Return

The reunions didn't end with my little road trip to Nevada earlier this month. Last week, Dr. Liz returned to Zambia, and she and Christian Aid Ministries got busy in the community. Two years ago, I remember Liz wondering if she was ready to contribute in Africa. It was her first year out of med school, she had just taken her boards, and she was trying to figure out how to adequately pour out her love and her knowledge in a new part of the world.

That trip in '08 yielded bountiful fruit and long-lasting memories that have forever changed a lot of lives. In the rolling months since then, communication with CAM grew consistent with emails and phone calls. Our love for the people of Kitwe has grown strong bonds, and our support to Stan has found an appropriate level that allows him the flexibility to create models which are compatible with his people and his culture in Zambia. And now, nearly two years after this beautiful story began, Liz found the opportunity to break from her residency for a week to visit Zambia, and witness the "garden" in which she planted seeds so long ago. Now a third year resident, willfully on track for her infectious disease studies, and a heart bigger than the grand canyon, she blasted off to see Stan.

Stan and his family picked Liz up at the Ndola airport on Sunday, and the next day they were driving among some of the communities, orienting her with ministry efforts and all the volunteers in each respective community.



On Tuesday they visited Kapoto community with Chama, the CAM clinical officer, and they met 60 TB and HIV/AIDS patients. Chama sensitized the patients on HIV/AIDS and Liz eagerly educated them thoroughly on TB infection, spread, treatment and prevention. Stan and Chama learned a lot from her and from her vast experiences with other organizations with whom she has volunteered, helping treat some of these HIV/AIDS related infections.













The next day they were invited to attend World TB day by one of the officers from Kitwe District Health Office under the Ministry of Health, and they had a marvelous time! Liz helped with the printing of Christian Aid Ministries T-shirts for the event. She felt truly privileged to witness how CAM celebrates at this important function in style. Immediately upon arriving the World TB Day fairgrounds, the ministry was recognized by the District Commissioner, Mr. McDonald Mtini. Afterward Stan and Liz were invited to dine with the DC at the District Health Office, and they were very humbled to converse with him, the Director of Health, Dr. Banda, and other leaders of civil society organizations in Kitwe. Liz was exhilarated by the new found contact in Mr. Mtini and his openness to future support for CAM.











Thursday found Liz meeting patients in Buchi, St. Anthony, and Mugala communities, and she was amazed at the huge work that Christian Aid Ministries is doing in meeting the numerous needs of the patients suffering from TB and HIV/AIDS. That night she met up with Carol, a Heart of the Bride missionary, as well as Ruth and Gina, some good local friends from the '08 trip, and they spent the night at the Walker's home. The Walkers are due to return in May, after their cross-country U.S. tour (during which I was able to reunite with them) comes to a close.















On Friday Liz went with Ruth to see the little ones at the Heart of the Bride supported orphanage and also reunited with the young men at the Boys Ranch. It was incredible witnessing these responsible boys practicing the first aid, hygiene, and lifestyle responsibilities which Liz had begun to teach them years ago. Seeing them pass those tenets along to the younger kids is what it's all about. Her heart melted at all these successes now flourishing in the "garden." She spent the night reminiscing on the long, invigorating, and heartwarming week with Stan's family.





























Stan recalls to me in an email, "Liz was very very good to me and my family and we love her so much. I can tell you, that lady has a HUGE heart for the people and we stayed so happily together throughout her stay with us! My wife Bernadette and Cliff my young brother, my father, Stanley and my daughter Christine are still remembering and talking so beautifully well about her. We were all dazzled with her humble character and act of goodwill towards others. Liz is a very very charming hardworking lady so fitting for her profession!"



On Saturday, Stan and Liz set out to the airport. On the way, they passed through the Christian Aid Ministries Care Center plot. Liz was extremely motivated by the work in progress there. She found both the Care and Training Centers' foundations dug. The progress Stan has been making with his proceeds is remarkable! There is so much potential for more income generating projects for CAM to sponsor, both to fund the growth they need for these patients and to facilitate employment and skills training for the patients themselves!













These unions, road crossings, and influences between people work well when trust, faith, and gratitude permeate the relationships. The knowledge we can teach folks and resources we share in places like Kitwe are paid forward throughout their communities, and paid back through the boundless love and happiness they share with us. I am absolutely on fire because Liz has found a place to form these unions and make an impact, and together along with our friend Keisha the missionary and Stan the lion, we hope we can guide strategic investments for Christian Aid Ministries for their evolving journey in Zambia!

Reunions

When roads are meant to meet... they just do

The winter months were slow... I twisted an ankle playing ball with my brother Dave over Christmas... which meant I would look forward to January being a good month of learning to swim decently, so I could keep pumping those ketone bodies through my slowly tapering system. On his short stay here from his work in Austria, Dave got out his telescope and he taught me about the stars. Then we spied on the moon for a while, and I finally located the acre of land I bought from some fake website ten years ago... the cold weather idled for a while this season, and another old injury I got playing ball at the boy's ranch two years ago would certainly make itself evident through the dry bones in my foot.

As my ankle gained strength, the trails opened up... little dirt paths to train on, live on, escape to on the weekends. The local Mojave routes and the pool sustained me those first two months of the year, until my foot was strong again. I knew it was time to explore the big routes again after a brief visit to Austria right before Spring... after a vicious fall on my board down an Alpine black which brought my full weight to bear over my weak leg. I realized after being able to walk away from something like that (after some humble thanks to my maker) that it was time to do some real WALKING again.

With both roommates deployed and a big empty house to leave in the rearview, I grabbed Yeags and drove to Vegas

This first road I met took me to Red Rocks, Nevada. And this same week, my path crossed with some amazing people... as if life were taking me to a nexus of unions and reunions... neat



In LV I met up with my friend Glenn... Yeager and Glenn's dog Max are like peas and carrots, and all four of us, as well as Mrs. Glenn and baby Glenn, enjoy the outdoors... so we spent an afternoon romping around that beautiful park.







That day, we met up with an old mentor, Mike. Mike is currently living abroad, and just happened to be in Vegas for a conference this weekend... he and his girlfriend Linda (also in town) are avid travelers and outdoorsfolk, and it was such a pleasure having them join our little expedition. Mike is one of less than three hundred people who has climbed the seven summits. He has taken both Glenn and me on hikes up Mt. Whitney, and the wisdom, friendship, and motivation gained from knowing such an individual is precious and uplifting.



The next day I set out solo to find the highest peak at Red Rock... called Bridge Mountain. After finally figuring out how to use my phone GPS I found a gateway that necked towards the peak, but without crampons or climbing gear I had to turn around 400 yards short of the base. I opted to slog through another ice patch and get on top of an adjacent peak... and that afforded me a great view of Bridge and the red rocks below, and even sin city itself. What a beautiful day



That night I stole Yeags back from the playfully drooly jowls of Max and we pedaled it towards the sunset... and back home to the CA desert.

Ever read "Into the Wild"? Seen the flick? I met two drifters on my last leg home... they had traveled across the states and were "hiking" their way up to Alaska to work on a farm. The supertramps threw their modest gear in the bed and I drove them to Mojave so they could prepare to attack a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail. I told them to check out Whitney (just find some crampons, haha).

If enough neat roads weren't crossing before me, I found a good use for my big empty house a few days later. The Walker family (my gracious hosts two years ago on my wonderful trip to Zambia), eight of their nine kids in tow on a motorhome, got a hold of me. They have been on a short sabbatical back in the states before returning to their mission work in May. They were passing through southern Cali, right now. The next night, every bed, couch, and extra mattress in the house had a comfortable human sleeping in it like a sack of potatoes. We had a great goodbye the next day with a nice Mexican lunch (they do not have Mexican spices/chiles in Zambia). What a treat

And if THAT wasn't enough, I found out that two of my best friends, Liz and Keisha, are headed back to Zambia soon to visit Stan! Liz to practice field medicine for a week, and Keisha to live and work with Christian Aid Ministries indefinitely.

So I'll keep walking... keep finding roads, trails, deserts, and mountains. And who knows what colliding comets will cross these paths next.

From Stan

My name is Mulenga Stanley. I was born on 17th December, 1978 in Kitwe Central Hospital. I’m the first born in a family of five brothers and I come from a decent born again Christian family where both parents are Bemba by tribe. I’m an indigenous Zambian and my parents come from the Northern part of Zambia.

Six moths after I was born, I started coughing, so my parents took me back to Kitwe central hospital where I was hospitalized with whooping cough for one week and was put on injections so that they could treat the disease. One week later after I started feeling better, and the doctor discharged me.

One year later, the same problem resurfaced and I was taken to the same hospital and got readmitted now in a critical condition at a point of death, according to what my father narrates to me. Here the doctor diagnosed me with tuberculosis. He told my parents that the whooping cough that I had developed into tuberculosis and that’s what worsened my healthy condition. Just there, my mom fell down to the floor in dismay. My father tells me that I could hardly stop coughing until they switched on the electric heater in my room and covered me with blankets and bed sheets to keep me warm. They kept doing this all the time to avoid excessive coughing and resulting pneumonia.

The doctor prescribed 30 injections, and each day I would receive two on my buttocks until I finished. I recovered and started feeling much better. They discharged me and sent my parents back home. However, I could hardly sit because my buttocks were paining because of the injections. 

I stated falling sick from time to time. Each time I fell sick, I would be admitted to Kitwe Central Hospital. I was in and out of the hospital till I grew up to the age of seven years. As a result, almost all the nurses and doctors in the ward got to know me. Kitwe Central Hospital became my home and I almost grew up in there.

One day, a Catholic nurse who formed a small pre-school in the ward for the recovered children who could not have access into pre-school identified me and enrolled me. I still remember, I learned how to greet in English, saying "Good morning, good afternoon, good evening," right in the ward in Kitwe Central Hospital.

God met me in the hospital and started ministering to me right from there. I spent most of my childhood in Kitwe Central Hospital. When I think about this, I always weep. “My God preserved my life to this day.” “If it were not for Him, I would have died by now.”

When I was seven years old, my grandmother (mother to my late mom) came from the village and took me to Chinsali in the Northern part of Zambia where I started my grade one. The same problem kept coming. In the cold seasons from May, June and July in the second term, I could not go to school and attend my lessons because of coughing. They tried to use African medicines to see whether the sickness could be cured but it could not help. I completed my primary school education with a lot of stoppages along the way. 

Fortunately, when I qualified to go to grade eight at Kenneth Kaunda High school in 1994, my coughing seemed to stop I completed my junior secondary school level and qualified to grade ten with flying colors without any problem at all. This was so surprising to almost everyone in the village because they thought I would not make it to grade ten as a result of the pathetic state of my health.

In July second term of my final year in 1998 at Kenneth Kaunda High school, I developed a cold and I started coughing because it was very cold during this period. Gradually, my condition intensified. I began to have some night sweats and some chest pains and I could not attend classes, I would always remain in bed in my dormitory all day long without moving and it was serious. I was very very sick and life became so tough for me at school and my future seemed to be bleak and utterly disturbed. I used to be alone in the dormitory square. Everyone started running away from me including my best and closest friends, fearing that I might infect them with TB if they come in close contact with me so there was no one to care for me. TB was almost uncommon and unheard of during this period, so whoever was suspected or found to have caught it was labeled to be a serous contaminant. They also made a public announcement in the Dining Hall that there was an out break of TB at school and one of the grade twelve pupils in Ituna house (dormitory) by the name of Stanley Mulenga has been infected with it so be aware of this. This was the most humiliating and disgusting situation I have ever had in my life! I felt as if the world has ended for me and I almost quit school.

I started complaining to God and weeping so bitterly the whole night.  No one bothered to visit me or entered into my dormitory. I felt as if I was a despised, quarantined leper!

One day, the school sent an ambulance and took me to the nearby Lubwa General hospital where I was admitted. I explained to the doctor about my condition and how my sickness started. The doctor told me that TB was still active in my lungs and that I was infectious and liable to spread the disease to anyone if it is not properly handled, so he prescribed sixty injections that I started receiving till I completed the course. He further told me that my disease was not properly handled when I was young that was the reason it kept coming. There was no stronger medication at the time to be able to effectively treat TB. From that time till now, I have never had TB again.

I sat for my grade twelve final exams and I graduated with a Division Two. I got a Merit in English and a Credit in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geography.  I was not very impressed with these results. I had been determined to get a Division One and go to the University and get a Degree probably in medicine and become a doctor, for I really liked this job, but I could not because of my sickness when I was about to seat for my final exams in grade twelve.

I did my distance learning at Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation and got a Diploma in Psychosocial Counseling. My personal goal now is to work so hard and develop Christian Aid Ministries so that I can go back to school and obtain a degree in Social Work or medicine so that I can come and function even more effectively in my ministry.

My aim is to continue to attend and care for the sick in the community. This is what makes the purpose for my life, to care for people suffering from various sicknesses that are in a similar situation in which I used to be. I feel moved and broken hearted when I see someone sick, I do not feel good at all. My heart always aims to do everything to help that sick person so that they may come out of that situation. I feel as if it is me going through that situation and my heart does not rest. I always get reminded of my bleak past condition.

FAMILY

I’m now married to and my wife Bernadette, and we have a happy family together. I love Bernadette and she loves me, and we are a happy couple together. We love people and we like helping them. I love Bernadette for her strong-willed personality and will power. I do not regret having married someone who is not only a wife but a companion in joy and in sorrow. Bernadette is a true partner and an all-weather-friend full of encouragement.

With our five good years in marriage, we have made tremendous strides in achieving our goals and objectives not only in our family but also in ministry. Our motivation and insight and great devotion to God has helped us so greatly in the good upbringing of our four-year-old daughter, Christine. Christine is in pre-school and we are grateful to God that her performance is always outstanding and impressive to us as parents. She is always rewarded for her excellent performance in school and we are very proud of her. She is also an active member of Sunday school at our church and she likes singing. We plan to bring up and inculcate our daughter with good Christian norms so that when she grows up, she gets rooted in Faith and continues serving God. We intend to give her quality education so that she can as well come and serve efficiently and more effectively in Christian Aid Ministries 

I’m a social worker with a diploma in psychosocial counseling while Bernadette is a business lady with a strong business background. We both complement each other so well. Our different strengths and fields have contributed so significantly to the growth of our ministry

I’m a hospitable person and I enjoy making friends. I also like watching entertaining and educative African movies while my wife Bernadette likes listening to music. My wife is a good singer too.

Apart from ministry work, my wife Bernadette and I have other responsibilities. We look after my old father Stanley senior (Stanley’s father) who is 71 years of old. Stanley (senior) has a very good sense of humor and likes my wife and his grand daughter, Christine and we both like him for that. Stanley sometimes follows us into the community as we provide our charitable services to the patients in the community.

After my mom died in 2005, in Kasama in the Northern Province of Zambia my father (Stanley senior) was left without anyone to look after him. He stayed there for one year and decided to come to Kitwe after he started suffering from a TB related infection. He developed nausea and his limbs eventually started to swell. His health continued to deteriorate so dramatically and we thought it was malnutrition that he was suffering from since there was no food and that there was no one to care about him where he was in the village. His condition continued to worry us, so we decided to take him to Buchi clinic where they gave him some paracetamol and septrin tablets. However, these tablets could not help him. I looked at his hands and inside of his eyes so critically and started suspecting that it could be TB that he was suffering from. But when we took his sputum (phlegm) to the lab for TB testing, the results showed negative.

Nevertheless, I still pressed on until we took him to Kitwe Central Hospital for x-ray. We took the x-ray form to the chest clinic where he was detected with TB and immediately commenced on TB drugs. We ensured that we gave him right amounts of food every day and every morning before his TB drugs. We also made sure he adhered to his treatment and took his drugs consistently for a period of eight solid months until February, 2008 when he completed his treatment course. The old man was very very sick. Immediately after he completed his TB treatment, he started to feel better. Now he is completely cured and he has put on weight. Someone who saw him when he was sick in 2008 may not be able to recognize him. We often visit the patients in the community with him and he is a good source of encouragement to them.

At my home we also have my immediate young brother by the name of Cliff who we are also looking after. Cliff came from Lusaka seriously sick to the point of death. In July 2009 seven months ago, we took him for both TB and HIV tests. Both results showed that he was TB and HIV positive.  Cliff is now on both drugs; TB and ARVs (Antiretroviral drugs) that he is taking. They have helped him so much and his health has started to improve. We are so grateful to God for Cliff’s survival. We really thank God for the responsibility that he has given us of providing care and support to our sick. We care for our family members as well as those who are in need in the community!