A Week WIth the Medical Team and a Surprise Meeting

Written on October 3rd

Well, I have been Americanized again after having spent a week with my father and the medical team from the United States. It was a welcome break from the normalcy of life in Ndola. After having to learn to survive by myself in Zambia, it was different being in an American group and having so much structure. I could get used to somebody cooking for me every night (as it was this past week).

During the week, the medical team ran clinics in a compound called George during the day. I mainly worked in the pharmacy because I have worked there many times before on these types of trips and know my way around. At the same time I would also take some of the team members on tours of the markets and compound. Many of the team members stated that it is a lot different walking around these communities than just riding through them. The realities of the situation become more real during the walks.

Last night, Friday, the team hosted a banquet for the pastors and volunteers that they worked with during the week. I thought it was going to be a very relaxing evening, but little did I know that I had business to take care of. I had received an email during the week from a friend of mine who stated that she had met the Zambian High Commissioner of Revenue on her travels in Kenya. She told him what the Jubilee Centre and I were doing in Ndola. During their talks, the High Commissioner, Mr. Mwansa, told my friend that he wanted to meet and talk to me. Well, things progressed very quickly since I was only in Lusaka for the week, and the only time which we could meet was on Friday night after the banquet. When the banquet finished around 8:00 p.m., I called him and he told me to come to his golf club. Lawrence Temfwe could not believe that Mr. Mwansa wanted to meet and talk because Mr. Mwansa is a very high ranking political figure in Zambia. In U.S.A. terms he is basically the head of the IRS.

Well, Lawrence wanted to talk with him as well, but he had another meeting that night. Therefore, Lawrence dropped me off at the golf club, and we tried to find him. The people at the club told us we had to speak to his assistants in order to speak to him. I wanted to tell them that I had been speaking to him all night on his cell phone, but I held my tongue. It turned out that Mr. Mwansa was getting elected the president of the golf club that night. While I waited for him, I started to talk to his assistants/bodyguards, Gift and Lusaka. Well, I spent about an hour and half at the club talking to his assistants while the voting/meeting happened at the club. Mr. Mwansa came and talked briefly to me, but he was busy with the voting and interviews. He was very proud to show me the president’s bar in the place and where his picture would be on the wall.

Well, Mr. Mwansa wanted to still talk about what we were doing; therefore, he said that he would drive me back to my guest house. His driver, he, and I got into his car, and we started talking about the programs that we are starting. About two minutes into the drive, he asked me if I have had dinner. I tell him yes, but that I would be glad to sit down and talk to him over dinner. He said that would be great and that we should go to his house; therefore, Mr Mwansa and I drove to his mansion.

I eventually called Lawrence and Martha Temfwe to tell them where I was and what I was doing. Martha basically told me that I was ridiculous. Well, Mr. Mwansa and I sat down and talked over dinner about his experiences visiting rural community schools and some realizations he had. Basically, he had no idea that these conditions existed in his own country. I told him that education experiences were not that much different in urban community schools not far from him. About halfway through our dinner, Lawerence and Martha showed up with Greg Smith and Boone Haygood, two Americans. Martha, Greg, and Boone sat in his living room sipping cokes and watching TV while Lawrence and I continued to talk to him about the state of the education system and what needed to be done. About 11:45 p.m., Lawrence and I said that we had to leave. Mr. Mwansa and his friend Lusaka would have kept talking for the night if we would have let them.

The question is will there be fruit from this meeting? Mr. Mwansa is a very powerful man in Zambia. I believe that his heart is beginning to be opened to the true state of education in his country. He does have contacts in the education sector and does want to do something. We are going to definitely keep him in the loop about what is happening and the progress that is made. He wants to focus on the rural community schools; therefore, we are going to start thinking about how the programs we have started to put into place can be transferred to a rural setting. I don’t know what will come about because of this relationship, but it is a definite beginning of a relationship.