Seeds of Hope (Day 2)

 Today we were taken to the Seeds of Hope base of operations.  This is the location of the main offices as well as where much of the work is done and materials fabricated to be sent out into the communities.  Our timing was great because they were conducting classes on pump repair for volunteers from the compounds around Ndola.  They always refer to their individual villages or towns as compounds.  This is a great way to empower communities to take ownership of their pumps as well as have someone local in the compound that can help fix the pump if need be.  

Teacher for class

Students learning the pump parts

Class getting hands on with a pump

Tomorrow we will go out to the villages with one of the foreman Joseph to see this in action.  We did get involved in some of the class we hopefully will get involved too.  From the hand pump repair, to the construction of Bio-sand filters there is a lot going on here.  Seeds of Hope employs around 65 people from around Ndola.  These include laborers, metal workers, drillers, office staff, and so much more.  Kirk's vision is to make Seeds of Hope a model organization so that it can be duplicated all over Africa.  My feeling is he is very close to doing that.  A current project we helped with was setting up a retail area where products can be sold to help fund the work that SHIP is doing.  

Hopefully the start of a good retail area

 These products would include Bio-sand filters, plants, vegetables, things fabricated in their metal shop, and sanitation concrete lids.  Basically it's a toilet lid made out of concrete with a hole in it where you go to the bathroom.  The basic need of separating feces from water sources is a challenge here and it is one of the many things SHIP is trying to teach out in the communities.  Jake, David and I were able to do some setup for this retail area which made us feel useful after getting educated and shown around the SHIP grounds in the morning and seeing everyone else working in various areas.  Paddy and Ben found a great need to help with as well.  They worked with the drilling team to help them operate more efficiently by using check list and just overall organization.  Something a couple firefighters probably know a thing or two about.  


We ended the day back at the SHIP guest house and had our first Zambian cuisine experience.  It consisted of stew, a vegetable I did not recognize, and nshima.  Nshima looks like mashed potatoes at first glance, but it is actually made out of corn.  Traditional etiquette is to take the nshima and roll it in your hand making it a round ball.  Then flatten it enough to use it as a grabbing tool for the other items on your plate in this case the veggies and beef.  By itself it has no apparent taste, but when mixing it with other foods is pretty tasty.  The whole time I was thinking if only Payton and Ailin could see me playing with my food after all the times I make them use utensils.  But you know what they say, "When in Zambia do as the Zambians do."