with no money.  I really mean NO money. No cash in your wallet, no change in a jar in your home. No savings account, no checking account.  No debit card, no credit card, no cash.  No car, no bike. No food in your home, and no electricity.  No talktime, since you have no income to buy talktime cards ($1,000KW, $2,000, $5,000, 10,000, 20, 000 or 50,000$ amounts) To put that in perspective, a $50,000 KW card is roughly worth $10.  So, a $10,000 card is worth $1. There are very few home phones, talktime is for cellphones. With no money, you can’t take a bus to work or to find work, so you walk everywhere, with all your stuff on your back.  Or on your head. Or on your head and your back.  It is amazing how much women in Zambia can carry on their front side, back side, and head.  We have seen women with a baby on their back, a bucket or box of heavy things on their head, and carrying a heavy bag or two.  They make we Western folks look like such lightweights.

To get back to the point, though, can you imagine being so without that you would do any job anyone offered you, even if you disliked it, so that your family could pay their bills and eat?  I can’t imagine being that person, and yet, we are now surrounded with folks like that every day.

If you are anything like me, I have NEVER been in this position.  I have always had food, a car, gas, money for bills and food. Even when we were really in tremendously difficult straits, I was never this destitute.  In addition, I always had parents, and sisters, and friends who would have readily come to my aid if I had needed it.

The folks we’ve met here have nothing.  Everyone around them have nothing, so it seems normal. They can’t ask their families, neighbors, or church mercy funds for help, because everyone is in the same position. Everyone wears the same clothes every day.   We look incredibly rich. We change our clothes, and drive a vehicle. We take showers (a luxury).  We can pay our bills.  We have enough money to put electricity to work in our home.

Of course, I don’t tell you any of this to produce guilt in you, or anything other than to realize all that you have, and all that others don’t have.  And to thank God for all that YOU have been given.  What do you think God is calling you to do with the abundance you have been given?  None of the folks I’ve met act like they are ‘owed’ anything, but on the contrary, work hard, and are grateful for whatever is given to them, whether job, or small gift, or gift of food.  Of course, there are those who will take advantage, there will always be those, since we do have a sin nature, but for the most part, people here are hard-working and grateful.  Are you?

Today as we were going out as a family to a game drive and fishing trip south of Lusaka, at our new Landlord’s property, we had a call on our cellphone from Sergeant Mumba, asking whether we could please come down to the jail.  He had our money!  So, we diverted quickly off the main Great East Road to the Kalingalinga (you should hear Maggie say that word!) Police Post.  When we got there, Eric and I went in, and respectfully greeted the Sergeant, who respectfully greeted us in return.  He explained that Eric King’s father had been contacted, who was very ashamed at the behavior of his son.  He sent our 150,000KW, with his apologies.  Eric King has to stay in the holding cell until his father, or family pays 1 milion Kwacha toward his 2.8 million, and then he will be released on condition that he pays back the rest of the 1.8 million in a certain period of time, or he will be rejailed.  So, justice has been had, at least for the present.  He has been in jail since the last time we wrote, and we don’t know how long he was there before we saw him there.  We have learned a valuable lesson in deposits toward items we are having built, and we’ve also learned that police can be wonderful allies!  This week, two jail trips in three days.  Whew- busy week.  And, we move tomorrow, hopefully for the last time this year (6 times since January, and it has felt a bit nomadic, and unsettled at times).

Today was a day of craziness, and I am tired, so I will try to succinctly put all that occurred, and somehow convey the weight of what occurred at the same time.

Last evening, surprisingly, IConnect called, and told us they had a modem for us (where they got it, we aren’t quite sure…maybe took one from someone else???), and that we had to be at our new home by 9 am for them to connect it, since they ‘knock off” (quit work for the day) at noon, and then there is a holiday both Monday and Tuesday, so the next chance to get it hooked up would be on Wednesday.  So we dropped Eric, our garden/outside worker, Maggie, Mollie and Sam off at our new house at about 9:15 am, and they began to work, settling things, gardening, enjoying the lovely outside, and pestering Bambo Daka (Mr. Daka), our daytime worker. Mollie followed him around, ‘helping’ him garden, and keeping him company.

Please keep in mind, we would be seen as selfish Americans if we didn’t hire Zambians to boost the Zambian economy, and that each of the people we’ve hired is either a widow, with children, or a father with a family with no other income.  And, that unbelievably, the range for a day worker ranges from $5-$40 per day.  You can give bonuses for school fees, or school uniforms, or food for the family, but it is not wise to raise the pay, because it messes with the basic working-class economy, and we don’t want to be responsible for that.  Our hiring of one of the men for three days a week, for approximately $30, has enabled his three children to buy school uniforms, pay school fees, and attend school.  He is tremendously grateful, and will do anything (even scoop dog poop!).

Beth and I had gone to a prearranged visit at a home of a non-profit worker who was leaving the country and supposedly selling everything.  We asked her to save us about 5 items, one of which was a keyboard for Beth for her birthday.  She said she would, and so we went significantly out of our way to get the things we need for our new home without paying an exorbitant fee, and our friend and worker at our current home, Chris Zimba, was going with us, to see if the keyboard was something he could use for his church, which he has been looking for.  Beth was quite willing to give it up for herself if she knew a whole church could and would benefit from having it.  We got to the home, and they hadn’t saved the items I had asked her to save for us:  garden tools, a small tv, the keyboard, and kitchen supplies.  I was exceedingly frustrated that our friend Chris had walked very far, taken a bus to meet us, and then all that to get there, and find out his keyboard was sold.  I held in my frustration, and we bought a few things, and left.

On our way home, we learned a lot about Lusaka, and the areas we were driving through, from Chris.  As we were driving, we went very close to the carpentry workshop where we had given a $150,000KW deposit for the carpenter, Eric King, to purchase the wood to start making our therapeutic chairs.  This was 6 weeks ago, and we have called to check on the progress many times, and either his phone isn’t working, or he says he’ll call the next day, which never happens.  By this time, all the men at his workshop know us by name, cellphone number, and are on a first name basis with us.  Persistence has never been a problem for either Beth or me.  So,  Chris Zimba, who speaks Nyanga, got out of the car with me, as I asked whether Eric King had been seen there recently.  The carpenters at his shop said he had just been put into a cell around the corner, and was being held on a similar charge to ours.  Chris spoke quick and serious Nyanja, and found out what he was accused of, and we locked up the car, they promised to watch it, and Beth, Chris and I walked around the corner to the Kalingalinga Police Post.  Outside the Post, which we promise to get a picture of for you, was a sign “The truth shall set you free”.  We went in, and said the typical welcome greetings in Nyanja, and when I mentioned the name “Eric King” the Seargeant’s eyebrows went up.  He admitted that Eric King was actually around the corner (literally) for a similar charge by another white woman who also had commissioned him to make therapeutic equipment, though she had given him 2.8 million KW, which is somewhere over $500.  She was an older woman, which made it a more serious crime than against us, since we are younger, and respect of elders is a much more serious issue.  He asked whether we wanted to press charges, which would mean a legal battle, which we are not interested in.  He did offer that we could go around the corner, and speak with him.  We did this.  It was unbelievable.  Beth and Chris and I walked around a half-wall, and there was a cell with one woman in it, and next was a cell with many men in it, Eric King being the one at the gate, clearly listening to all our conversation about his taking our money, making promises to build a therapeutic chair, and basically running away with the money.  I was able to speak from my heart, telling him how his stealing had impacted our ability to care for those who can’t even sit up straight, and how his untrustworthy business practices had disappointed us, and made us less trusting of hiring future adaptive equipment carpenters.  It would have made the Holbrook family proud, I think.

At this point, our friend Chris Zimba started basically preaching to Eric King, and all the men who were the captive audience, literally, behind bars, as he regaled them with his breach of character and behavior.  He told them how we had come from another country, and were trying to care for orphans who had special needs, and what an embarrassment he is to his fellow Zambians, who are honest and hardworking, and have no desire to swindle.  How we have pure motives to be caring and to work hard, and his cheating, lying and stealing took time away from our good work, and what he needs to do to fix the situation, not to mention what a blight it puts on Zambians in general, who aren’t like him, and work hard to make a living, however meager that might be.  On and on, in both English and Nyanja.

To make a long story short, everyone, including the Zambian police were quoting scripture, and defending us and the other woman he had stolen from, and we felt listened to, and really heard.  Beth and I never would have had the guts to enter the Police Post ourselves, but with our Believing, Zambian friend, we felt no fear, and felt very protected.  We’ll let you know what comes of it, but for now, we do believe justice will be served, and he will not be allowed to do this with other people.  So, first experience number 673:  Beth and I inside a Zambian jail!  Thankfully on the outside of the cell……

Hello, readers.  We are definitely feeling the weight of the cultural differences and how that affects both expectations and efficiency.  We are asking you to pray for us, as we settle here, and adjust to the different timeliness of things.  Here are a few examples, and it will lead us to a request. The first:  We compared prices and service, and amount of bandwidth for the two main internet providers in Lusaka.  One company could sell us the service, but didn’t currently have any modems, and they didn’t have as much daytime usage allowed, so we went with the second, called IConnect.  We were able to pay for a year’s service, and in so doing, got two month’s payments free.  We set up the installation for this past Monday, the week we were due to move in to our new home.  On Monday, when they hadn’t called, as promised, to confirm the installation, Beth called them, and was assured a call right back.  No call.  Ate breakfast.  Eric called them to confirm the installation, and was told they would not be coming, because they don’t have any modems in the country at this time!  A sales manager would call him right back with more details.  No call.  Got dressed, packed snacks for long day, and got in the car.  Eric and Beth dropped Holly and kids off at the new house, and went to figure out what is wrong at IConnect.  Not only do they not have modems, but they are DUE to arrive in the country on Friday, then they will have to process through customs, and then they can start working through the waiting list (which heretofore had not been mentioned when deciding to purchase said internet service).  The way to do business in this country is not on the phone, and not on the internet, but in PERSON.  The second:  We called to check on our Toyota truck today, and we heard that we might be able to find out something tomorrow, but probably we wouldn’t hear anything until next THURSDAY.  So, in America, you pay for something, and then you take it home.  You don’t pay for something, and then six weeks later, due to tax rules, still not have it.  We are trying to adjust with good attitudes, but it is difficult.  Another tricky difference is that one day stores will have certain items (for example, ant traps), and then they won’t have them again for 4 or 5 weeks.  So, whatever you want, you have to buy WHEN you see them.  No budgeting, trying to spread out the spending.  It is really different.  In the US, you just expect that Hellman’s Mayonnaise (for example) will always be at the grocery store.  Here, it might be here every 2 or 3 months.  In the US, almost all our business could be done either over the phone or on the internet.  Here, you must do ALL pertinent business with personal visits, and with repeated personal visits.  Currently, as we wait for our Toyota to ever make it through the convoluted customs system, we are renting a ministry vehicle from a group of missionaries for only $100/week.  But, we are now into week #2.  It feels frustratingly wasteful when we are trying to keep all our costs down, to be paying to rent a vehicle when we’ve already purchased one that we don’t have yet!  Some non-profits have told us it has taken between 3-6 months to get their vehicle through customs. (!!!!!)  Can you hear my efficient, American, impatient self screaming all the way across the ocean?

We have seen many expatriates leaving the country, selling smaller vehicles (ones that wouldn’t have been enough for us long-term, but would definitely work in the short term, and would be a gas-saving smaller vehicle in the long-term).  We would definitely be able to use two vehicles here, as we go separate ways to train, work, and serve.  Our intention from the start was to try to work with one for as long as possible, but with our “one” not coming for an unidentified period of time, we are asking you to pray!  For either our Toyota to come through miraculously, or for one or more donors to give approximately $8,500-12,000 in a miraculously short period of time for us to buy a good, used Toyota or Nissan vehicle right away (they are regularly listed, and old enough that we wouldn’t have to pay the 16% VAT (tax), which is significant.  Thank you for caring, and for praying for us, as we adjust, and learn to do business in person, with patience, and endurance.

Faithful readers, some of you have written to check on us because we haven’t written anything in a few days.  We promise nothing is wrong, we are just waiting for our web developer to give us the green light that the site has been migrated to its new location.  Before that, he was needing to copy everything on the site, and move it, and we didn’t want to keep adding new things to give him more work than he already is doing.  As far as we can tell, the move happened on Saturday, but true to the laws of living in Zambia, it isn’t working properly yet.  A fellow missionary has called what happens when you try to accomplish anything in a timely fashion, especially if it includes any governmental office, being ZAMBOOZLED.  So far, we have been Zamboozled with our work visa, our Toyota truck, and our new internet service at our new home.  Many of you know that we’ve lived in 5 places since January of this year, and we are very ready to be settled for a little while.  We have found a wonderful home in the neighborhood called Roma, near to many places we have already served in Lusaka, and it will be a terrific spot to train people to teach and work with orphans.  We have paid the deposit for the next three months.  We have started to purchase, as inexpensively as we possibly can, all the most necessary items for life in that home, and today we went to be there while they installed our internet.  But, of course, the Zamboozling happened, and they have NO modems (even though we paid for a whole year of internet service last week, with no mention of this).  So, we have a clean, newly painted, simple home, ready for us to move in, WITH a great big branch for a swing for Mollie, and fruit trees of all varieties, BUT no way to communicate with all of you if we choose to move in on July 1st, Thursday, which was the plan until we found this out.  We will let you know what we decide.  So between our impending move, our impending lack of internet availability at all times, and our constant state of zamboozlement, please do not fear if there are some gaps between our communications with you.  Thank you for your care.  Please pray that we would be patient with the delays and inopportune mishaps of life here.  We are grateful for each of you who support us, and pray for us.  Thank you!

Today was the realization of a dream we didn’t even know how to put into words.  The little guy we met first, so, to be redundantly clear, the very first child with a disability we met in Lusaka’s name is Evidence.  We didn’t post his name before, wanting to be protective of his identity.  As we met with his family, and showed them exercises to do with his tight limbs, and gave them books to read to him to stimulate his mind, and found some little toys here to buy him so that he could play (little beanie babies, balls, and blocks), all that time, we had been working to find an ethical carpenter, who would build us an Adaptive Chair so that he would be able to sit up straight, breathe, work, and eat without needing to be held in someone’s lap, or slouched into a couch.  Sunday our wonderful carpenter Manasseh called to say the chair was ready, we went to pick it up, happily surprised at the tremendous workmanship (watch out, Rifton!), and then went to Evidence’s family’s compound to surprise them and drop it off.  They were happy beyond words, and the chair fits him well.  It will provide him stability, and so much more opportunity than lying prone on a couch all day would do.  We will have a tray for the top made, as well.

But more than this, God’s call on our lives was hard to see when we were on the other side of the ocean.  I couldn’t picture the need, and specifically how we could be used to meet that need. I could picture it in generalities, millions of kids who have cognitive or intellectual disabilities, and millions of those-orphaned or soon-to-be-orphaned. But in God’s most merciful grace, we are able to see in the face of one little boy, and more specifically, his name, what God has called us to, and why we are here.  This family hasn’t had any supports for their son, any therapies, any schooling, any welcoming to church, or any maids who will work in their home with them (a given here if you work, at $5 per day for a typical housekeeper/babysitter) and watch Evidence.  His parents said yesterday there were no words for their thankfulness to us.  So, thank YOU, our supporters, for giving this one boy and his family the gift of hope, of stability to sit and work and eat, and be an individual in this family that loves him so.  And, we thank God for the Evidence of His call on our lives at this point.

Many of you who faithfully read this website know how much our Mollie loves guacamole and anything Mexican that goes with it- salsa, rice, beans, chips, burritos, quesadillas.  Well, many of these things are available here, as long as you are willing to make everything from scratch.  Except tortilla chips.  But, on the positive side, avocados are gigantic, and only about a dollar, so, to compare with the US, it is like buying a whole bag of avocados at Sam’s Club for 5-7$, for the same amount of guacamole!  Happy Mollie!  We’ve put them in salad, on sandwiches, on burgers, and had lots of rice and beans and guacamole.  So, we thought posting this picture of Mollie with a handful of just-purchased avocados would be fun for you.  The whole armload cost us $4 USD.  Amazing, huh?  I wish I could send them through the web to you, ’cause I would.

Musings about things that matter, in the US and in Zambia.  Just ramblings, really.  In the US, accomplishments, organization, and timeliness count.  In Zambia, people matter more than accomplishments, and asking about a person and his family is the way to start EVERY conversation.  It doesn’t matter whether you are applying for a work visa, or checking out at a store, or meeting someone who works on your property, this is an important part of every conversation.  In the US, people get frustrated (very much including me) about inefficiency.  In Zambia it is a given that things will take time, and people just expect it.  In the US most people wear a watch, or have a cellphone with the time on it, and schedule their day according to time.  In Zambia, people don’t wear watches, wake up with the sun (6 am), walk to work, catch buses, and do all their daily business completely unscheduled.  Buses just come at regular intervals, not at specific times.  In the US, people talk about what they want to accomplish in the next week, or in their lifetime.  In Zambia people don’t talk about their hopes and dreams, they are just working for the next bag of Nshima.  The average lifespan here is 38 years, so people aren’t dreaming about retirement.  In the US, we can’t put our bare hands into burning charcoal to move the charcoal around to cook more evenly.  In Zambia, we have seen this done!  No blisters, no pain, and really good food after all the charcoal shifting.  In the US, we don’t use our teeth to rip off the hard outside of sugar cane to expose the soft, juicy, inner core, or break the cane in one deft movement over our knee.  In Zambia, this is an inexpensive treat, and even children can do both of these tasks!  In the US, we don’t burn brush on the side of the road, for fear of forest fires, and here it is regularly done, even though it hasn’t rained even once in the 6 weeks we’ve been here.  (Keeps snakes away from where people walk on the sides of the roads!) In the US, we don’t burn trash, ever. In Zambia, every day, people burn trash, and the burning smell is starting to become normal to our noses, and not so odd.  In the US, people only dress as nicely as they have to to get a job done, and love ‘dress down’ days.  In Zambia, those who have clothes, and have a job, are so proud of those facts that they dress to the hilt, and look very dapper, or lovely, walking one hour each way to work in a suit or dress and heels.  In the US, people diet and pay money to be slimmer.  In Zambia, being fat is an honor.  It means you are wealthy enough to have more than just enough to eat.  In the US, the only people you see walking usually are walking for exercise.  In Zambia, people walk everywhere, and every road, every crosswalk, and even car lanes are filled with people walking.  By the hundreds, and thousands in the mornings and afternoons.  Most people don’t own cars, and use buses when they go more than an hour’s walk from home.  Just some differences.  None right, and none wrong.  Just really different!

Special Hope Network, by God’s providence, today “happened” to find a tremendous networking potential, through a dear friend here in Lusaka.  There is an organization here that has been training volunteer ‘teachers’.  They go into the compounds, work with parents of children who have special needs that aren’t welcomed into schools, with the purpose of training them to work with their own child.  I asked about the follow-through, and how this works week after week after week.  The director of this program said that the ‘teachers’ are VOLUNTEERS!! They aren’t paid, so the follow-through isn’t very reliable.  It varies, depending on the compound, and the volunteer, and the supervisor, but, as a whole, the system isn’t working as well as they had planned. So, maybe we can help with this.  The most well-attended meetings are the ones where the Ministry of Education offers a travel fee (to cover their travel to get to the meeting) of $50,000 KW, which is about $10.  So, it seems that if these teachers were paid to do this traveling teaching, they would show up.  Please pray with us for wisdom for how to partner with this tremendous group of people.

This group has created a training manual!!! And, they gave me one, so I can see what is being taught and trained for both parents and teachers in this city.   They were excited about our presence here, and what it could mean for the multiplication of their work with orphans who have intellectual disability, and I was excited about meeting them, and seeing their work.  They are in the process of creating THREE sensory integration centers for children with autism and sensory issues, which will be amazing.  We will visit this classroom in the next few days (tomorrow we need to deal with vehicle issues, so we probably won’t be able to go back to this school), and I’ll write more.

They’ve had 1,000 of their 1,035 chickens stolen, slowly, over the past weeks.  If anyone has an infrared videocamera so that they could catch the nighttime marauder swiping chickens from orphans, we would love to donate it to them!  They use the chickens for meat, and eggs, and this is a huge loss to them.

Accompanying our transition to Zambia, we are also migrating all of our online giving to an newer, more efficient system.  We apologize for the delay in getting the new system in place, and for any troubles you may come across while we are in progress.  Please let us know if you have any specific issues, and we will work to address them right away!  We will update you when everything has been migrated and the new system is up and running.  Thanks for being patient with us and for your continued support of Special Hope.

During this time, our Special Hope email addresses (info@specialhopenetwork.com, eric@specialhopenetwork.com, and holly@specialhopenetwork.com) will not be in use- please direct all comments and questions to us at magmolsam@gmail.com.  Thanks!

Also, we want to make sure to point you to our ‘e-News and Updates’ page, where we will be recording a daily (or almost daily )  log of our activities.  Check out quick details of what the Lord is doing!