Meet Doris

Doris is the cleaner and cook at school. She always greets me cheerfully, works hard and will do whatever is asked of her. Every morning she makes porridge for the children and then cleans the classrooms and toilets. Her English is limited but good enough for us to have basic conversations.

Doris serving porridge at school

The children enjoying the porridge Doris has cooked

Doris is one of the guardians supported by Arise. She has told me a little of her story and I thought I would share it so that you can understand more about some of the people who Arise support. Doris is a widow raising her four children alone after her husband died a few years ago. Her husband became ill quite suddenly, although his actual illness was never diagnosed. Sadly as time went by, he became less able to function and spent the last seven months of his life unable to speak.

Doris’s youngest two daughters attend Kaniki Primary School, in grades 5 and 7, and live with her in Kaniki Extension. There is no secondary school in this area so her older children, her son and oldest daughter, who are in grades 10 and 12, attend schools in town where they live during term time.

Doris' younger daughters when I visited during the rainy season

Doris and her daughters live in a small brick house with a corrugated tin roof. In the lounge there are a few old sofas crammed in with a table and a dresser. The windows are actually just holes in the wall. During one of our visits to Doris’s home, the rain was so heavy that conversation became impossible because it was so loud! Once the rain had died down, Doris explained that she was struggling with money and was finding it hard to provide food for her family, even though Arise pays her children’s school fees.

The kitchen area in the entrance of the house

Doris earns K200 (roughly £20) a month for her work at school, which is a reasonable wage here. When we talked to her, we found out that K150 (75% of her monthly earnings) was going towards her son’s accommodation near his school in town. Her older daughter is able to stay with relatives there. This meant that Doris and her younger daughters were living on the equivalent of £5 a month between them. Fortunately Arise rents out a couple of houses for boys in town and so we arranged for her son to move there, funded by Arise.

Following that visit to see Doris, I bought her a bag of meale meal, which makes nshima. I have never seen someone so grateful. She got down on her knees and said thank you, which was very humbling and brought tears to my eyes. This small gesture which meant so much to her cost me just K210, or £2.10.

It is great that Kapumpe Primary School has been able to employ one of our Arise guardians. It helps to give Doris some dignity, since having a job means she can directly provide for some of her family’s needs. Sometimes it is difficult to see how we can empower people to fully escape poverty, but Doris is an excellent example of a step in the right direction.

So far, yet so near

As I write this blog post I'm also instant messaging my sister Rach on my phone, and I’ve just finished reading some emails from friends and family back home. Thank goodness for technology which enables us to keep in touch so easily! Shortly I’m going to Skype my sisters, parents and auntie who are all having dinner together at my parents’ house to celebrate my auntie’s birthday. I regularly Skype my family as well as friends from Winchester (the beautiful city I have come to call home having originally moved there for university) and friends in other locations around the UK. It’s amazing to be so far away yet thanks to technology, feel as if you’re having a conversation with someone almost in the same room.

Living here in Zambia is pretty far from home, 4719 miles to be exact. I miss a lot of people and have missed some special events whilst I’ve been away; my sister Rhi’s 30^th birthday, my Mum’s 60^th birthday, my Nan’s 90^th birthday, and my cousin’s wedding to name a few. Yet, when I'm asked if I feel homesick, I always say no. I hope my family are not too offended by this! Although I would love to see everyone at home, and can’t wait to catch up in December, what I am doing here right now feels pretty special…challenging yes, but also a great thing to be part of.

Rather ironically, my family are now eating dinner and drinking prosecco, whilst I’m sat in my room in near darkness. We are in the middle of another Zambian power cut! Yet, as I'm sat here alone typing this blog on my phone by candlelight, I am actually very happy to be here. Despite the power cuts, insects and dirt, Africa is a great place to be and a continent that I have grown to love. I love the kids I work with and it is a privilege to be in a position to help people who live on the opposite side of the world (in more ways than one) to home.

Sitting in my room, all I can see is the candle and its reflection in the mirror!

I'm learning to live in the now. Rather than thinking, ‘If only I could be there or do that…’ I can choose to make the most of where I am at the moment. Jim Elliott (the missionary murdered in Equador) said, “Wherever you are, be all there”. I find this an encouragement to fully commit to and engage with what I am doing now.

When I think of people who travelled or worked abroad many years ago before the internet and telephones were invented, I realise how fortunate I am – if I had to rely on the Zambian postal system to keep in touch with people at home then I really would feel remote! Just a couple of months ago, we had a newspaper delivered for someone who was here eight years ago!!! I think that must be some sort of record. I love to hear from friends and family back home and I really appreciate all of your emails, Facebook messages, Skype calls and even some letters. Thank you.

My Dinner Club buddies

Nan at 90!

Skype with Stew

Clothes and bras in Zambia

I love clothes shopping! I think my sister Rach and I both got the shopping gene from Hope, our Nan. Both of us enjoy shopping for hours at a time and even at 90 years old, Nan still does well going round as many clothes shops as possible whilst being pushed in a wheelchair!

Nan and I stopping for cake during a shopping trip

I know some people hate shopping for clothes and only do it when absolutely necessary or maybe choose to shop online, but either way it's very easy for us to do in the UK. Whilst most of us don't have the money to buy all the things we want, we do have the means to buy the clothes that we actually need. Sadly this is not the case for the families that we support through Arise.

Each year, Arise runs a clothes distribution where children and guardians are invited to come and collect some clothes for free (or make a small contribution towards any shipping costs). This year, Rosie and I were the organisers. We were warned we would need military-like precision to keep things orderly, since given the chance most people will grab as many items as possible!

Mrs Chomba (one of our Arise volunteers) who calls herself  my African granny!

The clothes that we distributed were donated by people from Denmark and shipped over to us in a container with lots of other items. The bags of clothes had been left in the container for some time so they were pretty wrinkled and a bit smelly, but nothing that a good wash couldn't sort out.

These football jackets were snapped up quickly!

Children in grades 1-5 were invited to come to the clothing distribution on Monday afternoon, with those in grades 6-9 on Tuesday afternoon, guardians on Thursday morning and anyone who had missed their session on Thursday afternoon. People were limited to taking two or three items of clothing, depending on availability for their age group. Unfortunately we didn't have many items for younger children (apart from babies), and in particular boys. Everyone had to sign their name (or get us to write it for them if they couldn’t) on our list, so that we could track who had been. At the end of the week, we let anyone who is supported by Arise come back and take as many of the leftover items as they wanted. Several people left with sacks stuffed full of clothes!

Although not all the people who came could write to sign their name, Grade 1 children from Kapumpe could!

It was interesting seeing different peoples’ reactions to the clothes. As we helped people search through the piles, some screwed up their faces at our suggestions and spent ages looking for something they liked, whilst others were thrilled with anything that we showed them. One of the sweet old grannies even started dancing because she was so happy with what she’d been given!

White clothes were not so popular because they get so dirty in the dust!

Anyone who found a warm jumper or a coat was happy. Now that we're in the cold season, people living in the villages do need lots of clothes to keep warm. It gets pretty chilly in the mornings and also at night. Underwear was also in demand. Very few of the women in the villages where Arise works own a bra, because they simply can’t afford to buy one. If you don’t have enough money to buy food, then underwear doesn’t often make it on to the priority list. I’m pleased to let you know about an idea of Rosie’s that we have started…we have declared BRA AMNESTY!

My sister Rhi and Rosie's Mum, Kathy, are both collecting any old or unwanted bras from the UK, to bring over to Zambia in August so that we can give them to the ladies here who don’t have one. We’d like to ask you to donate any spare that you might have; it’s a small thing to many of us but will mean a lot to the women here in Zambia. You can contact Rhi (Winchester/Woking) at rhicross99@gmail.com or Kathy (Birmingham) at kathy@loescher.co.uk or you can find them on Facebook. Thank you to those of you who have donated to the amnesty already. Feel free to message me for further details; you can find my contact details to the right of this post.

I have been hearing that it has been lovely and sunny in the UK - hotter than here for once! I hope you are all enjoying the sunshine just as we are starting to wrap up warm here.