In Memory

In August, the president of Zambia died. He was buried in the capital city on Sept 3rd, which would have been his birthday. The burial site is in a park close to the government buildings. We were able to watch some of the funeral proceedings on TV. They were very lengthy, so we didn't watch the whole thing. We thought the park was no longer open to the public, but we drove past it last week and caught a glimpse of the tombstone and saw people walking around. We were trying to find some other place, so we didn't take time to find a place to park and get a closer look. The banner above was put up at a roundabout in our city. We are grateful that the country has remained calm and at peace. We are now in the midst of campaigns for presidential elections which are to be held the end of October. There were many signs up in Lusaka, but not much is going on here except for articles in the papers. I'm sure there is stuff on TV and the local radio station, but we don't tune in to these regularly.

Sept trip to Lusaka

We went to the Lusaka, the capital city, last week. John was able to get some paperwork done for Central Africa Baptist Radio, we did some shopping and went to a zoo.


I love the flowering trees this time of year. As the trees in the US are changing colors, our trees are changing colors too. We are getting closer to the rainy season, but before the rains come, many of the trees burst forth with blossoms! The purple jacaranda trees lining this street are gorgeous. A little farther down the road the trees were fuller with blossoms, but I had to put the camera away. Police were everywhere and we were soon stopped to allow a VIP motorcade to pass. We got to sit there and look at the pretty flowers longer!


Who thought we would have to go to a zoo in Africa in order to see animals?! The zoo was small, but had a variety of animals. There was an enclosure with 6 adult lions that was impressive. I have to admit that I got the biggest kick out of the area that housed tortoises and rabbits together.

Mozart?

I was working on some simple flute arrangements of hymns that I want to play at church for a special service. While I was sitting at the piano picking out the notes and drawing them them on score paper, Becky was watching me. Then she got some paper and started composing her own song. In the picture, I think she is trying to draw a treble cleff, but it ended up looking like a capital B. She also loves to sit at the piano and "practice for her piano lesson". She is not taking lessons, but some of her MK friends are, so she hears them talk about it.

Then Caleb was inspired and was not to be outdone by his little sister. His song is quite lengthy and is called "Boy ABC". He even plays it on the piano - he thinks. Some of the notes appear to be lower than the range of the piano keyboard however.

The kids are young, Caleb at 6 and Becky at 4, but I think there are musicians in there somewhere.

Garden

There is not a great deal of room in our backyard for a garden, but we have managed to grow a few edible things. The strawberries are the Hafler's and I was instructed to take care of them. I'm doing my best and they do taste really good! We were given a dozen or so tomato plants from another family who was thinning out seedlings. We are still waiting for our tomato crop to ripen. We were also given lettuce seedlings from a third family. The lettuce is very good and we are enjoying salad frequently. Thankfully, the kids all like salad too. Farthest away in the plot is some chinese lettuce which is cooked by our workers for part of their lunch. There are some raspberries in the middle along the wall which we are looking forward to.

From our backyard

The kids made a rather alarming discovery in our backyard. They found this water scorpion. It actually is an insect, but takes its name from its similar appearance to a scorpion.

From what I read, they are not harmful, but may pinch if provoked. We released it in a lake about 30 minutes away when we were there for a picnic last week.

Fun with little friends

Earlier this week we enjoyed watching a couple of younger MKs for the day. The kids had great fun playing together. They pretended to be ferocious animals, built churches with wooden blocks (the boys each tried to make the tallest steeple), and lots of other things kids love to do. I even got them to play a game of "dust the furniture" for a while!

A special activity for our guests was the "jumpoline" that the Hafler's kindly left up for us to utilize during their absence. Becky's hairdo was the envy of the day.

Central Africa Baptist Radio under construction

John is excited to be able to be a part of a Christian radio station here in Africa. Actually being in charge of setting one up is a bit overwhelming though. The radio room, recording studio and control room are located on the third floor of Central Africa Baptist College's new building. The radio room is pretty much finished, complete with carpet on the ceiling and bamboo mats on the walls to help with sound absorption. This room will house the computers from which the broadcast will originate.

The recording studio will be used to obtain some material to air on the radio, Lord willing. This may include choirs, individual musicians, scripture readings, and other recordings. In order to keep out the noise from the lower floors of the building and also the noise from outside , John made this room with a double floor and special sound resistant walls. The walls are actually two walls thick and filled with foam. There is a bar in front of the college and a large public university adjacent to the property, so there is quite a bit of noise pollution around. I think more than one of the dorm men have invested in ear plugs.

In order to transmit the radio signal from the college building to the tower site, which is at another location, John has to install an antenna on top of the building. He has secured the pole already. That was a delicate job since the peak of the roof is about 12 meters up. They had to buy an extra long extension ladder and made sure it was securely tied. The internet receiver for the college is also attached to this pole.







After the radio signal leaves the college building, it travels to the tower site. The radio station is renting space on the tower to put up their antennas to broadcast throughout Kitwe and beyond. Some equipment has to be located at this site, so a small building is being constructed at the base of the tower.






I (Sophie) obviously do not know all the ins and outs of this radio thing, but I wanted to share some pictures with you and give you the basic idea of what is going on. For those of you who are cringing at my ignorance, please forgive me.