My first contact with Zambia came about twent years ago. I had been asked to be a house leader on a Habitat Blitz build in Georgia. One of the members of my crew was a short, seventy-ish, dark skinned man witha bit of a pot belly whose name was Kennenth Kaunda. When I first met him at our worksite, he was walking up the sidewalk smiling and waving a white handkerchief and singing, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine".   A very kind and gentle man and one that happenned to be the former president of Zambia (from 1964 to 1991). He had come to America to see how the Jimmy Carter Work Projects are done and it was his intention to establish the KKWP in Zambia.
     Fast forward twenty years to last fall .   Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Working as fulltime staff with the affiliate there. Larry Winger and his Kairos Carpenters are in town from Indiana working with us. Larry invites my boss, Brandon, to be his guest in January of this year, to accompany he and wife Cheryl and 7 others on a Global Village trip to Zambia. Months pass. Brandon's wife Susan's belly starts getting bigger with their 5th child and Brandon says that he will have to pass. Being to good soldier, I volunteer to go in his stead. Larry agrees and on Jan. 16th I head off on a 51 hour trip to Zambia, to meet a team led by Marilyn Emmert in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Part of the 51 hrs. is a 20 hour layover in Dubai. I am dtermined that I will meet my old friend, Kenneth Kaunda and as soon as I hit the ground in Lusaka, I begin hounding Paul, the local Habitat guy on the ground there and our guide for the week, to make it so. I realize that it is a ridiculous request, but as Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat, used to say- he tried two ways, the ask and the don't ask and he found that the ask works much better .   So I did. Long story short on that topic, Paul and the HFH office did try very hard to get this "Muzunga" (locals work for non Zambians) an audience with his office at the end of the week, but KK had fallen ill and was in South Africa. Oh well, next time.
     Once I arrived in Lusaka, I met up with the rest of the 9 person team and we spent the night at a motel. Next morning we piled all of our things on a bus and drove 6 hours north to the city of Ndola. It is near the northern border of the country. Zambia is a land-locked country in the south-eastern part of Africa with 8 neighbors on it's border.
      Our task for the week was to build a 20 x 25 ft. brick home for Sharon, a single mom and her three little children.   The foundation of the home was already complete when we arrived. The Global Village cooordinators in US had actually tried to discourage Marilyn from bringing the team since January is the rainy season there. We went and the hand of God blew the rains away for the week as we built the home . On the last day, after the metal roof was installed, Larry Winger, who is a corn farmer in Indiana, got his wish to see what the rain looked like there (it was wet and came down from the sky, too)
     A local mason, hired by the affiliate, named Dean kept us straight and another HFHZambia staffer, Checka, a young man with a beautiful smile, kept pushing us along. I got a little glimpse of what I must look like to the volunteers that I work with everyday in Alabama. Even before I got a task finished, Checka would come over and say, and next could you please do such and such. I was thinking, hey, I'm a volunteer here, and I just want to sit down and have a break, and this guy's pushing me on. Gimme a break!
     We stayed in two of the completed homes in this little village outside Ndola. HFHZ has built around 90 homes in that area over the past 5 years, many built with the help of Global Village teams like ours from Ireland, USA, Korea and the like.
      The men, five of us, stayed in the one two bedroom house with no furniture and a nice hard concrete floor . Outhouse out back with a hole in the ground and shower room iwth a heated bucket of water and a cup for a shower. No electric lights. All had mosquito netting around our sleeping bags. I brought a coleman air mattress that I discovered had a slow leak in it. Filled it up a few times per night with the battery pump I had brought, but later in the week, just once and then settled for sleeping with my flat mattress.
     I was amazed at the lack of tools available for use. A Samaritan's Purse cardboard box held a 5 or 6 hardhats, one hammer with the rubber handle part missing, a few trowels, one two foot level with a bubble missing and that's about it. Yet they still buiild. No wood or lumber around, but on the third day when we were ready to form for the conrete poured lentils over the doors and windows, a truck dropped off a bunch of strips of lumber with bark on the outside and a flat section of wood on the inside that were wired to the block and acted as form lumber. The only other wood used was for the purlins that supported the metal roofing .
       Larry and I both brought tools, trowels and levels, tape measures that we planned on leaving with the individual builders and also some public for the affiliate. I brought a little laser level that I would try to show how to make a level foundation, but we didn't have time, so I drew them a picture of how to use it instead. Our foundation was off 3 1/2 inches across the 20 ft. front of the house and also had quite a bow in the footer in the middle. Oh well.   Relative standard of goodness we call it.
      The home turned out fine. Completed in five days. Had a beautiful dedication ceremony with all of the villagers and the new homeowner.
      We also visited a local school on Saturday, where the class size is 50-60 kids per class. Very well behaved and respectfull of their teachers.   All in uniforms.   Witnessed a local drumming and dancing session by the 6th graders. Steve, a former pilot and one of our team, brought a few magic tricks with him and wowwed both classes. Steve aka the Great Longo (his last name . from California. Also on the team were Doctor and Mrs. Egli and the Doctors nurse Brenda. Felix from Mexico. Larry and Cheryl Winger.
     On Sunday attended service at a Catholic Church. Best choir ever heard by me. Very moving with joy and sorrow all mixed together as I watched and heard the whole congregation moving and dancing and singing as one.
     On the way home, another layover in Dubai. Didnt sleep on the airplane there and was quite tired. Arrived at 6 am on whatever day it was and went to see about getting a hotel room near the airport. They said, sorry no room, but if you wait till noon, maybe. In the mean time, youre welcom to go up on the roof and enjoy the pool...Went up, no one there but there was a row of comfortable recliners Laid down at 6 and awoke at 10am. The security man asked me if I was going to take the free shuttle bus into town.   Did so. Saw the worlds tallest building, worlds largest indoor aquarium, the Dubai Mall, a man-made island in the shape of a palm with the Atlantis hotel at the head of it, a new subway, 6 lane highways to ?, and the dancing waters at the base of the tallest building, syncronized to lights and music. Quite a contrast to where I had just been.
      I'm back in Tuscaloosa now. Great trip, but good to be back home. Had a day with Alan Park's group from Wisconsin.   Sorry I missed them, but, hey, there's always next time. That's all for now- library's gettin ready to close- Ciao- Luv ya'll-   Peter