.

Saying that, we need to remember that alternative forms of energy need to be offered and made available to both the rural and urban people. The biggest market for charcoal is in the high density townships in the towns and cities where there is still no widespread electrification. Over 60% of the population of 13 million lives on less than a dollar a day. Formal employment stands at around 25% of the population, so even were electricity available many simply could not afford it anyway.

Please continue to keep Western Province in your prayers. The 92 year-old former Prime Minister of Barotseland and alleged treason suspect, Mr Maxwell Mututwa, has been discharged from custody. There remain another 22 in remand in Lusaka. 106 detainees who will now, it is said, be charged with breach of the peace and riotous behaviour have been moved from Mongu to Mumbwa Prison 400km away. There are concerns about their continued detention without trial and their being detained so far away from home and their families.

There has been disquiet expressed too about the police use of live ammunition to disperse the crowds resulting in two deaths and a number of gunshot wounds. The local independent Radio Station is still closed though the Roman Catholic Oblate Liseli station has been permitted to continue.

Butoya retreat

After four days and five nights of melting in Mongu, we set off on Thursday for the 5-day Presbytery Retreat; this is an open air event now held every four years. The first retreat was held here in 1941. Butoya is about 15km SW of Mongu on the Barotse Plain. It takes almost an hour in a 4x4, through matapa and mishanjo (Lozi gardens cultivated at the edge of the flood plain), across fords with Monet-type water-lily pools, over mounds with palm trees, crossing rough burnt pasture and through banks of loose silver sand, We were fortunately guided well through all these obstacles by the Induna Mungambata who is the Headman in charge of the area and a Church member.

Rev Sipalo and  Rev Lubasi

The name Butoya is derived from the Mutoya tree, a type of willow. These trees form a long thicket along the river bank and the lagoons there. It is the natural beauty of the site that makes it such as special place in God’s creation for retreat and fellowship, another ‘thin place’ as George MacLeod once described Iona. It is an ideal spot for both individual or solitary prayer as well as providing under its rich thick canopy a shaded cathedral for communal gatherings to hear the Word of God preached or to praise and worship God in Church services.

The place is also of local historical interest as the first aeroplane (fulai in Silozi) landed in the area in 1928 during the reign of Litunga Yeta III. Out of the 1998 Retreat attended by over 4000 people came a much needed and prayed for revival in the United Church in Western Province.

The theme for the Conference was “Living the Salt Life as a Witness for Christ” based on Matthew 5:13 and was made up of eight topics. You, the salt, witnessing as salt, saltless salt, a salt life in our stewardship, social responsibility, salt for healing, characteristics of empowerment by the Holy Spirit, living the life of prayer and maintaining our Christian integrity. These topics were dealt with by Ministers from various Churches inside and outwith the Presbytery. The day was interspersed with early morning devotions, praise and worship, Choirs and Praise Teams as well as the topics. In the evenings after devotions were more social occasions for singing, testimonies and sketches followed by prayers at the close of the day.

Each consistory looked after its delegates another 8 joined the 8 members from Mwandi who had attended Presbytery. On Thursday we bought all our perishable goods and set out for the site. There was no ice to be had in Mongu, so this meant that another trip would need to go into Mongu on Saturday to pick up more frozen fish and meat to see us through to Monday. On arrival we were conducted to our site with a sipapela (an open shelter with walls framed by branches and covered by grass mats); this was to sleep in. We had brought our tent so it made an ideal store and larder for our provisions. A latrine had also been dug for our convenience - so to speak. We were fed well over this time spiritually and physically.

Breakfast was bread and tea or coffee. Rice pudding was also served once, Mongu rice is a well-loved staple in Zambia. Lunch and supper was buhobe (thick maize-meal porridge) or rice with fish meat or chicken and as vegetables either cabbage or kail. We did enjoy Irish potatoes as a treat on Sunday.(In Zambia potatoes are given the sobriquet Irish to differentiate them from sweet potatoes.) We are very much appreciative of the efforts of six of the ladies who undertook to cook for us all at each mealtime.

Both Ida and I learned how to bathe like a Lozi. There were no bathing facilities at the camp site, other than the river, so we joined others to bathe in the late afternoon. The rules for bathing for both sexes are apparently the same. Keith took Mubita with him to the mens area. First mistake, bathing children is womens’ work!

We were accompanied by our local MCF Convenor. After undressing myself and Mubita we slipped in the river and sat down with the soap to work up a good lather for soaping us both, Second mistake. My companion was loudly told by an old man to tell the mukuwa (white-man) to stop sitting in the sand and either to kneel or squat like everybody else! You then may soap a part of your body after that you cup your hands and pour the water you gather in them over the soaped part. When I asked why this was required behaviour, I was told it was so that you were less vulnerable in case of a crocodile attack! It was all very reminiscent of Gideon, who separated those who lapped the water with those who got down on their knees to drink!

African tribal life is quite egalitarian in many respects but it also demands a much greater degree of conformity to cultural norms than we with our more individusalistic outlook would tend to find acceptable.

During our time at Butoya we also took time to visit Sefula Mission where a kinsman of Keith’s, William Thomson Waddell worked as an artisan carpenter for Rev Francois Coillard. After building a house for Rev Jeanmairet and his new wife Elise (nee Coillard) Coillard’s niece, at Mwandi, then called Sesheke, the group of Basuto and Europeans set out for Sefula where Waddell built Coillard’s house and the Church there. We visited the graveyard where Coillard was buried. ,Waddell became engaged to Louise Keck, the teacher at Sesheke (Mwandi) before he returned home to Scotland to die of the leprosy he contracted here. We also saw the Boarding House that is named in memory of him.

The bridge and Church he built at Lwatile and Lealui await another visit on another occasion.

On our last day Mubita contracted a high temperature and diarrhoa, so we took him to Sefula Clinic where he was seen and given medicine to treat his problem. The Clinic is drawing water from the river by drum and bucket at the moment as the pump for the borehole has died and there is no money to buy the spare part.

We set off on Monday morning, after packing up at Butoya and buying provisions for the journey home and fuel in Mongu we set off via Senanga and crossed the Zambezi again on the pontoon at Kalongela. Nine hours and a puncture later we arrived back in Mwandi tired and thankful.

It was good for us all, taking time out from our busy everyday lives and devoting it to God and listening to him. It was a time of challenge, growth, exchange and blessing.

On home ground again

We are at present limping our way to Livingstone on a very worn front tyre due to continued suspension problems and after having the problem supposedly rectified in Lusaka. We are to pick up Jennie Chinembiri and George Lind (of the Church of Scotland's World Mission Council) from the airport while doing various items of business for school, manse and hospital.

The Reverend Silishebo has demitted office after 8 years at Mwandi and has been called to the Chaplaincy at the University of Zambia in Lusaka; the Reverend Derek Lubasi who is presently at Coillard Memorial in Livingstone will be inducted shortly as our new minister. There is a flurry of activity cleaning, painting and renovating the manse to welcome the new ‘family’ (Lubasi means family in Silozi.)

We have just spent the past week-end doing another flitting! We have moved into Hippo House – bit of a misnomer as far as size is concerned but we are fortunate to enjoy running water and electricity (most of the time) utilities denied to a large majority of the Zambian population.

Some progress has been made with the house that the Church of Scotland funded with a grant, and that Nick designed and is building. The wooden flooring is being laid at the moment. We hope we can move in before Christmas.

We are beginning to pick up the threads of where we left off. On the first Sunday evening we got back was a very moving service for the sending out of the 10 young people back to their congregations. They had been attending a 4 month Mission Course at the Church run by Percy, the Youth Pastor. They had slept in tents, cooked for themselves and freely contributed their talents and labour to various ministries to be found at the Mission. They had also has their faith challenged and deepened, intellectually and academically too they had a substantial amount of reading and writing to tackle, not just of a theological nature either but also other work needing life skills.

We have had a good and useful couple of days with Jennie and George who were able to get a taste of what we do at the Hospital and School as well as the wider Church work we undertake here. We saw them off on Saturday to Kitwe and Lusaka.

We are now back to ‘auld claes and porridge’. Ida is back to work at the AIDS Relief Programme, she has done the first scrubbing for a Caesar and has been returned her keys and asked to tackle the Central Stores which was neglected in her absence. She is a Also working with the Consistory, helping to establish a home-based care programme.

As for me I have been allocated Grade 8C for Maths and Science and 10A for History. I am at present drafting a proposal to submit to a Church Aid for teacher housing at the High School. We are still putting the finishing touches to the second classroom block and student latrines which were not finished despite efforts on my part to ensure that things should continue in my absence.

Another exciting development hoving into view is the possibility of a Community School at Sikuzu. Sikuzu is a rural community about 8km downstream from Mwandi. The children are prevented from attending school at Mwandi until they can walk the return journey each day. They are usually 8 or 9 years before this happens. So a Grade 1-4 School will be a great boon for them. At present there is a UCZ Pre-school run from the Church.