Kalabo

These past few days have been a great introduction and reminder of the rural population in Zambia…and very representative of the rural way of life for so many people in Africa. The estimation is that 65% of the Zambian population lives in a rural area. Now when we hear the word rural back home in Canada….life doesn’t even compare to here. The rural way of life has a whole other meaning in Africa. Rural often means extreme poverty, and it is poverty like I have never seen. It is shocking to see that so many people in this world are living this way.

Gene Krupa (one of our colleagues with the Zambia Health Initiative) has been sponsoring children with World Vision for about 20 years. Now I will admit that many times I have seen those ‘World Vision commercials’ on TV..with malnourished children and flies all in their eyes. You also see how far they have to walk to get water, and how little they live off for food. You also see how the whole family (and that includes grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers..etc) live in one small mud hut, and all sleep in the same bed. Well it is all true, but don’t let that be the only thing we know about them.
This past weekend we had the privilege of visiting a village sponsored by World Vision.
The area we visited was around the very small town of Kalabo, World Vision uses this town as a base. One thing I learned about World Vision is that they choose their communities very wisely, based on needs. They plan to be in the community for 10 years, and have a 3 year plan to phase out. The one thing I like about World Vision’s philosophy is how they work to improve the whole community, including areas in agriculture, education, health, water and sanitation, infrastructure development and capacity building. They also keep in mind that all these projects have to be sustainable, so that means when World Vision pulls out..the people of the village are still able to carry on with all the projects on their own. Makes sense..doesn’t it?

Now Kalabo is a village that is only accessible by water. Currently there is no road access, for reasons I don’t quite understand. So that means we had to go by boat…but not any boat…we got to take the World Vision Speedboat!

The boat ride took about 2 hours along the Zambezi River. On the way we passed scattered straw homes along the banks of the river. It was great insight into how the river people live. I felt like the Queen the whole time because every single child we passed waved to us. That is why I love Africa.
We stayed the night at a guest home in Kalabo, then the next day took a few 4X4 LandCruisers to Namatendi. A small village within the catchment area of World Vision’s Kalbo project. It also happens to be where Gene’s sponsor children live. It isn’t often that outsiders come to visit this village..so we were quite the spectacle!
As soon as we arrived the whole village was out in the village square ..there was drumming and dancing to welcome us. Lianne and I even got in on a little dancing…

Then we toured around to the homes of Gene’s children. It was very special to see the difference he is making in their lives. The fact that these kids can go to school..is huge! I think my favourite part of this whole trip was walking around the village. Everywhere we went we had a HUGE trail of children following us.

Now both me and Lianne always have to have fun with the children. Lianne even brought a fake microphone so we were all singing. Even a rendition of ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Whitney Houston was busted out! There is just something about the kids here in Africa..so happy all the time...i just love em. I really hope that we can get back here to visit. People were so gracious and thankful that we would come all the way out to Namatendi to visit their village..as no one every comes due to the lack of transport.

All in all it was a very special visit, something that I will never forget.

Jessica