Well, after sleeping in a tent the first night of camp, most of the interns wanted to come back to Lusaka for the night. While camp is amazing to participate in, we aren’t needed at night in Chongwe, and it’s nice to get away for a bit, have some quiet time, get a shower, and be ready for the next day. Today at camp I got to sort out over 300 shoes that two missionaries and their church donated to the kids. It was a wonderful gift! But after going through all the shoes, we realized that there wasn’t an even number of shoe sizes, which means that if we give the shoes out during camp, some of the kids won’t get shoes in the right size. So after unpacking the shoes and sorting them into sizes, we had to re-pack the shoes according to size and put them away again. We will be able to give the shoes away, but if we tried to give them out during camp, one child could go home with shoes that don’t fit them, so they would be useless.
I also had an unnerving experience the other day at camp that made me realize that not everyone in Zambia is perfect, even if they are picked to work for an organization like Every Orphan’s Hope. I had the job of going around from group to group and giving out nametags to all the children. So I came to this group of 11-12 year old girls, and their Zambian partner/ translator had a baby with her. Her baby was no more than a year old, it could sit up but that was most of what it could do. While I was writing down some of the girls’ names, the Zambian partner put her baby up on a small hill so she could go and help translate. The little baby, not crying or whining, lifted up his/her arms for the mom to hold him/her. The Zambian woman then slapped her little baby hard across the face multiple times. . I went to Mama, told her what happened, and Mama stormed outside to talk to the Zambian woman, and let her know that slapping her baby in front of the girls wasn’t appropriate. All the girls in the group, as well as the Teen Mania girls, saw it happen. I was stunned along with the Teen Mania girls, but the Zambian girls barely batted an extra eyelash. It must be common for them to see women punishing their children harshly like that. Children come last in the Zambian culture. Men are honored first, then women, then children. So it’s not uncommon for a Zambian to abuse their child.
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