The last week of 40/40 we were blessed to stay in the home of David and Zelipa Banda for three days. David is a farmer and he and his wife have 5 children ranging from 2 months to 20 years.
Here is a shot of David and Zelipa in front of the house where we slept. This small brick and tin roof structure was actually divided into three small rooms. We slept on the floor on mats in one of the rooms and all of the Banda family slept together in the front room. The house was very hot with next to no ventilation. Sleeping was rough.
This is three of the children. David Jr., Agnes and baby James.
Our first day with the Banda family was very laid back. We watched the children play a game called Nsolo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nsolo It was played in the dirt using seed pods for the playing pieces.
David had been through a program entitled “Growing God’s Way” and had learned some ways to help increase his crops. Here you can see Jeff helping him plant Musangu seeds in small plastic sleeves filled with dirt. http://www.conservationagriculture.net/assets/images/media/20070621_124428_Leaflet1-HowtoPlantandLookAfterFaidherbiaalbida.pdf When these seeds have grown to be small seedlings, he will plant them among his crops. As they grow and the leaves fall onto the ground, they will act as a natural fertilizer to increase the soil fertility.
David has to water the seedlings everyday.
After lunch we made a trip to the borehole. Here you can see Jan doing woman’s work.
Over the next couple of days we had many adventures just participating in the everyday life of the Banda family. We got up at 5:30am and after a little bed and tea we walked for 30 minutes to their field. Once there we hoed small holes and then dropped velvet bean seeds into the holes and covered them over with soil. These seeds would help to produce nutrients that were good for the soil. After planting, we walked the perimeter of his field and prayed over this year’s harvest.
In the afternoon we went to visit some people from the church we wanted the missionaries to come and pray for them. We visited and prayed with widows, the sick, crippled, stroke victims, women whose husbands were not treating them well, the elderly, and those with broken relationship.
Jan had the opportunity to pound maize and Jeff was able to show David that he did know how to milk a cow.
Sunday morning as we were preparing to go to church, we witnessed our lunch being purchased and then slaughtered. Zelipa was wonderful about cooking all of our meals but when it came time to eat, we would eat in the house with David and she would eat outside with the children.
We attended church and it was packed out. I think everyone got the word that the missionaries would be there this week.
We left the Banda family Monday morning and headed back to Lusaka where we spent our final three days at Ibis Garden and nice resort complex with air conditioning and a pool!!
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