It's a "NEW DAY" for the Cooks: November 2013

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Baby Catherine

Baby Catherine (6 November - 19 November 2013)

Thoughts from Ricky:

I’ve been at New Day for about two and a half months now. In two days I will start my journey back to the states. I cannot wait to see my family. This last week has been one I will probably never forget for the rest of my life. It started last Friday (15 November) with us getting the first newborn baby New Day has ever had. I was very involved in the process as it was a shock that they just showed up. We knew they wanted us to take the baby, but we had not yet given them permission. Sadly, the baby's mother did not survive her birth. She has a father and siblings, but Social Welfare in Zambia stepped in to remove her, stating that the father could not care for her (or her siblings) properly. We decide to take her in after much thought. They had a letter from a clinic that day that stated she was a healthy baby. We took her and just started loving on her. By Saturday night and Sunday we started to question whether she was a healthy baby. I decided she needed to go to the doctor Monday morning. We took her in and the doctor told us she was dehydrated and sent us home with a few instructions. I had to ask the doctor to weigh her. I did not hear what the weight was until we got back to the orphanage. When I converted it to pounds from kilograms I was shocked. She weighed less than four pounds. I could not stop thinking about how if this situation was happening back in the States, this baby would be in NICU. The more I looked at her I knew I had to get her to a hospital. So we decided to transport her even though it was already nightfall on Monday. It’s very dangerous to drive after dark here. We took her to a hospital about an hour away and she was admitted. They started fluids in her then. She made it through the night, but about midday the next day (Tuesday, November 19) we got a call that she had passed away. We later found out that she had had very little food after being born and was in very bad shape when we got her. Why would the clinic give us a letter saying she was healthy? We don’t know, but it is part of being in a third world country. The next day I preformed my first funeral. This was not something I would have ever thought I would do, but God got me through it. I was the Hearse driver, funeral director, and preacher in one day. I better get used to it; death is such a large part of everyday life around here. Baby Catherine was only with us a few days, but believe me I will never forget her. Please pray for us as we make many decisions that can be life or death, but also as we try to get people to make eternal decisions also.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Inswa

If ever there is a spectacular display of insect life during the rainy season, it is that of the flying termites (inswa). When the rains first arrive (usually at the end of November) millions of fat termites set out to form new colonies. The night it begins you can see thousands of them flying around house lights. Sometimes they are a bit of an annoyance because they get into the house.

So after a heavy rainfall this week, the insects emerged at New Day and by nightfall they began swarming the house lights. The trick to gathering the inswa, which we see here the kids doing at New Day, is to have a bucket of water on hand. You grab the inswa and throw them in the bucket. With wet wings, they cannot fly away! This also gets them a little clean for the next step.

Once you have enough to fry, you just pull off the wings and put in a hot dry skillet. Some say they taste like popcorn. You know, when you get a piece of popcorn where the kernel is only slightly popped, that is the closest description I have found. (I can't say that I really remember the taste, because it has been 4 years since I ate inswa in Zambia. And by my recollection, I immediately followed my tasting with a glass of water!) They have enough body fat/oils so that nothing else is required, except some salt (for taste). For Zambians there is nothing better than the free fat and protein that can be gathered. Hey, free food is hard to beat! In fact, I researched the "Nutritional Value" of termites, and they have long been affirmed to be one of the richest foods, containing some 40% fat and 36% protein, as well as being rich in some minerals like phosphate and potash.

Can you imagine the packaging would look something like this?

Inswa (Fried Termites)

Nutritional Facts

Serving Size: 100 grams

Calories: 561

Fat: 40%

Protein: 36%

Construction Update

Ceiling is UP

We had a visitor staying in our house. A baby goat from a nearby village wandered over and found refuge.

Looking down the hallway towards the side entrance

Same view (looking down hallway), but now we have doors and paint!

Dining Room

Front door & Foyer

Side entrance

Front of house

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

It's here!

Timeline of Household Container

August 19 - a 40' dry van left Savannah headed to Walhalla

August 20 - LifePointers help load our household belongings onto this container in less than 2 hours!

August 26 - Container departs Savannah port

September 22 - Arrival at Salalah, Oman

October 7 - Departs Salalah, OM port

October 17 - Arrival at Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania port

October 31 - Loaded onto truck and departed Dar Es Salaam, TZ

on the road...between Tanzania and Zambia...stopping at border

November 12 - Arrival at New Day Orphanage, Mapanza, Zambia! Unloaded in less than 2 hours by a few Americans and 12 of our Zambian friends!

Remember this? August 20th leaving Walhalla, SC

Unbelievable that this container traveled halfway across the world and made it safely to Zambia on November 12th

Everything intact and remained just how we left it in August

Unloading the beds

There are no words for this picture! LOL

I think that was a heavy one!

Thankful for a place to store everything until our house is finished!

ALL DONE!!!

Great work guys! So thankful for your willingness to help.

Prayers for Precious

Precious

A visit to the hospital to see Precious and show her how much we love her. Please continue to pray for her, the doctors who are trying to make her feel better, and for her siblings and family at New Day who miss her very much.

She is currently being treated in Choma by some doctors from Lusaka. They are running all kinds of tests to determine what's causing her illness. Precious is very sick and we pray that God will heal her very quickly!

Teachers Abby & Hildah, along with Mama Lala comforting Precious

We LOVE you sweet girl!

Papa Wes bringing her a doll to cheer her up

In the arms of LOVE

Close Encounters

Sweet Honey

We have a storage container on the property and there have been a family of bee's making a home under it for quite some time. So the other night we had someone come out to try to get rid of them. These guys just used burning grass to smoke them out and just reached under there with no protection. They pulled out a lot of Honey comb and that was their pay. I looked this morning and the Bee's were still there!

A Close Call

Wes, two Zambians and myself were traveling back from Choma. We were following a vehicle when it all of a sudden slammed on brakes and swerved. Right in front of us was a two year old girl. Wes hit the brakes and God guided the car not to hit the girl. We got out the car and the little girl had fallen down a steep bank on the side of the road and took off running after her siblings. Two guys from the other car took off through the field after the children. They caught the little girl, but not her siblings. She was scratched up from her fall and very shaken up. She was trying to get to the other side of the road to her siblings who had left her, but was probably too young to know to look for traffic. We could not find the parents, but left her with someone who knew them. A Very Scary moment indeed!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Updates on Construction

OK, I apologize for the delay in blogging. I have some pictures that Ricky sent a couple of weeks ago, so I wanted to update the house construction. They better HURRY UP and get finished because we got word today that our container is at the border and may be to New Day by SATURDAY!!! (insert happy dance here) Hope to get some more pictures soon.