Prisca for Dinner

On Sunday Dec. 27th, we had Prisca and her family for sunday dinner.  We had a good time and it was fun see the kids eat mounds of rice.  The younger kids had not used cutlery before.  They also gave our bathroom a real work out.  Mary went in to find Precious playing in the water (not too bad but it was in the toilet). Nice to see them again and hear that they are doing okay with help from the locals.

Christmas Tree at Chitokoloki

We had our own little tree this year.

Prisca's new house

 

This is a picture of the new house for Prisca and her 6 kids. Prisca husband fell out of a mango tree and broke his neck.  He died this past fall and but Prisca has nothing to go back to.

top

Mary at the top!

on the way up

Table Mountain climb.

Top of Table Mt.

We have conquered table mountain.  Mary and I took the challenge and hiked to the top.  Have a look at some of the picts.  The sign said it would take 2hrs and we did it in two and a half.  It felt wonderful to make it.
--
Tim McDougall
Check out our blog   www.timmaryadventure.blogspot.com

More of Cape Town

Cape Town is really an awesome place.  We had the chance to walk on the beach for hours, see the sunset beside Table Mountain and splash in the surf.  The next day we walked from the Cape of Good Hope to the end of Cape Point and back.  It was an awesome day but tiring to say the least.

Rest In Capetown

We are safely in Cape Town and having a great rest.  Mary has read 3 books already.  Tim is well into his first book.  Great walks on the beach and up table mountain.  Mary even enjoyed her trip to the Botanical Garden (HaHa).  Love you all.

--
Tim McDougall
Check out our blog   www.timmaryadventure.blogspot.com

Crossing the Zambezi River

We travelled across the Zambezi to the west bank and visited a small village.

--
Tim McDougall
Check out our blog   www.timmaryadventure.blogspot.com

Leaving Sakeji for Chit

Nov. 30th we made the trip to Chit.  The road was bad in places but we made it safely.

--
Tim McDougall
Check out our blog   www.timmaryadventure.blogspot.com

Sable by the horn

Trip to the Fisher Game Farm.

A First.

Mary is actually holding a snake.  It is dead.

Tahana and the snake

Green Mamba.

Some Recent Picts

This past week we have been busy preparing for exams and reports.  We did have a chance to take the grade seven and eight students to a local village for chance to sing and minister to the folks there.  It was great to hear Chigo and Jachin (two of my grade eight students)  share their testimony with the young people there.

kids listening

Nov 13th

Jachin Sharing

Nov 13th

village meeting

Nov 13th

4 on a sofa

Playing four on a couch at a friday night get together with the senior students.

Sakeji Bonfire

Independence day bonfire.

Snake at the pool

After an afternoon at the pool, this sake appears. A spitting cobra.  Kind of a nasty fellow. We are still looking for the large forrest cobra that lives in the ant hill on the path to the River.

November 1 Update

Today is Sunday and we have our weekend off.  It is nice to just sit and relax and not have to worry about the students. We went to the little village church on the edge of the farm this morning and then decided to go for a bike ride to the Ferguson's in the afternoon.  A storm was threatening but seemed far enough away. We should have known.

Apparently this area has the highest number of lightning strikes in the world! Makes you wonder who has time to count things like that! But we do have some amazing storms and they come up really fast.  Friday, one of the girls took 15 boys for a bike ride before supper- the sun was shining when she left and the boys came riding back within 15 minutes in a terrible storm.  We have a lightning siren so all the kids know to get into the nearest building as soon as you hear it.  This poor girl though had nowhere to shelter the boys except trees so she had them make a run for it.  They were soaked and scared and the girl had an asthma attack. But everyone was okay in the end- even me!

Well back to today, we had a nice time at the Ferguson's and saw some herds of Sable, Spring Buck, Kudu,  Pocu and Zebra.  It was tremendous watching the storm as it came across the valley and hit with a vengeance.  There was a lull in the storm so we decided to get back to the school.  Needless to say we got wet and muddy.  The wind had blown down trees on the trail and it took a bit longer than we thought.  When we got back we heard from the guard that some children in a nearby village had been struck by lightning.  We have not heard how they are.  We heard as well that a tree had come down on the power line at the orphanage.  No one was hurt there.  As I write this note the rains and thunder is starting again, I guess the rainy season is here.  The young 17 yr old girl who is the niece of the headmaster and staying here this term was down on river yesterday and ended up killing one snake and one got away.  These two were "boomslangers" and quite nasty I understand.  They say as the rains come, we will see more snakes.

The grade 7's wrote their national exams this past week which was quite stressful for them as it affects their opportunities for getting into the best high schools.  The exams are to see if the student can think through things or whether they have just memorized the facts.  Also tests their understanding of English. The Sakeji kids usually do very well on the tests as they are taught completely in English and by native English speakers.

We have a term break Monday and Tuesday so there will be no classes just supervision.  Sometimes it is more difficult as the students get more bangs, scraps and injuries. We will be back to regular classes on Wednesday.  Hope all is well with you.  That's all for now.

--
Tim McDougall
Check out our blog   www.timmaryadventure.blogspot.com

More kids

Kids in village

Local village kids

Zambian Kids watching as we pass by.

Tim Horton Camelion

 

Looking for coffee.

sakeji camelion

Camelion - one of many

October 18th Update

After Canadian Thanksgiving,

Did I tell you about the guy with the nail in his eye? Well it actually just hit his eye and bounced out but  it was a little scary.  Haven't seen him since but one of the workmen said that he is starting to get some sight back in that eye.  And then the guy that came at 10pm last Friday night with a fish bone stuck in his tongue? I sent him to kalene the next morning and they operated under a local for an hour to get it out.   This week has been ears, throats and a baby that I am concerned that I missed treating him . I have done lots of malaria tests but they all have been negative.  3 sprained ankles.   And Tim killed a snake – python the kids found  coming up from the river on wed.  there are definitely more snakes around and I guess it gets worse the more it rains. I am getting pretty good at killing scorpions  but hope that I don't have to kill a snake.    Thanks giving  weekend was  our weekend on so we had a lot of jobs, being that half the staff are off.  One of the staff members had to go to Kalene to have her nose fixed.  Two others went away for the weekend.

On the Saturday  we took the students to the pool swimming then came back up hoping to get a bit of a rest, when a loud knock came to the door.  It was a man  who had brought his wife in on a motorbike.  She had been bit three times by a snake.  He was not sure what kind of snake but thought it was a Shield-Nose.  It is a poisonous snake. Mary did an amazing job treating her.  Mary  called Mel from the farm to come over.  She was able to talk to the lady in Lunda.  We found out she was breast-feeding , so gave her ors for the baby while the mother is on medication.  We are praying that she will be okay.(and mary as well)!

We got some talk time and were able to call home for Thanksgiving.  We had a two minute call to Aly in Ottawa, before we got cut off. It was nice to wish her happy Thanksgiving.  We had a better connection when we called Katie in Philadelphia.  We were able to talk for about 8minutes.  Then we called Grama in Thessalon and it was great to hear her voice even if there was a 2 second delay.  It is such a problem when people talk on top of one another.  Anyway we got it figured out and had a nice talk for about 10minutes.  In all we talked for about 20minutes and it cost 150 000K.  I guess it was worth it.

This is pretty stressful here and I (Mary) am glad that our time is officially  half over!  God has been really faithful. I have claimed the verses  "as I was with Moses, so I will be with you… only be strong and courageous."  And " if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally..' and believe me I ask many times each day.  I have a hard time- second guessing myself  all the time- should I have used this medicine or that one. When do you use certain antibiotics etc. am I missing something- should have I done this or that?  But God has been faithful.  I have 3 different books- "where there is no doctor" " Diagnosis and treatment" and " a guide to tropical medicine" the problem is that often they all say something different and I can't decide which one to follow!    But God provides- yesterday, a  doctor (actually a plastic surgeon from new Zealand) who we met in the spring at Chit came and brought his family.  He is working at Kalene- (the next mission station that has the hospital)- they are there for about a month – So yesterday he brought the family over here for swimming with our students and so I had him see some people and asked him lots of questions. He gave me some good advice – like use septrin more and save amoxicillin for pneumonia and serious things.  I am having a bit of a hard time with the malaria testing- they are all negative and people are sure that they have malaria. So then I struggle with whether to treat them anyway or to rely on the test.   So I probably will start treating more people for malaria even if the test is neg, if they want the medication- still not sure but I have had some children in several times with fevers and headaches or stomach aches.

Yesterday we took a student from here to Kalene as she was spiking a high fever and we could not seem to find the cause.  The road is quite bad.  It just about 25km or so but takes almost an hour to get there.  It is quite interesting driving thru the many villages. Most buildings  are small, (8ftX10ft) made of mud brick with grass roofs.  Cooking is done outside  on a fire.  There are lots of kids and you have to be careful driving as they will run out in front of you.  It is a good thing you cannot go much faster than about 50km/hr.  I was just saying to Mary that travelling the main road here is like OFF-Roading at home.  At Kalene we had a nice visit with the Reeds ( a couple from Australia) and met a visiting doctor  (Gary & Sarah) and his family from Ontario.  It turns out they have spent time in Sudbury and know many of the folks at Lansing Baptist.  We decided to leave the student at Kalene and come back to Sakeji.  Hopefully they will be able to find out what is wrong.  They started her on a broad spectrum anti-biotic and wanted to watch her.  We took a different road on the way back but was more of the same.  Small village after small village.  Some have a community well but most have to walk to the river to get water.  It looks like a place for the well drilling machine.  Maybe we will have to make a trip up this way.

Take care. That is all for this update.

at river

 

Mwengwe having fun playing in the mud at the River.

My Students

My grade 7 and 8 students at the Sunday night fellowship.

Staff

Sakeji Staff September 2009.

Baby Owl

A baby owl found in the Assembly Hall.

Sakeji

The pond at the edge of the road.

Sakeji Plaque close

up close

Birthday greetings

Sept 17th, 2009

Boys looking for creatures.

Having Fun!

With kids at the River

Saturday we spend time with the students at the river for play and a story.

Boys Dorm

 

A picture of the boys end of the dorm.  The meeting room is on the right side..

Kids on the playground

 

Free time on the playground

Bedroom

This is our bedroom.