*note: this is the 3rd update of four today

Do you know how good it feels to hug ten smiling Zambian kids all at once? Well…I do! Today we visited our partner Lifesong for Orphans. They run the Lifesong school in Kitwe (we took a day trip out to Kitwe and flew out to meet them). Their school started three years ago and it has come such a long way. We provided them with indoor plumbing such as toilets, sings, and showers. We also funded their “sick bay” or nurses office.

Our help is making a difference. Dru (the woman who, along with John, run the school on the ground) told me that because of the nurse and the office we provided, we saved two lives. These kids are extremely vulnerable to malaria and other infectious diseases. The “sick bay” sees around 45 cases of malaria a month and there are only 209 kids at the school. The two children we saved had awful strains of malaria and if it weren’t for their medical care, they surely would have died. Before the sick bay, they had buried two kids in two years! I think that is two kids too much!

I am so grateful for all of your support back home because we really are saving lives!

One of the most amazing things about these kids are their unwavering smiles. We have visited, played, danced, sang, and hugged some very happy kids! It is beautiful to see kids just being kids, rolling in the dirt, kicking a soccer ball, and laughing. They don’t want your pity, they want your love!

We walked into the town (kind of like an urban shanty town) and saw the homes. We went to see the homes of two families at the school. As we were walking in the town we began collecting kids who would follow us. They all surrounded us as we talked to the families and after we were done they all wanted hugs! It was so sweet. These kids just want our love! I love that they smile even though they don’t have much to smile about.

We ended our night with an awesome dinner with World Bicycle Relief when we got back to Lusaka. It was great to get to know them more and we look forward to providing more bikes in the future.

God Bless,

-Kendall

This entry was posted on Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 11:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.