Christmas Gifts from Groesbeck Grandchildren to Zambian Primary Children/Families

This year for Christmas, we asked all of our grandkids how they would feel about us using some of their Christmas money that we would send for their presents to be used to buy presents for our Primary children and their families.  Each of the 8 kids (Anson was too small to given his approval) said it would be fine to do that.  Most children here, at least the ones in our ward, no commercial toys to play with.  So we decided a soccer ball or frizbee would be the best gifts.  So we bought about 15 balls and 7 frizbees and started delivering them on Christmas day.  It was so much fun.  We didn't get them all done that day, so we also delivered on New Years Day.

Below  left is the Phiri family.  They came as refugees from Mozambique and then her husband left her with five children.  They are recent converts.  They were so excited to receive the ball.  We also gave a box of colored pencils to the older children and a box of crayons to the younger ones.  Most of them do not have these things at home.  We use them almost every week in Primary, so they were very excited to have some of their very own. This family walks about 5 kilometers to church every week. The mom carries the smallest boy on her back the whole way. We have started taking them home afterward.

Bottom right is Sister Mpalo and her daughter, Rosemary, and a neighborhood girl.  They are also recent converts, along with her son, Vincent.

 
The Magunjes are also a recent convert family.  Brother Magunje has been sick alot of the time and their circumstances are pretty humble.  Harrison was pretty excited about the ball, as was Cherish. She really DID NOT want to share it with her brother, but was willing to let dad play with it with her!

  
This is the Sikaonga family where they have 6 daughters and keep about 6 of their siblings children for a total of 12 children under age of about 10.  They run a school and so we also took them out some other games like pickup sticks and OLD MAID. The had never played these games before and it was very amusing to watch them learn.
                                                      
We had already given them a ball for the school, so they got a frizbee.  The kids were not exactly sure how to make it work, but it didn't take long to figure it out  

 Right is Sister Jessica Ngandabank and her daughter, Fides.  The fruit plate was for her parents, who we home teach.  We found out that day that Brother Banda had been admitted to the hospital.  His cancer treatments are not going too well and he had become paralyzed in his legs.
  
This is the Mwale family.  Marcus was not there.  Purity is in Alan's Junior Primary class.  Below is a picture of the Musanga family, that only has 4 daughters.  The rest are neighborhood kids who showed up to play dodge ball with the Musangas.
  
They really got into the game and were having a BLAST!  Or having a BALL!
                      
Below are Agness and Sarah Chifunda, the bishop's granddaughter and niece.  Sara just absolutely loves pink and wears it to Primary almost every week.  Below is Helen White and her friends.  We had already given then a ball so we gave their family a frizbee.
  
Everyone has to work a bit to figure out how to throw a frizbee, but they all seem to enjoy it when they get it.  It takes a bit of skill and some practice.
 
This is Anna and Joseph Kaluba.  They are so faithful in attending Primary.  If we had favorites, (which we don't) they were be included in the list!
 
This is Sister Mwanamoyo and their son Louis.  He really didn't want to share the ball with his friends and family.  Hopefully, he will also learn how to share.  Below is Brother and Sister Phiri and their twins, Samuel and Sara.  The older girl is Violet and is one of our faithful Primary attenders.
  
Here we have Isaac Tembo, Judith and Mary and their mom.  Yes, that's red and blue hair they are sporting.  When school is out, African students get their hair all plaited up.  They have to remove it before school starts as the government schools ban doing hair like that.  And it's not their real hair.  It is sort of a yarn that is woven, or plaited, to their nature hair, which is usually very short.

We did not get pictures of all the houses we visited, but there was agreement that we left them much happier than we found them.  Everyone of the recipients was so humbled that our grandkids would be willing to give some of their Christmas to them, and so grateful to receive a gift that all their family could play together  Oh, and we also gave each family a picture of all 9 of our grandkids with their names labeled on the card. Some of the kids were almost more excited about the picture than they were with the gift!  We also provided a bag of beans for the family.  And it was also surprising how touched they were with just a large bag of beans!

We noticed that, except for one house (the Whites) there was no Christmas tree, no decorations and no presents.  These things are way to expensive for most Zambian members to afford.  So Christmas is just another normal day for most of them.  Hopefully, they will remember this Christmas as not just another normal day, but will remember that we love them and that our grandchildren wanted them to have at least one present for Christmas.
                       

Getaway to Chamanuka

In December we had planned to fly to South Luangwa Park and do some game drives and get a a much-needed break.  However, that would have taken about 5-6 days and we just didn't have that much time.  So we decided to to go to a Chamanuka, a much closer resort that only took 3 days.  We had a great time.  We saw quite a few animals.....

and enjoyed the grounds and the building (museum) on the property.
 
The picture on the left is what we could see from the balcony of our room.  It was in a great spot where we could see a few animals every day.
 
We took a banana boat cruise on this little lake.  We did't see many animals but a lot of birds.

 
We also took a 2-hour nature hike through the bush to learn more about the flora and fauna of the area.  It was one of the warmer days and we got a pretty good sunburn.  We found this termite mound and Alan thought it was pretty neat, so we took a picture.  There were actually no live termites in the mound, but there had been. as evidenced by its size.

  
We went on three different game drives and each day saw something a little different.  The lions are not allowed to free roam in the park, but we still got some pretty good pictures of them.
   
We also did not walk the cheetahs this time.  It was so much fun last time, but we just didn't want to do it again right now.  I'm glad we didn't because we did it with the senior couples for the conference. The cheetah sure is a beautiful animal.

On different drives we saw a good number of giraffe, but not too many zebra.  During the rainy season there is so much water and feed that the animals don't really need to come where people are to get what they need.  It was still very beautiful because of the greenery from all the rain. 

 

We saw cows (yup they are there for the cheese factory) and a Cape Buffalo.  We haven't seen the buffalo there before. .

 

We saw many different types of antelope.

 
 




They even have ostriches.  When we heard they raise them there and had some babies, we asked to go see them.  The guides were very accommodating and drove us over to see the babies.
 
The last morning we were there we took the morning game drive and Kotilla, the elephant, had not been let out of her enclosure for the day. So we got to get up close to her.  WE were able to pet her (do you really pet an elephant...I don't know?) and feel how rough and think her skin is.  Her trunk is really strong and she wanted to give us a hug.
     
Her keeper was very careful to keep us a safe distance from  her.  We were able to feed her some grass and it was just fun!  Kotilla has a keeper with her about 24/7.  One of the three of them have to be with her when she goes out into the bush of the reserve.  If not, she would uproot the trees and destroy most of them in the park!  She is very obedient to her keeper though and so he just follows her around all day.  The male elephant and her baby died within the past year and so she is a big lonely.  They say they are trying to get more elephants for the park, but it's quite expensive and so it hasn't happened yet.

We ate in a very nice dining room as well as out by the pool when it wasn't raining.  The resort was very nice in terms of decorations and artifacts from all over Africa.
 

This is the view from our balcony.  IT REALLY WAS THE NICEST ROOM IN THE RESORT!  We visited with the woman who owns and runs the place with her husband.  She said the room we were in was the one their children stay in when they come to visit because they like it the best.  I totally agreed with them.


It was a great few days.  The road up was pretty bad and we had to accelerate through big mud puddles to get there.  The truck was a mess when we got back to Lusaka--almost red from the muddy water.  But it was worth it and we are glad we took a few days off.  We came back a little more refreshed and ready to face the rest of our mission days with new enthusiasm and vigor.