The Celebration.. that almost wasn’t

How sad I am, it is our last day in Kalomo! Today is the day of the photo workshop finale. We all arrived at Zu’s to set up for the big event, only to find out there was yet another power outage! Now what? As everyone kept saying, it was on to plan X or Z by now. I felt really disappointed for the children. Colin and Christy figured they had enough power in their laptops to be able to set up a couple of tables and just show the photo to individual groups, there would just be no slideshow on the large wall screen. One of the computers would show the progression of the children’s photo taking skills, the other their favorites. We were please to see a large group of friends & families arriving as well as most of the ADP staff, who seemed neither surprised, nor perturbed about the problems we were facing.
At this time I took the opportunity to get Godwin to run me down to the bank, as I wanted to leave funds for the families of my sponsor child, as well as Jane and Juston. Of course, nothing is easy and the first bank we went to would not accept MasterCard, so it was off to the other bank, where the teller informed me “madam, you should always use Barclay’s Bank”. With that chore finally out of the way, we arrived back in time to help give the children their gifts for participating; Canadian hats, pins, flags and a few other tokens, including fake tattoos, I had brought, so consequently I had to get up and show to they should be applied. Christy and Colin arranged to borrow a guitar from Godwin and treated everyone to a lovely song. I hope the experience of learning to use the cameras and looking at things with a different perspective will add to the children’s confidence and self-esteem.

photo courtesy of Colin/Christy

We were then treated to a special event organized by Godwin, on the front drive of Zu’s. African drumming and dancing were performed for our pleasure and then a length that the locals got at the time. I did, however think it a little strange, until I started thinking back to my first years of school, when the Canadian Medical System was first being introduced, this still being the time of polio, TB, and things like whooping cough. I can certainly remember going to school and having the teachers check our hands and nails were clean, we had washed our ears and even checked to see we had brushed our teeth. Not so strange after all, when you think we were doing the same sort of things only 50 years ago. After the families and children had left, the ADP staff and ourselves returned inside to share a last lunch and give thanks to each other, especially from us, for the kindness the staff had shown us during our visit. Keyana told us that we had brought hope and love, that without that hope and love the children tend to give up; that it means so much to them to know that sy skit, all in Tonga, which we did not follow, but seemed to be enjoyed by everyone else, immensely. It was explained to use after that this skit was how they teach the rural folks about hygiene and cleanliness, such as washing hands after toilet use, etc. When explained, I could see the humoromeone cares about them. He told us that as much as we get asked here ‘does our money really get there’ they have found that children and families do not really believe that there are sponsors out there, across the world, that care. They understand now, that Canadians are watching and the people are encouraged to know we truly care and are waiting to see the change. It was a hard goodbye to our new friends and colleagues.

Now it was time to head back to Livingstone, for our flights the following morning and the dreaded layovers.

I hope I haven’t missed anyone, but thanks to all the ADP staff:

Godwin, Eustance, Derrik
Utant, Keyana, Masauso
Helen, Edmund, Wezzy
Kingstone, Raphael, Steven
Lydia, Lucky, Mwala
Maureen, Harriet, Mullongo
Chrispine, Banda, Kabbila

Dessie, Shawa