Some of the memories of South America that lingered in me were the natural countryside, the kids, and the music. Learning about the Incas and their rapid destruction so many centuries ago I realized how important families are. It became evident that regardless of the many varied cultures out there that are influenced by the natural environment, or our religions, which communicate our belief of celestial underpinnings and preserve our moral compasses, all of us have the same social needs. Preparing our kids for the future – education, health, opportunity – means there is potential for happiness and fulfillment in life. It became apparent to me that if you keep things simple and take even a semi-holistic approach in the conduct of your life, you would be amazed at how much time you find to enjoy those little things and love your fellow man.
Within a year God guided me into Liz, an old friend I hadn’t seen in years. She had just finished med school and was starting her residency, working towards her goal of combating disease around the world. We couldn’t be any more different in background; her with a life-long passion for helping the helpless and traveling and experiences that could fill volumes, and me with a new found love of seeing other cultures and wondering why there has to be a third world. The only real thing we had in common is neither of us had been to Africa…
Africa elegantly envelops the most varied cultures and the oldest human history on this planet. My friend Valerie, a missionary working in Kenya had recently shared with me some stories and pictures of her early work there. I had been impressed at her courage to live for months in the bush, with none of the western provisions for hygiene or nutrition available. She labored, played, ate, and lived with rural tribes. She put her nursing background to work, even if at the most basic level it was to raise awareness of preventable health issues which seem like common sense to a westerner. The amazing thing is how quickly the tribes accepted her as family because she chose to share those things with them, and she did so respectfully while carrying her own weight in the tribe.
Thus, my world view continued to grow roots, and signs kept pointing to the sub-Saharan as the area they would take hold and turn into something.
Amazingly, like a light from nowhere, a workmate mentioned a local Florida ministry for whom he had done some mission work in the past. The first time I contacted this group, Heart of the Bride, I received the responsible level of scrutiny that I fully expected. Most organizations will not accept folks whom they haven’t vetted extensively over a long period of time. HOB operates in several locations including Kenya, Uganda, the Ukraine, and Haiti. As I slowly learned about the beautiful mission of this group – providing for orphaned children – I knew that I wanted to experience a journey with one of their teams. Their director, Tony, is a music pastor who gave up his career to work this ministry full time. I had the pleasure of attending a fundraising praise rally a few weeks after first speaking to him, and was enthralled with his beautiful musical abilities and his ability to spread his faith and deliver the message of bending to help others. Music and children. Heart of the Bride.
I learned there was a team preparing for an upcoming HOB mission trip to Kitwe, Zambia. The team leader, Dave, happened to be someone I also knew from work, and some other folks put in a good word for me. And to top it off the trip was scheduled during an exact period of time that my friend Liz had off from her program. Providence
In Kitwe, HOB is involved in every aspect of caring for neglected children of all ages, from consulting on the managing of orphanages, to establishing a ranch haven to get older boys off the street and learn to work… for a living and for each other. They provide medication and nutrition through supplemental donations and by sending experienced volunteers down range. All of these efforts serve to plant seeds that are meant to be nurtured by Zambians for Zambians. In Kitwe, HOB supports a missionary family, the Walkers, who are in country to provide guidance, express faith, and uphold standards of responsibility. They operate through a church in Kitwe, and have the full support of that community. They appropriate outsider investments strategically and teach the locals how to manage money and labor. All the while, children are being nurtured and raised with wholesome principles and provided with a warm life and an education. The older children, particularly at the boy’s ranch, are always free to leave if they wish, as the ultimate responsibility for one’s self and their family is one’s own free will to make his or her destiny. The ultimate responsibility of the volunteer community in Kitwe is to self-sustain and plant their own seeds.
On April 1st, 2008, I set foot on Zambian soil with Dave, Liz, and the three other members of the team.
Africa.
I felt blessed that things had worked out for our group to make it here, this far. Liz spent most days revamping the orphanage’s medical care program, establishing health and dental records for the kids, treating them when appropriate, etc. She and Brian, one of our other team members working there, learned a lot of Bemba, the predominant Bantu language in this Copperbelt region of Zambia. It’s amazing how much you can learn from kids.
I spent lots of time with the Walkers and their nine children, and I tried to absorb as much as possible in good practices and rural living when operating in the third world. I learned a lot from Keisha, and independent missionary with ties to many organizations operating in the third world. She was sharing some projects with the Walkers and was very much in her element living with a rural family and providing for their community. We would come to be great friends with her once back stateside, and this would lead to wonderful opportunities down the road.
I often walked the two miles between the ranch and the missionaries’ home, and got to know the older boys whom were being weaned into positions of responsibility and leadership. We held health and first aid seminars, and we treated common injuries. I experienced my own “souvenir” injury when I played barefoot soccer with the ranch boys. I had wanted to feel the earth the way they felt it, and sure enough I broke my foot and was graciously used as an example of why everyone should wear shoes. And because of that experience, after a long hike I find the first available patch of grass and walk barefoot for a while… I can still feel the earth, and that injury, and it brings me back to a good place.
It all goes back to respecting the lifestyle and culture of the folks you’re hoping to help… the Walkers are on a Christian mission, but I noticed their spiritual influence works through their attitudes about life, their responsible public conduct, and their joyful praising, which they keep overtly confined to their home, the ranch, and the church, yet shines inherently in their personal relationships. They do not force their views on anyone, but through good works and a humble faith, people have come to respect them. These missionaries do not segregate themselves like the majority of expatriates I saw on a daily basis, who did not even stop to greet passersby as is the custom in the Bemba culture. The Walkers stop their car to say hi to everyone, to yell across the street at old friends, to catch up on folks’ lives and families. They enjoy good relationships with the city officials in order to provide for the orphanage and maternity home they support. And their door is always open to visitors. They are as Zambian as a family of eleven “Muzungus” could be.
At the orphanage I met a boy named Antone. He taught me most of the little Bemba that I know, and as the oldest boy in the orphanage was an example to the rest of the children. He is the most stoic person I have met on this planet, and is just a child. He doesn’t blame anyone for his situation or those of his family, and he has a calm demeanor and a quiet yearning for knowledge and guidance. I fell in love with this person. And I tried to give him as much in return as any boy without a father would want. I met with him at church the two Sundays we were there, and I explained small portions of the Bible to him in exchange for a Bemba word or two. My favorite is Nkalamo. It means lion. It is his favorite animal.
During the end of the trip I got sick for a couple of days. I lost all my strength, lost my appetite, and was hardly able to hold a conversation with anyone. Whatever it was, it took over me and made me absolutely incapable. I needed to rest and took a day off to accompany Liz on a day trip to visit a medical ministry in the local area, run by a man we had met in church the week before. That man’s name was Stan.
Words cannot describe Stanley Mulenga. This entire effort, this fundraiser-- this blog--are inspired by him. We met up in downtown Kitwe in the morning, and the rest of that day changed my life. Stan showed us two of the four communities (his term for what most would consider compounds or slums) he was currently serving through the ministry he directs. Christian Aid Ministries (CAM) was originally founded in 2004 in response to the fact that the Zambian government has a poor economy and weak health support system and it cannot provide adequate care and support for TB and HIV/AIDS victims. CAM’s volunteers approach this issue with a multi-faceted strategy which includes nutritional, medical, transportation and accommodation, educational, and spiritual support for the disadvantaged.
In one single day, Stan showed us a rapid-fire daily routine which involved meal distribution, medicine delivery, comfort visits, and even a chance for Liz to consult with one patient who was in very weak condition due to HIV. Her advice and follow-on remote consultations led to his full recovery, and he is now living a happy, healthy life. This highlighted, among other things, the opportunity for solid medical expertise to make a giant difference in these communities! That, along with our willingness to assist with food delivery, getting to know the patients and their families, and listening to their stories… that made us part of the story, and it made all the difference in the world to these patients whose spirits were uplifted before our very eyes! It was those moments that defined this trip for me... that made all the work to get us out here to Zambia worth it... and reaching way back to the past, it brought substance to my old dream.
We had an opportunity to meet countless patients and volunteers that day, saw them helping each other, through food stands, community delivery systems, baby sitting, etc. All great habits derived from service models that Stan has established through his years dreaming and slaving to improve life for these people. He has established a tight network of community “moms”, which care for the patients’ daily regular needs, report on their status, and maintain a medication schedule (Directly Observed Therapy, or D.O.T. in the tuberculosis world).
During the entire day, something kept nagging at me, especially as we bumped along in the minimal capacity Toyota pickup truck which Stan’s friend drove for him for a significant charge every day. On the way home after delivering the final bags of corn meal to a community mom and stopping to visit Stan’s family, I asked Stan “Why do you still use a rental car to travel between communities? It must cost you a fortune in the long run…”
“Because all the money we gather immediately goes to feeding and caring for the patients, Mister Dan.”
Coming home always seems abnormal after spending even two weeks, as we did, living in rural Zambia. It had been nice seeing both Stan and Antone at Church on the last day. I had given Antone a bible to share with the other kids at the orphanage, and Stan and I promised to keep in touch. And keep in touch we did. That conversation still nagged at me:
Because all the money we gather immediately goes to feeding and caring for the patients, Mister Dan
So we got Stan a minibus...
And the rest is history
Stan created a business model with the new vehicle. In its current state, CAM has now served over 1,000 patients in four communities. The goal is that everyone gets free access to care and cure regardless whether they are poor or rich, Christian or non Christians, young or old, Zambian or foreigners, educated or illiterate, or indeed any social status which may disadvantage them. Through the innovative models Stan has put in motion, he has generated a self-sustaining cash flow through responsible use of CAM’s vehicle, and has recently purchased a second vehicle, showing the gradual blossoming of his paradigm! CAM’s reach is now projected to affect seven communities total. Deaths have gone down significantly as the full spectrum of medicine, nutrition, and spiritual and emotional care is being offered to more and more patients. In the Summer of 2009, the Zambian Minister of Health personally made a visit to Kitwe to observe CAM’s operations, and all eyes are on Stan and his group to continue setting the example of responsible caretaking and community health, by Zambians for Zambians.
Liz regularly consults with Stan on various patient issues and just flew back out to Zambia to spend a week catching up with him. The climate is beautiful and full of love and ripe for so much growth… and Stan, Nkalamo for his people, is at the forefront of something amazing.
So that's the beginning. And all of this, the Ulwendo Lwa Nkalamo (The Walk of Lions), the global awareness, the fundraising... this is a continuation of that beautiful story. In sub-Saharan Africa, walking is a part of life. You do it to provide for your family, to remain acquainted with your tribesmen and best friends, and sometimes you do it because there is nowhere else to go. The Walk of Lions is for Stan, Antone, and the rest of my family in Zambia! So that strangers may be informed, and so they can feel a connection with humanity in its most beautiful form… the love people in Zambia have for the world and for each other.
