Bridget's Week in Seven Pictures

It has been taking some time for us to gather pictures for the blog posts.  This is mainly because life goes on here just the same and we struggle to find something new for you.  So we have given ourselves the challenge of taking one picture a day for a week to give  an indication of normal day to day life.
Here is Bridget's offering:

Sunday

The greeting line outside church

Monday

Load-shedding has started again (no power for 4 hours a day) so the brazier is lit for tea

Tuesday

Reading with Diana in the market

Wednesday

Grade 5 grappling with the silent 'e'

Thursday
I forgot to take a picture, so I snapped Lumba taking his little nephew, Caleb, for a spin on the bicycle

Lumba and Caleb (Caleb is about 2 years old, perched on the cross-bar

 Friday

A morning walk

Saturday

Sunday lunch is delivered - goat

Unwelcome visitor

This wee beastie turned up last week.  About 6 inches long and feasting on our veg...

New class for Amos

Amos was recently asked by some of the women he reads with, if he could also teach their children.  Some of the children are not in school, others just come along for some extra help.
Here they are having a lesson outside the house. 
The reading of all of them has improved markedly in the weeks that they have been coming.

Rain, or the lack of it..

This is Choma Dam, one of two reservoirs serving Choma.  The water should be almost up to the tree line at this time of year, this picture looks as if we are just coming to the end of the dry season, not the end of the wet season. 
It is so dry that there are people in what should be the middle of the lake collecting sand for building!
This means that there will be a distinct lack of water here this year - for washing and cooking and drinking.  Already gardens have been abandoned for lack of water.

This week we have had a few days of useful rain.  However, for the harvest this is too little too late.  It will however, help to fill some of the wells used for washing and veg watering.

Drought

As many of you have heard, we have not been having good rainfall this rainy season. Southern Province has been particularly bad, there has been better rainfall in other parts of Zambia.
Here are a couple of pictures to show the result.  These were taken at the beginning of March and there has been no significant rainfall since then.  With the end of the season approaching, and harvest coming soon, you can see that the situation is not good, particularly for those families who just have a small plot of land where they grow the maize that usually keeps them for at least part of the year.

This is a patch of very sad looking ground nuts, with some wilting pumpkins amongst them.

A field of maize. This should be tall and dark green, with some good cobs forming by now.

Spelling

This is a little taste of Zambian spelling:

Tiling?  You'll need some Bull Nose Grount!  A very common mistake, adding an 'n' after the final vowell

Space-Age Solutions?

Combination of Zambian and American spelling

Tairoring done here.  Another common error - changing 'l' for 'r' and the other way round

Brown-hooded Kingfisher

Happy New Year Everyone
This is my favourite picture from 2018



Brown-hooded kingfisher leaving its nest hole