Zambia Overview

It is great to be home. There are a ton of stories to share, but I thought we'd just start out with a general overview of what Camp Life was like and we'll fill in specifics in the days and weeks to come. Each week, they bus about 850 kids in from different orphanages or community schools in and around Lusaka and those kids get to come to Camp from Monday through Friday. The next week, they go to different orphanages and schools and bring in 850 different kids and so on. We were there for Week Three. The kids are put in to groups of about 20 and each group has an American and Zambian volunteer to serve as their camp counselors for the week. Sunday - there was a meeting and we got to meet the Zambian volunteer that we would be partners with for the week. They helped greatly with translation, local games and songs, etc. Laura and Vasty Brian and Francis Monday - the kids arrived and we were given our small groups...Laura got the little ones (girls, about 5yr - 8yr) and I had a group of boys (9yr - 14yr) Tue & Wed - the kids come in the morning and we have small group time to sing songs, talk about the lessons from large group, etc...then we go inside for a large group session (songs, lesson)...then back outside to talk about the lesson, have lunch, play games...then back inside for another large group session...then back outside...then the buses come at about 4:00 Thursday - very cool day...every single kid gets a new pair of shoes on Thursday morning, so instead of being with our small groups, all the American volunteers stay inside while the kids are brought in school by school to be fitted and receive a new pair of shoes, a t-shirt and a bandana. By lunch, 850 kids have new shoes and smiles. At lunch, we meet back up with our small groups, talk and then, the really great part, we get on a bus with them and go to their community. Lots to share about this, so I'll leave it there for now. Friday - same general schedule as tue/wed except the kiddos leave at 2:00 :( What's cool is that after Weeks 3 & 6 (they do 6 total weeks of camp) they do "Rally Day" on the following Monday. And that's where they bring in all the kids from Week 1, 2 & 3 (about 2500 kids) and do a big large group session with songs, etc. So we got to be there for that which was really incredible. So, that was a week ago, then on Tue, Wed, Thur we went down to Livingtone and Victoria Falls and relaxed, processed and reflected. Friday, we returned to Lusaka; Saturday morning we flew from Lusaka to London, stayed the night and flew from London to Dallas on Sunday.

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