On Tuesday things were different. We had planned to visit some various ministries in the area, but we ended up only visiting one, the Crisis Nursery of Ministry of Hope. The nursery was established in 1999 by a family from CCBC. They found that people were abandoning babies shortly after birth. They set up the ministry as a way to take the children in, provide a safe place for the child to grow up and if the relatives are living and want the child, after 18 months they would go back to them. In some cases, the children are put on a list for foster care and some eventually adopted. (Pastor Henry of CCBC found his little girl Deborah here.) We were all a little nervous as to what to expect. We feared that the children's living conditions may not, well be, up to standard. However, that was not the case. You could tell that the staff loved and cared deeply for the babies in their care. Currently, the nursery has 15 babies. They use to take up to 27 babies, but the people helping fund their organization had to make cut backs. Where they use to get $8000 per month, they only get $6000 a month. If any of the readers have babies, you know that babies are expensive especially formula and factor in the cost of health costs as some of the children may be very sick, such as having HIV.
The first room we entered, the children were in their cribs, holding out their hands for us. As we continued with the tour, we each picked up a baby. On the final stop of the tour, we were in the play room. The kids are trained to be in their cribs as there aren't enough caretakers for 1 on 1 care, so after having them out for a while, we were nervous to send them back to their cribs. However, we didn't have to be the bad guys, the caretakers took them back. It would have been so easy for us to walk out with a few of them, if only they'd let us.
Later that afternoon, we were to attend the funeral of a sub chief of Kauma Village. He passed away on Saturday from pneumonia and malaria. On Monday, James asked another sub chief (there are 10 total), if we could attend the funeral and he approved. We weren't sure what to expect, but we knew that we would not be able to stay for the entire funeral as it was a traditional African funeral as he was a non believer. Therefore, James and other believers leave early. When we first got there, we sat in a hard, weedy with stickers area in the back. Then, we were moved closer on the porch and front area of a house that had a mat. We were informed that we were going to meet with the chief. That four of us could go and meet with him. Richard, Mary, Kelley and Stephanie went with Moses and James to meet the chief. We were taken into a house and sat on the floor. A guy came in started speaking in chchewa and the only word we understood was Fanta. Moments later the guy came back with 6 fantas. Come to find out, the guy was the head chief. He wasn't wearing the traditional garb like we had expected. He sat with us and Richard expressed his feelings and shared Christ. The chief was gracious and listened. We hope that seeds were planted as he is a non believer as well. We gave the chief money to help with the funeral cost, 3000 kwacha. After he left the house, we drank our fantas and found out that the sub chief that passed away was actually his son. When we came back to the funeral area, we were again moved to another area. We were given seats of honor in chairs in the front row along with the chief. Talk about feeling awkward. We felt as if we were on display. As we were walking to our new seats, every eye was on us. I asked Joy what they people were saying, and she said that they were honored that azungu had come to the funeral and that they were pleased. That eased some of our fears. The area filled in. All you could see where people. If we had to guess, there were at least 2000 people if not more. There were kids climbing the tree to see what they could see. We have never seen so many people packed in so tight. There were a few times when it seemed so chaotic that we feared for the children on mothers' backs as it seemed that they could get pushed over and trampled. Here we are at this funeral with 2000+ Africans, 7 azungu oh and 2 chickens. Somehow 2 chickens got trapped in the open circle surrounded by people. We pray that this was an accident and not done on purpose for some ritual that we missed when we left early. First several men stood up and spoke. While they were speaking, men would come up and give money. We found out that when someone shared memories and met their expectations, they would give money to thank them for sharing. Then, the men in mask (forgot the chchwa word but it means animals) came out, it was an unusual sight and some were a little nervous. The first set danced with their ponga knives. Next, men on stilts performed. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. We were honored that they allowed us to be there and experience it.
in the trees
Unfortunately, we did not get to see the children today since the funeral took up most the afternoon. Our hearts would have to wait until Wednesday.
We shared our last dinner at Kuka Lodge. Wednesday night, we would go out to eat. It's been great staying here and we hope that other teams will stay here going forward. We have fallen in love with the staff: Felix, Hartley and Enock.
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