Please Note:

If you would like to read the blog from the start of our trip,

please begin with the "Leaving Chicago" entry and work your way forward.

To whom much is given....

I wonder how many of us in the United States realize that despite difficult circumstances that we all face, we are still among the wealthiest 5% of people in the world. Those of us on this trip have been blessed with a great school where we are receiving an education that puts us into an even smaller minority.

There is a teaching of Jesus in the gospel of Luke that says, "To whom much is given, much is required." At the beginning of our journey to Zambia, and then at points throughout our time in Africa, we discussed the idea that this trip and experience are a gift. This is an opportunity that we have been given, and we have a responsibility to make the most of it. Not just while we are there, but as we return to our lives here in Chicago or wherever we find ourselves.

We are excited to watch one another's lives and to see how each of us will be led to respond and follow up to our incredible experience together in Zambia....

Caroline, Moses, Aubrey, Laura, Matt, Roxanna, Linnea, Nikki,

Adrian, Carol, Aaron, Amanda, Christina, Hannah and Rich

Many thanks to all those who contributed and made this life changing experience a possibility for us and to those who are joining us as we continue to partner with Hope Ministries in Zambia.

If you would like to find out more about Spark Ventures and Hope Ministries or how you can get involved, please go to www.sparkventures.org.

Safari

Before we left Zambia, we had the chance to go on a brief safari at the nearby Nsobi Gamepark.

New Family & Friends

While in Zambia, we had the privilege of staying in host homes. These wonderful families cooked for us, taught us about Zambian life and culture and received us as extended members of their families. What an honor and an amazing experience.

We also met new friends who welcomed us into their community and their lives, making it tough to leave.

Work and Play

We were able to help paint the house that serves Hope House Orphanage.

And in between coats of paint we played with the kids and afterwards took them to the field down the road where football (soccer) and other games were great fun for all...

We also made bricks for a fence they are putting up around the new orphanage property.

Sponsorships

While the nursing and pre-med students worked in the temporary clinic, others helped with a major effort by Spark Ventures to gather profiles for all of the children at Hope Community School and Hope House Orphanage.

North Park students worked with interpreters to get names, ages, family backgrounds, favorite foods and subjects from the children. Others took pictures of the children with their names using digital cameras.

The information is now being assembled into sponsorship profiles, which will be made available through Spark's website. The money that comes in from the sponsorships will help to cover the costs of running the school and feeding program.

"It was great to be in on the beginning of something that I know will last into the future. I feel like I was working on a project that will make a difference," explained one of the North Parkers.

The Clinic

Nursing and pre-med students from North Park had expressed interest in using their skills while on this trip, so we partnered with two Zambian nurses and set up a temporary clinic in one of the two school classrooms.

The first day we saw 25 children from the school. The second day, 75. By the third day of the clinic we had a system in place and were able to see the remaining 150 children. We experienced several tense moments as people from the village, who were desperate to receive medical attention for themselves or their children, often crowded the building and tried to push their way in.

Basic vital signs were taken, the children were checked for infection, malaria and worms. We had medications and all kinds of medical supplies thanks to generous donations from the Nelson family, whose daughter and North Park student Linnea was a nurse on our trip. All of the children received multivitamins, and those who needed it received treatments for worms, cough and infections.

Each child in the school now has a medical chart and North Park hopes to return every 6 months to conduct a similar clinic and do further medical assessment and treatment.

The Funeral

During our first weekend in Zambia, we got word that a nine year old boy from Hope Community School had died of malnutrition and possibly malaria. Only a few days before, we had seen him in the classroom and he played ball with us in the field. It was sobering to say the least. The unanswerable questions began....

Why did this have to happen?
What if our temporary clinic had been in place a few weeks earlier--could we have helped him?
Why are people here going on with life as usual--as if nothing unusual has happened?
What can we do to help at this point?

The headmaster at the school was asked by the family to officiate at the funeral because they had no church and very few relatives. The group from North Park was invited to attend the burial.

The day of the burial we rode in the bus about 4-5 miles outside of the school village on a dirt road that took us deeper into rural Zambia. As we approached the place where the body of the boy would arrive, we passed a small village and then began to see the dirt mounds on the side of the road. Hundreds, thousands of people buried. We learned that when people in Ndola did not have money to purchase a burial site in a more proper cemetary in town, they had to bring the bodies to this location outside of the city.


We continued to drive, half a mile, a mile, farther and farther. On the left the burial sites had been overgrown by weeds and brush. On the right, fresh graves. It seemed we would never reach the end of this field of death. When the bus finally stopped and we got out, we were surrounded by 5 or 6 funerals being conducted simultaneously. Down the hill several workers did nothing but dig new holes for the bodies that were arriving every hour. These hills received as many as 40 new bodies each day.

The sounds of mourners were inescapable. The small signs over the graves indicated most of those buried were under 35 years old, many had not reached their 10th birthday. As we listened to our Zambian hosts, they spoke of the reality of AIDS, malaria and so little access to nutrition and healthcare.

It was somewhere in the midst of all this that the statistics became real. What we had read and researched, was now all around us. And instead of seeing it on TV or in a movie, now we were actually in the picture.

Feeding Program

Hope Community School is in Twapia, one of the Ndola neighborhoods. The children who attend this school receive hot meals two times a week. Nshima (a staple starch food), beans and ocassionally small pieces of meat are cooked and served to the children following class.

Over 200 hundred children attend the school and anxiously await the meal after class. Almost all of them come from poor homes where consistent nutrition is rare; many have been orphaned and live with grandparents or extended family members. With the help of Spark Ventures, the school is providing not only education, but meeting basic physical needs.

Some of the North Park students had the opportunity to help serve the meal.

Others played with the children who were waiting.