The mango season is well and truly with us at Katoka....

This is just to give a visual picture of our free mango supply which is such a help for the nutrition centre and for the old ladies on the church list. We have plenty of willing helpers to do the picking pealing and preparing too.

Brightening up around hospital.......

We have been doing various practical jobs around hospital lots of painting in the

semi -private rooms, I hope you like the lilac shade! Mwandaji and his helper Kayombo have made a good job of the rooms.
We have also been doing some repair jobs

and reroofing of some of the small houses on the hospital camp.

Prize giving.

We had a good time on Sunday morning when the ladies Bible School took over at church and we had singing, recitations and presentations of the certificats for the Sept 2009 to July 2010 sessions. The top three canditates also recieved telephones as well as their certificates so they were very happy. The No 3 spot went to one of my midwives who unfortunately is on holiday at present and so couldn't be with us, however, her husband had telephoned her to tell her and so she rang me in the evening to say thank you!!

I also heard from one of the elders who had been encouraged by finding out something about the Bible School programme and teaching so that was good.

Parcels

We had an SOS from Sakeji school in Zambia asking us to arrange urgently to collect our mail which was filling and over flowing their radio room.

I was able to arrange with our ex chauffeur to do a special trip in the land cruiser. They left 6am one day and returned 2 days later at about 6pm with a car loaded with parcels and swahili bibles and French new testaments so it was a very worthwhile trip for us and we are grateful to all the friends who have continued to send to us even though we no longer have a container service for DRCongo these days.

INAUGURATION DAY

Saturday 16th October was a special day for us here at Katoka because finally the 2ndry school administration and IT building, from our point of view was finished and opening day had arrived. There is still much to be done as far as fitting out the various rooms but we had a lovely time and we were able to Praise God for His goodness to us through His many children who have supported this project since the very beginning. Here you see the school Prefet (in the red shirt ) and the representative of the chief cutting the ribbon and declaring the building open. We then enjoyed a feast very nicely set out in the large assembly room.

Progress with the secondary school admin and computer studies building.

We were aiming to have the school building up and running for the start of the new school year so we are not too far behind shedule. We finished all the painting last week and installed the new desk in the prefets office so he was very delighted.

Hanneke our short term worker from New Zealand had bought some maps and other teaching aids too for the school as they really dont have a lot of equipment.

However the things which have caused the most excitement are the computers. This will be the only school in the area to offer this facility and so the prefet has been inundated with phone calls and requests for details about what is to be offered. hanneke is still working on the syllubus. The yound man who was doing the translation into French has been away for 3 weeks so that put things back a bit but hopefully they will soon have that completed.

We do need to find more computers hoever even laptops so that the school will really be able to function well. Of the 4 shown in the photo 2 work well and are completely set up and ready to go and the other 2 work well but need to be reprogrammed...not a thing that I know anything about!

So if any of you readers know of a supply of 2ndhand but working laptops please do get in touch!!

More on sponsorship

Here are some of the children being supported on this years programme. 2010 -2011. They range from the very small to the young "men" of the 6th form 2ndry school. All of them though have one thing in common they are relieved that having had their school fees paid they are assured of their place in the education system for another year.

We trust that they will work hard and make good use of the opportunities given.

at school for another year

September and the start of the new school year

We have been busy getting the sponsorship scheme under way again. Last Monday morning it looked as though all the school children were at my door so selecting 50 wasn't an easy task. Most of those on the scheme are orphans or certainly in some way disadvantaged.

The smaller ones were so cute when they got their exercise books and a bic for the first time!

A significant birthday celebration in July!

We left Katoka on the 28th June for a shopping trip and to meet up with 2 friends of Sandy's who will be with us for a month DV and also to celebrate my 70th birthday. Never in all my imaginings do I quess what kind of a celebration it would turn out to be....the biggest surprise of all which had been a carefully guarded secret for several months was to find my sister and brother in law Annie and Tony already in Lbshi and at Rest a while when we arrived in on the Tuesday late afternoon....it was just amazing and I was literally speechless !

Rachel and Ian between them had made an amazing programme and it was wonderful. First of all the 30th June was the 50yrs celebration of Independance so they had arranged a BBQ for that and to say Good bye to a missionary family Sandra and Eric with their 2 children.

Some missionary colleaques were not free for the atual birthday the 5th July so partying started on the Saturday with an absolutely hilarious visit to the zoo. Photos of this event to follow because you had to pay for each camera to be used on the premises and therefore Ginny offered to be official photographer and to make some discs of the event. Saturday evening about 22 of us went to a restaurant called "The Bush Camp " and again it was a great surprise I had never been there before and we had a lovely time..the programme included a "drama" by the Missionary Drama Group...Rachel, Ian, Carol, Ginny, Annie, Tony, Sandy and Hanneka it was so funny..then a huge ice cream cake was brought in ...definitely delicious!

Monday morning started with the work people coming to sing Happy Birthday and then I had been told to be ready to go out at at 10.45 in my glad rags so off we went and this time it turned out to be a trip to the Karavia hotel for coffee. This was always the poshest hotel in town but it has been closed for a couple of years for refurbishment and only recently reopened....it has been beautifully done and we sat outside overlooking the swimming pool and the lake, it was fantastic. Just nearby is a place called La Plage or the Beach which is like an shopping arcade but very exclusive and has apparently been done by the Governor of the Province, again it is only recently opened so most of us had not yet been there, so it was fun to see the facilities before heading back to Rest a While for a lovely lunch to which the Legal Representative Papa Wahenga and his wife had been invited also Pastor Mazau and his wife who does so much for us all here in Lbshi.

A very memorable indeed unforgettable weekend .................

Photos:-

1 Legal Representative and his wife

2 Pastor Mazau and his wife

3 Bush Camp

4 La plage
5 3rd Birthday Cake !

6 Ian and Annie and Tony

7 Rest a while workers singing Happy Birthday

8 The Big Surprise Annie and Tony and Mary in Lubumbashi !

Bush Conference Katoka June 2010

This year the elders of our churches had invited 2 full time workers from Zambia to come to DRCongo to do the teaching at our bush conference. As the name suggests the confernce is held in the open air and this year was in a lovely shady area not far from Katoka itself. Stephen and Charles seen on the left of the picture arrived safely on motor bikes having had a very interesting 4 day trip to get to us !

Their teaching was challenging and their enthusiasm infectious and their inclusion of the children in thevarious sessions was much appreciated . The estimated numbers were for over 1200 but at least 500 of these were children and so it was appropriate that their last day was a children's rally with banners and balloons and a march past they caused quite a stir in the nearby village so it was great.

We are grateful to them both for coming and grateful to God for safety in travel and for blessing their time with us so abundantly.

Kalene North West Province Zambia

I found this beautiful spot on a recent visit to Zambia. I had heard about the hydro electric scheme which had been installed in that area and so took the opportunity to visit while also visiting the CMML Hospital there. The natural beauty of the place is quite unspoiled despite this huge undertaking of providing power for the hopital and mission station and surrounding area.
A lovely peaceful place for a picnic and a swim and we certainly enjoyed the visit.

visit of my two Harvey nephews....Ian and Graeme

We have had a really great week with Ian and Graeme but sad really that Graeme only has 2 weeks in DR Congo and therefore is now off to spend the rest of this week with Ian his brother in Lubumbashi. Still I am really pleased that he was able to come and we have had a lot of laughs ! He arrived in time to celebrate Sandys birthday on the 25th May and this week in Lubumbashi will celebrate Ians birthday on the 3rd June so we had a pre birthday celebration for their last meal here which was also fun. Any excuse for another celebration and a special meal...it can't be bad !

Trip to Zambia

We have just got back from a very interesting trip to Zambia's North West Province. We did discover that the roads which used to be the envy of the folk on our side of the border are in fact beginning to resemble the ones here !!!

For those who know the district we entered at M'sha crossed the renovated Mukelweji bridge and spent the weekend at Sakeji School because Sandy's friend Hanneke arrived in from South

Africa( New Zealand) on the Saturday. She has come to help us at Katoka for 6mths all being well.It didn't take her long to get aquainted with some of the locals !

While we were in the area we visited the Kalene Turbo scheme which was opened about 2-3 yrs ago. The area has retained its natural beauty and the rapids are quite an amazing sight. Also a perfect spot for a swim.

On Monday we went on to Solwezi a town on the way to the copper belt. The attraction for us was its well stocked super market called Shoprite.....we had fun !!

photo from my last blog,

I am still having trouble with the internet connection, it takes forever to upload and then suddenly cuts out for no apparent reason, however having said that, I still find it amazing that we now have internet out in the african bush, so I shouldn't be complaining really. The offer on the Zain phones too this weekend has been great. If you buy 500 or more units on 2 given days then you receive a bonus of 100%. I put 50$ on my phone and got another 50$ for free, that can't be bad ! Well as you see the photo has finally appeared and this is our little solar oven. So far the temp seems to be sitting at 130C on a bright sunny day so we will continue to experiment and have fun, tomorow we are going to cook rice in it so that will be good.

cooking with solar oven

When I was down in Lubumbashi recently I was invited to join a seminar on solar ovens the why's and the wherefore's and the pros and cons.....well it proved to be a very interesting experience and included meeting an elderly lady working with the Methodist Church in Lubumbashi who was very experienced in this form of cooking and highly recommended it to us all.
I decided to invest in the smaller of the two versions available one was $60 US and the larger version $120 US. Now that our rainy season is almost over I can see we shall be using it on a daily basis but to date we have cooked banana buns, bran muffins, a chocolate birthday cake which was delicious, chicken pieces also scrumptious and this week we have started drying peanuts and sliced banana pieces. We did do bread rolls one day but after the dough having risen beautifully the clouds suddenly came over so we had to finish them in the wood buning stove instead!
The nutrition centre ladies have also started using it for their large soya cake which they make each week and are very enthusiastic now that they have seen and tasted some of the things which we have cooked.
It is such a simple design and one of its big attractions to our local people is that you need neither wood nor charcoal and yet can produce a very nice meal.

army ants

It was about 1 am that I heard Sandy speaking to the night guard in a semi frantic voice !!! Then she knocked at my door..have you got any army ants in there she asked ? No I said but leapt out of bed to see what was going on. Sandy had had an invasion in her room and what was worse was that they had found their way under the mosquito net around her bed and she woke up to find them all through her hair and biting with determined unity ! We went to look in our visitors room and that was also invaded so Sandy decided to go over to the other mission house....I went for a torch and discovered in that few minutes they had also reached my room and the bed was a moving mass.....we decamped together to the other house much to the amusement of the night guards....what was amazing was that by 7am when I returned to investigate there was no sign of them at all they had done their spring cleaning for us of all the cockroaches and any other moving insects and then they had moved out no doubt looking for more lucrative areas to invade ! Something to be glad about as in the Pollyanna game for those who know that from their childhood.....I am glad Sandy woke me in time to avoid having them through my hair.

exam time.

I have been busy marking exam papers for the Ladies Bible School group. They are a very keen and very competetive group of about 30 ladies and we meet once a week on each Monday afternoon

for our study group. Out of 28 who were present on the exam day 21 got more than 50% and the top 3 got 75% and then 2= at 72% so I was very pleased with those results. I just pray that the things which we study will be of practical value to them in their day to day lives. At the end of each term we have a fun and fellowship night at our house and this usual ends with a time of singing and praise as you see in this picture.