4.5 weeks of orientation are now done. A couple of weeks
ago, we had a discussion with Lynn, the Operations Director at Hands, and a
good friend dating back to when Byron first started with Hands in 2008, about
our role going forward. We knew that it was likely we would be sent to one of
the other 7 countries that Hands operates in after orientation but we really
didn’t have a preference for any particular country. It was difficult to feel
led in a certain direction, having never been to any of the other countries
before. We basically put our faith in the leadership at Hands to place us where
we would be best suited and most needed. That place has now been determined …
Zambia!
We are actually leaving for Zambia tomorrow (Thursday)
morning at 4:00 am to make the long, 3-day journey by car, in which we will be
driving up our recently purchased car (more on that in a future post). Luckily,
we won’t have to make the journey by ourselves as there are several other
people from Hands heading up to Zambia for an internal workshop being hosted for
the Regional Support Teams, which we are now a part of. We will also have the
opportunity to spend the next three days with Kristi and Daytona in our car,
another married couple in our intake, who have been posted to a different
region in Zambia. We’ll know each other real well by the end of the trip!
So here are the dets … We have been posted to a city called Kitwe
which, according to Wikipedia, is the second largest city in Zambia with a
population of over 500,000. Some of the leaders here at Hands think that the
population is actually closer to 1,000,000. Remember, Hands’ vision is to reach
into the poorest of the poor communities, so we will likely be doing a lot of
our work in the surrounding villages. While there, we will be part of the
Regional Support Team that supports Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo
and Malawi. Our specific role, however, will be to support the Kitwe Service
Center which, in turn, supports 9 different community based organizations in
the surrounding region.
Initially, the plan was for us to be posted there until
Christmas and then to be posted to a different location after Christmas. The
plan is now for us to be posted in Kitwe until at least the end of April. From
what we have heard from everyone at Hands, Kitwe already has an amazing team of
local people with huge hearts to care for and serve the most vulnerable. What
they are lacking is more of the capacity and organizational components, which
is where our skills will hopefully be utilized. Apparently, Kitwe is positioned
as a model service center but there is a long-term need to build capacity there,
hence the reason we will now be there for at least the next 6 months. Our role
for then next little while up until Christmas time will be to soak everything
in and build relationships. It would be foolish and ignorant to think that we
can step right into a situation and immediately produce results. We need time
to understand each of the different communities we are serving and what their unique
needs are. We need time to get to know the careworkers, the service center
coordinators, and the members Regional Support Team. It is extremely important
that we have patience and grace during this period. There is a tendency for us
Westerners, when dealing with Africans, to think we know best and to try to
implement all of our strategies and ideas. It is essential that we remove the
temptation to try and take over and, instead, empower the local team of people
that have been there much, much longer than us to guide us and teach us about
their culture, their language, their communities and their people. We are
extremely stoked to be continuing our journey into Kitwe. Please pray for us!
During our road trip to Zambia, we will be staying overnight
at two different locations. We drive 13 hours the first day and will stay
overnight in Botswana. The second day, we will drive about 12 hours and will stay
the night just over the Botswana/Zambia border in a small town called
Livingston, home of the famous Victoria Falls! We are taking advantage of the
fact that we are passing right through Victoria Falls and have decided to stay
an extra night in Livingston with Kristi and Daytona. We’re so excited to have
the opportunity to see Victoria Falls and will definitely be posting about this
adventure later! In the mean time, wish us luck on our 3-day drive!
