New Grand son and Permaculture

Today, 24 August, we started the day by visiting the orphan home at Chitipi, on the outskirts of Lilongwe, run by Children of the Nations (COTN). After our clinic at the boy's home and farm in Chichere, my daughter Mandy flew home to the US and sponsored a child at Chitipi.  I was excited to get to see him. His name is Kalebu and he will be 10 months old tomorrow.  We stopped by the main office to pick up Davie, then off to Chitipi. Kalebu is adorable! Oh my, what a cutie!!  We already had plans to do a mini-clinic there for the kids (there are 27 children in this house) and seeing him made it even more important.
Just a plug here for COTN. I have personally sponsored several kids through this group, with Lidson being the longest (of course, I started sponsoring him when he was ~4). He is now 18. He calls me Mum and Joseph is his brother. He was excited to meet Mandy, because now he has met his 'sister'. During the years we have corresponded, I have sent photos, etc, so he feels like he knows Mandy.  So, in my extended African Ivey family, I have a new grandson, Kalebu, and Joseph and Lidson are uncles!  The COTN folks do a great job with their kids. They have several homes where the children live full time. They also do feeding villages - they have 3 feeding villages. You can sponsor kids in the home or you can chose one in the feeding village.  The village kids usually have at least one living relative that assumes some responsibility for their care, but they tend to be very vulnerable.  Of course, Davie hit us up about doing a clinic in the local feeding villages - I think we will try the last week to go to one of them (has ~260 kids) and at least see the kids. Of course, that never happens, you end up seeing aunties, guardians, chiefs, their families, etc. etc. We have not finalized those plans as of yet, however.

After our visit with Kalebu, we visited David Epperson's permaculture garden and aquaphonics (I think that is the correct term). He is busy teaching and implementing the permaculture techniques. Currently he has several garden areas on the ABC campus, but is going to be exporting the concepts to Gusu as part of the E3 project. If you are a gardener, you would have loved to see this! He also has built an aquaphonics tank (don't know the correct terminology here). A combination gardening area with fish tank to supply the 'poop' water for the plants. Ok, I know I am not explaining this very well. But, David gave us a great tour and we enjoyed seeing all the great things he is doing.

Tomorrow morning, our plan is to be off to the Maula Prison for a distribution of clothes and soap. This should give me a chance to see the men's side of the prison and also to touch base with the folks there as we are hoping to do a clinic there next Sat. Last year the prison clinic was the most emotionally difficult thing we did. I will keep all of you posted!

 Kalebu and I at Chitipi

 Uncle Joseph and Kalebu

 Giant sunflower in David's garden

 David showing us the composting bins. They use tons of tobacco stems, along with leaves, grass, etc.

 Joseph in front of the aquaphonic set up. The large round tank is the fish tank

 Walking to the main part of the garden. David is explaining how this area used to be a garbage dump, with snakes everywhere. That gave Joseph pause!

 Daivd with a really big tomato.

More of the garden.  The gardens (there are actually about 4 different sections) are feeding the campus workers and the clinic. The missionary families are offered the chance to 'subscribe' to the garden for $20 / month and they can pick anything they want. What a sweet deal!!

Praise reports:
Continued safety
Meeting precious little Kalebu

Prayer:
Wisdom and safety in the prison tomorrow
Continued good health
Findng God's Will in all we do!